A continuous stream of emerald plasma blazed from Max's construct, hammering the red-skinned giant into the forest floor. The jungle sizzled beneath the blast; the earth under the behemoth cracked and gave way. Max hovered above, eyes narrowed, his right arm transformed into a massive plasma-gun construct still glowing hot with residual discharge.
He gritted his teeth, forcing the energy harder. "Stay down," he muttered.
But then to his disbelief the creature moved.
The giant began to stand even as the blast tore at him, dirt and smoke swirling around his massive form. Max's brows furrowed. The energy should've vaporized anything short of an Asgardian. But this thing, this glowing hulk stood tall, chest heaving, the star on its chest burning brighter.
"What the fuck are you…?" Max breathed, lowering his cannon as the red titan lifted its head and locked eyes with him, fury etched across its face.
"RAAAAAAAHHHHHRRRRRRGHHHHH!"
The ground quaked with the sound.
Then it launched.
Max barely jetted backward in time, a green contrail streaking behind him. The monster came on like a missile, fists swinging in relentless, almost animalistic fury.
He threw up a hard-light shield just in time to catch the first blow.
Boom!
The shield cracked.
Another.
BOOM!
Fractures spidered across the surface.
Another. Another. Another—
By the sixth hit, the construct shattered, sending Max tumbling through the air.
"Jade, are you done scanning this thing yet?" he barked, reforming another barrier between them.
"I have something," Jade replied quickly. "Its energy signature is growing exponentially. Based on construct resistance and energy readings, its power output has increased 16% since initial contact."
Max wove through the trees, trying to gain distance. "And what is it?"
"I am uncertain. However, a similar power has been recorded in two separate databases, one from the Shi'ar Empire and one from the Kree."
Max's eyes narrowed. "Doesn't exactly tell me what it is, Jade."
"No designation was given, but the star-shaped emblem was noted in both. There are also mentions of a race called the Builders…"
"Well… this guy might actually be a real test." The match with Odin was okay, but this was something else entirely. He didn't remember reading about anything like this in any Marvel content he'd consumed—then again, there was a lot he didn't know.
He raised his arms and fired.
Missile pods flared into existence around him dozens of emerald constructs shaped like sleek projectiles launched toward the glowing giant, sending it crashing down. The jungle lit up as one explosion after another rocked the clearing, a firestorm of light and sound consuming the red behemoth.
The shockwave toppled trees for miles.
Max hovered in the smoke, watching carefully.
For a moment… silence.
Then something moved.
The creature emerged, smoke rolling off its skin, body scorched but still intact. Its breathing was heavier now. It was winded. But its eyes burned brighter, more focused. The emblem on its chest pulsed with power.
Max blinked. "Okay. Not dead. Not even close."
The monster raised its head.
"RAAAAAAAHHHHHRRRRRRGHHHHH!"
Max narrowed his eyes at the glowing red giant now stomping forward from the scorched crater. "So we basically have a Hulk whose punches are like nukes… and he can fly… and his power keeps increasing by the second?"
"That is a broadly accurate assessment," Jade replied flatly.
Max rolled his shoulders and took a slow breath. "Alright…"
It flew toward him, launching another series of attacks. Max reacted, forming another emerald shield just in time.
BAM!
BAM!
BAM!
The creature struck with maddening fury. On the seventh hit, the shield shattered its pieces dissolving into light as Max flew backward to gain distance.
He wasn't just defending, he was buying time.
All around him, emerald light churned and shimmered as six towering constructs took shape each one modeled after the Decepticon leader, Megatron.
He raised his hand and fired a concentrated plasma beam straight into the creature's chest, knocking the red titan off its feet and into a rock face below.
The six Megatrons, now fully formed, descended on the monster.
BOOM.
One tackled it across the clearing. Another grabbed its legs and slammed it into a cliffside. Two more opened fire green blasts ripping through trees and earth.
Max hovered above, watching.
For the moment it was working.
The giant roared and flailed, but the Megatrons were too coordinated throwing him back and forth, pinning him, blasting him with relentless energy strikes.
Max joined the fray, raining missile-construct salvos from above. The jungle around them turned into a hellstorm; flames erupted, the ground cracked, and shockwaves pulsed from every impact.
Then the creature let loose a deafening howl:
"RRRAAAAAAHHHHHHRRRRRRGHHHHHH!"
"Alert: massive power spike detected. Energy readings have increased 400% in the last 3.2 seconds. Brace for—"
BOOOOOM!
A cataclysmic blast of raw energy surged outward from the titan's body an explosion so vast it leveled the entire clearing. Trees vaporized. Earth turned to ash.
Max was thrown back midair as all six Megatrons were obliterated in a split second.
He groaned, regained his position in the sky, and muttered, "Jade what the fuck is this thing?"
"Working theories continue to develop," she replied, uncharacteristically serious. "If my scans are correct, this being's strength is no longer static it's reactive. It grows with conflict. Rapidly."
Max's mind flashed back to what he'd read about the Savage Land. He remembered now: there weren't just dinosaurs here, there were cavemen, and even sapient dinosaur species.
His eyes widened. "Shit… if we keep going like this, we're going to level this entire place."
He clenched his fists, emerald energy swirling around him. "Time to take this fight somewhere else."
Max shot into the air. Behind him, the glowing titan pursued faster than before, the brand on its chest larger and pulsing. Its entire body radiated heat and energy that warped the air.
Max glanced up toward the cavern ceiling.
With a flick of his wrist, a massive laser drill formed at the tip of his ring. It spun violently, emerald light slicing through the dense rock above like a scalpel. Debris fell in chunks as Max burrowed upward, the glowing beast screaming in rage behind him.
"RRRAAAAAAHHHHHHRRRRRRGHHHHHH!"
The moment Max burst through the top of the cavern, freezing air slammed into him Antarctica's icy winds, a stark contrast to the heat below. Snow whipped around his glowing silhouette. The creature emerged just behind him, unfazed by the cold.
Max began forming more constructs as they flew toward him, locking onto the armor he already wore. Armor plates snapped into place legs first, then torso, shoulders, and arms matching the glowing hulk's immense size.
"Jade, combat protocols."
"Combat protocols active."
What followed was nothing short of a slugfest that broke everything around them.
They clashed fist against fist. The air shook. Each blow Max landed was precise, aimed at joints, nerves, and pressure points. The glowing hulk's strikes were wild, brutal, and blunt, fueled by raw, instinctual rage.
Yet Max was winning.
He caught its punches midair, twisted them, flipped the monster into the snow, then slammed a green hammer into its ribs. He hurled it into the mountainside with a double-fist strike that shattered ice and stone.
But it kept coming.
Max floated in place, watching as the glowing titan roared and charged again.
Good thing I've got infinite power.Looks like I'm facing someone who might have the same.
They slammed together again, the shockwave flattening nearby cliffs and sending snow up like a mushroom cloud. Lightning cracked across the sky above the entrance to the Savage Land. Below them, fissures raced across the frozen plateau.
"I have a theory," Jade said, her voice urgent.
"Let's hear it."
"This being's power is vast, potentially limitless. But its body may not be. The energy surging through it is building without restraint. If we keep forcing it to burn through more and more energy, it could reach a point of overload."
Max narrowed his eyes. "How much more are we talking?"
A pause.
"A lot."
Then came the roar again, louder, more focused:
"RRRAAAAAAHHHHHHRRRRRRGHHHHHH!"
Energy pulsed from the creature's body as massive blasts fired from its chest and back blinding beams that cracked the icy earth beneath them.
Max crossed his forearms and took the full force of the blast. The explosion rocked the snowfield, blowing apart glaciers and toppling cliffs.
When the light cleared, Max was still standing, his armor steaming, chest plate cracked but intact.
The red titan let out another primal scream as the glowing star on its chest flared violently, its arms thrusting wide as torrents of golden-red energy exploded in every direction. Blasts tore through the snowy wasteland, igniting firestorms and carving craters deep into the ice and stone. The sheer intensity turned the battlefield into a storm of raw, unchecked power.
"Good thing we brought this fight out here…" Max muttered as he rocketed into the skies, scanning the chaos below as an idea began forming in his mind.
Max raised both arms. Seven points of emerald light shot out, forming seven prism constructs floating, multifaceted orbs. They were based on the same design he'd used against Odin during their recent sparring session only now they were larger, sharper, with more geometric edges.
"Positioning now," Jade confirmed, as the prisms shifted into place surrounding the glowing hulk in a wide, circular lattice, each prism angled precisely to redirect any output.
The moment the creature screamed again—
"RRRAAAAAAHHHHHHRRRRRRGHHHHHH!"
—another eruption of energy blasted out.
But this time, the prisms caught it. The beams refracted inside the constructs, bouncing and redirecting like mirrors within a laser chamber until they blasted straight back at the source. The creature grunted as the redirected attack slammed into it.
Then it happened again.
And again.
Each burst it unleashed, the prisms captured, twisted, and reflected trapping it in a relentless feedback loop. To make it worse for the titan, Max began firing his own powerful blasts into the prisms, enhancing the attacks with his will-powered strikes and merging them into the loop.
"It's working," Jade said, her voice calm. "Its movements are slowing. The power output is decreasing… incrementally."
The glowing hulk began to stagger its attacks weakening, its roars growing more ragged. Max circled high above, ready to adjust or reinforce the prism net at any moment.
But just as the battle seemed won, the creature stood tall again.
The star on its chest burned brighter than ever, veins of light webbing across its body.
"Warning! Sudden energy spike over 500 percent increase!"
Another scream tore through the air as the red titan unleashed one final, colossal burst of power. But the prisms held capturing, folding, and returning the blast to its source in seven simultaneously converging beams.
The beast howled as the reflected energy knocked it off its feet, drove it to its knees, and forced the star on its chest to dim then go dark.
"He's fading," Jade said. "Energy levels dropping. Seventy percent… forty… twenty… five…"
One by one, Max deactivated the prisms, watching the creature slump onto the ruined field, motionless.
Max descended slowly. The giant was shrinking muscle mass relaxing, skin paling, the glow vanishing. In seconds, the monstrous figure was gone. In its place lay a broad-shouldered, olive-skinned man.
"Jade, scan him."
"Power signature is gone. Or more accurately… dormant. His vitals are stable."
Max frowned. This had been a caveman the entire time.
With a flick of his hand, he summoned a construct blanket, wrapped it gently around the man, then sealed him in a protective, breathable stasis pod.
"Well, Jade, we've done it again… I need a full report by the time we get back."
"Acknowledged."
"Now let's go back…"
"Grænlaðr! We are coming!" Odin's voice boomed like thunder across the snow-blanketed horizon.
Max turned and saw Odin and Agamotto approaching fast Odin flying with Mjolnir in hand, Agamotto gliding beside him, a large radiant orb floating at his side, bound in swirling threads of magic.
As they neared, Odin huffed with mock disappointment. "Oh, you already defeated it?"
Max gave a casual shrug, snow swirling around his armored form. "Wasn't that hard," he said, smirking. "But it could've been if I'd let the fight drag on any longer."
Odin's gaze shifted to the unconscious man encased in Max's protective shell. He blinked in disbelief. "A Midgardian?"
Max nodded. "Yes. A man who seems able to transform into what I just fought."
Odin narrowed his eyes, stepping closer. "But how? What power was that?"
Max looked to Agamotto. "His strength kept growing. Constantly. The energy wasn't stable; it was escalating, exponentially. And on his chest, a symbol a glowing star inside a circle. I think it was the source."
Agamotto studied the man, his expression turning grave. "I'll need to consult the ancient texts i have some Inklings of what this might be..." He trailed off, his face grave.
Max gave a slow nod, then turned to the orb still pulsing faintly beside Agamotto. "Well… looks like we got what we came for."
Odin lifted Mjolnir and swung it over his shoulder. "That Umbu creature shattered beneath my Mjolnir. I nearly felt bad for the poor thing."
Agamotto shot him a sharp look. "And nearly caused a catastrophe. That seed," he said, motioning to the orb, "had it gone off this entire planet might have been erased."
Odin simply smiled. "It worked out, didn't it?"
Max created a large emerald-green construct truck and placed the man still secured in the stasis pod inside it, then sealed the compartment.
"Let's get out of here," Max said, climbing in.
Agamotto followed, keeping the orb suspended in magic beside him. Odin leapt into the back with a grin, resting Mjolnir against his shoulder.
The truck lifted into the sky, cutting through the snowfall as they soared north…back toward Kamar-Taj.
.
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You can read up to chapter 40 here
p.a.t.r.eon.com/Illusiveone (check the chapter summary i have it there as well)