But Little Garden was not done with them.
Not by a long shot.
The day before launch, the ground trembled.
A **new apex predator** — a titanic, feathered serpent with molten scales — rose from the jungle.
"Are you fucking kidding me," Tika muttered. "Why does this place keep spawning RAID BOSSES?!"
The crew fought.
Artoria sliced through vines with Excalibur's echoes.
Izuku, now pulsing with stored energy, hammered shockwaves into the beast's legs.
Edward transmuted barricades.
Soma hurled flaming dinosaur steaks like grenades.
Senku... set up goddamn landmines.
Tika ran. And yelled. And panicked.
*I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die no, wait, if I die they're all gonna die, FUCK, OKAY, BRAIN, WHAT DO WE DO, THINK, DAMMIT!*
He stumbled upon a solution: **lure the beast into a tar pit**.
It worked. Mostly.
Tika barely survived by clinging to Renji Abarai, newly summoned, swinging Zabimaru with wild laughter.
"OI CAPTAIN, NEXT TIME YOU PLAN A STUNT, WARN ME FIRST!"
Tika coughed up mud. "Consider it a... surprise attack...strategy...you oversized tattoo billboard."
They laughed.
And in that moment — bruised, bloodied, and victorious — the crew felt *unbreakable*.
The Yūsha's Howl sailed out at sunrise.
Leaving Li
ttle Garden, and childhood, behind.
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