He had only just set the car on the ground to let its driver escape when Obadiah snatched up a speeding motorcycle.
He did not care whether its unfortunate rider would fall to his death.
He hurled the motorcycle into Tony, sending him crashing into a bus in the next lane and overturning it.
Before Tony could get up from the ground.
Iron Monger made a lumbering leap and landed directly on the Mark 2.
One stomp was not enough. He raised his right foot and stomped down on him twice more.
"Feel the difference in our strength, Tony? God! I love this armor!"
As he spoke, he grabbed Tony and hurled him viciously into a nearby bus.
The bus's body was as flimsy as thin sheet metal, and the impact nearly smashed it in two.
Fortunately, the bus had stopped when they first started fighting, and all its passengers had fled.
Otherwise, there was no telling how many people that blow would have killed.
Tony knew how crowded it was here. There was no telling how many people would get caught up in a fight here.
After getting up, he did not wait for Obadiah to attack again. He diverted all his energy to propulsion.
Four jets of flame burst from the thrusters in his hands and feet, sending the Mark 2 soaring into the sky!
"Tony, it looks like you've upgraded your armor. Unfortunately, I've made quite a few modifications to mine, too!"
As Obadiah spoke, two jets of flame trailing billowing smoke erupted beneath Iron Monger's feet.
They propelled Iron Monger slowly into the air.
In terms of speed, Iron Monger should have been absolutely no match for the Mark 2.
But Iron Monger's reactor was new, while Tony's was not only old but also had little energy left.
As the two climbed higher and higher into the sky.
Iron Monger gradually caught up with the Mark 2.
"Energy below 12%!"
"Energy below 9%!"
JARVIS's voice kept ringing in Tony's ears.
"Stop talking. Just display it on the screen!"
Tony shouted to JARVIS as he continued flying skyward.
His attention was entirely focused on their altitude, calculating whether he could make Iron Monger freeze over and fall back to the ground.
While still making it back safely himself.
"Clang!"
There was a sound of colliding metal.
Tony felt his ascent abruptly slow.
Iron Monger had caught up and grabbed his armor by the ankle.
"Damn it!"
Tony cursed as Iron Monger yanked him toward his chest.
Two enormous hands clamped around the neck of Tony's armor.
It was like an adult gripping a baby by the throat.
The good news, however, was that ice had already begun forming on Iron Monger.
And the two were still climbing higher.
"See that, Tony? I'm stronger than you, more powerful than you! This is how you get the most out of the Arc Reactor!"
"Oh! Then how did you solve the icing problem?"
For this final stretch to their maximum altitude, Iron Monger had carried the Mark 2 upward by the neck.
The energy that saved was enough for Tony to barely make it back to the ground.
So Tony sounded particularly relaxed as he asked the question.
"What icing problem?"
Obadiah had yet to even process why he was talking about an icing problem.
But Iron Monger, already covered in frost, could no longer hold out.
Even the reactor on his chest slowly went dark.
"You should really check that!"
Tony lightly tapped Iron Monger on the head.
Without power, Iron Monger's hands fell open helplessly.
He plummeted toward the ground.
Only then did Tony let out a long breath of relief.
He no longer had enough energy to fly back down normally.
He could only free-fall, occasionally firing his thrusters to slow his descent.
After a rough descent, he finally smashed through the rooftop railing.
And fell safely onto the roof of the Stark Industries building.
He rolled across the ground, with even the armor on his left hand tumbling off somewhere.
Only then did he come to a complete stop.
"Thank God!"
Muttering those words, Tony immediately contacted Pepper Potts.
"Pepper, are you okay?"
"Tony, I'm fine. How are you?"
Pepper Potts had watched Iron Monger and Tony take to the sky one after the other.
The enormous difference in size between the two suits had left her terribly worried about Tony's safety.
"I'm fine. Just out of power. I need to get the armor off first! Oh!~~~"
Before he could finish, Iron Monger came onto the rooftop behind him and sent Tony flying with a punch.
Unfortunately, he had not fallen to his death as Tony had hoped. Just like when Tony had first iced over.
He had recovered in midair and flown back again.
Tony steadied himself in the air and instinctively raised his left hand to fire his laser cannon.
Only after holding out his hand did he remember that the armor on it had tumbled off somewhere.
In desperation, he could only use what little energy remained to help him jump up to the height of Iron Monger's head.
He slammed a fist viciously into Iron Monger's head.
There was a bang!
But that was all.
Without enough energy behind them, the Mark 2's punches and kicks were a joke against Iron Monger's heavy plating.
He reached out with both hands again, this time gripping Tony's armor around the waist.
He intended to crush Tony flat along with his armor just like that.
There was certainly more to Tony becoming Iron Man than his armor alone.
Even in such a desperate situation, he did not forget to use his right hand to tear through some of Iron Monger's external connecting cables.
This was one of Iron Monger's weaknesses. His entire suit was built from extremely thick, solid alloy metal.
While that gave him powerful defenses, it also restricted his weapons systems to external equipment.
Unlike in the movie, Tony did not have time to damage Iron Monger's sensor system.
Obadiah reacted, grabbed him by the neck, and hurled him away hard.
Now he truly did not have a trace of energy left.
Tony lay on the ground, panting heavily, while Iron Monger made another lumbering leap and landed right in front of him.
"It's over, Tony!"
Bullets could not penetrate the shell of Tony's armor, so Obadiah chose to use his fist instead.
An enormous metal fist punched out.
"Bang!"
A small fist, the size of an ordinary human's, appeared.
It caught Iron Monger's punch firmly.
After the dull impact, the collision of two immense forces sent out a shock wave.
It surged outward in every direction!
"I think you should help buy the furniture for my new house, too. What do you think, Tony?"
Qin Xiao casually withdrew his fist, turned toward Tony on the ground, and said with a smile.