NOVEL NEXT 48. Army Vs Army
"Usually you people are much easier to kill..." Ultron hummed, "But you... this is the first time I've seen someone like you."
"Well..." Erik smiled, his heart pumping with adrenaline, "What can I say, I'm just that unique."
Erik willed dozens of massive boulders to hover around him, their sheer size belying the effortless control he exerted over them. Normally, Erik could manage only 1/4th of this number but with Strange's buff spell it was possible with ease.
"Usually, you're easier to kill too," Erik taunted, implying he had bested a version of Ultron in another universe – a blatant lie, but one designed to rattle his confidence. "I guess it's the power of those stones. Quite arrogant for a mere machine."
"I don't need Infinity stones to kill you!" Ultron chuckled darkly. "...Is that what you wanted me to say?"
"Nah," Erik retorted, rising above to reach Ultron's level, his boulders revolving around him.
He inhaled deeply, readying himself for the battle against the strongest foe, he had ever faced.
Erik went through all the skills he had, all the powers he had stolen, all the powers he had obtained from the system, and added them to his own body.
He was going to employ mostly his ranged skills.
These included... Ebony Maw's telekinesis. Iceman's cryokinesis and hydrokinesis. Pyro's pyrokinesis. Cyclopes's laser eyes. And Gambit's molecular acceleration.
The output and deadliness of all these powers were increased tens of times by combining the DNAs of mutants with similar powers... and mostly due to Thanos's superior DNA through which he suffered almost no repercussions even while using full output and Wolverine's healing factor never let him get tired.
The most impressive and surprising power-up was with Gambit's powers. It connected with his telekinesis and didn't require physical touch anymore but that range was still shorter than his telekinesis.
Using this, Erik could supercharge any object in a short range of 30m with kinetic energy, transfer that energy to anything that the object touches, and even cause a devastating explosion.
The effect was most deadly when he charged the object with physical contact...
Among ranged attacks, he also had an ace up his sleeve- The Sceptre. Currently stored in Beelzebuth's infinite space.
To protect himself from Ultron's attacks, he had Beelzebuth and Shield, the damaged system's skill.
Beelzebuth was like a copy of a skill that an overpowered slime in an anime had in his past life and Shield was an ability that he had never seen before but it was pretty versatile.
But as expected from a broken system, these skills were somewhat incomplete.
In the past month, in Sokovia, Erik had taken some time off to train and test his abilities.
And he found that Beelzebuth could only function as a [black hole] that could absorb anything that he wished. Beelzebuth provided him with a subskill, [Stomach], with this he could store physical objects and take them out on his wish.
Unlike Rimuru's original Beelzebuth, Erik's Beelzebuth couldn't mimic whatever he absorbed nor could he gain the abilities of the things(people) that he absorbed. Overall, it was just a nerfed skill but still overpowered enough.
On the other hand, Erik didn't have the opportunity to test the limits of his [Shield] skill. It protected him, yeah, but it could also be used more versatilely. Erik was still figuring out the depths of this skill.
His System told him that [Beelzebuth], [Shield], and [Resurrect] would go an upgrade once the system managed to repair somehow. But it didn't tell him how to repair it...
Exhaling, Erik raised his arms towards Ultron, launching the boulders hurtling toward Ultron, but before that, he charged them all with Kinetic energy using Gambit's powers.
All of them were under his control by his telekinesis and their trajectory was ever-changing, completely unpredictable.
Ultron raised his double-headed spear, shattering one of the projectiles with a resounding crack – only to be met with a devastating explosion of kinetic force that rocked his metallic form.
"Haa!" Ultron snarled, channeling the Power Stone to pulverize the remaining boulders into dust with a sweeping gesture.
Undeterred, Erik launched another volley, this time concealing Thor within one of the massive rocks. As the Thor emerged, he unleashed a blinding bolt of lightning straight at Ultron's face.
Ultron absorbed the lightning effortlessly, flipping Thor away with a swift motion. "As I said, your efforts are futile!"
Cindy's webbing lashed out, catching Thor mid-flight and redirecting his trajectory back toward Ultron with a powerful swing.
"Wooohhh!!!" Thor yelled in excitement.
In the meantime, Cindy also swung Peggy around and then shot her in the same tangent as Thor.
As Carter flew directly towards Ultron with her shield protecting her head, Erik grazed her shield with his fingers. Charging her with kinetic energy, instantly boosting her speed.
Ultron who was busy with Erik's boulders caught Thor by his head and tried to kill him once and for all with the Power stone but Strange's protective spells shielded the Thunder God from the brunt of the attack, but Ultron's irritation grew, and he flung Thor away with tremendous force.
In that instant, Carter's supercharged shield slammed into Ultron's faceplate, detonating with the force of a small bomb.
Erik's telekinesis snatched Carter from the air, pulling her to safety.
"Did you get any?" Erik inquired, his eyes scanning Peggy for signs of success.
"No, I wasn't even able to touch them, it looks like Thor failed too," Carter replied with a grimace.
"We gotta try again..." Saying so, he dropped Peggy, and then using his full output of pyrokinesis, he bombarded Ultron with raging flames, unleashing all of his power. Hot enough to melt Vibranium and the range of the flames enough to wipe a city.
Ultron used Space and Power stones to shield himself from the melting heat and then with a glow of the Reality Stone, he transmuted the fire into a flurry of harmless ice flakes, blanketing the desert in a sudden snowfall.
'Heh,' Erik smirked, Ultron had just multiplied the moisture level and dropped the temperature. 'A perfect opportunity to release an ultra-powered cryokinetic attack!'
Joining his hands, Erik drew in a deep breath and unleashed a freezing gale, encasing Ultron in a colossal block of solid ice. Everything froze, all except for his allies, whom he [Shielded] from the bitter cold.
Ultron, encased in a colossal block of ice, seemed momentarily subdued, but without long, the ice exploded and Ultron emerged from it without a scratch on his metallic body.
"Nice tricks, but I suppose it's time to bring some of my own toys," As Ultron muttered that, he created a ginormous portal, and through that, a moon-sized vessel descended. Decorated with crimson streaks of lightning.
Erik knew what was in that...
Ultron's army...
Cindy's eyes widened as the massive ship disgorged wave after wave of robotic foot soldiers, their numbers seeming to swell endlessly. "Is it over for us...?" she murmured, her voice tinged with worry and uncertainty.
"No, not yet at least," Erik replied.
He summoned a small dark, liquidy orb on his palm, and from it popped out three metallic spheres with several rods embedded in it.
'This is just a prototype, created with the help of Ebony Maw's knowledge and mind stone. A miniature hive mind, each could command at least a hundred thousand Chittaurian soldiers and Several hundred Leviathans.'
"Because he's not the only one with an army..."
Erik raised his hands summoning a massive dark, liquid globe in the skies.
Raising his hands, Erik summoned a massive, dark, liquid globe into the skies above. From within Beelzebuth's 'Stomach,' thousands upon thousands of Chitauri warriors and towering Leviathans emerged, their unearthly roars shaking the air.
Ultron couldn't help but grin...
This is what he wanted, an army against an army.
Ultron let the army of these pebbles assemble.
'After the battleground is set with their army against my army assembled behind my back... Huh? Smoke? Where did they go?'
Was this emerging army just an elaborate distraction? Did they just manage to fool him?
'Me? The most intelligent and the most evolved existence in the entirety of the multiverse?' He chuckled.
Ultron scanned through the multiverse and it surprised him a bit when he found out that they were in the same universe and on the same planet no less.
With just a thought, he appeared at the spot where all the group was gathered.
"I praise you for getting away from me. But you could have used that chance to escape to any other place in the whole multiverse, I know the Watcher is helping you... but you chose this wasteland, filled with nothing but undeads." Ultron jeered.
Erik smirked, excited to say the next words that would change the dynamics of this whole battle.
A single command echoed throughout the land....
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"RESSURECT!"
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