Ultron watched Han Yu gravely as he looked around with his hands behind his back like an old cadre. He did not dare underestimate the man before him.
Back at the Avengers' party, Han Yu had amazed everyone with his masterful hammer-fighting technique. Ultron had felt it most keenly, since he was the one getting beaten.
"I don't want to beat around the bush, so I'll get straight to it." Han Yu casually waved a hand, shattering an Ultron that had been waiting in the shadows to ambush him. Looking Ultron straight in the eye, he said, "I'm giving you two choices. One, admit defeat and join my faction of your own accord. Two, I beat you until you admit defeat, and then you join my faction. Take your pick."
"Hahaha! Now that I have the Green Lantern Ring and the Mind Stone, you really shouldn't have given something like that to Stark. And now you want to beat me? Dream on!"
Ultron burst into arrogant laughter. Like Stark before him, he thought there was only one Green Lantern Ring.
If there were only one, things would indeed be bad for Han Yu. He could even be said to be in danger.
"The Mind Stone paired with the Green Lantern Ring gives the ring a tremendous boost. If the Avengers were dealing with him, even Thor would probably be in serious danger."
Han Yu narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched the arrogant Ultron. Unfortunately for Ultron, his was only a sub-ring, and how much energy it stored depended on Han Yu.
"You don't seem like the trash in the Avengers. Why don't you join me instead? I certainly won't treat you badly. What do you say?"
Ultron turned around and tried to recruit Han Yu, leaving him torn between laughter and tears.
Han Yu slowly raised his right hand, extended his middle finger, and curled the others, giving Ultron an "internationally recognized gesture of communication."
"You're courting death!"
Seeing that Han Yu had not only refused him but also given him the middle finger, Ultron's voice grew colder. He stepped forward, and a chilling killing intent swept toward Han Yu!
"Heh."
Faced with that fierce killing intent, Han Yu smiled faintly, still holding both hands in his pockets. He narrowed his eyes, and a killing intent no weaker than Ultron's erupted from within him, colliding with Ultron's.
The two invisible killing intents clashed, and the ground beneath the point of impact split with cracks as thick as thighs. Even the whole cave trembled slightly.
"Looks like you've chosen to be beaten into submission."
Han Yu brushed the dust off himself and chuckled.
"Hmph, what's the point of all this talk? Let's just fight..."
Ultron snorted, but before he could finish speaking, he suddenly froze. He seemed to glimpse Han Yu's body tremble, and in the space of a breath, Ultron raised both arms and crossed them in front of himself.
The moment he assumed his defensive stance, a jade-green afterimage smashed down onto his steel arms. The tremendous impact drove Ultron's entire steel body down considerably, cracking the ground beneath his feet.
"Oh, you reacted pretty fast."
Han Yu's laughter followed, but immediately afterward, a sonic boom rang out behind Ultron. This time, Ultron was sent flying before he could turn around.
His entire body was driven deep into the mountainside, at least four or five meters in!
"How is that possible? That kind of speed, that kind of strength—even the Avengers can't do that!"
Ultron crawled out of the mountainside and roared at Han Yu. The tremor in Han Yu's body earlier had not been a tremor at all. He had moved so fast that what remained was only his afterimage, not his actual body.
The power Han Yu had unleashed was even further beyond his expectations. Even Thor, who called himself a god, could not strike with such explosive force.
Han Yu ignored Ultron's roar and instead remarked to himself, "Quicksilver's ability is really useful. With the Green Lantern Energy enhancing it, the power is pretty good."
The reason he was so fast was entirely due to the energy Quicksilver had stored in the Green Lantern Ring. The rings he had distributed were all sub-rings, and Green Lantern Energy could be shared.
When Wanda and Quicksilver used their abilities to assimilate the Green Lantern Rings, giving their Green Lantern Sub-Rings the properties of their superpowers, Han Yu could also draw on Green Lantern Energy bearing the properties of both their powers.
In theory, their sub-rings could also exchange energy bearing each other's properties. But they had yet to fully understand even their own abilities, so Han Yu had not given them access to that function.
"Bastard, take my ultimate move!"
Seeing Han Yu still talking to himself, Ultron grew even angrier. With a low, furious shout, he rapidly formed an interwoven mass of yellow and jade-green energy in his palm. In the blink of an eye, it became a small square that covered his entire palm.
The yellow-green square contained an immensely powerful force. Ultron gave a sinister laugh and thrust his palm toward Han Yu from afar. The square shot out, turning into a blurred streak of light aimed straight at him.
"This is my strongest killing move. There's no way you can dodge it!"
The streak of light was incredibly fast. If the Avengers had been its target, probably none of them could have blocked it. Even Captain America's Vibranium Shield, which could hold its own against anyone, would have been reduced to a heap of fragments beneath it.
"Disperse."
Han Yu waved a hand lightly, and the green in the yellow-green square vanished into thin air in an instant. He casually summoned a shield and blocked the remaining yellow streak of light.
"This... how is this possible?!"
A trace of disbelief and... panic entered Ultron's mechanical voice. Most of the energy in his body came from the Green Lantern Ring, and after Han Yu spoke that word, he felt all the Green Lantern Energy drain from his body and return to the ring.
Suddenly, the red light in Ultron's mechanical eyes contracted. He saw a ring on Han Yu's hand, identical to the one placed inside his own body.
As a superintelligent robot, Ultron considered all sorts of possibilities in an instant. After discarding some that were completely impossible, only one explanation remained for how the other man had made his power disappear with a single word.
"There's actually more than one of these rings. Could mine be... a sub-ring? Wait, I submit..."
Before Ultron could finish, a translucent green fist appeared before his eyes and grew larger, slamming viciously into his head.
A ripple of sonic boom spread behind his head. Ultron was hammered deep into the ground, and dense, spiderweb-like cracks spread around him.
Even though Ultron's body was made of Vibranium, the terrifying force had now left tiny cracks in his Vibranium head.