Feeling that the situation was completely under control, the guards in the watchtower did not take it too seriously. Calmly, they pressed the broadcast button and issued an order.
"Prisoner, put down the device in your hand and return to your cell immediately,
or we will open fire!"
Surrounded by several guard drones buzzing around him, Groot could not help growing agitated.
Thick vines rapidly grew and extended across his body, clinging to him like muscles and making him even more massive.
Many sharp, bone-spike-like branches also protruded from all over his body, as though he had donned a suit of thorny armor that made him impossible to approach.
When he had stretched his limbs to take the battery earlier, he had reached a height of over three meters, making him look somewhat slender. But now that he had entered a combat state, Groot seemed to have grown an entire size larger, becoming even taller and more powerfully built than the blue giant from before.
His previously somewhat innocent eyes sharpened as well. Glowering angrily at the guard drones circling him, he roared.
"I! Am! Groot!"
Seeing this, the guards in the watchtower gave the order without hesitation.
"Open fire!"
The guard drones surrounding Groot immediately opened fire. Round after round struck Groot, sending wood chips flying, but they could not inflict any real damage on him.
Instead, several guard drones were swatted away by the enraged Groot.
For a moment, bullets flew across the plaza, and the surrounding prisoners hurriedly scattered for cover.
"All prisoners, return to the rest area immediately!"
Amid the guards' warnings, Rocket Raccoon did not run into one of the surrounding Rest Areas like the other prisoners. Instead, braving the hail of bullets, he scrambled forward on all fours like a real raccoon, charging toward