One Stomp to Kill

The Abomination grunted, a trace of blood already spilling from the corner of his mouth. The sudden, powerful force pressing down on his chest was hard to bear, even for him, but it still wasn't enough to make him give in.

"Bastard! I'll kill you and tear you to pieces!" The Abomination grabbed Lu Yifang by the shoulder, intent on ripping him in half. But despite putting all his strength into it, he only managed to tear Lu Yifang's clothes slightly.

Forget tearing Lu Yifang in half—he couldn't even scrape his skin. The Abomination was starting to wonder if this guy was made of Adamantium.

When he gave up on crushing Lu Yifang and tried to throw him away instead, the Abomination grew even more uneasy. Not only could he not hurt Lu Yifang, he couldn't even make him budge.

The man before him felt like an Adamantium spike driven into the earth's core, pinning him in place and keeping him from leaving the ground.

"Looks like you can't kill me," Lu Yifang said, taunting the Abomination.

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

"Boom!" The ground shook even more violently. A massive shockwave spread out, shattering every window within several hundred meters. The crater beneath Lu Yifang sank deeper, its diameter instantly widening to twenty meters.

"Ugh!" The Abomination spat out a mouthful of blood. Even Hulk's punches hadn't broken his ribs, but now most of them had snapped. A clear footprint had been stamped into his chest by a bare foot.

The moment Lu Yifang's foot came down, his shoe had been crushed by the immense force. Of course, this was only because he wasn't yet skilled at using Vector Control. Otherwise, even if he controlled a stronger vector force, his shoe wouldn't have been destroyed. After all, with the sole of the shoe in between, very little force would be transferred to it.

At a time like this, of course, Lu Yifang had no time to worry about a shoe. He only wanted this bastard dead.

"You monster!" The Abomination stared at Lu Yifang in fear. He knew he looked like a monster, but now he felt that the man in front of him was merely wearing an extra layer of human skin. This guy was clearly an even more terrifying monster than he was.

"Crack!" A crisp sound rang out. The Abomination's ribs were healing and growing back. In just that brief moment, his bones had mended. And it wasn't simply a matter of healing—Lu Yifang could feel the skin on the Abomination's chest growing harder, too.

A person's hands developed calluses from frequent labor. A broken bone grew back thicker as it healed. These could all be considered emergency adaptations. The Abomination was the same. After suffering a severe injury, he had developed a breastbone like a carapace, which would undoubtedly make him more resistant to blows.

Feeling the change in his body, the Abomination regained his confidence and burst out laughing. "Looks like this is all you can do. You can't kill me. No one can kill the Abomination."

"You really are—where do you get that confidence?" Lu Yifang laughed coldly, making the Abomination feel uneasy. "Who says this is all I can do?"

Lu Yifang glanced at the huge crater, speaking as if to himself, though he seemed to be addressing the Abomination as well.

"The ground should be hard enough now, right?"

"The ground? Hard?" The Abomination's expression suddenly changed. To him, ordinary ground was no different from soft mud. And being thrown into soft mud was obviously not the same as being thrown onto concrete.

By now, the ground had been pressed down a full three meters by the immense force. The soil beneath it had long since been compressed into a thick layer of rock, far harder than concrete. If Lu Yifang still hadn't used all his strength, then...

"No!" the Abomination screamed in terror.

"Die!"

Lu Yifang raised his foot and brought it down again. Now that he'd lost his shoe, the direct contact with the ground would make it even easier for him to use his power.

A sound like an explosion rang out. Dust rose in a wave of air that spread in every direction, and cracks in the ground reached all the way to the buildings on either side of the street. If the nearby buildings had been any taller, they might have collapsed from the shaking.

Bang! Bang!!

The terrifying force blew apart every fire hydrant on the street. At a glance, it looked as though a heavy rainstorm had begun.

Water pattered down, then flowed slowly toward the crater.

At the center of the crater, the Abomination was dead. Blood mixed with pieces of his innards poured from his mouth. His chest had caved in completely; there was no doubt that all his internal organs had been crushed, along with every bone in his body.

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

The Abomination's healing ability was powerful, but unfortunately, he wasn't Wolverine or Deadpool. Injuries like these were enough to kill him.

Without sparing the man another glance, Lu Yifang walked out of the crater through the falling "rain" and hurried over to Director Emma.

"What happened?" Lu Yifang asked through gritted teeth, looking at Katie, who had passed out from blood loss.

Director Emma simply held Katie, her eyes red, and said nothing. But after Lu Yifang took in the state of the orphanage, he understood.

Hulk had indeed knocked away the two cars the Abomination had thrown, protecting Director Emma and the children. But the cars had crashed into other houses, and one of them had happened to be Katie's room.

As Lu Yifang examined Katie's wounds, he heard a heavy footstep. He knew who it belonged to without even turning around.

Hulk stood not far away. He had just rescued Ross and his daughter and immediately rushed back, only to find that the battle was already over.

Hulk stood quietly, watching the scene with a complicated expression. He knew that his fight with the Abomination had surely left many people injured, and some dead. But knowing it was one thing; seeing a young woman bleeding before his eyes was another.

This hadn't been his fault. He had been forced into it. But from the moment he underwent the super-soldier experiments at General Ross's command to his battle with the Abomination on the streets of New York today, he had been entangled in all of it from beginning to end. Now, it seemed all he could do was pray that the girl would recover soon.

Hulk moved his mouth, but didn't know what to say. In the end, he could only shake his head in frustration and turn to leave.

"Wait." Lu Yifang suddenly turned around and fixed Hulk with a cold stare.

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

Hulk's strength was tied to his anger, but also to his rationality. The angrier he became, the stronger he was, but the less rational he became. Bruce Banner had just conducted an experiment to suppress Hulk, so for a short time, Hulk's strength was diminished, but he had also become more rational. That was why he had gone to save his girlfriend and Ross. At this moment, Bruce Banner's consciousness was still awake inside Hulk.

"I know it's hard for you to control what's inside you. But if I see you lose control next time, I'll make you pay just the same."

Hulk paused and turned to face Lu Yifang. In that instant, the beastliness in his eyes gave way to humanity. Bruce Banner's consciousness seemed to take the upper hand, and he spoke in a weary, sorrowful voice.

"Thank you. That's... for the best."

After he spoke, the humanity in Hulk's eyes faded again. He let out an unintelligible growl, picked a direction, and ran off as if exiling himself. Within moments, he had disappeared from everyone's sight.