This sight caused Star-Lord, Yondu, and the others below to gape in shock once again.
Every time they thought they understood the terrifying power of their new Captain, he would always show a higher limit and bring them an even bigger 'surprise'!
Star-Lord murmured blankly, "With power like that, does he really still need those so-called Infinity Stones?"
Hearing this, Gamora also fell silent.
But immediately, her eyes narrowed as she noticed something was wrong.
As those 'meteors' crashed into the curtain formed by the Ten Rings, the sparks on the meteors dissipated, and she realized they weren't meteorites at all, but massive metal pods!
She immediately recognized what those pods were!
This time it was Gamora's turn to take two steps back, saying in horror, "No, he's here. These are his bio-weapon deployment pods!"
Star-Lord was startled and hurriedly asked, "Who's here? What bio-weapon deployment pods? Gamora, make yourself clear!"
Gamora trembled slightly all over: "He is... the Universe Tyrant, Thanos!"
The moment Gamora finished speaking, there was movement in the deployment pods blocked by the Ten Rings curtain above them.
As the valves of the deployment pods were opened one by one, waves of hideous six-clawed monsters, half-beast and half-human, surged out from the pods and crawled densely toward the edges of the curtain, seemingly trying to break through from the perimeter!
Seeing the scalp-numbing number of monsters overhead, Yondu immediately shouted, "Raiders, everyone into combat status, prepare to face the enemy!"
Hearing Yondu's shout, everyone, including Star-Lord, immediately raised their weapons and stood ready.
"There's no need for such trouble..."
But just then, a calm voice, completely out of place with the current tense situation, reached everyone's ears.
The person speaking was, naturally, their new Captain, Ryan himself!
Ryan sneered, his hand controlling the Ten Rings curtain turning slightly: "Heh, no matter how many there are, they cannot escape my Ten Rings Cloak!"
In the next moment, the originally calm rainbow curtain began to spin like a whirlpool in the sea!
Everything on the curtain—whether it was the massive metal deployment pods or the monsters surging out of them—was sucked into the rainbow curtain's vortex!
Then the rainbow curtain vortex acted like a meat grinder, crushing the deployment pods and the countless monsters into dust!
In just a few blinks of an eye, the monsters that had densely covered almost the entire rainbow curtain, along with the dozen or so deployment pods above, had all vanished completely, without even a speck of dust left!
Ring ring ring ring ring ————————
It wasn't until Ryan withdrew the rainbow energy curtain above and the Ten Rings in the sky flew back to his right arm, emitting a series of crisp clashing sounds, that Yondu and the others came back to their senses.
Star-Lord once again turned into a quipster, twitching his lips as he looked at Ryan: "With the Captain's power, it seems he doesn't even need those Infinity Stones to destroy a Planet or the Universe or whatever. Who could be his match..."
This time, the others rarely disagreed with Star-Lord, instead nodding vigorously in total agreement.
How could they disagree?
Their new Captain was simply too fierce!
With a relaxed smile on his face, Star-Lord grinned at Gamora and the others: "How about it? Our Captain is awesome, right? Why don't you consider joining our Raiders and following the Captain to conquer the sea of stars?"
Rocket looked at the posturing Star-Lord with disdain: "If they want to join, they'll apply to the Captain. What the hell does it have to do with a lowly worker like you!"
Star-Lord disagreed with that and immediately retorted:
"Hey, what do you mean 'lowly worker'? I'm the most awesome Master thief on our ship. Even the Captain definitely isn't as good as me at that!"
Rocket rolled his eyes: "Yeah, right. Because your Captain doesn't need to be sneaky like you. Whatever he wants, he just steamrolls through and takes his target!"
"You damn raccoon, I'll..."
"Shut up! It's not over yet!"
Just as Star-Lord was about to lose his temper, he was interrupted by Gamora.
Although the deployment pods and bio-weapons had been wiped out in one wave by Ryan, Gamora still looked at the sky with a heavy expression.
As the daughter of Thanos, she knew her father couldn't possibly have only these tricks!
Sure enough, in the next second, a blue-white gravity beam descended from the sky once again, landing on the ground!
An oppressive golden-armored figure appeared, accompanied by several figures wearing black armor.
As these figures fully stepped out of the blue-white gravity beam, everyone finally saw their specific appearances!
It was none other than the Universe Tyrant Thanos, whom Gamora had mentioned, and his most capable Black Order!
Ebony Maw, the strategist and mage, floated forward elegantly, glancing indifferently at everyone before finally landing on Ryan, who appeared to be the leader:
"You should be honored that you are about to make your own contribution to the great My Lord Thanos's balancing of the entire Universe. So now, hand over the Infinity..."
Swish ——————
Splat!
Before Ebony Maw could finish, a white shadow shot toward him, instantly plastering over his mouth!
No matter how Ebony Maw tried to tear it off, the white spider web seemed to be grown onto his mouth; it wouldn't budge at all!
Ryan looked at Thanos and said indifferently, "Since when does the dog bark before the Master speaks? How rude. Don't you agree, Thanos?"
Thanos also had an indifferent gaze, raising his double-edged blade and pointing it at Ryan: "Your strength is decent. Nebula said you already have the Power Stone and the Time Stone. Now, offer them to me, and I will let you join my army as the fifth Black Order!"
Hearing Thanos's almost commanding tone, Ryan laughed.
He slowly raised his left hand, and the four Infinity Stones on the nine rings of his left hand erupted with dazzling four-colored light:
"First of all, the information that bitch you raised gave you isn't quite accurate. I don't just have two Infinity Stones; I have four, and I'll have the fifth one soon!"
"Secondly, making me your dog? I'm a locksmith, but are you worthy?"
"You want the Infinity Stones, right? Then I'll give them to you. Make sure you catch them!"
At the end, Ryan gave a ferocious grin, and the four rings embedded with the four Infinity Stones on his left arm flew out, trailing blue, purple, green, and gold lights toward Thanos and his Black Order!
When Thanos saw the four Infinity Stones appear on the other's left hand, he actually already sensed that something was wrong!
As everyone knows, getting one Infinity Stone isn't hard; if you have luck, even someone with average strength can get one.
For example, Nick Fury, a mere mortal, could get the Space Stone, and Star-Lord could steal the Power Stone from a temple.
But wanting to get two requires more than just luck; it requires real strength!
For instance, in Avengers 1, the Avengers went through a life-and-death battle before they got the second Infinity Stone, the Mind Stone.
And having more than three... that's not something that can be obtained just with luck and a certain amount of strength!
It's something that only the top powerhouses of the Universe can truly obtain!
As far as Thanos knew, the last person to collect more than three Infinity Stones was only one person—a god of slaughter who almost killed his way through the entire Universe!
In a way, he was now imitating the old path that person had walked!
And that person was... the 'All-Father' Odin!
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