Things didn't exactly go smoothly for the rest of the heroes either, as many more portals began to open all around them, with many more Athians coming out of them. One of the said portals was right next to the fallen Hagen with the Hulk, who was still dead on choking the giant and didn't even notice the portals surrounding him and his friends. Moments later, another Athian came out, one that was a large, bulky humanoid with white fur all over his upper body sans his face and hands, almost resembling that of a gorilla. His body was enveloped in a white aura, with his eyes glowing this same energy, and he was clad in a silver breastplate, belt and boots, and white pants, colors which represented the country of Paix. Aside from the uniform, this create also had the name of Vulner Sykland, a resistance member whose power was the ability to transform into his massive, furry form, and with a roar, he charged towards and successfully tackled the Jade Giant off Hagen's neck and crashing hard into the ground.
Hagen coughed loudly for all of the island to hear before being able to catch his breath. But just as he sat up after finally getting air into his massive lungs, Hagen was once again flat on his back when the feisty Hank Pym immediately grew his body to the same size as Hagen's and planted his right foot on the Athian's chest, pinning him back to the ground and causing the island to tremble slightly. "No, please, don't get up," said the snarky Hank as he leaned forward to add more weight to his leg, putting more pressure on Hagen's chest and making him cough once again.
Heroes such as the X-Men soon received Athian visitors of their own. More specifically, Scott Summers, who turned to the right and noticed the portal on his right, and launching out of it was that of the platinum blonde soldier, Vecan Falar, in full gold and white uniform and coming towards Scott with a raised right knee.
Luckily for Scott, though, he received training in hand-to-hand combat and how to control his powers. He thus put this training to good use by holding his arms in front of his face in an 'X' fashion and successfully blocking the knee strike. However, the force of the blow was still so strong that it knocked him off his feet and onto his back.
Despite having his attack blocked, Vecan managed to land safely on his feet and flipped his head back to get his yellow bangs out of his eyes. He watched as Scott managed to roll backward and arrived in a kneeling but readied position. Not wanting to give the X-Man a chance to attack, Vecan wasted no time in summoning his aura, causing his bangs to rise and change from yellow to pure white as well; he pointed his right fist forward, channeled the white energy through his arm and out of his fist in a blast of white flame.
Though understandably shocked at seeing this strange white flame coming his way, Scott was still able to defend himself. This time, he instinctively pressed the button on his visor that released the concussive energy generated from his eyes and thus fired an optic blast, which collided with the Vector's, causing the two to end up in a beam struggle to overpower the other.
One X-Man who saw Scott in such a life-threatening predicament was his girlfriend, Jean Grey, who wasted no time in coming to his aid. She did so by looking around until she spotted something that suited her plan to save Scott, which was a giant rock. Afterward, she began the next part of her plan by focusing all her energy on said rock, and in turn, used her telekinesis to lift it off the ground and then throw it at the Athian soldier attacking the man she loved. However, before she could do so, Jean noticed something in the corner of her left eye that surprised her.
It was one of the many portals that surrounded the heroes, and it didn't take long for another Athian to shoot out of it like a rocket. In this case, it was a fair-skinned, blue-eyed, red-headed woman with a white aura surrounding her lean but athletic body and appeared to be around the same age as the stunned Jean. She also hailed from Paix, as seen in her uniformed attire of a white shirt and pants and silver chest plate, fingerless gloves, belt, and boots. To the Paixan Royal family and the resistance members that she fought alongside, she was known as the 'the Sword of Paix,' a nickname given to the skillful soldier named Huethia Omandi. And it was at this moment, she had this new Ultimate in the form of Jean Grey in her sights and quickly pulled her right knee into her chest and kicked her foot forward with the intention of driving the bottom of her boot into Jean's face.
The startled Jean instinctively moved the rock in front as a means to protect herself. However, thanks to the properties of the aura, when Huethia kicked the rock, it produced a shock wave that not only shattered it into pieces but also sent Jean flying and first into a tree. Naturally, the experience left the female X-Man in a daze; she managed to recover quickly. However, as her vision cleared, her eyes grew wide when she noticed Huethia, without her aura, still charging toward her and throwing a straight left punch. Fortunately, Jean managed to avoid the attack by ducking sideways to the right, causing Huethia to ram her fist into the tree instead.
While in a bent position, Jean knew she had to defend herself, but she still insisted on doing it in a way that wouldn't physically harm her. And the best way for her to do it was the same way she did with any other foe that she and her fellow X-Men came across, in that she shifted her attention to Huethia, who by this time was without her aura and showing her hair bangs to be colored silver pulled her fist out of the tree, then used her telekinesis to lift her Athian attacker off the ground and held her up into the air, which understandably left Huethia in a state of bewilderment. From here, the next phase in Jean's plan was to use her refined telepathy to peek inside Huethia's mind mentally, and before putting her to sleep, find out who was leading the forces attacking her and the heroes and send out a telepathic message to said leader and try to convince him that she, her fellow X-Men and the rest of the heroes were here to help.
Jean was one of many X-Man who wanted to jump to Scott's aid. For her lover would soon receive help from an unlikely source. Namely that of Forge, the most panicky out of the X-Men as he frantically looked around the portals that surrounded him, spotted Scott and his beam struggle with Vecan. Seeing his teammate in such trouble instantly reminded Forge of when Scott and Jean were held captive by Mister Sinister and had them strapped down to tables, which led to him freeing Scott and, for a brief moment at least, that he stepped up and proved himself worthy of being an X-Man to be taken seriously. Thinking back to that memory was more than enough to make Forge shake off his fear and anxiety and replace them with determination as he pressed a button located on the wrist of his robot arm, causing metal sheets to pop out of his sleeve and, within moments, took the shape of a blaster. Now fully armed, literally and figuratively, Forge quickly set the blast settings to 'stun,' then held up and pointed the blaster at Vecan, who at this point had moved closer to Scott and brought him to his knees. "Hang on, Scott, I've got this!" The now strong-willed Forge said quietly as he carefully aimed at Vecan's head.
However, before Forge could fire a single shot, he received a shock when he suddenly felt a jolt in his arm, then found his body completely frozen in place, like someone pressed a paused button on a cosmic universal remote. As such, as much as he tried, the X-Men's inventor found himself incapable of moving any muscle within his body; with the only two things he could move were his eyes, which he frantically moved from side to side. The source of Forge's immobilization was that of a glowing white aura encompassing his entire body, which, in turn, was attached to a thin energy beam of the same color. A beam which came from the aura of Casmas, wearing his gold and white in his yellow and white uniform and firing the beam from out of the tips of his left index and middle fingers, which he used for his secondary ability to entrap people and smaller versions of the bubbles he created to stop time and motion. "Sorry, but not this time!" Casmas told Forge with a slight strain in his voice, for even though years of practicing this ability wasn't as draining and painful as it was in his younger years, it was still taking a physical and mental toll on him, nonetheless. With the scared and confused X-Man now in his grasp, Casmas enacted the next phase of his plan to deal with him by pointing his fingers upward and, in turn, suspended Forge up twenty feet into the air. He briefly stopped shooting the beam from his hands, which allowed Forge to move his arms and frantically scream in pure panic at the thought of being dropped from such a height. But a split second later, Casmas held up his left arm and fired another beam from the index and middle fingers of that hand, freezing Forge once again in the process. And it was here that the Athian soldier decided to use the frozen Forge as a weapon to save a comrade, as he then quickly moved his hand down to the left side and sent Forge plummeting down to that side and towards Casma's intended target.
That target was Jean Grey, who kept Huethia suspended in the sky and was just about to probe her mind for who was leading this attack so she could speak with him. Unfortunately for the first female X-Man, she didn't have the chance to enact this plan as Forge crashed right into her, and both X-Men tumbled violently to the ground. As for Huethia, she ended up falling and landing hard on her backside. Though Huethia was grateful that it freed from Jean's telekinetic grip, and the landing didn't result in a broken tailbone, it still wasn't a soft landing, and thus, she briefly struggled to get back up on her feet to assist her comrades.
Naturally, Casmas saw the fall and not only winced when he saw Huethia take such a hard landing, but he also decided not to let her know that he was her savior, as he saw firsthand how she never took kindly to teammates who put her in embarrassing situations. Nonetheless, once he saw Huethia get back on her feet and run off to fight another one of these new 'Ultimates,' Casmas turned and proceeded to the same. However, he, too, received a surprise in the form of a puff of black smoke that appeared in front of him, one that gave off the lingering smell of brimstone.
All the result of Kurt 'Nightcrawler' Wagner teleporting mid-air and right in front of the shocked Casmas, and at that moment, the X-Men's playful 'elf' also showed his combat skills by wrapping both his legs tightly around Casmas' neck, flipped backward, and in the process, forced the Athian to flip forward.
But thanks to all the combat training he received during the earlier days of fighting the villain's empire, Casmas was able to save himself by rolling on the ground and quickly popping back up on his feet. Moments later, Casmas spun around to face Kurt, and though initially stunned by his appearance, he cast these feelings aside and was just about to deal with him by firing another zero-point blast. Sadly, Casmas, however, someone else would stop him before he even had a chance to focus his energy.
That someone was Dr. Hank McCoy, who came leaping in and held up both arms in order to grab a tree limb with both hands, then kicked his feet upward as he used the limb like a gym pull up bar and performed a backflip in the air. As the furry X-Man came down, he kicked his feet downward and planted them into Casmas' shoulder blades, pinning him down. Once the Athian was subdued, Hank bent down to talk to him just as Kurt teleported and stood next to them. "Calm down, friend, we're not here to harm you or your friends," Hank said softly, even when feeling Casmas struggling beneath his feet.
But just before Hank could explain why he and his fellow heroes were here on the island, he was interrupted by the sarcastic words of Casmas' fellow soldier and friend, the blond-haired, gold and white-wearing Ascaal Damos. "You could've fooled us!" Ascaal called out, succeeded in getting Kurt and Hank to turn and face him, and as they did, he jumped up and delivered a split-kicked, nailing both X-Men in their blue faces and causing them to fall hard on their backs.
Naturally, this forced Hank off Casmas' back, allowing the Athian to pull himself up. As he looked up and noticed Ascaal, Casmas could only his eyes and groan in aggravation, given how long it took for his friend to come to his aid. "Could you have moved in any slower?!"
"You're welcome," Ascaal replied with a cocky smirk, then offered him a hand up.
This response only made Casmas more annoyed with Ascaal's laid-back and seemingly careless bravado, but he nonetheless took his friend's hand and allowed him to help him up to his feet.
As for the two fallen X-Men, Kurt is the first to shake the cobwebs out of his head, and upon regaining focus, he spots Ascaal, helping Casmas stand up. Not wanting to give the two Athain soldiers another chance to attack, Kurt once again disappeared in a puff of black smoke, then reappeared behind Ascaal and wrapped his arms around his neck, putting him in a sleeper hold.
Casmas was surprised by this and was just about to step in and repay his comrade by giving him much-needed help. However, through the corner of his left eye, Casmas spotted Hank, now fully recovered and leaping towards the with his clawed hands reaching forward. Fortunately for Casmas, he was just as quick when it came to defending himself and quickly utilized his hand-to-hand combat training to grab both of the furry X-Man's large wrists, rolled onto his back, placed his right foot on Hank's abdomen and gave the blue attacker a stomach throw. Moments later, Casmas rolled on his back and popped back up on his feet, then spun around to face Hank, who had already broken his fall by using his agility to perform a front flip and land on his feet.
As for Kurt, he moved his lips to Ascaal's pointy left ear and proceeded to try and reason with him. "Listen, friend," Kurt pleaded as he struggled to maintain his hold over the Athian's neck. "Ve are not…here to hurt you! If you…settle down, I vill-!"
Before Kurt could finish, a desperate Ascaal cut him off by throwing a stiff left back-elbow strike to the X-Man's abdomen, then gets out of the sleeper by grabbing the winded Kurt's right arm and throwing him over his shoulder and planted him hard on the ground. Still holding on to the mutant's arm, Ascaal maintained control by pressing down on Kurt's shoulder, keeping the X-Men pinned down and unable to get up. "…You can stop talking and allow me to do to you what I've done to anyone associated with the Ultimate Empire. How nice of you!" Ascaal defiantly retorted, then pulled his right hand away to channel his energy into it and create a white energy dagger, then threw a downward strike with the intention of plunging the tip into the center of Kurt's chest.
But just like so many times before, Kurt's ability to teleport once again saved his life as he vanished out of sight. This caused Ascaal to plunge his energy dagger into the ground instead, leaving him with immense aggravation and disgust as the smell of brimstone from the black smoke from Kurt's teleportation entered his nostrils.
The now free Kurt then reappeared five away across from Ascaal, who by this time had pulled his dagger out of the ground, and upon looking up at Kurt, his frustration boiled into anger as he charged towards him. Something which made Kurt let out an exasperated sigh. "Wunderbar," The X-Man uttered under his breath as he once again got in a readied stance and waited for Ascaal to approach him.
Meanwhile, other X-Men were struggling as well with some of the Athian soldiers. In one fight, there was Piotr, in his complete metal form, taking on an Athain male with the same large, muscular physique as the metal X-Man, who had blond hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. His attire was that of a white chest plate, belt boots, and blue pants, colors that represented his homeland of Amia. But what was his most prominent features of all were two, massive arms that appeared to be made of steel, which increased his already impressive strength. It was this raw brute force that helped the Athain named Vamir Sarqen take down many Ultamen, and right now, he was using it to engage The X-Man that stood before him in a 'test of strength.' Meaning that he interlocked his fingers with Piotr's, and the two powerhouses of their respected teams attempted to overpower and push on another on to the ground
Another one of the X-Men having trouble was Rogue, who quickly ducked to the left side to barely dodge an incoming right-legged spinning heel kick from a female Athian around the same age as the southern mutant but with black hair in a bun and two orange bangs hanging over her face, with appeared to have Asian features, as did all those who were born from the country of Shin La. She also wore a purple skintight jumpsuit that hugged her thin but fit figure, along with orange gloves, boots, belt, and an armored chest piece. Such was the description of Shiihebi Sabi, a former soldier for the Shina La army and now one of the most dedicated members of the Alliance. She showed that dedication to Rogue firsthand by throwing a fierce right straight punch, with the Southern Belle's face being the target.
Fortunately for Rogue, though, she was quick to utilize the hand-to-hand combat training she received from Logan by using her right arm to block the punch and push Sabi's fist outward.
Sadly, however, her skills were not entirely up to par with Sabi's, as the female Athian showcased superior speed by throwing a left-legged front kick, which connected to Rogue's abdomen, knocking the wind out of her. As Rogue coughed and desperately tried to catch her breath, Sabi saw this as an opening and thus threw a left elbow, nailing the X-Girl on her left cheek and causing her to stagger aimlessly to the right side and stagger toward a tree and barely held her hands up to stop herself ramming her face into the hard wood.
With pain in her face and little air in her lungs, Rogue struggled to catch her breath, but her situation soon turned dire as she could feel something strong wrap around her neck and began squeezing hard like that of an Anaconda squeezing its unfortunate prey.
That something was actually Sabi, who rushed up behind the winded Rogue and used both of her arms to put the X-girl in a chokehold. Though she knew that this mysterious girl was nowhere near her skill level, losing many of her friends during this war taught her never to take any chances in dealing with the enemy. As such, the next phase of Sabi's plan was to snap Rogue's neck so she would not pose a problem to her or any other of her comrades present.
Naturally, Rogue wasn't thrilled about being in such a predicament, especially since Sabi wore long sleeves on her arms, which would make it easier for her to use her powers as they required her to make skin contact with another person. The only bright side to this was that Sabi was indeed close by; despite squeezing so hard, Rogue's vision was beginning to go black from the Athain cutting off the blood flow to her head. And so, knowing that she had to act fast, Rogue held her glove in front of her opened mouth, closed her teeth on the tip of her index finger, and pulled her hand away, leaving the glove in her mouth. After taking a moment to spit the glove out of her mouth and at the bottom of a nearby tree, the desperate Rogue reached backward with her now gloveless hand and managed to touch the front of Sabi's face.
Usually, Sabi would see such a tactic as an annoyance, but to her surprise, she felt her muscles freeze and felt incredible pain in her body, especially in her face; her veins were visible clearly. Worse yet for the gasping Sabi was that she could feel the life drain out of her body and into the X-Girl that she had grabbed, a move she now regretted.
Rogue could not only feel Sabi loosen around her neck but also feel the energy in her body, as well as the memories in her mind, enter hers through her touch. However, she also knew that if she held on to her for too long, she could also take the Athian's life, which was an unfortunate downside to using her gift. As such, once she felt like she absorbed enough energy, the X-Girl removed her hand from Sabi's face, then used it to deliver a stiff right elbow strike to the Athain's gut, then turned and delivered another hard elbow strike to her temple, sending her stumbling to the right.
Though reeling from Rogue's absorbing touch, as well as suffering from two still elbow strikes, Sabi still managed to stop herself from falling on her face. After taking a moment to shake her head to regain her senses, Sabi turned to face Rogue, who by this time was in a defensive fighting stance with her arms raised and her open palms facing forward. This sight confused Sabi, as she recognized that stance, for it was one of the stances she learned when learning to fight, and she couldn't comprehend how this outsider would know of it. However, remembering that they were in the middle of a battle, Sabi shook off these feelings and charged towards Rogue, determined to make her pay for nearly sucking the life out of her.
But thanks to the new knowledge that she required from her absorbing touch, Rogue proved to be ready for Sabi's attack, as she masterfully blocked and parried all of the Athian's lightning-fast punches with great speed that was equal to her own. After evading the attacks, Rogue finally fought back, leaning to the left side, and used both hands to block and push away an incoming left straight punch. Moments later, the Southern Belle took hold of Sabi's sleeved arm, then pulled her in while, at the same time, kicking her left foot from underneath her with the intention of tripping her.
However, instead of falling on her face, Sabi managed to use her momentum to help her flip in a corkscrew motion in mid-air, landed safely on her feet, then turned back to face Rogue in a readied stance. Though still ready to continue this fight, Sabi still looked at Rogue, completely dumbfounded. Minutes before, this strange outsider had, as far as Sabi was concerned, a beginner-level skillset. But now, after that figurative and literal 'touch of death,' Rogue showed speed and skill equal to her own. All of this led Sabi to feel offended that this new member of the Ultimate Empire had stolen skills that took her a long time to learn. She thus seethed with anger as she asked the X-Girl about this while getting in a readied stance. "What sorcery did you just use to take my skills?!"
Rogue, despite knowing that now was not the time to do so, couldn't help but scoff at how Sabi referred to her gift. "Well, ah guess you could call what I got a 'magic touch,'" Rogue retorted with a slight shrug, but still maintained a defensive posture. "But one that ah don't want to use on you again. So, if you would listen-!"
Suddenly, Sabi conjured up another aura, all with rage in her eyes, as she didn't want to hear any more lies from this 'Ultimate' who took her skillset in the most, in her mind, most dishonorable of ways. And so, channeling her white energy into her hands and, through great concentration, formed a basketball-sized ball. Then, with a wrathful roar, she pushed her hands forward and, in turn, sent the energy ball flying toward Rogue at speeds faster than that of a bullet shot out of a gun.
"Oh crap!" Rogue exclaimed with wide-opened eyes; then, with the newly acquired skills, she performed a backflip and allowed the force ball, albeit just inches away from her abdomen. Just as the X-Girl landed on her feet, she looked over her shoulder and prayed that the forceball didn't hit any of her teammates. However, she was somewhat relieved when she saw it hit and knocked down another tree. But as Rogue turned forward, her alleviation turned to shock when she noticed Sabi running towards and throwing a left hook. Though Rogue managed to hold up her left arm and successfully block the blow, she still groaned in irritation as this native girl was beating Logan in the 'being stubborn' department.
Logan himself was also having a difficult time with one of the Athain's soldiers. Namely, one was a young male, roughly around his mid-twenties, with black hair and orange bangs, and another was a native of Shin-La, as evidenced by his Asian features. He, like Sabi, wore an orange and purple uniform, but the significant difference was that his orange chest plate had two long curved sheaths attached to the back in an 'X' shaped pattern. As for the weapons that the sheaths were supposed to house, they were in the Athian's hands, which were two swords with orange-colored hilts resembling those of Japanese Ninjuto swords and twenty-four-inch purple-colored blades. These were the preferred weapons of Mashiiho Taku, one of the most respected leading soldiers in the Alliance, who showed his remarkable swordsmen skills to Logan by throwing sword slashes at blinding speed.
But thanks to the fighting experience that he gained for over one hundred years, Logan used his claws to block and perry every slash thrown by the Athian that stood before him. At one point, Logan spotted Taku trying to drive the tip of the sword in his right hand into his masked face. This prompted the X-Man to lean back to the right and, in the process, throw his right hand in an uppercut motion and use the claws in his right hand to catch and point the place up to the left.
Despite having his attack intercepted, Taku refused to give up on his attack, and as he pulled the right blade away, he attempted to use the sword in his other hand to throw an overhead slash with the intent of slicing Logan's head in two.
Just as before, Logan stopped this attack by using the claws in his left hand to block the blade before it could even reach his face. Moments later, he spotted Taku try the same attack with his other sword and thus used the claws in his free hand to stop that attack as well. Sadly, he could still feel Taku still pressing down on the blade to try to force Logan to go down on one knee, causing him to push forward to overpower Taku, and the two now remain in a stand-off. Usually, for Logan, having someone try to plunge a blade into his face would be inconvenient enough, but to have it happen on a far distant planet and by an alien warrior who is supposed to be his ally only caused his irritation to grow, and put him dangerously close to dive into his animalistic berserker rage, a state that made him just a ferocious as the animal his codename was based on and made him a threat to friend and foe alike. A task so great that Logan himself had a hard time keeping it in check, even with the help of Charles Xavier. Nonetheless, the X-Man knew that Taku was not the real enemy and was one of the natives on the planet that needed his help. And so, as difficult as it was, Logan tried to keep his composure as he pressed forward to keep Taku's blades from reaching his person. And it was here that Logan was about to try to reason with the Athianwarrior from Shin La.
As the steely-eyed Taku pressed down on his blades, he struggled to get Logan down on his knees. As such, the honorable warrior in him couldn't help but make him acknowledge his clawed enemy's strength. "I…must admit…uou are….much stronger and faster than you look. Almost as much as Harada! I take it you fight for that tyrant!?"
Logan's eyes lit up with shock when he heard this blade wielding native mention the name of one of his most hated enemies. Did he fight Harada at one point in this whole mess? Regardless, Logan decided to put these thoughts on hold, as he could ask Taku later when, or if, he managed to convince him that he and his fellow heroes were no threat to him or the people of Athia. "Harada ain't no friend of mine, bub! I fought and beat him more than a few times! That's why me and my friends here, tell help you beat him!"
"Spare me your lies, Ultimate!" Taku barked back, then pointed both his blades up and backed from Logan to create some space between the two of them. Moments later, Taku placed both blades to his right side, then dashed forward with the plan to slide Logan's abdomen as he passed his left side.
Fortunately for the X-Men leader, though, he spotted this attack and threw both of his hands downward and used his claws to block Taku's blades as the Athian passed by and ended up behind him. Not wanting to get stabbed in the back, Logan instinctively spun around to see Taku had not only stopped himself but had also spun around to throw a left-backhanded slash attack, forcing Logan to throw his right hand up and successfully block the blade with his claws.
Despite having two of his attacks stopped, Taku still pressed on, but this time, he tried a different approach. Namely as he turned to the left, he got down and spun on his right knee and, in the process, threw a left backhand slash and succeeded in the side of Logan's right knee.
Typically, such an attack would severe any man's leg, but thanks to the Adamantium grafted to Logan's entire skeleton, his leg remained intake, and the only things Taku's blade managed to cut were the X-Man's muscles and tendons. Needless to say, it was still a painful experience for Logan, who let out a loud, painful yell as he teetered to the right.
All of which provided an opening for the kneeling Taku, who immediately plunged both blades into Logan's chest, but even after successfully piercing the tips of his swords into the clawed mutant's body, Taku noticed something that left him confused and concerned. Namely, when he looked into Logan's eyes, he didn't see life leaving, but instead, anger that was growing.
Anger at being stabbed was only half of what drove Logan to power through the pain of having two blades driven into his body. The other half was his healing factor, which, at this point, was rapidly repairing his lacerated knee. Despite the fact that Taku was the one plunging two sharp blades into his person, Logan wasn't mad at the Athian soldier; he knew he was defending his home. Instead, he was angry at Harada and the rest of the villains who had ruined the planet so badly that it made Taku and the rest of the natives so hostile. Regardless, though, the pain-ridden Logan knew he had to convince Taku and the rest of the Athenians that he and his fellow heroes were here to help, and he couldn't do it with steel blades in his body. And so, once he felt that his right knee was 'put back together,' the pain-ridden Logan breathed in as he stood up, took a step back with his right foot and then used that same leg to throw a fierce front kick, planting the bottom of his blue boot into Taku's face, forcing him to roll backward. Now having the space needed, Logan grabbed the handles of both swords and, in a process that was more agonizing than the stabbing itself, pulled the swords out of his abdomen with a loud, painful roar. Thankfully, after removing the weapons, his healing factor wasted no time in sealing up the opened wounds and saving the X-Man from bleeding to death, as well as preventing his entrails from falling out.
The kneeling Taku couldn't help but find the sight of Logan pulling his swords out both shocking and sickening. But then he remembered that he fought one of Harada's lieutenants named Sabretooth, who had a similar healing ability, and thus powered through his nausea and channeled his energy into his ring, resulting in his body being surrounded in a white aura and his bangs standing straight up and changing into the same color. Afterward, he held his arms up, pointed his open hands at Logan, and proceeded to concentrate once more.
At that moment, Taku's swords both flew out of Logan's hands as if they had a mind of their own, leaving the clawed mutant stunned and confused.
It didn't take long for Taku to catch both swords by their hilts, and upon regaining his weapons, he channeled his aura through his arms and into his weapons, with the blades bursting into burning white flame and causing Logan's left-over blood to evaporate. "Well, if stabbing you won't work," said Taku as he got into a readied stance with both fiery blades, all the while giving Logan a death glare. "I'll just have to try decapitation!"
"Swell," Logan uttered in aggravation as he, too, got into a readied stand with claws still drawn. He waited for Taku as he ran towards him with swords blazing.
In the air, two more X-Men were struggling just as much as their teammates on the ground, if not more so. One X-Man, the team's powerful storm goddess, Ororo Monroe, fired a lightning blast from her right hand. Her target was another female Athian, who had light skin, violet eyes, and long black hair in a pony-tail, who hailed from Shin La. Instead of the armored uniforms that Taku, Sabi, and the rest of her comrades did, she was dressed in clothing similar to that of a Japanese Miko attire, which consisted of an orange haori, a purple hakama and a pair of orange zori shoes. Attire worn by the Shin La's head priestess, the country's strongest practitioner of magic. A title in which the Atian named Suu Long took following the death of her mentor earlier on in this war. And it was only after Suu Long levitated to the right to avoid Ororo's blast that she displayed that power by pointing her right finger at the weather goddess, channeled her energy into her hand, and fired a white lightning blast of her own, which Ororo avoided by manipulating the wings to move her to the left.
The final X-Man struggling with an opponent was Bobby Drake, already in his ice form and staying in the air via an ice slide that he created by shooting a cryo-blast from out of his left hand. As for his right hand, he was firing another cryo-blast, but only to block an attack from one Athian that he had the bad luck of running into.
It was a black-haired, pale-skinned female soldier, roughly around the same age as Bobby, and appeared to be from the country of Paix, as she wore a silver chest plate, along with a matching silver belt and boots. However, what was genuinely eye-catching were her arms, with her left arm appearing to be made out of white-colored ice, and she used it to fire a cryo-blast and create an ice slide of her own. While her left arm was covered in burning white flame, and she used it to fire a large stream of white fire at Bobby, who kept it at bay with his cryo-blast. It was these unusual features that the Athian girl named Celia Liran used in the fight to free her home planet, and now found herself using them to try and overpower the 'iceman' she saw before him in a battle of wills between fire and ice.
However, as the heroes and Athians battled amongst themselves, they were completely unaware that they were being watched from a distance by a hovering silver, basketball-sized device with a circular camera lens on its front and the top had a symbol on its top that was painted green and in the shape Victor Von Doom's faceplate with the let 'U' on the brow. A symbol that was given to all of the property belonging to the Ultimate Empire, which was led by Grand Emperor Victor Von Doom!