Chapter 124: The Ancient One
"Roar!" The Shadow Behemoth suddenly jumped up and swallowed many Chitauri invaders in one bite.
"Did you raise that?" Tony asked, turning his head.
Silas nodded. "A little pet I keep."
"A little pet? Are you sure you're not raising King Kong?" Rhodey complained.
"But King Kong doesn't have one eye," Peter rebutted from the side.
Rhodey shrugged. "Who knows, maybe it's cosplaying?"
"What are you two talking about?" Thor looked at them, completely confused. He felt he couldn't keep up with their pace.
"No matter what, gentlemen, they are here!" Natasha shouted.
The Chitauri army had arrived in front of them. Steve was the first to charge, rushing forward with his shield.
"Hulk!" The Hulk leaped onto the back of a Chitauri Leviathan and began tearing the Leviathan's body apart.
Peter shot webs, pulling the Chitauri off their chariots, and then used his nimble movements to counterattack mid-air.
Thor wielded the Scepter like a hammer, smashing it down on the Chitauri invaders. "It's much more satisfying to use it this way."
"I think so too," Steve said, smashing a Chitauri soldier away. In that moment, the two seemed to bond quickly, wishing they had met sooner.
"Their relationship is heating up fast, like the leads in a drama," Rhodey said, watching Thor and Steve's eye contact while his large shoulder gun swept the nearby Chitauri invaders.
"That's great! Protagonists never die!" Peter suddenly appeared nearby, then jumped away again.
"Is that child labor you hired?" Rhodey asked Tony.
Tony fired missiles from his arm. "He's an uninvited guest."
Barton rolled to the edge of a corner, drew his bow, and shot at a Chitauri invader. Bang! The arrow exploded the moment it pierced the invader's chest.
Natasha picked up a Chitauri invader's weapon, sniping the enemies and giving them a taste of their own medicine.
As for Silas, he was habitually slacking, only occasionally attacking a few small soldiers, because he noticed a bald sorcerer also slacking off on a nearby skyscraper.
At that moment, the bald sorcerer looked back at Silas, smiling and nodding at him.
"The Ancient One..." This was the first time Silas had seen the Ancient One in the ten-plus years since he came to Marvel. When Silas was reborn as an infant, he was afraid the Ancient One would seek him out because he was a variable. Especially since he was reborn into Peter Parker's family, which would surely draw the Ancient One's attention.
Later, he realized that the Ancient One never appeared, and he thought she hadn't detected this outsider. His heart tightened again when the system appeared, as he possessed power that didn't belong to this world. Even if the Ancient One couldn't detect his system, she could certainly feel the dark energy of his Shadow Realm.
Yet, the Ancient One still hadn't sought him out, until now, when he first made eye contact with her.
"Hi?" Silas carefully waved. He couldn't be blamed for feeling weak; the problem was that he absolutely couldn't win against the Ancient One right now.
The Ancient One put her hands behind her back and signaled with her eyes for Silas to come over.
"What must come, will come." Silas chose to face the Ancient One. He looked back at his comrades fighting the monsters, then leaped off the rooftop and ran toward the Ancient One.
"Roar!" The Shadow Behemoth opened its massive mouth, and five six-meter-tall Shadowkhan Eaters crawled out of it. These Eaters had reached a certain stage of growth inside the Shadow Behemoth and could now hunt on their own.
"Awoo!" The Shadowkhan Eaters roared excitedly, swallowing Chitauri invaders one after another, making loud crunching sounds as they chewed.
"Looks like this is an alien invasion now," Rhodey said, looking down at the Shadowkhan Eaters.
Peter jumped next to Rhodey and asked, "Will they lay eggs inside people like the Xenomorphs?"
"Probably," Rhodey replied.
"I think you two have been talking non-stop since the beginning," Natasha commented.
"Have we? No, you didn't see me just take down a big monster," Peter explained, pointing at a fallen Chitauri Leviathan on the ground. Just moments ago, Peter had narrowly managed to make a Chitauri Leviathan crash straight into a building by maneuvering between the skyscrapers.
"Hulk!" The Hulk punched the Chitauri Leviathan in the head, smashing it dead onto the ground.
"Hmm," Natasha looked down at the Hulk.
"..." Peter was silent. He wasn't thinking about the Hulk one-punching the Leviathan, but about the fact that Natasha, standing right here, was Mr. Stark's secretary.
"Don't lose focus!" Steve came up behind Peter and took down an attacker.
Peter quickly snapped back. "Thanks." Although he felt his Spider-Sense would have helped him dodge, he still needed to be polite.
"Alright, how's everyone doing?" Steve asked. After fighting for so long, even he was getting tired.
"We're fine," Natasha and Barton said. They mainly relied on ranged attacks. The enemies that got close were mostly taken care of by Steve and the others, except for a few stragglers.
"I, Thor, the God of Thunder, know not the meaning of fatigue," Thor said, swinging the Scepter to strike down enemies. "I should ask Sif for advice on this."
"Hulk... not tired," the Hulk said, sounding slightly out of breath, as he was fighting the most strenuous enemies.
"To be accurate, it's this thing that's running out," Rhodey said, tapping his Arc Reactor and his large shoulder cannon. "But this guy is out of ammo."
"Where is that man in black?" Steve asked, looking around.
"I'm not sure." No one had paid attention to where the man in black had gone.
Peter frantically looked around. Silas was his brother.
"I'll go look," Peter said, jumping off the rooftop and reaching out to shoot a web, but his web fluid had run out.
"No!" Peter cried as he began to fall.
The Hulk heard the sound, jumped down without a word, and reached out his right hand to catch Peter.
Peter tried to grab the nearby wall, but he was too far from the building and couldn't reach it.
"While I appreciate you trying to catch me, based on the distance and falling speed, you can't!" Peter shouted, astonished, as he saw the Hulk trying to save him from above.
"But we can!" Little Black jumped over from the side, caught Peter with open arms, and landed steadily on the ground.
"Thanks. Are you the one I play chess with?" Peter asked, lying in Little Black's arms. To differentiate himself, Little Black had the character for "Little" written on his forehead, and Big Black had the character for "Big".
"Yes," Little Black said, putting Peter down.
As soon as Peter stood firm, Bang! The Hulk landed nearby. "Hmph! Hulk."
"Alright, thanks to you too," Peter quickly added.
Hearing Peter's gratitude, the Hulk was cheered up and jumped away.
"No webs," Peter tried to shoot a web, but only got some web residue.
"Take this. Master said you would need it." Little Black took two web-shooters out of his pocket. These web-shooters were yellow.
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