With a violent burst of impact, countless bits of gravel blasted outward from the strike zone. Cracks spread from the point where the massive fist hit the ground, branching out like a spiderweb for more than thirty feet. Just looking at the damage was enough to make people imagine the result if that same blow ever landed on a human body, and the thought alone made their scalps tingle.
Then the Iron Monger rolled its shoulders and ground its fists together with an ugly metallic clank, like it was warming up for something even worse.
Rhodes stared up at it and felt his body go colder by the second.
But right then, the military camp suddenly erupted.
It was like a pan of hot oil with water thrown into it. The entire field exploded into noise, and the atmosphere changed instantly. What had looked like a brutal mismatch now felt like a spectacle the soldiers couldn't stop themselves from feeding.
"Go, War Machine!"
"Colonel Rhodes is gonna win!"
"Move! Hit him like a man!"
"Don't embarrass us out there!"
The shouting came from every direction, one wave after another, and all of it hit Rhodes square in the chest. He was wearing armor. He was one of the few men alive who could step onto a battlefield like this and be called a superhero without irony. More importantly, he was carrying the expectations of every soldier standing behind him.
How could he lose here?
He couldn't.
He absolutely had to win.
The eyes of War Machine flashed red, and Rhodes stopped hesitating. He raised the weapons platform and opened fire in one continuous burst. The stream of bullets ripped through the air like a burning steel serpent, dragging a long trail of muzzle flash straight toward the Iron Monger.
The sound was vicious.
Relentless.
But Ivan only answered with one move.
Inside the Iron Monger, he drove the giant machine forward and snapped both hands up. The huge armored palms caught the incoming stream at just the right angle, and the instant he shifted his weight into a punch, the machine knocked the bullets off course and sent them ricocheting back in a deadly spread.
War Machine reacted fast.
Rhodes twisted hard and dodged most of them, but not all. Several rounds still clipped his armor, scraping across the frame and throwing him off balance. He stumbled backward, nearly dropped to one knee, and for the first time since the fight started, a heavy sense of helplessness crashed over him.
This thing was too strong.
Way too strong.
But he still had one card left.
"I've got something for you," Rhodes muttered through gritted teeth.
War Machine dropped to one knee and locked its rear-mounted launcher in place. The targeting system aligned in an instant, and Rhodes fired his next attack without hesitation.
"Micro pursuit missile!"
The projectile screamed across the field.
A second later, the explosion hit.
A blast wave rolled outward with a sharp thundercrack, heat spilling into the open air as the fireball swallowed the Iron Monger whole. For an instant, the field vanished behind smoke, flames, and shockwave distortion. It looked like enough force to shred a tank apart.
But when the smoke shifted, the Iron Monger was still standing.
It hadn't fallen.
It had taken the blast head-on.
The steel giant stood there like a predator opening its eyes, the armor frame still steady under the fading firelight. Then blue arcs of electricity burst from the thruster system on its back, and the giant suit lunged forward with
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