Crushing Defeat

He stood before the gate and gave it a light push. The heavy iron gate crashed down.

Leon's swift decisiveness left both Tony and Yinsen stunned.

Before they could recover.

Someone outside the iron gate suddenly shouted.

"Open fire!"

At the command.

A dense barrage of gunfire erupted, bullets pouring down as thickly as a torrential rain.

The commotion inside the cave had been far too great.

The terrorists had long noticed that something was wrong.

Under their leader's command, everyone had formed up in the passage before the cave entrance with guns in hand, waiting only to empty their rifle magazines.

Now that they had received the order, every one of them fired without hesitation.

But Leon reacted even faster than they could pull the trigger.

His gaze swept over the scene as he reached out and shielded Tony and Yinsen behind him.

The next second, countless bullets almost struck him at once.

Crisp impacts rang out in an endless stream.

Yet they failed to cause even the slightest harm.

The instant each bullet hit Leon, it was crushed and deformed by immense force before falling to the ground.

Even bullets that struck Leon's corneas were no exception.

At the same time, countless bullets slammed into the rock walls and ground, kicking up clouds of dust that obscured their vision.

Amid the swirling dust, the terrorists kept firing for over half a minute before the gunfire gradually died down.

"Gibberish!"

"Gibberish!"

The terrorists shouted to one another, convinced that no one could have survived such crossfire.

The leader stood behind the bend in the passage with his arms folded, poking his head out to stare at the dust-filled cave. Several seconds later, he waved a hand and sent men forward to investigate.

None of them took it seriously. They thought there could not possibly be anyone alive inside; at most, the only question was whether the corpses had been blasted into several pieces or dozens.

But at that moment.

Two scarlet points of light rose from the smoke and dust.

The lights seemed to contain boundless killing intent, enough to make anyone who saw them shudder in terror.

"What is that? Bats?" Dum-E asked blankly.

No one answered, but the next second, no one had any more questions.

The two red lights rapidly intensified, then shot out two terrifying beams of Heat Vision.

Those thick, long red beams were undoubtedly the most horrifying laser weapons the terrorists had ever seen in their lives.

With a single sweep from left to right, everyone in their path was severed at the waist and killed on the spot. Even the cross-sections had been scorched into bloody pulp.

The beams were so fast that no one had time to react.

Everyone blocking the passage before the cave entrance was killed almost instantly, not even having the chance to let out a cry.

Those on the other side of the passage only saw a flash of red light, and then everyone standing in front of them was cut in half and killed.

They stood there in shock, their minds blank, unable to make any response.

The bald leader among them was the first to regain his senses.

"Th-that's a laser weapon developed by Tony Stark!?"

He was both utterly shocked and utterly certain.

"Damn it, he's been making this thing for the past few months!"

"He fooled us!"

The leader's conclusion calmed their blank minds somewhat, but they still looked at one another in confusion, not knowing what to do.

"As long as it's a weapon, it has to be used by someone!"

The leader judged, "Since someone has to operate it, if we kill the people inside, the laser weapon will be ours!"

He ordered, "Everyone, fall back! Use grenades to bombard the cave and kill Tony Stark!"

After saying that, the leader licked his lips, greed impossible to hide in his eyes.

"All I want is that laser weapon. As for Stark, kill him, then ask Obadiah Stane for money!"

The leader's order finally calmed everyone down.

That made perfect sense!

No matter how powerful Stark's laser weapon was, as long as they killed him, it would be theirs!

Almost everyone subconsciously forgot that their earlier barrage had failed to kill the people inside the cave.

The terrorists all retreated, taking out grenades and preparing to throw them.

However, footsteps suddenly sounded from the other end of the cave passage.

It sounded like only one person was walking, neither hurried nor slow, as leisurely as if taking a stroll.

"Wait!" The leader raised a clenched fist, signaling everyone to halt.

They slowly lowered their grenades and raised their guns again, their eyes fixed on the bend in the passage.

Tap, tap.

The footsteps drew closer and closer.

The leader bared his teeth in a vicious grin and threatened, "Tony Stark, you think having a weapon means you can escape? You fooled me, but it doesn't matter, because you're dead today, and your laser weapon will become mine!"

"Oh? Is that so? But my name isn't Tony," the newcomer replied calmly.

The terrorists assumed the person approaching was Tony Stark.

Yet when he stepped around the corner, their jaws dropped.

He was a handsome man wearing only a pair of long pants, barefoot and bare-chested, his thick pectorals exposed.

Who was this? When had he entered the cave? Why had they never seen him before?

WTF?

A wave of disbelieving curses immediately broke out through the passage.

"Who are you? Where's Stark?" The expression on the leader's already dark face became even more gloomy.

It was the same familiar cave, yet someone they had never seen before had walked out of it.

He suddenly began to suspect that Tony Stark had already been secretly rescued, while all of them had been played for fools.

Leon glanced at him. "I'm Stark too."

"You're Stark?" The leader ground his teeth until they creaked. "What a joke... Open fire! All of you, open fire!"

These terrorists truly had excellent combat discipline.

After the leader gave the order, the dense muzzles in their hands erupted with flames once again.

Leon neither dodged nor evaded, letting the bullets strike his body as he strolled forward.

His Super-Brain told him that he could relax here as though he were home.

But the terrorists standing against him felt entirely differently.

Their eyes were wide as they kept pulling their triggers, but their minds were already too chaotic to hold a single thought.

What kind of monster was this? Even rifle bullets could not harm him in the slightest.

As the distance between the two sides grew shorter, Leon remained completely unharmed.

Some people began to lose their minds, throwing down their guns and turning to run.

"Ah! Ah! A monster!"

"Stop!" The leader instinctively drew his gun, intending to kill the deserter.

But two scorching beams of Heat Vision shot out faster than the leader could react, instantly piercing through and killing the fleeing man.

The leader stared blankly at his subordinate's corpse on the ground, his eyes still open in death, then turned toward "Stark" with his eyes blazing.

Those scarlet eyes seemed to have come from hell.

"Not one of you who call yourselves the Ten Rings will leave here," Leon said, his voice seeming to rise from the abyss.

The next second, Heat Vision swept across again, instantly clearing the entire passage.

One second later, aside from Leon, there wasn't another heartbeat left.

Before dying, the leader understood something. His eyes, filled with unwillingness and regret, stared emptily at Leon. "So that... wasn't... a laser weapon..."

With that, he lost all signs of life.

Leon silently shook his head and continued walking outside. "I told you, I'm Stark too."

The moment he stepped out of the cave, three rockets flew at him simultaneously from all directions.

"These Ten Rings people really are organized and devoted. Their losses are already this absurd, yet they still dare to fight back."

Leon sighed and raised his right hand in front of him.

He blocked all three rockets in succession, and the fireball from the explosions instantly swallowed him.

This was followed by dense gunfire and countless grenades.

Every terrorist desperately wanted to pour out every bit of firepower they had within the shortest possible time.

When facing the monster that had walked out of the cave, no amount of caution was excessive.

But their savage expressions quickly froze.

An unscathed figure leaped out of the flames, flying through the air while ignoring the bullets.

Forget injuries—even the long pants he wore did not have a single tear.

He swept his gaze around the area, and his figure suddenly vanished, only to reappear at the cave entrance an instant later.

Then, every terrorist present collapsed to the ground one after another, their necks twisted.

In an extremely brief instant, Leon dealt with everyone at tremendous speed.

He clapped his hands and shouted into the cave, "Tony, Yinsen, the terrorists are taken care of. Come out!"