Chapter 61: Magnetic Spider Xi Nian
At the center of the battle, within ten kilometers of the blazing blue energy beam.
This part of New York showed no trace of surviving humans. The streets and alleys, the skies and the ground, were all crawling with armed alien drones and mechanical beasts.
And not just those—
Gliding low through the golden heart of Manhattan was a massive alien warship, shaped like a monstrous centipede, nearly a hundred meters long. Its metallic hull gleamed with a cold, alien light as it rumbled forward less than fifty meters above the streets.
The ship plowed through the city with unstoppable force.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Buildings in its path collapsed in thunderous crashes, taller towers reduced to rubble as dust and stone choked entire blocks.
The monstrous ship let out a shriek, almost alive, accelerating toward the outer city, intending to crush and flatten everything along the street into ruin.
"Anyone got time to deal with that big guy?"
Iron Man hovered in midair, his red-and-gold armor blazing as his repulsors fended off the swarming alien craft. He shouted into comms while glancing at the massive warship.
But none of the other heroes answered.
Every Avenger, every defender, was fighting on the edge of collapse. Surrounded, outnumbered, no one could break free. Even the Hulk had no strength left to spare.
Iron Man cursed under his breath, blasting another drone aside, but his eyes stayed locked on the giant warship charging out of the battle zone.
Then something happened that left him stunned.
Just before it could cross the line between the inner and outer battlefield, the warship suddenly split in half.
Yes—cleanly cut in two!
From its jagged head to its tail section, the massive hundred-meter vessel was sliced with surgical precision, leaving an impossibly smooth wound. Even the alien troops inside were severed before they realized what had happened.
Crash!
Both halves of the warship slammed into the street below, shaking the ground with the impact.
Above the wreckage, faint glimmers of metallic webbing shimmered in the sunlight.
Not just one thread—dozens, stretched in crisscrossing lines across the intersection, forming a deadly web.
The alien drones flying into the area were instantly shredded into pieces as they touched the silken threads, raining down as broken scraps of metal.
Standing balanced on one of those gleaming metallic webs was a figure clad in silver, marked with a spider emblem across his chest.
Xi Nian—the Magnetic Spider.
…
Xi Nian didn't pull the threads back. Instead, he spread his metallic webs outward, weaving them from the edge of the battlefield.
From his body as the center, hundreds, even thousands of meters of the city were soon covered in his unique, metallic spiderweb.
He closed his eyes, holding strands of webbing in his left hand. His Spider-Sense stretched out along them, flooding outward.
Ten meters, a hundred, a thousand.
Everything within that web was exposed to him. Especially the alien machines—living metal, perfect targets.
"Goodbye."
Xi Nian clenched the threads, green magnetic energy surging through every line of webbing.
The judgment fell.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Every alien machine caught in his woven web sparked, twisted, and collapsed, their systems fried by the magnetic pulse.
In an instant, hundreds of alien soldiers were destroyed.
Xi Nian snapped the threads loose, recalling them to his hand.
Control of metal—one of the most powerful applications of magnetism.
But wielding both magnetic control and the powers of the Spider made him something more.
Even Lorna, Mistress of Magnetism, could only manipulate existing metal. She couldn't create it from nothing.
But Xi Nian, enhanced by spider genetics, could.
His webs themselves could be turned into living metal.
That meant he could create and control metal at will. And with Spider-Sense sharpening his focus, his control was flawless.
"Enough testing."
His ice-blue eyes opened. He flicked his wrist, and a strand of metallic web shot forward, magnetized, carrying him toward the center of the battlefield.
The line stretched across blocks, embedding itself into the Stark Industries Tower.
Spider-Sense buzzed like static, flooding outward along the strand.
"Found you."
Xi Nian yanked the line, and his silver-armored body launched like a bolt of lightning through the sky.
Not far from Stark Tower, inside the twelfth floor of an office building—
Spider-Woman was gasping for breath, fists flying as she knocked back two alien drones. But more poured in through the shattered windows, relentless.
Alone, she could keep fighting, but the sheer numbers were overwhelming. Even if they were weak, their endless swarming would eventually wear her down.
And then—
Suddenly the alien machines froze.
Smooth cracks opened across their necks, torsos, and limbs.
Clang!
Dozens of alien drones shattered into pieces, their remains scattering across the floor.
"Webs?" Spider-Woman's eyes widened. She saw it clearly now—the drones had been sliced apart by threads of webbing from outside.
"Chrrk!"
One drone that had just climbed inside trembled violently, its metal jaws clattering in fear as it stared at the unseen force outside.
Even the alien machines were afraid.
Spider-Woman, however, wasn't afraid at all. Her surprise shifted into relief. Her Spider-Sense already told her exactly who had come.
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