Ace

The instant the massive boulder broke free from the mountainside, it was as if someone had pressed the mute button on the world.

Chu Hang's pupils shrank to pinpoints. The Super-Soldier Serum had heightened his senses to an unprecedented degree. He could hear the teeth-grinding creak of the boulder scraping against the mountain wall, feel the faint groan of the ice beneath his feet under the crushing weight, and even smell the sharp scent of dust and snow squeezed into the air.

His brain, an enhanced biological computer, whirred frantically in an instant, yet reached only one conclusion: It was over.

The boulder was enormous, like a small truck, crashing down with unstoppable force. And Steve was pinned tightly against the nearly vertical ice wall by that damned belt. There was nowhere to go in any direction.

He couldn't dodge it. He couldn't block it.

Even the perfect human created through Dr. Erskine's life's work would have only one fate if struck head-on by that thing: becoming an indistinct red-and-white smear across the ice wall.

"Steve!"

A heart-wrenching roar came from the side. Logan's eyes instantly turned bloodshot. His beast-like instincts had caught the scent of death at once. Without a second thought, his muscles exploded as he lunged forward, but those few meters were now an impassable chasm. He was not faster than gravity.

Time stretched infinitely in Chu Hang's perception. He watched helplessly as the enormous shadow completely swallowed Steve.

Yet in that life-or-death instant, not even half a second long, Steve at the heart of the crisis made a choice Chu Hang would never forget for the rest of his life.

He did not panic. He was not afraid. There was not a trace of despair. He suddenly raised his head, and an astonishing light erupted from those clear azure eyes. His gaze did not linger on the boulder overhead, but swept like lightning across the ice wall beneath it. His mind surpassed its limits in that instant. Countless streams of data flooded in and were processed at once. He was not waiting to die. He was searching—searching for that one-in-a-million fulcrum that could pry fate itself loose!

He found it!

"Logan!"

His roar was no longer gentle. It crashed like thunder, filled with an unquestionable will of steel.

"Upper left, three o'clock! See that protruding black rock? Hit it! With everything you've got!"

What? Chu Hang's mind completely crashed. At a time like this, he wanted Logan to hit some irrelevant rock? Had Steve been scared stupid?

But Logan did not hesitate for even a tenth of a second.

He did not stop to consider whether the order was reasonable. The one giving it was Steve Rogers. That was enough.

It was absolute trust. Unconditional obedience to a commander, carved into his bones through blood and lives amid the hail of bullets on the battlefields of Europe!

"Roar!"

A suppressed growl burst from the depths of Logan's throat, but his body had already reacted before his mind could. He kicked violently off the ice wall, shattering the ice beneath his feet, and shot diagonally upward like an enraged ape at an unbelievable angle.

"Clang—!"

Three gleaming Bone Claws burst from his knuckles, scraping across the ice wall with a piercing screech and a shower of sparks. He practically slid along the icy surface before driving the claws precisely and viciously into the black rock Steve had indicated.

That rock was only the size of a basketball, utterly inconspicuous.

But the instant the Bone Claws sank in, Chu Hang's extraordinary hearing caught an incredibly crisp crack from deep within the mountain!

It was as though something crucial had snapped.

That black rock had been the hidden fulcrum supporting the base of the massive boulder above!

The moment the fulcrum shattered, the boulder crashing down with the force of Mount Tai shifted ever so slightly off its trajectory.

That tiny deviation separated life from death.

The boulder no longer plunged straight toward Steve. Instead, it grazed past his right side and fell with a violent howl that tore through the air!

"Rumble—!"

The deafening crash finally came as the boulder smashed heavily into the mountainside below, erupting with earthshaking force. Countless chunks of rock and ice were hurled high into the air, forming a small avalanche that poured down upon the enormous creature at the foot of the mountain.

Though he had avoided a direct hit, the violent air pressure from the boulder's passing was like an invisible giant hand slamming viciously into Steve.

"Urgh!"

Steve grunted. Veins bulged in the arm gripping the belt as the tremendous force swung his entire body outward, nearly tearing him loose. Chu Hang's heart leaped into his throat.

Fortunately, Steve was still Steve.

"Hah!"

He roared, terrifying power exploding from his waist and abdomen as he forcibly pulled his swinging body back, reattaching himself to the ice wall like a magnet.

They were saved.

Chu Hang went limp all over, gasping for breath, his entire body already drenched in cold sweat. He stared blankly at Steve above, then at Logan adjusting his posture on the other side. Only two words echoed wildly through his mind.

Trump cards.

Steve's beyond-the-limit judgment in a crisis, Logan's absolute execution without thought—their understanding had surpassed language. Compared to them, all he had done just now was scream, "Watch out!" He was practically useless.

"Stop spacing out! Get up here!"

Steve's roar struck like a blow to the head, yanking Chu Hang from his self-doubt.

At the foot of the mountain, the monster had been hit squarely by the avalanche. Countless tons of ice, snow, and rock cascaded over it, yet produced only a chaotic series of crackling sounds, as though it had merely been caught in a hailstorm.

It shook off the snow in fury. Its one eye, burning with rage, locked onto the three tiny insects on the mountainside again as it let out a thunderous roar.

"Boom!"

Another punch! The entire ridge trembled violently, and more fissures spread wildly across the mountain like black lightning. If they did not leave now, it would tear the mountain apart with its bare hands!

The three of them dared not delay any longer. Using both hands and feet, they scrambled upward at the fastest pace of their lives.

Finally, just as their lungs felt ready to burst, Steve was the first to haul himself over the ridge. He immediately turned and pulled Logan up, then the two of them worked together to drag the exhausted Chu Hang over.

The three lay sprawled in the snow like dead dogs, greedily sucking in the freezing air.

They had survived the disaster. Chu Hang turned his head and looked at the two beside him. Steve was inspecting his shield, its edge bearing a shallow scrape from the boulder. Logan, meanwhile, carelessly shook his hand. The blood seeping from his knuckles instantly froze into dark red ice crystals, but his face held only the exhilaration and satisfaction of battle.

Being teammates with these two monsters did not seem... like such a bad thing.

"We're... safe?" Chu Hang asked between breaths.

Steve walked to the cliff's edge and looked down. The enormous creature had stopped below the ridge, pacing restlessly, its claws occasionally raking the ground. With its bulky body, it could never climb a cliff that was nearly vertical.

It looked as though they had shaken it off for the time being.

Chu Hang let out a long breath of relief, but Steve's expression remained grave.

"Something's wrong," he suddenly said in a low voice.

"What's wrong?" Logan moved closer. His beastly instincts had also left him uneasy.

"It's too calm." Steve's voice carried a chill. "With how savage it was before, after losing its targets, it should be destroying everything around it in a frenzy. Instead, it's acting like this... like it's waiting for something."

Waiting?

Chu Hang's heart skipped a beat, and an ominous feeling surged through him. He quickly shut his eyes and pushed his hearing to its limit.

Its heartbeat was steady, and its footsteps had stopped. But an entirely new sound entered his ears.

A high-pitched, piercing hum, like countless bees beating their wings beside his ears at once. It grew louder and sharper, nearly piercing his eardrums! The source... was its head! That wildly spinning turbine engine!

"Oh no!" Chu Hang's face went pale as he screamed, "That turbine is accelerating! It's building up energy!"

At the foot of the mountain, the monster slowly lifted its head. The half of its head that was a turbine engine spun madly at a terrifying speed, producing a shriek that tore through the air. Vast quantities of air were forcibly sucked in, gathering at the front into a point of blinding red light, like the core of the sun!

The surrounding temperature surged instantly. The snow atop the mountain began melting at a visible rate, sending plumes of white steam into the air!

It had never intended to climb up! It wanted to... erase them, along with this entire mountaintop, from the world!

"Scatter!"

Steve only had time to roar those two words before his body shot sideways like a cheetah!

Chu Hang and Logan also scrambled and rolled in opposite directions almost simultaneously.

The instant they left their original positions.

A thick dark-red beam of energy, as though it could melt all things, burst violently from the monster's mouth with a terrifying shriek that ripped at the soul!

The beam outran sound and struck the mountaintop where they had just stood with perfect accuracy!

There was no earthshaking explosion, only a teeth-grinding hiss.

Then Chu Hang watched with his own eyes as the mountaintop, made of hard rock and ancient ice, melted, vaporized, and was directly... erased from three-dimensional space the instant it came into contact with the beam, like a block of butter thrown into a steel furnace.

A massive circular gap over ten meters wide appeared atop the mountain, its edges as smooth as a mirror and still billowing with heat.

Chu Hang lay prone dozens of meters away, feeling the scorching heat beneath him, smelling the thick sulfur in the air, and staring at that terrifying gap as if a god had erased part of the mountain with a rubber. A bone-deep chill shot from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, nearly freezing every drop of blood in his body.

How the hell were they supposed to fight that?