William's golden aura detonated outward in a violent eruption, sending shockwaves through the battlefield. But instead of the expected concussive force, his golden flames concentrated within his eyes, flaring like twin miniature suns. A split second later, two beams of searing golden energy erupted from his gaze, lancing toward Lucan and Thula with terrifying precision.
Sensing the incoming attack, the two Viltrumites twisted through the air at breakneck speeds, attempting to evade. They zigzagged, darting in seemingly random patterns, but the beams pursued them relentlessly, curving and twisting with unnatural accuracy. It was as if they had a mind of their own, locked onto their prey with unwavering determination.
Lucan snarled as he realized the futility of escape. "It's tracking us!"
Thula gritted her teeth and veered sharply. "We need to—"
She never finished her sentence. The golden beams crashed into them with the force of a celestial hammer.
"BOOOOOM!"
The impact sent them rocketing toward the planet's surface like falling stars, the golden energy pushing them downward with overwhelming force. Their bodies tore through mountains, shattered ancient ruins, and obliterated entire cityscapes as they were dragged along the landscape like ragdolls caught in a cosmic hurricane. The sheer velocity ignited the very air around them, leaving a trail of fire and destruction in their wake.
Above, William prepared to follow up, only for Nolan to intervene.
"Enough!" The older Viltrumite roared as he closed the distance in a blink, his fist swinging in a devastating uppercut aimed at William's jaw.
"BOOM!"
The impact cracked through the air like a thunderclap, snapping William's head back. His beams flickered and died instantly, allowing Lucan and Thula a moment of reprieve. Their bodies, now smoking and bruised, trembled as they righted themselves in the air, their uniforms hanging in tattered strips from their battered frames.
Lucan wiped a smear of blood from his mouth, his expression darkening. "This isn't going to be easy."
Thula clenched her fists, her body aching from the onslaught. "No... but we can't afford to lose."
Meanwhile, back on Earth, the battlefield was shifting.
The Guardians of the Globe had taken full advantage of the Flaxan army's disarray. Without their leaders and with the portal now blocked by an impenetrable emerald construct, the alien soldiers were easy pickings. Explosions rocked the ground as the heroes methodically tore through the remaining forces, their attacks swift and merciless.
The Flaxans, realizing they were trapped, turned to the portal in desperation. Hundreds of them threw themselves against the glowing green wall, clawing, punching, ramming their weapons into it, but nothing made so much as a dent. Their panicked screeches filled the air as their blood smeared the construct in streaks of vibrant green ichor.
"WENG!"
The portal itself pulsed violently, as if attempting to close, but the construct keeping it open refused to budge.
"How long is that thing going to hold?" Mark asked, floating above the battlefield. His voice was steady, but his concern was evident.
Before anyone could answer, a burst of blue light flared beside him, and an elderly man materialized. Cecil Stedman. His sharp eyes swept over the battlefield before settling on the glowing obstruction.
He grunted. "What the hell am I looking at?"
Mark glanced at him before gesturing to the massive construct. "William put it there to stop the Flaxans from retreating. Looks like it's keeping the portal from closing, too."
Cecil's gaze narrowed. Then, his eyes flickered toward Mark's suit, particularly the golden power source at its center. He felt an unnatural tingling sensation crawl over his skin just looking at it.
"Where did you get that?" Cecil asked, his voice gruff with curiosity.
Mark hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. "William gave it to me. Said it would help me get stronger. Also, it doesn't burn up after every fight like my old suits."
Cecil exhaled through his nose, his expression unreadable. He took a step toward the portal and raised his hand, rapping his knuckles against the emerald wall.
"BOOM!"
The impact echoed like a gong, reverberating through the air. Cecil frowned. Without hesitation, he pulled out a hidden laser cannon from his coat and aimed it at the construct.
"Let's see how unbreakable this really is."
"ZEEEERRRT!"
A concentrated energy blast struck the construct head-on, engulfing it in a blinding explosion. Smoke and debris filled the air as a shockwave rippled outward.
As the dust settled, Cecil squinted, waiting to see the damage.
There was none.
Not even a crack marred the surface of the emerald barrier.
Cecil let out a low whistle. "Well... that's just unfair."
Mark smirked slightly. "Yeah. William doesn't do things halfway."
As the battle raged on above the fractured landscape of Flaxan, William and the three Viltrumites tore through the sky, their bodies rocketing with the force of titanic impacts. Each time they collided with the ground or a towering building, it was as if the very earth itself was being shredded, shaking violently from the sheer power of their strikes. The sounds of their brawl echoed through the air, a relentless symphony of destruction.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!" the explosions of their blows resonated across the terrain, causing entire structures to crumble under the force. The unfortunate civilians caught beneath their feet were obliterated in the blink of an eye, reduced to little more than a pink mist as the shockwaves tore through the atmosphere. The city was slowly being reduced to a war-torn ruin, a reminder of the violence that these beings brought to every world they stepped onto.
Lucan, one of the Viltrumites, gritted his teeth as he was forced into the ground, his back slamming against the hard earth. William's powerful hand gripped his bald head, the cold pressure of his fingers digging into Lucan's skull as he bent the Viltrumite's head lower. "Squeeze harder, William," the thought barely formed in William's mind before the sound of cracking bone filled the air. But before the satisfaction of hearing Lucan's skull shatter could be fully realized, a powerful burst of energy ripped through the air.
Thula, the eldest of the Viltrumites, wrapped her long, dark hair like a whip around William's neck, yanking him back violently. The hairs of her strands seemed to stretch endlessly as she forced him into a brutal chokehold. Meanwhile, Nolan, the third Viltrumite, capitalized on the opportunity, charging at William with a series of vicious blows aimed directly at his midsection. Each strike was like a battering ram slamming into William's flesh, puncturing through his defenses, and tearing into his body with alarming precision.
The strength of the blows from Nolan was immense, the Viltrumite's gauntlets cutting deep into William's abdomen. But before Nolan could finish what he started, William's leg shot upward, the movement quick and ruthless. He caught Nolan under the chin with a sickening "CRACK!" The sound reverberated for miles, the shockwave of the impact enough to shake the very foundations of the city. Nolan was hurled backward, his body slamming into a nearby building with enough force to flatten the structure beneath him.
William didn't hesitate. His golden eyes flared with a mix of fury and focus as he spun back to face Thula. Her hair tightened around his throat, but she wasn't prepared for the sheer strength he wielded. Reaching back with one arm, William grabbed her hair, pulling the crazed woman closer despite her thrashing to break free. As she struggled, a dense, glowing sphere of golden ki began to form in his free hand, crackling with energy.
"WENG!" The sound of the ball forming was like the hum of a weapon of mass destruction. William threw it at Thula without hesitation, the sphere tearing through the air with incredible force. Thula, still locked in the death grip of William's hand, attempted to block the incoming attack, but it was already too late. The ball of ki was more than just sheer force, it contained an unexpected twist. As the sphere collided with her body, a bolt of mystical lightning surged through the ki, coursing through her entire being like an unstoppable current.
Thula's body convulsed as the lightning struck, bypassing her natural defenses. Her eyes widened in horror as the paralysis took hold, and before she could react, the ki ball detonated. "BOOM!" The explosion was deafening, and the shockwave threw Thula's body away, sending her crashing to the ground. The once-long strands of her hair were singed, leaving her now bald, the charred remnants of her pride scattered across the battlefield.
She struggled to push herself up, her breathing ragged, her anger simmering into madness. "Y… YOU… I'LL KILL YOU!" Her voice was shrill, laced with unbridled rage. The damage to her hair, her identity, was too much for her to bear. With a roar, she tapped into every ounce of power she had left, throwing herself at William in a desperate, all-or-nothing attack.
Behind her, Nolan recovered, his eyes burning with rage as he closed the distance between him and William. With a swift, precise kick, he aimed for William's spine, hoping to break the warrior in half with a single strike. At the same time, Lucan, now recovered from his daze, launched himself from below, attempting to grapple William and take him down.
The sight of this coordinated, rage-fueled onslaught might have been enough to intimidate any lesser fighter, but not William. His golden aura flared, the color shifting to a fiery red that pulsed around him like an infernal halo. His eyes, once glowing with the focus of a seasoned warrior, now burned with an eerie, ominous intensity, as if the very blood within him had been set ablaze.
Suddenly, in a display of unparalleled power, massive red constructs materialized around him, shaping themselves into the forms of his arms. These spectral limbs shot forward like unholy appendages, wrapping themselves around the necks of Thula and Nolan before they could even register what had happened. The air itself seemed to crackle with raw power as William's red constructs tightened, crushing their throats with terrifying precision.
Lucan, still too slow, didn't even have a chance to react. William's foot came down with brutal force, slamming into the top of the Viltrumite's head with the strength of a falling star. The ground beneath Lucan's skull erupted like a massive explosion as his head was driven deep into the planet's surface. "CRACK!" The impact sent shockwaves across the battlefield, and a spray of dirt and blood shot into the air as Lucan's body crumpled forward.
"You all seem to have come to the wrong conclusion," William's voice was cold, like ice cutting through the heat of battle. "I'm not trapped in here with you."
He threw the two Viltrumites into the ground with a force that shook the very foundations of the city, his red constructs crushing their throats until blood poured from their mouths, staining the earth beneath them. "BOOM!" The impact of their bodies hitting the ground was deafening, a final punctuation on the vicious assault. "You are trapped in here with me!"
But before William could press his advantage, the sudden, deafening sound of energy charging filled the air. A massive laser shot from behind, striking William with brutal force. "ZHHHHRRRT!" The laser's power sent William soaring into the upper atmosphere of Flaxan's planet, his body propelled by the blast like a shooting star.
"STEP, STEP, STEP!" A mechanical sound echoed across the battlefield as something massive approached. The ground shook beneath William as a colossal mech, towering over the landscape, lumbered into view. Its cannon, as large as a building, was still smoking from the previous shot, the aftermath of the devastating attack that had sent William flying. The mech's sheer size made it clear that it was no ordinary war machine, it was a prototype meant for world domination.
The atmosphere was thick with tension as the colossal mech took another step forward, its massive cannon aiming directly at the remnants of the battlefield. The metallic monstrosity loomed above the scene, casting a long shadow over the smoldering ruins of the city. Its sheer size was an imposing testament to the Flaxans' resolve, a weapon forged to combat even the strongest foes. Its weapons systems whirred with energy, preparing for its next attack.
But before it could unleash its next devastating shot, a brilliant golden light descended from the sky, so fast and so bright that the three Viltrumites could only catch a fleeting afterimage. Their eyes struggled to keep up with the sheer speed of the incoming figure, unable to comprehend the force that had arrived in their midst. And then, before they could even react, the towering mech was no more than a twisted wreck of metal.
"BOOM!"
The sound of the explosion was deafening, the ground shaking beneath the shockwave as William's powerful blast tore a massive hole straight through the top of the mech. The machine's body crumpled under the force, collapsing in on itself with the devastating sound of cracking metal. The sheer power of his attack ripped the mech apart from within, sending debris flying in all directions, littering the city with the broken remnants of what had once been a symbol of Flaxan's technological might.
As the dust and smoke billowed outward from the destroyed machine, William's aura flared to life. The mixture of red and gold energy engulfed him, crackling violently with power as his very presence seemed to warp the air around him. His aura burst outward, a massive shockwave of energy that radiated from his body like a supernova. The force of it sent the ruins of the destroyed mech scattering in all directions, obliterating everything in its path. The city around them groaned and shuddered, its foundations cracking under the strain as whole blocks of buildings were reduced to rubble.
William stood at the center of the devastation, his body glowing with the fierce energy that pulsed within him. His golden eyes burned with intensity, his aura becoming a maelstrom of destruction as he surveyed the chaos he had wrought.
"WHOOSH, POW!"
Without a moment's hesitation, William vanished from his spot, his speed beyond the grasp of the Viltrumites' senses. The next instant, he was standing directly in front of Thula, who barely had time to react before William's arm whipped around in a deadly arc. The spinning backhand struck her with a force that sent shockwaves through her body, her head snapping backward violently from the impact. Her eyes widened in shock, her body crashing backward in the air as the force of the blow pushed her off balance.
Before she could recover, William disappeared again, reappearing behind her with a speed that left no time for her to react. Thula's head snapped back from the initial blow, her body still reeling when William seized her by the chin, his grip ironclad. With a primal growl, William pulled her closer, and without a moment's hesitation, he drove his knee upward into the back of her skull with bone-crushing force.
"SPLATT!"
The sickening sound of Thula's skull shattering echoed through the battlefield, the back of her head exploding outward like a violent burst of blood and bone. Chunks of her skull, bits of her brain matter, and fragments of her skull rained down onto the ground, scattering across the devastated city. Her body crumpled lifelessly, her expression frozen in a silent scream of agony. Her once-bald head now bore the marks of her brutal end, the aftermath of William's fury.
The two remaining Viltrumites, Nolan and Lucan, stood in stunned silence, their eyes wide with horror. The sheer brutality of William's attack left them speechless, a sense of dread washing over them as they stared at the mess that was once their comrade. Thula, the eldest of their ranks, had been the one they trusted to lead them in battle, and now she was reduced to nothing more than a bloody heap of lifeless matter. The sight was enough to rattle even the most battle-hardened of warriors, and both Nolan and Lucan found themselves frozen in place, momentarily paralyzed by the display of power and death.
William, standing amidst the carnage, turned his gaze toward the remaining Viltrumites. His golden eyes glowed with a cold intensity, his face expressionless, but beneath that calm exterior, the power of his fury was palpable. He dropped Thula's lifeless body to the barren city below with a casual motion, her corpse hitting the ground with a sickening thud. The act was a statement, a demonstration of his superiority, of the overwhelming force that he wielded with ease.
Nolan and Lucan exchanged a glance, the reality of the situation slowly sinking in. They had underestimated him. The destruction they had seen on this planet, the devastation they had unleashed upon the civilians and the city, had been nothing compared to the hell they were about to face.
William stood tall, the air around him crackling with energy as his golden and red aura swirled around his body like a living thing. His voice rang out, cold and filled with an edge of fury.
"You wanted to challenge me?" His words were like a death sentence, each syllable heavy with the weight of the destruction he had just caused. "You should have known better."
Nolan's fists clenched at his sides, his eyes burning with anger. He had never seen a Viltrumite fall like that before, especially not one like Thula. He knew what this meant. They were no longer fighting just for victory; they were fighting for survival.
Lucan, meanwhile, was still processing the unimaginable. The sheer raw power William displayed in mere seconds was enough to make him question everything he had believed about his strength, about the superiority of the Viltrumites. But even in the face of such overwhelming odds, he wasn't about to back down.
"Don't get cocky," Nolan growled, his voice low and menacing. "You haven't won yet."
But William only smiled, a cold, calculating smile that sent a chill down the Viltrumites' spines. "You're right. I haven't won yet."
With a single motion, he summoned his aura, the golden-red energy swelling around him. The two Viltrumites braced themselves for what was about to come, their bodies tensing as the air itself seemed to thrum with anticipation. The battlefield was far from over, but one thing was certain, William had made his statement, and it was one they would not soon forget.