Chase Through the Tunnel

"Kyle is here—"

That phrase was often invoked by the people of Germany to frighten children into behaving.

At that moment, in the base's second-floor hall, the armed Hydra guards watched Kyle burst in through the window and could not help their scalps from tingling as they sucked in sharp breaths.

They were not afraid of dying in battle. They were afraid of being slaughtered outright like pigs or cabbages.

If the enemy had only been Steve, the guards would still have been confident that they could subdue him through sheer numbers. But with the addition of the "demon" Kyle, everything was different.

Red Skull, who understood Kyle's individual strength even better, naturally knew this. The instant he saw Kyle appear, he turned without the slightest hesitation and decisively rushed toward the base's underground passage.

"Trying to run again?" Kyle entered the hall, his gaze first falling on Steve. After confirming that he was safe, he immediately locked onto Red Skull's position.

Seeing Red Skull trying to flee, Kyle snorted coldly and charged toward him with explosive, rapid strides, sword in hand.

At the same time, Steve stopped pretending and suddenly struck. He rose to swiftly knock out the two guards restraining him from behind, then held his shield in his right hand and stared coldly at Red Skull as well.

Red Skull had clearly sensed the chill at the back of his neck. He desperately accelerated his escape while roaring viciously, "Everyone, stop them!"

"Yes!" The armed guards in the base answered in unison, frantically using their bodies to form a defensive line and opening fire.

"Stopping me?" A cold smile curled Kyle's lips. His sword rose and fell, severing the arms of the two guards blocking his path along with the energy guns in their hands. Scarlet blood splattered across the polished floor.

Just as Kyle was about to continue chasing without slowing down, the other armed guards surged forward again without fear of death, forcing him to divide his attention to deal with the human obstacles in his way.

As expected of Hydra personnel who had been thoroughly brainwashed. Even knowing they were headed for certain death, the armed guards still held their ground as cannon fodder, firing to intercept Kyle and Steve's pursuit of Red Skull.

'Screech—'

Kyle swiftly raised his right hand and blocked another laser shot, sending it back in return. The Sodium-Carbon Steel Sword in his left hand was drenched in blood from hilt to blade, blood continuously dripping from it.

He looked coldly toward the turn at the far end of the second-floor hall. Red Skull's back was already far away, about to vanish completely around the corner.

"Don't think you can run!" Kyle gritted his teeth, stomped on the chest of the guard in front of him, and leaped into the air. While airborne, he violently hurled the sword in his left hand toward that direction!

'Whoosh!'

The Sodium-Carbon Steel Sword shot through the air like a throwing weapon, tearing through the wind with a sharp, piercing whistle as it hurtled toward Red Skull's back.

"Get over here!" Just as the Sodium-Carbon Steel Sword was about to strike him, Red Skull seemed to sense it. He grabbed a guard passing beside him and used him as a shield behind his back.

'Pshk—'

The guard's body was as fragile as paper. The sword tip easily pierced through his protective gear and chest, emerging from his back as warm blood splashed all over Red Skull.

"Hmph, Major Kyle, I'll remember this..." Red Skull coldly tossed the guard's corpse aside. Just as he was about to leave behind a mocking remark, he noticed something strange with his arm and quickly looked over.

The sword that had pierced through the guard's body had cut a long, narrow wound into his left arm. Blood was continuously seeping from it.

"It's clearly only a superficial wound. With my extraordinary physique, how could this happen?" Red Skull muttered in disbelief. His eyes flickered uncertainly toward the one-handed sword on the guard's corpse. He covered the wound with his other hand and vanished into the passage around the corner without daring to linger.

"Was I that close to letting him get away again?" Kyle raised a brow. At that moment, deafening sounds of soldiers charging came from outside the base.

It was Fury leading thousands of American soldiers in a massive assault against the Hydra base!

'Clang!'

Several agile American soldiers rappelled through the second-floor windows of the base on steel cables and charged inside. They began fighting the armed guards in the hall, greatly easing the pressure obstructing Kyle.

"Nicely done. Steve, stay here with the soldiers and clear out Hydra's guards. I'm going after Red Skull!"

As soon as Kyle finished speaking, he swiftly swept past the brutal battle in the hall. At the corner, he pulled his sword from the corpse and accelerated into the underground passage.

"Kyle!" Steve called out. He fiercely knocked away a nearby guard with his shield, then resolutely followed Kyle's retreating figure.

Inside the base's dim underground passage.

Red Skull was in front, Kyle in the middle, and Steve at the rear. None of the three could see the others, yet all silently accelerated in pursuit.

With the Venom Suit's enhancement, not only is my strength greater—even my speed is slightly faster than that of a perfect Super Soldier. Kyle thought to himself, fully confident that he could catch up to the wounded Red Skull.

And he still had another method of accelerating.

Following the faint bloodstains on the ground, Kyle became like a cloud of black mist within the dimly lit tunnel, his speed soaring to an even higher level!

Stealth Ability Card: In Nightcrawler mode, movement speed was further increased!

"Let's see how you run this time!" Like a bloodthirsty cheetah, Kyle raced forward at full speed, wind pressure howling around his body.

In only a short while, Red Skull's back appeared in his cold crimson eyes at the front of the slightly curved tunnel. Less than ten meters separated them.

Once he came within ten meters of another person, coupled with the restriction of the lighting, Kyle's stealth mode was forcibly dispelled, fully exposing him in the tunnel.

"Why is he so fast?!" At the same time, Red Skull also discovered Kyle pursuing him from behind. For the first time in his life, he felt his scalp go numb.

They were both Super Soldiers, so why was the gap between them so great? Why?!

Red Skull's grief-stricken face twisted. He could only continue fleeing as prey, but the distance between him and Kyle behind him kept shrinking.

"Schmidt, how about we stop and have a drink while we talk about life?" Kyle teased maliciously, gradually destroying Red Skull's psychological defenses.

Red Skull remained silent. He wished his parents had given him another pair of legs as he exhausted every ounce of strength in a desperate flight for his life.

"If you won't stop, then I'll have to come to you." As Kyle spoke, he ignored the drain on his stamina and burst forward again, sword in hand as he charged toward Red Skull's back.

With only five meters left between them, an armed guard suddenly emerged from an intersecting passage beside the tunnel and blocked Red Skull from behind. The weapon slung in his hands was aimed at the approaching Kyle.

Unlike the other energy weapons with blue-glowing muzzles, this was clearly a massive gun nozzle connected to a gasoline tank on the guard's back.

A flamethrower?

The instant Kyle identified the guard's weapon, he immediately drove his sword into the tunnel wall to steady himself and rolled backward once more.

The next moment, the flamethrower blasted out a five-meter-long pillar of fire, nearly sealing off the narrow tunnel as the air temperature rapidly soared.