Before the cybernetically enhanced Hydra soldiers could be completely dealt with, the supervillains—who were several times more difficult to handle—descended one after another.
Shocker, Schultz, was clad in his red-and-yellow full-body suit. While still mid-air, he already aimed both hands at the superheroes on the ground.
With a loud buzz, the air rippled like disturbed water. A succession of concussive shockwaves erupted from his hands, blasting toward the ground and expanding continuously in size along the way.
By the time this concussive force neared the ground, its radius had already spread to encompass most of Times Square.
Daredevil, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and several others were pinned instantly to the ground by the impact, unable to move even an inch.
Batman could even hear the bones inside their bodies creaking under the intense pressure.
Without a shred of hesitation, Batman immediately lunged in front of the nearest person, Daredevil, using his own body to shield him from the shockwaves.
Beside Hawkeye was Blade, and beside Black Widow was Wolverine. The moment they sensed the immense pressure, they all used their own bodies as shields.
Closely following the shockwaves came a torrential downpour of fire. In the sky, a villain bearing canisters on his back—with propulsion thrusters mounted on his hands, chest, and soles—unleashed a torrent of flames from his chest, blanketing the area.
Next came Stilt-Man's telescopic legs, a dense barrage of heavy artillery, metallic poisoned-tipped stings, and blade reflections concealed within a whirlwind...
Except for the supervillain Blizzard, who refrained from using his cryonic weapons to avoid elemental conflict with the flames, the rest of the villains launched a ferocious onslaught the very moment they arrived.
Yet only a few seconds later, these attacks ground to a sudden halt as someone disrupted their rhythm.
Black Panther, T'Challa, had rushed non-stop to New York after learning from Batman that the stolen Wakandan aircraft had been used as a transport vehicle for the supervillains.
Piloting a Wakandan fighter jet, he plowed straight into the airborne supervillains before they could land, scrambling their offensive momentum.
However, it was merely a temporary disruption. The weapons and gear of these supervillains had all been upgraded and modified by the Tinkerer, making their unleashed capabilities more devastating one after another.
Swish!
A flash of blade light streaked past. Black Panther, T'Challa, couldn't even clearly discern who had thrown the strike. He only saw the flash graze his shoulder as the Wakandan aircraft was cleaved cleanly in two on the spot.
The Black Panther did not panic. Staying low, he leapt straight out from the bisected aircraft and lunged toward the flame-spewing villain.
Almost at the exact same moment T'Challa launched his assault, one of the few supervillains capable of true flight moved.
The Vulture, Adrian Toomes. The thrusters on his back and the turbines on his pair of steel wings engaged at maximum capacity, drawing a sharp arc through the air with his body.
Wherever he passed, his razor-sharp metallic feathers sheared through the weapons and gear of the other supervillains almost completely unhindered, destroying them one by one.
Yet not everyone failed to react. Just as the Vulture intended to use his aerial maneuverability to wipe everyone out in one fell swoop, the Scorpion's barbed tail abruptly extended from a diagonal angle.
Screeech!
The dark-green metallic scorpion tail clashed against the Vulture's metallic wings, producing a grating, tooth-aching sound of grinding metal.
Relying on the barbs on his tail, the Scorpion, Mac Gargan, lunged toward the Vulture, Adrian Toomes, mid-air. The two locked into a tight grapple, spiraling directly toward the ground.
Black Panther, T'Challa, was similarly pinned down by a criminal who had previously escaped from Ryker's Island.
The one pinning him down was Anaconda, a member of the Serpent Society.
Unlike women like Black Widow or Jessica Jones, Anaconda possessed highly developed musculature, and with the aid of her suit, she could slightly elongate her limbs.
Black Panther was currently being tightly constricted by Anaconda's limbs. The opponent locked his body joints like a genuine giant python, and the two likewise plummeted toward the ground.
The clash among the four individuals took place in a mere instant, but it proved sufficient to allow the other supervillains to land safely on the ground.
Shocker, Schultz, continued to spearhead the frontline. He callously and continuously unleashed massive, violent shockwaves, the humming sound of his vibro-smash gauntlets ringing out incessantly.
Under the effects of this wide-area concussive force, a fellow named Jack Russell within Captain America's temporary alliance couldn't resist letting out a wolfish howl.
He had already transformed into a legendary werewolf, his muscular claws dug firmly into the pavement as he dashed forward, lunging straight at Schultz.
Although the majority of the superheroes had no idea where these supervillains had come from or what their objective was, the villains' blatant acts of aggression prompted the superheroes to launch a fierce counteroffensive the moment they recovered.
Wolverine went head-to-head with the individual who had just delivered the airborne blade strike that cut the Black Panther's jet in two.
The opponent was the Swordsman, clad in a purple outfit and wielding a longsword capable of emitting toxic gas, extending its reach, and even firing energy beams.
At first glance, it looked remarkably like a lightsaber from Star Wars.
Before Wolverine could even reach the Swordsman, countless pieces of muscle were sliced clean off his body from a distance by the Swordsman's strikes, his blood spurting out like an open floodgate.
Yet Wolverine completely ignored the injuries to his body. The more flesh and blood he lost, the more ferocious his facial expression became. Even when the Swordsman's energy sword impaled his abdomen and charred his internal organs, Wolverine merely let out a low growl, continuing to close the distance toward his opponent.
Shocker's shockwaves were unleashed indiscriminately. This was not a video game; there was no mechanism to distinguish friend from foe when activating a skill.
At this moment, those who managed to launch a counterattack first were superheroes whose baseline durability allowed them to maintain combat capability under the weight of the shockwaves.
The minority of superheroes whose physical conditioning was only slightly above that of ordinary humans were completely powerless to resist Schultz's concussive force.
However, there were also a few individuals whose physical capabilities far exceeded ordinary humans yet still struggled against the shockwaves—such as Morbius, the Living Vampire. At this moment, he was clutching his head, kneeling on the ground and wailing in agony.
Just as Batman prepared to abandon his protection of Daredevil and rush over to take Schultz down first—neutralizing his combat capacity to make it easier to coordinate the battlefield—a loud voice rang out.
"I've got this!"
With a thunderous shout, Jack Monroe—calling himself Bucky—leapt high into the air, extending a leg to deliver a vicious kick straight toward Schultz.
However, when he was still seven or eight meters away from Schultz, a slender tail whipped out from below, wrapping tightly around him and slamming him violently into the ground.
It was yet another member of the Serpent Society; this time, the one who had acted was the villain known as Cottonmouth.
"Electro," seeing Jack Monroe's failure, Batman turned his head and shouted toward Max Dillon, who was not far away, observing the overall status of the battlefield.
Hearing his name called, Max Dillon immediately looked toward Batman.
"Try to short-circuit the electrical systems of their weapons and gear," Batman commanded.
Electro nodded and leaped into the air, golden electricity crackling and flashing across his body. Very quickly, however, he shook his head toward Batman:
"I can't bypass it. Their weapons and gear have some kind of shielding technology that I can't comprehend."
"I can't even shock them unconscious."
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