Fenris thrust his hand out wildly. His enormous palm, carrying a violent current of air, struck after the fact but arrived first. Before Logan and Colossus could react at all, he shielded them in his hand one step ahead of the Sentinels.
"Boom!"
In the next moment, an intense sensation of weightlessness arrived. Only then did Fenris's massive body crash down onto the ground under the pull of gravity, letting out an earth-shaking impact.
The instant he landed, a powerful shock wave burst outward in every direction, and several fierce gales rose from nowhere across the island.
In the sky, the formation of the Sentinel swarms was thrown into chaos by that force.
Seeing this, Storm quickly flew forward and blocked the front of the crowd, finally dispersing the incoming gale.
"Thud!"
"Thud!"
Heavy footsteps rang out. Taking advantage of the brief gap while the Sentinels in the air were knocked back, Fenris strode forward in two quick steps and arrived before the defensive line below, in front of Storm and the others.
This defensive line relied on a midsized mountain hollow. The special terrain made it easy to defend and difficult to attack while also allowing it to shelter quite a few civilians.
Outside the hollow, dozens of Sentinels were constantly launching assaults against the line, only to be forced back again and again by the combined efforts of everyone inside.
Sensing the footsteps behind them, and as these Sentinels detected an unprecedentedly powerful mutant presence, a small mountain-like shadow already loomed over them in the next instant.
Through shared information, they turned around almost without hesitation. At the same time, huge flames instantly erupted from their bodies.
As the scorching heat sprayed out, these Sentinels actually leaped up against Fenris, who was several times larger than they were, and attacked with precision toward the weak points across his body.
"Move. You're in the way."
To the X-Men, these Sentinels were steel giants.
But in Fenris's eyes, these Sentinels, which were only about as tall as his knees, were nothing more than slightly refined toys.
Facing their counterattack, Fenris did not even raise an eyelid. He merely lifted his right fist high, then smashed it down.
"Bang!"
Terrifying force erupted in an instant, pouring directly into the Sentinel robots' bodies.
Under that tremendous power, these flaming steel giants did not even manage the slightest resistance. Their supposedly indestructible shells exploded with a crash, leaving fragments scattered across the ground.
Only a few breaths passed from beginning to end. The killing machines that could easily force the X-Men into a desperate situation were completely destroyed, and the entire process did not even stir the slightest ripple.
"He's too strong..."
"He just smashed them all?"
Even though everyone had already expected something like this, the strength Fenris displayed now, the absolute power that crushed everything, and the effortless calm with which he wielded it still made everyone click their tongues inwardly.
"Whoosh."
With the crisis resolved, Fenris's enormous body slowly lowered, almost blocking their entire field of vision. Even though they knew he meant them no harm, the people below still could not help retreating several steps.
Fenris's casual breathing sounded like thunder in their ears.
There were even a few timid people whose whole bodies immediately went stiff from fright. Their eyes rolled back, and they fainted on the spot.
The others were not much better. If they could barely adapt to the ten-meter Sentinel robots, then Fenris, who could easily crush the former, was a dimensional-level existence before them.
The pressure brought by this difference in the essence of life would only grow more obvious as time passed.
Fenris keenly noticed the confusion and fear in those people's eyes, but after sweeping his gaze over them, he did not care at all.
As Fenris opened his palm, Logan and Colossus finally saw the light again.
These two men, publicly recognized as iron-willed tough guys in the academy, looked as though they had suffered some enormous shock. Trembling, they supported each other as they jumped down from Fenris's palm.
Only after standing on solid ground again did the two of them let out a breath of relief.
They had experienced several brushes with death in a short span of time, especially the despair of being clenched in Fenris's fist while he smashed Sentinels. Logan swore he never wanted to experience that a second time in his life.
"Fenris, I was trying to save you, and you used it as an excuse to settle a private grudge!"
Logan collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily. Looking at Fenris's brand-new form, for some reason, he felt no surprise whatsoever.
"This kid's a freak. Normal enough..."
Hearing Logan still mocking him even now, Fenris immediately could not help rolling his eyes.
After tilting his head and thinking for a moment, Fenris suddenly stretched out his right hand before Logan could react. He bent a finger and flicked him, sending him flying straight out.
Wolverine bounced high off the ground, then fell back down heavily. Seeing the deep helplessness and indignation on the other man's face, Fenris finally looked satisfied and cheerfully let it go.
"Fenris..."
In the crowd, Scott stepped forward and raised his head, staring directly up at Fenris, who was half crouched.
"Don't worry. Leave the rest to me."
Without the restriction of his ruby-quartz glasses, Fenris could clearly see the hope hidden deep in Scott's eyes.
Just now, everyone had been ready to risk everything and trade their lives for his, sacrificing the entire X-Men team to secure his safety. There was no doubt that Scott, as captain, had given that order.
Scott had followed Professor X for decades and watched the X-Men reach their current point step by step. Fenris knew better than anyone how difficult that decision must have been for Scott.
But he had done it anyway.
A group of people with no blood relation to him had been willing to calmly walk to their deaths for his sake. At least in that moment, Fenris admitted that he had indeed been moved.
"We're counting on you, Fenris."
After saying those last words, Scott, who had long since exhausted himself, finally collapsed completely onto the ground.
At this point, including all the X-Men, everyone within this defensive line had completely lost the ability to fight.
Not far away in the air, the dark mass of Sentinels had already finished regrouping. This steel army made entirely of killing machines was flying toward this place at extreme speed.
At this moment, their eyes were a crimson more intense than ever before, burning with naked killing intent.
Thousands of Sentinel robots had gathered nearly seventy percent of the main force Bolivar had deployed this time. When they formed ranks, the droning sound created by their flight carried a terrifying wave of noise that made one's scalp go numb, resounding over the island.
"Fenris..."
If this army swept across the area, it would be enough to devour any enemy completely.
Fenris was certainly strong, but could he really stop them?
Looking at that terrifying scene, then at Fenris's towering body slowly rising and turning to stand firmly in front of everyone, many people still felt uneasy.
But at this moment, they could only place all their hope in Fenris.
If Fenris won, they would live.
If Fenris lost, they would die without question.
"Come on, then. Let's see which is harder, your scrap metal or my axe!"
The steel legion swept in with overwhelming momentum, and Fenris's expression grew colder bit by bit.
At this moment, his back was perfectly straight. After taking a quick step forward, Fenris almost completely shielded the mountain hollow behind him with his body.
Before he fell, not a single Sentinel would cross this line.
At the same time, in the distant Antarctic base.
Inside the spacious command room, a robot with a huge screen for a head sat properly at the very center.
On the screen, Bolivar's large-headed dwarf-like image was displayed.
But at this moment, his face was livid as he stared at the footage coming from the front line.
Looking at the giant Kong that had appeared from nowhere, the atmosphere in the command room plunged to freezing point.
They had originally believed this would be a decisive victory for them. They had not expected so many variables to appear one after another in less than half a day.
They had blocked the Brotherhood's channels for contacting the outside world, and they had even prepared a specific countermeasure against Azazel. Yet these mutants had still managed to send word out by some unknown method.
When the X-Men appeared, they had not panicked.
They were the world's top researchers, and they had absolute confidence in their own creations.
They knew that even if the X-Men came, they would not be able to make any waves. Victory would still belong to them.
This carefully planned surprise attack was still supposed to end in an unprecedented triumph, and the mutants on the island would all be slaughtered with overwhelming force.
But Fenris's appearance made Bolivar truly panic for the first time.
One man restraining this many Sentinels was fine.
After all, restraint and combat were two different concepts.
But where had this forty-meter-plus Kong come from?
Hadn't the previous intelligence said he could only transform into a monster less than ten meters tall?
Their carefully designed new-generation Sentinels just happened to hold the advantage in size.
This sudden change had almost instantly reduced all their preparations against Fenris to nothing.
"Bang!"
Bolivar, now in digital life form, slammed his palm heavily onto the table. The speaker on the screen also precisely simulated an appropriately timed sound, transmitting his anger outward.
The command room fell silent at once.
"Kill him. Kill him for me!"
Bolivar stared unblinkingly at the front line and said viciously, "Enough ants can bite an elephant to death. He wants to fight a thousand alone? He wants to play hero? Dream on!"
However, under everyone's gaze, just as the masks of the front-row Sentinels opened and their laser beams finished charging, the Kong on the screen seemed completely unaware of the coming attack.
Fenris slowly extended his right hand. Not far away, the giant axe embedded in the ground suddenly began trembling slightly, as though it had received a summons.
"Bzzzz."
A long, resonant hum carried a shrill sound of cutting through the air that reached into the clouds.
In the next moment, the silver-white battle axe shot violently into the sky, then traced a graceful arc through the air as it flew toward Fenris.
However, the dense Sentinel legion just so happened to be blocking the space between Fenris and the battle axe.
Suddenly, Fenris saw the axe seem to pause for an instant.
In the next moment, the giant axe began spinning at high speed without warning.
The crimson light on its handle burned with unmatched heat, while the axe head lit with a faint blue glow.
As the battle axe spun, red and blue rapidly intertwined, transforming into a magnificent two-colored streak of light in the air.
"Boom!"
"Crack!"
The battle axe abruptly became an afterimage. Without dodging or swerving, it pierced cleanly through the entire Sentinel legion.
Violent explosions rang out. Countless pieces of Sentinel wreckage rained down from the sky.
Amid the sound of shattering metal, with only one simple cleaving thrust, the once-dense Sentinel battle formation had been forcibly torn open, leaving a huge gap.
"Bang!"
A muffled impact sounded as the spinning battle axe crashed into Fenris's open palm.
(End of Chapter)
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