The beam struck the two soldiers in front of him, their faces full of terror.
They didn't even have time to scream before the terrifying heat vaporized them, turning them into two wisps of smoke that vanished in an instant.
All that remained on the ground were two rifles melted into molten iron and two deep, charred pits.
Luca slowly closed his eyes, cutting off the flow of energy.
Although his eyes were closed,
he could feel energy still flickering beneath his eyelids, and his eyes felt swollen and sore.
It was a strange sensation, as though something couldn't help shooting out.
Damn it, why doesn't this superpower even come with a beginner's tutorial? I put out too much energy, and now my vision's getting a little scrambled.
Luca rubbed his eye sockets, grumbling to himself.
He knew it was because he had only just awakened his body's potential and hadn't fully adapted to his power yet.
Fortunately, while he couldn't stop his eyes from glowing, the energy wasn't constantly spraying out of control.
Overall, his eyes were a blazing white with a hint of blue.
He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.
When he focused on the sensation, he found his body brimming with explosive power.
The feeling gave him the illusion that he was invincible.
But besides that, he also sensed something indescribable inside his body.
Yet when he tried to examine it closely, he couldn't for the life of him find out what it was.
As he breathed deeply, he began to concentrate, sensing the changes in his body.
Suddenly, a jumble of noises flooded his ears.
The howl of wind blowing past the rocks, the scrape of gravel rolling hundreds of meters away, and the sound of insects crawling underground.
Luca froze for a moment.
He quickly realized this was a new ability.
His physical abilities had been enhanced across the board, and his senses had been magnified countless times over.
He could now hear sounds from very, very far away.
So, I've become Superman?!
Whatever the situation now, Luca understood that he had been saved.
Not only had he survived, but he had also become a being like Superman.
But what about Tony?
How is he doing now? Is he still in the cave, hammering scrap metal for those bastards?
At that thought, Luca immediately closed his eyes and focused on his hearing.
He blocked out the wind and sand and began listening carefully across the entire mountain range for Tony's voice.
One second, two seconds.
Suddenly, a familiar voice came through loud and clear.
"Yinsen, hurry, those guys are coming!"
It's Tony!
Delighted, Luca quickly opened his eyes, and the white light in them flickered.
That guy really didn't die!
After spending more than two months with a terrorist organization and having a busted battery hanging from his chest, he was still alive and kicking, still able to shout.
"I have to say, Tony's hard to kill. I bet he couldn't bear to die because of all those cover models."
Luca smiled, unable to resist the joke.
But in the next second, his gaze turned ice-cold.
"Damn bastards. You tortured us for so long. Once I've rescued Tony, I'll settle the score with you!"
Luca pinpointed the direction the voice had come from.
He sensed the energy within him, then tried to control the magnetic field around him.
He could feel a circular force field forming around him.
The next second, his body became a blur as he flew toward the outer part of the cave!
Meanwhile.
In a cavern on the outskirts of the cave base.
Tony Stark stood in front of a crude iron frame, sweat pouring down his face.
He was putting on a suit of armor cobbled together from scrap metal.
This was the Mark I Armor, which he had hammered together bit by bit over he didn't know how many days and nights.
In the cave, where no sunlight reached, there was no sense of time. He only knew he had to work faster.
"Come on, faster."
Tony gritted his teeth and forcefully fastened the clasp on his thigh.
He was extremely anxious.
It had been a long time since those bastards had taken Luca away.
Since then, he hadn't received any news about Luca.
In his eyes,
Luca was a younger brother who only knew how to spend his days tinkering with lab mice and test tubes in the laboratory.
He had no idea how to deal with terrorists who killed without batting an eye.
As the older brother and the current pillar of the Stark Family, he had to shoulder the responsibility.
And he absolutely couldn't let his younger brother fall into danger.
But the more he thought about it, the more anxious he became.
Tony breathed deeply, feeling a faint ache in his chest.
"Damn it, Luca, you'd better be all right. If you dare die in a place like this, I'll go to hell, drag you out, and beat you up!"
What was even more despairing was that he didn't know whether Luca had thought of a way to save himself.
"Hurry, Yinsen, they're coming!"
Tony glanced at the startup progress creeping across the screen and turned to shout at the man beside him.
Yinsen walked over, struggling to carry a metal faceplate.
Hearing the urgency in Tony's voice,
Yinsen raised the faceplate in front of him and joked, slightly out of breath,
"Tony, in the past ten minutes, you've mentioned your brother's name nine times already. Maybe he really is all right."
"Don't the people of the Stark Family always think they're geniuses blessed by God?"
"Don't talk to me about God. If God were any use, he wouldn't have let us get kidnapped and brought to this hellhole."
Tony answered stubbornly.
As they spoke, Yinsen had already begun helping Tony put the heavy faceplate over his head.
Just before the faceplate closed completely,
Tony stared through the gap toward the cave entrance, his gaze turning vicious.
"If anything happens to Luca..."
"I'll show those bastards outside what it really means to wish they were dead!"
Click.
The faceplate closed.
Just then, a rapid knocking came from outside the cave's iron door.
The terrorists on guard shouted in Arabic, demanding to know what Tony and Yinsen were doing inside.
They had discovered that the surveillance cameras in the cave had been damaged, and neither Tony nor Yinsen could be seen on the screen.
The knocking grew louder and louder, until they were pounding on the iron door with their gunstocks.
The terrorists were preparing to force the door open.
Yinsen turned and glanced at the computer screen.
The startup sequence was at seventy percent.
"There's not enough time."
Yinsen's expression changed. He turned to Tony, his gaze grave.
"I'll buy you some time."
"Don't go, Yinsen! The program's almost finished, just wait a little longer! I don't need you to go to your death!" Tony shouted from inside the faceplate.
Yinsen stopped, turned, and smiled faintly.
"Listen, Tony. You're the only one with a chance of getting out alive. You still have your brother to rescue."
Yinsen's voice was calm, as though he were giving his last words.
"Promise me, if you get out, visit my hometown for me. I haven't seen my family in a long time."
With that, Yinsen resolutely picked up a piece of iron from the ground and walked toward the door without looking back.
By now, the terrorists outside had begun planting explosives on the door.
Seeing the slowly crawling progress bar and Yinsen heading for the door, Tony grew terribly anxious.
A sense of helplessness engulfed him.
Luca's fate was unknown, and now Yinsen was willing to risk his life so Tony could finish starting up the armor.
And he, the man at the helm of Stark Industries, could only stand there like a tin can.
Tony wavered.
He wanted to stop the program early and charge out.
He couldn't let anyone else die for him!
Boom!
A tremendous bang rang out.
The terrorists blew the cave door open with explosives.
Amid the smoke, two terrorists carrying submachine guns charged in, shouting.
Tony's heart sank.
How could Yinsen, armed with a piece of iron, possibly beat enemies with guns?
At that critical moment,
a clear notification sounded from the screen.
The progress bar reached one hundred percent!
Startup was complete, just in time!
The gears inside the armor meshed instantly, and tremendous power surged from the reactor in his chest to his limbs.
Tony's face lit up, and he immediately shouted with all his might.
"Yinsen, get down!"
Yinsen was raising the piece of iron, ready to fight for his life.
Hearing Tony's shout, he dropped to the ground on instinct without a second thought.
The next second,
Tony raised his massive arm and pressed the switch on his left hand.
Whoosh!
Two intense jets of flame burst out.
The flames passed over Yinsen as he crouched on the ground and engulfed the two terrorists who had charged in.
"Argh!!!"
The two terrorists instantly became fireballs, rolling over and over on the ground as they let out piercing screams.
Tony strode forward with heavy steps.
Then he bent down, grabbed Yinsen by the clothes, and pulled him up.
"Stay behind me, buddy. You can see your hometown for yourself. I'm not good at doing things for other people."