“Looks like Kingpin really has a crush on you.
I bet these toys didn’t come cheap,” Holden teased, glancing at the tense heroine beside him without a shred of concern for the killer robots.
“Don’t get distracted!
These things are no joke!” Gwen dropped into a low crouch, her eyes narrowing behind her mask.
She had fought these monstrosities before; both their agility and raw firepower were top-tier.
In complex terrain, their reaction times were almost on par with her own spider-sense.
Fwoosh!
The next instant, the underbellies of the Spider-Slayers slid open, launching a volley of micro-missiles.
The two dozen projectiles streaked through the air like a horizontal fireworks display, closing the distance in the blink of an eye.
“Crap!
Move!” Gwen shouted, throwing herself wildly out of the blast radius.
She never imagined they had been upgraded with rocket launchers!
Faced with the incoming barrage, Holden casually raised his hand and plucked the lead missile right out of the air.
A split second later, the rest of the payload slammed into his chest in a torrential, explosive downpour.
KA-BOOM!!!
A deafening chain of explosions rocked the compound.
Holden was instantly swallowed by a raging inferno.
The sheer force of the blast tore the ground apart, sending massive chunks of dirt and debris flying in every direction.
From above, a miniature mushroom cloud rose over the courtyard.
The terrifying heat scorched the earth pitch-black, and shockwaves blasted all nearby obstacles into splinters.
“Unicorn!!!” Gwen gasped, her eyes widening in pure horror.
The man she had just been fighting alongside had taken a direct missile barrage!
She felt like she couldn’t breathe.
She never expected things to go this wrong.
“Ignorant fools,” Kingpin sneered, watching the live feed on his tablet before draining the rest of his wine.
Against a concentrated barrage like that, even a so-called superhero would be blown to pieces!
After all, those were top-of-the-line military-grade missiles purchased from Stark Industries’ old stockpiles!
However, as the thick smoke slowly cleared, a towering figure bathed in the dying embers stood perfectly still.
The surrounding earth had been reduced to a charred crater, yet the heavy mechanical armor didn’t have a single scratch on it.
“This suit is actually pretty tough,” Holden muttered, rolling his shoulders.
He didn’t feel a hint of soreness, pain, or even an itch.
He had been a little worried the Masked Form might not be able to tank it, but the twenty-something missiles barely even made him flinch.
“Damn it!
How is that possible?!” Kingpin unconsciously crushed the delicate wine glass in his grip.
Dark red wine spilled over his knuckles and stained the cuff of his tailored shirt, but he didn’t even notice.
His face twisted into a mask of pure, unfiltered rage as he stared at the screen.
“Mr.
Fisk, I…
I think I should be going!” The guest sitting across from him stammered, suddenly desperate to flee.
He was just here to do business; he wasn’t planning on throwing his life away in some superpowered warzone.
“Sit down.
I assure you, everything is completely under control!” Kingpin barked, his voice rushed as he tried to salvage the meeting.
He immediately whirled on his henchman.
“Kill him!
I want him dead right now!” He had faced countless enemies in his rise to power, but this was the first time he felt so profoundly humiliated.
His business partner was sitting right in front of him, and his forces couldn’t even wipe out some nameless freak in a tin suit!
Whirrrr!
Following Kingpin’s order, the swarm of Spider-Slayers split into two aggressive flanking formations, lunging wildly at Holden and Gwen.
Swish!
Swish!
Swish!
As the mechanical spiders closed in, their razor-sharp metallic legs stabbed forward like a volley of deadly spears.
Powered by hydraulic engines, every single thrust carried enough kinetic force to rival an armor-piercing round.
“Be careful!
Their combat AI is programmed with the fighting styles of world-class martial artists!” Gwen warned frantically as the lethal blades descended upon them.
“They’re even equipped with basic AI chips that allow them to adapt to different attack patterns!” Gwen added frantically, constantly flipping and weaving to dodge the relentless assault of the mechanical spiders.
“No problem,” Holden replied effortlessly.
It was as if he had a 360-degree view of the battlefield.
He swayed and stepped with perfect precision, easily sidestepping every single lunging blade.
He didn’t even break a sweat.
At one point, he casually caught a thrusting spider leg and snapped it cleanly in half with a brutal elbow strike.
Every movement was completely unhurried, carrying an almost elegant rhythm.
‘What?!’ Dodging another strike out of the corner of her eye, Gwen’s brain practically short-circuited watching him.
‘Who the hell is this guy?!
How can he be analyzing their attack patterns and countering with advanced martial arts in the middle of a swarm?!’ “Only someone on Tony Stark’s level could invent a suit this good and fight like this!” she muttered to herself in awe.
His technique was absolutely flawless!
On the surface, he was just dodging, but to a trained eye, every single step and counterattack was a masterclass in mixed martial arts.
Wing Chun, Sambo, Baguazhang, Muay Thai, Boxing, Judo, and joint-locking techniques—he was using all of them!
And seamlessly blending so many different styles meant he had to be an absolute grandmaster in every single one of them!
BAM!
Holden delivered a devastating Bajiquan shoulder strike, instantly sending the closest Spider-Slayer flying through the air.
“Is this really all these things can do?” he muttered, rolling his wrist with a hint of growing impatience.
If he wasn’t specifically testing the Kabuto suit’s performance, he would have wiped them all out by now.
When it came to hand-to-hand combat, if he claimed to be the second best in the world, absolutely no one would dare claim the first spot.
There were probably less than a handful of people in the entire Marvel Universe who could match his martial arts prowess.
Whirrrr!
Suddenly, the damaged Spider-Slayer in front of him burst apart.
But instead of exploding, the silver mechanical pieces rapidly reassembled in mid-air, splitting into nearly a hundred much smaller, baseball-sized mechanical spiders.
Though their size had drastically decreased, their numbers surged, flooding toward them like a terrifying metal tide!
“They’re splitting!” Gwen yelled, preparing to engage the swarm in front of her.
But to her shock, all the mini-spiders completely ignored her, instantly changing direction to swarm Holden instead.
Her expression turned grim.
As incredibly durable as the heavy Masked Form was, there was no way it could withstand a coordinated, simultaneous attack from hundreds of self-destructing bots!
In a situation like this, even the greatest martial arts skills in the world were completely useless!
“Looks like Kingpin’s a sore loser,” Holden thought, a faint, mocking smile crossing his lips beneath the helmet.
He moved his hands to the Kabuto Zecter on his belt and forcefully flipped the beetle horn to the right side.
[CAST OFF!] The mechanical voice echoed from the belt.
The heavy armor encasing his body violently exploded outward!
The thick metal plates shot through the air like a storm of shrapnel, tearing into the incoming mechanical spider swarm.
Immediately after, Holden slapped the Zecter’s horn on the side of his belt.
[CLOCK UP!] The next second, the world changed.
The shattered pieces of his heavy armor, still mid-air, suddenly slowed to an agonizing crawl.
The mechanical spiders lunging at him froze.
Even the dust floating in the air seemed completely suspended.
A short distance away, Gwen hung in mid-air, her body completely motionless as she swung toward him to help.
Even the blades of grass swaying in the night wind ground to an absolute halt.
“So this is Clock Up?” Holden looked around the seemingly frozen world, a glint of realization in his eyes.
It looked exactly as if time itself had been stopped.
“Wait, no!
Time hasn’t stopped—I’m moving at hyper-speed!” “The reason they can’t see me is because I’m moving at a velocity completely undetectable to the human eye!” Once he understood the mechanics, a sharp light flashed in his eyes.
“Well then, let’s clean up this mess.” Holden stretched his neck and leisurely strolled through the frozen swarm of mechanical spiders.
As he walked past each one, he casually tapped its chassis.
The explosive shrapnel from his heavy armor was still suspended in the air around them, moving at a microscopic crawl.
[CLOCK OVER!] The next second…
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Every single mechanical spider detonated simultaneously in a massive chain of explosions!
“What?!” Still mid-air, Gwen’s face contorted in sheer disbelief.
“What just happened?!
Why did they all suddenly explode?!” She hadn’t even blinked!
All she saw was a momentary, blurry red streak…
Meanwhile, inside the warehouse.
“Why did they all just explode?!” “Is that…
is that the suit’s actual speed?!” Kingpin’s eyes were wide with shock, his breathing growing heavy as he stared at the screen.
That was the only logical explanation!
But how could someone possess that level of technology without him knowing about it?!
Was it really Tony Stark?
Did the billionaire just build a new suit to mess with him?!