Chapter 443: The 'X' Character and the Descent

Thud, thud.

The heavy, oppressive footsteps reverberated across the whole street, as if everything around had been paused, like pressing a hold button.

Seeing the battalion commander seemed more interested in the green‑skinned abnormal creature, the three support soldiers stopped attacking and instead remained on alert.

The support soldier who had used his own strength plus the power boost from the Mark II powered armor to knock Hulk back with his shield first reattached the shield to his back, picked up his laser rifle, swapped in a fresh battery magazine, and headed straight into the clothing store to continue the capture procedure for Natasha Romanoff.

In contrast, Hulk, lying on the crushed car, violently shook his somewhat dizzy head, then wore an expression of disbelief, glancing at the support soldier who had already entered the clothing store.

Its worldview was refreshed again!

Before, whenever it seized control of the body from Bruce Banner, it could do as it pleased, wantonly destroying everything, with no one able to oppose it.

Not long ago, on a flying aircraft carrier, a hammer‑wielding guy could withstand its attacks and blows, which already surprised it greatly.

Now, a mere foot soldier equipped with standard gear and firearms actually managed to slap it away?!

Although the support soldier's shield bash earlier hadn't caused it much damage, it was enough to make Hulk start doubting himself.

Next, Hulk stopped paying attention to the support soldier, turning its gaze and focus to Taibelos, who stood 1.5 meters taller and had his chain‑saw lightning claws retracted.

To be honest, Hulk at this moment felt not only intense oppression but also began to feel timid and inclined to retreat.

Its instinct seemed to tell it that if it clashed head‑on with Taibelos ahead, the outcome would be miserable, and death was likely.

Die?!

Just thinking about dying, Hulk's expression shifted from cloudy to clear in an instant, but soon its face grew angrier, and it sprang up from the car it had crushed, charging straight at Taibelos.

Thud! Thud!

Moreover, while running, Hulk deliberately made more noise, as if trying to out‑match Taibelos in momentum.

Roar!! Hulk is invincible!! Kill Hulk!!

Hulk roared angrily, leaping high to fall upon Taibelos, and once again clasped its hands together, hoping to stomp or smash Taibelos to death.

But to Taibelos, who had merely raised a hint of interest and entered a combat state, all of Hulk's actions looked like slow motion.

Hah, abnormal trash.

All that was heard was Taibelos emitting a metallic scoff, remaining motionless, unwilling to release spiritual energy, actively suppressing the automatically forming spiritual energy barrier, and shutting down the energy shield of his exclusive Terminator armor, then just waiting there.

Boom!!! A thunderous, earth‑shaking roar.

Hulk's fists landed heavily on Taibelos's head without doubt, causing the road surface to instantly dent and explode, a puff of dust rose, and debris flew everywhere.

However, after the dust settled, Taibelos was seen unharmed, standing in the center of the crater, his helmet struck by Hulk's blows completely intact.

Meanwhile, Hulk stood on the edge of the shallow pit, face full of astonishment, completely plunged into self‑doubt.

Know that just now's hammer strike contained its seemingly endless fury; theoretically nothing could survive, and even the support soldier it had knocked away with a shield would die from a single hit.

If Taibelos had been injured or unable to withstand being knocked back or toppled, Hulk wouldn't have doubted itself; at most it would think the guy was tough to beat, just a bit harder to hit.

But the current situation already far exceeds what its intellect and common sense can comprehend.

Is that all?

Taibelos said, stepping out of the pit and walking up to the stunned Hulk, looking down from above, and spoke in a low voice:

With such strength, what right do you have to be angry and go berserk, trash.

"Click!" twice, Taibelos released the three‑blade claws retracted on both sides of his arm armor.

Hum~! Hum~!

Crackle~! Snap~!

As the chain spun rapidly, the twisted, high‑energy current also jumped between the chain saw and claw blades, deploying the decomposition field.

Then……

"Pfft! Pfft!" The green, oily, gleaming body was easily sliced, blood spurting out uncontrollably.

Taibelos swung out a motion trajectory that none of the three support soldiers on site could catch, forcefully, swiftly, and efficiently using his chain‑saw lightning claws to carve an "X" into the Hulk, who was 1.5 meters shorter than him.

After Taibelos shut down the decomposition field, stopped the chain from turning and the electricity from jumping, the dazed Hulk had already been cut into several pieces by the exclusive weapon forged for the battalion commander by the technical brothers of the Man‑eater Shark.

"Sputter~! Sputter~!" The fragmented chunks and meat slices scattered all over the ground.

Nevertheless, even in this state, the chunks of flesh and the meat pieces were still struggling to stick and splice together, desperately trying to heal.

Ow… ow…

The head attached to the upper half finally reacted, letting out a weak, feeble cry and groan, but Hulk's regenerative ability could not restore or repair it.

Oh?

Seeing the puddle beside his foot still desperately clinging to life, Taibelos finally regained interest, opened the comms, and ordered:

"This is Taibelos, dispatch a team of technicians to my position for recovery."

"Yes, sir." The bridge of the Bloodied Sark replied from the other end of the comms.

Upon hearing that, Taibelos said nothing more, looked up at the top of the right‑hand high building.

Whoosh~!

At that very moment, an arrow instantly left the bowstring, swiftly shot from the top of the high building toward his position.

Seeing the arrow move incredibly slow in his view, his helmet screen also scanning the arrowhead for explosives, Taibelos lightly shook his head, raised his left hand to grip the arrowhead, and caused the arrow to halt mid‑flight instantly.

Boom~…

Accompanied by a muffled explosion, faint firelight and the smoke from the blast seeped out through the gaps between his fingers.

To be honest, the arrow's effect was still less impressive than a firecracker for Taibelos; when it detonated, his palm felt nothing.

As for the arrow's source, it was the agent known as Hawkeye from the Divine Shield Bureau, Clint Barton, standing on the top of the right‑hand high building.

From the moment Taibelos was transmitted here, intending to meet Hulk in person, he had already spotted the Hawkeye on the rooftop using special bows to continuously kill the Chitauri.

Precisely because Barton focused on killing enemies, unlike Hulk who harms innocents when unleashing his rage, Taibelos chose to ignore him and pay no attention.

Speaking of harming innocents, although the Man‑eater Shark battalion's combat style is rather brutal, even being labeled schizophrenic by sister battalions—normally silent, it becomes wildly violent in battle—but its fearsome image is meant for the enemy; internally, unless absolutely necessary, the Man‑eater Shark does not affect civilians under Umbrella and UEG rule.

Therefore, Taibelos felt intense disgust at Hulk's actions, but this battalion commander did not know the relationship between Hulk and Bruce Banner; even if he knew, he would still have taken the action of slicing Hulk.

Seeing Barton choose to attack, Taibelos would certainly not indulge him; moreover, he himself was not a good-tempered person.

Taibelos then marked Barton's hiding place on his helmet screen and ordered nearby air squadrons to capture him alive as much as possible.

A formation of five Pirate III-type fighters, outwardly resembling Viking fighters but more compact and refined, having been redesigned inside and out, was using its nose-mounted 60mm Gauss cannon to deal with the Chitauri hovercraft and Leviathan when it first received the capture-alive order.

Subsequently, the Pirate III on the far left was instructed to break formation, lower altitude, and rush straight to the position marked by the battalion commander.

Just before it would have collided with the building, the Pirate III deployed a fast and extremely smooth transformation mechanism, switching in less than a blink to a heavy yet still agile, proportionally comfortable mecha form.

At that moment Barton stood on the roof's edge, about to escape by rappelling, when the pilot had already lifted the Pirate III's left arm, loaded special ammunition, and fired without hesitation.

With a "Tong~!" sound, a colorless, odorless, water‑blob‑shaped fluid shell instantly left the 60mm gun barrel, directly striking and enveloping Barton as he tried to flee.

Then the water‑blob fluid rapidly expanded into a soft, transparent sphere about two meters in diameter, carrying the encased Barton as it fell from the building.

Meanwhile, the pilot in the cockpit also transmitted the predicted impact point calculated by the onboard computer to the nearest ground unit.

After reminding the ground unit not to forget to recover Barton, the pilot again commanded the Pirate III to perform a leap, shifting back into fighter configuration and accelerating upward.

At the outset of the engagement, the original Avengers—Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye—quickly went offline.

Moreover, the Man‑eating Shark Battalion, having considered intervening, did not regard these Avengers as a threat; it simply treated them as an abnormal phenomenon and hostile "civilians" to be dealt with, and likewise regarded the Chitauri as the lowest of the low.

And of the original Avengers' main cast, only Thor Odinson remained, standing atop the Empire State Building, unleashing lightning to repel the Chitauri, without wearing any communications gear such as earphones, unaware that his comrades had already withdrawn from the battle.

And wearing powered armor whose mobility, protection, firepower, and energy output were all excellent, Iron Man Tony Stark attacked the Chitauri while keeping an eye on the Achilles‑class and Paris‑class space carriers hovering several kilometers above, attempting to analyze the two warships.

Furthermore, unlike the communicator‑less Thor, this genius billionaire had long noticed that the Man‑eating Shark Battalion was not only dealing with the Chitauri but also targeting them, especially the most destructive Hulk.

Although Stark could not personally witness Taibelos slicing Hulk into pieces, the sudden absence of the green figure on the battlefield indicated that Hulk had not been killed but captured.

However, Stark also discovered that if he did not show hostility or launch an attack, the Man‑eating Shark Battalion remained relatively friendly.

Even so, the Man‑eating Shark Battalion was still considered an external invader; Stark planned to wait until after dealing with the Chitauri, who carried out indiscriminate attacks, before attempting to negotiate with the battalion.

But not everyone is as reasonable as Stark.

Above the sea south of Manhattan Island, tens of kilometers out.

Moored there was a space carrier resembling an electromagnetically launched, "flat‑deck" carrier in appearance, but it had suffered heavy damage.

And inside the war room of the space carrier…

"I know the council has already made its decision, a completely idiotic one, so I choose to ignore it."

It rang out with a rhythmic cadence, quite rhyming, the voice sounding like a rap rebuttal.

All that could be seen was a commander in a black trench coat, with equally dark skin, an eye patch over his left eye, and a bald head, engaging in a video conference with a group of high officials seated in a distant safe house.

This commander was the current director of S. H. I. E. L. D., whose conduct may be blameworthy, but at least his aim was to protect Earth and humanity—Nick Fury.

As for Fury's refusal to carry out the order, these officials believed that launching a nuclear bomb would "once and for all" shut down the portal, eliminating the Chitauri and the Man‑eating Shark Battalion that had emerged from nowhere and taken over all of New York.

Nick Fury, rich in combat experience, merely thought these officials, who tried to distance themselves from trouble while guaranteeing their own safety, were laughably foolish.

Not to mention that New York still had millions of civilians, police, and soldiers who had not had time to evacuate.

"Director Fury, the team you summoned has already failed," a female legislator said in a low voice.

After all, part of Manhattan Island's surveillance system functioned well, allowing the auxiliary forces to easily subdue Captain America and Black Widow, and the footage of Taibelos slicing Hulk in one second had already circulated among the higher echelons.

Faced with such an oppressive opponent, the timid high‑ranking officials believed that nothing but a nuclear bomb would do.

"Utterly foolish! If you want to provoke those giants (the Man‑eating Sharks), go ahead and drop the nuclear bomb—I refuse to carry it out here."

Saying that, Fury unilaterally cut off communications.

However, two pilots received a direct order and chose to obey, activating two carrier‑based aircraft in preparation for a forced takeoff.

Upon learning of this, Fury hurriedly grabbed a rocket launcher, rushed out of the ship's island, reached the flight deck, and blew up the engine of one of the carrier‑based aircraft, but could not stop the other in time.

Standing on the deck, watching the carrier‑based aircraft speeding northward, Fury was about to call Stark for help intercepting it when a fifteen‑meter‑tall, hover‑tech "old‑style" biological mecha suddenly latched onto and tailed the aircraft.

This biological mecha was precisely the Centurion II type that the Man‑eating Shark Battalion had half‑seized, half‑exchanged for from the legion.

Only seen, the veteran of the first platoon of the first company controlling the Centurion II directly released a binding stance, causing the engine of the nuclear‑armed carrier‑based aircraft to shut down and forcibly seizing the aircraft, which instantly vanished from Fury's sight.

At the same time, the Bloody Shack also descended above the space carrier.

(End of chapter)