Chapter 30: Aerial Mecha vs. Mark V

"Fuck off!" Luke said, kicking his leg. He was actually suppressing a laugh, finally finding an excuse to make a move.

Luke turned and unleashed a short, explosive punch straight into Tony's chest, sending the unsuspecting Tony flying through the air. He held nothing back—the massive force of the punch caused the Mark armor to malfunction for several seconds, and Tony tumbled down, crashing heavily onto a highway overpass.

By then, both had already flown out of the race zone. Monaco was tiny; in their high-speed flight, they had entered French airspace.

Tony's fall punched a spiderweb-shaped crater into the highway. Luckily, they hadn't been too high up; otherwise, Tony would have been knocked out cold. A living man suddenly dropped from the sky, causing chaos among the vehicles below. Cars screeched to emergency stops; collisions followed, quickly leading to a traffic jam.

People began calling the police, but more whipped out their phones to record. In the age of the internet, news spread fast—the dramatic events from the Monaco Grand Prix were still hotly debated online, but now fresh footage of Iron Man had appeared on video sites.

In the video, Iron Man plummeted from the sky, struck down by the 1.2-meter-tall mech with a single punch. Everyone who saw it was astonished—was this robot actually fighting Iron Man? Weren't they supposed to be allies?

Lying on the road, Tony’s virtual display flickered violently; Jarvis reported the suit was damaged by twenty-nine percent and recommended retreat.

But Tony, proud as ever, would never give up so easily. He shook himself upright, glanced up at the floating small mech, and with both palms down, soared back into the air.

Tony moved fast, crashing headlong into Luke, then grabbing him to drag him down from the sky.

Boom!

Both landed on the road beneath the overpass, gouging two new craters in the pavement.

Inside the mech, Luke saw stars; the red warning lights flashed wildly. He cursed inwardly: Damn billionaire, what a lunatic!

Both got to their feet, then, without a word, launched into a brawl. They traded punches and kicks like two drunken hooligans, commandeering the congested highway and beating each other senseless before a crowd of stunned witnesses.

Tony might not want to admit it, but in truth, he was getting the worst of it.

Tony chose close combat with Luke, which nearly made Luke laugh out loud. The billionaire was hardly his match.

"Short punch! Low kick! Back throw!"

Luke’s attacks came fast and precise, his mech martial arts masterful; in just a few moves, Tony was completely subdued.

"Diving punch to the abdomen!"

From five or six meters away, Luke maneuvered his mech to stomp the ground, launching forward and delivering a punch straight out.

Compared to Tony, the aerial combat mech was much shorter. So when Luke executed the diving abdominal punch, it turned into a monkey snatching peaches. Tony was terrified, hastily covering his groin with both hands.

Then Tony was sent flying by the tremendous force, rolling across the road several times before scrambling back up. With lingering fear, he raised his palm, no longer holding back; a bright glow gathered in his hand, and he fired an energy blast at Luke.

Tony finally realized he shouldn’t be fighting this opponent up close—his adversary was clearly a specialist.

Facing Iron Man’s signature attack, Luke neither dodged nor flinched.

"Mind Shield!"

A flash of orange light appeared.

A two-meter-radius orange energy shield enveloped Luke, its protection airtight.

A smug smile crept onto his lips; Luke thought, who said you can’t use a mind shield when piloting a mech? Bet you never saw this move coming.

When he built the mech, he had already considered its defensive limitations. Material flaws were a hard weakness; no matter how much he reinforced it, it couldn’t withstand a powerful attack.

Tony’s palm cannon could easily destroy his junk-assembled mech.

Thankfully, he could deploy the mind shield anytime, anywhere. With the shield up, even a paper-thin mech was defensible; he could focus on offense without worry.

Tony’s energy blast struck the mind shield, producing only a ripple like water, the energy dissipated instantly.

Seeing this, Tony’s eyes widened. "What is that? Some kind of energy field?" He spoke within his suit: "Jarvis, analyze it."

"Analyzing now, sir."

Tony stared in amazement at his opponent, whose allegiance remained uncertain. He couldn’t deny his curiosity towards this unfamiliar mech was growing.

The duel continued.

Luke reached out, twisted off a section of highway guardrail, and swung the steel pipe, smashing Tony away.

Tony, returning to the fray, imitated the move, swinging a steel pipe at Luke.

The pipe struck the mind shield—it posed no threat to Luke; instead, the force rebounded, sending Tony tumbling embarrassingly.

Jarvis then reported: "Sir, this defensive field is powered by an unknown energy form, with extremely high density—16,000 kilopascals. I advise against forcibly breaching it, sir."

"Analyze its weaknesses," Tony ordered.

With his understanding of energy forms, he knew that any such shield would have uneven energy distribution. He wasn’t sure how it worked or how the technology was adapted for combat, but Tony believed science would yield an explanation.

Soon, Jarvis presented a diagram of the mind shield’s energy flow before Tony's eyes, highlighting two relatively thin areas.

Tony didn’t hesitate, maxing out the arc reactor’s output. A thick energy beam erupted from his suit’s chest, continuously striking the mind shield.

The shield absorbed the massive energy; the targeted area glowed intensely, its color rapidly fading until, at last, it shattered and vanished.

The mech was exposed—its shoulders revealed four machine guns, their barrels spinning rapidly, pouring forth a torrent of firepower!

A cacophony of clangs and sparks erupted as bullets rained down on Tony’s armor. Though his suit suffered little real damage, the relentless force drove Tony backward step by step.

The gunfire lasted a full thirty seconds before ceasing. The four barrels burned red-hot like branding irons. The ground around Tony was littered with spent shells.

Mark armor raised its head—Tony had just caught his breath when a grenade sailed toward him.

"Careful, sir."

Jarvis’s warning had barely sounded when the oddly-shaped grenade exploded at Tony’s feet.

Boom—

A strange blue light flashed; the air around them plunged to freezing temperatures in an instant...