Chapter 238: Breaking the Formation
In the exact center of the battlefield, the air was eerie and quiet.
Wanda and Druig stood facing each other thirty meters apart, neither of them moving a step.
Druig's eyes turned into a turbid grayish-white, and a massive psychic storm, like an invisible sledgehammer, hammered heavily against Wanda's consciousness over and over again.
"Give up, little girl, you cannot bear this weight." Druig's voice echoed in Wanda's mind as he tried to alter Wanda's perception and shatter her willpower.
Wanda stood in place, her auburn hair fluttering without any wind.
She did not answer, only slowly crossing her hands in front of her chest.
Chaos Energy leaped at her fingertips, then transformed into a huge crimson light screen, firmly blocking that invisible mental pressure three feet in front of her body.
At first, the sharp pain in her mind indeed made her feel uncomfortable.
As time passed, Wanda was gradually able to resist this mental attack.
It was nothing much.
"Your tricks..."
Wanda suddenly opened her eyes wide, terrifying crimson light lighting up deep within her pupils, "Are useless to me now!"
The moment her words fell, Wanda violently pushed both hands forward!
The crimson energy storm instantly condensed into two huge glowing Talons, carrying an aura of destroying everything, forcefully tearing Druig's mental force field to shreds and clawing straight toward Druig's face!
Druig's expression changed.
How could this woman's mental power rise so quickly? Cold sweat seeped from his forehead, and it was already too late to dodge.
The moment the giant Talon was about to fall, a red-and-black afterimage flashed from the side. Makkari, carrying a whistling wind pressure, grabbed Druig and retreated a hundred meters away within milliseconds.
Tony in mid-air had been waiting for this moment.
As Makkari was drawn away, the energy transmission device in the rear was completely exposed.
The gold-red armor's thrusters spewed dazzling exhaust flames, charging straight toward the glowing energy transmission device.
On the ground, Pietro also stomped the mud to pieces.
The silver-white figure sprinted wildly through the jungle, pushing speed to its limit, needing to rush over before that female speedster returned.
"This time I will definitely not drop the chain!" Pietro gritted his teeth, his eyes full of viciousness.
But Makkari's speed was even faster.
Makkari, who had just saved Druig, turned back, the red-and-black figure drawing a straight line in the air and crashing head-on into Pietro.
Bang!
Pietro flew sideways, smashing heavily into the muddy ground.
Makkari landed on the ground, raising her foot to stomp on Pietro's chest, preparing to completely cripple this reckless opponent.
However, Pietro, lying on the ground, spat out a mouthful of bloody foam. Instead of dodging, he abruptly reached out with both hands and tightly grabbed Makkari's entire lower leg!
"Got you, fast-running chick!" Pietro roared, the veins on his arms bulging, refusing to let go even as Makkari's other foot kicked against his ribs, producing a teeth-aching sound of bone cracking.
"Hurry!" Pietro shouted.
Tina in the distance noticed Tony rapidly approaching the device.
A cold glint flashed in her eyes. With a kick, she sent Captain America flying, leveraging the force to retreat. The golden longsword in her hand turned into a spear, transforming into a stream of light that stabbed straight at the back of Tony's armor!
"Not happening."
Wanda gripped the air with both hands, Chaos Energy directly intercepting the spear in mid-air.
Kingo forcefully endured the numbness in his body, wanting to raise his hand to stop him, but several explosive arrows precisely nailed down at his feet, and the violently bursting Impact knocked him overturning to the ground.
No one could stop Tony anymore.
The armor's built-in weapons had all been completely emptied.
Looking at the energy device getting closer and closer, the armor at Tony's wrists rapidly deformed, and two cold-glinting Vibranium blades extended outward.
"Jarvis, pour all energy into the thrusters!"
The reactor on his chest glowed brilliantly, and the armor's kinetic propulsion was fully activated.
Sizzle!
The Vibranium blade cut into the energy shield, bursting out dazzling sparks. Tony forcefully broke through the energy shield previously set by Phastos.
From the core device, only the last meter remained!
"Got it!" Tony rejoiced inwardly.
At this very instant, Gilgamesh, who had kept his eyes closed to maintain mental synchronization, opened his eyes.
The last person of the Eternal also gave up mental synchronization.
Gilgamesh stepped out, a large hand wrapped in a golden energy exoskeleton on one arm carrying a terrifying, overwhelming force as it slammed fiercely from the side!
With a loud boom.
The armor's alarms sounded in a chorus, Tony completely lost control, his field of vision spinning, and he was slapped flying hundreds of meters away by a single palm, smashing dozens of thick giant trees in succession before heavily crashing into a pile of rubble, stirring up a sky full of dust and smoke.
Amidst the rubble, the armor's mask flickered twice before finally lighting up with a weak blue glow.
Lying at the bottom of the pit, Tony coughed out a breath, looking at the energy device in the distance that was completely disconnected, and weakly complained in the communication channel:
"Well... this counts as completing the mission too."
Deep in the seawater, a thick golden column of light pierced straight through the water layer, slamming heavily onto the chest armor of the armor in front of Lu Chen.
The nanoscopic fluid on the surface of the armor flowed frantically, forcibly shedding the high temperature and Impact force within the beam, and the boiling bubbles instantly stirred the surrounding hundreds of meters of sea area into turbidity.
The next second, Ikaris, who was preparing to release Heat Vision again, paused his movements; that majestic power continuously converging from his companions disappeared.
As Gilgamesh exited the synchronization, the last trace of the golden energy flow maintaining the Uni-Mind was also completely disconnected.
Lu Chen, who had hard-resisted a Heat Vision, also sensed this point: Tony and the others had succeeded.
Although the energy inside his body was indeed hitting rock bottom, so what?
The fury in his brain that was about to burn away his sanity was pushing his blood to crash crazily against his blood vessels. The blessing of infinite rage not only did not weaken, but instead completely ignited every single cell of his after he stopped dividing his attention to suppress it.
In this enhanced physique, every inch of muscle was now clamoring for destruction.
The golden light in Ikaris's eyes lit up again, attempting to use Heat Vision to force the madman in front of him back.
"Still want to shoot?"
Lu Chen's eyes were bloodshot, giving the opponent no chance at all.
He abruptly raised both arms on the seabed, slamming his two palms together fiercely in front of his chest!
Boom!
A terrifying Impact burst open centered on his two hands!
The pure-to-the-extreme brute force instantly displaced the seawater within a radius of a kilometer, forcefully squeezing out an absolute vacuum fault in the dark seabed!
Following closely, this Impact, combined with the crazily rushing back seawater, smashed directly into Ikaris's chest.
Ikaris groaned softly, his whole body rolling violently in the out-of-control current. The Heat Vision he had just condensed grazed Lu Chen's shoulder and shot toward the seabed silt, blasting out a bottomless lava crater.
"Damn it!"
Ikaris stabilized his posture amidst the rolling, his expression turning extremely ugly.
He could feel that unreasonable brute force on Lu Chen still rising. This human was not using any exquisite techniques; he was purely going mad.
He couldn't grind to the death here.
He knew very well the information about the Battle of New York. If Lu Chen's helpers were those Avengers, even if they used some clever means to interrupt the mental synchronization, they could never be opponents of Gilgamesh and the others operating at full firepower.
As long as he held on a little longer, waiting for his teammates to completely annihilate Lu Chen's helpers, the situation could be reversed!
Having made up his mind, Ikaris kicked off with both legs, a sonic boom exploding underwater, and his whole body shot straight toward the sea surface like an unsheathed golden sharp sword!
However, fast as he was, Lu Chen was even faster!
Looking at that upward-darting golden back, the violent rage in Lu Chen's chest was about to burst through his chest cavity.
His legs plunged deep into the rock layer of the seabed, his whole body's muscles twisting tightly like steel cables, and then he bounced up violently!
Bang!
The seabed beneath his feet instantly cracked and collapsed!
That pure recoil force even created a terrifying high temperature in the deep sea, and the surrounding seawater was directly evaporated into white steam in that single instant!
Lu Chen's speed broke common sense in an instant, even faster than Ikaris's Flight speed by a notch.
On the sea surface, sunlight had just pierced through the dark clouds.
Splash!
Ikaris broke out of the water, his battle suit kicking up a sky full of splashes. However, before he even had time to take his first breath of fresh air, an irresistible immense force came from his ankle!
A large hand covered in black armor firmly clasped his ankle bone.
Chapter 239: Battle Situation Reverses
"Get down here!"
Lu Chen's roar exploded alongside the sound of breaking water.
Ikaris's pupils constricted violently, and he exerted force through his waist, attempting to flip in the air as two golden Heat Visions blasted directly downward toward Lu Chen's face.
However, under Yuheng's operation, the full-body nano Vibranium armor rippled like a living creature, instantly gathering most of the metal onto his right arm and face to form a thick, sharp ramming gauntlet, charging straight into those two ultra-high-temperature visions and smashing forward forcibly!
The distance between the two of them was pulled to the absolute limit.
Lu Chen swung his arm, and a heavy punch gathering all his monstrous strength and fury slammed solidly into Ikaris's chest!
Ikaris's battle suit on his chest shattered on the spot, and he spat out a large mouthful of blood mixed with golden spots of light, his entire body resembling a shot-down meteor as he was smashed back into the depths of the sea once more!
Boom!
The sea surface was smashed into a massive water crater several thousand meters wide.
Ikaris only felt his vision turn pitch black, his brain plunging into a brief blankness and dizziness.
He forced himself to open his eyes.
In his field of vision, that black figure had already torn through the water curtain and chased after him, an expanding fist carrying a destructive ferocious light heading straight for his face!
There was no probing, no rules or methods.
Lu Chen straddled Ikaris, his left hand pinching the opponent's neck while his right hand turned into a blur, smashing down fiercely punch after punch!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Ikaris desperately raised his arms to block, golden Universe energy continuously erupting underwater, and the close-range Heat Vision hitting Lu Chen unceasingly, burning through the already much-weakened armor and charring the flesh beneath the armor as well.
Yet Lu Chen didn't even have a defensive posture.
Under his perverted self-healing ability, the wounds grew crazily, the charred rotten flesh falling off, and newborn skin growing instantly. The pain not only failed to make him shrink back, but instead made the infinite fury within his body burn brighter and fiercer like a raging fire splashed with gasoline!
"Go to hell! Go to hell! Go to hell!"
Lu Chen had only this single thought left in his mind: to smash the person in front of him completely into meat paste!
Bloody water permeated the deep sea, and Ikaris's protective energy was smashed to pieces punch by punch, leaving him able only to grit his teeth and bitterly endure.
On the other side, the South American rainforest battlefield.
As Gilgamesh boldly struck out, swatting Tony hundreds of meters away with a single palm strike, the situation of the entire battlefield took a sharp turn for the worse in this instant.
"Jarvis... cough, damage report..." Tony tried laboriously to raise his arm.
"Sir, thirty-eight percent of the nano particles remain, and thruster power is under twenty percent. It is recommended to retreat immediately."
"Retreat? Do you think that bunch looks like they're going to let us go?"
Tony gritted his teeth and looked into the distance.
Interrupting the energy device was indeed successful, but everyone in the Eternal had also been completely freed from their restraints.
Boom!
Gilgamesh stepped forward in a stride, slamming down beside Phastos.
Hulk had originally been chasing Phastos and beating him up fiercely, his sand-bowl-sized green fist smashing down with whistling wind. Gilgamesh's fan-like large hand shoved Phastos away, let out a cold snort, and the golden energy exoskeleton on his right arm suddenly lit up with a dazzling light, slamming directly head-on against Hulk's fist!
Bang!
Two heavy fists collided in mid-air, a visible Impact sweeping outward, and a dozen or so giant trees around them the thickness of a hug were snapped in half at the waist!
Hulk stepped back half a step, the golden energy exoskeleton on Gilgamesh's arm shining brilliantly. He then stepped forward again, letting out a roar, and his other hand, wrapped in overwhelming force, lashed out fiercely once more!
This punch not only battered the caught-off-guard Hulk into retreating repeatedly, but the terrifying aftermath of the force also directly collapsed the ground within a radius of several hundred meters, forming a massive pit!
Hulk fell into a disadvantageous position in the pure contest of strength.
"Switch out."
Tina's cool voice sounded.
The few members of the Eternal glanced at each other and instantly exchanged positions.
Previously, in order to maintain synchronization, they had been caught off guard by the Avengers seizing an opening. Now, without the shackles of protecting the energy transmission device, they could finally let loose.
The next second, the battle situation was reorganized!
"Leave this big guy to me." Gilgamesh clenched his fists, the golden energy exoskeleton covering his arms once more as he headed straight for the furious Hulk.
Phastos waved his palm, and several golden geometric energy rings reorganized in front of him, his gaze locking onto Tony crawling out from the pile of rubble: "Technology? Mortal iron toys, that's the end of it."
A red-and-black blur flashed through the forest. Makkari directly circled toward the rear of the battlefield. Her goal was very clear: that archer who kept shooting cold arrows from afar.
"Careful!"
Steve shouted, just wanting to step forward to support the rear line when three dazzling golden energy bullets already whistled over.
Kingo shook his hands, a proud smile hanging on his face once again: "Your opponent is me, don't go looking around."
Boom! Boom!
Steve was forced to raise his Vibranium round shield, the alliance ring barely weakening the Impact, but his entire body was still pushed back repeatedly by the powerful energy bullets, making it completely impossible for him to break away.
On the other side, Druig's gray-glowing eyes swept coldly across the battlefield. He no longer competed with Wanda, whose mental power was equally formidable, but instead smashed a massive mental oppression instantly onto the fastest Pietro!
Pietro, who was moving at high speed, suddenly stiffened, his entire body collapsing to the ground in agony.
"Pietro!"
Wanda's expression changed drastically, and just as the scarlet magic in her palms was about to erupt to rescue him, a fatal golden light spear had already pierced through the air, stabbing straight toward her face!
Wanda could only hastily set up a shield in front of her.
On the high ground in the rear, Clint was staring intently at the movements in the forest.
The senses enhanced by Compound V made him perceive danger, and he quickly compressed lightning enchantment onto the arrowheads, his fingers tightly clutching the bowstring as he vigilantly looked around.
As for Natasha, utilizing the ability of Shadow traversal, her entire body was completely lurked within the shadow at Clint's feet, without revealing a single trace of aura.
Too quiet.
A layer of cold sweat seeped from Clint's forehead.
Suddenly, a faint current of air attacked from behind!
Clint didn't even have time to turn his head, only feeling a terrifying Impact coming from his back.
Bang!
Makkari's fist slammed solidly into his back.
Clint flew out entirely, the compound bow in his hand slipping away and flying out, spitting out a large mouthful of blood in mid-air, and crashing heavily onto a distant tree trunk.
"Clint!"
A cold light flashed in the eyes of Natasha, who was lurking in the shadow.
Taking advantage of the moment Makkari threw a punch and withdrew her move, Natasha leaped out directly via Shadow traversal, her figure emerging like a phantom right above Makkari's back, the Widow's Bite in her hand lighting up with a dazzling blue high-voltage electric arc as she stabbed fiercely toward the opponent's cervical spine!
This strike was concealed to the absolute extreme; if it were an ordinary person, they would have perished long ago.
However, Makkari was a speed master extremely sensitive to vibrations.
The instant Natasha broke through the air, Makkari's head tilted weirdly to the left, the electric arc grazing past her hair.
The next second, Makkari's right leg drew a blur in mid-air like a steel whip, turning around and kicking heavily across Natasha's abdomen!
Bang!
Natasha groaned, her entire body flying backward dozens of meters, rolling continuously a few times in the muddy ground, blood overflowing from the corner of her mouth, struggling to stand up only to feel a sharp pain in her internal organs.
In a mere half a minute, the Avengers' defense line completely collapsed.
Hulk was suppressed by Gilgamesh, Tony's armor was severely damaged, Pietro fell into severe mental pain, Clint fell unconscious, Natasha was wounded, Steve was suppressed by Kingo's firepower, and Wanda was driven into perilous situations by Tina's close combat.
The Avengers had fallen into an unprecedented disadvantage.
Chapter 240: Side Effects of Wrath
The water pressure of the deep sea felt as if it wanted to crush a person's bones, but deep on the ocean floor at this moment, even more terrifying than the water pressure was the crazy battle between two monsters.
"Die!"
Lu Chen's roar exploded at the bottom of the sea.
His fists were like frantic heavy hammers, punching one after another without any technique or holding back any strength, relying solely on the wildly surging brute force within his body to mindlessly pound at Ikaris's head and chest.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
With every punch smashed down, the surrounding seawater was shaken into a large vacuum area, and the terrifying impact even caused the coral reefs and rock layers at the bottom of the sea to collapse one after another.
Having lived for over seven thousand years, it was the first time Ikaris had been pinned to the ocean floor and beaten into such a miserable state.
The blue-gold battle suit on his body had long since torn into rags, his nasal bridge had collapsed, and countless ribs were broken.
Although his body was self-healing, it could no longer keep up, and what shocked him even more was the completely unreasonable power radiating from Lu Chen's body.
How is this guy's power still growing?
"Lunatic..." Ikaris gritted his teeth, raising his arms to parry desperately as blood continuously overflowed from his nose and mouth, only to be quickly washed away by the seawater.
Lu Chen's mind was completely filled with a sea of blood, his rationality burned down to just a tiny sliver by Infinite Rage.
"Pain? Pain is just right!"
The skin and flesh burned rotten by energy on his body were self-healing, only for the new flesh to be torn apart again.
Not only did this torment not make him sober, but it made him even angrier and more powerful, with his mind entirely focused on tearing the enemy before him into pieces!
"Damn it, I'll slaughter you... Today I'll definitely smash every bone in your body!"
Lu Chen roared in his heart, his ten fingers forming claws, carrying a fierce current as he viciously grabbed towards Ikaris's eyes.
He was going to gouge out those two eyeballs that shot out beams!
The close-range killing intent made Ikaris's eyelids twitch wildly.
But his thousands of years of combat experience were already engraved into his bone marrow.
At the very moment when Lu Chen's fingers were about to poke into his eye sockets, a trace of resolute ruthlessness flashed through Ikaris's eyes.
He could see it.
Lu Chen's power definitely hid a fatal price.
The fuller the anger, the stronger the power, but the price was that this guy had completely lost his original calm judgment and combat rhythm.
The current Lu Chen was nothing more than a Beast with boundless strength.
"A Beast could be outsmarted!"
Ikaris exerted force from his waist, using the momentum of Lu Chen's pounce to slide weirdly like a swimming fish behind Lu Chen's back.
"Got you!"
Ikaris's arms passed from behind through Lu Chen's armpits, tightly locking onto Lu Chen's neck, while simultaneously bending his knees and slamming heavily against the spine on Lu Chen's back, forcibly pushing the distance between the two apart by half a meter.
With both hands restrained, Lu Chen's wrath rushed straight to his crown: "Fuck! Let go of me!"
He struggled desperately, twisting his body, and the brute force brought by his wrath almost tore Ikaris's arms apart.
The muscles on Ikaris's arms tightened inch by inch, but he did not let go, enduring the severe pain brought to his body.
He knew he only had this one chance.
The next moment, the golden light in Ikaris's eyes no longer turned into a wide energy torrent like before, but was tightly compressed and condensed by him, finally turning into two golden threads even smaller than needle tips!
Swish!
Carrying terrifying high temperature and penetrating power, these two extremely compressed threads pierced straight through the battle suit and fiercely nailed themselves onto the back of Lu Chen's neck!
With a soft sound of a puff.
A small blood hole was instantly drilled into the back of Lu Chen's neck.
"Urgh, ahhhhh!"
Lu Chen let out a painful, frenzied roar.
The self-healing ability of his Super Physique activated immediately, frantically growing flesh and blood in an attempt to heal the wound, but those two threads kept drilling unceasingly, chopping up the newly grown flesh and even desperately extending upward, wanting to cut Lu Chen's head directly in half.
Self-healing and destruction violently tug-of-warred!
However, the collapse Ikaris had anticipated did not appear.
Stimulated by this inhuman, excruciating pain, the Infinite Rage within Lu Chen's body not only did not extinguish, but instead seemed to be pushed to a completely new peak, exploding with a boom!
"You... are courting Death!!"
Lu Chen's eyes were completely scarlet, and the muscles on his back suddenly swelled.
At this instant, his power surged by another huge margin once again!
"What?!" Ikaris's pupils shrank violently.
He felt that what he was locking down was not a person at all, but an erupting star!
Lu Chen's whole body muscles trembled fiercely, and Ikaris's arms, which had originally locked his wrists tightly, were forcibly shaken apart!
The moment he broke free, completely ignoring the bleeding wound on the back of his neck, Lu Chen suddenly turned around, transforming his hands into palms, and slapped them solidly onto Ikaris's left and right ears from both sides!
Double Claps to the Ears!
Bang!!
A terrifying wave of air exploded a huge annular wave of water at the bottom of the sea.
Ikaris's eardrums ruptured on the spot, and blood mixed with shredded flesh spewed wildly from his ears and mouth!
His entire brain felt as if it had been stirred into a paste, his vision instantly turned pale white, and all surrounding sounds completely vanished.
"Cough... Ah..."
Ikaris couldn't even let out a scream, his whole person falling into complete imbalance and chaos.
But Lu Chen's retaliation was not over yet.
Before Ikaris could recover from the dizziness, one hand already reached out like lightning, tightly grabbing his throat!
Lu Chen's figure followed closely, his other hand also clamping firmly onto Ikaris's neck, his ten fingers sinking deep into the opponent's flesh and blood, veins bulging on his arms.
"Die!"
Lu Chen wore a ferocious expression, the power on his arms pouring out frantically.
He was going to twist this Eternal's head off his neck alive!
Snap!
Ikaris's cervical vertebrae made a crisp cracking sound, his trachea was squeezed flat, and the air inside his chest cavity was completely squeezed out.
Oxygen deprivation, deafness, concussion, coupled with that irresistible terrifying grip on his throat, the shadow of Death shrouded over his head so clearly for the first time in thousands of years.
"Am I going to die here?"
This thought flashed through Ikaris's brain amidst the chaos.
"No... No way!"
"The mission has not been completed yet, the Celestials' Emergence has not yet descended... And Sersi..."
"If I die here, who will protect her? Who will guide all of this?!"
An extreme desire to survive and paranoid belief completely stimulated all the potential hidden within Ikaris at this moment!
"Get away!!"
Ikaris let out a desperate shrill scream in his heart, and the golden light that had originally been unfocused in his eyes suddenly condensed.
Those two Heat Vision beams compressed to the extreme spewed out once more, like two unbreakable golden blade lights, sweeping horizontally and directly cutting towards Lu Chen's wrists!
Slash!
The extreme might instantly severed the tendons and bones at Lu Chen's wrists!
Lu Chen's hands were severed clean at the wrists!
"Ugh!"
Lu Chen groaned softly, and the force choking the opponent's throat suddenly became empty.
Blood had just gushed out from the severed wrists when the self-healing already activated, and countless granulation tissues and blood filaments sprayed frantically from the broken ends as if they had life, attempting to reconnect the severed palms.
But this opening was exactly what Ikaris wanted!
The moment he lost restraint, enduring the tearing pain in his brain, with Lu Chen's palms still stuck on his neck, Ikaris violently flew backward through the seawater for several thousand meters.
He did not try to counterattack close up; he knew that the current Lu Chen was a moving humanoid fierce Beast.
While flying backward, Ikaris's Heat Vision from his eyes did not stop for a second, two tiny golden lights locking firmly onto Lu Chen's chest and face, wildly strafing and suppressing!
He didn't ask for this strike to kill Lu Chen, only to widen the distance and hold off this lunatic!
Zzzzt!
The tiny beams hit Lu Chen's body, and the high temperature vaporized all the seawater along their path.
The next second, the battle suit, which was already too thin to cover his whole body, quickly gathered in front of Lu Chen, condensing into a small yet immensely thick shield!
Bang! Bang!
The Heat Vision crashed against the nano Vibranium shield, stirring up circles of golden energy ripples.
Although it burned the surface of the shield bright red, it forcibly blocked this wave of fatal attacks.
Taking advantage of this short two-second barrier, the flesh and blood at Lu Chen's wrists had already finished regrowing, new skin covering the back of his hands, and his bones intact as before.
"Hoo... Hoo..."
Lu Chen breathed heavily and roughly, the fury making his heart beat frantically like an engine.
He looked at Ikaris in the distance, flying backward disheveled with blood flowing from his nose and mouth.
"Running?"
"Can you run away?!"
Lu Chen slammed his right foot fiercely onto the ocean floor, causing the rock layer beneath his feet to collapse with a roar, stirring up monstrous waves of water.
He was about to exert strength again to rush up and completely tear Ikaris to pieces.
Right at this critical juncture, two urgent voices exploded in his communication channel simultaneously.
"Sir, a severe crisis has occurred on the jungle battlefield, and the defense line has completely collapsed!"
Jarvis's urgent mechanical voice cut directly into the communication channel.
Immediately following that, Yuheng's voice was transmitted synchronously: "Drastic fluctuations detected in Wanda and Pietro's vital signs. The jungle battlefield requests reinforcements!"
These two sentences poured over Lu Chen's brain, which had been almost completely burned dry by the Infinite Rage.
Lu Chen's surging figure suddenly halted in the seawater, stirring up a ring of rolling currents.
He shook his somewhat heavy head.
Although the desire for anger brought by Infinite Rage was still rolling within his body, that trace of extreme rationality forcibly ripped open a gap.
He couldn't keep wasting time here with Ikaris.
A wave of lingering fear also arose in his heart. So this was Infinite Rage LV8.
He had originally thought of using Mind Control to suppress his own anger to a critical point, but under the endless wrath, he had almost forgotten about this matter.
Lu Chen exclaimed with emotion: "Hulk, as expected of you, after this is over I will definitely treat you to something good."
Ikaris had already been beaten into serious injuries and couldn't stir up any big trouble in a short time.
But if the Avengers on the jungle side were completely wiped out, and something happened to Wanda and Pietro, then even if he slaughtered Ikaris in this battle, it would still be a massive loss!
Lu Chen took one last look at Ikaris in the distance, who was desperately retreating and panting.
"I'll let you keep your life a little longer."
Lu Chen squeezed these words out from between his teeth.
The next moment, his entire body transformed into a stream of black light, tearing straight through heavy curtains of sea water and fiercely darting upward toward the surface of the sea!
Chapter 241: Hulk's Growth
Lu Chen tore through the thick water curtain with his entire body, rushed to the sea surface, and sprinted straight toward the South American rainforest.
"Hold on, don't you dare die."
He clenched his teeth desperately in his heart.
Having regained a shred of clarity, he used his mental power to suppress his emotions for the first time, but compared to the decrease in his strength bonus, he was now even more anxious about the battle situation over in the rainforest.
Jarvis's electronic voice was rapid and urgent.
"Sir, you do not have much time left."
Lu Chen pushed his speed to the absolute limit, causing continuous sonic booms to explode in the atmosphere beside him.
Deep in the cold seabed, amidst the pile of shattered coral reefs, Ikaris propped himself against the fractured rock wall and managed to stand straight with difficulty.
The blue-and-gold battle suit on his body had already broken into fragments, with a large, deep depression on his chest.
The self-repair within his body was still stubbornly at work, but it could not smooth away these injuries in a short time, and every breath he took brought with it bloody foam.
Yet a light lit up in his eyes once more.
"Flew away suddenly?"
Ikaris wiped the blood from his chin, looking at the vacuum water stream piercing through the sea surface above his head.
The mad-dog-like ferocity Lu Chen displayed just now showed that he was definitely not someone who would easily back down.
The only explanation was that Lu Chen's mortal companions could no longer hold on and had sent a request for reinforcement.
"Gilgamesh and the others have succeeded."
Ikaris muttered to himself in a low voice, pulling the corners of his mouth into an arc, which pulled at the wound on his cheek and made his eyelids twitch in pain.
He could not let Lu Chen rush over so easily.
Once that monster returned to the main battlefield, all the battle gains would be completely overturned within a few minutes.
"Sersi is still waiting for me..."
Ikaris took a deep breath, and the cosmic energy within his body forcefully suppressed the stabbing pain of his broken bones.
With his legs slightly bent, he likewise transformed into a golden stream of light, biting onto the airflow trajectory left behind by Lu Chen, and chased after him desperately.
South America, deep within the rainforest.
Hawkeye lay in a muddy puddle, his bow broken into three sections scattered beside him.
A fist-sized bloody hole had been torn open in his abdomen, dark red blood gushing out in large waves, and his chest showed only weak undulations.
"Clint..."
In the shadow of a tree root not far from him, Natasha bit down hard on the tip of her tongue, forcing herself to stay awake with the intense pain.
Her current condition was extremely poor.
Her left arm was completely deformed, at least four ribs were broken, and the calf bone of her right leg even pierced through the fabric of her tactical pants.
Under her heavy injuries, she could only hide within the narrow shadows.
But less than ten meters outside the shadow, Makkari was patrolling back and forth.
That woman in the red-and-black battle suit was simply too fast.
Makkari was sensitive to vibrations to the extreme, scanning every single patch of shadow around her inch by inch.
The moment Natasha dared to pop her head out of the shadow, her internal organs would be shattered by the ultra-high-speed impact in the next second.
"Cough..."
Clint in the mud pit let out an extremely faint choke, dark red blood clots overflowing from the corner of his mouth.
He was running out of time.
Through the shadows, Natasha looked at that bloodless face, and the past events she had deeply buried in the bottom of her heart surged up uncontrollably like mad.
She had grown up in the Red Room.
In that cold-blooded and cruel institution, she learned how to disguise herself, how to poison, and how to snap a target's neck.
Her hands were covered in unwashable blood, and she had done too many wrong things, until she grew up, saw through the true nature of that place, and wanted to escape, but could never find a way.
Until Clint received the order to eliminate her.
That man holding a bow and arrow did not shoot that fatal arrow.
In the ruins of Budapest, Clint saw that tiny bit of stubborn humanity in the depths of her eyes, put down his bow, and brought her into S.H.I.E.L.D..
As someone who had been deprived of a normal family since childhood, Clint and everyone in the Avengers were regarded as her only remaining family.
"Move... Just move..."
Natasha frantically urged herself in her heart, but she could not be impulsive.
An assassin's instinct suppressed her boiling emotions.
Maintaining shadow stealth consumed the limited energy and physical strength within her body, and given her current injuries, she could at most support one final assault.
If she jumped out and missed, both she and Clint would die right here.
Natasha closed her eyes for a moment, forcing all her grief and panic back down into her heart.
She was calculating, calculating Makkari's patrol turnaround cycle, calculating the angle for her pounce, and calculating the energy storage time of the last Widow's Bite on her wrist.
She had to save him.
Boom!
The ground in the distance suddenly collapsed, and the muffled impact sound dragged Natasha's attention over.
That was the battlefield of Hulk and Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh, who had originally held the complete upper hand, had completely lost the composure on his face at this moment.
Bang!
Two massive fists smashed heavily into each other in mid-air, stirring up a visible ring of violent airflow.
Gilgamesh let out a muffled grunt, his feet forcefully plowing long trenches backward across the ground until he smashed into a giant boulder and barely managed to stop.
He shook his sore and trembling right hand, a trace of undisguised shock and anger flashing through his eyes.
What was going on?
The strength of this green monster was actually still growing frantically at an inconceivable speed!
"Hulk... smash you!"
Hulk's feet shattered the ground as his huge body charged wildly forward once again.
Those green pupils were filled with tyrannical, fierce light, smashing down straight and without any pattern toward Gilgamesh's face.
Watching this straightforward punch, Gilgamesh secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.
"No matter how strong, he's just a brainless brute."
Gilgamesh's body suddenly leaned to the right, narrowly dodging this smashing blow, while the golden energy exoskeleton on his right arm suddenly lit up with dazzling brilliance.
Borrowing force to strike back, counterattacking with the momentum!
Gilgamesh dropped his waist and exerted force, his right fist charged with enough cosmic energy to shatter the earth, striking straight toward Hulk's undefended ribs.
However, just as his fist was about to touch the green skin, Gilgamesh suddenly saw Hulk's face clearly.
On that ferocious face that was originally full of fury, the corners of the mouth actually split open into an extremely humanized smile, even carrying a thick mocking undertone.
Gilgamesh's heart skipped a beat.
Not good!
Hulk's charging figure was not out of control at all.
Taking advantage of the moment Gilgamesh threw a punch toward his face, Hulk fiercely stepped out with a heavy charge, his massive body forcefully ramming into Gilgamesh's center like a battering ram!
Slap!
Hulk's left arm swept out like an iron gate, solidly knocking aside Gilgamesh's defending arms.
Immediately afterward, the five fingers of Hulk's right hand suddenly curled and flexed into a claw shape, carrying a heavy, fierce, and violent immense strength as he slashed and clawed viciously from top to bottom, aiming straight for Gilgamesh's entire face!
This was by no means a Beast's tearing bite; this was the inner-strength-focused fierce boxing art of Baji Quan that Hulk had practiced bitterly—Ferocious Tiger Probing Claws, Mountain-Crushing Top-Pressure!
Gilgamesh was completely beaten into a daze.
With a crisp snap, Hulk's Talon hooked heavily onto his face, the flesh and skin forcefully torn open as blood splattered out.
The intense pain left Gilgamesh's brain completely blank, his vision entirely blocked, and his whole body tilted backward in panic.
But he had no chance to retreat at all.
Hulk's massive body suddenly took a large step forward, his thick foot locking down Gilgamesh's front ankle and cutting off all his paths of retreat.
At the same time, Hulk's thick waist violently twisted, his elbows pressing against his chest as he forcefully thrust inward, while his knees violently lifted and struck upward in succession!
Upper and lower pincer attacks, hands and feet moving together!
The upper clawed the face and neck, the middle thrust against the chest and soft ribs, and the lower locked the stance of the lower body!
Three terrifying and peerless forces completely erupted at the same time, layering upon each other as they slammed into Gilgamesh's body.
Crack!
The crisp sound of sternum bones shattering echoed through the rainforest.
Gilgamesh's eyeballs bulged, a mouthful of thick blood sprayed wildly out, and he heavily smashed into the mud pit, unable to climb back up for a long time.
He widened his eyes, staring at the green monster standing in place, his mind full of absurdity and panic.
How could this possibly be a Beast that fought purely on instinct?!
Hulk stood in the center of the cluttered, muddy ground, shaking off the bloodstains on his hands, his huge mouth splitting open little by little to reveal a mouthful of White teeth.
He slammed his chest fiercely, letting out a deafening roar up to the sky:
"Hulk Hard Climbing Mountain!!"
Before his voice fell, the mud beneath Hulk's feet exploded once more, and his massive body, like a moving green hill, crushed heavily toward the fallen Gilgamesh!
Chapter 242: Counterattack in a Desperate Situation
Jarvis's electronic warning alarms blared continuously in Tony's ear, "Sir, the Ark Reactor energy is down to 13 percent, and the thruster overload risk continues to rise."
"You don't need to remind me, I'm looking at the dashboard!"
Tony clenched his back teeth and abruptly pulled off a high-angle barrel roll in mid-air.
A dark golden geometric energy light-lock brushed past his armor, cutting down a dozen towering ancient trees below cleanly in half.
Phastos stood on a floating circular platform, his ten fingers rapidly manipulating the complex mechanical runes formed of light.
The Black man's expression was frighteningly calm. With a lift of his hand, three floating interceptors equipped with light blades materialized out of thin air in mid-air, once again blocking all of Tony's diving routes.
Tony really wanted to charge down recklessly to save them.
The situation on the ground was disastrous.
Although Hulk was frantically beating up Gilgamesh, everyone else was on the verge of collapse.
Clint lay in a pool of blood, his life or death unknown, Natasha was hiding in the Shadow and had lost all movement, Pietro was kneeling on the ground holding his head and screaming, and Wanda was forced by Tina to barely hold on using a Chaos Magic barrier.
"Damn it, how much longer will Lu Chen take to rush back?"
Tony was burning with anxiety inside, his mind rapidly calculating the possibility of a forced breakthrough.
No, a reckless charge wouldn't just fail to save anyone; it would also send himself, the only one among the Avengers with air superiority, straight in.
The weird gadgets Phastos pulled out completely defied scientific logic.
"Jarvis, allocate all remaining energy to close-combat pulses and maneuvering thrust!"
Tony issued the order, and his armor spewed dazzling White light, directly diving and crashing straight toward Phastos's light blades.
Since his ranged weapons were depleted, he had no choice but to engage in close-quarters hand-to-hand combat. Even if it meant exhausting his energy, he absolutely could not let him free up his hands to deal with the others on the ground!
"Sir, combat evasion routes have been optimized for you."
On the ground battlefield, muddy water mixed with grass clippings continuously exploded.
Steve crouched on one knee in a mud pit, his arms bracing the Vibranium shield with all his might.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Kingo stood thirty meters away, his two hands alternating in a shooting gesture, his fingertips continuously firing cluster after cluster of golden cosmic energy bullets.
Those light bullets smashed onto the surface of the shield. Although most of the kinetic energy was absorbed by the Vibranium material, the continuous powerful impacts and high-temperature energy splashing around still blasted charred, deep craters into the dirt around Steve.
Steve gasped heavily for breath, sweat mixing with the blood on his forehead and flowing into his eyes, bringing a burning, stinging sensation.
Through the gap at the edge of the shield, he swiftly scanned the entire battlefield.
The situation was ten times worse than he had anticipated.
Tony was tightly entangled by Phastos in the air and couldn't break away at all.
Clint's breath had grown extremely weak, and Natasha was severely injured and dared not show her head.
And the most critical turning point of victory or defeat lay in that gloomy-eyed Druid who had been standing in the rear.
"We must first eliminate that Mind Control guy."
If they continued to hold up the shield and defend stubbornly, by the time Tony's energy was exhausted and Clint breathed his last, everyone would be picked off one by one.
"We can only give it everything."
Steve took a deep breath, his gaze suddenly locking onto Makkari, who was searching everywhere for traces of Natasha at the edge of the battlefield.
"Circle of Alliance, target locked: Makkari."
Steve let out a low roar in his heart.
Makkari's movements experienced a subtle lag. The cosmic energy within her and the kinetic energy generated by her high-speed running were forcibly drained away by a force field.
Immediately after, holding nothing back, Steve channeled all this massive energy, weakened and converted by the Circle of Alliance, through the mental link and straight into the collapsed Pietro's body!
"Pietro, get up!" Steve roared inwardly.
The next moment, Steve made a move completely unexpected by Kingo.
Instead of continuing to use the shield to protect his vitals, he abruptly exerted force from his waist and abdomen, bursting out of the mud pit and hurling the Vibranium round shield in his hand with all his might!
The whirring round shield turned into a red-and-blue flying wheel, carrying a sharp whistling sound as it soared over Kingo's head and smashed straight toward the Druid in the rear!
When Kingo saw that Steve had actually thrown out his only life-saving shield, he was stunned at first, and then an undisguised sneer appeared on his face.
"Aren't you looking down on me a bit too much?"
Kingo's left hand still maintained its single-handed shooting, raining energy bullets like a storm toward the defenseless Steve, while his right hand casually lifted upward, index and middle fingers together, firing a compressed light bullet right at the round shield in mid-air!
Boom!
The light bullet accurately struck the spinning round shield, and the massive explosive impact forcibly flipped the Vibranium shield away, sending it spinning deep into the distant woods.
"Without your turtle shell, let's see how you—"
Before Kingo's smug mockery could fully unfold, his expression abruptly froze.
Because behind him, a silver afterimage, outrageously fast, came hurtling violently forward!
Having received the full energy blessing provided by the Circle of Alliance, that bursting, stinging pain in his mind was forcibly suppressed.
Pietro flipped over and stood up, his right hand smoothly pulling a short Vibranium dagger straight out from deep within the muddy ground where he had just fallen.
That was what he had quietly thrust into the mud during his fall when he had desperately lunged to grab Makkari's thigh earlier.
The Druid standing further away changed his expression wildly.
He clearly sensed that the psychic power he had inflicted deep within Pietro's brain had been completely shattered by an external, tyrannical force!
"Kingo! Watch your back!"
The Druid shouted anxiously, but the vibration speed of his vocal cords was simply too slow amid supersonic combat.
At the critical moment when the dagger in Pietro's hand was about to pierce through Kingo's throat from behind, a red-and-black figure appeared between the two of them!
It was Makkari!
Depending on her sharp perception of ground vibrations, she rushed back at the most dangerous juncture, raising a fist to smash fiercely toward Pietro's face!
But this time, things had changed.
Makkari was the weakened target chosen by the Circle of Alliance, while Pietro was the beneficiary who had received the full amplification!
With this ebb and flow, in the slowed-down World of Pietro's perception, Makkari's movements, which were originally too fast to catch, became clearly visible for the first time!
"I see you!"
Pietro laughed wildly, his left arm suddenly coming up to block, and with a loud bang, he solidly parried Makkari's high-speed heavy punch!
Makkari's pupils constricted violently, but what terrified her even more was yet to come.
Pietro had never intended to tangle with her; even the assassination of Kingo was just a feint!
In the split second when their limbs were intertwined and Makkari's center of gravity was unstable, Pietro used the force of the collision, violently twisted his wrist, and hurled the Vibranium dagger in his hand at an extremely tricky angle straight toward the distant Druid!
That was the real target!
The Druid was the core maintaining this mental suppression, and also the one with the weakest physical defense among all the Eternals!
"Go to hell!" Pietro roared, taking the momentum to wrap his arms tightly around Makkari's shoulders and arms, using all his strength to lock this fastest Eternal warrior firmly in place.
Makkari's eyes split with anger.
She wanted to break free to chase after the dagger, but Pietro was like an iron lock welded onto her body, and no matter how hard she struggled in her weakened state, she couldn't shake him off.
Makkari could not speak, and could only emit urgent and helpless rattling sounds in her throat, staring at that streak of black ominous light cutting through the sky.
Fortunately, the Druid's warning from earlier finally reached him, and Kingo reacted.
Kingo caught sight of the Vibranium dagger flying toward the Druid's back out of the corner of his eye, and cold sweat instantly soaked his back.
"Don't even think about succeeding!"
Kingo let out an angry shout, ignoring the continued attack on Steve in front of him. He abruptly turned around, his hands snapping together quickly, intending to fire a dense rain of energy bullets to blast that dagger away in mid-air!
However, the moment the light at Kingo's fingertips lit up, a figure carrying a heavy scent of blood lunged fiercely forward!
Bang!
Kingo was knocked tumbling to the ground, and the two of them rolled several meters down the muddy slope. All the energy bullets in his hands missed their mark, exploding into a brilliant display of golden sparks in the sky.
"What?!"
Kingo pushed away the heavy weight on top of him with a mixture of shock and anger. When he saw clearly that it was Steve lying on top of him, he was completely stunned.
He had clearly been frantically bombarding Steve with single-handed energy bullets just moments ago!
Without a shield for defense, how on earth did this mortal charge through the barrage of bullets?!
Kingo lowered his head and saw Steve's current miserable state.
Steve's combat suit was now riddled with a dozen blood holes that went straight through, each bubbling with blood. He had actually relied on his flesh and blood to forcefully withstand the piercing damage of a dozen energy bullets and charge over!
"This guy… is he a lunatic?!"
Having been pierced through by so many energy bullets, how was he still not dead?
"Cough…" Steve grinned, spitting out a mouthful of bloody saliva, and flashed a resolute smile. Using his remaining strength, he pinned Kingo down tightly and said word by word:
"I… can do this all day."
On the battlefield, no one else, nothing else, could block that fatal Vibranium dagger.
It passed through The Woods, passed through the chaotic airflow, and accurately shot toward that mental controller whose physical constitution was inherently on the weaker side among the Eternal.
Splat!
The sound of the sharp blade piercing into flesh and blood seemed exceptionally clear at this moment.
Chapter 243: Rescue
A dry rattling sound came from Druig's throat as he lowered his head to look at the half-blade protruding from his chest.
He struggled to turn his head, looking in the direction from which the dagger had flown.
At the edge of his vision, that silver-haired kid who should have been completely at his mercy was tightly holding Makkari, flashing him a grim and gloating smile.
"How... is it possible..."
Blood gushed out in large amounts from the corners of his mouth, staining the luxurious battle robe on his chest.
The light in the eyes of this 7,000-year-old Eternal mind controller slowly dimmed, his knees went soft, and he fell straight into the muddy ground, splashing up a cloud of turbid mud.
"Druig!" Kingo's eyes almost split apart at the corners, and a Beast-like howl came from his throat.
The shock of his companion falling to the ground drove Kingo completely mad; no longer caring about elegance or decency, his body, pinned to the ground by Steve, struggled desperately.
Looking at Steve, who was lying on top of him controlling both his hands with his flesh battered and bloody, his full fury turned into a tyrannical intent to kill.
"Go to hell! Go to hell! You damned mortal!" Kingo roared with a distorted face, raising his elbow high and smashing it fiercely down at Steve's blood-holed abdomen!
Thud!
A dull impact echoed in the muddy water.
Steve's whole body twitched violently, and a large mouthful of blood mixed with visceral fragments spewed from his mouth, splashing all over Kingo's head and face.
But Steve's ten fingers still clamped onto Kingo's shoulders and joints like iron hoops.
Thud!
Kingo delivered another fierce elbow strike backwards, heavily hammering it onto Steve's ribs.
Steve's body, already covered in piercing wounds, was practically falling apart, and the sights in his vision began to blur and overlap.
Pietro in the distance noticed the tragic state over here, his expression changed drastically, and he pulled himself away to rush over and pull Kingo apart.
"Captain!"
But this time, it was Makkari's turn not to let go.
Druig falling to the ground plunged Makkari into frenzy, but that instinct to protect her companion made her erupt with unprecedented resolution at this moment.
Taking advantage of her momentum, she knocked the rising Pietro down to the ground, and the two rolled and wrestled all the way down the muddy slope.
Pietro threw a punch at Makkari's shoulder, but Makkari didn't dodge at all, letting the fist strike her body as she backhanded to lock his wrist, her legs locking onto Pietro's lower body like a noose.
She couldn't speak, her throat filled with sharp screeches driven to a desperate end, and those usually lively eyes were now filled with the determination to perish together.
"Let go of me! Get away!" Pietro cursed anxiously, but in the ultra-high-speed, close-range grappling, even a tiny strength difference prevented him from immediately shaking off an Eternal warrior fighting for her life.
On the other side, Kingo's hand had broken free, and dazzling golden light gathered at his fingertips, aiming at Steve's temple.
Steve's arms finally lost strength, slowly sliding off Kingo's shoulders, muddy water poured into his ears and nose, and only his own weak heartbeat remained by his ears.
Just a second before this fatal blow was about to fall, the ground of the entire rainforest trembled violently without warning.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The sound was like an ancient giant Beast stampeding, every step making the earth tremble and everyone's hearts race along with it.
Moments earlier, just as Makkari was lured away by Pietro, Natasha, who had been lurking in the shadows, quietly appeared on the ground.
Her whole body had multiple fractures, and every movement was accompanied by excruciating pain, but her actions didn't drag on at all.
She crawled to Clint's side, placed her fingers on his neck, and after confirming there was still a trace of stray pulse, quickly pulled out three syringes from the inside of her tactical belt.
Two high-concentration adrenaline shots, and one vial of Compound V provided by Lu Chen.
She didn't know if this would work, but this was the only way she could think of.
Poof! Poof! Poof!
Three alloy needles unhesitatingly pierced into Clint's heart and carotid artery, and the violent drug quickly pumped through the blood to all his limbs and bones.
Clint's originally ashen face instantly flushed with an abnormal blush, and his weak heartbeat suddenly beat violently.
After finishing all this, Natasha dragged her severely injured body to find Hulk: "Hulk! Never mind that big guy, the other side needs you!"
Hulk was savagely beating Gilgamesh down in a pit.
Hearing Natasha's shout, Hulk shook his hands, leaped back to Natasha's side in two steps, carried Clint and Natasha, and jumped to a hidden rock cave in the rear to put them down.
Finishing this simple transfer, Hulk's huge green body bent and gathered strength, then like a green cannonball, smashed back into the main battlefield with thunderous roaring!
Just as Kingo's energy blast was about to pierce Steve's head, the light above his head was blocked by a huge shadow.
"Roar!"
Hulk beat his chest, letting out a deafening roar.
His huge body crashed directly over like a moving mountain, knocking Kingo away.
He carefully extended two thick fingers, picked up the unconscious Steve, and gently placed him under a relatively intact large tree in the distance.
Then, he turned around, preparing to rush up and completely crush this "bug" that had harmed his teammate,
when two light arrows entirely condensed from high-density golden energy shot over from the rear side at an astonishing speed, accurately piercing into Hulk's back!
With two swishes, the light arrows actually pierced through Hulk's incomparably tough green skin, and then burst into countless violent spots of light deep within the muscles!
"Awoo——Roar!!"
Hulk felt the pain, raised his head to let out a deafening roar, his eyes flashing with a fierce light,
then, Hulk's right hand grabbed Kingo's ankle!
Kingo had just half-climbed up from the ground when his whole body was lifted upside down by an irresistible giant force.
"Let me go! Monster!" Kingo screamed in horror, waving his hands repeatedly, shooting out dozens of dense golden energy beams from his fingertips, bombarding Hulk's chest and face at close range.
Boom boom boom!
Fire burst on the surface of Hulk's skin, burning patches of scorch marks.
Hulk didn't even blink an eye, letting those beams explode on his face, instead grinning into a cruel and exaggerated arc at the corner of his mouth.
Exerting force with a single arm, he grabbed Kingo's ankle and whipped him around in midair like a big windmill with a howling sound!
The violent strength stirred up a whirlwind, and Kingo was spun so dizzy by the ultra-high-speed rotation that the operation of the cosmic energy in his body was completely disordered, unable to even maintain shooting.
After spinning for a full three circles, the veins on Hulk's arm bulged, and treating the Kingo in his hand as a heavy throwing weapon, he smashed him hard toward Tina in the distance who had just condensed her next light blade!
Kingo's body crashed toward Tina like a humanoid meteorite.
Tina's figure was extremely light, her blond hair dancing wildly in the fierce wind, her toes gently tapping on a tree trunk, and her whole body turned sideways in a fraction of an inch, letting the whistling Kingo fly past the corner of her clothes, heavily smashing through three ancient trees behind, and finally rolling into a pile of dust and broken wood, motionless.
However, to dodge this fierce throw, Tina's figure inevitably stalled in midair.
And just this short instant of her evasion was seized by another person as an opportunity.
Scarlet light crazily flowed in Wanda's eyes. Taking advantage of the gap when Tina's defensive posture scattered, she gripped empty air with both hands, and the Chaos Magic long accumulated in her palms roared out like two fierce blood serpents, slamming solidly onto Tina!
Boom!
Tina let out a muffled groan, flying backward as a whole, blood overflowing from the corner of her mouth.
But the injury instead stimulated her ferocity, her eyes becoming even colder. Wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth with a backhand, the platinum-white energy in her hands suddenly surged, transforming into two slender light blades, and her whole body turned into a platinum-white stream of light, directly pouncing on Wanda!
The magic projectile hastily launched by Wanda was split open by the light blades, leaving her with no choice but to grit her teeth and re-support the fragile Chaos shield.
Hulk's huge body turned around, his gaze sweeping across the battlefield, and he saw Pietro still wrestling and entangling with Makkari in the mud.
Pietro was currently jamming his arm around Makkari's neck, while Makkari's nails were also dug into the flesh of his shoulder.
Upon seeing Hulk's look, Pietro immediately understood. While using all his strength to hold down Makkari, he gave Hulk a reassuring look, shouting loudly: "Never mind me! Hulk! Protect my sister! Go help Wanda!"
Hulk's big head shook, blowing two streams of white air from his nostrils, and he replied: "Hulk... go!"
That green mountain rose from the ground once more, striding wildly forward to meet Tina's brandished light blades.
Chapter 244: Dubhe, in position!
A red-and-gold battle blade traced an arc in mid-air.
Snap!
The floating disc was cut entirely in two from top to bottom by Tony, and crashed into the bushes with smoking broken edges.
Tony did not continue to activate his back thrusters to pursue, but instead landed steadily on the muddy ground.
"Sir, the armor's comprehensive energy reserve has dropped below ten percent," Jarvis's alarm sound rang in his ear, "It is recommended that you immediately withdraw from the battlefield and wait for Mr. Lu's support."
"Cut the crap, Jarvis," Tony panted heavily.
He quickly calculated in his heart: ten percent of the battery power couldn't even support a full-power chest repressor ray, and even just maintaining Flight and the armor's various functions wouldn't last long.
Since he couldn't fly, he would just have to face this guy head-on on the ground.
Phastos opposite him was not having an easy time either; his battle suit also had several damages, but his gaze remained steady.
As the technological core of the Eternal, the last thing he lacked was all kinds of bizarre creations.
"I have to admit that a mortal being able to take machinery to this step truly exceeds my expectations," Phastos clasped his hands together in front of his chest, complex golden geometric patterns dancing on the tips of his ten fingers, "but blindly worshiping the structure of dead objects is precisely proof of your shortsightedness."
With a hum, two palm-sized golden floating prisms flew out from his waist, spinning at high speed in mid-air and shooting out dozens of intersecting beams of light.
The armor knee pads at Tony's feet deformed violently, ejecting two small nano-shields.
Bang, bang, bang!
The beams hit the shields, shaking Tony's entire left arm until it went numb and sore.
"Jarvis!" Tony shouted through gritted teeth, "Forge me a heavy armor-piercing cone!"
The metal shell of the armor's right arm surged like flowing water, lengthening into a tapered spear in the blink of an eye.
Using the armor's remaining power, Tony lunged forward fiercely, the spear thrusting straight towards Phastos's throat.
Phastos waved his right hand, and a metal chain shimmering with a dark golden light whipped out of thin air.
The chain seemed to have a life of its own, shaking violently in mid-air and accurately biting onto Tony's right wrist.
A strong adsorption force instantly came from the chain, dragging Tony out of balance and causing him to tumble heavily forward.
"Strong magnetic alloy!" Tony secretly cursed himself for being careless.
Phastos didn't give him any chance to adjust at all.
He quickly pulled out a palm-sized silver-gray metal disc with his left hand and pressed it directly onto Tony's chest armor.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!
A harsh stripping sound rang out.
Tony watched in horror as the nano-particles on his chest uncontrollably transformed into tiny nanos, peeling off layer by layer from the main body of the armor and being sucked into that disc.
"Warning, the nano-armor structure is rapidly disintegrating, remaining integrity twenty-five percent... twenty... Sir, the defense system will fail in five seconds!"
Dammit!
Tony's brain was spinning wildly at this moment.
If he continued to stay in the armor, within three seconds he would be completely stripped bare, becoming a bare-handed target at the mercy of others.
Death was certain either way, so he might as well take a big gamble.
"Jarvis!" Tony roared in the communication channel, "Divert all remaining energy, leave three percent for you to control the armor wreckage, and concentrate all t
he rest on my legs!"
"Sir, this is too dangerous, your physical body simply cannot withstand it..."
"Execute the order! Now!"
The armor on the back of the suit bounced outward fiercely the moment the order was given, prying open part of the chains.
The nanos at the bottom of the armor quickly receded, and Tony broke free from the back of the armor at an extremely fast speed.
At this time, he was only wearing a tight-knit undershirt soaked in sweat, with only his legs still wrapped in the last bit of nano-propulsion modules.
Under Jarvis's control, the empty armor lacking a pilot lunged forward fiercely, grabbing hold of Phastos's left hand holding the disc tightly!
Phastos clearly didn't expect Tony to give up his strongest reliance, and his movements slowed by half a beat.
"Go to hell, alien bastard!"
Taking advantage of the armor's cover, Tony slid across the ground and arrived.
The propulsion module on his left leg disappeared, transforming into two nano-Vibranium short blades, while the nano-nozzle on his right leg burst out with dazzling firelight at this moment!
Boom!
The immense propulsion force slammed onto Tony's human flesh without any cushioning.
He even heard the crisp cracking sounds coming from his knees and ankle joints, and a rich smell of blood instantly surged up to his throat.
But his arms were extremely steady.
Pfft!
Taking advantage of the momentum of full-speed propulsion, the two sharp Vibranium short blades pierced solidly right through Phastos's abdomen!
Blood gushed out from the corners of Phastos's mouth. He widened his eyes as he looked at the sweating mortal in front of him who couldn't even stand steadily. His lips moved, as if he wanted to say something, but not a single word could come out.
"Sir, energy exhausted... system... offline..."
Jarvis's voice finally fell silent, and that tattered armor completely scattered all over the ground.
Phastos's body swayed, and he fell into the mud with a thump.
Tony didn't even have the strength to pull out the short blades.
His legs went soft, and his whole body collapsed backward, coughing up blood in large mouthfuls.
"Ha... cough cough..." He looked at the gloomy sky, his mouth barely managing a smile, "As expected of me..."
Before he finished speaking, his vision went black, and he completely passed out from exhaustion.
On the muddy slope on the other side.
As Steve in the distance fell into a deep coma, the Ring of the Alliance shrouding the surroundings completely dissipated.
The invisible heavy pressure suppressing her body vanished all at once, and Makkari's somewhat sluggish legs regained that suffocating super-high-speed reaction.
She looked down at Pietro pinned beneath her.
It was this damn human kid who had just used that short knife to pierce through Druig's chest.
Intense anger and grief almost overwhelmed Makkari's reason.
But she merely raised her fist and smashed it down toward Pietro's face.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Pietro tried his best to raise his hands to block, but in front of the Eternal who had fully recovered to peak speed, his superpower appeared so clumsy.
His bones fractured under the continuous heavy blows, and his entire face was instantly covered in bloodstains.
"Cough... Ah!"
Pietro wanted to counterattack, but the opponent's speed was simply too fast, so fast that his optic nerve couldn't catch the afterimages of the fists at all.
He could only passively endure the storm-like strikes, his ribs snapping one by one inside his body, and blood continuously pouring into his trachea.
Is he going to die?
Pietro's vision began to blur, and the sound of the beating slowly diminished in his ears, as if separated by a thick layer of water curtain.
In the center of the battlefield, Hulk was letting out a heaven-shaking roar.
That green mountain of a body was covered in crisscrossing wounds.
The golden blade of light in Tina's hand was sharper than a divine weapon, and every time it swiped, it could carve blood grooves into Hulk's tough skin.
Although Gilgamesh's chest had collapsed, he still crawled out of the mud pit relying on his formidable physique, his fists wrapped in heavy Universe energy, tightly holding up Hulk's arms.
Kingo kept roaming in the distance, shooting high-density energy beams from his fingertips that precisely bombarded Hulk's joints and face, driving Hulk back repeatedly.
Wanda wanted to support Hulk, but she had already fought the entire match, and her mental power and physical strength had long been overdrawn to the limit.
The crimson energy in her palm became extremely dim, and the protective barrier she barely managed to prop up shattered with a crash under the bombardment of Kingo's two consecutive energy blasts.
The backlash power made a sweet taste rise in her throat, and she staggered back several steps, dropping to one knee in the mud.
The entire Avengers had reached the brink of a complete collapse.
Pietro lay in a pool of blood, the light before his eyes growing dimmer and dimmer.
Makkari's heavy punches still fell tirelessly on his body, but he could no longer feel much pain.
The memories deep in his mind flashed back crazily like a lantern.
Finally, the image froze on that afternoon.
A young man wearing a black coat descended from the sky, saying he could give them the power to change their destiny.
"Boss..."
Pietro chanted faintly in his heart, spitting out a large mouthful of bubbly black blood from his mouth.
With the Boss's help, Sokovia has already begun to get better...
It's pretty good.
"This life of mine... can be considered repaying your kindness..."
Pietro slowly closed his heavy eyelids, letting the boundless darkness completely engulf his consciousness.
In the very last second before his consciousness was about to completely sink into darkness.
Bzz...
A voice suppressing anger rang out without warning in the communication channels of all surviving Avengers.
"Dubhe, in position."