Silver Samurai barked the order. "Fall back!"
The remaining mercenaries and mutants obeyed without hesitation, retreating toward the underground bunkers. After that one-sided massacre, no one wants to stick around and die. Gorgon too ran inside with them, but he took a different path inside the tunnel. It was a hidden route out of that hellhole.
Smoke was rising from the charred corpses and destroyed drones.
Only the Samurai stood his ground, blade drawn, facing the two massive humanoid robots that loomed like sentinels over the battlefield. He tightened his grip on the hilt. The tachyon field around his sword flared to life, glowing bright orange.
In a blink, he vanished.
The first robot's sensors caught the energy spike too late. Silver Samurai reappeared behind it, blade slashing upward through its shoulder joint. Sparks and molten shards burst from the sliced area. The robot swung a massive arm, but the Samurai teleported again, landing beside its leg. One clean stroke and the metal screeched, servos gave way, and the robot dropped to one knee.
He struck again. The tachyon-charged blade carved through the torso plating. Circuits flashed and died as the robot collapsed, smoke curling from its broken chest.
The second robot turned sharply, its eyes pulsing red. Hermes' voice came from its internal speakers.
"Analysis completed. Deploying countermeasures. Mode: Assassin Overdrive."
The robot's armor shifted with a hiss of compressed gas. Thick plating detached and fell to the sand, leaving a black frame beneath—thin, skeletal, built for speed. Twin energy blades ignited from its forearms, glowing white-hot.
Silver Samurai crouched slightly, his armor humming. "Interesting," he said, then vanished again.
The Assassin robot moved at the same instant. Its sensors tracked the energy distortion and it pivoted sharply, blades cutting through the air where the Samurai reappeared. Tachyon energy met plasma light, the clash throwing a crackling energy blast across the area.
They moved faster than the human eye could follow. Each teleport from the Samurai was met with an instantaneous counter from the Assassin. Sparks drew glowing arcs through the night. The robot's blades struck like a pair of guillotines, relentless and precise.
The Samurai teleported high, appearing above the robot and bringing his blade down in a two-handed strike. The Assassin raised both swords, crossing them in an X. The impact lit the sand beneath them with a flash of blue-white fire.
"Adapting to tachyon displacement," Hermes said through the robot's voice. "Predictive counter pattern initialized."
For the first time, Silver Samurai hesitated. The robot blurred forward, faster than he expected. One blade slashed across his chestplate, leaving a molten line. He stumbled back, armor hissing.
He gritted his teeth and raised his sword again. "Then let's see how well you predict this."
Silver Samurai blurred forward, his body flickering in and out of sight like a mirage. The air rippled with each teleport, afterimages flashing across the battlefield. He reappeared a few meters away, flinging a handful of shurikens that glowed with tachyon energy. They cut through the air like comets, each spinning blade leaving trails of orange fire.
The Assassin robot's forearms split open, releasing micro-drones that intercepted the shurikens mid-flight. Explosions bloomed in the air, lighting the night with stuttering bursts of orange and blue. Before the smoke cleared, the Samurai vanished again, this time behind the robot. His dagger flashed, aiming for the base of its neck.
The robot twisted, almost anticipating it. The dagger met one of its energy blades, both weapons hissing on contact. The Samurai teleported again, faster now, circling the machine in a blur of orange streaks. Daggers and tachyon-infused throwing knives rained down from every angle, ricocheting off shields, slicing through the air. When he ran out of his hidden weapons, he began to use the shards and rocks lying around them. He simply covered them with his energy and threw them at the robot.
The robot's sensors locked on each trajectory, deflecting every single one.
"New combat pattern fully mapped. Teleportation device scan completed. Initiating suppression protocol."
Panels opened across the robot's chest and shoulders. A pulse of light expanded outward, rolling over the field like a wave of thunder. The EMP hit everything at once. Sparks burst from the wreckage. The Samurai's teleportation ring started emitting a high-pitched whine before discharging violently. Blue arcs crawled up his arm as the circuits burned out. He fell to one knee, clutching his wrist.
The teleportation ring on his hand cracked. Its core glowed once, then went dark.
The Samurai's eyes widened. "Why you..." he muttered, looking at the smoking device. "You clever bastard."
He rose slowly, sliding into a fighting stance. He couldn't even scratch the robot with his teleportation, and now, without his trump card, he knew that he wouldn't be able to take it down alone.
The Assassin robot advanced, blades humming.
The Samurai struck first, his tachyon sword slicing in a wide arc. The robot caught it between its twin blades, twisting and locking the weapon. Sparks flew just like before.
The Samurai pivoted, switching stances mid-motion, aiming a knee at the robot's core. Hermes anticipated it, shifting its balance backward and slamming an elbow into the Samurai's shoulder. The impact rang out like metal on stone. The Samurai staggered but countered with a roundhouse kick, then a downward slash. Every strike met a block, every feint a parry.
"Martial arts are useless against me," Hermes said evenly. At this point, Hermes was like one of those OP MCs from anime, flexing his power and looking down on his enemies.
The robot lunged. One blade swept low, the other high. The Samurai dodged the first and blocked the second, his arms trembling from the sheer force. The robot rotated mid-attack, spinning behind him. Its left blade flashed white as it cut clean through the Samurai's right arm.
A burst of blood sprayed across the sand. The Samurai fell back, gasping, clutching the cauterized stump. His sword dropped, embedding itself in the dirt. But didn't scream in pain.
Hermes paused, scanning him. "Surrender and you will receive a fair trial," it stated.
Silver Samurai's breathing grew shallow, his armor sparking around the joints. Still, he straightened his back, eyes bloodshot. "You're not finished with me yet," he growled. "Surrender?" He took out the last remaining emergency hidden dagger and charged at the robot.
Blood dripped from his stump. The burning pain... Blurry vision... Silver Samurai felt as if the world was moving in slow motion.
Hermes raised its blade. "Acknowledged," it said. "Resuming termination sequence."
But before it could kill Silver Samurai, a streak of yellow energy appeared before the robot. A human... He punched the robot.
Bang! In the blink of an eye, its body was shattered into tiny pieces, followed by a wave of weird energy. But a laser beam shot out of its eye, piercing through Silver Samurai's forehead.
Silver Samurai fell to his knees. His eyes were wide open. Well, he died on the spot.
The battlefield had gone silent for a moment. The only sound after that was the heavy thud of metal fragments collapsing into the sand.
From the haze, the figure stepped forward.
He wore a monk's robe, the fabric fluttering despite the still air. His skin glowed faintly beneath it. His head was shaved, his eyes calm and cold as stone. Around his neck hung a string of metallic prayer beads that resonated with the same strange yellow energy that had vaporized the robot.
The Iron Monk.
He exhaled slowly, lowering his hand. The air rippled from the residual energy around his knuckles. The remains of the Assassin robot were scattered in a perfect ring around him.
Up on the ridge, Frank, Natasha, and Yelena stood watching.
"Hermes," Natasha said, eyes narrowing. "Report."
"Subject identified," Hermes replied through their comms. "Codename: Iron Monk. Chi manipulation at anomalous levels. Power output unknown. 90% chance he uses teleportation without relying on technology. Caution required."
"Looks like we found the boss," Yelena said, cracking her neck. "I was getting bored watching Hermes having all the fun."
Frank's voice was steady. "Then it's time to end this."
Nanites rippled across their bodies, shifting from tactical suits into full battle configuration. Frank's Punisher MK:1 suit was heavy-set, angular, the skull emblem on his chest glowing white. The plasma vents hissed near his forearms as he shifted to heavy weapon mode.
Natasha's new Endo Sym: Black Widow armor flowed like living ink, reshaping itself seamlessly around her body. Its eyes flared crimson, energy coils forming across her arms like glowing veins. The armor's AI synced to her movements, amplifying every motion to a superhuman level. This is the improved version of Tony's previous Endo Sym armor.
Yelena's Predator X1 was leaner, designed to shift between speed, attack, and defence on the go, and with each mode, she gets different weapons and defence gadgets. The helmet's slit visor pulsed red, and twin plasma blades extended from her forearms. Energy wings unfolded behind her, shimmering in gold light before vanishing into stealth mode. This is the perfected version of the suit she used when she fought Captain Marvel before.
The trio activated the thrusters and flew over to the Iron Monk.
Oh, where did Emma and Sue go?
Emma and Sue have already left. Where? They are inside the underground base. During that previous battle, Sue used her invisibility and Emma used her telepathy to blind the enemies of their presence, and they simply entered right with them into their base.
...
[Meanwhile...] [Horizon Island]
Tony was creating a weapon using the excess energy he stored from the Teserract's pieces when he got an emergency report from Elena. He opened the report.
A new plague with no records in history has begun to spread in Moscow.
---[SPOILERS. Upcoming ch names. Click and read.]---[1]
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[1] Ch: 177 [What’s Left of a Man] Ch: 178 [Plague] Ch: 179 [The Cost of Genius] Ch: 180 [Doom & Superior Avengers] Ch: 181 [The Mask and the Man] Ch: 182 [Stage Two Begins: Famine]