Threat

Alex, who had been slaughtering the dinosaur army, suddenly sensed a powerful force appear behind him. Worried, he turned around and realized it was Crystal. After a brief pause, he smiled.

Crystal could activate and control the four elements of earth, water, fire, and air. Not only could she manipulate them individually, but she could also combine them into countless forms at will. It could be said that Crystal’s potential was limitless. However, she had always been somewhat lax and content with the status quo, so her abilities had never been properly developed or strengthened. Every ability required training, and the most effective form of training was combat!

In Attilan, she had been the princess of the Inhuman race, noble in status. Why would she ever need to fight and kill? After leaving Attilan, she had Alex, an expert, by her side, leaving Crystal with even fewer chances to act. Thus, despite her limitless potential, Crystal had virtually no chance to improve. Unexpectedly, this time, the influence of her various emotions had instead helped Crystal break through!

When Alex withdrew his gaze from Crystal, he had unknowingly already carved his way through the dinosaur army. What met him head-on were AIM soldiers armed with terrifying rocket launchers, followed immediately by a dense barrage of bullets.

Alex waved away the blade formation before him and deliberately charged into the rain-like hail of bullets. He even used Energy Control to create a massive net, guiding every bullet outside his body toward himself.

With his experience fighting Hydra, Alex would no longer foolishly activate an electromagnetic field. This was good enough. He could absorb them slowly; there was no need to rush!

Here, Alex had no reservations. The instant he absorbed the bullets’ energy, he transformed it into Red Impact Beams and swept them outward. Alex deliberately kept the beams low to avoid colliding with the incoming bullets. Under the dense waves of Impact Beams, countless AIM soldiers fell like rice beneath a sickle, row after row.

Behind them, Strucker nearly went mad at the sight. He knew Alex could absorb energy, but he had never imagined Alex would be this terrifying. How many bullets had they fired already? These were no ordinary bullets; otherwise, they could not have threatened mutants or made Alex so wary. Yet Alex had swallowed at least tens of thousands of them, by Strucker’s estimate. He was practically a bottomless pit!

Watching the forces he had painstakingly amassed about to be completely depleted, Strucker finally panicked and hurriedly ordered a retreat. But by then, it was clearly too late.

Alex, bloodlust blazing in his eyes, became even more berserk. Energy Impact Beams could no longer satisfy his urge to vent. He stomped his feet, sending immense energy through his soles and into the ground. It spread forward, creating a small earthquake beneath the area occupied by the massive AIM army.

The earthquake was only small in terms of its affected area; its magnitude was anything but minor. The ground within a kilometer cracked like shattered glass, and the entire stretch of land sank more than ten meters, nearly burying the entire AIM army alive.

In the sky, the six X-Men were nowhere near as powerful as Alex. They were already having trouble dodging the bullets filling the air. Alex was only one person, after all, and could not stop every AIM soldier. Quite a few AIM soldiers still shifted their targets toward Crystal and the others in the sky.

Crystal was doing better. Her sudden increase in strength allowed her to handle the situation with ease, and a wall of air blocked every bullet. The other six X-Men were not so fortunate. They spent most of their time dodging and rarely had any opportunity to counterattack.

When they saw Alex nearly bury the entire AIM army with a single move, everyone was stunned—both the battered six X-Men and the composed Crystal. Their gazes toward Alex were filled with admiration.

After a brief daze, Crystal seemed to realize something. Looking at the collapsed ground, she suddenly had the same idea. Under her control, the sunken earth began to shake again, then trembled violently once more. It was much weaker than before, like the aftershock following a major earthquake.

But if that were all, it would not have displayed Crystal’s abilities.

Amid the aftershocks, half-meter-wide pits flickered in and out of existence throughout the area, swiftly swallowing AIM soldiers. Even if the soldiers tried to struggle, it was useless. The pits were like swamps; once they sank in, there was no getting out.

Alex was the first to recover. He turned toward Crystal, raised a thumbs-up, and smiled approvingly.

Inside the collapsed pits, many people had died miserably in the first earthquake, but quite a few had survived, though every one of them was injured. Yet under the aftershocks Crystal created, many more died.

The entire AIM army was almost completely wiped out!

Strucker’s heart was bleeding. His eyes were filled with hatred as he looked at Alex, and a trace of madness flashed across his face. "Even if I die, I’ll drag you down with me!"

Alex had been smiling, but upon hearing those words, he froze. He suddenly remembered something extremely important: AIM held the lifeline of the Savage Land in its hands!

As long as Strucker was willing, AIM could destroy the entire Savage Land’s super ecosystem at any time. Without the super ecosystem left behind by the aliens, the Savage Land could not possibly endure. It could even be destroyed in an instant!

"No!" Alex panicked. He used telepathy to control Strucker’s mind, hoping to stop Strucker’s evil act that way. But as he took control, Alex discovered that even controlling Strucker was useless.

That was because Strucker had planned ahead. If anything happened to him—whether he was captured, controlled, or killed—AIM would definitely destroy the Savage Land’s ecosystem.

After learning this, Alex could only release Strucker again, his face full of unwillingness.

"Alex, aren’t you supposed to be so strong?" Strucker seemed to have found a way to deal with Alex. He looked at Alex arrogantly and roared smugly, "If you’ve got the guts, come kill me! Kill me!"

Anger flared in Alex’s heart, but he had no choice but to suppress it. His face reddened as he glared viciously at Strucker and asked through gritted teeth, "Strucker, what exactly do you want?!"

"You dead!" Strucker had likely truly been driven mad with rage. Without considering any consequences, he pointed at Alex and shouted, "Otherwise, I’ll destroy the Savage Land’s ecosystem immediately!"

The dinosaur army they had prepared with such painstaking effort had nearly been slaughtered by Alex alone, while the AIM army equipped with powerful rocket launchers had also been almost annihilated. AIM no longer had any advantage in the Savage Land. They would also have to face attacks from the Hellfire Club and the Brotherhood of Mutants. AIM would inevitably have to withdraw completely from the Savage Land, perhaps even vanish from existence, or face only destruction. Therefore, Strucker was determined to destroy the Savage Land!

Faced with such a future, Strucker naturally regretted everything bitterly. But matters had reached this point, and he only wanted to teach Alex a lesson. That was why he made such a demand.