"Stop!"
"No retreat!"
"Intruder! Punishment for treason!!"
As the soldiers stripped off their armor and fled back, General Ross was boiling with rage.
He shot several deserters who were retreating, but even that couldn't stop the avalanche of fear spreading through the troops. Morale was completely destroyed.
Boom! Boom!
Ross, in fury, fired several more shots, but the soldiers no longer listened to him.
No matter how many were on the first line of defense, all began throwing away their vests, taking off their helmets, and running without looking back.
Some even abandoned armored vehicles and tanks, rushing toward the portal as if their lives depended on it.
"Hm?"
"Why are you running?"
New soldiers from the world on the other side had just entered through the portal.
At the moment they stepped into Limbo, they found their comrades fleeing back in panic, stripped of armor.
"Run!"
"Don't look back!"
Confused, the newly arrived soldier was quickly swept into the stampede.
The herd mentality of humans: when one runs, it's no problem, but when all run, there is no force that can stop it.
---
In the air, Aron watched all of this with cold eyes.
He did not stop the soldiers. On the contrary, he let them.
His goal wasn't to slaughter them immediately, but to let them return through the portal.
"Run… go back to Earth. Let everyone see how you died."
Aron knew: the most powerful weapon was fear.
Tony tried with all his might to make the United Nations cancel war plans, but Aron did not want the matter to end only with words.
It was not enough for the enemy to just hear warnings.
They had to feel the chill in their bones.
They had to fear even the thought of another attack.
And that was what Aron intended to achieve.
---
"I said… no retreat!"
Ross's voice thundered, but it was desperate.
Rage was consuming him from within.
His skin was turning red like the demons of Limbo, and his body began to swell.
It was a familiar sight, the transformation into the Red Hulk.
For years Ross had experimented with serums and mutations, until he himself became one of the monsters he once fought against.
"Roooaaaaar!"
"Whoever retreats, is dead!!"
Ross turned into a massive red giant and stood in front of the portal.
His twisted face cast the soldiers into despair.
On one side, countless demon armies awaited them.
On the other, he blocked them, the Red Hulk.
For them, there was no way back.
"General, please—"
Smash!
The first soldier who tried to negotiate was crushed into pulp by a single strike of the huge red fist.
"Go back!"
"Fight!"
Ross's voice was bloody and full of hatred.
Terrified soldiers, without choice, raised their weapons and moved toward the demon army, though there was not a trace of will to fight left in them.
---
Soon the enormous flying demons stormed down from the sky.
Like a swarm of locusts, they broke through defense lines and tore soldiers to pieces.
"Warning! Warning!"
"Black Hawk down!"
Combat helicopters and jets, still trying to provide support, were shredded in the air. Their parts fell to the ground, bursting into clouds of smoke and fire.
Then came the turn of the soldiers Ross forced back into battle.
They had no chance. Their bursts and explosives did nothing against the swarms of flying demons.
The battlefield instantly turned into a one-sided slaughter.
---
"Rooooaaar!"
Ross, in his Red Hulk form, soon became a target himself.
Swarms of demons swarmed him from all sides.
"You red-skinned freaks!!"
"Come on! You'll all die!!"
The Red Hulk entered the battle in fury.
No matter what, the power of Hulk's blood could not be denied.
With every step, his fists and feet ripped demons apart.
With a single punch he would tear a winged demon in half. With a single leap, his foot would crush a monster into bloody pulp.
His strength was terrifying, and in an instant slowed the demons around him.
"Hahaha! That's it! Is this all you've got!?"
Ross roared and laughed as he destroyed demons, as if in that battle he sought redemption for his strategic disasters.
Every new demon that came his way was torn, smashed, or thrown aside like a rag.
And while he raged in his fury, the demon army did not stop advancing.
The massacre continued.
He looked up.
The red giant saw Aron's playful gaze.
"Alright then, go ahead, I'll watch you perform," said Aron, as if giving him the stage for a suicidal performance.
The Red Giant's rage grew even stronger.
"Looks like you're the leader of this band of red freaks!" he roared, his eyes burning with blood as they locked onto Aron.
In his head appeared a thought, crude and raw as he was.
Take him down first. If I kill him, everything can turn around!
General Ross, or rather, the Red Hulk, no longer had rational thoughts. The Hulk's blood in him was boiling, and rage completely clouded his mind.
"Riiiik——!"
The Red Hulk jumped.
The massive body, like a projectile fired from a cannon, flew toward Aron in the air. His fist, as heavy as a small car, was aimed straight at Aron's face.
"Alas…" Aron sighed, almost disappointed.
It was hard for him to understand how Ross could think he was an easier target than the hundreds of thousands of demons who were just massacring his army.
But if he seeks death, then he shall have it.
Aron moved.
Boom——!
The sound of the explosion echoed like thunder.
The Red Hulk, who had leapt up, was stopped by a force he could not even fathom. As if struck by a whole locomotive in the head. His upward momentum vanished instantly, and his massive body turned and fell toward the ground.
Boooom——!!!
The ground of Limbo, hardened by lava and stone, trembled. The Red Hulk's impact opened a deep crater, rubble and ash scattering everywhere.
"Aaaaaa!" screamed the Red Hulk.
Pain tore through his body, and his rage grew. But unlike the true Hulk, his power did not grow infinitely with anger. Ross's version had limits. And that rage now was only helpless despair.
"I'll kill you!" he growled, lifting his head.
But Aron was no longer in the same place.
"Looking for me?" came the voice below him.
Before he could react, Aron's strike hit him in the stomach.
Booom!
The Red Hulk's body bent backward like a broken shrimp, the force of the blow blasting him into the air.
Aron appeared behind him at a speed Ross could not even register. His right hand, steel-like like an eagle's claw, grabbed the red giant by the head.
Without any effort, Aron pulled and began dragging him through Limbo as if thrashing a sack of sand.
Boooom!
The sky trembled, obsidian rocks shattered into pieces. Entire pools of magma were split and their flow redirected. Every strike left bloody marks on Hulk's body, and the ground cracked into craters.
The Red Hulk struggled desperately, swinging his massive arms, but he could not break free. Aron's grip was unrelenting.
The sight was horrifying and surreal.
Aron, a man of normal build, with one hand held and smashed the red colossus weighing several tons. It looked as if a child was holding Dwayne Johnson by the head, except Johnson would never be able to escape.
"Aaaaa!" roared the Red Hulk, but it was a cry of pain, not of rage.
Aron's fingers, hard as diamonds, began piercing through the red giant's skull. Five fingers, five holes breaking through skin and bone.
"Yes, that's it… you're a real beast, but nowhere near me," said Aron coldly.
The fingers dug deeper and deeper, crushing the skull like a fragile shell. Blood sprayed, and Hulk's body convulsed in agony.
"Too bad you're not the female version of Hulk," Aron laughed, "otherwise I could sing something fitting right now."
After saying that, he suddenly jerked his hand upward.
The sound was horrifying, like peeling a coconut.
Aron literally opened the Red Hulk's skull as if lifting a lid. Half of the head was torn apart.
–––
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