Rampage
"Let's go!"
Seeing Pietro frozen in place, Xu Mo spoke up sharply.
He wasn't sure if the last strike had killed Kingpin. If Pietro stayed, he'd be caught up in the inevitable next clash.
"Oh—right!" Pietro shook himself back to reality. In a blur of motion, he vanished from sight, leaving only a faint gust of displaced air behind.
Inside the building, Wilson Fisk—better known as Kingpin—coughed up a mouthful of blood. His immaculate white suit was torn and stained crimson, his face twisted in pain and fury.
The blow Xu Mo had landed nearly caved in his ribcage. Even if none were broken outright, cracks ran through the bone, and his internal organs burned from the impact.
This was only the second time he'd been so utterly overpowered—first by a mutant monstrosity years ago, and now by Xu Mo.
Kingpin's hand trembled as he reached inside his sleeve and withdrew a tiny injector. It was one of his private weapons, developed in his clandestine labs—an experimental serum designed to push the human body far beyond its natural limits, temporarily boosting strength five- to sixfold.
The cost, however, was ruinous. Once the drug burned out, permanent damage followed. Even if he lived, he might never walk again.
Originally, Fisk had reserved this trump card for superhumans like Spider-Man or Daredevil. Now he had no choice. If he hesitated, he wouldn't see morning.
Without a second thought, he jammed the injector into his thigh and pressed the trigger.
---
Outside, Xu Mo waited. The silence stretched too long.
His instincts told him it wasn't over. He stepped inside cautiously. Based on the earlier exchange, Kingpin's natural strength couldn't have exceeded two tons. Impressive for a "normal" human, but still vastly inferior to Xu Mo's own.
Even so, Xu Mo had no intention of showing mercy.
Through the dust and rubble, he spotted Fisk pinned under debris. Xu Mo leapt forward, foot raised to end the fight in one decisive strike—
—but in that instant, a sinister crimson glow rippled across Kingpin's skin. His muscles bulged grotesquely, and with a roar, Fisk burst free of the wreckage, dodging the kick at inhuman speed.
Xu Mo's eyes narrowed. The man's entire body was suffused with a blood-red sheen. His skin split at the seams, seeping crimson as raw power pulsed from him.
"Damn… he's juiced himself," Xu Mo muttered. He knew this world was littered with black-market tech and unstable super-soldier knockoffs. This was one of them.
With no words, Fisk lunged, knowing the drug's boost was fleeting. Victory had to be immediate—or it would be his death.
The two collided.
This time, it wasn't a one-sided beatdown. Xu Mo still held the edge in speed, but Fisk's blows carried staggering weight. Xu Mo estimated the man's strength had ballooned past twelve tons—dangerous even for him.
Xu Mo drew a weapon from his system's storage: a Cold Moon–series alloy blade, its edge gleaming with unnatural sharpness. The weapon cost him dearly—three hundred points—but could withstand the strikes of a trained warrior without so much as a dent.
Kingpin's eyes flicked to the sword, momentarily cautious. But when Xu Mo slashed, Fisk raised a pair of custom gauntlets—crafted from advanced alloys—and caught the blade mid-swing.
The steel shrieked, halted cold. Fisk's face split into a cruel grin.
"My turn."
With his free hand, Fisk swung a fist like a wrecking ball. Xu Mo had no choice but to counter with his left hand. The collision sent him flying backward, his arm trembling violently from the shock.
He grimaced. Conservatively, Fisk's enhanced strength now hovered around thirteen tons—and despite the cracks in his skin, he could probably endure for minutes more.
The street shook as they clashed again, Xu Mo on the defensive, blade intercepting blow after blow. Without the sword, he'd already be crushed. But his arms were growing numb. If this continued, he'd falter.
There was only one option: to unlock the first stage of Thunder Blade, a technique that would double his strength, pushing him to twenty tons. That would be enough to overwhelm Fisk before the drug consumed him.
But before Xu Mo could focus, two familiar figures appeared at the edge of the street.
"Wanda? Pietro?!" Xu Mo snapped.
The Maximoff twins had returned—Wanda clutching a Remington shotgun awkwardly, Pietro brandishing a submachine gun. Both were breathing hard from sprinting back.
Without hesitation, they opened fire.
"Are you insane?!" Xu Mo shouted. He knew bullets were useless against men like him and Fisk.
"We couldn't just leave you!" Pietro yelled back, squeezing off bursts.
Under the rain of fire and Wanda's wide shotgun blasts, Fisk flinched as rounds pinged off his body. They barely hurt him, but the sting was enough to enrage him further.
"Fools!" Fisk bellowed. With a roar, he surged forward—not toward Xu Mo this time, but Wanda.