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Tony Stark turned his head and looked in the direction of Human Torch using his Super-Horizon System.
After zooming in, he realized that the foul-mouthed, pirated "Captain America" had already been captured by several Fire Lizard Warriors, who were dragging him towards the oil tanker by his head, like a chicken.
"Damn it, this useless idiot is really good at messing things up!"
Tony Stark was almost half-dead with anger. Nick Fury's judgment was truly getting worse and worse. Not only was this Human Torch no help, but he had become a burdensome drag.
What to do?
Even contacting S.H.I.E.L.D. now would be useless; they couldn't possibly arrive in time.
So... should the rescue mission continue, or stop?
The answer was, of course, to continue!
Otherwise, he wouldn't have traveled all this way today.
Having made up his mind, Tony Stark asked in a deep voice, "Jarvis, calculate the success rate of rescuing the President?"
"Sir, the current success rate for the rescue is around 9%..."
Jarvis's answer made Tony Stark's mouth twitch sharply.
What the hell? My success rate acting alone is less than 10%; isn't that too damn low?
Jarvis, are you looking down on me?
But there was one thing even Tony Stark had to admit: how to successfully rescue President Matthew Ellis without harming him had become an intractable century-old problem.
Even though he considered himself to have a genius mind, he couldn't find a reasonable solution in a short time!
"Tsk tsk tsk, everyone, look who's here?"
At this moment, Aldrich Killian's figure suddenly appeared on the bridge above the "execution platform," looking up at the Mark 43 Hunter Armor hovering in mid-air, and said with smug sarcasm:
"Isn't this the famous Iron Man, Tony Stark? Welcome!"
"Oh? Are you a fan of mine?"
Tony Stark retorted without showing weakness, "Do you need me to leave an autograph on your face? That way, your ugly face should become more valuable, right?"
"It seems your foul-mouthed habit hasn't changed at all."
A hint of anger flashed in Aldrich Killian's eyes, but he forcibly suppressed it, pursed his lips, and said with an indifferent expression:
"I suppose you've already forgotten, but we actually met once before... If you had shown even a tiny bit of respect to me back then, perhaps this wouldn't have happened today."
"But from a certain perspective, I still have to thank you..."
Aldrich Killian slowly spread his arms, continuing with a look of ecstasy, "Because if you hadn't stood me up that night, I wouldn't be the powerful and perfect person I am today!"
"Uh, I have to say, your narcissism is even worse than mine..." Tony Stark interrupted coldly, threatening:
"Aldrich Killian, I have already uploaded your personal information to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s network. If you dare to lay a hand on the President, even if you manage to escape today, you will have nowhere to hide in the future, no matter where you flee to. So I advise you to stop immediately."
"Oh, oh, it seems you finally remembered my name?"
Aldrich Killian looked at him with the gaze of an idiot, then raised his hand and pointed to his face, saying:
"Stopping is absolutely impossible, because if I want to, I can appear in public with a new face at any time...
Moreover, to await this moment of revenge, I have waited for nearly 15 years... Do you know how I've lived these past years?"
"Oh, sorry, to interrupt."
Tony Stark teased somewhat inappropriately, "I actually didn't remember your name at all; Jarvis just retrieved your identity information through the facial comparison system... Uh, you can continue now."
Awkward!
Even the Fire Lizard Warriors turned to look at their boss with sympathetic expressions.
"You..."
Aldrich Killian's face had grown even more grim, and he roared at the sharp-tongued Tony Stark in mid-air:
"You want to rescue the President? Alright, I can give you a chance now... As long as you can defeat me before the public execution time ends, I'll let you go!"
Tony Stark heard this and asked with some uncertainty, "Are you saying... you want to fight me one-on-one?"
"That's right."
Aldrich Killian nodded noncommittally, then raised his hand to check the time on his watch, and chuckled sinisterly:
"Let me see how many minutes you have left... Oh, it looks like there are still 9 minutes. Although there's plenty of time, you'd better decide quickly."
"No need to ask, I naturally choose... to agree!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Tony Stark had already controlled the Mark 43 Hunter Armor to dive down and land close to Aldrich Killian.
Without any hesitation, the man and the armor both threw punches at each other simultaneously.
Bang—
As their fists collided, Aldrich Killian's arm directly twisted and fractured, clearly much weaker in strength, but what was surprising was that large sections of the Mark 43 Hunter Armor's hand armor also fell off.
"No, how is this guy so tough?"
Tony Stark was repeatedly shocked, but he mocked relentlessly, "Looks like the outcome is decided... If you surrender now, maybe you can live out the rest of your life in prison."
Aldrich Killian shook his arm, and the fractured part healed instantly under the self-healing ability of the Extremis Virus.
"What a pity, I couldn't capture Pepper as I wished earlier..."
Aldrich Killian spread his hands brazenly, deliberately provoking, "Originally, I planned to treat her as a trophy and publicly execute her alongside President Ellis."
"You... You're asking for death!"
Tony Stark's expression suddenly changed, his voice faintly tinged with anger, because what he hated most in his life was someone threatening his family's safety.
Bang bang bang—
The Arc Pulse Cannon in his palm and the Rapid-Fire Shotgun on the armor's shoulder sprayed at Aldrich Killian's vital points.
But the latter's figure was as swift and agile as a nimble monkey, successfully dodging all attacks by jumping sideways and rolling on the ground.
His fiery red hands tightly gripped the Mark 43 Hunter Armor's hand armor, then he yanked it outwards, actually tearing off that incredibly sturdy part of the armor.
Σ(⊙▽⊙"a???
WTF???
"This works too?"
Tony Stark was greatly alarmed by this. He knew that the material he used to build the Mark 43 Hunter Armor was high-hardness Gold-Titanium Alloy.
Although its hardness was not as good as Adamantium and Vibranium, it was far superior to all other currently known metals on Earth.
Yet, even so, it was as vulnerable as paper in the face of Aldrich Killian's attacks.
And, more critically, the opponent's close-quarters combat skills were clearly much better than his... one could even say they weren't on the same level.
If he couldn't find the opponent's weakness and strike a fatal blow next, the situation would likely develop in a direction unfavorable to him.
"Tsk tsk tsk, truly disappointing!"
Aldrich Killian was not in a hurry to launch a new round of attacks. Instead, like a cat playing with a mouse, he looked at the opponent with a face full of mockery, taunting:
"Stark, you're not planning to shrink your head and hide in your little turtle shell like a small turtle, are you...? When will you act like a man and come out and fight me fair and square?"
"I am Iron Man, and Iron Man is me!"
Tony Stark snorted coldly, raised his right arm, and fired several tranquilizer darts, but they were all instantly vaporized by Aldrich Killian's high temperature.
Swish—
Aldrich Killian, with his hand like a claw, swiftly tore off a large section of armor from the Mark 43 Hunter Armor's waist, barely revealing Tony Stark's body inside.
"Stark, has anyone ever told you that you are actually too weak to be worth a single blow?"
Aldrich Killian forcefully squeezed the Mark 43 Hunter Armor's left arm, then used his hand as a Blade, and a hand-chop directly severed the armor's entire left arm.
Under the high temperature of the Extremis Virus, the Gold-Titanium Alloy armor was no different from paper.
Fortunately, Tony Stark's reaction was quick enough at the critical moment; upon realizing the opponent's intention, his left arm decisively detached from the armor, narrowly escaping disaster.
However, the armor on his body had already become dilapidated in less than two minutes after the battle began.
"How about it, Stark, do you recognize the gap between us now?"
Aldrich Killian, like a victor, boasted, "If you kneel and beg for mercy now, maybe I'll spare Pepper after killing you..."
"Bastard, stay away from my woman."
Tony Stark seemed to be enraged by the opponent's words, and he swung his right arm at the opponent, disregarding his own safety. However, in the next second, his armor-clad right arm was firmly grasped by Aldrich Killian.
Scorching high temperature transferred from the opponent's palm to the armor, quickly forming a red-hot area on the right arm armor. Jarvis also began to frantically warn Tony Stark.
Aldrich Killian seemed not to be in a hurry to kill the opponent, as if deliberately wanting to play with him, he mocked with a sinister smile:
"Honestly, Stark, you really don't deserve Pepper, and I... I can make her even more perfect."
"So, don't worry, after you die, I'll take good care of her... Maybe this time next year, we'll have a cute child... What do you think we should name it?"
This guy was clearly trying to kill him and break his spirit!
"Wait, wait, calm down, you're right, I really don't deserve her."
Tony Stark suddenly opened his faceplate, putting on an expression as if he had decided to compromise, and looked at the opponent with extreme seriousness, saying:
"But there's one thing you're wrong about: she's more perfect than you... And she'll absolutely never have children with you, because... she's my woman!"
Almost as soon as he finished speaking, two miniature Freeze Cannons popped out from the Mark 43 Hunter Armor's shoulders.
Two streams of extremely low-temperature liquid nitrogen sprayed towards Aldrich Killian's head.
Although Aldrich Killian reacted incredibly fast and turned his head to dodge one stream of nitrogen coming at him, his entire left side was instantly frozen into an ice sculpture by the other stream of liquid nitrogen.
The Freeze Cannon was a new technology Tony Stark had specifically added when building the Mark 43 Hunter Armor after being "exploded" by Kamazotz.
However, because he later developed the High-Frequency Chainsaw Sword, he hadn't used this function in combat.
Buzz buzz—
Before Aldrich Killian could react, Tony Stark had already deployed a short, sword-shaped chainsaw weapon, about 50 centimeters long with sharp, interlocking L-shaped teeth along its edge, from the armor's right arm, and swung it down towards Aldrich Killian's head.
The sharp teeth along the Chainsaw Sword's edge began to vibrate at a high frequency in a very small front-to-back range, driven by an internal mechanism.
Previously, when dealing with the demonized Blade, it had easily torn through the opponent's tough skin, with excellent combat effectiveness, which is why Tony Stark was using it as a trump card now!
However, he still overlooked a fatal problem...
"Do you really think this little toy can deal with me?"
A ferocious glint flashed in Aldrich Killian's eyes. He immediately raised his right hand to block, and his red-glowing palm was directly split in half the moment it gripped the Blade.
Tony Stark's heart leaped with joy at the sight, but who would have thought that good times wouldn't last? The scorching high temperature quickly melted the Chainsaw Sword's Blade into a puddle of molten iron, and Aldrich Killian's left side, which had been frozen by liquid nitrogen, also thawed and recovered.
Aldrich Killian tore off the Mark 43 Hunter Armor's faceplate and most of its helmet. He looked at Tony Stark, whose face was full of astonishment, and was about to say something in triumph, when the armor on Tony Stark's body suddenly split open and, before he could react, directly enveloped him.
After successfully escaping, Tony Stark immediately ordered, "Jarvis, take that bastard into the sky, then blow him up along with Mark 43!"
"Understood, sir."
Without any hesitation, the Mark 43 Hunter Armor shot into the sky, then exploded with a "boom."
The entire process was completed in just a few seconds, seamlessly executed!