Seeing his "little follower" being beaten, Captain America roared like an enraged lion and charged forward again without fear.
To cover him, the War Machine continuously launched missiles at Blaine's side, while the gun barrels on his shoulders and arms stayed ready at all times. It was clear he had no intention of engaging in close combat and was sticking to long-range harassment tactics.
As Captain America rushed toward him, Blaine didn't retreat. Instead, he advanced and met him head-on, fists colliding fiercely.
The Super Soldier Serum had pushed every aspect of Captain America's body to its peak, yet Blaine still couldn't understand where the true limit of the human body lay.
If one compared them, Blaine was also human, but his physical body had long surpassed that of ordinary beings—far beyond anything even gods could reach. Blaine himself hadn't reached his limit yet, but Captain America already had. It couldn't be said that Captain America's body was "one-zero stronger than Blaine's seven"—that was obviously impossible.
Today, Blaine intended to see exactly where Captain America's limit lay.
Facing the Bounty Hunter's fist, Captain America still didn't dare to take the blow head-on. He raised the shield high and dropped to one knee, using it to protect his body.
The moment Blaine's fist struck the shield, a tremendous force surged back through it—counter-shock force. Captain America was well aware of his limits and knew how to redirect strength. Without that awareness, he wouldn't have been able to hold out at all.
"Not bad. You can really take a hit."
Glancing at the fist marks left on the shield, Blaine couldn't help but offer a bit of praise.
Captain America's combat experience was extremely seasoned. Although the vibranium shield had been dented, Vision had been sent flying by the same blow earlier, while Captain America remained kneeling there, completely intact.
Suddenly, another fist came crashing down. Captain America raised his arm again and blocked it with the shield. At the same time, he stood up and kicked out. It was a smart move—blocking Blaine's fist and striking before Blaine could retract it, aiming for a weak point. Unfortunately, he underestimated Blaine.
Blaine snorted coldly, saw through Captain America's tactic, and countered with a kick of his own, sending Captain America flying back.
Before Blaine could withdraw his leg, another unexpected attack struck.
A metal arm gleaming silver in the sunlight slammed into Blaine's ribs.
This time, Blaine had just finished throwing his punch and kick and had no time to react. He took Bucky's iron arm strike head-on.
Clang—
The blow landed, and Bucky immediately retreated, his timing flawless.
What he couldn't understand, though, was why there was a sound like metal colliding with a magnet when his arm struck Blaine's body.
Feeling the faint sting in his ribs, Blaine was instantly irritated. Being successfully ambushed by Bucky, given his own capabilities, was honestly unacceptable.
Just as Blaine was about to step forward and chase Bucky down to return the favor, a sharp sense of danger suddenly prickled across his back.
Zzz—zzz—
Another laser.
Blaine raised his hand and blocked the incoming beam with his palm, then turned his head. It wasn't Vision. Only then did he realize Vision had circled behind him.
At the same moment, the War Machine refused to be outdone. Gatling fire and missiles poured toward Blaine in an instant.
"Interesting."
Blaine didn't move at all, letting the bullets scatter sparks across his body. When the shells hit, they only produced clouds of smoke. There was absolutely no way they could harm him.
The replicated eyes within his pupils rotated once more. Blaine parted his lips slightly, and a thin black ray appeared beside the War Machine in the blink of an eye.
"Rhodes!!!"
Tony raised both arms, firing repulsor blasts from his palms—one aimed at Blaine, the other at the black ray, trying to destroy it. According to FRIDAY's analysis, this black beam didn't belong to any known Earth material, which alone proved how unusual it was.
"Of course it's unusual. A Dormammu ray—do you really think your armor can block it?"
Seeing Tony's futile effort, a trace of mockery crept into Blaine's expression.
As expected, the black ray moved terrifyingly fast. It pierced straight through Tony's repulsor blast and shot directly toward the War Machine. Everything happened in an instant, leaving no time to dodge.
…
The Dormammu beam struck the reactor in the War Machine's chest with pinpoint accuracy.
Like Tony's Mark armor, the War Machine's suit was entirely powered by that reactor. Once the lights went out, the armor was finished.
Under the impact of the Dormammu ray, the armor shattered like a smashed mirror, breaking apart layer by layer. Fortunately, Rhodes managed to eject in time and leap free. This was Earth, where dark matter wasn't abundant, and the beam finally dissipated after tearing the armor into scattered fragments.
The armor was destroyed, the man survived—but he was effectively out of the fight.
Seeing their numbers drop one by one, the remaining three grew even more desperate.
In the distance, Bucky lifted a container and hurled it toward Blaine. Under Hawkeye's aerial cover, Captain America also used the distraction to charge Blaine head-on.
Blaine opened his mouth again. Another Dormammu ray shot out, piercing straight through the container and continuing toward Bucky.
"Get out of the way!"
The moment the ray fired, Captain America sensed something was wrong and immediately changed direction, trying to block it for Bucky with the vibranium shield.
But the ray was far too fast—it arrived in an instant, leaving Captain America no time to intercept.
Crack—
With no other choice, Bucky instinctively reached out and grabbed the ray with his arm. But the metal arm that Blaine had crushed so easily earlier stood no chance against dark matter. With a sharp crack, Bucky's entire arm was destroyed. He spat out a mouthful of blood, staggered backward several steps, then collapsed onto the ground, his condition unknown.
Blaine had deliberately weakened the ray by thirty-five percent. It pierced through the metal arm without killing Bucky, merely knocking him unconscious due to internal injuries.
"You—"
Blaine knew exactly how much force he'd used, but Captain America didn't. To him, it could only look like Bucky had been killed.
Falcon had been crippled before his eyes, and now Bucky appeared dead. Captain America's eyes instantly turned red. Only two people remained standing—Iron Man and Captain America.
"Are you finally getting serious?"
Blaine narrowed his eyes, watching Captain America and murmuring to himself.
That's right—Blaine had done it on purpose. He had eliminated them one by one simply to see where Captain America's limit truly lay.
Captain America cared deeply about his teammates. Just now, Blaine had clearly felt it—he still hadn't been using his full strength.
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