Dozens, even hundreds, of golden bullets slammed fiercely into the shield Sif held.
The broad shield covered most of Sif's body.
Only a few stray bullets struck Sif's calves, but the metal greaves completely protected her skin.
The immense impact kept Sif rooted in place behind her shield, temporarily unable to advance.
A force powerful enough to send an ordinary person flying only made it slightly difficult for Sif to move forward. After all, May's mission for her had been to guard the entrance and draw the enemies' attention from the front.
One golden bullet after another flattened into tiny brass discs against Sif's shield and fell to the floor. Before long, a large pile of metal fragments had accumulated at Sif's feet.
Even so, not a single mark appeared on Sif's shield.
This rare Uru Alloy possessed an exceptional affinity with divine power. Even in Asgard, there were not many weapons forged from Uru Alloy.
Over countless ages, Nidavellir had specially developed this alloy to suit Asgard's divine power. It was not only explosively durable, but the greater the divine power bestowed upon it, the more closely its resonance frequency matched.
Weapons forged from Uru Alloy could even become divine artifacts of immense power.
Like Gungnir in Odin's hand and Mjolnir wielded by Thor, they were all like this.
The sword and shield in Sif's hands were closer to standard-issue weapons. Still, if they were continuously nurtured with divine power, they would gradually reveal other abilities.
Just as Sif could now enlarge and shrink her shield and split her longsword in two, these were miraculous powers born from divine nurturing.
Very soon, a different burst of gunfire rang out through the entire banquet hall.
May and the others broke in through the stage back door and the emergency doors on both sides, rapidly picking off the shooters inside the hall.
Against ordinary guards without professional training or shooting skills, the Elite Squad led by May could easily take on five or six each.
Especially in a straightforward firefight like this, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s elite agents utterly outclassed everyone else.
In less than a minute, every person firing in the banquet hall had been knocked unconscious.
Only one S.H.I.E.L.D. agent had been shot in the arm.
May still held her gun as she watched the crowd below, caution in her eyes.
Her sharp, cold, hawk-like gaze swept sternly across every face below.
Sif shook the Giant Shield in her hand, returning it to its Small Shield form, then strode inside and looked over everyone still standing.
After confirming that Lorelei was not among the women, a trace of resentment appeared in her eyes.
At the same time, she confirmed that every man at the scene had been hit and had completely lost the ability to fight.
Nearly three hundred women had been gathered and tied together, occupying the center of the banquet hall.
The Team Members immediately stepped forward to conduct Information Input Comparison on every man, determining each person's identity.
Several others moved forward to remove the women's restraints and tear away the tape sealing their mouths.
Some of the women had already awakened from unconsciousness and showed excited expressions upon seeing May and the others.
For a moment, the entire scene became somewhat chaotic.
A young woman dressed in luxurious clothes struggled and cried out, "Wait!! Wait! I saw those out-of-control men carrying explosives over here before, and then I was knocked unconscious!"
The moment she said this, the scene immediately fell silent.
The agents took a step back, their expressions tense as they looked at the Hostages before them.
The nearly hundred women who had just been untied immediately began checking their bodies in panic.
Very quickly, it became clear that none of the women who had been freed had explosives tied to their bodies.
If the young woman was right, then the explosives could only be among the remaining hundred-plus people.
Quite a few women were still unconscious and had not noticed S.H.I.E.L.D.'s arrival.
"Describe exactly what you saw. The Hostages who have already been freed, stand at the edge of the banquet hall. Team Members, continue searching from the outside inward."
"Yes, ma'am."
More than a dozen Team Members still stepped forward without hesitation to free the bound targets one by one.
However, because of the threat of concealed explosives, their efficiency slowed considerably, and they became wary of many things.
Sif remained standing to one side, her eyes fixed seriously on the hundred-plus people who were still tied up as she rapidly analyzed the situation.
Meanwhile, a female member who had been holding a Mini Computer and compiling data kept tapping away at the keyboard, as though new information was constantly coming in.
The rescued young woman told May what she had seen at the time.
"I remember a very tall man. He was handsome and had been following that enchantress the whole time. He carried a bundle of yellow Tubular Items in his hands and walked into the crowd."
"After that, I was knocked unconscious, but I saw that scene very clearly," the young woman said with certainty.
Just as the Female Members were freeing the Hostages, the battle outside the hotel finally erupted in full.
Guards stationed throughout the hotel fired at the Combat Squad without regard for their lives, continuing to shoot even after taking bullets themselves.
This reckless fighting style caused the S.H.I.E.L.D. Combat Squad considerable trouble.
After all, the enemy had a massive Population Base. More than a hundred people were fighting against barely twenty of them, and with such a desperate attitude, several people were injured in no time.
Worse still, in the end, one team member was caught in a barrage of Concentrated Firepower and died right before everyone's eyes.
That only further ignited the fury of the others.
Yet the enemies lying unconscious on the ground had nothing but Anesthetic Venom left on their faces, without even a trace of fresh blood.
Their own teammate, however, lay to one side covered in fresh blood, never again able to open his eyes and see the world.
That left them furious and helpless.
The hands gripping their guns tightened further, veins bulging across them.
One of them angrily drew the pistol from his waist and aimed it at the figure on the ground.
"Dek! Calm down, we're carrying out a mission!!"
A thick arm grabbed Dek's gun and forced it down.
"Captain, we've never carried out a mission like this before! Why can't we use Lethal Weapons against the enemy?!"
"Carry out the orders from above. We already knew these people were all being controlled!"
"Bullshit! Where the hell do you see that?!"
Dek resentfully holstered his gun. "These people clearly wanted nothing more than to kill us!!"
"That is the most terrifying part. It is another unknown superpower!!" The experienced Captain said as he looked at the twisted faces on the ground.
"Captain, all the data has been uploaded. It is being compared and analyzed against the data from the other squad!"
A team member holding a Mini Computer reported this.
"But it looks like something happened over there!!"