Kraken, Daniel Whitehall, continued to raise the stakes with an expressionless face. One after another, giant Hydra robots stepped through portals constructed by Norn Stones to reach the battlefield. These massive automatons, standing forty to fifty meters tall, were essentially colossal engines of war capable of deploying hundreds of soldiers at once.
Squad after squad of Hydra power armor appeared on the battlefield. Although these suits were mere improvements on Obadiah Stane's Iron Monger armor and lagged more than a generation behind current Iron Man suits, they blotted out the sun in numbers that had already reached the hundreds.
There were also mass-produced symbiote soldiers, Inhuman soldiers, and botched Super Soldier Serum test subjects. More and more combat power was being funneled into this primitive land.
How had all of this happened?
To this day, Kraken still hadn't figured it out. If he knew that all of this was the result of an accident triggered by Spider-Man investigating the Hand, he would probably have felt like skinning his "star pupil," Gorgon, alive.
But now, Kraken only intended to double down—raising the stakes again and again with reckless abandon.
"Reporting, sir! We have deployed over thirty thousand soldiers into the theater, but the enemy has stabilized their lines after receiving reinforcements. Furthermore, Dr. Faustus has been confirmed dead! Supreme Leader Viper is asking if you wish to continue raising the stakes—"
A Hydra grunt arrived to report the situation. With Baron Strucker captured and Zemo needing to remain undercover in the opposing camp, Viper was the nominal supreme leader of Hydra. In most circumstances, she could indeed handle the majority of Hydra's affairs, but the current battle had grown too large—so large it was slipping beyond Viper's control.
Old veterans like Kraken, who had survived since the era of the Red Skull, were the ones truly responsible for making the final calls.
"Go tell Ophelia not to fear casualties. No matter how many people die here, it is worth it. Go, now."
Kraken spoke with iron certainty, glancing at the soldier. To the messenger, the understood meaning was undoubtedly that as long as the Avengers could be eliminated here, then any number of Hydra deaths would be a price worth paying.
In reality, however, Kraken wasn't looking to kill the Avengers. Considering their objectives and ease of retreat, it would likely be very difficult to actually kill them.
If he truly intended to have a decisive battle with the Avengers, he wouldn't be using these "drip-feed" tactics. He could have pulled out all his forces within thirty minutes of the nuclear strike, but he hadn't. What he wanted was for the Avengers to create even larger casualty figures. The more Hydra members the Avengers killed, the happier he would be.
"When the United States government—no, when the whole world recognizes exactly how much carnage a superhuman can cause in a war, the era of superheroes will be over. Superhumans will be monitored, drafted into militaries, and restricted by the laws of every nation. And every one of those restrictions is a corner where we, Hydra, can intervene."
Kraken allowed a smile to spread across his face. How many people had the Avengers sent out? Just over ten? Yet they were capable of killing enemies tens or hundreds of times their own number. Many had predicted this in the past, but a prediction or a theory is not the same as seeing it happen in reality.
Before "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" were dropped, no one believed in the power of the atomic bomb. Similarly, if there wasn't a war to demonstrate the "might" of the Avengers, then superhumans could simply go on being "Friendly Neighbors."
Thinking of this, Kraken couldn't help but let out a smug laugh.
"The era of the Friendly Neighbor is over, children."
The Friendly Neighbor, Spider-Man, had just achieved the feat of solo-killing every symbiote soldier present—at least those deployed by Hydra.
Then, with a single leap, he landed on Arnim Zola. Pinned to the ground by Peter, Zola showed no sign of panic, laughing instead: "Hahaha! Until next time, Spider-Man!"
As he finished speaking, Zola's body emitted a brilliant light. He was about to self-destruct.
Peter's spider-sense had long since warned him of the danger, so he dodged a step ahead of time. He then looked toward Kitty, who was repeatedly using her powers to disassemble the new Elementals. He rushed over immediately, using magic to knock their spirits out of their bodies and binding them all with the magic of the Web of Destiny.
"Looks like things are wrapping up here. To be honest, I thought it would be more of a hassle—"
Peter looked at the wreckage of Zola. Zola, of course, wasn't dead; the man was a digital consciousness now. As an artificial intelligence, as long as his mainframe remained undamaged, it didn't matter how many of these bodies died. But with Zola currently offline—and needing time to come back—and with the comms reporting Dr. Faustus's death, meaning no one could control the Hulk, the path for the Avengers was essentially clear.
Except for someone who was slacking off.
Peter's spider-sense suddenly went off. He immediately shouted "Get down!" and shielded Kitty behind him. However, Kitty was even more proactive, lunging to tackle Peter to the ground. Artillery fire passed right through both of them, blowing a massive crater into the earth beneath them.
Though the two who fell into it were completely unharmed.
"Oh, er, thanks."
Peter shook his head and tried to stand up, but his sense flared again. He could only shout, "It's not over yet!" letting Kitty lead him in continuing to dodge the incoming fire. He had to admit, Shadowcat's ability was incredibly useful.
However, the continuous barrage from over a dozen giant Hydra robots in the distance was not exactly pleasant.
"What do we do next?"
"Go find Strange. Ask what that guy is doing coming all this way just to sit on his hands. Hold onto me; I need to cast a spell to open a Sling Ring portal."
Kitty grabbed Peter's arm as he cast the spell to open the portal. The two of them charged through the artillery fire to reach Strange's side, inadvertently bringing a shell along with them. Strange, who blocked the explosion with a shield spell, looked at Peter and Kitty with an utterly speechless expression. "What are you doing, Spider-Man?"
"I wanted to ask if you have a way to deal with those Hydra robots. After all, Thor didn't show up today."
"Actually, I've been working on it. I'm opening a very large gate to teleport a big guy over here."
A big guy?
Peter seemed to realize something and looked toward the sky. A massive sword-shaped starship, measured in kilometers and beyond the current manufacturing capabilities of humanity, appeared above the Savage Land. Then, ship-mounted cannons from the 31st century took aim at the Hydra positions.
It took Hydra thirty minutes to nuke the Avengers.
The S.W.O.R.D. bombardment of Hydra lasted only thirty seconds.