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Is this how Hydra trains its assassins? Not properly reloading, but doing it one-handed instead?!
A small mistake put Reid in danger once again, but he refused to give up.
Just as the Winter Soldier was about to pull the trigger with his right hand, Reid hurled the car door at him like a boomerang, smashing it into his hand.
"Ugh..."
The Winter Soldier let out a small grunt of pain as his right hand released the gun. In that instant, Reid closed the distance, driving the rapier in his hand toward the man's forehead.
Show mercy? Even if killing the Winter Soldier would cause his role-play progress to drop into the negative, Reid wasn't naive enough to spare him just for the sake of a few role-play points. After all, the man was now under the control of Hydra, and he couldn't afford to let him live, especially when his own survival was at stake.
Role-play points could be earned back, but if he died, that was it. The damned system had no resurrection function for the host.
Faced with Reid's direct threat, the Winter Soldier was forced to abandon his plan to continue using ranged attacks. After quickly releasing the magazine with his left hand, he raised his metal arm in front of his face to block the incoming rapier strike.
The collision between the rapier and the metal arm created a spark, but it failed to inflict any damage on the Winter Soldier's cybernetic limb.
When the first strike didn't land, Reid followed Alfred's combat techniques without hesitation. He didn't allow his opponent the chance to grab his rapier with the metal arm. Instead, he retracted the rapier, sending it through the air in a graceful arc before redirecting it to strike at the Winter Soldier's thigh.
Clang!
Once again, Reid's attack was blocked, but this time not by the metal arm. It was deflected by a reinforced alloy dagger.
While using his weapon to block strike, the Winter Soldier swiftly drew his other hand and initiated his counterattack.
Clink! Clank!
The sound of metal on metal rang out incessantly. In just a few seconds, the two men had exchanged several brutal blows.
But as Reid had anticipated from the start, things weren't going in his favor.
Alfred was certainly stronger than an average person, and his combat skills were on par with the man in front of him, but he was still someone over fifty years old.
He was never going to be on the same level as the Winter Soldier, who, thanks to science, maintained his youth and strength as a super-soldier.
The Winter Soldier's boundless stamina and his powerful, nearly indestructible metal arm left Reid feeling overwhelmed.
"Ho... Howard…"
Inside Stark's car, Howard, whose face had taken a heavy blow from the Winter Soldier, turned his head as he heard the voice. His wife, Maria Stark, had been attacked even earlier by the assassin. Her face had been smashed in by his metal arm, and she was clearly on the verge of death.
"Maria... hold on..."
Even though Howard was in immense pain himself, he tried to comfort his wife. At the same time, he observed the battle between Reid and the Winter Soldier. He was surprised that someone could stand up to such a super soldier using nothing but their own physical abilities, yet now, his main concern was how he could help this stranger.
Though he wasn't skilled in combat, he knew the difference between a super soldier and an ordinary human. Even if the elderly gentleman had impressive combat skills, it was only a matter of time before he was defeated.
And just as Howard had anticipated, Reid was showing signs of strain.
After parrying another of the Winter Soldier's powerful punches, the hand holding the rapier began to tremble slightly.
His stamina was running low, and under the constant pressure from his opponent, he was barely managing to maintain his grip on the rapier.
Finally, after blocking two more strikes from the opponent's dagger, Reid's rapier was knocked out of his hand with another powerful punch. The force of the blow sent him tumbling to the ground.
He watched helplessly as the Winter Soldier closed in.
Oddly, however, he didn't feel fear at that moment. Instead, an eerie calm settled over him. He observed everything around him with sharp focus, searching for any opportunity to strike back. And that's when he noticed Howard Stark quietly approaching from behind the Winter Soldier.
"....."