Let Art Bloom Here, Hmm--!

The thrusters of the Iron Man suit roared again, and Tony barely managed to steady himself.

The HUD was filled with warnings: energy module overheating, shoulder cannon offline, left arm armor damaged.

He looked up and saw that Orochimaru was not pressing his advantage, but instead tilting his head slightly, as if admiring something strange.

"Wardfa?"

"What are you doing? If you're going to fight, then fight!" Tony gritted his teeth, activating his shoulder-mounted missiles. "I'm not here to put on a show for you."

Missiles flew out in swarms, their explosions raining down on the ground.

Kakkō shot into the sky, smoke billowed, and all the windows of the villa were shattered.

However, amidst that intense explosion, several enormous black snakes suddenly broke through the smoke, emerging from all directions, their scales gleaming with an eerie green light.

"Hehehe... It's really lively."

From within the smoke, Orochimaru's voice drifted out, "Mr. Stark, the flames of technology are truly childish compared to the mysteries of Chakra."

The next second, a giant snake, like a catapult attacking a city, suddenly lashed out with its tail, smashing a car into scrap metal and causing Tony's HUD to shake violently.

Tony instinctively pulled up, only to see another snake dart out from between the buildings, nearly biting his ankle.

"F-!" he cursed, then unleashed a barrage of miniature missiles, blasting half of the snake's body off its head.

But the snake's shadow did not dissipate; instead, it twisted and recombine like liquid, forming a new shape.

Orochimaru finally appeared, standing on the dilapidated rooftop, arms crossed, a sickly smile playing on his lips.

He didn't rush to kill Tony; instead, he strolled leisurely among the snakes, like a child playing with a stray cat on the street.

"I originally just wanted to see your toy," Orochimaru said, flicking his tongue, his voice low, "But I didn't expect it to be so fragile."

He clapped his hands lightly, and the snakes instantly turned into white smoke and disappeared, as if everything just now was nothing but an illusion.

Tony's chest heaved, a nameless anger rising within him: This weirdo wasn't even fighting seriously!

He abruptly turned his armor around, activated the hidden energy pulse cannon, and blue light gathered in his palms, unleashing a beam of light that pierced through the entire street, blasting half of it into a crater.

Amidst the Kakkō, Orochimaru's figure mysteriously split, blurred, and vanished, then reappeared out of thin air behind Tony, as close as a shadow.

"Hehehe... Very good, that's more like it."

He chuckled softly, his tongue almost touching the ear armor of Tony's suit. "Too bad, you're too slow."

Tony was startled and whirled around, only to be thrown to the ground by an invisible force.

Orochimaru simply flicked his sleeve, and several black snakes instantly burrowed into the ground, tightly binding his legs and dragging them with a hissing sound.

"What a pity, that steel shell is really beautiful... It would be so interesting to take it apart and study it."

Orochimaru slowly raised his hand, a faint purple Chakra light emanating from his fingertips. In the night, the light resembled the venom of a snake, sending chills down one's spine.

Tony's heart tightened, and he quickly activated the emergency thrusters. Blazing flames erupted from beneath his armor, blasting the snake shadow in two and propelling him backward dozens of meters using the impact.

The HUD flashed red, and the system issued an urgent warning. "Power core overload!"

"Damn it..." Tony gasped for breath, but the familiar arrogance still lingered on his lips. "You think you're messing with me? Fine, I'm testing your limits too."

He raised his left arm and fired a specially designed electromagnetic pulse missile. Blue arcs of electricity burst through the air, enveloping the entire block.

The snake shadows surrounding Orochimaru froze for a moment, and the Chakra fluctuations distorted slightly as if disturbed.

"Heh heh..." Orochimaru laughed even louder. "Interesting, very interesting."

Instead of taking the hit head-on, he leaped lightly, transforming into dozens of small snakes in mid-air, scattering to various corners, and then regrouping into a figure standing less than three meters in front of Tony.

Those vertical pupils gleamed with an almost morbid excitement:

"Mr. Stark, we've had enough fun."

Just as Tony was about to raise his hand, Orochimaru leaned down and gently pressed his five fingers against Tony's breastplate.

A chilling Chakra seeped into Tony through the gaps in his armor, and Tony felt a shiver run through his body. The HUD screen suddenly turned to static, and the system frantically issued warnings.

"Varied--"

Before he could finish speaking, it felt as if his nerves had been severed, and his consciousness plummeted.

Orochimaru caught the weightless steel armor with his other hand, as easily as if he were lifting a test subject, the smile still lingering on his lips:

"Hehehe... What an interesting little mouse."

The Kakkō still burned in the street, and the shadows of snakes slithered. Orochimaru waved his sleeve, and several giant snakes coiled around Tony's armor, dragging it into the shadows of the sewers, where they vanished instantly.

The night wind howled, and city alarms blared, but no one saw that sickly smile leading its prey deeper into darkness.

As night fell, the jungles of Wakanda stretched out like a vast, breathing net, exuding the scent of metal and earth. Energy fluctuations deep within the Vibranium veins reverberated through the air like the heartbeat of a wild beast.

A strange surge of Chakra tore through space.

A black cloak with red clouds fluttered out from the crack, and Kakuzu was the first to step into the jungle. His gaze was colder than the forest itself, and his fingers unconsciously weighed the coins in his hand.

Hidan followed closely behind, his three-edged scythe dragging a grating sound across the muddy ground as he muttered some kind of bloody prayer.

"The food here... is quite interesting."

Hidan licked his lips, gazing at the purple energy barrier that had lit up in the distance. "There's no trace of faith or blood sacrifice, yet the pulse of power here is deeper than most temples."

Kakuzu snorted coldly, "Don't make it seem like a pilgrimage, Hidan. We're here to reclaim Vibranium, not to listen to your sermons."

Behind them, a gust of sand swirled, and Deidara appeared, swooping down. His long golden hair billowed in the night wind, his monocle gleamed, and a boyish smile played on his lips.

"Vibranium, what a 'material,' huh. Just looking at it makes my hands itch."

He raised his palm, his mouth-shaped hand chewing on the clay. "If I could make this into my artwork—boom—it would be beautiful, hmm."

Hidan rolled his eyes. "Artwork? I'm more interested in where the 'altar' is here! With so much power, if we could have a blood sacrifice, the Jashin would be very happy!"

Kakuzu frowned. "Don't do anything rash. Infiltrate according to plan. We're not here for you to set off fireworks."

Deidara laughed like a child, "Infiltrate? No, no, no, true art is about blossoming in an instant, hmm! Just watch, let them 'invite' us in themselves."

In the distant Wakanda outpost, the Vibranium detector suddenly malfunctioned, and the radio waves became erratic as if hit by a storm.

Several guards wearing leopard-print armor looked tense as they took turns reporting coordinates—but the monitoring screen only showed shadows and clay birds flying by.

The next moment, Hidan burst out of the forest laughing, his scythe leaving a blood-red afterimage in the air; Kakuzu unfurled his tentacles, bound by heart-shaped threads, his black cloud cloak billowing in the wind. Deidara stood atop a giant white clay bird, looking down at the purple energy barrier, his single eye gleaming with excitement.

"The legendary guardian kingdom, huh? Let me see if your defenses can withstand my Flower of Art, hmm!"

Wakanda's energy barrier rippled slightly, accompanied by a low alarm, and suddenly cracks appeared in the purple light curtain.

"Let's begin." Deidara waved his hand, and the flock of clay birds swooped forward. "Let art bloom here, hmm--!"