With a barbarian winged helm on his head, his body encased in thick heavy armor, and a massive iron hammer in his hand.
Shi Xiaolei descended from the air, already equipped with the exclusive barbarian gear that came with his bloodline, bringing endless intimidation as he launched a fierce attack against Iron Monger.
'Where did this barbarian come from...'
Before Obadiah could figure out where the classically-styled Shi Xiaolei had sprung from, the giant hammer had already landed squarely on the alloy-cast Iron Monger.
A tremendous "BANG" resounded.
The Iron Monger, weighing several tons, was knocked backwards.
The right shoulder, which took the direct hit, scattered many fragments and sparked with electricity.
"Kanna, are you okay?"
Instead of pressing his advantage, Shi Xiaolei immediately crouched down after landing and anxiously asked Kanna.
"Mm-hmm~."
The little girl obediently shook her head.
However, because her clothes had been dirtied, her small face still showed some dissatisfaction.
"Xiaolei, can I fight him?"
"Let me handle this. Kanna, go to Sylvia quickly and let her help clean you up."
As he spoke, the fallen Iron Monger had already staggered back to its feet under Obadiah control.
"You..."
"Hey, Obadiah!"
Though equally surprised, Tony Stark hadn't forgotten the current situation.
To protect the adorable little Kanna, and also to prevent Shi Xiaolei, an outsider, from taking hits on his behalf, he quickly refocused his attention and launched another attack at Iron Monger.
But the Mark 3 combat capabilities were truly lackluster.
Without having developed combat-specific heat rays yet, the repulsor beams temporarily converted from propulsion functions didn't have much destructive power.
After three consecutive shots, not even a scrap of metal fell from Iron Monger body, only small blackened spots where the beams hit.
Fortunately, these attacks carried some pushing force.
After taking a shot to the helmet that made its head tilt, Obadiah shifted his attention back to the hovering Iron Man.
"Tony!"
The Gatling gun mounted on the left shoulder fired again, sending a stream of bullets trailing flames toward Tony like raindrops.
"Go quickly."
Taking advantage of Iron Man drawing Iron Monger attention and leading it dozens of meters away, Shi Xiaolei quickly handed Kanna to 2B who had arrived a step behind.
Looking back at the two who were fighting again, he made his decision.
"Sylvia, take Kanna and leave first. I'll catch up later."
With his limited ammunition already depleted and the power source sustaining the armor nearly exhausted, Iron Man was showing signs of faltering under Iron Monger fierce attacks after just a few seconds.
It was precisely because of this scene that Shi Xiaolei abandoned his usual principles.
Well, mainly because that hit earlier had stimulated the battle desire hidden in his barbarian bloodline.
At this moment, he had no other thoughts but to have a good, satisfying fight.
"Haaaaa!"
Using the leap attack skill again, with another jump that would make high jumpers weep, Shi Xiaolei, carrying tremendous momentum, blocked the Iron Monger path as it was pursuing Iron Man.
Without hesitation, he swung his hammer for another heavy blow.
"DUANG~!!!!"
This hammer struck Iron Monger chest plate.
With a different landing spot, the sound of the hammer impact was slightly different as well.
"You again!"
Just when he was about to succeed, that barbarian appeared in front of him again.
Obadiah cursed in frustration, swinging his left hand to punch Shi Xiaolei.
Though it may seem like barbarians only have a few moves in games, in reality, every barbarian is a genuine combat expert.
Although their move patterns differ from assassins, when it comes to the number of techniques and combos, they are not at all inferior to assassins.
"Bring it on!"
Retreating half a step at the perfect distance, Shi Xiaolei dodged Iron Monger punch by a hair breadth.
Then, using the momentum from that step, he nimbly adjusted the iron hammer in his hand, swinging upward to hit the joint of Iron Monger left arm.
The force wasn't heavy enough to break the arm in one strike, or even damage the internal components enough to disable the iron arm.
'Tsk.'
After several more exchanges, confirming that close combat couldn't bring out the hammer maximum power and couldn't cause fatal damage to the heavy and solid Iron Monger, Shi Xiaolei immediately made a choice.
Taking advantage of Iron Man launching another assault and diverting part of Iron Monger attention, Shi Xiaolei circled halfway around and arrived behind Iron Monger.
With a shake of his hands, he switched to his second set of weapons.
Burning Cruel Hand Axe + Trembling Sword of the North Wind!
Though both were blue weapons with damage not as high as the previous iron hammer, these two weapons each carried additional fire damage and frost damage, plus they were both sharpened bladed weapons.
"Hyah!"
With a shout, he applied a buff to increase his damage.
Shi Xiaolei wielded the sword in his left hand, stabbing at Iron Monger lower back, while his right hand swung the axe down at the back of the right knee.
Sure enough, switching to bladed weapons proved much more effective.
The sword with frost damage, with just a light stab, caused a layer of light blue ice to form on Iron Monger body.
The originally silver-gray intimidating hulk instantly turned into a giant blue smurf.
And the hand axe with fire damage, like Zaku II heat hawk, effortlessly cut through Iron Monger right leg.
"Beep, beep!"
Inside Iron Monger, a blood-red warning flashed before Obadiah eyes—just like in the original work when flying to high altitude caused icing problems, malfunctions, and system crashes, being stabbed by the sword with frost attributes caused similar malfunctions in Iron Monger operating system.
Of course, the more serious malfunction came from the right leg.
Just as he was about to activate emergency measures to clear the malfunction, Obadiah suddenly realized his center of gravity was shifting, and in an instant, he fell to the ground along with Iron Monger.
Strike while the iron is hot—Shi Xiaolei casually stabbed Iron Monger twice more with his sword.
Two more waves of frost damage completely crashed the operating system.
The eye lights in the helmet went out as well.
Seeing this change, Iron Man flew over and landed on the ground.
"Move, move dammit!"
"Clang clang, clang clang."
Busy trying to restart the system, hearing the knocking sound from outside the helmet, Obadiah eyes reddened with anxiety, the veins on his neck bulging.
"Obie, you've lost. Give up and come out."
After this admonition, Stark turned to look at the armor-clad Shi Xiaolei.
"The situation is under control now. I'll handle the rest. Umm, I mean, you look pretty conspicuous right now. If you don't want to expose your identity, you'd better leave soon."
"No, not yet."
Shaking his head, Shi Xiaolei swung his axe, chopping off Iron Monger limbs and the machine gun mounted on its torso with several swift strikes.
Examining it for a moment, he finally nodded.
"Now we've cut it off at the root."
As he spoke, Shi Xiaolei had already put away his equipment, transforming from an armored giant back to his previous casual attire.
(T/N: Like the story fellow daoist?you can read 20 chapters ahead on my P@treon [p@treon.com/DaoistRongyi] Thanks for your support! 😊)