With a new skill in hand, whether it's "Self-Destructing Living People" or "Self-Destructing Fire People," Atreus is ready to unleash it.
As Atreus approaches a common thug armed with a laser gun, the thug no longer bothers pulling the trigger in vain. Instead, after a quick shot at Atreus, he draws a tactical knife, shouts, and charges forward.
Bravery indeed!
But utterly useless!
With a Spartan-style front kick, Atreus sends the thug flying 20 meters, injecting a bit of "Red Gene" into him as a bonus. The thug crashes near two others who are wildly shooting their guns.
"Boom!"
The thug explodes.
Clearly, he couldn't handle the fire element that came with the red gene!
The violent explosion is like a massive pot of molten steel being dumped over the area. Not only is the thug instantly obliterated, but the surrounding metal frames and steel panels are also reduced to a molten mess.
Atreus moves quickly again, leaping several meters to another thug, grabbing him and throwing him over his shoulder. The thug crashes into another Extremis soldier, and a subsequent explosion wipes them both out.
Meanwhile, Tony is rushing to save Pepper Potts. Along the way, he catches a glimpse of the chaos and is moved: Atreus, my good friend! He's drawing the attention of almost all the Extremis soldiers. If I had to deal with these self-destructing maniacs myself, I'd be in big trouble.
In reality, AIM knows exactly how many Extremis soldiers they have. Yet, the number of explosions caused by Atreus has far exceeded that count, and hardly anyone on Aldrich's side has noticed this. Even those who have are at a loss for words.
More incredibly, Atreus's kill count has already surpassed that of all the Iron Man suits combined.
Tony would be even more shocked when he calculates the numbers afterward.
But at this moment, Tony can't focus on that.
All he sees is Pepper.
Yes! Pepper Potts is in danger.
From the moment Tony ordered the Iron Legion to charge the enemy, he began searching for Pepper. Now, he finally finds her—in dire peril.
Pepper is trapped on a cargo container suspended by a crane, which is teetering precariously. Below her is a 200-foot (66-meter) deep chasm, filled with a blazing inferno from the burning containers below.
If Tony were wearing any of his Iron Man suits, this wouldn't be a problem.
But, as luck would have it, the Iron Legion's assault has not gone smoothly against the hundreds of laser gun-armed thugs. Several suits near Tony have already been destroyed.
All Tony has left is a small handgun—nothing more.
Just like that, right in front of Tony's eyes, Pepper slips and falls into the fiery chasm below...
"Pepper—!"
Tony's heart shatters in that moment.
An overwhelming wave of grief engulfs Tony, and when the mastermind Aldrich appears, that sorrow quickly transforms into pure rage. Just then, one of the Iron Man suits finally breaks through the enemy's air defenses and flies toward Tony, latching onto him.
Filled with fury, Tony charges forward without hesitation.
To be honest, Iron Man isn't built for hand-to-hand combat. Even when equipped with the famous Hulkbuster, Tony's reflexes would never make him a melee expert.
As a ranged fighter, it's fine for Tony to beat up some weaklings, but Aldrich, who has long trained for combat... ends up manhandling him.
Sizzle! Aldrich's makeshift molten fist comes flying at Tony, and even in his Iron Man suit, Tony dares not take the hit head-on.
The directional nature of the repulsor beams on Iron Man's palms is too obvious in close combat. With Aldrich's reflexes, he can easily block and counterattack, teaching Tony a lesson.
In truth, Tony can't win this fight.
Within three rounds, Aldrich shatters the chest armor of Tony's first suit, and Tony barely escapes death thanks to an emergency ejection.
Then, he dons a second suit, only to have it sliced in half by another molten hand strike from Aldrich.
At the critical moment, the newly developed MK42, with independently flying parts, arrives, allowing Tony to briefly turn the tide.
"Jarvis! Attach Suit 42 to Aldrich—self-destruct!"
In the next second, Aldrich temporarily becomes "Iron Man." More accurately, it's worse than a medieval iron maiden because this one can explode!
"Boom!" A massive explosion echoes through the sky.
Even though the explosion was from within, the blast wave still throws Tony several meters away.
Stunned, Tony watches as Aldrich, his skin charred like coal, emerges from the fiery wreckage—still alive.
As Tony struggles with his damaged headset and lost connection to Jarvis, thinking he's completely helpless, Pepper—whom he thought had died—suddenly leaps out of another fire, showcasing incredible strength and agility, and beats Aldrich to a pulp.
Even more astonishing, because Aldrich had injected Pepper with the Extremis virus, she is now mistakenly identified as an Extremis soldier by several Iron Man suits' targeting systems. One suit even launches an attack on her.
To everyone's shock, the once delicate Pepper now seems like a rampaging Godzilla, leaping through the air and smashing the older model Iron Man suit to pieces with one punch.
"What? You got a problem!?" Pepper shouts angrily.
Tony, completely dumbfounded, hurriedly shakes his head: "No! No problem at all…"
Just as the slightly "fiery" Pepper turns to finish Aldrich off, something unexpected happens.
A muscular figure drops from the sky.
Aldrich reacts instantly, stepping aside to let the attacker's strike miss.
It's not a bad move.
A smart fighter wouldn't turn tail and expose his back to the enemy.
But Aldrich made one fatal error: he underestimated the speed and power of his attacker.
Two brilliant golden lights slash down, effortlessly slicing through Aldrich's arms raised in defense. The lights curve left and right, cutting across his chest just above the collarbones, emitting a strange sound like slicing through old tires.
Finally, the blades meet in the middle of Aldrich's chest and exit through the sides of his abdomen.
"Ah!" Aldrich lets out a horrifying scream.
Even after suffering such a grievous wound, he doesn't die immediately. Instead, he raises his dismembered arms in a "White Crane Spreads Its Wings" stance, preparing to launch a final attack with the molten lava-like plasma pouring from his wounds.
"Hmph!" The bald man grunts coldly.
A second flash of his blades, and Aldrich is cut into three pieces.
His translucent head, glowing with a fiery red light, flies high into the air.
Aldrich—dead!
Tony and Pepper are stunned as they look at the imposing figure of the bald man.
The man cracks a cruel smile and says, "Tony, you wouldn't want to dirty Ms. Potts' hands, would you?"
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