Steve slammed his fist onto the cracked asphalt, but he had no intention of giving up.
He dragged the heavy NYPD motorcycle back upright. The black SUV was gone, but the fleeing vehicle had left a clear trail: the tires had rolled directly through the bloody carnage of the street.
'I just have to follow the red tracks,' Steve thought, gunning the engine and speeding off in pursuit.
[En Route to the Rand Estate]
Inside the SUV, the atmosphere was freezing.
"How much longer?" Narberal asked, her voice dripping with venom.
Narberal, who loathed humans with every fiber of her being, was finding it intolerable to be squeezed into a vehicle with a human insect. She only wanted to complete the mission quickly and return to the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
Kingpin checked the passing scenery to confirm their location.
"Miss Narberal, there are about ten minutes left in the journey," Fisk replied smoothly.
The polite address only irritated the maids further. Because of Kingpin's status as a vassal of Ainz Ooal Gown, they couldn't simply strike him for speaking to them. Yuri and Narberal exchanged a glance, both seeing the mutual annoyance in each other's eyes, and turned to look out the windows.
Suddenly, a massive gale swept past the SUV. The wind was so violent it bent the roadside trees and nearly flipped the heavy vehicle on its suspension.
To Kingpin, it was a freak gust of wind. But to the maids, it was something else entirely.
"That wasn't wind," Yuri noted, adjusting her glasses.
"It was the slipstream caused by extreme physical speed," Narberal added. "That must be the leader of those bronze statues."
'So that's what happened,' Kingpin thought, piecing the puzzle together. But in Narberal's tone, he could detect a deeply hidden sense of schadenfreude regarding the humans' impending doom.
They arrived at the Rand Estate. The iron gates hung wide open.
Led by Kingpin, the trio walked across the blood-soaked grounds, stepping over the butchered corpses of The Hand's mercenaries without a second glance. They smoothly entered the Bronze Palace.
Inside, there wasn't a single Bronze Soldier in sight. Only the fossilized Dragon Bones remained, piled majestically around the central throne.
Seeing their mission objective, Yuri and Narberal didn't hesitate. They opened their Inventory spaces. Piece by piece, the massive Dragon Bones vanished into their dimensional storage. In a matter of minutes, the palace was completely stripped of its ancient treasure.
The mission had been flawlessly smooth.
'Didn't this human say the Dragon Bones were heavily guarded by an organization?' Yuri thought, glancing at Kingpin. She intended to report this intelligence discrepancy to the Supreme Being upon their return.
Seeing Yuri's appraising look, Kingpin frowned.
'The Hand was supposed to be here,' Fisk thought, looking at the severed heads on the floor. 'The smooth cuts... they match the weapons of the Bronze Soldiers rampaging in Manhattan. They must have dug too deep and awakened the tomb's guardians.'
With the mission complete, the three exited the palace and walked toward the cavern entrance.
But as they stepped outside, an unexpected figure blocked their path.
Captain America, dressed in his star-spangled uniform, stood amidst the rubble. His Vibranium shield was raised, his eyes locked tightly on the three of them.
"Who are you?" Steve demanded. "What do you have to do with everything that happened here?"
Narberal and Yuri stared at him with blank indifference. They just wanted to go home; they had no interest in entertaining the questions of a lower lifeform. Kingpin, possessing the lowest standing among them, wisely kept his mouth shut.
Seeing their stony silence, Steve's expression hardened.
'Judging by the wounds on these corpses, the Bronze Army definitely came from here,' Steve deduced. 'These three appeared right when the attack started, and now they're leaving ground zero. They're connected.'
He tightened his grip on the shield, bracing for a fight.
To Narberal, this was the ultimate insult. She had used a weakened spell to spare this bedbug's life out of deference to Yuri, and instead of showing gratitude, he dared to block their path.
This time, she wouldn't hold back. Sparks of blue electricity danced across her fingers. Even Yuri didn't speak up to stop her. Yuri didn't hate humans, but those who didn't know when to retreat invited their own destruction.
[Tier 5 Magic: Dragon Lightning]
A roaring, dragon-shaped bolt of white-hot electricity shot from Narberal's hand, aimed dead at Steve's chest.
Steve didn't raise his shield to block; instead, he dove into a desperate combat roll, successfully evading the strike. The lightning scorched the earth where he had just been standing.
Narberal's face turned as cold as ice.
"A bedbug that actually dares to dodge," she hissed.
[Tier 7 Magic: Chain Dragon Lightning]
Narberal clapped her hands together. The moment she pulled them apart, a massive, branching web of lightning erupted outward. The sheer voltage vaporized the nearby corpses into ash and shattered the stone ground.
The area of effect was massive. In the blink of an eye, the lightning engulfed Captain America. There was no room to dodge.
Steve raised his Vibranium shield, hunkering down behind it as his absolute last resort.
The blinding light faded. The ground was scorched black.
In the center of the crater, Steve was kneeling on one knee. His uniform was smoking, and the air smelled of ozone, but from within that ruined suit, the steady sound of a beating heart could still be heard.
"Still not dead?!" Narberal sneered, her irritation spiking. "Truly a tenacious bagworm."
Lightning flickered in her palm again as she prepared to deliver the finishing blow.
"It is best not to kill him," Kingpin's deep voice suddenly interrupted.
Narberal stopped her cast, turning her deadly gaze to the crime lord.
"Captain America has a very high reputation in this country," Fisk explained calmly. "If he dies by your hand today, it will bring an endless amount of trouble to Nazarick before we are ready."
Narberal's eyes flashed with lethal intent.
"Hmm? A damned planarian dares to tell me who I can and cannot kill?"
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