Behind the sofa, Lynt watched it all, his heart pounding.
It was his Golden Finger!
It was the metaphysical attribute [Luck Doubled] displaying itself before him at this moment!
Damn it... I, with my own hands, created a perfect killing machine!
This realization made all the blood in Lynt's body boil.
Fear?
No.
It was a confidence in his own abilities!
I'm truly awesome! This was the sentence echoing in his mind.
On the battlefield, Huosha (Spark) had thrown his last remaining items.
He watched the unharmed Raven, watched her approach him step by step, his legs trembling like a sieve.
"Don't... don't come any closer..."
Raven stopped three steps in front of him.
Suddenly.
She smiled.
The next second, an incredible scene unfolded.
Raven's blue skin receded like a tide.
One second.
Just one second.
She became exactly like Huosha (Spark) opposite her!
Whether it was his height, build, or that face twisted with fear.
Huosha (Spark) was completely dumbfounded.
He looked at himself across from him, his brain crashing directly.
It was this moment of stunned paralysis.
Raven... or rather, another Huosha (Spark), lunged in front of him, her hands clamping onto his head with lightning speed.
"Crack!"
The crisp sound of a neck bone breaking drew a close to this brief battle.
The body fell softly.
The room finally fell silent.
Only Lynt's heavy breathing remained, and the wailing wind pouring in through the large hole in the wall.
Raven slowly transformed back into her blue form.
She walked over to the corpse of Big Steel Tooth, scanning it expressionlessly.
Then, she turned and walked towards the only living person behind the sofa.
Lynt propped himself up on the sofa, standing shakily.
He looked at the blue woman walking towards him; she still carried a thick, lingering scent of blood, and the cold killing intent in her golden beast-like eyes had not completely dissipated.
But he wasn't afraid.
Not at all.
Raven walked up to him and stopped.
She reached out, wanting to touch him, but saw the still-wet bloodstains on her hands, paused, and withdrew her hand.
She casually wiped her hand on the wall, considering it clean.
"We need to find another place."
Her voice still held a hint of hoarseness from the battle.
Lynt didn't speak, just looked at her.
Raven felt a little uncomfortable under his gaze, and a hint of complexity flashed in her beast-like eyes.
"You... were good just now."
She carefully chose her words, as if giving a review to a pet.
"Didn't wet your pants, and even helped."
Lynt suddenly laughed.
Damn it, after surviving such a ordeal, he actually laughed.
"Good?"
He repeated Raven's words, his tone devoid of any emotion.
"Killed two nobodies, ruined an apartment, and almost got me killed too."
He kicked a piece of broken wood at his feet with his toe.
"You call this, good?"
Raven's golden pupils suddenly constricted, and the killing intent that had just receded from her body once again surged.
"What do you mean?"
"What do I mean?"
Lynt looked as if he had heard the biggest joke.
"What I mean is, your plan is a pile of shit!"
He took a step forward, staring directly into those dangerous beast-like eyes without backing down.
"Hiding everywhere, getting found, fighting, then moving to another rat hole to hide again. Is there anything else in your brain besides muscle?"
"What about next time? If that crazy guy with the iron helmet himself comes, tell me, how will you fight him?"
A series of questions, like poisoned knives, fiercely pierced Raven's heart.
She was choked speechless, only able to glare at him with murderous eyes.
"Your power is a hot weapon, not something for you to go bayonet-charging with!"
Lynt's voice was not loud, but it carried an undeniable tone of command.
"From now on, I call the shots."
He ignored Raven's almost spitting fire gaze, pulled out the new phone, and the screen's light illuminated his unusually calm face.
"Your fighting style is too stupid."
"And I need a smarter way to make money."
In front of Raven, he dialed a number he had found through the dark web, a number with no record whatsoever.
The phone rang only once before it connected.
A hoarse, tired, yet professionally wary woman's voice came from the other end.
"Who is this?"
Lynt glanced at Raven, who was full of astonishment and anger, and then, facing the phone, he showed a malicious, business-like smile.
"Miss Natasha Romanoff?"
"I have a business proposition that might interest you."
On the other end of the phone, the woman's hoarse voice was full of the fatigue and wariness of someone who had not seen the light for years.
"Who?"
One word.
Lynt's smile hadn't quite faded when a hand clamped down.
Cold, stiff.
The hand didn't use much force, but the chill seeped from his wrist's skin straight into his bones.
Raven's golden beast-like eyes were less than five centimeters from his face.
The emotion in them could no longer be called anger; it was magma, a destructive urge that was about to burn everything to ashes.
She heard it.
Natasha Romanoff.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most vicious bitch!
"Are... you... looking... for... death?"
Raven's voice was squeezed out, word by word, through gritted teeth.
The five fingers gripping his wrist began to tighten.
His wrist bones creaked audibly.
Lynt didn't even frown.
Pain?
Of course, it hurt.
But the perverse excitement in his heart had already suppressed the pain.
This is more like it.
Passively taking a beating? Waiting to be kept like a canary for a lifetime?
Dream on.
He looked at Raven's face, slightly distorted by rage, and calmly spoke into the phone in a light, almost teasing tone, like he was taunting a stray cat:
"Sorry, wrong number."
After saying that, he moved his thumb and directly hung up.
Snap.
The hang-up tone exploded in the dead silent, broken house, hurting one's ears.
Raven's grip on his wrist froze.
She stood there, completely stunned.
Wrong... number?
That's it?
He endured her killing intent, created such a big scene, almost had his wrist crushed by her, just to tell her—wrong number?
Lynt casually shook off her hand, rubbed his reddened wrist, and without even looking at her, walked straight towards the pile of smashed sofas.
"You'd better give me an explanation."
Raven's voice followed him, still cold, but with a hint of bewilderment she herself hadn't noticed.
"Explanation?"
Lynt plopped down, crossed his legs, and kicked the cold corpse on the floor with his toe; warm blood splashed onto his leg, but he didn't care.
He looked up, his black eyes now frighteningly bright.
"The explanation is, I just saved your dog's life. And incidentally, my own."
He pointed to the large hole in the wall.
"I let her hear your voice, hear the gunshots and fighting here. Now, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s keen-nosed lackeys must already be on their way."
"They'll come to clean up, and they'll find the bodies of Magneto's subordinates. Who do you think they'll pin this on?"
Lynt looked directly at Raven, hitting her nerves with every word.
"Now, we have two choices. First, stay here and wait to be hunted nationwide by S.H.I.E.L.D. as murderers. Do you think, with the two of us, we can play hide-and-seek with a national violent machine?"
"Second, while they're fighting among themselves, we calmly disappear."