In truth, the materials of Atlantis's civilization weren't weak by any measure. They had to withstand immense water pressure, after all, and their alloys were exceptional.
But what Wakanda had was Vibranium.
A purely natural ore that basically outclassed nearly every material out there.
That'll teach you to look down on us materials researchers!
"Is that Vibranium? That's just insane."
Coulson of the Shenjian Bureau watched the Wakandan natives, every last one of them impervious to blades and spears, cleaving through everything in their path and slaughtering Atlanteans until they were doubting their own fishy existence.
Having already learned about Vibranium from the Shenjian Bureau's database, he wasn't the least bit surprised.
If anything, he was deeply envious of Wakanda. They had monopolized Earth's only Vibranium resource and spent so many years developing with it. No wonder they could surpass the collective advancement of all humankind.
When your materials dominate absolutely, science hits no bottlenecks. And if both materials and energy are fully satisfied, a civilization's technological growth becomes unimaginably fast.
Recently, though, Zod had found Adamantium ore elsewhere. He recalled that this stuff wasn't actually unique to mutants; it came from meteorites as well.
The existence of Captain America's shield proved Adamantium was real, and so he had tracked it down.
Now that he had mastered Adamantium's atomic structure, Zod could manufacture it at will.
Of course, none of this meant Wakanda was invincible. If they truly were, they wouldn't have been steamrolled by the cannon-fodder alien beasts Thanos brought with him.
Suffice to say, the Atlanteans were stunned at first, then quickly identified Wakanda's weaknesses and launched counterattacks.
The two sides traded blow for blow. The ocean warriors went on an absolute rampage, inflicting heavy casualties inside Wakanda.
"This looks like real fury, not some minor scuffle."
The Shenjian Bureau had the leisure to observe the spectacle from the sidelines.
"The Director's idea is, once they've beaten each other up enough, we step out and stop the war."
Brownski leaned against a jeep, a cigar clenched between his teeth, sunglasses on, and spoke.
"To weaken their strength?"
Coulson shrugged. He understood the logic, but the Shenjian Bureau had only sent a handful of people. Weren't they taking Wakanda and Atlantis a little too lightly?
Just then, Wakanda deployed their war machines. The so-called war machines were giant rhinoceroses clad in Vibranium armor. Irradiated by Vibranium veins, the rhinos within Wakanda had grown to monstrous proportions. The horn on each head was thicker than a grown man's thigh, with boundless strength and terrifying speed. Once they charged, it was a tribal blitzkrieg.
The Atlanteans felt the ground tremble beneath their feet like an earthquake.
"Earthquake?"
The shaking wasn't violent, more like distant aftershocks rippling outward.
But the sound of a thousand stampeding beasts drew closer and closer, making the Atlanteans' hearts pound in dread. Then they saw the charging colossi.
"El... elephants! A whole herd of elephants!"
"Idiot, those are rhinos!"
Rumble...
Thick, powerful limbs. Horns gleaming with a metallic sheen. Their bodies were more than twice the size of ordinary savanna rhinos.
Looking out, there were at least fifty of these behemoths, lined up in a single charging wave, their momentum utterly terrifying.
Energy blasts struck the rhinos and simply vanished, as if they had never existed.
They wore armor made of energy-absorbing Vibranium. Only their eyes were exposed; almost the entire front half of their bodies was tightly shielded.
Atlanteans were sent flying, but they scrambled back up almost instantly and actually fought these enormous rhinos head on.
Most Atlanteans, having lived under such crushing deep-sea pressure, possessed physical capabilities far beyond land dwellers. That was without even mentioning the strength and defense granted by their exoskeleton armor.
It was purely in materials that Wakanda completely outmatched them. Otherwise, they could have taken Wakanda without suffering any losses.
The two sides fought to a standstill. Only after Wakanda sent in the Vibranium rhinos did the battle finally even out to about fifty-fifty.
They fought for a long time, not stopping until sunset.
Seeing that both sides had already lost plenty of people, the Shenjian Bureau finally intervened. But by then, both forces were completely bloodlusted. There was no way they would just stop because someone said so.
"The idea was to make them hate and resent each other over this war so they wouldn't quietly cooperate. But in this situation, there's no way they'd stop on command."
Coulson grumbled.
Then they saw Brownski transform directly into "Super Abomination" and start pounding both sides. Whoever refused to listen got beaten.
Brownski, who could absorb kinetic energy, was essentially an unstoppable force of destruction. Only against the Atlanteans did he actually take any damage.
He beat them until Wakanda and Atlantis thoroughly cooled their heads.
That was the overwhelming power of superheroes and super villains.
Atlantis also gained a far more vivid impression of the Shenjian Bureau's might. After all, this monster called Brownski was merely one of the Bureau's five S-class heroes. Meaning there were four more just as strong as him, not to mention their most powerful Director, Zod Hess, who hadn't even made a move.
What they didn't know was that Zod Hess had recently begun shifting his approach, planning to turn powerful super villains into superheroes. That way, perhaps when Thanos arrived, Earth might be able to handle things on its own.
Just imagine: if Thanos came to Earth and faced a lineup of Super Abomination, Red Hulk, Green Hulk, Thor, Iron Man Tony Stark, Juggernaut, and the Thing, Ben Grimm, even with two Infinity Stones in hand, he would be in serious trouble. He might just get beaten to the ground.
Atlantis and Wakanda entered peace talks. It was only then they realized that what had sparked their war was a very minor cause, yet both sides had lost so many people.
Even if they maintained calm and rationality now, this blood feud would be difficult to forget. Someday, it might suddenly erupt again.
But that was precisely what the United Nations and Zod Hess wanted to see.
Without forging such a blood feud as a rift, what if they decided to cooperate and develop together? The United Nations had no desire to witness that.
Zod had originally been thinking about when to instigate conflict between Wakanda and Atlantis, to get them to fight. He never expected them to be so cooperative. Not even a week had passed, and they had started fighting all on their own.
One could only say he underestimated just how fiery the tempers in Atlantis or Wakanda really were.
Afterward, Zod had Juggernaut, Cain Marko, join the Shenjian Bureau as a new S-class hero.
With that, the Shenjian Bureau now had six S-class heroes. Of course, he himself, as Director, was not counted among them.
"Let me think, what other formidable super villains haven't shown up yet?"
Zod searched through his memories.
/-\
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