Wearing a winged helmet designed for barbarians and encased in thick, heavy armor, Shi Xiaolei descended from the sky, wielding a massive iron hammer.
He was now clad in the barbarian-exclusive gear that came with his bloodline, and with an intimidating aura, he launched a fierce attack on the Iron Monger.
'Where did this savage come from…'
Before Obadiah could figure out where the retro-styled Shi Xiaolei had popped out from, the huge iron hammer had already landed squarely on the alloy-forged Iron Monger.
With a deafening crash, the Iron Monger, weighing several tons, was smashed onto its back.
Fragments flew from its heavily impacted right shoulder, and electric sparks crackled.
"Conna, are you okay?" Instead of pressing his advantage, Shi Xiaolei immediately crouched down upon landing, anxiously asking Conna.
"Mhm, mhm~."
The little girl shook her head obediently. However, her small face still showed a hint of displeasure because her clothes were dirty: "Xiaolei, can I hit him?"
"I'll do it, Conna. Go to Sylvia quickly and let her clean you up…"
As he spoke, the fallen Iron Monger, controlled by Obadiah, slowly wobbled back to its feet.
"You…"
"Hey, Obadiah~!"
Tony Stark was equally surprised, but he didn't forget the current situation. To protect the adorable little girl, Conna, and also not wanting Shi Xiaolei, an outsider, to take the attacks for him, he quickly focused his attention and attacked the Iron Monger again.
However, the Mark III's combat capability was truly a bit lacking.
Without the specially developed heat rays for combat, the palm cannons temporarily converted from the propulsion system didn't have much destructive power. After three consecutive shots, not even a speck of iron slag fell from the Iron Monger; only a small area where it was hit was blackened.
Fortunately, these attacks carried a thrust… After taking a hit on his helmet, his head tilted, and Obadiah's attention shifted back to Iron Man, who was hovering in the air.
"Tony~!" The Gatling gun mounted on his left shoulder roared to life again, a stream of bullets trailing fire, raining down on Tony like a downpour.
"Go quickly."
Taking advantage of Iron Man drawing the Iron Monger's attention and leading it dozens of meters away, Shi Xiaolei quickly handed Conna over to 2B, who had arrived a step late.
Turning to look at the two fighting again, he made a decision: "Sylvia, you take Conna and leave first. I'll be there later."
His limited ammunition had long been used up, and the energy supporting the armor's movement was also running low. In just a few seconds, Iron Man showed signs of weakening under the Iron Monger's fierce attack. It was seeing this scene that made Shi Xiaolei abandon his long-held principles… Well, mainly, that last blow had stimulated the fighting desire hidden within his barbarian bloodline.
At this moment, he had no other thoughts; he just wanted to fight a good, hearty battle.
"Ha~~~~!"
Using the Leap Attack skill again, another massive jump that would make high jumpers weep, Shi Xiaolei, with immense power, instantly blocked the Iron Monger, which was pursuing Iron Man. Without hesitation, he swung his great hammer again for another heavy blow.
"Duang~!!!!"
This hammer strike landed on the Iron Monger's chest plate. The impact point was different, and the sound of the hammer falling was also slightly different.
"It's you again~!" Just as he was about to succeed, the savage from before reappeared in front of him. Obadiah cursed furiously and swung his left hand, punching Shi Xiaolei.
Although there were only a few moves in the game, in reality, every barbarian was a true combat expert. While their movements and routines differed from assassins, when it came to the number of tricks and routines, they were not inferior to assassins at all.
"Good timing~!"
Precisely calculating the distance, he took half a step back, narrowly dodging the Iron Monger's punch. Then, using the momentum of that step, Shi Xiaolei deftly swung the iron hammer in his hand, striking upwards at the joint of the Iron Monger's left arm.
The force wasn't heavy enough to sever the arm in one blow, or even to damage the internal components and disable the iron arm.
'Tsk.'
After a few more rounds, Shi Xiaolei confirmed that he couldn't unleash the hammer's full power in close-quarters combat and couldn't inflict fatal damage on the thick and sturdy Iron Monger. He immediately made a choice.
While Iron Man launched another surprise attack, diverting some of the Iron Monger's attention, Shi Xiaolei circled around to the Iron Monger's back.
With a flick of his hands, he switched to his second set of weapons.
Burning Cruelty Hand Axe + Northwind's Trembling Longsword!
Although both were blue weapons and their damage wasn't as high as the previous great iron hammer, these two weapons each came with fire and ice damage, and they were both sharp, edged weapons… "Hoo~ ~!" He let out a roar, applying a damage-boosting buff to himself. Shi Xiaolei wielded the sword in his left hand, thrusting it into the Iron Monger's lower back, while his right hand swung the hand axe, chopping down towards the back of its right knee.
And indeed, switching to sharp weapons had a much better effect.
The longsword, imbued with freezing damage, merely a light thrust, caused a thin layer of light blue ice to form on the Iron Monger. The originally silver-gray, intimidating behemoth instantly transformed into a giant blue Smurf.
Meanwhile, the hand axe, imbued with fire damage, like the heat hawk in Zaku II's hand, effortlessly severed the Iron Monger's right leg.
"Drip, drip~!"
Inside the Iron Monger, a blood-red warning flashed before Obadiah's eyes—just like in the original story where it malfunctioned and crashed due to icing problems after flying to high altitudes, the Iron Monger's operating system also experienced similar malfunctions after being stabbed by the ice-attributed longsword.
Of course, the more serious malfunction came from the right leg.
Just as he was about to activate emergency procedures to clear the malfunction, Obadiah suddenly realized that his center of gravity was shifting. In an instant, he, along with the Iron Monger, crashed to the ground.
Strike while the iron is hot. Shi Xiaolei casually stabbed the Iron Monger twice more.
Two more waves of freezing damage, and the operating system completely crashed.
The eye lights on the helmet also extinguished. Seeing this change, Iron Man flew down and landed on the ground.
"Move, move!"
"Clang, clang, clang, clang~." Busy restarting the system, Obadiah's eyes turned red with anxiety upon hearing the knocking sounds from outside the helmet, and the veins on his neck bulged.
"Obie, you lost. Give up and come out."
After a word of persuasion, Stark turned to look at Shi Xiaolei in his battle armor: "The situation is resolved. Now, leave it to me. Emmm, I mean, you look quite conspicuous like this. If you don't want to expose your identity, you'd best leave soon."
"No, not yet." Shi Xiaolei shook his head, raised his axe, and with a few swift chops, severed the Iron Monger's limbs and the machine guns mounted on its torso.
He surveyed it for a few moments, then nodded: "Now that's what I call uprooting it."
As he spoke, Shi Xiaolei had already put away his equipment, transforming from the armored giant back to his previous casual attire.