2109 An Ordinary Thanos, an Ordinary Start

Of the battleships Luke had supplied them with, the cheapest were the mid-tier trash at over 1,000 credit points, while the most expensive were the third-class models that were worth over 10,000 credit points.

He didn't mind the youngsters being more ambitious, but there were only about 130 of these battleships.

If these guys threw themselves forward without a care, just for the sake of earning points, these biggest weapons for drawing fire might be lost too quickly.

At that time, Thanos wouldn't even need to move, and would be able to slowly crush Earth's allied army with his fleet.

Thus, it was necessary to impose the condition that any violation of orders would affect the reimbursement.

It couldn't be helped. Everybody knew that the points from this battle would definitely be very high.

Back in the Battle of New York, the Chitauri had only been Thanos's lackeys, and everyone had earned a lot of credit points.

If the credit points weren't multiplied tenfold now that they were fighting the real boss, they really wouldn't be worthy of the battleships they were piloting.

Thanos arrived faster than Luke had expected. Less than two hours later, his entire fleet entered Earth's atmosphere.

Apart from Thanos's mega warship which Luke had seen in 2023, there were more than 50 strange donut-shaped spaceships. They were all black and had spinning components in the middle.

However, Thanos didn't immediately land like in 2023. Clearly, this person had never seen Thor cut off his head, and his mood was still stable.

Dozens of kilometers above the ground, the donut ships were already launching attacks.

They deployed triangular-shaped dropships which descended rapidly.

The friction between the dropships' protective shields and the atmosphere created streaks of bright flames which made them look like meteors.

The core members simply watched everything silently with calm expressions.

When the dropships were dozens of kilometers away from the ground, the first wave of attacks came from the anti-aircraft turrets outside Wakanda's protective shield.

Fine fiery streaks flashed through the air. Some brushed past the dropships, and some hit them.

The extremely fast vibranium artillery shells easily tore through the dropships' protective shields and hulls, and quickly released the terrifying energy they contained.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Bright fireworks exploded in the sky above Wakanda.

Of the hundred or so dropships, only a third weren't hit, and crashed to the ground.

The doors of the dropships opened.

Countless four-armed monsters, heavy infantry, vehicles, and giant beasts swarmed toward Wakanda.

In the meeting hall where everybody had gathered before, only Luke, Strange and T'Challa now stood in front of the French windows.

"It seems that we can't count on Thanos to come down." Luke's expression was still calm even as he relayed the bad news.

After closing his eyes for a moment, Strange shook his head. "These ships have very strong blocks; whether it's a portal or other spells, it'll be hard to use them directly against those protective shields."

Luke made a sound of acknowledgment, unsurprised.

If a portal could be opened willy-nilly on or next to the ships, it could be moved to accommodate half a ship before it was closed, thus cutting the ship in two.

If things were that simple, Strange could wipe out all of Thanos's fleet in minutes; would Luke have needed to play a guessing game with him in 2023?

In 2023, Thanos had come down purely because he had been enraged by the Avengers' perseverance.

He even sat down and waited for the Avengers to deliver themselves to his door to be beaten up, mostly to vent his anger.

Besides, he had brought a mega warship with him to deal with the Avengers' small numbers – there was no need to be on guard too much.

It would be like Luke bringing all the members of the Justice League with him to deal with a small gang in Africa; he wouldn't just bombard them from 800 kilometers away and be done with it.

What was the point of all of them going then?

Thanos clearly wouldn't do that.

Earth was still a weak chicken to him.

In any case, Luke and the others had never counted on this boss being stupid.

Now, they were just feeling out the situation as they reverted to a typical battle strategy.

Of course, they were mainly sounding out Thanos. He clearly didn't think much of them, or the dropships wouldn't have landed without any cover from other battleships or fighter planes.

Looking at Thanos's land troops that were swarming over like ants from a distance, T'Challa said, "Then we have to force their main force to come out, or Thanos definitely won't move."

Luke hummed in response, and Strange closed his eyes again.

The four-armed monsters that were the fastest had already hit Wakanda's protective shield. The light blue shield was thin, but very hard to break through.

The four-armed monsters tried to push through the shield, but most of them were cut in half halfway, and less than 10% of them survived intact.

Wakanda, however, had no intention of letting the shield consume too much energy – wouldn't it be a waste not to use the offensive power of the vibranium weapons?

Soon, a quarter of the shield opened.

Now that there was no longer an obstruction, the four-armed monsters swarmed inside. The rest of the four-armed monsters outside the shield also moved toward the gap.

These living weapons weren't afraid of death, and still retained some of the instinct to crawl through a hole.

What greeted them was a barrage of small-scale energy bullets from all directions.

There were a lot of light blue energy bullets, and though they couldn't top the firepower from a Gatling gun, they were astonishingly accurate.

After charging hundreds of meters, the four-armed monsters collapsed one after another near the gap.

In just a few minutes, there was a pile of bodies.

Thanos's warship in the sky also reacted.

Large worm battleships descended, and were closely followed by small fighter planes.

On Wakanda's side, the cannon fodder remotely piloted fighter planes sponsored by Luke poured out to meet them.

Only then did the real show begin.

The fighter planes quickly approached the firing range. Instantly, energy explosions in a variety of colors covered the entire sky; even the hot African afternoon sun couldn't hide their brilliance.

Neither side used missiles since it was hard to lock onto agile fighter planes.

In any case, missiles from the unmanned planes became live targets for the energy shells of the space fighter planes; the moment they flew out, they were turned to dust in a shower of light.

Compared with the bodies and carnage on the ground, the battle in the air was undoubtedly more dazzling.

The distance between both sides was very wide. The sky looked packed, but the battle in fact covered hundreds of kilometers in the air.

Even then, hundreds of fireworks exploded in the air every second.

The two big worm battleships in the lead also became the focus of hundreds of energy bullets, and their shields couldn't protect them.

After the first barrage of energy bullets shattered their shields, the subsequent barrage left dozens of glowing holes in the hull.

In an instant, light flashed inside, and the two big worm battleships exploded into countless pieces, turning into the biggest fireworks in this first confrontation.