Chapter 340: Battle Joined — Face-Off With Thanos
"Oh? Seems his lordship's familiar with me." Ethan seemed genuinely surprised to find himself suddenly called out by Thanos.
Not that he had strong feelings about any of this, honestly. It was all just winners and losers in the end, as far as he was concerned.
From Thanos's own point of view, of course he'd resent the Avengers time-jumping in to sabotage his life's work.
But from the Avengers' perspective, resurrecting the people they'd lost by any means available, Thanos included, was simply the only reasonable path forward.
The Avengers turned toward Ethan too, equally baffled — why had Thanos singled him out specifically? Did the two of them already know each other somehow?
"Obviously we're meeting for the first time. But the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew — you and I are the same kind of man. Join me. Together, we'll conquer universe after universe." Thanos extended the invitation directly.
As far as Thanos saw it, Ethan was cut from the same cloth as him — a man who held his own convictions, and would pay any price necessary to see them through.
The moment those words left Thanos's mouth, Steve and Tony's suspicion of Ethan flared right back up. Honestly, none of them had ever fully seen through Ethan to begin with — they'd stayed cautious the whole time. Sure, he'd saved Natasha, but that alone hadn't been nearly enough to earn Tony's full trust.
Natasha herself and Clint, though, stepped forward to stand in front of Ethan protectively — after what he'd done for her, the two of them already trusted him completely.
"No, no, no. We are absolutely not the same kind of man. Winners and losers settle this — let's just fight." Ethan cut Thanos off flatly.
Ethan felt genuinely offended by the comparison — this was the guy who wiped out half of all sentient life over some deranged population-management scheme, and threw his own life away in the process to boot. Ethan had no interest in being lumped in with that particular breed of lunatic.
Sacrificing everything for a thankless, self-destructive crusade like that? If anything, Ethan considered himself a decidedly small-minded man — he just wanted to make some money, live comfortably, and eventually go home.
"A shame. Then let's settle this the old way." Thanos had actually hoped to use Ethan as a foothold into invading his home universe.
He'd genuinely thought Ethan — strong enough to match the Black Order, by his own read of the situation — showed promise. Maybe even useful as a guide to that other world, once conquered.
But Thanos no longer trusted other versions of himself across the multiverse. He believed, with total conviction, that only he could build a truly good, happy world across the entire multiverse.
The instant the words left his mouth, his face twisted into a grin so unsettling it seemed to herald catastrophe.
He swung his frost-edged blade in a wide arc and charged the Avengers with unstoppable momentum.
The blade cut a vicious line through the air, aimed straight for their vitals.
The Avengers' trinity surged forward to meet him, and for a moment, the fight looked evenly matched, blows trading back and forth.
"Ethan, why aren't you jumping in?" Strange asked, watching the fight unfold with genuine interest.
"Can't you see they've got decent teamwork going? I'd just be throwing off their formation if I stepped in." Ethan watched the battle with real curiosity too.
It wasn't that Ethan had no intention of fighting — Fat Thor had actually asked him beforehand to hold off, insisting this was their universe's fight to settle, and that they could handle it themselves.
Besides, if Ethan actually jumped in, there was a decent chance the Avengers would end up splitting their attention just keeping an eye on him too.
Better, honestly, to just stay out of it entirely.
"I've got to say, though — this bunch is remarkably weak. Two guys from Hell's Kitchen could wipe this whole team out. How on earth did they beat Thanos the first time around?" Strange asked, watching the fight with something close to genuine bewilderment.
At this power level, two blind guys from Hell's Kitchen could probably take this whole team apart.
Ethan rolled his eyes at that. First of all — Hell's Kitchen wasn't weak, thank you very much. Second — okay, fine, these particular surviving Avengers weren't exactly impressive.
Sure, the fight looked evenly matched on the surface, but anyone paying attention could see two things clearly: Thanos wasn't fighting anywhere near full strength, and Thor was carrying nearly the entire fight alone — everyone else's attacks were barely registering damage on Thanos at all.
Just look at who was actually still on the field: Captain America, Iron Man, War Machine, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, Natasha.
Every last one of them was, functionally, an ordinary human with some technology bolted on. Bronze-tier fighters, essentially, strong-armed into a top-tier match they had no business being in.
If Thor weren't keeping Thanos pinned down and distracted, one punch would've been enough to end the rest of them entirely.
Honestly, Strange's complaint wasn't unfair at all — his own grandmother, teamed up with Thor, could probably go toe-to-toe with this Thanos on equal footing.
Sure enough, Ethan watched Avenger after Avenger get pounded flat by Thanos, one after another — turned out numbers didn't count for much on a battlefield like this.
Tony took a punch straight through his armor and came away with visible internal injuries. Thor was already getting ground into the dirt.
As for the rest — Ant-Man, Rocket Raccoon, all of them — they were essentially there to be knocked out, which they were, in short order.
The only one still standing was Steve.
"Hey, hey, hey, Ethan — shouldn't we be thinking about bailing? We got the Stones back, we've seen the show. Time to peace out." Strange looked around and realized it was just him and Ethan left standing now.
If Captain America went down too, he and Ethan were clearly next.
"Ready?" Ethan smiled at Strange. "It's our turn now." He said it like Thanos wasn't much of a threat to him at all.
Strange sighed. He understood at once — Ethan had already made up his mind to fight Thanos personally, no way around it.
"Fine, fine. We were bound to fight eventually anyway. Might as well let me go first and get a read on what he's actually got." Strange said this while claiming, as always, to be scared out of his mind — but he'd already been quietly loading up his spells behind the scenes the whole time.
He rose into the air, hands pressed together, eyes closed, gathering his power.
Countless duplicates of himself blinked into existence around him, spreading out instantly to surround Thanos from every angle.
A magic circle bloomed in each duplicate's outstretched hand, and from every circle, countless crimson chains lashed out like striking serpents, hurtling toward Thanos.
While Strange squared off against Thanos, Ethan made his way calmly over to Steve.
Steve was struggling to pull himself back up off the ground, his whole body twitching from the impact.
"Your universe's fighters don't look like much, huh. This is what I'd call absolutely getting your teeth kicked in." Ethan's voice reached Steve's ears.
Steve didn't bother arguing the point. "Getting my teeth kicked in" was generous — this was closer to being toyed with outright.
"Get out of here, both of you. This is our fight. You've already done more than enough — don't throw your lives away over nothing."
It was clear enough Steve still didn't believe two people alone — even Ethan and Strange — could actually beat Thanos. Especially with Thanos not even fighting solo.
"Relax. I've never lost. And I'm not about to start now."
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