"Professor, are you alright?"
Leaving aside the people fighting outside, in a place almost no one knew about, Jean Grey was currently staring helplessly at Professor Charles.
It had to be said that the Professor was in an extremely miserable state. His hair had completely fallen out, and he was groaning in pain. Drops of cold sweat slid down his forehead, and his body twisted in agony.
Jean Grey was very familiar with this condition. Because the two were using their psychic powers to fight for control of this body. But Jean didn't dare to intervene in the struggle, because she knew her power was far too weak.
Actually, it wasn't exactly weak—she was afraid that overusing her power would cause the Phoenix Force inside her to go out of control. Not to mention the even more terrifying Phoenix power lurking within.
"Hurry, help me, hurry..."
At that moment, Charles's pained voice reached Jean Grey's ears. He had clearly already entered a state of suppression and was beginning to break down.
Honestly, if Apocalypse's main body wasn't busy outside fending off the others' attacks, Charles would've lost even sooner.
On the other side, several people were launching a full assault on Apocalypse.
Cyclops's lasers, every piece of metal Magneto could control, Storm's thunderbolts, and Tohka's sword slashes.
As for the others, including Wolverine, they could only watch helplessly. They were all melee-type fighters.
In this kind of pure bombardment, anyone who charged in could be severely injured instantly. Even Wolverine, though unafraid, knew it would hurt.
Either way, he didn't want to rush in and get riddled by stray energy blasts, especially when even those might not hurt Apocalypse much.
But Apocalypse wasn't having an easy time either. He had to fully support his shield while keeping a close eye on Tohka in midair. He knew he absolutely had to eliminate this girl.
For that, he even withdrew the spiritual energy he had left in the professor's body. Otherwise, Charles would've been in even more pain.
While resisting everyone's power, Apocalypse slowly gathered his strength. Just when everyone's attacks started to weaken, Apocalypse suddenly struck.
There was no helping it—after outputting at full power for so long, even Cyclops's laser beams were weakening.
Not to mention Tohka's all-out attack had drained her too, leaving her gasping for breath. But just then, unexpectedly, Apocalypse struck.
A violent wave of energy exploded outward, blasting everyone away.
But at that moment, Quicksilver, who had been watching from the sidelines, charged in at full speed.
Unfortunately, Apocalypse had been watching him from the start. The moment he lifted his leg, the sand on the ground suddenly shot up and pinned him down.
Wolverine wasn't one to back down either. He swung his adamantium claws and charged forward. As someone he had personally enhanced, Apocalypse knew how tough Wolverine was.
But the flaws were obvious too, so he didn't want to waste time on him
Using sand to wrap him and Beast together, he sent them both flying into a wall. The wall suddenly became soft like clay, and the two were absorbed into it. Then the wall solidified again.
Unfortunately, once restrained like this, they lost all leverage and couldn't break free for the time being.
Even so, the others who had been blasted away finally managed to regain their footing.
Cyclops, however, was unlucky. Apparently, he had never released such intense energy before, and now he was clutching his eyes—clearly unable to continue attacking.
Tohka was the first to react. After all, no matter how strong Magneto and Storm were, they were still physically human.
They shakily tried to get up from the rubble, but the pain kept them from using their powers.
Tohka, on the other hand, was different. Although she had been blown the farthest away—which should have meant the most damage—her personal defenses had kept her completely unharmed.
She stood up immediately. But due to her earlier energy drain, she could no longer maintain her final sword form.
The formerly ten-meter-long greatsword slowly shrank and reverted back to her standard weapon: Sandalphon.
The advantage was that it was more agile and better suited for close combat.
Ignoring everything else around her, she lifted her sword and charged straight at Apocalypse.
Facing the giant sword slashing toward him, Apocalypse swiftly dodged Tohka's strike. Taking advantage of Tohka's delayed reaction, he punched her in the stomach and sent her flying, smashing a large hole in the wall.
"Cough, cough, cough."
Tohka felt a sweetness in her throat and immediately spat out blood. Apocalypse's punch was infused with overwhelming energy, enough to penetrate her defenses easily.
But he didn't stop there. He immediately summoned over a dozen spike-like projectiles and launched them at Tohka. Still reeling from the blow, she couldn't react in time.
Fortunately, Magneto and Storm had recovered and quickly tried to intercept the projectiles with metal and lightning.
However, there were simply too many. But Apocalypse had launched too many—there was no way to block them all.
The remaining spikes pierced through their defensive net and hit Tohka, who hadn't recovered yet.
"Ahhh!"
Seeing the incoming projectiles, Tohka mustered all the energy she could to form a shield in front of her.
Unfortunately, while the spikes lacked defensive strength, their offensive power was top-tier.
Her shield shattered in less than a tenth of a second. The spikes pierced straight into her and pinned her to the wall. Blood streamed down her body.
"Ugh."
Tohka had no time to react. Her vision darkened instantly.
"..."
Apocalypse glanced coldly at the wounded Tohka but didn't approach. Because at that moment, the X-Men, clearly enraged, charged at him recklessly.
But unfortunately, without Tohka restraining him, Apocalypse could now unleash more of his power. He instantly blasted all of them away again.
Still, he didn't go for the kill. Instead, he walked toward Charles's location.
But soon, he stopped. Because...
"Old dog, did you enjoy that punch?"