Chapter 76: Warlord vs. Mark VI

Luke’s invisible movements abruptly came to a halt.

Christina alerted him that the wreckage of the steel soldiers around them had begun to stir; she judged the self-destruct countdown had been triggered.

Luke remembered how, in Iron Man 3, Ivan Vanko set off the self-destruct in all the steel soldiers, ending with a spectacular explosion of fireworks.

He hadn’t expected that the self-destruct would be triggered automatically upon Vanko’s death. The preparations were thorough.

“Tony, as much as I want to punch you right now, I suggest you go save your friend first. These steel soldiers are about to explode,” Luke sent a message to Tony.

Tony had just gotten to his feet, and upon hearing this, he was startled. “Pepper!”

Without another word, he shot up into the night sky like a rocket, a streak of light racing toward the expo venue.

Luke glanced at Rhodey, said nothing, and thundered into the air to follow him.

Rhodey stood there stunned for a moment.

He felt he wouldn’t be of much use if he followed; he couldn’t help, and he still hadn’t figured out the situation between Tony and the Apostle, so he didn’t dare intervene rashly.

But staying out of it wasn’t an option either. He was the military’s only eyes on the scene. He’d already received more than one call from high command, asking what exactly had happened tonight.

In the end, Rhodey could only helplessly take off back toward the venue.

In the sky.

On the communication screen appeared Black Widow’s reproachful face. “Luke, what are you doing? The mission is already over.”

“Sorry, Aunt Natasha. Hello, goodbye!” Luke decisively cut the connection. When she tried to call again, he refused.

In Hammer Tower, Black Widow pressed her hand to her forehead, feeling a headache coming on.

She hadn’t expected that, with the situation resolved, Luke would start a fight with Tony. How much hatred was there between these two? Why did they always end up trading blows every time they met?

Forget it; better leave it to the Boss. She picked up her communicator and contacted Fury.

In the original movie, Tony managed to save Pepper, who was standing beside a steel soldier’s wreckage, just in time.

This time, with Luke’s warning, there was more time. Tony spotted Pepper from the air, dove down, scooped her up, and landed them both on a nearby rooftop.

Pepper was about to vent her frustrations, but Tony said, “Stay here, don’t move.”

Then, Tony soared back into the sky. Meanwhile, Rhodey landed on the same rooftop and opened his faceplate.

Pepper stood bewildered; Rhodey hesitated, uncertain. Then, suddenly, a massive figure streaked across the sky, colliding with Tony and sending him crashing to the ground!

“Oh my God—” Pepper covered her mouth, her eyes wide.

Rhodey opened his mouth, thinking it best not to get involved; his life was precious.

On the ground.

After getting up, Luke immediately re-engaged full invisibility.

Tony had just gotten to his feet, only to be blasted backward again, struck by an invisible, massive fist that slammed him to the ground. He bounced several times before coming to a halt, then quickly took off.

“Jarvis, analyze the environment, find him!” Tony said with a grave expression.

“Analyzing.”

Tony believed that this kind of invisibility couldn’t be flawless. The body might be invisible, but the surroundings would not change with it. Every trace, every clue, could reveal the target.

“Found him, sir.”

Jarvis, a semi-artificial intelligence hosted on a supercomputer, calculated the temperature differences on the ground and subtle changes in light and shadow, simulating the outline of a large, blurry figure that appeared before Tony.

On the simulation, the six-meter-tall Lord of War looked like a giant ghost, lurking on a plane invisible to all.

Tony raised both hands in midair, firing arc pulse cannons at the ground.

On the ground.

“Exposed?” Luke thought to himself, admiring Tony’s resourcefulness.

He pulled the joystick, controlling the Lord of War to raise its massive mech sword, using the broad blade to shield itself.

“Too bad I didn’t draw ‘Block’ from the magic box this time.”

A faint tremor passed beneath his feet—the giant sword absorbing the pulse cannon’s kinetic energy.

Luke stopped hiding, bent the mech’s legs, and with powerful thrusters, the Lord of War leapt into the air, immediately appearing opposite Tony. With a “boom,” the giant sword swept through the air, unleashing a Blade Strike!

The Mark VI armor’s superior performance allowed Tony to narrowly dodge the full brunt of the attack. However, he hadn’t accounted for the sword’s energy.

Thus, Tony was struck by an invisible wave of sword energy. Astonished, he heard a metallic clang as he was sent flying, rolling and crashing heavily to the ground.

Boom! The Lord of War landed right after him, slashing down from above!

They crashed into a plaza, surrounded by dazzling lights and fountains, the effects brilliant. But now, not a soul remained; everyone had run off earlier.

A few hundred meters away, some bold tourists and journalists lingered, cameras pointed at the action.

It had become the perfect battleground for the two.

A mech sword six and a half meters long, one meter wide, wielded by a six-meter-tall giant mech, slammed full force into the ground—what would happen?

A fissure several meters deep and half a meter wide tore through the earth!

Half of Fountain Street was split in two by Luke’s strike! Tony rolled nimbly to evade, but his gaze was fixed warily on Luke’s increasingly mysterious giant sword.

Being hit by that inexplicable strike left him confused.

“Jarvis?”

“Sir, it appears to be a kind of energy wind. Invisible, but not hard to predict.”

“Show me.”

Jarvis’s computed imagery appeared before Tony, demonstrating that the Lord of War’s sword had an exaggeratedly large attack radius—anyone approaching within ten meters or so would be hit by the same attack.

“Hit! Smash! Destroy!” Lotus shouted excitedly in Luke’s ear.

To let the Apostle’s power be seen by the world was its greatest desire.

Luke’s face was intensely focused; his adrenaline was surging.

Tony ultimately opted for ranged attacks, abandoning close combat. The arc pulse cannons on his hands unleashed a relentless barrage at Luke—indeed, it cost nothing.

The energy from the arc reactor was even stronger than in the movie; magical energy specializes in explosive release, perfectly suited for pulse cannon attacks.

But the Lord of War’s Adamantium alloy coating perfectly absorbed this short, intense kinetic barrage.

Tony’s attempts had little effect.

“Sir, the opponent is using Adamantium alloy,” Jarvis analyzed.

“Persistent, aren’t they?” Tony snorted.

Luke knew as well that brute force alone couldn’t overcome the abnormal defense of vibranium.

Both sides seemed locked in a stalemate, unable to breach each other’s defenses.

To break through, they’d need to show their true skills.

The Mark VI’s defense wasn’t absolute; Tony only used a small amount of vibranium in the armor. He wasn’t the Black Panther, with a mine at home. Even with money, vibranium was nearly impossible to buy in bulk.

Luke’s weak point was similar—only the surface layer was a strong coating; severe kinetic shocks could still damage the interior.

Both started to get heated.

“One piece! Curry stick!”

Luke unleashed an Asura Evil Light Slash.

He missed Tony, but sheared off the roof of the expo hall in the distance. The hall began collapsing with a thunderous roar...

The triangular arc reactor in Tony’s chest suddenly glowed brightly. A thick, long beam cannon struck the massive Lord of War, knocking Luke down.

But in the next moment, the Lord of War climbed back up, launching a twenty-four-blade Phantom Sword Dance straight at Tony!

In moments, fountains, sculptures, plaza tiles—all were pulverized by the two combatants.

Tony was wealthy enough not to care about the destruction.

Luke figured Tony and S.H.I.E.L.D. would pay for the damages.

What? They want him to pay too? Sorry, he’s broke! That’s right—he’s brazen. Don’t like it? Sue him for child abuse!

“One piece... Curry stick—!!!”

A sword energy wave over ten meters wide swept horizontally toward Tony.

“Jarvis, channel all arc reactor energy to me!!”

A particularly thick magical energy beam cannon slammed into the sword energy.

Collision!

A visible shockwave swept across the area—

In a split second, the glass windows of high-rises hundreds of meters away shattered into fragments!

Closer to the battle, the area was left desolate...

Hundreds of meters away, journalists risked their lives to capture this once-in-a-lifetime scene. Their faces were a mix of terror and irrepressible excitement. Tomorrow morning would surely see a headline-grabbing news story!

...

Arctic Circle.

Exact location: classified.

For all old-generation Americans, this was a historic day.

One of them, Fury, gazed at the sleeping Captain America, Steve Rogers, being dredged up from the ice along with his striking star-spangled shield. Fury’s dark face wore a smile of pride.

“That brat actually asked me for the shield? Doesn’t he know the shield never leaves the Captain’s side?”

Luke had genuinely forgotten that detail; it hadn’t stuck in his mind.

But this mistake inadvertently lowered Fury’s estimation of Luke’s intelligence capabilities by a notch.

Fury bared his teeth in a grin. “The brat isn’t omnipotent after all.”

He was feeling quite pleased when he got a call from Black Widow.

“What did you say!? He’s fighting Tony again?!”

Those nearby heard the change in Fury’s tone. What happened? Who’s fighting whom? What could make the Boss so furious?

Fury was exhausted...

Watching the devastation on the video, he realized he’d underestimated Luke’s talent for causing trouble.

Causing trouble wasn’t unusual—S.H.I.E.L.D. never lacked for that. The real issue was that the Avengers hadn’t even been formed yet, and the future members were already at odds.

He decided it was time for these two—one big, one small—to sit down and have a proper talk.