Chapter 384: Defeat and Fragments of Memory

"Yes, boss!" Thor responded without hesitation upon hearing Ah Fu's command, his gaze fixating on Hogan with a fierce light sparking in his eyes as a surge of battle intent erupted.

At this moment, Thor was not only unhesitant but also exhilarated. Unlike his previous missions, which involved dealing with unknown, weaker targets, this time his opponent Hogan seemed formidable.

Thor had no particular reaction to Hogan's identity; after all, following his brainwashing, obeying orders was what mattered most to him.

Moreover, unlike Loki, Thor did not have a nostalgic or intimately familiar feeling towards Hogan, let alone consider him one of the most important people in his life...

"So, the relationship between the Immortal Palace group, Thor, and Loki was indeed complicated. The Immortal Palace group had a noticeably better relationship with Thor, but in Thor's heart, Loki was his most important brother.

"Thor, you..." Hogan noticed Thor's demeanor and furrowed his brow, calling out Thor's name with a hint of panic. He knew the man before him was Thor, but why did Thor seem not to recognize him?

Moreover, Hogan was confused about why Thor, supposedly powerless on Earth, seemed far from powerless at the moment, exuding an immense pressure.

"Boom!" Before Hogan could get an answer, Thor had already dashed forward with explosive speed, much faster than most of the beast warriors. Even Hogan, with his quick reactions, only realized Thor was upon him at the last moment.

Instinctively, Hogan counterattacked. He didn't hold back just because the opponent was Thor, especially since they had sparred before as part of their regular team drills...

"Boom!" The next moment, Hogan's and Thor's fists collided. Hogan hadn't managed to use his mace, but he didn't pull his punches. Holding back now would be like committing suicide.

But after the impact, Hogan's expression changed. There was no clear winner in their clash, but the difference was that Thor didn't seem to wield the familiar divine power Hogan knew. Yet, he matched Hogan's strength, even without visible divine power, making him already stronger than the beast warriors.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" And that was just the beginning. Soon, a series of relentless collisions followed, with the surrounding beast warriors stepping aside. This was at Ah Fu's behest; he wanted to assess the true capabilities of Hogan and Thor.

Ah Fu was naturally curious about the relationship between Hogan and Thor, but he found it intriguing to watch the two fight, especially Thor battling someone he seemed to once know. Meanwhile, Ah Fu speculated about the origins of these four individuals.

Elsewhere, the battles were not over. Ah Fu had the beast warriors pulled from this fight to assist elsewhere, using a surrounding tactic to drain the energy of Sif and the other two. Ah Fu watched Thor and Hogan's fight without any intention of intervening.

Under Ah Fu's scrutiny, Hogan's expression grew increasingly grim as he began to sustain injuries at Thor's hands...

If this were the original Thor, it wouldn't have been surprising, as Hogan was never a match for him. But this Thor, without his full divine strength, should not have been much stronger than Hogan!

Especially since Hogan was very familiar with Thor's fighting style and tactics. However, when Hogan tried to counter Thor using his memory of Thor's style, he found that Thor's approach had drastically changed, and his combat skills had significantly improved.

Even if Hogan recognized Thor's potential to be a future king of Asgard, he never thought Thor's skills surpassed their own; in fact, he might have considered them weaker than Sif's, relying solely on his greater innate strength.

Now, however, with nearly equal strength, Thor was gradually overpowering Hogan, even though Hogan wielded his mace...

Initially, Hogan wanted to communicate with Thor during the fight, but under such pressure, he found no opportunity to speak, especially as more blood spilled onto the ground.

"You're really weak! Only good enough to handle these beast warriors..." Ah Fu observed Hogan's performance with a flicker of interest, pondering, "The beast warriors' lack of diverse combat skills is a problem. Even though super soldiers have better combat skills, turning them into beast warriors seems to limit their instincts..."

"However, this doesn't change the fact that this Asgardian's skills are equally poor. Among these four, only the woman seems competent. I wonder how their backing power trained them. Could there be another serum involved? But it seems like it wouldn't conflict with the super soldier serum, at least Thor doesn't show any adverse effects..."

Ah Fu, a skilled martial artist and enhanced by the super soldier serum, naturally looked down on Hogan's combat skills. He also considered Hogan and the others as talents cultivated by the organization behind Thor, sent to retrieve him.

Ah Fu was particularly interested in this organization, as such high-level fighters were rare. He could sense

 that unlike Thor, Hogan and the others possessed extraordinary energies within them.

This was even more unusual because, whether super soldiers or beast warriors, they were all essentially enhanced life forms, still flesh and blood without true supernatural energy. To harness or manifest powers, they required external extraordinary items.

Even Ah Fu, now almost inhuman, couldn't rely on his body alone to release energy.

Moreover, the energy weapons wielded by the Immortal Palace group seemed far superior to Hydra's.

Thus, not only did McCarthy covet the Immortal Palace group, but Ah Fu also harbored desires, even more interested in absorbing their backing organization to enhance his capabilities.

Now, Ah Fu was somewhat different from his past self, once a martial artist content with fighting and eager to repay Valmont's favor, but now he was a fully-fledged Hydra leader.

This change wasn't just due to the transformation induced by the super soldier serum; his new position also influenced him.

No matter how determined Ah Fu initially was to help Valmont seek revenge and how indifferent he was to the Hydra leadership, his experiences had inevitably changed him.

As for whether the appearance of the Immortal Palace group and their organization would impact Thor's memory, Ah Fu wasn't worried. Once he dealt with them, whether Thor regained his memory or not wouldn't matter. After all, they could always just brainwash him again!

However, Ah Fu was slightly wary of the Immortal Palace group's backing powers. Knowing their displayed strength was formidable, even if their combat skills were lacking...

Ah Fu was confident he could defeat the four together, even considering their powerful energy weapons.

In his view, apart from Sif, the other three weren't very skilled with their weapons. He believed he could seize the weapons without much cost...

What concerned him now was whether there were stronger forces or weapons behind the Immortal Palace group. This was why Ah Fu hadn't immediately ordered the beast warriors to annihilate them upon arrival. Instead, he opted to exhaust their strength and capture them to extract more information.

"Spurt!" As Ah Fu pondered, Hogan, fighting Thor, was caught in a vital flaw and severely injured, thrown back with a crash, looking more disheveled as he hit the ground, his mace falling beside him.

"Thor..." Lying on the ground, Hogan gasped, struggling for air as he stared at Thor rushing towards him again and murmured, "Do you really not remember who I am? Why have you become like this?"

"Don't kill him; capture him first," Ah Fu instructed as he watched Thor unhesitatingly aim a punch at Hogan's head, seemingly unaffected by Hogan's plea.

"Swish!" Thor's punch stopped just an inch from Hogan's head. If it had been the old Thor, the punch would not have halted, but the current Thor was fully compliant with orders.

This wasn't just because Thor had greater control over his own strength, but also because he didn't question Ah Fu's commands.

"So, you're also a god of Asgard? Haha, what a weak god!" Thor grabbed Hogan, speaking to him for the first time during their fight, "When you banished me to Earth and then sent Loki after me, and now these weaklings, does Asgard really not intend to leave me be? What kind of god are you? You seem so weak; are you just a gatekeeper?"

"What... what are you talking about?" Hogan, completely confused by Thor's words, ignored his wounds and weakly said, "What do you mean 'hurry up and kill'? Do you know who you are? You haven't lost your memory? Then why are you attacking us?"

"I certainly know who I am; I am Thor, the God of Thunder!" Thor's eyes flashed with anger as he stared at Hogan and declared, "You came for me, right? You banished me to Earth and then killed so many of our Hydra people, you will pay the price!"

Compared to Ah Fu and McCarthy, the brainwashed Thor had a set of beliefs about the Immortal Palace group's appearance that they had not anticipated, especially since Ah Fu, ready to hear more from Hogan, was stunned on the spot.

Thor's brainwashed content was known to Ah Fu, but he never expected Thor to utter such words. How could he continue to inquire about the identities of Hogan and the others under these circumstances?

Thus, the battlefield momentarily fell silent, with three people from seemingly three different worlds, completely failing to understand each other...

"Thor, knock him out first, then handle him later. Go and deal with those three; you complained about weak opponents before, right? Taking turns against those three should satisfy you," Ah Fu quickly recovered, realizing that Thor's mind wasn't suitable for extracting information. It was better to keep him engaged with the Immortal Palace group.

"Boom!" Upon hearing Ah Fu's words, Thor knocked Hogan unconscious and threw him to the ground before heading to the other battlefield

 without hesitation.

However, as he passed the mace, Thor subconsciously stopped and picked it up.

"Hum!" The mace didn't have any special mechanism to recognize its owner. When Thor picked up the mace, it immediately surged with a strange energy, causing him to pause.

"Hmm?" Seeing Thor's reaction, Ah Fu's gaze sharpened, watching Thor and the mace in his hand with caution as he said sternly, "Thor, what are you doing?"

"Sorry, boss, this Asgardian weapon seems quite handy; it reminds me of past experiences. I think I had a very powerful weapon once..." Thor, upon hearing Ah Fu, trembled slightly. Holding the mace triggered fragments of memory in his mind, but unfortunately, it did not awaken him from his brainwashed state—such are the pitfalls of accidental programming...

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