Although Star-Lord felt that using his dance-off strategy again might not be very effective right now, he still took a deep breath and forced himself to take a step forward.
After all, what other solution could there be besides this desperate, non-solution of a plan?
He couldn't exactly expect Peter to take down Ronan all by himself, could he?
What a joke!
Ronan was holding the Power Stone!
If others didn't know how terrifying the power of the Power Stone was, how could he not know?
He had previously planned to sell the Cosmic Orb to The Collector, so he had seen with his own eyes how The Collector's maid, coveting the Power Stone, had merely reached out to touch it and was blasted into nothingness by its terrifying energy!
A mere overconfident attempt to touch it resulted in instant disintegration.
Now that it was being fully unleashed by someone, how could human strength possibly stand against it?
With this thought, Star-Lord took a deep breath, tried his best to put on his usual unserious demeanor, unplugged his Walkman headphones, kept the beat, and wiggled his body toward Ronan, singing:
"Hey, aye~"
Boom~!
The scene he imagined, where Ronan would be crowd-controlled by his dancing and singing, did not happen.
He had only just opened his mouth when Ronan immediately raised the warhammer in his hand.
The violent energy of the Power Stone instantly poured into the hammerhead, and the blinding purple light made it impossible to keep one's eyes open.
A purple shockwave, as thick as a bucket, blasted straight out from the tip of the warhammer.
Star-Lord had overlooked one thing.
In the original story, the reason his plan succeeded was because Ronan had already almost completely conquered Xandar at that time.
He had crushed all the opponents standing before him and was in high spirits, completely off his guard.
That was why he could be crowd-controlled by Star-Lord's dance-off.
But right now, the situation was completely different.
Peter's act of tearing apart the dark aster's energy shield had brought him a strong sense of crisis.
Under these circumstances, his focus was extremely sharp, so how could he possibly give Star-Lord any opening?
"What do you think this place is!"
Following Ronan's roar, the beam of light instantly struck toward Star-Lord.
"Damn it!"
Star-Lord didn't even have time to finish swearing before he was hit head-on by the beam.
The powerful energy tore apart his prized red leather jacket.
It also sent his body flying far away, like a tattered ragdoll.
Star-Lord spat out a mouthful of blood in mid-air before slamming heavily against the metal bulkhead of the dark aster, his entire body seemingly scorched into a semi-crystalline state by the energy.
He lay on the ground motionless, completely still.
"Quill!"
Gamora let out a heart-wrenching scream.
She couldn't believe this idiot actually dared to risk his life like that.
More importantly, she realized that she seemed to have unknowingly fallen in love with this seemingly unreliable but actually very sensitive Earthling.
Rocket Raccoon was so angry that he slapped the spaceship's control console.
"That idiot! Does he think everyone is as stupid as he is!"
Groot, with a face full of sadness, leaned against the porthole, watching the direction where Star-Lord had fallen.
"I am Groot."
Seeing the terrifying power displayed by the Power Stone, the space pirates swallowed their saliva involuntarily and looked at Yondu, whose eyes were almost splitting with rage, and said:
"Boss, I know you're anxious, but we're really no match for this guy. It's time to consider running."
Yondu clearly wanted nothing more than to fight Ronan to the death, but his reason was telling him: he couldn't sacrifice his own life and the lives of all his brothers just for this foster son.
He took a deep breath, forced himself to appear indifferent, and said:
"This job is impossible. I'm not going down with these idiots!"
"Raiders, attention! Turn the ship around immediately, engage the jump drive, and prepare to run!"
Seeing that Yondu had lost his will to fight, the morale of the Nova Corps, which had been so hard to organize, cracked once again.
Rhomann Dey slumped in his chair, already considering whether he should bid a final farewell to his family.
For example, shouting into the communicator, "Tell my mom I'm not a coward," and then launching a suicide attack on Ronan in a Nova fighter.
Irani also squeezed her eyes shut, a tear of frustration sliding from the corner of her eye.
"Xandar... is there really no hope left?"
"That's right!" Ronan heard her murmur and flashed a look of utter contempt at the Nova Prime:
"Feel despair, you bugs! I will use your deaths to announce the end of Xandar!"
As he spoke, he slammed his warhammer down again.
The moment the hammer fell, a terrifying purple energy shockwave capable of tearing space apart, carrying the momentum to destroy everything, blasted toward the crowd.
Wherever this energy wave passed, space itself produced visible distortions. Several Raiders' small fighters that were too close didn't even have time to dodge before they were disintegrated into cosmic dust by the stray energy.
Seeing this, Irani had already closed her eyes in despair.
But she waited for a long time without feeling the expected pain.
What was going on?
Irani opened her eyes a crack in disbelief.
And then... she saw a giant... tree creature!
Was this... that guy who kept yelling "Groot"?
Irani subconsciously looked back in the direction of Groot, only to find that Groot was still standing there foolishly, muttering to himself:
"I am Groot?!"
Rocket Raccoon and Destroyer were also stunned.
They shifted their gaze back and forth between the giant tree creature looming before them and Groot, until Rocket finally couldn't help but shout:
"Groot? How did you summon your ancestor?"
"Ancestor? I don't have such a dim-witted great-great-great-grandson~"
The giant tree creature retorted, and that young voice left everyone present dumbfounded.
This voice was too familiar; it was clearly—Peter's voice!
But how was this possible?
Wasn't that guy a pure-blooded Earthling?
Why did he suddenly turn into a Flora Colossus?
Just as big question marks appeared in everyone's minds, Peter smiled slightly at Ronan, who was also looking at him in disbelief:
"Blue-skinned freak, now, let me use you to test my newly acquired ability!"
As he spoke, Peter clapped his hands together heavily.
The next second, the entire dark aster began to shake violently.
Countless thick, brown vines appeared out of thin air, like awakened ancient beasts, piercing through the ship's armor and growing wildly at a terrifying speed.
While these vines grew crazily, they constantly intertwined and compressed, forming thick and sturdy branches.
In just a few short breaths, a vast primeval forest had taken root in space.
Wood Release: Ask and You Shall Receive Jutsu!
Ahem, no, that's not right—it's Deep Forest Emergence!
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