Unbeaten Legend

Under Kyle and the others’ watchful gazes, Tony and Stanny, clad in Iron Man Armor, chased each other straight into the night sky.

Until they became two tiny specks and vanished completely into the heavens.

"This scene really feels familiar," Kyle murmured, tilting his head slightly upward.

With the resolve to die, one fought for the faint hope of victory. Only by placing oneself in mortal danger could one find a path to survival. That was precisely what he wanted Tony to understand tonight.

Humans were as insignificant as ants in the dust compared to the universe. Even if they were fortunate enough to climb the heavenly steps of evolution, without a sufficiently strong heart, how could they ever stand shoulder to shoulder with gods?

"After this battle, you will be Earth’s one and only hero—Iron Man."

Kyle was still murmuring when Pepper suddenly cried out. Something was falling from the night sky overhead. Looking closely, it was the Iron Man Armor Stanny wore.

At that moment, a layer of white frost had formed over the Iron Machine’s surface. Every part of it had gone dark, and it fell like a gigantic piece of scrap metal.

Ordinary steel froze at an altitude of ten thousand meters.

Even Tony himself had suffered from this seemingly common gap in knowledge. If Kyle had not secretly intervened, he might have crashed into a pile of scrap metal.

The new Mark Battle Suit Tony had built used aerospace materials, which could resist frost freezing at high altitudes. It could no longer simply be called an "Iron" Man.

Boom!

The Iron Machine dropped straight down from ten thousand meters above, slamming into the third-floor rooftop of the factory behind Kyle and the others. With an ear-splitting crash, it caved in a massive hole, sending rubble and dust flying everywhere.

Though there was no threat at all, Yutong seemed unwilling to let the dust touch Kyle’s trench coat. Silver light flickered in her clear eyes, and her psychic power spread out like invisible ripples, blasting away every bit of dust that flew toward them.

"Where’s Tony?"

Covering her ears, Pepper anxiously looked upward and finally saw the Iron Man in midair.

Tony used the little energy remaining in the old core to intermittently activate the engines beneath his feet, continually slowing his descent. At last, he landed heavily before them. He tore off the iron mask himself, revealing a tired, pale face.

"Tony!" Pepper rushed forward impatiently and hugged Tony’s steel shell. Tony, breathing heavily, hugged her back. He was clearly still shaken.

When Tony saw Kyle, he weakly blinked and said, "Godfather. So, how did I do?"

"Passable." Kyle smiled and gave an impartial assessment.

"What? Just passable?" Tony twitched his lips. Supported by Pepper, he was about to say something when a strange sound rang out at the worst possible moment.

Kyle and the others turned around. At the edge of the massive hole from before, a metallic iron claw gripped the rim. Then an iron head and body slowly crawled out, its eyes glowing with piercing light as they stared directly at them.

"The impact countermeasures have actually improved this much. Let me—" Tony’s expression changed. He hurriedly pushed Pepper’s hand away, but after taking only one step forward, he staggered and dropped to one knee.

"Tony, this ends here," Kyle said calmly.

Tony looked down at his chest. The old core’s light was like a candle flame, so dim it was nearly extinguished.

Knowing he could no longer fight, he let out a helpless sigh. "You need to go. Godfather, don’t worry about me. Take Pepper and leave."

"I’m not leaving!" Pepper was so anxious that she was nearly crying. Her eyes reddened as she hugged Tony.

Kyle was a little speechless as he watched the two acting as though they were facing a life-or-death farewell.

Fine. He had not shown his strength since returning to Earth, so had they all really started treating him as the Symbol of Peace’s mascot?

"Yutong, protect the two of them." Kyle shrugged. After Yutong released his arm, he took several steps forward and faced the Iron Machine alone.

"Godfather, what are you doing? A Super Soldier’s physique alone can’t fight that high-tech armor!" Tony said urgently.

Under his father Howard’s guidance, Tony knew of Super Soldiers. Moreover, Stark Industries had recently developed a superhuman serum very similar to the Super Soldier Serum.

But as firearms became increasingly powerful, with bullets and missiles growing infinitely more destructive, the mutated physique of a Super Soldier became harder and harder to withstand!

In twenty-first-century Earth, the era when Super Soldiers were invincible had already passed!

"Perfect timing! I’ve been looking for you, Symbol of Peace!" Stanny burst into laughter. He raised his iron right hand, activating the Gatling device as a row of gun barrels all aimed at Kyle approaching him.

Kyle ignored the danger of the weapons before him and continued walking forward step by step as he answered Tony’s question. "Tony. Your father must never have told you that more than sixty years ago, I walked through a nuclear explosion once. Let alone now."

"While we have the chance, I’ll show you just how far a mutated physique can go."

Before Kyle could finish speaking, Stanny had already opened fire. Blue flames burst from the Gatling gun on his right arm, and bullets rained down upon Kyle’s body, leaving him nowhere to evade.

Seeing the terrifying sight, Yutong’s coldly beautiful face remained calm. Pepper covered her eyes, too afraid to look, while Tony stared wide-eyed in uncertainty.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As the dense bullets struck Kyle’s body, a layer of Dark Keratin Membrane rapidly surfaced across his skin. Black fluid writhed visibly, spreading from his chest over his limbs and head, forming a savage, feral biological shell.

"What a familiar feeling…"

Under the barrage of bullets, a smug voice arose in Kyle’s mind. It was as if he faced not a deadly hail of ammunition, but a lavish banquet of bullets.

And indeed, those bullets were like scratching an itch. As they landed on Kyle’s Venom-covered body, they bounced away with clatters and scattered across the ground.

"How is this possible?!"

Watching the humanoid monster ignore the bullets and continue walking forward, Stanny’s wild laughter abruptly stopped, replaced by terror and incomprehension.

"Is that really Godfather?" Tony sucked in a cold breath. Only now did he somewhat understand why his father had always conservatively described his godfather’s combat strength as an undefeated legend.

Once the bullets were spent, Stanny anxiously withdrew his right hand and raised his iron left hand, from which the final built-in miniature missile emerged.

"I refuse to believe I can’t kill you!"

Stanny roared and fired the missile at Kyle, who was less than five meters away. The miniature missile streaked out with a flaming tail, flying straight toward that demonically savage face.

Kyle showed no intention of dodging. He raised his right hand and made a movement that many people would never forget for the rest of their lives.

His narrow scarlet eyes gleamed. At the miniature missile right before him, he delivered a swift, powerful slap!

Boom!!!

The miniature missile was cleanly knocked off course, detonating in a devastating explosion at Kyle’s side. The blast wave swept dust outward, and the firelight illuminated his monstrous body covered in dark muscles.

As if he had merely swatted a fly, Kyle continued forward at the same pace and finally stopped before the Iron Machine.

Stanny did not move. It was as if he no longer had the courage to launch another attack. He could only stare at Kyle before him in despair and ask tremblingly, "What exactly are you, human or monster?"

"Me?" Kyle grinned savagely. Without saying much more, he clenched his right hand into a fist and, after a brief charge, smashed it into the Iron Machine’s round core.

Crack!

The iron shell and the new energy core shattered apart, cracks spreading inch by inch through them like fragile tofu beneath that blow infused with extraordinary power.