As the Tesseract continued to supply energy, the spatial portal grew larger and larger. The number of Chitauri passing through it surged accordingly, which meant more and more of them were breaking through the thunderstorm blockade summoned by Thor.
"Thor, those deformed fish-like ships are increasing in number," Steve warned over the comms.
Facing these steel behemoths, the Avengers were under immense pressure. Aside from Banner—whose strength continued to grow along with his rising anger—everyone else, even if they could destroy such massive targets, had to expend tremendous amounts of energy and time to do so.
Take Steve, for example. It wasn't that he couldn't detonate one of the ships using sealing energy—but given the sheer size of a Chitauri warship, the energy consumption would be enormous. He wouldn't be able to pull it off many times.
Worse still, the greater the energy expenditure, the more devastating the resulting explosion. That would inevitably cause massive collateral damage to the surrounding environment and could easily injure innocent civilians.
Strictly speaking, the most efficient way to deal with these giants was to break into the ships and destroy them from the inside. That would greatly reduce energy consumption—but it would take far too long.
In comparison, having Banner—who possessed seemingly limitless divine strength—handle the Leviathan warships remained the most suitable tactical arrangement.
Thor swung Mjolnir and spoke with some frustration, "I'm doing my best to destroy those warships, but there are simply too many of them. And ordinary lightning is very difficult to use to completely annihilate them."
"These Leviathan warships are bio-engineered weapons created by the Chitauri—hybrids fused with space sharks through biological modification technology.
"They may look crude, but they're fully capable of interstellar combat."
"Has Dr. Erik figured out a way to shut down the portal device yet?" Tony asked, frowning slightly as he caught his breath.
At this moment, Tony was using the power of the Machine Memory to attract and gather the wreckage of the Chitauri warships Banner had destroyed, reshaping it into a massive mech. Riding atop a Leviathan, he hammered away with both fists while simultaneously activating the mech's various weapons to target the ship's structural weak points.
"Dr. Erik has figured out how to shut down the device," Natasha answered, "but there's a problem. The energy barrier formed by the Tesseract is impenetrable. Only the energy from Loki's scepter can pass through it and be used in conjunction to close the portal."
"So the key is Loki's scepter?" Steve asked as he took down several Chitauri soldiers in one motion. "Where is Loki right now? Has anyone seen him?"
"No," Hawkeye replied, firing an explosive arrow that blew a Chitauri skiff out of the sky. "Once the device activated, Loki left behind an illusion and slipped away right in front of us."
"Tony, I need you to do a full sweep of the area and find Loki—use modern technology," Steve said immediately. "Given his personality, he's definitely somewhere nearby, watching and enjoying his 'achievement.'"
"JARVIS, access all operational cameras within a 500-meter radius and locate Loki," Tony ordered without hesitation. He knew he was the best suited for this task.
While JARVIS searched through surveillance systems, Tony also began checking vantage points with wide fields of view—anywhere that could overlook the battlefield.
On the ground, Steve, Kent, and Frank were completely surrounded by Chitauri soldiers, under fire from all directions—ground and sky alike.
If it were only infantry weapons, they could have pushed through by brute force, dodging the densest points of fire.
The real problem was the heavy fire support from two Leviathan warships overhead. With their overwhelming firepower, the trio simply couldn't break out and were forced to constantly maneuver within the overlapping fire nets.
For the moment, they were locked in a bitter struggle.
"Cap, want me to head over and help you break out?" Tony suggested, closely monitoring the battlefield.
"We're fine for now—we can still hold," Steve replied firmly. "Your top priority is finding Loki and securing the scepter."
Suddenly, the light of a teleportation circle flared up in a nearby open area.
Li Hua, Elena, Gwen, and Xiao Feng arrived on the scene.
"So these ugly things are the invading aliens?" Elena said with a look of mild disgust as she eyed the Chitauri.
The nearby Chitauri soldiers froze for a brief moment at their sudden appearance—but quickly reacted. To them, everyone on Earth was an enemy.
They opened fire without hesitation.
Unfortunately for them, their weapons were largely ineffective against a group whose average level was around fifty.
"You bastards—let's see whose firepower is stronger," Elena said angrily, staring at what had once been a bustling street, now reduced to ruins.
All the cannons on her armor fired at once. Sweeping energy beams tore through the area, blasting Chitauri skiffs out of the sky. She then locked onto a Leviathan warship and punched a beam straight through it, detonating it in a massive explosion.
Li Hua swung the holy sword, unleashing razor-sharp sword energy infused with ice and flame, harvesting Chitauri lives with ruthless efficiency.
Victor directly summoned more than a dozen members of the ninja corps—each one an army unto themselves. Every energy shuriken they threw precisely eliminated a Chitauri soldier.
Gwen, having made up her mind, activated her level-50 cartridge: Interstellar Voyage.
A cartoon-styled cosmic spaceship flew out, disassembled in midair, and transformed into armor that attached itself to Gwen.
[its an og game catridge]
She shot into the sky, thrusters blazing across her armor, becoming a streaking meteor that slammed straight through another Leviathan warship, piercing it clean through.
The sudden and unexpected intervention of Li Hua's group completely shattered the Chitauri's tactical pressure on Steve's trio.
"You're the reinforcements Tony mentioned?" Steve asked, his tone a bit strange.
The visual style of Li Hua's group was… hard for Steve to process, to say the least—but their combat power was undeniably overwhelming.
Elena nodded. "Yes. We received Stark's message and learned about the alien invasion, so we came as fast as we could."
Kent gave them a brief nod in greeting.
Frank, however, spoke calmly, "This isn't the time to relax. Those alien scum are still pouring in, killing and destroying."
With that, he revved his Engine Blade and charged toward another group of Chitauri soldiers.
The other Riders also split up, each heading off to eliminate the invaders ravaging New York.
With Li Hua's group joining the battlefield, the situation improved dramatically.
"Why is Fuma with you?" Tony asked, noticing Victor and sounding puzzled. "Isn't he with Foundation X?"
"That's a long story," Li Hua replied, "but I can tell you this much—Mr. Fuma has already joined our side. He's no longer an enemy."
Tony frowned briefly, then relaxed.
He decided not to dwell on it. The details could wait—right now, repelling the Chitauri invasion was what mattered.
Having fought Victor before, Tony was well aware of Fuma's strength. In the face of an alien invasion, having one more powerful ally was absolutely not a bad thing.
(End of Chapter)