The streets of New York were no longer bustling; only Chaos remained.
The wail of police sirens was drowned out by the thunderous roar of clashing steel high above. Panicked crowds surged like a tide toward the barricades, the air thick with the smell of scorched concrete and fear.
In the midst of this apocalyptic scene, a thin figure was staggering forward against the flow of the crowd.
Lin Huai moved against the current of people, his vision swaying with every step. He leaned against the hood of a car, barely managing to suppress the urge to dry heave; his brain felt like a piece of rag that had been repeatedly crumpled into a ball.
This was the aftereffect of his spirituality being squeezed to its absolute limit.
To pray for items from Above the Gray Fog, from the hands of that sleeping Fool, in order to turn the tide of battle, he had nearly exhausted every bit of his meager spirituality.
His gaze swept past the chaotic crowd and locked onto a black Chevrolet Suburban parked within the cordoned-off area. Beside the vehicle, a man in a well-tailored suit with a receding hairline was holding a communicator, directing the black-clad Agents on the scene with a solemn expression.
Agent Coulson.
Lin Huai used the last of his strength to push through the people blocking him and rushed in front of Coulson.
"Hey! Sir, this is a restricted area—" The Agent beside Coulson instinctively stepped forward to block him.
"Let him through."
Coulson raised a hand to stop his subordinate, his gaze falling on Lin Huai's bloodless face. He had seen this face countless times in briefings—code name Fortune Teller, an untraceable ghost that could not be located.
He hadn't expected the man to deliver himself right to their doorstep.
"Is there something I can help you with, Mr. Lin?" Coulson's tone remained professionally calm, but his eyes were filled with vigilance.
Lin Huai didn't waste words; he tremblingly opened his palm to reveal two uniquely shaped silver bullets.
They were no ordinary bullets.
One of them was bright silver, yet its surface seemed shrouded in an imperceptible mist that blurred its silhouette. The bullet's surface was engraved with countless chaotic and twisted spiral patterns. Those patterns looked like screaming soundwaves or desperate ravings; with just one look, Coulson felt as if annoying static noise was ringing in his ears, and an inexplicable sense of irritability rose in his heart.
The other bullet presented a deep silver color, like liquid metal. Smooth lines swirled across the casing like deep-sea currents. Engraved at the very center of the bullet head was an eerie dark blue symbol; the symbol resembled an eye, yet it also looked like it was slowly shedding tears. Staring at it, a cold, heavy sense of suffocation washed over him, making Coulson's chest feel strangely tight.
"This is..." Coulson's pupils constricted slightly.
These two items were definitely not products of any known technology on Earth.
Lin Huai didn't explain. Instead, he fished out two silver Rune Talismans from his pocket and tossed them to Coulson.
"Put them on; they can isolate the aura of these items." His voice was incredibly raspy.
Then, Lin Huai looked up, his eyes burning with the last of their light as he stared directly at Coulson—and through him, at the true decision-maker behind him.
"I know who you are, and I know what you want to know."
"But right now, there's no time to explain."
He pointed a finger at the rampaging steel beast in the sky. "Shoot these two bullets into that big iron block's head. You must hit it!!! Shoot the bright one first!"
"We'll talk about everything else later."
Coulson gripped the two cold Rune Talismans. Before he could process this massive amount of information, Lin Huai's next words made his heart skip a beat.
"Call over your best marksman. Don't tell me he's not here."
"I know Hawkeye is nearby."
The professional smile on Coulson's face finally vanished. Hawkeye was a high-level S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent; his whereabouts were known to no one except the Director and a few others.
Yet the young man before him had exposed it in a single sentence.
There was a full five seconds of silence in Coulson's earpiece.
Then, the indisputable, raspy voice of the one-eyed man rang out.
"Coulson, do as he says."
"Barton is on the roof of the Roosevelt Building; the coordinates have been sent to you. Give him the items. Now, immediately!" Nick Fury's command was decisive, without a hint of hesitation.
"Copy that, Officer."
Coulson gave the nearly collapsing Lin Huai a deep look, then immediately turned and issued a top-priority directive to an Agent... On the roof of the Roosevelt Building, at the edge of the terrace.
Clint Barton was half-kneeling on the ground, the custom compound bow in his hand steady as a rock. Through a high-powered scope, he remained locked onto the battle high in the air.
"What a disaster," he muttered to himself.
Coulson's relayed orders came through the earpiece, along with the bizarre request from the one code-named Fortune Teller.
A few minutes later, a micro-Drone hovered before him, dropping a metal box equipped with a buffer pad.
Barton opened the box and saw the two eerie silver bullets and the silver Rune Talismans. He frowned; as a battle-hardened top Agent, his instincts were screaming. These two bullets were dangerous.
But he didn't question the order; he tucked the Rune Talismans into his vest.
He pulled two specialized carbon-fiber arrows with replaceable tips from his quiver and skillfully mounted the two bullets. The slots on the bullets and the arrowheads fit perfectly, as if they were born for this purpose.
He raised his bow again, his gaze locking onto the roof of Stark Tower once more.
Tony Stark had already been beaten down. The big guy called iron monger hovered in the air, the Gatling guns on its arms spitting tongues of fire, riddling the playboy until he twitched frantically on the ground like a Parkinson's patient.
Now was the perfect time!
Barton took a deep breath and drew the bowstring.
The specialized compound bow was slowly pulled into a full moon in his hands. In his World, the sound of wind, explosions, and screams all vanished, leaving only that hideous, hovering head.
He released his fingers.
Buzz—!
The first arrow, the one carrying the whispering leech ash bullet, turned into a black shadow that was hard for the naked eye to track, tearing through the night sky!!!
At the exact moment the arrow left the string.
On the ground, Lin Huai, leaning against the SUV and gasping for air, suddenly looked up. Using the last of his strength, he spat out a syllable in Ancient Hermes Language from his dry throat.
"Chaos!"
Before his voice could fade, high in the distance, the arrow had already accurately struck the iron monger's head!!!
Clang!
A crisp impact sounded. The bullet's power wasn't enough to pierce the iron monger's thick helmet, but it had fulfilled its mission.
In an instant, the previously clear data stream and targeting interface before Obadiah Stane's eyes suddenly exploded!
Countless twisted, chaotic junk data streams accompanied by static noise rushed in like a burst dam, crashing all of his systems. Red alerts and blue locking boxes flashed and jumped frantically, forming tens of thousands of false targets before his eyes.
—His targeting system had completely failed!!!
"Damn it! What's going on!!!"
Obadiah roared, attempting manual control, but the chaotic data interference was at the base level. He was like a blindfolded drunkard, wildly swinging his arms.
"Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!"
The Gatling bullets lost their target, sweeping in all directions like scattering flowers, punching rows of hideous bullet holes into the glass curtain wall of Stark Tower.
Several micro-Rockets also lost their guidance, flying out randomly trailing tail flames.
Boom! Boom!
By sheer coincidence, a few of the Rockets slammed hard into the armor plating on the outside of the iron monger's chest reactor, blowing wide open the area that Tony had previously dented with his warhammer!
Barton's pupils constricted sharply.
Without the slightest pause, his second arrow was already on the string. The bowstring was pulled to full draw once more.
"Buzz—!"
The arrow carrying the Lava Octopus blood bullet whistled away, following the trajectory of the previous arrow!
On the ground, the moment Lin Huai saw the iron monger go berserk, he knew the first step was a success. He wanted to chant the incantation again to imbue the second bullet with power from the Fool.
He opened his mouth.
"Suffo..."
Just a single syllable.
An irresistible wave of nausea surged up from his stomach. His throat went into spasms, and he could only let out a violent dry heave.
Immediately following that, streams of warm liquid slowly seeped out from his nose, the corners of his eyes, and even his ear canals.
It was blood!!!
His vision went black, and his body slumped down, nearly losing consciousness.
High in the air, even without the empowerment of the incantation, that second arrow still accurately struck the iron monger's head!
Clang!
The bullet embedded itself deeply into the observation port on the helmet.
A cold chill, as if from the deep sea, surged up his spine and into his brain.
He suddenly realized that he could no longer breathe.
It wasn't that someone was clutching his throat, nor was it heavy pressure on his chest; it was a far more eerie sensation—his body seemed to have forgotten how to breathe. He could feel his lungs' craving for air, and his brain was frantically issuing commands, but his ribcage and diaphragm remained frozen, motionless.
Panic, like freezing seawater, instantly submerged his reason.
"Ugh..."
He instinctively opened his mouth wide, but could only produce meaningless gasps. The lack of oxygen caused his vision to darken in waves, and the fingers controlling the armor began to spasm uncontrollably.
The light from the thrusters on the iron monger's back began to flicker irregularly. The massive machine lost its balance in the air and began to wobble.
"Ugh... ah..."
That massive and hideous killing machine stiffened for a moment in mid-air, then, like a Puppet with its strings cut, it fell powerlessly and heavily, plunging straight toward the Earth below!!!