Counterattack

The more than one hundred beekeepers were basically ordinary people; only the guns in their hands were somewhat unusual, and the bullets they fired seemed to carry an electric shock that caused paralysis. But that slight paralytic effect seemed to have no effect on the candidate X-Men.

Within minutes, the hundred or so beekeepers were all down. Most had been knocked unconscious, while only a dozen or so clutched various parts of their bodies and wailed in agony, their cries incomparably shrill.

"Teacher, will the others be attacked too?" After dealing with the enemies before them, the five began worrying about the other candidates.

Alex frowned slightly and thought for a moment before saying, "Do you want to continue the mission, or go back now?" Alex did not believe Strucker had only these weaklings with combat power below five. If some formidable people showed up, Alex would truly be worried.

"Teacher, we won’t give up." The five exchanged glances, then answered in unison, their voices loud and resolute.

Alex nodded. "All right. From now on, all of you stay with me!" To ensure everyone’s safety, Alex had no choice but to make this decision.

Teleportation activated. Alex led the five candidates through the vast Poseidonia, constantly fighting beekeepers. As time passed, the group behind Alex grew larger and larger.

Glancing at the more than eighty candidates behind him, Alex became increasingly anxious. He had searched almost all of Poseidonia, yet the remaining dozen or so candidates were nowhere to be found. This worried Alex greatly.

"Wait here. I’ll go look for them!" The moment Alex finished speaking, he teleported away.

The moment he appeared in the Floating Temple, Emma’s voice rang out. "The remaining dozen candidates are together, at one of Hydra’s secret bases—not the base beneath the artificial lake."

Hearing this, Alex looked toward Emma, but his attention was quickly drawn to the image on the display beside her.

In the footage, two groups were fighting fiercely. One side was none other than the dozen or so candidates who had been missing all along; the other was a group of humanoid creatures that resembled Descendants of Atlantis, yet were somewhat different.

What surprised Alex even more was that these humanoid creatures seemed to surpass ordinary humans in physical ability, strength, and agility. Even the elemental abilities of several mutants had little effect when they struck them.

"What are these?" As Alex stared at the strange humanoid creatures, his heart suddenly trembled for no reason, leaving him uneasy.

"They are all Biochemical Mutants, modified from Descendants of Atlantis."

Upon hearing Emma’s words, Alex stood stunned for a full three seconds before finally crying out in disbelief, "How is that possible?" Alex had once witnessed the cowardly nature of the Descendants of Atlantis. How could they possibly be the savage, beastlike killers on the display?

"There is a ninety percent chance." Emma spoke expressionlessly, but her eyes gleamed. "If you can bring back some experimental samples, we can study them carefully."

"The situation has changed. The candidates’ mission is temporarily suspended!" Looking at the dozen or so candidates on the display, who could barely fight back at all, Alex said without hesitation, "Leave everything else to me!"

With lightning speed, Alex swiftly brought all the hundred-plus candidates back to the Floating Island, then appeared once more at the newly discovered secret base.

When Alex appeared again, the Biochemical Mutants, who had become somewhat confused after losing their enemies, froze for a moment before immediately charging at him.

Without the burden of teaching, Alex no longer needed to hide his strength. Looking at the nearly thousand Biochemical Mutants swarming before him, Alex gave a cold snort and unleashed one copied ability after another. On one side, he controlled five steel pellets that flew everywhere like buckshot, constantly leaving bloody holes in the bodies of the zombies. On the other, he summoned a tornado with one hand, sending a large number of Biochemical Mutants into the air, where sharp wind blades carved wounds deep enough to expose bone across their bodies.

Watching countless Biochemical Mutants turn into bloody figures yet still charge at him without pause, Alex developed a headache. Not only were their numbers not decreasing, they kept increasing over time. Alex’s killing speed could no longer keep up with their rate of growth.

Just as he grew anxious, Alex had a sudden idea. He transformed the five steel pellets into countless silver needles as fine as cow hairs, then swept them into the tornado, creating a metallic tornado that produced an unexpectedly powerful effect and dealt unimaginable damage.

More importantly, this consumed far less energy for Alex. He only needed to activate one ability to produce the effects of two—an overwhelming result where one plus one was greater than two.

In less than ten minutes, all the Biochemical Mutants before him had become riddled, shattered wrecks. Repairing them was basically impossible.

After waiting a long while without seeing anyone else emerge, Alex guessed that all the Biochemical Mutants in this secret base had been killed. But out of caution, Alex used invisibility, a copied ability, and carefully advanced deeper into the base.

After some effort, Alex discovered that the entire base was empty, without a single living thing left.

With a thought, Alex instantly vanished from the base and arrived at the enormous, hidden underground base beneath the artificial lake.

To Alex’s surprise, the instant he leaped out of the void, before his feet had even touched the ground, countless bullets were already tearing through the air toward him. They were so densely packed that they formed a vast cloud of bullets, descending upon Alex from above.

Alex had no time to defend himself and was instantly engulfed by the bullet cloud. A rapid crackling like exploding firecrackers rang out, followed by a thick cloud of smoke.

In the Floating Temple, Howard stood up nervously, his face filled with worry.

Seeing this, Emma gave a soft laugh and shook her head. "Don’t worry. He’ll be fine."

Howard froze for a moment before realizing that Alex should have copied Sebastian Shaw’s energy-absorption ability. Those bullets striking him would likely only strengthen Alex’s terrifying destructive power.

Sure enough, the moment the thought faded from Howard’s mind, the smoke on the display dispersed. Alex stood unharmed in the center, a wicked smile on his face.

With a light stomp of his right foot, Alex unleashed the enormous energy within his body in a single burst, sending it back toward his attackers. Explosions erupted one after another, and in an instant, countless people turned to ash and vanished completely.

Watching Alex display such overwhelming might and nearly slaughter everyone in the underground base beneath the artificial lake in mere moments, Howard could not help letting out a long sigh. "Mutants truly are God’s favored children. Even I’m a little jealous of you."

Emma merely smiled faintly and said nothing. Among mutants, there were almost none as powerful as Alex, and the mutant abilities of the vast majority of mutants were useless.