Boom!
The cannon roared, and a glowing Plasma Orb struck Ultron head-on!
All 11 Plasma Orbs, each hotter than 2,000 degrees Celsius, easily pierced its shell. The high-temperature gas continued dissolving the metal body, billowing into thick white smoke that completely swallowed Ultron's figure.
But it didn't fall.
"Impressive."
Ultron emerged from the white smoke, lavish with its praise.
But the high-temperature plasma continued to eat away at the metal. Black smoke kept rising from its body, and its head was still hard to make out.
Judging only by the metal body visible through the black smoke, the damage was far less severe than Lier had estimated.
The reason was
a shield had pushed out from Ultron's chest-a round Union Jack shield!
"That's my shield!" Captain Carter exclaimed, clutching her bleeding arm.
The paint on the shield's surface melted in the heat. The pigments evaporated, liquefied, and ran together, eventually forming a skull in a jumble of colors.
Clank.
Its metal legs steadied it. Only half of Ultron's head emerged from the black smoke, and one hand caught the molten metal dripping from it.
"Yes, this is your shield. Thank you for delivering it to me across 67 years."
The robot controlled by Lier emerged from the cave at the same time, equally absurd amounts of smoke pouring from its gun barrel--
Now it made sense. Ultron had been created in the battle a few weeks ago. At the time, the Iron Soldiers had their AI combat restrictions completely removed, which led to an unpredictable change.
Lier knew the process, too: in the Cyberpunk World, many AIs had been born in unconstrained working environments.
No wonder they hadn't been able to find the shield. Ultron had stolen it.
If that was the case, Killmonger, the one Tony Stark had been