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As the person who spoke stepped out of the shadows, even Shield realized he had made a mistake.
Why?
Because the person appearing before them was a young woman!
She had long black hair, wore a purple sleeveless tight leather outfit, carried two quivers of arrows on her back, and held a simple longbow in her hand.
Although she was dressed as an archer, she seemingly had no relation to Hawkeye.
"Uh, my apologies. But we truly mean no harm."
As he spoke, seemingly to demonstrate his sincerity, Shield hung his shield on his back and casually knocked away the three crackling arrows.
However, the reason he put away his weapon so openly was partly because this young woman was clearly hostile to the Hand, and partly because he had absolute confidence in the defensive capabilities of his armor.
But his gesture did earn some goodwill from the girl in purple.
She also made a slight motion with her hand in empty air. The seemingly ordinary longbow collapsed inward with a click-clack, transforming into a somewhat odd-looking metal baton.
"It's fine. I do have some connection with Mr. Barton."
Saying this, a look of undisguised awkwardness appeared on her face. She didn't explain further on that topic, but instead asked:
"Are you guys here to rescue Ma... Daredevil too?"
Hearing this, Shield scratched his helmet in confusion. In reality, he was using this action to wait for the Black and White Haros to provide relevant data analysis.
Nowadays, America was in constant turmoil. Not only were numerous villains taking the opportunity to wreak havoc in every state and city, but a wide variety of superheroes had also emerged.
Among them were lucky locals who accidentally gained special abilities, as well as outsider heroes who had drifted here through dimensional rifts but still held onto their principles.
Since New York was the "Ground Zero" for the explosive emergence of heroes and villains, Shield couldn't possibly know every hero's name.
Fortunately, the Black and White Haros, which could directly access Aurantius Industries' internal data, quickly gave him the answer.
"Matt Murdock? That blind lawyer? He was captured by the Hand?"
Inside the helmet of the Muscle Enhancement Armor, information on Daredevil, Matt Murdock, flashed rapidly. It included his civilian identity and his main areas of activity as a street hero.
Since Luca had considered recruiting some street heroes to work for him early on, Hajimi had collected quite a bit of data in this regard.
However, as his own faction grew larger and his technological level improved significantly, Luca could mass-produce soldiers far superior to these street heroes, so the recruitment plans were quietly dropped.
But now, it served to ensure Shield and the others weren't completely blind when out on missions.
However, what surprised Shield slightly was...
Compared to Lawyer Matt, whose data was so complete his underwear color was practically listed, the archer girl in front of them had absolutely no intel in the Aurantius Industries database.
Even with her face completely uncovered, no match could be found.
One had to realize that due to the widespread use of the "Arbiter" pistols, the Aurantius Group's database was practically connected to police systems across the US.
Looking at the corpses scattered around, her skills were clearly seasoned—not some rookie playing "hero house."
If no identity info could be retrieved even then, the most likely possibility was...
Another visitor from another world? It seems ever since the fall of Washington, these types of events have become frequent again.
But this thought only flashed through Shield's mind for a moment.
Ultimately, he saw himself only as a frontline combatant. He didn't need to worry about such things; Young Master Luca would make the decisions.
Just as he was about to confirm Daredevil's situation with the girl again, a loud rustling noise came from the shadows in the distance.
Given the stealth capabilities of those ninjas, creating such a loud noise clearly meant their numbers were significant.
Shield decisively retrieved his shield and stepped forward.
At the same time, he didn't forget to remind the purple-clad girl.
"Regardless of your objective, at least in dealing with the Hand, our stance is the same. Let's deal with these enemies first!"
Shield didn't really need to remind her. In the gap between his words, the twang of a bowstring suddenly rang out from behind him.
Immediately after, an arrow flew past his shoulder, shooting rapidly into the darkness.
Then, the tip of the arrow suddenly lit up with a blinding flare, completely illuminating the dim cave in the distance.
In an instant, a massive group of black-clad ninjas charging with swords was exposed by the flare.
"No problem. You can call me Kate!" The purple-clad girl who fired the arrow slowly stated her name.
"Good!"
Shield didn't waste words. He charged forward rapidly, passing Thresh who was spooling up his gun.
He slammed his massive shield heavily onto the ground.
The next moment.
Beneath the feet of the horde of Hand ninjas, streaks of crimson light appeared one after another.
Then, over a dozen scorching pillars of magma erupted like swords breaking through the earth.
Screams instantly merged into a single chorus.
Countless ninjas who couldn't react in time were incinerated to ash by the surging magma fountains. A few remaining corpses were encased in the solidified lava pillars, disappearing from view.
However, Shield retracted this explosive attack as quickly as he released it.
Not only because they were in an underground cave where overly violent attacks could cause a collapse...
But also because after this single strike, the pulsing red light on the Magma Shield in Shield's hand dimmed slightly.
The Demon Quinque weapon was newly forged, after all. It would take time to nurture this living weapon into its complete form.
But after his wave of attacks, the rat-tat-tat of the spinning Gatling and the familiar maniacal "duet" laughter immediately filled the brief silence.
Within line of sight, every single Hand ninja was torn to shreds by the dense rain of bullets that acted like a reaper's scythe.
Kate, who had also raised her bow to attack, didn't even have time to loose more than a few arrows before there wasn't a single enemy left standing in one piece.
However, just when all three of them thought the battle would end easily like this...
After all the Hand ninjas had fallen, another figure slowly walked out of the shadows.
Seeing the newcomer's attire, before Shield or Thresh could say anything, the purple-clad girl, Kate, exclaimed in surprise.
"Matt! Great! You escaped?!"
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