Apocalypse with my SSS Harem Beauties-Chapter 160: A Guardian

They already knew what would happen next. The moment the red text appeared none of them panicked. They had expected a fight. They had entered and prepared for it.

Their breathing remained steady. Their formation tightened naturally.

Lilian narrowed her eyes toward the far end of the chamber.

"In front there is something moving. The trial will begin shortly. Be ready," she said calmly.

They all nodded. Each of them adjusted their grip. Ether circulated through their cores in controlled currents. Muscles tensed. No one spoke further.

A shape detached itself from the darkness.

At first it looked like a distortion in the air. Then it stepped forward.

The creature stood nearly three meters tall. It possessed two elongated heads growing from a single thick neck, each head crowned with jagged mandibles that clicked softly against one another.

Four arms extended from its upper torso. They were segmented, plated, and edged with serrated ridges, resembling insect limbs at a glance yet each ended in a five-fingered hand tipped with hooked claws.

Its lower body did not resemble a humanoid’s at all.

Instead of legs, six long spider-like limbs unfolded beneath it. The pointed ends scraped against the black stone floor with dry, metallic sounds.

The joints bent at strange angles as it adjusted its stance.

For a brief moment, the chamber fell silent again. None of them flinched because they had seen worse creatures like corrupted giants and crystal-mutated beasts and creatures that had flesh twisted beyond recognition.

This was just another enemy.

Myles narrowed his eyes. "I think that must be this guardian we have to kill."

The creature did not rush them. One of its heads tilted slightly. The mandibles clicked.

Then it raised two of its upper arms.

Dark ripples spread across the floor behind it. From those ripples, smaller figures began to crawl out. Dozens of them.

They shared the same general structure of segmented arms, hardened carapace, and multiple limbs like the big one, but stood barely half the Guardian’s height.

Their heads were singular and narrower. Their armor appeared thinner yet sharper along the edges. Their legs ended in jagged claws that scraped aggressively against the stone as they emerged.

Some bore elongated forearms like scythes but no armor, and the other possessed thicker plating across their shoulders and chest.

They filled the chamber rapidly. The larger creature remained at the rear.

Then both of its heads opened their mandibles wide and released a shrill, layered command.

The smaller creatures reacted instantly and surged forward as one like a tidal wave of chitin and claws, they rushed toward the ten of them.

"Okay," Myles said, stepping forward. "Here we go!"

He did not hesitate and charged immediately. The others moved with him.

A second later steel clashed against those hardened shells. Blades carved into their armor. Sparks burst as metal struck stone and carapace. Colorful bursts of power erupted across the chamber—flashes of blue, crimson, gold, and violet colliding against dark bodies.

The first wave crashed into them.

Myles cut through the nearest creature, his blade cleaving through its shoulder joint then viscous dark fluid splattered across the black stone. He moved to another direction immediately and slashed again, driving back another attacker.

Ethan moved beside him, intercepting two lunging figures at once with his rapid shots. George smashed a charging minion aside with his raw force, shattering its forelimb before finishing it with a downward blow.

The chamber echoed with impacts.

Chitin cracked. Claws scraped across armor. Ether detonated in short bursts.

The tide did not stop. More creatures pushed forward over the bodies of their fallen kin.

They climbed across walls and leaped from above, forcing the group to rotate formation constantly.

Myles felt the strain build in his muscles. He adjusted his footing and cut through another wave, refusing to let them surround them.

Time blurred. Minutes stretched. The floor became slick with dark fluid and broken limbs.

One by one, the smaller creatures died and so their numbers thinned.

Finally, the last minion lunged desperately toward the center.

Myles stepped in and ended it with a decisive attack. Silence returned to the chamber.

They stood in the middle of mangled corpses and shattered carapaces. Ether still flowed steadily through their bodies. Notifications after notifications appeared in front of their vision, making them keep leveling up.

Across the room, the two-headed Guardian remained.

Both heads watched them.

Lilian of course did not move from her position near the rear. She watched with detached calmness with her arms loosely folded.

The swarm had not required her intervention. Even the Guardian did not draw the slightest tension from her gaze. This level was beneath her notice.

The two-headed creature finally moved. Its spider-like legs stabbed into the stone floor as it lunged forward with sudden explosive speed.

The distance between them vanished in a blink of an eye. One serrated arm swept sideways, tearing through the air where George had stood a fraction of a second earlier.

"Spread!" Myles shouted.

They moved instantly.

The Guardian’s second head snapped downward, mandibles clashing as it attempted to bite. Its lower limbs stabbed repeatedly, cracking the stone tiles.

Myles stepped in instead of retreating. He bent his knees and launched himself upward.

Ether surged through his legs. He rose high enough to meet the creature’s upper torso.

In midair he slashed with his Fangblade, then followed with his curved Noctiryx dagger in rapid succession.

SLASH!

SLASH!

SLASH!

The first cut severed one of the serrated arms at the joint. The second carved across the Guardian’s shoulder plate, splitting it open.

Dark fluid sprayed downward.

The creature screeched.

Gunfire erupted from below.

Ethan fired both twin pistols in controlled bursts. Ether bullets struck the creature’s heads in rapid impacts, cracking the outer shell and forcing them back.

At the same time, Samantha released a precise arrow.

The projectile pierced straight into one of the Guardian’s eyes, rupturing the eye internal tissue.

The creature staggered.

George charged from the flank and smashed his hammer into one of the spider legs, shattering the joint. Daniel and Kade followed immediately, targeting the other part of the guardian. Clara reinforced them with controlled bursts of stabs that destabilized the creature’s balance.

They did not give it time to adapt. Their attacks connected cleanly and layered over the previous one rapidly.

The Guardian tried to retaliate. One remaining arm lashed downward, carving a trench into the stone.

But its coordination faltered. One head twitched blindly. The other struggled to focus through cracked plating and shattered vision.

Myles landed, spun, and dashed forward again.

He jumped and drove his Fangblade straight through the already-split chest plate while his dagger cut upward beneath the mandibles of the second head.

The combined force ruptured its core. For a split second the massive body froze.

Then the Guardian collapsed. Its weight struck the stone floor with a thunderous thud that echoed across the chamber.

Red light flickered in front of their eyes.

[Guardian Eliminated.]

[First Floor Cleared.]

[You can proceed to the Second Floor.]

Myles let out a sigh, lowering his weapons.

"That was quick," George muttered.

Across the room, Lilian observed the fallen corpse without expression.

"As expected," she said calmly.

The platform behind them began to glow once more. And they moved to the Second Floor.

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