My Cuckhold System

Chapter 250: The Chase

West sliced through another creature’s underarm and kicked its body aside. "Very proud of you."

"You sound distracted."

"I’m busy not getting stabbed."

The second wave was faster, but it lacked the sheer durability of the first.

Once the group adapted to their attack patterns, the fight turned sharply in their favor. West took down the strongest of them by baiting a forearm blade strike, stepping inside its reach, and driving the Guardian Sword upward beneath its jaw.

Jax and Gor’thala coordinated to trap three together, freezing their feet just long enough for Gor’thala’s vines to bind them. Nina then dropped a massive construct hammer from above, crushing their skulls one after another with brutal efficiency.

When the final creature fell, silence returned except for the distant bubbling of lava.

They moved again with morr caution now.

The path eventually opened into a wide basin unlike the previous areas. The ground here was smoother, black and glassy, as if molten rock had once flowed through and cooled into a polished surface.

Several small lava streams crossed the area like glowing rivers, and around them grew strange fiery crystals from the ground.

These crystals were tall with rough spiky formations and bearing colors ranging from orange to red and even gold.

Some were embedded in black stone while others sprouted around skeletal remains of creatures long dead with their bones half-melted into the terrain.

Nina’s eyes widened. "Loot zone."

Jax grinned. "Finally, the place apologizes."

West crouched beside one of the crystals and pulled it free. The moment he held it, the system identified it.

[ ITEM DETAIL ]

Name: Emberheart Crystal

Rarity: Medium

Type: Fire-Element Resource

Description: A crystal formed from condensed thermal energy within flame-aspected ruins.

Uses: Crafting component for fire-based weapons, heat-resistant armor, and elemental catalysts.

West nodded and stored it in his inventory.

"Pick what you can. Fast."

They spread out quickly. Jax collected smaller crystals despite complaining that they were "personally offensive." Nina found a cluster of glowing red shards near one of the lava streams and carefully drew a pair of tongs to collect them.

Gor’thala ripped a larger crystal from the stone with brute strength, while Seraphyra found a glossy black bead inside the skull of a dead creature and proudly brought it to West like a cat delivering prey.

"Gift," she stated.

West took it. "Thank you. Slightly disturbing, but thoughtful."

The moment he placed it in his inventory, a screech tore through the air.

Everyone froze in place as another screech followed... in the next instant, dozens more of those screeches rang out.

From the west, the sky darkened as flying creatures shot over the ridge in a swarm with their wings beating rapidly through the heated air.

They looked like a cross between bats and horned reptiles, with long narrow heads, glowing red eyes, and thin membranous wings edged with ember-like veins.

Their bodies were lean and charcoal-black, but their bellies glowed molten red, swelling as they flew. Each had a long split tail, and from beneath their bodies, strange glowing beads began dropping.

One of these glowing beads landed near Jax’s boot.

He looked down at the small, round, and bright red object, throbbing like a heartbeat.

"...What are these things?"

West’s eyes widened. "Run."

Jax looked up. "What?"

"RUN!"

The moment they took a step forward, the first bead exploded.

Boom!

The blast ripped through the basin, sending molten shards, heat, and glassy fragments outward in every direction.

Then the second and third exploded.

Boom! Boom!

Within moments, the entire area became a storm of falling explosive beads.

West grabbed Nina by the waist and launched forward as Gor’thala raised a barrier behind them. Jax sprinted beside them with frost forming briefly beneath his feet to increase traction before melting almost instantly.

Seraphyra moved like a dark serpent through the chaos, sweeping between explosions as the flying creatures screeching overhead continued to rain fire.

The explosions persisted as West sprinted across the molten terrain.

The ground cracked beneath each step as more of the glowing red beads fell from above. Each one throbbed twice before detonating with violent force, tearing chunks out of the already unstable environment.

Behind him, the swarm pressed closer.

"These things don’t give up?!" Jax shouted while darting to the side as another explosion tore through the path they’d just taken.

"They’re territorial—or worse, linked to the ruin’s defense system," West replied, already calculating.

Gor’thala was behind them with her staff raised, chanting as she hurled spells backward while moving. Vines shot up from the ground, flaming spears of magic tore through the air, and bursts of green energy slammed into the swarm.

But there were too many... even when she brought down ten at a time, it looked as though she had barely reduced their numbers.

West reached into his inventory mid-sprint and pulled out a stack of explosive cards.

Without breaking stride, he flicked them upward.

"Scatter!"

The cards soared high into the air and in the next instant...

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A chain of explosions erupted above them, forming a ring of fire that swallowed the sky in a violent blast.

For a brief moment, it looked like it worked.... until the swarm burst through... barely scratched.

Jax glanced back with disbelief written all over his face. "Are you serious?!"

West’s eyes narrowed. "Heat-based attacks feed them..."

That meant explosions or any fiery based attacks were technically useless.

"Gor’thala, conserve your energy," he said quickly. "Switch to disruption, not damage."

She nodded instantly, altering her casting patterns. Instead of direct attacks, she began throwing out binding roots and shockwave pulses to destabilize their flight patterns.

It slowed them but didn’t stop them.

West’s mind worked overtime thinking of long-range options but since he didn’t really have long range abilities... he thought about environmental advantage...

He stopped mid-thought. "Jax—take Nina."

"What?"

"Now!"

Jax immediately grabbed Nina from West as he veered sharply off course, sprinting toward a rough volcanic ridge that rose like a broken fang from the ground.

West accelerated before leaving a bunch of times.

He scaled the incline in seconds with his boots digging into the rock as he climbed higher and higher before reaching the peak.

The swarm kept following as expected. West turned with the Guardian Sword in his hand as black mist seeped from its edge.

"Come on then."

He sprinted towards the edge of the peak and leapt upwards.

Fwwwhiiiiiiiii~

His body traveled over a hundred feet across the air in nearly an instant as he swung.

A massive arc of darkness tore through the air, cutting across the swarm in a wide horizontal slash. Several of the creatures were cleaved cleanly in half with their bodies splitting apart mid-flight before crashing down in burning pieces.

West twisted mid-air, swinging again and causing another wave to fall before finally swinging one last time...

Over sixty of these creatures were destroyed with this one singular action... but it wasn’t enough.

There were still hundreds of them in the air.

More beads dropped, following West’s body as he descended.

West eyes widened as he twisted mid-air and kicked off a nearby rock formation, launching himself away just as a chain of explosions detonated where he had been moments before.

He landed hard, rolled once, then sprinted back toward the group.

"Did you get them?!" Jax yelled.

"No."

"Of course not," Jax muttered.

West rejoined them with a disturbed expression. "We can’t outrun them forever."

He suddenly noticed Nina performing an action while on Jax’s back.

Her brush moved frantically through the air, glowing brighter than it ever had before. Her strokes were faster and deeper, carving glowing lines into existence as a shape began to form.

"West!" she called out with a strained tone.

He turned immediately as the construct finished forming.

It hovered in the air glowing. It was a hyper-condensed sphere of swirling energy, layered with intricate designs. It looked like a miniature sun wrapped in luminous patterns, constantly shifting and compressing.

The air around it distorted and even the heat of the ruin seemed to recoil from it.

Nina staggered slightly with sweat dripping from her face as her breathing turned uneven. "Throw this," she voiced in exhaustion. "As hard as you can."

West immediately grabbed it and the moment his hand touched the construct, he felt raw, unstable power compressed into something barely holding together.

Jax’s eyes widened. "What the hell is that?"

"Something dangerous," West replied while turned, spotting the approaching swarm.

"Everyone—down!"

They all dropped instantly as West stepped forward, pulled his arm back and threw with all his might.

Thwwwooosshhhh~

The construct shot into the air like a comet and for a split second... everything went still.

In the next instant...

BOOOOM!

The sky exploded with blinding, vibrant, fluorescent energy that tore through the air in a massive expanding wave.

The explosion swallowed the swarm whole, disintegrating the creatures instantly as the energy enveloped them.

The sky cleared in a few moments and silence followed.

West looked at the sky and then turned to stare at Nina as if saying ’what in the world?’