Hope You Have Time to Replace It with Another Iron Heart

"Shut up, Jarvis!"

"I've slept with hundreds of Cover Girls. No one ever said I was fast!"

Tony said irritably.

His eyes never left Ben. This creature's movement speed had clearly surpassed the limits of his visual reactions. If he lost focus for even a moment, he could suffer badly.

"To be precise, its movement speed has reached three hundred miles per hour."

Jarvis did not understand why Tony had lied, but it had already calculated XLR8's speed through its computer analysis.

Three hundred miles was roughly four hundred kilometers.

But in reality, Mark 3's maximum flight speed was even faster than the J-22. Four hundred kilometers per hour was nothing remarkable.

The problem was that the armor being able to fly that fast did not mean Tony could react that fast!

As everyone knew, the real strength of most people with speed-based Superpowers did not lie in their movement speed itself. More importantly, it lay in their reaction speed.

Why was A-Train from The Boys such trash?

Because without sufficient reaction speed, he was just too useless.

It was like driving on an open road. Even speeding at two hundred kilometers per hour was barely manageable, but if there were too many cars along the way, the driver would struggle to react in time.

Ben could move at this speed in such a cramped space. That showed that his reactions and thought processes far surpassed those of an ordinary person. If they truly fought, Mark 3's performance could not possibly match his opponent's!

No!

Rather, as long as the armor was operated according to human reaction speeds, it would never be able to defeat him.

What was more, three hundred miles per hour was merely XLR8's normal movement speed, as natural to him as walking was to humans.

His limit could even reach a speed the human eye could not capture at all, one that even machines had to slow down several times before they could glimpse even a faint shadow.

"Where the hell did this monster come from?" Tony cursed under his breath.

After all, he had only recently become Iron Man. The world he saw was still a normal one.

All those Demons and monsters that came later had not yet appeared!

Ben stretched his limbs, preparing to counterattack!

"Round two, Tony Stark!"

He lowered his body into a starting stance. The mask on his face closed once more, and through the black visor, his voice sounded cold and serious.

To him now, a few minutes of transformation time was actually quite long. He had more than enough time to have some fun with Tony.

"Come on, Dinosaur Baby!"

Tony still seemed not to take Ben seriously and continued to provoke him.

But in truth, knowing full well that his reactions could barely keep up with Ben's, he had already instructed Jarvis to activate the attack program and handed over control of the armor.

In his vision, Ben had already been completely locked onto by Jarvis's intelligent program. At the same time, the weapons mounted on the armor's elbows and shoulders had all popped up.

"You said you'd deal with me in three minutes. Let's see, there's still two minutes and fifteen..."

Boom!

Tony had just wanted to toss out a witty remark when, in the next instant, a streak of black filled his entire field of vision—no, before his sight was even covered by that black shadow, Ben's attack had already reached him!

It felt as though he had been slammed by a high-speed train. Tony felt as if the ribs in his chest were about to break!

Tony had long understood that his reactions could not compare to Ben's, so from the start, he had given Jarvis most of the armor's controls, hoping to use technology to track Ben's movements. As long as Ben made even the slightest move, the Iron Suit would immediately attack.

But what Tony had not expected was that even the armor's cameras could not keep up with Ben at full speed!

Even if Jarvis could keep up, it still needed time to control the armor's movements.

"Mark 3 has sustained 12% damage."

Jarvis's icy voice sounded beside Iron Man's ear, but he had no time to care.

Because Ben did not let go immediately after crashing into him. Instead, with those strange hands, he grabbed Mark 3's head like the claw of an arcade machine and dragged Mark 3 out of the factory!

The instantaneous acceleration was something no ordinary person could endure!

If Jarvis had not activated the reverse thrusters at that instant to reduce the acceleration, Tony would probably have passed out immediately. Even so, he only felt dizzy and nauseated, his stomach churning while his mind went blank as if it had been anesthetized.

At the same time, Ben had not stopped his assault.

After dragging Iron Man out of the abandoned factory, he continued racing forward at extreme speed. His slender yet powerful arms carried Iron Man along, and while speeding forward, he suddenly slammed him against the buildings along the way.

Screech!

Sparks sprayed out like a fountain!

Those concrete buildings were as fragile as tofu, smashed into pieces by the impact!

Even Mark 3, forged from titanium alloy, was instantly covered in large areas of abrasion. The bright paint on its back had been utterly ruined.

"Armor damage has reached 26%," Jarvis continued to warn.

"Thanks. Then why didn't you push him away?" Tony took a long while to regain his senses. Worse still, that blow had made him vomit all of his breakfast from that morning inside the helmet, which then splattered all over his face.

The next generation of armor absolutely needs a vomit bag!

He roared inwardly, then grabbed Ben's arms with both hands as every propulsion system across his body operated at full power!

Whoosh!

Flames erupted from his back!

Tony shut down every thruster on the left side of the armor, leaving only those on the right. This broke its original balance.

Ben's sprinting body immediately tilted. He lost control in an instant and was forced to release Iron Man, while he himself pitched forward at even greater speed!

Losing control at such speed would smash even an Iron Suit to pieces. But for a Xenon XLR8, it was merely a common mishap, no different from a running human accidentally tripping over his own feet.

Of course, if handled poorly, he could still smash his head open just like a human.

Instinctively, he curled his body into a ball to cushion the tremendous impact.

Even so, it did not feel good.

Every time he struck the ground, he left behind a small crater, like stones skipping across water. Only when the craters gradually became shallower did he finally regain control of his body and rise to his feet, baring his teeth in pain.

In that brief instant, Ben had flown several kilometers away. Fortunately, to avoid attracting attention, he had initially taken Tony in the direction opposite the city. Otherwise, who knew what kind of mess this would have caused!

"I think I understand why Xenon XLR8s have such strong healing abilities." He stretched his aching body, which felt as though it had fallen apart. "If their healing abilities were any worse, they could probably kill quite a few of themselves just by falling over."

Meanwhile, after breaking free of Ben, Iron Man immediately regained control of his body. Flames burst from his hands and feet, and he spun once through the air, shedding the force before stopping in midair—

"One minute and nine seconds left. Not enough time to get to the zoo, huh, kid?"

Tony had not even forgotten to keep time. Of course, perhaps he had merely glanced at the AI display.

"That's enough for me." Ben sneered. "I just wonder whether you'll have time to return to Stark Industries and replace your own Iron Heart."

Tony immediately had a bad feeling. "What are you trying to do?"

He received no response. Or rather, Ben's attack was his final response.

This time, he targeted Tony's greatest weakness—the Arc Reactor!

In fact, after Ben said those words, Tony had already realized it. He tried to dodge, but by then, it was too late.

Ben was as fast as lightning!

Crack!

Black claws pierced the reactor's outer shell at high speed!