Chapter 801: Having a Healer Lets You Do Whatever You Want
The key traits of the Guardians of the Galaxy are being silly and downright shameless.
As luck would have it, this group of people gathered together had relatively flexible moral compasses and an unusual knack for thinking outside the box.
Star-Lord and Rocket exchanged glances, and both saw a mischievous grin in each other’s eyes.
It seemed they already knew how to defeat Ronan.
"Hold them off for a while!"
Star-Lord shouted, seizing the chance to exit the battlefield.
Ronan and Gamora were confused, but they watched as Star-Lord sprinted over to the woman and dove headfirst into the mouth of the large creature, his legs kicking as he wriggled inside.
Gamora’s mouth twitched. She seemed to have guessed his plan.
But Ronan was still bewildered, unsure of what that guy was up to. However, he quickly understood.
Moments later, the creature spits out a person.
Star-Lord stood up, glowing with vitality, his body covered in mucus. He pulled out his twin blasters and charged at Ronan, shouting, "Prepare to die!"
Ronan was stunned, eyes wide.
Was that thing’s mouth connected to some kind of advanced healing chamber?
"It’s my turn now! Nobody take my spot!"
Rocket exited the battle, tumbling as he scrambled into the creature’s mouth.
The raccoon, who wasn’t severely injured in the first place, reemerged within seconds, grinning wildly despite being covered in slime.
At this point, Ronan finally understood.
These bastards were taking turns healing, using this method to wear him down slowly!
The presence of this creature subtly changed the nature of what should have been a severe battle.
Whenever a Guardian was injured, they would immediately dart out of the fight and dive into the giant creature’s mouth.
Then, after waiting a minute or two, they would rejoin the fight, refreshed and re-energized, yelling as they charged back into battle.
They took turns, like an endless cycle, and even if one of them was severely wounded, they would be back on their feet within minutes. This infuriated Ronan to no end, leaving him fuming with rage.
This was different from the result he had hoped for!
With the Power Stone in his possession, he was supposed to be invincible, not trapped in this embarrassing situation!
"Arrrrrghhhh!"
Ronan was on the verge of losing it, swinging his hammer wildly as he roared in fury, "You despicable, shameless bastards!"
However, with these people’s thick skin, one could only say their morals were quite flexible.
"Thanks for the compliment, great Accuser Ronan! We do this out of respect!" Star-Lord said proudly, clearly unaffected by the insults. The worse the insults, the happier he seemed.
"Less talking!" Rocket hoisted a massive cannon. "Take a shot from me, you jerk!"
"I am Groot!" Groot’s arms hardened into wooden blades, slashing repeatedly at Ronan, who was now scrambling to dodge.
Gamora said nothing, moving like an assassin in the shadows, striking whenever she saw an opening, forcing Ronan to stay on guard constantly. This gave Star-Lord chances to sneak in his attacks.
Ronan was furious, trying multiple times to break out and slaughter the woman, but every time he pushed through their encirclement, she would vanish, reappearing dozens of meters away. He always kept a distance that allowed Star-Lord and the others to heal.
It wasn’t that Ronan didn’t want to kill them.
The problem was, he couldn’t. He could only seriously wound them at best.
He had only partially mastered the Power Stone, using the universal weapon’s properties to control it. It wasn’t direct control, so that he couldn’t unleash enormous amounts of energy all at once. Whether destroying Xandar or trying to instantly kill the Guardians, he needed time to gather energy.
But having already noticed this flaw, Star-Lord and the others wouldn’t give him time to charge up.
In a one-on-one fight, Ronan was confident he could defeat any of the Guardians, but with their near-infinite recovery, they were wearing him down.
"You’re insulting a warrior!!!"
Ronan roared hysterically, his hammer losing its deadly speed, gradually slowing down.
Seeing this, Star-Lord was overjoyed, realizing that Ronan was running out of stamina. His grin stretched from ear to ear. "No, no, no, you’re wrong. We’re not warriors. Since when do Ravagers care about warrior’s honor?"
Ravagers never talked about honor in battle—only when it was time to split the loot.
As for the others, they didn’t even care—Gamora was an assassin, and Rocket and Groot were mercenaries. The honor was long gone.
...
Up in the tower, Lord watched in disbelief.
A battle involving the lives of billions had been turned into an online game by Star-Lord and his goofy crew.
Having a healer behind them, they really didn’t fear death.
But Lord wasn’t optimistic about Star-Lord’s chances.
They had made one critical mistake, an error of extreme severity.
While Ronan’s energy consumption was indeed high from frequently using the Power Stone, they seemed to overlook one thing.
As time passed, while Ronan’s stamina was depleting rapidly, his control over the stone was increasing at an astonishing rate. Once he no longer needed to gather energy, the only thing awaiting Star-Lord and his team was... death.
Back to the battlefield.
Star-Lord returned yet again, his mind slightly dazed from the continuous fighting.
In a life-or-death battle, this was a fatal mistake.
This was the moment Ronan had been waiting for!
His eyes gleamed with murderous intent as he finally caught a flaw in Star-Lord’s movements. Thunder rumbled with each breath, and his universal weapon transformed into a sword, channeling the Power Stone’s energy into a purple wave of destruction.
"Die, you despicable scum!"
Without any charge-up time, Ronan took a stab to the abdomen from Gamora but still managed to unleash the massive purple energy wave.
It was too fast!
Star-Lord sensed the deadly danger too late, and by the time he realized it, the wave had already struck him, ripping through his skin and tearing into his organs and bones.
Boom!
Star-Lord was nearly cleaved in half; his body sent flying with only half remaining.
Ronan spun his sword in a circle, and in the moments of shock, he unleashed a massive ring of purple energy.
Rocket, Gamora, and Groot were caught in the blast, flung away as their muscles and bones disintegrated.
In a flash, the Guardians were utterly defeated!
Just as Lord had predicted, Star-Lord’s team had been careless, allowing Ronan to find a way to turn the tide.
"Hahahaha... no one can stop me now!"
The Accuser, Ronan, laughed maniacally, holding his universal weapon high as the Power Stone’s energy surged around him.
