Ho Yinsen froze for a second.
But looking at Tony standing in front of him, he smiled.
“Are you ready, Tony?” “There are at least dozens of heavily armed men out there.
They won’t show us any mercy.” Tony raised both arms, the flickering fire light illuminating the cave wall.
“I’m ready to die.
But not until I find Luca and give his butt a solid kick first.” Without another word, they charged out through the passage, ready for a final showdown with the terrorists outside.
The moment they cleared the cave mouth, the world outside turned into a war zone.
The terrorists couldn’t believe their eyes.
A lumbering metal robot—and it sprayed fire!
In this era, it was like a Transformer descending into reality.
But they didn’t hesitate for long, immediately raising their guns to open fire.
Tony’s only weapons at the moment were his flamethrowers.
Walking in the lead, he unleashed long plumes of fire from both arms.
Terrorists who got too close backed away frantically, screaming as the heat scorched them.
But the enemy wasn’t stupid.
After losing over a dozen men, they realized charging in blindly was suicide.
They quickly pulled back, taking cover behind terrain and hammering Tony with rifles and submachine guns from a distance.
Bullets rained down onto Tony’s armor.
Fortunately, ugly as the Mark I was, its outer shell was forged from high-strength missile casing alloy.
Its defensive capability was rock solid.
Bullets only ricocheted off with bursts of sparks, completely unable to penetrate.
Tony advanced step by step, braving the storm of bullets.
Just then— He caught sight of a terrorist squad leader shouldering an RPG behind a sandbag barricade in the distance!
The dark, gaping barrel was locked right onto Tony.
His pupils shrank.
This pile of scrap iron could stop small-arms fire, but a direct hit from an RPG would blow it to pieces!
Tony spun his head back and yelled at Ho Yinsen behind him: “Get behind a rock!
Stay down!” The moment the words left his mouth— *WHOOSH!!* The rocket screeched through the air straight toward Tony.
Watching the warhead close in, Tony could only watch in helpless panic.
This clunky suit couldn’t dodge in time.
*It’s over.* A surge of despair welled up in Tony’s heart.
Was it really going to end like this?
He hadn’t found Luca yet.
He hadn’t brought his little brother safely back to New York.
Suddenly— The sky lit up.
A brilliant beam of blue-white light slammed down from the sky like divine retribution!
Striking with pinpoint precision, the beam hit the flying rocket dead-on.
*BOOM!!!* A deafening roar shook the canyon.
The rocket exploded mid-air under the beam’s force.
The shockwave blasted outward, sending surrounding terrorists flying through the air.
Even inside his heavy armor, Tony was blasted backward by the pressure wave, stumbling until he crashed hard against a sandbag wall.
Shaking off his dizziness, he looked up toward the source of the beam.
The blinding sunlight forced him to squint.
Hovering silently in mid-air was a figure.
The figure wore a white lab coat that snapped loudly in the wind.
Backlit by the sun, Tony couldn’t make out his face, only a faint halo of energy shimmering around his body.
Tony was stunned beyond belief.
This completely smashed his understanding of science and reality.
How could a human levitate in mid-air without thrusters?!
And shoot energy beams?!
“Damn it, is that God?
Did God decide to wear a lab coat today?” Tony couldn’t help muttering.
In the next second…
A teasing voice floated down from above.
“Tony, are you starving to death, or did that blast scramble your brains?
Imagine thinking I’m God.
Though, I have to admit, I am pretty damn handsome.” Hearing that voice, Tony froze completely.
That was Luca’s voice!
He wasn’t dead!
Not only was he alive, but he was flying in the sky?!
What the hell was going on?
Did the Stark family gene pool come with a hidden superpower gene?!
Did Howard secretly invent some crazy experiment behind my back back in the day?
Most importantly, if the Stark family had superpowers, why didn’t he get any?!
Why was he stuck hammering scrap metal in a miserable cave?!
*Damn it, that’s not fair!!* Up in mid-air, Luca let out a sigh of relief seeing that Tony was okay.
Though the suit looked ridiculously ugly and a bit comical, building something like this in a cave with practically no proper tools proved Tony really was a god of engineering.
To think Tony had also come up with a self-rescue plan—and executed it in the way he knew best.
Starks really were geniuses; even their survival instincts aligned with uncanny synergy.
“Looks like I won’t be collecting your corpse today, Big Bro.” Luca chuckled and shook his head.
Then, he shifted his gaze down to the terrorists below.
By now, the terrorists had snapped back to reality.
They had no idea how Luca was flying, but that didn’t matter.
He was definitely the enemy!
A squad leader roared, “Fire!
Shoot him down!” The remaining twenty or thirty terrorists immediately shifted their aim, firing frantically at Luca in mid-air.
“Luca, watch out above!” Tony yelled in alarm.
He tried to raise his arms to help with the flamethrowers, but the range was too far; the flames couldn’t reach up into the air.
But his worry was completely unnecessary.
Up in the sky, Luca smiled with supreme confidence.
He raised a hand nonchalantly and pushed forward.
In the next second…
All the incoming bullets ground to a halt half a meter away from him.
Every single round slammed into a blue-white energy field, sending ripples across its surface.
*Clatter, clatter.* The deformed brass slugs rained harmlessly down to the earth.
The terrorists stared, dumbfounded.
*Damn it!
Is he even human?!* Luca opened both palms, aiming at the enemies below.
“Alright, bastards.
It’s my turn!” In the next instant— Two glowing spheres of brilliant blue energy condensed in his palms, vibrating with a spine-chilling hum.
*BOOM!* Twin energy blasts discharged from his hands.
The beams moved too fast to dodge.
In a fraction of a second, they struck two terrorists wielding heavy machine guns.
There was no explosion, nor any scream.
The two men didn’t even have time to react.
The moment the blue light touched them, they disintegrated into mist and vanished into thin air.
But Luca wasn’t done yet.
He had no intention of stopping.
Sweeping his arms across mid-air, he rained down rapid-fire energy blasts one after another.
*Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!* Blue beams flashed across the camp.
Within seconds, agonizing screams erupted everywhere.
Over a dozen terrorists vanished from the face of the Earth in an instant.
Dozens of scorched craters scarred the ground.
Watching this spectacle from against the wall, Tony was completely, utterly dumbstruck.
His suit was so heavy he could barely turn around, while Luca was wiping out entire squads with a wave of his hand.
Suddenly, his genius invention felt like a glorified toy.
As Tony stood frozen, Luca ceased firing.
Looking down at his stunned brother, Luca called out mockingly: “Hey!
Tony!
How long are you gonna stand there gawking?
Is that metal suit too heavy for you to stand up?
Do you need me to protect you on the way out, ‘Great Genius Scientist’?” At that taunt, Tony snapped back to reality.
The words “need me to protect you” instantly set his hyper-competitive pride ablaze.
“Shut up, you test-tube-fiddling freak!” Tony fired back with his typical fast-talking sass.
Bracing himself against the wall, he lurched back onto his feet.
“The Mark I is a revolutionary masterpiece!
It could wipe the floor with you!
As if I’d ever need your protection!” Luca casually shrugged.
“Fine.
Since you’re so confident, I’ll clear the east side of the camp, you take the west.
Let me see what two months of hammering scrap metal actually got you.” Tony raised his gauntlets, the flamethrowers roaring to life once more.
“I don’t need you telling me how to fight!
But I accept your little proposal,” Tony shouted back.
“Let’s make a bet: whoever finishes off his side last goes stone-cold sober for a full month back in New York!
You game?” Luca raised an eyebrow and broke into a hearty laugh.
“Are you challenging me?
Fine, challenge accepted!
Get ready to drink nothing but coffee back in New York, Big Bro!”