Carol moved with blinding speed—but the Eternal Spear moved faster. As Hong Fei struck with furious intent, Odin's spectral image seemed to materialize around the weapon. The Gungnir shot forward first, with Hong Fei close behind, leaving the New York skyline eerily calm in their wake.
On the ground, Xu Wenwu and his nine companions armored up in their iron suits and gave chase. Antonia lifted Sif into the air while Tony and Rhodes followed suit. The remaining Avengers exchanged glances. Banner scratched his head and turned to Rogers with a grin.
"Captain, should we take the jet?"
The quinjet sat waiting nearby.
Steve raised his wrist, showing off a sleek black bracelet.
"I'll test my new armor. You all take the plane—and buckle up. That woman won't last much longer."
The bracelet vibrated as nanotech spread across his body, completing the suit-up in seconds.
Then Steve rocketed skyward in the pure black armor.
"Since when does the Captain have an iron suit?" Matt muttered.
Luke observed, "Looks like how the Dragon King armors up."
Banner sighed. "That's nanotech. Cutting edge."
Barton cut in, "Enough chatter. Board now or we'll only find a corpse."
They piled into the quinjet and ascended in pursuit.
The wilderness stretched below. On a barren mountainside of solid rock, the golden spear stood embedded halfway into stone, its lower half glinting in the light. Crimson blood trickled down the shaft like a macabre spring. Carol hung pinned against the cliff, a gaping hole through her chest revealing bloodstained rock behind her. The Gungnir had speared through her abdomen. She writhed in agony.
Every slight movement contorted her already pallid face, making the wound on her cheek stretch grotesquely. Divine power from the spear mingled with Hong Fei's draconic energy, threading through her flesh like venomous silk. Beneath her torn suit, spiderweb patterns of gold and white spread across her skin—deceptively beautiful tattoos that suppressed her energy while delivering excruciating pain.
A golden light flared on the horizon as a dragon's roar shook the wilderness. Hearing this, Carol suddenly gripped the Gungnir. Her whole body convulsed from the pain, yet she began wrenching the spear free inch by agonizing inch. Blood gushed from her abdomen with each pull, hissing as it hit the rocks. The spearhead screeched against stone.
As the dragon shadow loomed closer, Carol worked faster. With a final heave, she tore herself from the mountainside, yanked the Gungnir free, and hurled it at Hong Fei.
Thud.
The dragon image dissipated as Hong Fei caught the spear effortlessly. Carol's weakened throw posed no threat. With a flick of his wrist, Hong Fei raised the weapon and charged.
He abandoned his previous tactics—no more probing for weaknesses to deliver a finishing blow. Carol's vitality proved monstrous, her energy reserves seemingly bottomless.
People grow at different paces. Even gods evolve. And Carol was no exception.
Carol had grown far stronger since her first encounter with Fury. The future Carol, who could arm-wrestle Thanos and force him to wield the Power Stone just to repel her, dwarfed the version standing before him now. Hong Fei couldn't help but see her as the quintessential protagonist of some epic tale—the more she was pushed, the faster she evolved. He'd witnessed her explosive bursts of power firsthand, and at least two of those moments had been triggered by the pressure he'd applied.
But no matter how he looked at it, Hong Fei was the underdog. The thought burned him. Today, only one of them would walk away alive. The spear in his hands surged forward like a dragon unleashed, its tip blazing with fiery Dragon Power. Carol raised her fists, deflecting the strike with practiced ease.
The fight escalated instantly. The air filled with a relentless barrage of spear strikes, each shadow crashing down like a tsunami. Carol abandoned any thought of retreat—she was locked in, fighting for her life. Their clash tore the earth apart, cracking the ground into jagged pieces. Sand, gravel, and even deeply rooted shrubs were obliterated by the waves of energy radiating from their blows.
In moments, the landscape was transformed. Deep ravines crisscrossed the terrain for thousands of meters, and debris swirled into the sky like a tornado's aftermath. Carol clutched the wounds in her chest and abdomen, yet her energy output remained terrifyingly potent.
Hong Fei's grip on the spear never faltered, even as the recoil of each strike rattled his bones. Through the Eyes of Death, he managed to land glancing blows, but Carol countered every scratch with brutal efficiency. Though both had their strengths, Hong Fei held the upper hand—barely. He knew he had to maintain the pressure. Any lapse, and Carol might unleash another burst of power—one he wasn't sure he could survive.
The Dragon Dimension roared open, flooding him with raw energy. Hong Fei acted as its conduit, channeling the immense power through his body. The strain was excruciating, a deep, searing pain that gnawed at his soul. This was the price of fusion—the Dragon Power amplified his strength but also tormented him. To harm his enemy, he had to endure the pain himself.
There was no room for words now. Every ounce of focus was dedicated to the next move, the next strike. Survival depended on it. Their arms blurred in motion, the spear's shadow weaving a deadly dance. The tip grazed Carol's forehead, drawing blood.
She retaliated instantly, driving the spear back with one fist while unleashing a blast of multicolored energy with the other. Hong Fei dodged narrowly, the energy grazing his cheek and cracking his nano armor. The blast carved a deep trench into the earth, its aftermath buzzing with residual power.
Hong Fei retracted his face mask, revealing sweat-soaked hair and veins bulging across his flushed face. Their eyes met briefly before they clashed again, their breaths heavy and labored. The sounds of their struggle echoed across the battlefield.
In the distance, Xu Wenwu and his companions watched from a mountaintop. Frank retracted his face mask and squinted, saying, "This is the longest fight I've ever seen him in."
"That woman is very strong," Xu Wenwu observed, his tone solemn.
Frank nodded in agreement, then frowned.
"Is she also an Earthling?"
Big Head chimed in.
"Boss said she is indeed an Earthling, but she's been gone for many years and hardly ever returns."
She handed Nick Fury a signal transmitter—something he could use to summon her if help was needed. Frank squinted.
"So that's why Fury was willing to activate it before he died?"
"It was the Boss who made him use it."
Xu Wenwu tilted his head.
"Is she very busy?"
Big Head shrugged.
"No idea. Probably swamped. The Boss mentioned she volunteers as a police officer on other habitable planets across the Milky Way."
A sudden smile touched Xu Wenwu's lips.
"So she's one of the good guys?"
Frank's expression remained blank.
"Doesn't matter if she's good or not. She's dead."
Xu Wenwu nodded.
"Right. Dead."
Jessica raised a hesitant hand.
"Um... not to be the downer here, but the Boss looks wrecked. I've never seen him like this."
Xu Wenwu crossed his arms.
"He might be exhausted, but he'll find a way. And if he doesn't—we will."
Frank cracked his knuckles.
"Get ready, people. Feels like we're about to join the party."
Just then, Tony, Rhodes, and Steve arrived late. Their boots hit the ground as they scrambled to assess the battlefield. Tony's voice came out breathless.
"Did we miss anything?"
"Not yet."
"Look!"
Jessica's finger shot out toward the fray.
Hong Fei and Carol danced across the sky in a brutal back-and-forth—south to north, east to west, no pattern to their destruction. Now they'd circled back to that jagged stone mountain.
BOOM!
Carol slammed into the cliff face. The entire mountain shuddered. Rock fractured behind her, powder raining down as the impact crater deepened. Her breath hitched—just for a split second—before she shook it off.
Every muscle in Hong Fei's body screamed in protest, but he gritted his teeth. Soul energy flared as he channeled Dragon Power into the spear. With a roar, he drove it forward.
Light exploded from the spearhead as it punched into Carol's energy-shielded palm. Her other hand snapped shut around the shaft. Deadlock.
"White Dragon!!"
The sky convulsed at Hong Fei's shout. Frank's team jerked their heads up as a white dragon burst through the clouds. Its horns—no longer gnarled deadwood but gleaming ivory spires—looked oddly mismatched against its crimson-streaked scales. The creature twisted midair and dove toward Hong Fei.
Carol's eyes widened. She wrenched the spear aside and tore through the mountain, retreating fast.
Hong Fei yanked his weapon free and gave chase without hesitation. The white dragon followed, plowing into the stone with enough force to make the entire peak tremble.
CRACK—BOOM!!
The mountain disintegrated from within. Golden light erupted, hurling boulders in every direction.
Xu Wenwu flicked his wrists. The Ten Rings shot out, pulverizing incoming debris before it could reach them.
Beyond the dust cloud, Hong Fei and the white dragon advanced side by side against Carol. Two against one.
Then—impossible—the dragon suddenly whirled and lunged at Hong Fei like a traitor mid-battle.
Before anyone could shout a warning, Hong Fei's shattered nano-armor retracted voluntarily. He spread his arms as the dragon collided with him—and dissolved into a swirl of pearlescent particles that sank into his skin without resistance.
Instantly, the dragon markings across Hong Fei's body writhed to life, scales shimmering as they slithered over his flesh like living tattoos.
Carol's breath caught as the pressure spiked. She whipped her head around—another Hong Fei materialized midair, his spear already in motion. Terror seized her. The Gungnir struck before she could dodge, impaling her body and slamming her into the shattered boulders below.
Is this real?
Her hands convulsed around the spear shaft, pain flaring through her nerves. When she turned again, the spear in the ground-bound Hong Fei's hand dissolved into light, reforming as a gleaming longsword. Carol barely had time to raise her palms before multicolored energy erupted from them.
Hong Fei vanished—but the dragon mark on his body pulsed to life, writhing like a living thing.
The dragon surged forward, weaving between the twin energy blasts with serpentine grace. Explosions rocked the air as it twisted and pivoted, its mane streaming behind it like battle banners. Its eyes burned with single-minded purpose.
Carol kept firing, but her fingers trembled now. Death's chill crept up her spine. Before she could regroup, the dragon-form blinked out of existence—and Hong Fei stood inches away, his breath hot against her face.
Her energy discharge stuttered to a halt. The world seemed to freeze. As Carol's lips parted—
Clang!
A sword-flash arced like a rainbow. Light and shadow tangled briefly before something round tumbled down the rubble-strewn slope.
When all sounds subsided again, cards of different lights rose before Hong Fei's eyes.