The seawater of Tokyo Bay was no longer a gentle azure, but had transformed into a churning, roaring, dark green abyss.
The sky was torn by heavy, leaden clouds and the abnormal thunderstorms brought by the Sea King, with electric snakes dancing wildly, illuminating the battlefield below, which resembled a hellish scroll.
The Sea King's colossal, mountain-like body finally broke through the last horizon, officially revealing its terror to all living beings.
It was not a traditional marine creature, but rather an aggregation of countless deep-sea aberrations and ancient legends, covered in dull, light-absorbing scales, wielding limbs like giant anchors.
The sheer mental pressure emanating from its existence alone was enough to make ordinary people tremble with fear and collapse to the ground.
It hadn't even truly landed; it merely raised a colossal arm, covered in thick mucus and barnacles, and then swung it violently towards the coastal defense line!
Boom—!!!
It wasn't a direct physical Impact, but rather the manipulation of tens of thousands of tons of seawater, forming a super-heavy water wall dozens of meters high and several kilometers wide, like a World-ending flood from mythology, carrying an aura of destruction as it slammed down onto the shore!
"Zone A! Maximum defense! Hold it!" The Association's frontline Commander's voice shrieked over the public channel, almost breaking.
"Crystallization · Giant Wall!" Flint Marko, the Sandman, an S-Rank pillar of the Association, was the first to react.
He roared, pushing his sand manipulation ability to its limit, mixing it with countless sand and rocks drawn from the shore, instantly constructing a super sand wall at the very front of the defense line.
This wall was far thicker and wider than anything used in training, and the side facing the water wall was completely covered with a dense crystallized layer!
Almost simultaneously, other heroes of the Association with defensive abilities—energy shields, force fields, freezing domains—various lights flared up on the front line, attempting to jointly resist this force of nature.
"Bang!!!!!!"
The super-heavy water wall, in a posture of crushing everything, slammed hard into the joint defense line!
The Sandman's crystallized barrier emitted a grating screech, the crystallized layer flickering violently under the terrifying water pressure and Impact, with cracks spreading like spiderwebs.
But it ultimately did not shatter instantly, instead, it stubbornly withstood the most violent first wave of Impact!
However, other, slightly weaker defensive measures shattered like foam upon contact, with the energy backlash causing several heroes to spit blood and fly backward on the spot.
Although the water wall was blocked, its terrifying kinetic energy and the massive amount of seawater that surged over the defense line still rushed into Zone B and even Zone C like a rampaging beast!
Buildings were toppled like building blocks, vehicles were swept up and smashed, and civilians who hadn't fully evacuated struggled desperately in the murky seawater.
"Zone B! Intercept the breakthrough! Save people!"
"Zone C! Abandon fixed facilities! Prioritize evacuating civilians! Quick!"
The Association's command channel was instantly flooded with various emergency calls.
Heroes, according to system allocation and Commander's orders, desperately fulfilled their duties amidst the chaos.
Speed-type heroes weaved through the waves, pulling out one drowning person after another; strength-type heroes lifted collapsed steel beams, creating space for those trapped; plant-manipulating heroes frantically grew vines, weaving them into rescue ropes...
However, just as the Association's heroes were attempting to re-establish order in this chaos, another style of "reinforcement" joined the battle in a very conspicuous, even crude, manner.
A piercing whoosh came from the sky as Iron Man, in gold and red, swooped down like a meteor, his palm cannons and shoulder missile pods firing at full power.
Blazing beams and explosions erupted in dazzling flashes of Fire on the Sea King's massive body.
"Big guy! Try this!" Tony's voice came through the external loudspeaker, carrying his characteristic taunt.
"Jarvis, analyze its shell composition, find weak points!"
His attack successfully drew some of the Sea King's attention, and a giant tentacle swept like a steel whip at Iron Man, who was nimbly weaving through the air.
"Stark! Pay attention to coordinating with the defense line!" Captain America Steve Rogers' voice sounded through the Avengers' internal channel, with a hint of helplessness.
He himself was in a square half-submerged in seawater, using his star shield to precisely deflect flying debris and broken steel bars, protecting civilians who were evacuating under the organization of Association heroes.
He tried to observe the entire battlefield, looking for entry points and ways to cooperate, but the Association's efficient yet closed command system made him feel like he was looking through frosted glass, unable to effectively integrate.
"Coordinate? Captain, do you think they need it? They have their own 'rules of the game'!" Tony deftly dodged the tentacle attack, firing a miniature armor-piercing round into a gap in one of the Sea King's compound eyes.
"What I'm doing now is creating an output space for them!"
No sooner had he finished speaking than a figure appeared like a ghost at the joint of another of the Sea King's flailing giant arms.
Black Widow Natasha Romanoff's specialized taser erupted with dazzling blue arcs, attempting to paralyze its motor nerves.
At the same time, several explosive arrows shot from tricky angles, precisely hitting weak points at the joint connections; this was support provided by Hawkeye Clint Barton from a distant vantage point.
The Avengers' attacks were fierce and precise, demonstrating the individual capabilities and tacit understanding of top Agents and Super Soldiers.
But the problem also lay here—their actions were based on their instantaneous judgment of the battlefield, a deadly raid by top hunters.
The Association's defense line, on the other hand, was a modular, positional defense based on system data and unified dispatch.
Between the two, there was a lack of effective communication and coordination.
For example, just as the Sandman had expended enormous energy to condense several huge crystallized sand spears on the left side of the defense line, preparing to launch a concentrated attack on a certain part of the Sea King's carapace with his own firepower, Iron Man happened to unleash a salvo in the same area.
The flames and Impact of the explosion not only failed to create superimposed damage with the sand spears but also interfered with the trajectory and density of the sand spears, greatly reducing the effectiveness of the attack.
Another example: when a B-Class Hero of the Association with "Water Flow Control" ability finally managed to create a relatively stable vortex in the chaotic seawater, attempting to restrict the movement of some of the Sea King's tentacles and guide trapped civilians to a safe area, Captain America, in order to rescue another group of civilians trapped under a collapsed billboard, had to throw his star shield to shatter the billboard.
The spinning shield accidentally crashed into the carefully maintained vortex, instantly destroying its stability and causing the civilians who had finally been guided to be scattered again by the turbulent flow.
"Hey! You, throwing the shield! Watch out!" The hero with Water Flow Control yelled in the channel, furious.
Steve caught the returning shield, looked at the chaotic Water area before him again, frowned deeply, and apologized in a low voice: "Sorry! It was an emergency!"
Similar frictions and misjudgments occurred frequently on the battlefield.
The Avengers habitually looked for key points to break through and decapitate, while the Association was dedicated to maintaining the integrity of the overall defense line and rescue efficiency.
The two sides were like two radios on different frequencies; although their goals were consistent, they generated a lot of interference and internal friction at the execution level.
"Damn it! Do they even have a unified command?!" Tony complained in the Avengers channel after his attack route was almost blocked again by a temporary earthen wall constructed by Association heroes (to block splashing acidic mucus).
"Stark, focus on the target!" Steve shouted, shielding several Association logistics personnel with his shield, "They are trying their best to protect civilians!"
The battlefield had completely descended into chaos.
It was no longer a simple confrontation between enemy and ally, but an unavoidable collision and friction between the Association's Shield of Order and the Avengers' Spear of Freedom, as they jointly fought against the destructive beast.
Seawater, Fire, mud, energy beams, explosions, shouts, alarms... everything intertwined, forming a symphony of death full of power, courage, but also disorder and chaos.
And all of this was faithfully recorded by high-altitude drone cameras and by journalists daring to risk their lives to film from distant buildings, spreading across the World.
People saw the heroes' fearlessness, and they also saw... the obvious rift and chaos between two vastly different savior groups.
Sandman Flint stood behind the constantly impacted crystallized barrier, watching Iron Man, who was nimbly weaving through the air but occasionally disrupting their rhythm, and then looked at the civilians in the distance who had been freed with the help of Captain America.
He silently condensed more sand.
He only knew that the boss's order was to hold the line and buy time.
As for those "legendary heroes" in strange costumes, fighting independently... as long as they didn't directly attack Association members, let them be.
Chaos continued to brew under the Shadow of destruction.