The formidable power displayed by the Hunters was a pleasant surprise for Marcus. He hadn't expected that the evolutionary fusion of the Blacklight Virus and the Zombie Virus, which he had been pursuing, would be achieved first by the American government.
The deployment of these biological weapons instantly neutralized the advantage Magneto had gained by unleashing his full-power Steel Storm, plunging the mutant side into an extremely dire situation.
Controlling the lightning, Storm turned the Hunters in front of her into charred corpses with deafening thunderbolts. The blinding, web-like lightning formed an insurmountable wall, halting the Hunters' advance. No matter what weapons they morphed their limbs into—machetes, claws, or tendrils—they were violently repelled by the high-voltage current.
However, this only temporarily slowed their assault. The scorched Hunters rapidly repaired their bodies, shedding their blackened husks like cicadas molting, and returned to the battlefield. While Storm's energy was rapidly depleting, the Hunters suffered almost no casualties.
Shortly after, when Storm's lightning wall weakened slightly, the Hunters collectively morphed into their armored forms, encasing their bodies in thick cocoons, and forcefully breached the barrier. Immediately after passing through the lightning wall, one of them transformed its arm into a tendril and plunged it into the ground. Before Storm could realize what was happening, a thick, black spike erupted from beneath her feet and impaled her body.
"Try to capture her alive; these mutants are very valuable," ordered the leading American officer to the operator in the truck, after seeing Storm incapacitated.
Wearing a zombie control helmet, the soldier in the truck nodded and commanded the Hunters to ignore the incapacitated Storm and continue their advance.
Witnessing Storm impaled on the ground spike and suffering a gruesome fate, Cyclops hurriedly rushed to her side to save her, directly confronting the pursuing Hunters. Sweeping the battlefield with his optic blasts, Cyclops knocked down numerous Hunters in front of him. However, just like before, these monsters with their powerful self-healing abilities quickly got back on their feet as if nothing had happened.
Cyclops's reckless advance soon led to him being surrounded and attacked from all directions. Although he shot down countless approaching Hunters with his controllable optic blasts, he only managed to incapacitate three or four of them due to bio-energy depletion before a giant hammer blow to the back of his head knocked him unconscious.
The successive fall of their leader and deputy leader caused the X-Men to collapse even faster. The mutants retreated into the academy building in a panic, watching in shock as the Hunters carried their fallen comrades into the trucks one by one. These monsters were so relaxed that they showed no concern whatsoever that the mutants might escape their grasp.
Once they finished collecting the wounded mutants outside, the next wave of attacks would begin.
Meanwhile, on the roof of the Mutant Academy, Marcus—having just finished injecting the virus into Magneto—returned to his vantage point. He continued to observe the battlefield, waiting for the moment when both sides would be utterly exhausted.
Tony, on the other hand, began explaining the research data regarding these Hunters, which he had extracted from the government's network.
"The codename for one of the DX-1118 virus test subjects is 'Hunter.' It possesses the ability to transform a part of its body into a hard, black solid—let's call it the 'black cocoon' for now—and it can morph this into any shape it desires. Thanks to the black cocoon's morphing ability, the Hunter can transform its hands into various combat forms such as claws, heavy hammers, tendrils, fist blades, and sharp swords. It can even harden its entire body to form an armor capable of defending against weapons like rocket launchers, possessing immensely powerful close-combat capabilities.
"Furthermore, the Hunter has the ability to regenerate any organ in its body and recover from all kinds of injuries. With sufficient bio-energy support, it can reconstruct its entire body from a mere pool of blood. Therefore, short of depleting its bio-energy or destroying all its cells simultaneously, there is almost no way to kill a Hunter (the inhibitory effect of carbon-nanosteel alloy has yet to be tested). Hunters can replenish their bio-energy by consuming flesh and blood; eating living organisms restores more energy, but they can also replenish energy from corpses when necessary."
Marcus looked down at the corpse-strewn battlefield below. Several Hunters had already begun plunging their tendrils into the bodies of fallen American soldiers, digesting and consuming them to replenish their energy. In this sea of corpses and bones, they had no worries about lacking enough flesh and blood.
Perhaps the temporary pause in their attack was merely for resupply. Gazing at this terrifying biological weapon with admiration, Marcus exclaimed:
"The two viruses have fused perfectly within these monsters. I have to say, the government did a fantastic job this time."
"This is the most efficient research and development activity I've ever seen from government scientists. You know, most of the time they just spew a bunch of hot air," Tony mocked in his usual manner. Creating weapons they couldn't control was nothing to be proud of. "But I must admit, their combat power is formidable. At this rate, the X-Men are about to lose. Hulk will be coming back soon, too."
"Hmph, it's not that simple," Marcus retorted with a smirk. "There is still a big fish I need to catch—"
"You mean, the Dark Phoenix?"
At this point, the only figure more terrifying than Magneto was the Omega-level mutant, the Dark Phoenix. She was truly an ultimate monster capable of destroying the planet!
Marcus said ambiguously, "Rather than letting her cause trouble for us later, it is better to take care of her here as well."
"Alright, I hope you are as reliable as before," Tony said with a wry smile, fully aware of what the Omega level meant.
After all, Magneto, who had just displayed immense power, was only an Alpha-level mutant, and it was unknown how long it would take for the Hulk, whose strength increased with his rage, to reach such a terrifying level. It was hard to imagine what kind of tragic scene would unfold once the Dark Phoenix awakened.
Furthermore, it was worth noting that the power range of individuals at the Omega level—the highest tier in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s power classification—was exceptionally broad. For instance, in the original comics, the chaos magic wielded by the Scarlet Witch (who had reached the Omega level) could only fight on par with a Phoenix Avatar possessing a mere fifth of the Phoenix Force (during the Marvel 2012 event). Judging from this, it was impossible to imagine just how powerful the Dark Phoenix would be with the full Phoenix Force.
In Tony's view, managing to take down Magneto was already an incredibly massive victory. Provoking an entity like the Dark Phoenix was truly unwise.
Yet, facing such a terrifying enemy, Marcus simply made an offhand comment like, "take care of her as well." Tony really couldn't fathom what he was thinking.