A Troublesome Opponent

Luo Xia had no intention of fighting this Extremis-enhanced soldier to the death. His appearance here tonight was solely to rescue Norman Osborn's son.

Now that his objective was effectively achieved, why risk his life against a monster that could be mass-produced with a simple injection? This guy wasn't exactly Aldrich Killian, the CEO of AI.

However, how to evacuate was a problem; there was only one passageway between the first and second basement levels, and all exits were located on the first basement level.

Luo Xia planned a tactical withdrawal, but Seven had no intention of letting him go.

Since he had been ambushed, it was clear the hostage had already been taken. If even Luo Xia escaped, how could he answer to his boss? Even if he couldn't capture Luo Xia alive, he had to bring back the corpse, or he would be in serious trouble himself.

Therefore, Seven trampled through the flames, chasing right behind Luo Xia into the second basement level.

Just as they rounded a corner, Luo Xia's Pulse Pistol fired rapidly, using an explosion to force him back. The original plan was to cripple the man first and use the time he spent regenerating to slip past his blockade and escape.

However, Seven seemed significantly stronger than the Extremis soldiers Luo Xia had encountered before.

The most obvious difference was this guy's ability to breathe fire; when the pulse energy rounds arrived, he took the first few hits head-on, then opened his mouth to spew a torrent of flames that reached three meters out.

Pulse energy rounds were not physical objects, but rather masses of high-energy particles, which was why they exploded upon impact. Such energy bodies were naturally quite unstable, and they were detonated prematurely when they encountered the thousands-of-degrees heat of the flames.

With the pulse rounds detonated early, they could no longer use the force of the explosion to knock Seven back, and Luo Xia immediately fell into an awkward predicament.

No matter how powerful the equipment from the AllSpark was, Luo Xia only possessed the physical constitution of an ordinary human. If this fire monster got within close range, he would be burned to a pile of ash in an instant.

Those injected with the Extremis Virus all possessed physical stats comparable to superhumans; in terms of both strength and speed, Luo Xia was no match.

Seeing that the Pulse Pistol was ineffective, Luo Xia simply holstered the gun at his waist and turned to run toward the room where the hostage had been held.

"Hmph, let's see where you can run." Seven was very confident in his speed. The second basement level was only so large; if Luo Xia ran into a confined space, that was even better. He wouldn't even need to fight; he could just trap Luo Xia in a corner and keep raising the temperature until Luo Xia couldn't take it anymore and surrendered.

At that point, he could easily capture Luo Xia alive and slowly torture him to find out the location of the hostage.

Luo Xia, however, did not think that way. Although he had plans to retreat, he wasn't so afraid of death that he would lose his head.

Despite the various disadvantages, there was not a hint of panic in Luo Xia's eyes. In his past life's missions, he had experienced situations far more dangerous than this, and he had long since forged nerves of steel.

Running into the room where the hostage had been held, Luo Xia pulled the door shut behind him and re-engaged the tripwire that Li Bai had previously loosened. When Li Bai had infiltrated earlier, he had discovered a grenade trap inside.

If someone forced their way in, the grenade would not only kill the hostage but also take out the intruder.

Luo Xia walked to the safe spot where the guard had been stationed and dragged a sofa over to shield himself.

Within seconds, Seven had caught up. As he kicked the door open with force, the grenade was immediately triggered.

The sudden, massive shockwave sent him flying backward.

Seven was stunned by the simple trap. After being injected with the Extremis Virus, he had gained a powerful vitality unattainable by ordinary people, to the point where the caution and vigilance that once belonged to a soldier had largely dissipated.

Thinking about it, that was normal. An ancient Chinese saying goes: "Fire is fierce, and people fear it, so few die by it; water is weak, and people play with it, so many die by it."

Now, Seven himself was the fire, the source of light and heat; he naturally wouldn't take ordinary methods to heart. Just like this grenade explosion—it would be a fatal wound to an ordinary person, but he only needed a dozen seconds to recover completely.

However, Luo Xia would never give him that time. He leaped out from behind the sofa and fired a barrage from his Pulse Pistol directly at the man's face.

This time, Luo Xia took advantage of him being dazed by the shockwave to attack his face point-blank.

I don't believe you can still breathe fire when your face is turned to mush! Luo Xia thought to himself at that moment.

Not only that, but Luo Xia also actively closed the distance to Seven while firing, fearing that he might run to a corner to play the regeneration game again. This thing—if you didn't kill it once, the next time, you'd be the one out of luck.

Seven's face was blasted into a golden-red pulp, looking as disgusting as could be. In this state, he certainly couldn't breathe fire, and he had even lost his vision for the time being.

The Extremis Virus could help him repair physical damage, but it couldn't allow him to use other organs to replace the function of his eyes. In this situation, Seven could only extend his arms to block his face, using his limbs to buy time for his eyes to recover.

However, the next moment, he felt a sharp pain in his arms; his entire right arm was severed at the elbow.

With his eyes still not recovered, Seven couldn't see the alloy dagger that had popped out from Luo Xia's Sensor Glove. He could only extend his left hand to block again, and the result was naturally the same—his left arm was also cut off.

Luo Xia looked at the scorching, glowing-red alloy dagger that hadn't softened in the slightest, thinking, "Good thing the heat insulation on this Sensor Glove wasn't an exaggeration."

Just as he was about to press the attack and finish off this monster, he didn't expect the two severed arms to start emitting an unusual red light.

The Tactical Goggles immediately issued a warning to Luo Xia: these two arms were about to detonate.

Luo Xia didn't even have time to curse; he had to run back into the room he had just left. He had barely hidden behind the wall when he heard two violent explosions. The flames surged into the room, and Luo Xia could feel a wave of scorching heat.

After a long while, the flames dissipated, and Luo Xia took a few sharp breaths. He had been holding his breath the whole time, terrified of inhaling the scorching air and burning his lungs.

"Damn it, the Extremis Virus can do that? Using severed parts as bombs?" Luo Xia cursed in annoyance.

He knew the Extremis Virus was unstable and easily caused the host to self-destruct. But who would have thought the main body wouldn't explode, but the severed parts would?

With this, Luo Xia had lost his chance to finish off the monster in one go.

Sure enough, before the heat wave had completely vanished, a fully recovered Seven walked into the room with an expression of extreme rage. This time, he was determined to bring back Luo Xia's corpse.

Seeing Luo Xia hiding in the corner, Seven said in the tone of a cat playing with a mouse, "You've got plenty of tricks, but can you pull out any new ones now?"

Luo Xia remained calm despite the desperate situation, only saying regretfully, "Of course I have new tricks, but I wanted to save them. I didn't expect I'd have to use them after all."

The next moment, three silver glints flew out, streaking toward Seven at a terrifying speed.