One Kick to the Death

Abomination let out a muffled grunt, a trace of blood already seeping from the corner of his mouth. Having such a powerful force suddenly slam into his chest was far from pleasant, even for him, but it wasn't enough to make him yield.

"Bastard, I'm going to kill you, tear you to shreds." Abomination reached out and grabbed Lu Yifang by the shoulder, intending to rip him in half, but even with all his strength, he only managed to tear Lu Yifang's clothes slightly.

Forget tearing Lu Yifang in two—he couldn't even scratch his skin. Abomination now wondered if this guy was made of Adamantium.

And when he gave up on crushing Lu Yifang and tried to throw him instead, Abomination's unease grew. Not only could he not harm Lu Yifang, he couldn't even make him budge.

Abomination felt as if the man before him was an Adamantium spike driven into the earth's core, anchoring himself firmly and keeping him from leaving the ground.

"Looks like you can't kill me," Lu Yifang said mockingly, staring at Abomination.

"But I can kill you!" With that, Lu Yifang lifted his foot again and stomped down on Abomination's chest.

"Boom!!" The ground shook even more violently. A massive shockwave radiated outward, shattering every pane of glass within hundreds of meters. The crater beneath Lu Yifang sank deeper, its diameter instantly expanding to twenty meters.

"Pfft!" Abomination spat out a mouthful of blood. Ribs that even the Hulk's fists hadn't broken were now mostly snapped, a clear footprint-shaped dent left on his chest by a bare foot.

The moment Lu Yifang's foot landed, his shoe had been pulverized by the immense force. Of course, this was only because he wasn't yet proficient with Vector Control. Otherwise, even if he manipulated a stronger vector force, the shoe wouldn't have been destroyed—the sole's thin layer barely affected force transmission.

But at that moment, Lu Yifang had no mind for a pair of shoes. He only wanted this bastard dead.

"You monster!" Abomination stared at Lu Yifang in fear. He knew he was a monster himself, but right now, he felt this guy was just wearing an extra layer of human skin—a monster far more terrifying than himself.

"Crack!" A crisp sound came—the sound of Abomination's ribs healing and growing. In just that short time, his bones had already mended. And it wasn't simple healing; Lu Yifang could feel the skin on Abomination's chest hardening.

A person's hands develop calluses from constant work; broken bones heal thicker. These could be seen as adaptive evolution. Abomination was the same. After suffering heavy damage, he evolved a carapace-like sternum, undoubtedly boosting his resistance to blows.

Feeling the change in his body, Abomination, who had been a bit panicked, regained his confidence and laughed loudly. "Looks like that's all you've got. You can't kill me. No one can kill Abomination."

"You really are... where do you get that confidence? Who says that's all I've got?" Lu Yifang laughed coldly, a laugh that sent chills down Abomination's spine.

Lu Yifang glanced at the deep crater, as if talking to himself or deliberately addressing Abomination.

"This ground should be hard enough by now."

"Ground? Hard?" Abomination's expression suddenly changed. To him, ordinary ground was no different from soft mud. Throwing someone into soft mud versus onto concrete caused very different injuries.

Now the ground had been compressed three meters deep by the immense force. The soil beneath had been packed into a thick layer of rock, far harder than concrete. And if Lu Yifang still hadn't used his full strength, then...

"No!" Abomination shouted in terror.

"Die!"

Lu Yifang's raised foot came down again. Without his shoe, direct contact made his ability easier to wield.

An explosive sound rang out. Dust surged outward in a wave, and cracks spread to the buildings lining the street. If the nearby structures hadn't been low-rise, they might have collapsed from the vibration.

Bang! Bang!

The shockwave's impact burst every fire hydrant on the street, making it look like a sudden downpour.

Whoosh. All the water on the ground flowed slowly toward the crater.

At the crater's center, Abomination was dead. Blood mixed with organ fragments spilled from his mouth. His chest was completely caved in; his internal organs were surely pulverized, along with his entire skeleton.

Aside from his head, he was no different from a lump of rotten meat.

Abomination's regeneration was strong, but unfortunately, he wasn't Wolverine or Deadpool. This injury was enough to kill him.

Without another glance at the corpse, Lu Yifang bathed in the falling "rain" as he turned and climbed out of the crater, quickly reaching Director Emma.

"What happened?" Lu Yifang gritted his teeth, looking at Katie, who had fainted from blood loss.

Director Emma just held Katie with reddened eyes, offering no explanation. But when Lu Yifang looked at the Orphanage's interior, he understood.

Earlier, the Hulk had indeed deflected the two cars Abomination threw, protecting Director Emma and the children. But those cars had crashed into other buildings, and one of them happened to hit Katie's room.

Just as Lu Yifang was examining Katie's wounds, heavy footsteps approached. He knew who they belonged to without turning around.

The Hulk stood nearby. Having just saved Ross and his daughter, he had rushed back immediately, but the fight was already over.

The Hulk stood there silently, his expression complicated as he watched. He knew his battle with Abomination had hurt or even killed many people, but knowing was one thing; watching a girl bleed before him was another.

Though it wasn't his fault—he had been forced into it—from the start, when he conducted the super-soldier research under General Ross's orders, to today's street fight with Abomination in New York, he was inextricably linked to it all. Now, all he could do was pray this girl recovered soon.

The Hulk's mouth moved, but no words came. Finally, he shook his head in frustration and turned to leave.

"Wait." Lu Yifang suddenly turned, fixing the Hulk with an icy stare.

"I know you can hear me right now, so listen carefully, Bruce Banner."

The Hulk's power was tied to anger and, to some extent, rationality. The angrier the Hulk, the stronger he became, but the less rational. Since Bruce Banner had just conducted an experiment to suppress the Hulk, it temporarily weakened him while granting him more reason. That was why he had saved his girlfriend and Ross. Inside the Hulk now, Bruce Banner's soul hadn't fallen asleep.

"I know it's hard for you to control what's inside you. But if I see you rampaging next time, I'll make you pay too."

The Hulk paused at this, turning to meet Lu Yifang's gaze. In that instant, the beast in his eyes was replaced by humanity. Bruce Banner's consciousness seemed to take over, and he spoke in a weary, sorrowful voice;

"Thank you. That... would be for the best."

With those words, the humanity in the Hulk's eyes faded again. After letting out a meaningless roar, he picked a direction and ran off as if in self-exile, disappearing from everyone's sight in moments.