The hive was too close to the Gravitonium, and that half-mechanical soldier almost shoved that blob of liquid metal into his insect cloud. The changes that followed were even faster, and the hive turned into a half-yellow, half-silver ball of insects.
Gravitonium is something that humans cannot touch with bare hands, otherwise it invades the body causing a series of chain reactions, with symptoms similar to heavy metal poisoning.
But the opposing half-mechanical warriors, except for their heads, were replaced entirely by machinery, and the mechanical arms conveniently avoided this situation.
If anyone else ingested Gravitonium, they would basically become mad immediately, Su Ming wouldn't even need to think much to deal with them. But the hive is different. As a swarm aggregate, even if some insects ingested Gravitonium, he still retains his rationality and control over his body.
As the insect cloud he formed rolled, the yellow and silver looked like they were mixed together, slowly reshaping into the image of that Octopus Head. Not only that, he floated up with great flair, utilizing the anti-gravity superpower.
Although this monster's expression could not be seen, one could tell from its eyes that it was full of satisfaction and confidence in its new power.
Su Ming put his two curved blades together, moved his neck slightly, and the Abyss beside him was still gushing black gas, while the plants at the top of the cave appeared increasingly dim.
The hive was indeed decisive. To prevent Deathstroke from obtaining the Gravitonium, he swallowed it, and by chance gained power, now evolving into half a King of Ten Thousand Powers.
Why only half? Because something like Gravitonium can only be properly used with a lot of scientific knowledge, and it is in the hands of a scientist that it can fully shine, and it requires a bit of madness to have power.
For someone like the hive, whose expertise doesn't match and who isn't crazy enough, the most they can use are some superficial powers.
"No wonder... No wonder you've been looking for this thing too." The hive raised its palm and looked at it. The cyan hand gradually turned silver, as he controlled the Gravitonium-laden insects to gather together: "What a powerful force, what a beautiful matter..."
Saying this, he floated in midair, playing, forming the Gravitonium into various shapes, from a flower to a sword, and eventually into a metallic tentacle.
"The thing is nice, but this is not some miracle tonic. Eating it won't do you any good." Su Ming quickly walked toward the hive's direction, heading toward those half-mechanical warriors.
Those controlled soldiers, even knowing they couldn't stop Deathstroke, still bravely surged forward, their heads and necks fiercely meeting the golden curved blades.
Even when their heads were chopped off, their fists, feet, or bullets still flew toward Su Ming, as if they wanted to take a bite out of him even in death.
Sadly, the gap in strength was still there, Su Ming merely had a thought of strangulation to turn himself entirely into Vibranium, and not to mention fists, even Hydra's energy weapons couldn't penetrate the thick original Vibranium.
A few seconds later, only Su Ming and the hive were left on the small path, quietly staring at each other, as the broken metallic scraps on the ground still sparked.
Su Ming slowly floated into the air, the strategy yet unchanged; even after eating the 'tonic,' the insect remains an insect, as long as there's an opportunity...
And just at this moment, the two in mid-air saw everything around them begin to shake violently, as if something was making the ground and mountains shake. The noise caused pebbles and dust to fall everywhere in the cave, with the only remaining spire also beginning to break. Those underground creatures, prepared to kill Su Ming, were unable to stand steady, dropping into the Abyss like dumplings.
In an instant, the cries of various animals echoed underground, reminding Su Ming of a cold joke he once heard.
"Do you know what's the difference between falling ten meters and falling a hundred meters?" He floated slowly toward the hive while posing the question.
Tentacles of silver sprang from the hive's body, the metallic sheen of the insect stream appeared even more dazzling. He seemed to have the victory in hand, responding in an ordinary tone: "For an ordinary person, death is unavoidable in either case, right?"
Beneath the mask, Su Ming's smile was disdainful, outwardly shown as him shaking his head: "Wrong! When falling ten meters, it's 'Ah! Splat!' while falling a hundred meters, it's 'Ah~~~~ Ooooo~~~~ Splat!' Now do you understand?"
The tentacles on the hive's face twitched. He touched his arm, feeling a chill.
It was at this moment that Su Ming suddenly increased his speed to the limit, charging toward the hive, as black strangulation tentacles emerged from his shoulders, weaving into a giant fly swatter, taking on a pose like winding up for a tennis serve.
The hive immediately launched a gravitational superpower attack at Deathstroke, but lacking experience in using gravitational superpowers, he followed conventional thinking: pressure equals force divided by area. So, to pursue attack power, he concentrated the gravity aimed at Deathstroke into a bunch, like an invisible tentacle about the thickness of a fist, targeting Deathstroke's back.
Deathstroke attacked in a leaping posture, fully armored in highly durable heavy armor, his speed was incredibly fast. The hive could only choose to attack the larger torso area to ensure a hit rate.
Unfortunately, if he encountered another tin can, he might indeed have taken it down.
But Su Ming was different. The mercenary had plans; who wouldn't want to use a new ability, especially when facing a powerful enemy? The hive, having absorbed the Gravitonium, would be no exception.
So, the moment the strangulation sensed a change in gravity, it immediately altered the structure of itself and its host's body. The abdomen where the force was applied turned into a large hole, while the Magic Floating Cloak shrank to the size of a handkerchief, avoiding the area around the wound.
Thus, the invisible gravitational beam passed through the large hole in Deathstroke's abdomen, splashing black material in the Abyss below, and just as the hive's attack failed, the black and yellow mercenary looped around him like a chocolate doughnut.
But it did not mean the end. As Deathstroke, except for his head, liquified entirely to engage in a micro-level battle with the hive, the Magic Floating Cloak, preventing enemy escape, wrapped them both tightly like a rice dumpling, forming a ball.
The Hive could sense that the other side was frantically devouring its insects, with almost every insect facing a pair of crescent eyes and a bloody mouth on a microscopic level.
Meanwhile, Deathstroke was like a head perched atop a cluster of dense, shiny black threads, with a red monocle fixed on its face, as a hoarse voice resonated in the airtight chamber.
"You're finished."
"No!!!"
The Hive emitted a piercing scream and resorted to various methods to manipulate the surrounding gravity, causing the black sphere to bounce chaotically everywhere.
In the closed underground space, it was like playing pinball, colliding with walls, ordinary stone pillars, and various falling monsters.
How many points these collisions totaled, Su Ming couldn't say, but within those few seconds, Strangulation had already feasted royally, and the Hive was nearly done for.
His insect swarm devoured the Gravityium, and as Strangulation ate the insects, his control over the Gravityium sharply declined with the decreasing number of insects.
Su Ming didn't even need weapons to deal with him; the reason he switched between scimitars and dual blades, with lightning and light effects, was merely to mislead the Hive, making it think Deathstroke was a pure warrior, thereby overlooking the real ace up his sleeve.
Speaking of which, his insects almost exposed him when they invaded Su Ming's body and saw Strangulation, forcing Su Ming to quickly toss an incendiary bullet and chop the soldier into paste, shifting the Hive's focus and temporarily overshadowing the symbiote issue.
Yes, in fact, a Symbiote Host is the best counter against the Hive, not only could Strangulation do this, but even if swapped with Venom or Carnage, the result would be the same, as even if the host was controlled by the Hive's psychic ability, the symbiote within the host could control the host's physical actions.
To play on a microscopic level with a symbiote is akin to an old man eating arsenic.
The Hive's insects, while small, are still not at the quantum level, but merely nanoscale; tackling Deathstroke without entering the quantum realm, did Liang Jingru cheer him on?
Perhaps realizing his impending doom or perhaps a last, desperate strike, the Hive fully exerted its remaining Gravityium, a forceful power impacting all directions.
.........
Speaking of using a Teleportation Gate to send the Shield Squad to Xiaowang on the surface.
It's not enough to just send them to the surface; this is not a safe area, and he too waited with Coulson and the others for the Harmony's pickup.
After all, these people are too weak; that Asian Eurasian has quite good strength, but it's not durable—after activating his abilities a few times, his arm becomes ineffective.
Xiaowang couldn't just send people out and leave them, that's not what a competent butler would do—if any mishaps occurred, it would tarnish the reputation of his master.
Back on the surface, Coulson's arm still isn't very functional, the signals occasionally dropping in and out.
He straightforwardly unscrewed his hand and handed it to Fitz for repairs, while Melinda, holding down her earpiece, spoke despondently, "Pip, come pick us up."
Back on the surface, communication signals were fully restored, and the response from the ship's pilot immediately came through the earpiece: "Locking coordinates, arriving shortly."
May dropped her hand, crossed her arms, and looked at Coulson, who also smiled awkwardly, "It seems high-tech isn't always better."
"Yeah, looks like next time we should bring a military radio, like the ones from World War II." Melinda didn't press him further and instead let it go with agreement.
Mike, the Black Man, slung his shotgun over his back, squinting against the sunlight reflecting off the snow, which forced a long-darkened group to narrow their eyes, and he patted his head, "Maybe we could consider magic, those magical methods."
Coulson smiled again, with empty sleeves swaying, walking over to Wang's side, "Thanks for getting us out, could you tell us more about magic?"
Perhaps he thought Xiaowang looked young and planned to extract some information.
However, he chose the wrong target; a key aspect of being a butler is keeping one's mouth shut.
The Magic Realm is under Kama Taiji's jurisdiction, which is the Master's domain—how could it be casually disclosed to others? Not showing off wealth is wisdom from the ancestors.
So Xiaowang simply offered him the back of his head.
Forget Coulson's business smile, even Mephisto often smiles full-faced—trying to deceive the clever little butler? Don't even think about it!