Investing in My Crippled Wife: Every Return Makes Me Stronger

”SCREE-!”

Soren moved before the lead monster could fully commit to its lunge. Activating Quick Step, his body blurred forward, slipping underneath the creature’s snapping jaws. His spear flashed in a tight, linear trajectory.

[First Form: Frost Piercing Thrust!]

The spearhead, coated in a razor-sharp layer of compressed ice mana, pierced cleanly through the beast’s throat. Blue-white frost erupted from the wound, instantly freezing the creature’s vocal cords and arteries from the inside out. He yanked the shaft back, letting the frozen carcass collapse into a heap of brittle ice.

Three smaller monsters vaulted over their fallen packmate, claws outstretched and jaws unhinged as they spat dense globs of corrosive acid mid-air, while a fourth beast in the rear unleashed a piercing screech, a sonic psychic attack meant to paralyze the enemy’s nervous system with fear.

Soren felt the mental pressure hammer at his mind, but thanks to his high mental defense, it didn’t affect him. Without hesitation, he used Quick Step once more, his feet shifting in precise, overlapping patterns across the cracked ground. He was a whirlwind of motion, utilizing the narrow tunnel walls to restrict the swarm’s angles of approach.

As the trio closed in to capitalize on sonic disruption, Soren planted his rear foot and swung the spear in a wide, vicious arc.

[Second Form: Glacial Sweep!]

A crescent wave of frosty mana exploded from the swinging blade. The icy shockwave sheared through the front legs of the monsters, sending them crashing to the ground in a spray of black blood that froze before it hit the floor. Without breaking momentum, he brought the butt of the spear down, crushing the skull of the nearest beast, then spun to drive a thrust through the chest of another.

He became a fighting machine, moving with terrifying efficiency. Every step, every thrust, every parry was executed with zero wasted motion.

He didn’t struggle against the smaller monsters, which were mostly around peak or mid Third Circle; his perfect mastery of the first two forms allowed him to neutralize their elemental tricks and slaughter them systematically.

Yet, the sheer volume of the swarm began to take its toll.

A hidden beast leaped from the shadows of the tunnel ceiling, its body cloaked in a wind-attribute camouflage. It ambushed him from his blind spot, its jagged claws tearing a deep gash across his left shoulder after easily breaking through the protective mana layer on his skin. Blood soaked through his shirt immediately.

However, Soren didn’t even flinch. His focus had narrowed into a state of cold detachment where pain was nothing more than an irrelevant detail. He simply adjusted his angle, drove his spear through the attacker’s eye socket, and kicked the body away to clear his line of sight.

The seconds ticked down relentlessly on the countdown. One minute passed. Then two. Then three.

The ground littered itself with frozen limbs, shattered carapaces, and smoking patches of acid. Soren’s breathing turned into shallow, ragged puffs of white vapor, his mana pool draining rapidly as he maintained the relentless pace. His muscles screamed from the non-stop use of Quick Step and Glacial Spear Edge Arts, but his hands remained perfectly steady on the haft of his spear.

The frantic screeching of the swarm soon died down, only to be replaced by a low, rumbling growl that vibrated through the very marrow of his bones.

The four-meter winged monster had finally arrived, stepping over the mound of its frozen kin. The pressure it radiated was suffocating, far heavier than anything Soren had faced so far. The ambient air around the creature began to warp, ripples of heat and flickering embers dancing along its tattered wings as it compressed its flame mana.

Soren quickly analyzed the monster and guessed it was probably at the peak of the fourth circle.

”Pft.”

Spitting a mouthful of blood onto the pavement, his eyes locked onto the creature.

”...GRR...”

The beast didn’t immediately lunge. It looked down at the mound of its frozen underlings, its eyes narrowing with a flash of apprehension. However, that brief hesitation was instantly swallowed by a suffocating wave of killing intent.

Soren didn’t waste those precious moments. He quickly retrieved a couple of potions from his inventory and swallowed them in one fluid motion. Thanks to his Accelerated Regeneration ability, the potion’s effects kicked in instantly, repairing his torn shoulder muscle and replenishing his drained reserves at an alarming rate.

Sensing the sudden shift in his energy, the monster immediately opened its mouth, the heat in the tunnel warping as a flame compressed in its throat.

Soren tensed his legs, his weight already shifting to launch himself out of the incoming trajectory.

The beast’s chest expanded, its shoulders locking forward as if to pin him down, but the glowing maw suddenly jerked away from his position. With a brutal pivot, its jaw snapped sharply to the right.

Before Soren could even register the change in angle, the monster unleashed the massive pillar of white-hot flame toward the dark corner of the tunnel, straight at the car where Clara and Ethea were waiting.

”!”

Soren’s eyes widened in disbelief.

He had explicitly engaged the vehicle’s camouflage mode, yet the creature was firing dead-on. He didn’t have a moment to ponder how the beast had discovered them through the illusion. Kicking off the ground with a desperate surge of mana, he threw his body directly into the path of the oncoming inferno, slamming the butt of his spear down mid-leap to intercept the blast.

[Adrenaline Burst!]

[Winter’s Barrier!]

[Amplification!]

[Golden Body!]

In an instant, a massive wall of dense, jagged ice erupted from the ground, meeting the sea of fire head-on.

”BOOOM!”

The flame torrent slammed into the crystalline shield, creating a violent explosion of boiling steam that hissed through the tunnel. Extreme heat warped the air instantly, melting the outer layers of the barrier into rushing torrents of water that evaporated before hitting the floor.

”Urgh!” Soren groaned in pain.

The sheer thermal shock and concussive pressure hammered against his stance, the heat radiating through the ice to singe his skin despite the active polished hue of his Golden Body Constitution. His muscles strained to the limit under the simultaneous activation of Amplification and Adrenaline Burst, the sudden spike of power pushing his physical pathways to a painful threshold.

Yet, he didn’t give an inch. He gritted his teeth, enduring the agonizing pain and pressure by anchoring his weight into the ground. He forced himself to stay upright, a single thought locking his mind into a state of absolute focus.

’If I fail, Ethea and Auntie will die.’