Humanoid Armor-Piercing Round!

Steve Rogers, a walking recruitment ad and spiritual totem for all America, jumped straight off the cliff.

His figure was like a blue cannonball fired from a barrel through the wind and snow, charging with unwavering resolve toward Hydra's Gundam-like machine at the foot of the mountain, a mobile fortress in all but name.

Chu Hang stood at the cliff's edge, his heart churning like a stormy sea.

Madman!

This was absolutely a one-hundred-percent pure madman!

Any carbon-based life-form with a functioning brain, upon seeing something that completely crushed them in size, firepower, and defense, would have only one reaction: run like hell and get as far away as possible.

But Steve did the opposite. Not only did he not run, he went straight in to face-check the bushes and volunteered to be the tank.

He was treating his own life as the final card in an all-in gamble, slapping it onto the table without hesitation and betting that the two of them watching from above could find that sliver of a comeback before he was flattened into paste.

This Marvel world is ridiculous. What real American has this kind of willpower? Chu Hang thought speechlessly.

"Damn..." A low growl rolled from Logan's throat, carrying amazement, irritation, and a hint of fully awakened beastly ferocity. His usually half-lidded eyes, always tinged with mockery, were now fixed on Steve's retreating back. His clenched fists cracked at the knuckles. "That son of a bitch, America's sweetheart, always finds a way to make my blood pressure spike."

Chu Hang glanced at Logan, a wild grin spreading across his face. Oh, Old Wolf, that wasn't your blood pressure spiking. Your adrenaline was through the roof. Your blood was boiling, wasn't it?

"Cut the crap, bro!" Chu Hang took a sharp breath and forced himself into sage mode. His Super-Soldier Serum-enhanced brain began running at overclocked speed, frantically calculating distance, wind speed, trajectory, and the lead time for every movement of that hunk of iron's joints. "The Captain has put his life in our hands as his admission fee. If we screw this up, the three of us will be sitting around together in this frozen wasteland, waiting nice and neat to get hauled away!"

As he spoke, Steve landed. Like an impossibly nimble blue flea, he darted wildly around the colossal machine's feet.

Every time the monster's massive alloy foot came down, it was like a minor earthquake. The waves of snow and flying rocks it kicked up could bury a tank alive.

Yet Steve always twisted and dodged by the narrowest margins, his shield ringing clang, clang, clang as it blocked the sweeping mechanical tentacles. The noise was more teeth-grating than fingernails scraping a blackboard.

Chu Hang was even more speechless at the sight. "This is so absurd. That protagonist aura..."

Steve had succeeded. He had turned himself into the perfect taunting face, locking all of the monster's aggro onto himself.

That hunk of iron clearly hadn't been fitted with any advanced AI chip. Its intelligence was questionable. Its two scarlet electronic eyes were locked onto Steve, utterly failing to notice that its unguarded back was completely exposed to the view of the two sneaky bastards on the cliff.

Now! There was only one chance!

"Logan!" Chu Hang shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Fuck!" Old Wolf answered with only one word, concise and full of the excitement of a feast about to begin.

Chu Hang grabbed Logan by the back of his collar. It felt like gripping half an iron door; the old man's muscles were harder than Chu Hang's skin.

"Hold on tight, old man!" Chu Hang still found time to crack a joke before launch. "If my hand slips and I drop you halfway down, don't expect me to come collect your body!"

"Shut up, kid! You're the heaviest damn accessory I've ever seen!" Logan cursed fiercely, but his body had already tensed like a drawn bow. His legs bent slightly, ready to be fired like a cannonball.

Chu Hang suddenly drove off with both legs, squeezing the terrifying explosive power granted by the Super-Soldier Serum to its absolute limit! The rock beneath his feet cracked apart as he shot into the sky like a cannonball, still carrying a more-than-one-hundred-kilogram "humanoid accessory" equipped with three Bone Claws.

Whoosh—

The gale shrieked past Chu Hang's ears, and the sensation of weightlessness made his stomach churn. He stared fixedly at the huge moving target below, frantically adjusting their aerial arc according to the lead time of its turn.

"There!" Chu Hang roared at Logan in midair, pointing toward a section of the monster's back covered in heavy armor.

That was the only place he had located with his enhanced hearing that sounded like an energy core!

Logan forcibly twisted his head in midair and followed the direction Chu Hang pointed. His gaze instantly became sharper than the Bone Claws in his hands.

Swish!

Three Bone Claws flashing with chilling light shot out from between his knuckles!

Closer! Even closer!

Chu Hang could already see the thick weld seams and vicious rivets on the monster's armor. He could smell the nauseating stench coming off it, a blend of motor oil, burnt metal, and ozone.

Steve below seemed to understand as well. He suddenly thrust his shield forward and slammed it into one of the monster's legs with all his strength.

The attack did little damage, but the insult was immense. It successfully made the massive machine's body stiffen for an instant.

That instant!

"Get in there!"

Chu Hang let out an inhuman roar. He twisted his waist and abdomen, the muscles in his arms bulging as he used every ounce of strength he had accumulated since crossing over to slam the Logan in his hands down toward the target!

Calling it a push would be inaccurate. Chu Hang was betting everything he had, using a nearly suicidal burst of violence to turn Logan into a living humanoid armor-piercing spike and smash him into that absurdly thick armor!

Clang—!

A shrill metallic screech sharp enough to rupture eardrums exploded through the air!

Logan's Bone Claws collided violently with the monster's armor, scattering sparks brighter than fireworks. The claws capable of tearing through the steel plates of a bank vault only left three glaring white marks on the armor's surface. They failed to fully penetrate it!

"Fuck!" Logan's curse mixed with the grinding metal, filled with unwillingness.

Chu Hang's heart sank. Had he miscalculated? Was this turtle shell even tougher than he had imagined?

No! It wasn't over yet! His part wasn't finished!

Chu Hang's body followed immediately after, smashing hard into Logan's back under the force of momentum. His feet landed precisely on Logan's lower back, using him as the perfect fulcrum and force-transmission rod.

"I said..." Chu Hang's eyes were bloodshot from the strain, his voice squeezing out word by word through clenched teeth. "Get! The! Hell! In!"

He gathered all the power the Super-Soldier Serum had forced from his body, all the resentment of a modern office drone toward 996, rat races, and this fucked-up world, all his fear of death and desire to live, all his energy, into his right foot!

Then he kicked with all his might!

The kick landed dead on the back of Logan's right fist, which had already pierced halfway through the armor!

Crack!

This time, it was no longer the harsh sound of metal grinding, but a crisp shattering sound, like tempered glass breaking apart!

Under the combined strength of two Super-Soldiers, the supposedly indestructible armor was finally punched through in the most brutal, unreasonable way possible!

Logan's entire right arm, Bone Claws and all, was kicked straight into the monster's body by Chu Hang!

Roar—!

A pained howl that no living creature should have been able to make, filled with electrical static and alarms warning of system collapse, erupted from deep in the monster's throat. The terrifying shockwave instantly threw Chu Hang and Logan off its back.

They tumbled through the air like two rag dolls before crashing into the snow dozens of meters away, leaving two steaming craters.

Chu Hang felt as though every bone in his body had fallen apart. A sweetness rose in his throat, and he spat out a mouthful of blood that tasted of rust. Yet his eyes remained locked on the colossal machine.

It had gone mad.

The monster they had stabbed in the kidney had completely fallen into a frenzy. Its enormous body writhed wildly, countless mechanical tentacles flailing around and smashing everything nearby to pieces. The massive turbine engine on its chest began flashing out of control, dark-red energy beams sweeping blindly in every direction, carving deep trenches through the ice and melting mountain rock into blazing magma.

"Run!" Steve shouted. He had already rushed over to them amid the chaos and yanked Chu Hang out of the snow pit.

Logan swayed to his feet on the other side. The right arm Chu Hang had used as a "nail" hung limply at his side, clearly broken, but under the effects of his Healing Factor, it was visibly wriggling and resetting itself.

The three of them ran for their lives without looking back, racing away from the monster.

Behind them lay a scene straight out of the apocalypse.

A series of muffled explosions sounded from inside the monster's body. Thick black smoke and electrical sparks spewed from the seams in its armor.

Amid an earth-shaking explosion, its mountain-like body collapsed with a thunderous crash, sending up towering waves of snow.

At last, the world fell silent.

Chu Hang dropped onto the snow, gasping like a broken bellows, feeling as though he was about to cough out his lungs.

Steve knelt on one knee, leaning on his shield, his chest heaving violently. Logan simply lay flat on his back with his limbs spread wide, a flattened cigar somehow clenched between his teeth. He stared up at the gray sky without saying a word.

They had won.

In a battle that had seemed utterly hopeless, the three of them, those "cheaters," had actually dismantled that unstoppable monster through plans that were crazier than the last and a willingness to risk their lives carrying them out.

So this was what it felt like to be one of those American superheroes people made up for their own amusement...

It was... pretty damn great.