"Your skin... is tough."
Crack, crack-crack!
James held his own head under his right arm, standing tall and straight.
His mouth moved, but the voice came from his headless chest. He raised a hand, set his head back onto his cleanly severed neck, then glanced at the spot on Thanos's throat where his claws had just struck.
The moment the severed edge touched his neck, flesh and bone fused together as if nothing had happened. His head wobbled twice, accompanied by a series of crisp bone pops.
"Stranger, you're quite something. Unlike Corvus's 'immortality.'"
A glint flashed in the Mad Titan's eyes and vanished. His expression remained calm as he spoke slowly.
Thanos touched the spot James had tried to pierce with his Bone Blade, then casually planted the man-high, double-bladed sword into the ground.
"...It's hard to find anyone who can fight me on equal terms. This body alone has left countless enemies unable to scratch me. You won that little game."
James watched as Thanos lifted his dark-gold helmet with both hands and clanged it onto the tip of the upright sword.
The Sanctuary II stretched across the sky. Ring-shaped ships kept descending from either side, and the ships began deploying numerous blue-black, triangular-pyramid fortresses.
Like spores, they plunged from more than a thousand meters up and slammed into Korbin's wasteland. Then they released vast numbers of modified troops and war beasts, which swept like a surging tide through Korbin's cities and settlements.
The wide area around Thanos remained undisturbed. The Black Order Generals stood far off to one side. Watching their master plant his sword and remove his helmet, the Black-Tongued Strategist gave a strange snort of laughter, clasped his hands behind his back, and glanced at Corvus Glaive as he teased him:
"Hey, you're both hard