Chapter 9: God vs. Beast
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"RAAARRRGGHHH!!"
The roar was inhuman. Primal. Savage.
Everyone heard it.
And then they saw it.
A massive figure was moving at an absurd speed, tearing through obstacles as if they didn't exist. Every step made the ground tremble. Every leap closed the distance in a monstrous fashion.
The creature landed just a few meters away from Thor, Rocket, and Groot, kicking up a cloud of dust and debris.
When it cleared, it became obvious what it was.
A mountain of muscle and fury. Pale green skin. White eyes, completely devoid of reason. It wore nothing but a pair of torn purple pants.
Hulk.
But not the Hulk Thor knew.
This one was infected.
"HULK SMASH!!" he roared, his voice warped by rage and infection.
"Friend!" Thor exclaimed, taking a step forward, a spark of hope crossing his face.
After all... Hulk had been his ally. His companion. They had fought together. They had survived the fall of Asgard... Surtur... Thanos...
But that hope died quickly.
The infected Hulk tilted his head in an unnatural way, locking his white pupils onto Thor. His lips curled into a grotesque grin... and then he roared.
There was no recognition.
There was no friendship.
Only hunger.
And violence.
The air had barely settled after his landing when Hulk moved.
His massive body launched forward like a living projectile, blasting the ground beneath his feet apart with an explosion of brute force. In the blink of an eye, he was already on top of Thor, his jaw stretched open unnaturally, strands of dark saliva hanging from his mouth as he tried to sink his teeth into his flesh.
"HULK?!" Thor reacted on pure instinct.
He raised Stormbreaker just in time.
CLANG
The giant's teeth slammed against the weapon's metal, creating a shockwave that rippled through the air around them. The force of the impact drove Thor back several meters, his boots dragging across the ground as he struggled to withstand the monstrous weight of his former ally.
Hulk snarled, pushing with his entire body, trying to bite, tear, consume.
"What happened to you?!" Thor demanded, his muscles tensing as lightning began dancing across his arms. "This isn't you!"
"HUNGRY!!"
The response came instantly. Instinctive. Empty of any trace of Banner.
With a savage twist, Hulk knocked the axe aside with one swipe and threw a punch straight at Thor's face.
BOOM
The impact was devastating.
Thor was sent flying, crashing through chunks of broken earth and infected bodies before slamming into a ruined structure. The collision kicked up a cloud of dust, but before it could even settle, Hulk was already on him again.
The green monster dropped from above with both fists clasped together, aiming to crush him completely.
But this time, Thor answered.
"ENOUGH!"
A burst of lightning exploded from his body.
The bolt shot upward like a furious pillar before crashing directly into Hulk, halting his descent halfway. Electricity surged through the giant's body, scorching sections of his skin, but it didn't stop him.
It only made him angrier.
Hulk charged straight through the lightning.
His hands clamped around Thor's throat, lifting him off the ground with brutal ease.
"HUNGRY!!" he repeated, louder, more desperate.
His jaws opened once more, creeping dangerously close to Thor's face.
The God of Thunder's eyes shone brilliantly. For a brief moment... he hesitated.
It was Hulk. It was Bruce... his friend. His ally. But the thing standing before him... wasn't Bruce anymore.
"I'm sorry... my friend," he muttered.
Then he acted.
Stormbreaker flew into his outstretched hand in a flash of energy, and this time, Thor unleashed all of his power the moment he gripped it.
The sky roared.
A bolt of lightning descended directly onto both of them.
The impact was catastrophic, an explosion of energy that illuminated the entire battlefield. Hulk was ripped away from Thor and hurled backward as though he had been struck by a god—because he had.
The giant rolled across the ground several times, destroying everything in his path before finally coming to a stop with a low growl.
Smoke rose from his body.
Several parts of his skin had been burned black.
Yet even so, he stood back up.
Thor rose as well, breathing heavily, lightning still dancing around him.
This time, he said nothing.
He understood now.
Hulk pounded his chest once... twice... three times.
"HULK... HUNGRY!!"
Then he charged again.
And this time, Thor met him head-on without hesitation.
The collision between them shook the battlefield once more.
Thor and Hulk clashed like forces of nature, every blow unleashing shockwaves that sent debris flying and tore nearby infected apart. Lightning crashed from the heavens in perfect sync with the God of Thunder's movements, while Hulk answered with nothing but overwhelming brute strength, ripping chunks of earth from the ground and hurling them like projectiles.
Stormbreaker carved through the air with savage force, striking the green giant's body over and over again. But Hulk refused to back down. Every wound, every burn, only seemed to feed his fury and his hunger.
"SNAP OUT OF IT!" Thor roared, blocking another punch that made his bones rattle. "This isn't you!"
"HUNGRY!!" Hulk answered, launching a charge that forced Thor to slide several meters backward.
The battle was brutal. Direct. Relentless.
And amid the chaos, Thor saw them.
In the distance, Rocket fired without pause, his overheated weapon bathing his face in flashes of orange light. Beside him, Groot struggled to hold back an ever-growing wave of infected, extending his arms in every direction, impaling and sweeping bodies aside, but there were simply too many.
A dozen... then two... then even more.
They were being surrounded.
"Groot, behind you!" Rocket shouted, turning just in time to blow the head off an infected lunging at him.
But another was already leaping in.
Thor frowned.
One second.
Just one second of distraction.
He turned his head just enough to confirm the obvious.
They were in danger.
And in that instant...
It was enough.
Hulk appeared before him like a nightmare.
A savage swipe tore through Thor's guard before he could react.
SLASH
The giant's claws sank into his torso, ripping through his Asgardian armor and tearing open the flesh beneath. Blood burst forth instantly, hot and thick.
"GHK—!"
Thor staggered backward, a muffled grunt escaping his throat as burning pain spread across his chest.
Hulk didn't stop.
He charged again, blow after blow, forcing Thor to focus entirely on the fight or die where he stood. Stormbreaker rose, blocking, countering, summoning lightning that crashed down without mercy.
Time itself seemed to warp.
Seconds stretched endlessly.
Thor against Hulk.
God against monster.
For nearly a full minute, the battle raged without pause.
But something began to change.
At first, it was subtle.
A faint numbness in his wounded arm.
Then came the heat.
Not the heat of lightning.
Something different.
Thor clenched his teeth, deflecting another blow from Hulk before retaliating with a bolt of lightning straight into his chest, hurling him back several meters.
He took a deep breath.
Then he felt it.
His heart had begun beating differently.
Faster.
Heavier.
His vision wavered for a moment.
"What...?" he muttered, lowering his gaze toward the wound.
The blood was no longer flowing normally.
It had turned dark.
He looked up just as Hulk charged him again.
Thor raised Stormbreaker.
But this time, his movement was just slightly slower.
More sluggish.
The impact struck him head-on, slamming him into the ground with brutal violence.
"HUNGRY!!"
Hulk fell on top of him once again, trying to bite, tear, and consume him.
Thor barely held him back, his arms trembling as he kept the monster's jaws mere inches from his face.
But his strength was beginning to fail.
No...
He was changing.
A chill spread throughout his body.
Even his grip on Stormbreaker began to falter.
Thor's trembling intensified as the seconds passed.
Hulk continued pushing, growling, trying to rip his head off with a single bite, but something in the Asgardian's resistance suddenly shifted.
Then it happened.
His pupils dilated for a brief moment...
Before changing.
The electric blue that had once shone in his eyes faded away, replaced by his natural eyes—except now, his pupils had become a milky white. His skin began turning pale at an unnatural speed.
The veins across his neck and arms bulged beneath his skin, darkening as something spread through them.
The transformation was violent.
Fast.
Unstoppable.
"Ghhh... AAGH—!"
Thor tried to resist.
His fingers still clung to Hulk, but suddenly, his grip weakened.
His body stiffened.
He arched for a moment...
Before going still, the trembling gradually leaving his body.
One second.
Two.
Hulk tilted his head, confused by the sudden stillness, sensing the change within the god as well.
"AAHGG!!"
A roar echoed through the air.
Not from Hulk.
This time, it came from Thor.
The sound that escaped his throat was grotesque, ragged, driven by a hunger that had never belonged to him...
But now consumed him completely.
The God of Thunder had fallen.
Hulk growled back.
But even he took half a step backward at the sight of that transformation.
Thor—or whatever remained of him—slowly turned his head.
His white eyes locked onto the distance.
Onto Rocket.
Onto Groot.
An instant later, he launched himself toward the duo, his hunger growing with every passing second.
He moved with speed enhanced by his axe, leaving behind a trail of distorted lightning.
"What the hell—?" Rocket barely managed to say as he turned around.
Too late.
Thor appeared before them and, without hesitation, drew his arm back.
Stormbreaker spun through the air.
THOOM
The axe sliced cleanly through Groot, splitting him in half before he could even react. His wooden body parted like paper, sap and splinters scattering across the ground.
"I... am... Gro-..."
The words died with him.
Both halves of his body collapsed lifelessly.
"GROOT!" Rocket screamed, his voice breaking.
The raccoon barely had time to raise his weapon.
Thor was already on him.
One hand wrapped around his small body with crushing force, lifting him off the ground. The weapon slipped from his grasp, bouncing across the concrete.
"Let me go, you son of a—!"
He never finished.
Thor's jaws closed over the talking raccoon.
Rocket's scream became a bloodcurdling shriek that ended abruptly as Thor's teeth sank into his shoulder, ripping through flesh and bone without mercy.
Blood splattered across the ground as Thor began devouring the raccoon, never stopping, savoring every bite.
The battlefield fell silent for a brief moment, broken only by the wet, grotesque sounds of flesh being consumed.
A few meters away, the green giant watched Thor's new form for a moment before turning away.
There was no longer a healthy host left for him to infect.
With that, he headed deeper into the city, searching for new prey.
All of it watched from above...
By Naruto.
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