Resolution

What a pity, Meng Zu thought. From a height of ten meters, let alone dying from the fall, Iron Monger's configuration meant it would not even be injured by the impact.

Then Mark III alternated between firing its thrusters to slow down and shutting them off to drop, eventually crashing unsteadily onto the roof of Building 16.

Meng Zu saw flames flare up where Iron Monger had landed in the distance. Clearly, Iron Monger's operating system had returned to normal, and it was now activating its thrusters to fly toward Tony.

Thinking he had dealt with Obadiah, Tony began talking to Pepper after landing safely.

"Pepper!"

Hearing Tony's voice through the earpiece, Pepper anxiously asked, "Tony! Oh my God, are you okay?"

Hearing Pepper's concern warmed Tony's heart. He reassured her, "I'm fine, but my armor is about to run out of power. Once I take it off, I'll come right over!"

By then, Iron Monger had returned to Building 16. Obadiah spotted Meng Zu on the rooftop of another building, but he did not attack him. In his mind, Tony was the greatest threat. He would deal with Meng Zu after killing Tony. And Pepper, along with those agents—everyone present tonight had to die.

Tony had not even noticed him approaching and had even removed the armor from his right hand. Obadiah piloted Iron Monger down behind Tony with a heavy thud. Hearing the noise behind him, Tony immediately turned around and saw Iron Monger.

Obadiah looked at Tony and said, "That was a pretty good move!"

At the same time, Iron Monger threw a punch at Tony's head. Tony immediately closed his faceplate and ducked beneath it. After avoiding the punch, he straightened up, raised his left arm, and opened his palm to fire a repulsor blast—but nothing happened. Tony froze for a moment before realizing that he had just taken off the armor component on his left hand.

Iron Monger seized the opportunity and punched Tony away. Tony immediately adjusted his body, got back on his feet, and used his thrusters to leap into the air in an instant, slamming a fist into Iron Monger's head. Unfortunately, it only knocked Iron Monger's head aside and caused no actual damage.

Seeing Tony right in front of it, Iron Monger spread its arms and wrapped Tony in a crushing bear hug.

Iron Monger held Tony tightly and began exerting force with both arms. Tony struggled desperately to break free, but Mark III's strength was simply no match for Iron Monger's. Sparks burst from Mark III's compressed armor. Clearly, Iron Monger intended to finish Tony with this crushing embrace.

Watching from the rooftop, Meng Zu saw Iron Monger and Mark III locked in place and knew the opportunity had come. He aimed the M99 at Iron Monger's head and turned the bullet in the chamber into a freezing round. With a gunshot, the freezing round struck Iron Monger's head. A layer of ice an inch thick formed around the impact point and rapidly spread in every direction.

Caught off guard, Obadiah could no longer spare attention for Tony. He immediately released him and smashed the ice covering his head with his fists. But as soon as he broke it apart, ice spread upward again from the layer beneath. Iron Monger could only keep smashing the ice. In the end, the ice stopped spreading after covering half of Iron Monger's body.

Naturally, Meng Zu would not just stand there and watch Iron Monger break free. Bang! Bang! Bang! Three freezing rounds struck Iron Monger's legs and chest. Ice rapidly spread outward, and before Iron Monger could smash it apart, its entire body was frozen solid. Its operating system also shut down.

When ice had suddenly appeared on Iron Monger earlier, Tony had not rushed in to attack. Iron Monger's crushing embrace had wrecked all of his weapon systems, and who knew whether the ice would spread onto him if he got close? Now, seeing Iron Monger turned into a giant ice sculpture, he could not help exclaiming, "Whoa!"

Tony said to JARVIS, "JARVIS, analyze that. What was it?"

"Mr. Stark, it was an extremely low-temperature form of energy. It spread after striking Mr. Stan."

"What is that energy made of?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark. Unable to analyze. It does not match any known form of energy."

"Fine."

Pepper's voice came through his helmet. "Tony, are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"What about Stan?"

"He... he turned into an ice sculpture." Mark III scanned Iron Monger and found that its temperature was continuing to drop. Iron Monger had no de-icing system installed. There was no way it could return to normal under these circumstances.

"What? Tony, I'm coming to you right now."

Tony slowly removed Mark III from his body. Pepper reached the rooftop at that moment, ran over and hugged him, then immediately began checking him over. "Tony, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"I'm fine, Pepper."

Meng Zu also came over from the neighboring rooftop. He needed to confirm whether Obadiah was dead. If not, he would have to finish him off.

The moment Tony saw Meng Zu, his heart tensed. Although Meng Zu had frozen Stan with some unknown method and had technically helped him, Tony had classified Meng Zu as a dangerous individual. After Meng Zu had rescued him from the Ten Rings, Tony had investigated Meng Zu's background. JARVIS's deep search had revealed that besides being a mercenary and detective on the surface, Meng Zu was also likely an assassin.

Tony had no desire to deal with someone like that. He quietly pulled Pepper behind him and asked warily, "Why are you here?"

Meng Zu ignored Tony's movements. As he walked toward Iron Monger, he said, "I came to kill Obadiah."

Tony said coldly, "Mr. Assassin, how much did someone pay you to kill Stan?"

Although Obadiah had tried to kill him and Pepper, filling Tony with rage, Obadiah was still his godfather. They had shared thirty years of history. If Tony defeated Obadiah himself, he certainly would not be able to bring himself to kill him. He would only hand him over to the government to be judged for his crimes.

Now that he heard Meng Zu had come to kill Obadiah, Tony naturally felt displeased.

"Tony, don't be like that." Pepper tugged at Tony's arm.

Meng Zu ignored Tony. After examining Iron Monger, he found that it had been completely frozen solid. More than ten minutes had passed since Iron Monger was frozen. At such low temperatures, even if Obadiah did not freeze to death, he would suffocate.

Hearing movement downstairs, Meng Zu remembered that Pepper had come with people from S.H.I.E.L.D., including Coulson. He did not want to deal with S.H.I.E.L.D., so he prepared to leave. Before going, however, he said to Tony, "Tony Stark, I saved you just now. I don't want to get involved with government people. Deal with them."

Tony stubbornly replied, "I never asked you to help."

Meng Zu ignored Tony. After saying that, he turned and walked into the darkness, disappearing from sight.