Warriors! Charge!

The Asgardians in Chita City were in the thick of the killing.

The Mind-Linked were capable fighters, but against the Asgardians' high-tech weapons and equipment, it was a massacre.

Several hundred of The Mind-Linked lay dead, and the survivors had begun fleeing.

Even the least quick-witted among them knew their lives were precious.

But the Asgardians had no intention of letting their prey escape.

The pursuit began.

Just then, a sudden flash lit up the sky.

When they looked up, they saw a vast number of unidentified Spaceships in outer space. Something was being launched from them.

Moments later, fiery streaks appeared in the sky, like falling stars.

Dozens of them were headed straight for the Asgardians.

"What's going on?"

The lead Asgardian stopped chasing his prey. He raised his wrist and activated his Communicator, intending to ask their Spaceship in orbit what was happening.

But after several attempts, all he heard was static. No one answered.

The disturbance overhead had brought the other Asgardians back to their captain's side.

"Captain, none of our Communicators can get a signal. What's happening?"

"Captain, was our Spaceship destroyed?"

"Captain, what do we do? Whoever's coming doesn't look friendly."

"Captain..."

Irritated by the barrage of questions, the captain waved a hand and shouted, "Quiet! Maximum alert!"

Everyone fell silent and began charging their equipment.

Being Asgardians didn't mean their equipment had unlimited energy.

The spears and shields they had been using all consumed power.

Once everyone was ready, they looked up at the sky.

The falling objects were close enough now for them to make out what they were.

They were long, rectangular black landing pods, the kind commonly used to deploy troops for ground combat.

In an emergency, they could also serve as escape pods.

Each pod could carry around a thousand people.

Sweat beaded on the Asgardians' foreheads as they stared at the sky full of falling pods.

Were the arrivals friends or foes?

More than ten minutes later, the landing pods finally reached the ground.

They slowed only slightly before their tough shells slammed into the earth.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The impacts went on and on.

Fortunately, Chita City's walls were sturdy. Though the impacts shook them, the pods had landed too far away to destroy them.

The captain spoke. "Ali, send out reconnaissance drones and see what's happening."

Ali nodded and took three round, fist-sized metal balls from his belt.

He tossed them onto the ground, then raised his arm and began working the controls.

Moments later, each ball revealed a bright red eye. Their antigravity systems activated, lifting them into the air.

Under Ali's control, the three drones flew out.

Their feeds appeared on the display before him.

As the drones approached the unfamiliar landing pods, the Asgardians finally got a clear look at them.

The pods were entirely black, with pointed tops, and had sunk deep into the ground.

Soon their stabilizers activated, righting the pods until their pointed tops aimed skyward like swords.

What happened next filled every Asgardian with fear.

The pod doors opened, and a black tide poured out.

When Ali enlarged the image, they could see that the tide was made up of countless black creatures.

The creatures stood over two meters tall, with six powerful limbs, fearsome faces, and sharp fangs.

Anyone familiar with the powers of the universe would have recognized them as Thanos's mightiest army: the Black Order.

And now the Black Order was racing toward Chita City at over 150 kilometers per hour.

The Asgardian captain saw them on the display and immediately said, "We need to run. Don't let them surround us."

The others snapped out of their shock.

"Right. Let's go!"

"But our Spaceship's gone. Where can we run?"

"Anywhere! If you don't want to die, run first and worry about the rest later."

"Right. When we don't return to Asgard, they'll notice. We just have to hold out until rescue arrives."

The six quickly agreed and ran in the direction with the fewest enemies.

The Asgardians had not come to rule the Milky Way by chance.

Even ordinary warriors like them were like little Supermen. They ran so fast that they soon made it out of the city.

Unfortunately, the Black Order was fast too.

Not long after the Asgardians left the city, black specks appeared in the distance.

"Damn it! There are monsters ahead!"

"Captain, what do we do?"

"I don't want to die..." One of them began to sob.

Despair spread among the Asgardians before the fighting had even begun.

There were simply too many enemies. They had no chance of winning.

But the captain at the front gritted his teeth and said with conviction, "Warriors of Asgard, Odin above! Charge!"

The other five seemed to find their courage in him. Resolve returned to their faces.

They charged like heroes, knowing the road ahead almost certainly led to death, yet clinging to that sliver of hope.

Moments later, the six Asgardians pierced the black tide like a golden sword.

But strong as they were, they could hold out against the seemingly endless Black Order for only a short while before it swallowed them whole.