"My lord! Algrim is in trouble!" Behind Malekith, a Dark Elf approached to deliver the news.
Malekith narrowed his eyes as he watched Thor, surrounded by lightning, on the display: "Asgardian warrior! Grandson of Bor! Son of Odin! Kill him!!!"
At his command, the massive mothership began to turn, its weapons targeting Thor on the ground.
Tony, flying alongside the mothership and attempting to destroy its central core, immediately noticed the vessel's movement. Through JARVIS's calculations, he quickly determined their intent.
He immediately shouted a warning: "Thor! Look out! They're targeting you!"
When Thor looked up, he saw the mothership's weapons aimed directly at him. Thinking quickly, he rushed toward Algrim.
As long as he remained engaged with Algrim, the Dark Elves would hesitate to fire. Algrim was clearly different from the others—a high-ranking officer. They wouldn't risk his life recklessly.
Just as Thor anticipated, when he reached Algrim, who was climbing up from a wrecked car, the mothership's weapons stopped tracking him and the energy they had been accumulating dissipated.
Seeing this, Thor smiled slightly, but in the next moment, Algrim knocked him away, sending him crashing into a shop.
Thor emerged quickly, relatively unharmed, and re-engaged Algrim in combat...
Realizing he couldn't target Thor with the ship's weapons, Malekith decided to personally leave the mothership with a contingent of soldiers, planning to rendezvous with Algrim and defeat Thor together.
What he didn't know was that Captain Marvel was about to arrive in New York. Since the Sky Screen had never revealed Captain Marvel's existence, Malekith had no knowledge of such a powerful being on Earth.
In his assessment, only two individuals on Earth—Thor and the Hulk—posed any threat to Algrim. As long as Thor was neutralized, the Hulk, in Malekith's estimation, would be manageable.
Unfortunately, he would soon regret his arrogance. Malekith had just exited the mothership with several Dark Elves to confront Thor when, seconds later, Captain Marvel arrived in New York, immediately spotting the mothership hovering above the city.
At this moment, Tony was circling the mothership in his Mark Destroyer One armor, continuously firing destructive energy beams at the glowing core of the vessel. However, the power core was heavily shielded, and he couldn't breach its defenses.
The Dark Elves aboard the mothership quickly noticed him, trained their weapons on Tony, and pursued him relentlessly. They also dispatched two smaller warships to intercept him. Tony was forced to evade the barrage of attacks.
Ross's artillery continued bombarding the mothership. In response, the vessel quickly located the artillery positions outside New York. After an exchange of fire, the mothership remained undamaged while Ross's artillery batteries suffered severe losses.
Ross slammed his fist on the table repeatedly in frustration, but there was little he could do. The Dark Elf mothership's construction materials far exceeded Earth's current metallurgical capabilities. Perhaps armor-piercing rounds might be effective, but conventional warheads couldn't penetrate the outer hull.
Captain Marvel narrowed her eyes at the scene before her, then abruptly accelerated toward the mothership. Before the Dark Elves could react, she smashed directly through the power core and emerged from the other side.
Seconds later, the entire mothership began experiencing successive internal explosions as it plummeted toward the ground. Fortunately, it didn't collapse completely—a total structural failure would have devastated the surrounding buildings. The remaining Dark Elves inside scrambled in panic.
Tony watched as Captain Marvel effortlessly destroyed the mothership's power plant and couldn't help exclaiming: "Nice work, Carol! Let's keep them on Earth!"
Captain Marvel, who had punched through the mothership, turned to survey the damaged vessel that had lost power, then shifted her attention to the seven or eight Dark Elf warships circling nearby.
"I'll handle these smaller vessels! Stark, find a way inside and secure control of the mothership! Fury will be very interested in studying it!"
"No problem! JARVIS, transfer partial drone swarm control to EDITH. I need additional computing power to analyze the ship's control systems!"
"Yes, sir! Control of the orbital drone swarm has been transferred to EDITH!" JARVIS promptly complied with Tony's instructions.
Tony then entered the mothership through the breach created by Captain Marvel.
On the ground, Malekith heard the commotion and turned around, staring in disbelief at the mothership as it lost power amid explosions.
He realized that a hasty invasion of Earth might have been unwise, but there was no turning back. If he couldn't recover the Aether particles, he would rather die on Earth.
As he attempted to rejoin Algrim, Natasha intercepted him, Mjolnir raised: "Where do you think you're going?"
Malekith narrowed his eyes at the hammer in Natasha's hand: "The Mjolnir of Bor's grandson... You are Natasha, correct?"
"That's right!" Natasha smiled slightly, then dispensed with further conversation. These enemies had invaded Earth, and diplomacy was no longer an option. She swung Mjolnir to attack.
The Dark Elves surrounding Malekith immediately opened fire on Natasha. She dodged sideways and waited until Mjolnir struck one of the Dark Elves before recalling it to her hand. A bolt of lightning descended from the sky, striking another enemy.
She continued her assault without hesitation. Although Malekith was a king, without the Aether particles, his strength was not significantly greater than that of his soldiers.
He was soon overwhelmed by Natasha's relentless attacks.
Seeing this from a distance, Algrim knocked Thor back with a powerful blow and rushed toward Malekith, only to be intercepted halfway by Strange.
Previously, Strange had been using portals to evacuate civilians, but now that most people had been moved to safety, he finally had time to confront the Dark Elves.
Algrim glared coldly at him and attempted to engage in close combat. Although Strange had mastered numerous combat spells, he doubted his ability to defeat the Kursed warrior. However, if he could simply delay him, that would be sufficient.
Strange created multiple illusory duplicates of himself. Momentarily confused by the many identical figures floating around him, Algrim hesitated. Then Strange employed the "Forms of Ikonn," conjuring countless crimson bands that ensnared Algrim.
Algrim began pulling against his restraints, his incredible strength making it difficult for Strange to maintain his hold. Soon, Christine arrived. While not as skilled as Strange, she added her own magical reinforcement to the binding spell.
As a purely physical combatant, Algrim could only rage helplessly against the mystical practitioners, unable to break free through brute strength alone.
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