"Open fire."
At Zodds' command, the battleship's AI immediately locked its cannons onto the monster.
Four blazing pillars of energy erupted forth, tearing through the atmosphere as if setting the very air ablaze. The sea surface was carved into four trenches, reminiscent of Moses parting the Red Sea.
And the monster—the creature that had brought despair to so many—was just about to step into the urban shallows when the four energy cannons punched straight through its colossal body. Flesh and blood exploded into a rain of minced meat that filled the sky, and an earsplitting shriek pierced the heavens!
Yet in the very next instant, a thinner lance of blazing energy shot out from the side. The monster, already missing more than half its body, let out a pitiful wail and tried to turn—just as the beam tore through its skull.
The effect far exceeded what such a beam should have been capable of. The monster's entire head burst apart like a watermelon in one of those beachside smashing games, obliterated into a grisly pulp. Blue blood rained down as a bloody mist, unavoidably contaminating the surrounding environment.
The second monster resembled a giant ape, but with no fur whatsoever—its body was instead encased in a thick carapace of keratinous armor. Its drooping fists looked like a pair of war hammers.
The blue light flickering on its forehead appeared, from a distance, more like a deep-blue crystalline formation. While the monster's movement speed matched what one would expect of its bulk—slow and lumbering—its destructive power and defensive capabilities surpassed every monster that had appeared before it.
It was wreaking havoc in the Philippines. The battleship had arrived a step too late.
And the Precursor civilization had already learned what had just happened through the hive consciousness of the first monster.
Impossible!
Wasn't Earth supposed to be a civilization that hadn't even left its own star system? How could they possess a super-battleship this powerful?
If we don't deploy atmospheric-flight-type monsters, every single one of them is nothing but target practice for this ship!
"Charged particle cannon, activating…"
The super-battleship opened another gun port. The charged particle cannon—derived from Ramiel—had been perfectly replicated by Zodds, and was perhaps even more terrifying than the original.
A beam of light shot forth at a speed far exceeding lightning. The massive monster had no time to react before it was struck.
The monster's head and upper body, caught in a direct hit, vaporized on the spot. The buildings behind it began to crumble as well, and the ensuing shockwave pulverized the earth for hundreds of meters in every direction. Reinforced concrete and chunks of rock shattered and hurtled skyward!
The beam continued straight on, only coming to a halt after continuous scattering and attenuation along its path.
Then the super-battleship set course for Shenzhou.
Zodds stood at the very prow of the deck, feeling the gale roaring past. He watched as the coastal cities of Shenzhou gradually materialized before his eyes. Signs of monsters had already appeared along the shoreline, but it seemed that Shenzhou's military forces had mobilized early—the monster's advance was being contained, and… was someone actually engaging the monster in direct, face-to-face combat?
The Spear Bureau?
In the Marvel universe's established lore, S.H.I.E.L.D. was a global organization operating under the World Security Council, but Shenzhou actually had a counterpart organization known as the Spear Bureau.
That said, this organization had never appeared in the films. Or rather, in the Marvel comics timeline, wasn't the Spear Bureau only formed after Thanos—the Mad Titan—launched his invasion?
Clearly, it wasn't particularly surprising that Shenzhou would have its own superheroes to confront the monsters. After all, no matter what world you were in, the nation of Shenzhou always gave people the impression of being shrouded in mystery… and was also quite convenient to pin things on.
The sea, stained crimson by the setting sun, churned with violent waves. Monsters—these large-scale cannon fodder—had instilled such widespread panic that not a single soul had the presence of mind to appreciate this scenery.
Canghai City was situated at the center point of Shenzhou's north-south coastline, along the western shore of the Pacific Ocean. It was among the first batch of coastal cities opened to the outside world, facing Japan's Kyushu Island across the East China Sea. It served not only as an economic hub but also as a rather decent tourist destination.
Obviously, however, no one cared about that at a time like this. One could even say that unless the monsters were swiftly eliminated, nothing but gloom would hang over the skies of Canghai City.
Kaiju—these cloned creatures—came in all shapes and sizes, honestly speaking. Crabs, apes, lizard-dragons, and every bizarre form in between. As a result, unifying their biological traits—body structure, diet, metabolic systems—was nearly impossible.
Yet without question, even as cannon fodder, every Kaiju possessed its own distinct characteristics—the shell of a Leatherback, for example, or the corrosive fluids of an Otachi.
The monster that had made landfall at Canghai City not long ago was certainly no exception. Resembling an evolved crocodile or lizard, its enormous body was covered from head to toe in metallic-lustered scales. Fully armored as it was, it looked fiendishly difficult to deal with.
Unlike the grotesque body shapes of other Kaiju, this one's form was streamlined, allowing it to maintain extreme movement speeds whether in the deep sea or on land.
It looked, somewhat, like the dinosaurs frequently seen in movies?
The Kaiju, provisionally named Swift Dragon, had now come ashore in Canghai City and was advancing toward the urban center.
Its tough, armored scales rendered the technological weapons deployed along Canghai's border defenses all but useless, while its sheer size meant that even simply moving through the city was a natural disaster in itself.
Under normal circumstances, rather than hoping for a savior to appear and challenge this monster alone, wouldn't it be more reasonable to pin one's hopes on the orbital satellite cannons that had been deployed elsewhere to strike it down?
Naturally, no lone savior appeared to single-handedly defeat this monster. But how should one put it when it comes to the nation of Shenzhou? Everyone knows that true masters dwell among the common folk.
Even a mere food delivery rider might secretly possess who-knows-how-many special skills. And when people with a bit of ability see their own home about to be destroyed, there's no way they can just sit still, right?
To put it plainly, just as the monster pushed into the Bund district, several strange figures leaped out from among the panicked, fleeing crowds.
Even facing a walking catastrophe like the Swift Dragon, they stepped forward without fear. Though the idea of actually halting the Swift Dragon's advance seemed… not particularly likely, all things considered.
"Forget chipping away at its feet—we haven't even knocked off a single toenail from this thing!"
"Hey, that's not entirely fair. My iron spear did manage to crack this little monster's toenail!"
"Isn't that even more embarrassing? All that effort and all we did was crack a toenail?"
These were people who hadn't known each other before this—a group thrown together on the spot. The enthusiastic citizens of Canghai City, wielding an assortment of weapons, had been forced back once more by the monster's advance. They regrouped in a disheveled state… though "forced back" wasn't exactly right, since the Kaiju codenamed Swift Dragon (provisional) hadn't paid the slightest attention to these people poking and prodding at its scales.
Tell me, have you ever heard of tunnel-digging with a toothpick?
The handful of enthusiastic citizens were all hesitating—wondering whether they should fall back to the second defensive line that Canghai City's officials were setting up, and simply wait for reinforcements that might or might not ever come. Because with what little they had to work with, fighting this monster was just utterly pointless.
/-\
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