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Fortunately for Clint, he had one massive advantage that kept him from becoming a permanent stain on the asphalt below.
Wings.
The exact second Russell's monstrous punch launched him backward through the shattered third-floor window, Clint's survival instincts took the wheel. His wings snapped open to their absolute full span, catching a powerful updraft just in time to halt his deadly momentum. Without them, he would have slammed into the street or, worse, plowed through one of the surrounding brick buildings at a lethal speed.
But even with the clutch recovery, that hit had done some serious damage.
A wave of numbing shock rippled through his entire body. His ribs felt like they had been violently rattled loose, his internal organs were churning unpleasantly, and a sharp, metallic taste immediately flooded his mouth.
"Clint!"
Trish's voice echoed from down below, laced with pure panic.
Watching Hawkeye get swatted away so effortlessly sent a freezing chill straight down Hellcat's spine. She didn't need a tactical readout to know exactly what that meant: if Clint couldn't withstand a direct hit from this guy, she didn't stand a chance. When it came to raw durability, strength, and physical stats, she wasn't even playing the same sport.
An Ancient Zoan wasn't just a power upgrade. It was a walking nightmare.
Clint exhaled a sharp, ragged breath and tapped his earpiece to activate the team channel.
"Alright," he muttered, wiping a streak of crimson from the corner of his mouth. "Switching to Plan B."
One exchange. That was all it took for him to read the room. The moment he felt the terrifying gravity of Russell's physical strength firsthand, Clint completely threw out any thoughts of fighting him head-on.
Hovering at a safe distance just outside the shattered third-floor windows, Clint swiftly unslung his bow as his hands moved in a blur.
Then, he opened fire.
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*
*CRACKLE! CRACKLE!*
Arrow after arrow streaked into the ruined office space. High-explosive warheads detonated against the concrete walls. High-voltage shock arrows unleashed crackling, blinding webs of electricity. Thermite canisters burst apart, instantly filling the entire floor with a dense, choking wall of smoke.
Within seconds, the room was plunged into absolute, chaotic darkness.
None of these attacks were actually strong enough to seriously injure a tank like an Ancient Zoan, but Clint knew that. Hurting Russell wasn't the goal; annoying him into making a mistake was.
And it worked like a charm.
"You miserable, flying insect!"
Russell's furious roar literally shook the building's foundation. Blinded by the thick smoke and irritated beyond belief, he completely abandoned the secured mainframe computer he was supposed to be protecting. His nostrils flared, his eyes narrowed into reptilian slits, and even through the heavy smog, he locked onto Clint's heat signature outside.
Then, the monster charged.
*CRACK!*
The floor split beneath his first step.
*BOOM!*
The next stride completely shattered the concrete.
By the third step, the entire third floor was trembling under the sheer weight of his terrifying acceleration. The reinforced flooring looked like it had been hit by a demolition crew, with massive fractures spiderwebbing outward in every direction.
And then, Russell jumped.
*SWOOSH!*
The sheer force of the explosion was unreal. Chunks of debris erupted behind him as his colossal, prehistoric body launched straight through the window. For a breathless second, he looked like a living missile, a massive Spinosaurus propelled entirely by brute, terrifying strength.
The gap between them vanished in the blink of an eye.
If nobody stopped him, Russell's insane momentum would carry him hundreds of feet across the street, straight through the glass front of the crowded building opposite them. Clint saw the disaster unfolding in real time. There wasn't enough time to dodge out of the way completely, and if Russell crashed into a populated structure, the civilian body count would be catastrophic.
That left him with exactly one option: intercept him mid-air.
A sharp, determined flash passed through Clint's eyes. His body shifted instantly. He abandoned his half-human hybrid form altogether, letting his full beast transformation take over.
In a split second, a magnificent falcon emerged in his place. Its feathers gleamed like polished steel, and its razor-sharp wings sliced through the air with terrifying precision. Every muscle in Clint's transformed body tensed, pushing his speed and momentum to their absolute limits.
Then, the giant falcon folded its wings and dived.
The world turned into a blur. Like a bullet released from a sniper rifle, Clint plunged downward, aiming himself directly at the airborne Spinosaurus hurtling through the sky.
Neither of them had any intention of backing down. And in the next second, the collision was inevitable.
*BOOM!*
The collision wasn't just loud; it was absolutely brutal.
The exact moment Clint collided with Russell, it felt less like a fight and more like he had flown headfirst into a speeding freight train. The overwhelming, terrifying momentum of the massive dinosaur transferred directly into Clint's smaller frame. His body shuddered violently under the sheer force of the impact before he was launched backward through the air like a human cannonball.
*CRASH!*
He tore straight through the brick exterior of the building across the street. Walls literally exploded into dust. Glass shattered into a million glittering shards. Office desks, rolling chairs, and chunks of drywall flew everywhere as Clint plowed through multiple rooms, leaving a trail of absolute destruction in his wake before finally grinding to a painful halt beneath a massive mountain of debris.
For a few long, breathless seconds, a heavy silence hung over the ruined office.
Then, a faint, agonizing groan echoed from beneath the wreckage.
But as painful as it was, Clint's crazy sacrifice had worked perfectly. Russell's unstoppable charge had been completely interrupted. His forward momentum vanished into thin air, and without enough velocity to keep himself airborne, the colossal Ancient Zoan lost all control, dropping like a multi-ton stone toward the street below.
*THUD!*
The massive dinosaur slammed hard into the asphalt. The sheer weight of his body cratered the roadway, sending violent web-like cracks racing across the pavement.
"Barton, report." Steve's calm, steady voice crackled through the secure comm channel, cutting through the ringing in Clint's ears. "You still in one piece?"
Another pained groan answered almost immediately. "Technically... yes."
Several heavy chunks of broken drywall shifted and cascaded downward as Clint slowly pushed himself upright.
"As for whether all those pieces are still in the correct places..." he muttered, wincing hard as he rubbed his chest. "Yeah, that's a completely separate conversation."
Despite the fact that he felt like he'd been run over by a semi-truck, his voice remained surprisingly steady. That was the crazy thing about Zoan users: their durability was off the charts. An ordinary person would have been killed instantly by either the mid-air collision or the wall-smashing landing. Clint merely felt like death warmed over.
"Think I need a solid minute to remind my ribs where they're supposed to be, Cap," Clint continued, breathing heavily. "The stage is yours."
A faint, proud smile tugged at the corner of Steve's lips. "Copy that, Clint. Get some rest."
Closing the channel, Steve adjusted his grip on his shield, his eyes never leaving the crater across the street.
Then, he started walking.
*Tap! Tap! Tap!*
His combat boots struck the damaged asphalt with a steady, measured rhythm. There was no rush in his steps. No hesitation. Just the quiet, radiating confidence of a man who had stared down worse monsters than this.
Across the street, Russell was already pushing himself out of the crater.
The massive Spinosaurus hybrid rolled his heavy shoulders, scattering chunks of broken pavement like pebbles as he rose back up to his full, towering height. His reptilian eyes scanned the area until they locked onto the figure approaching him.
"Captain America?"
The name left Russell's mouth dripping with pure amusement. His sharp, toothy grin curled wider. He knew exactly who Steve Rogers was, honestly, who didn't? He was the legendary leader of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s newly formed Devil Fruit User Response Team. The living legend of World War II. The ultimate symbol of heroism.
And in Russell's honest opinion? The most overrated guy on the planet.
Sure, Captain America had been impressive decades ago. Back then, enhanced humans were a rarity, and Steve Rogers represented the absolute peak of what a human being could achieve. But the world had evolved. Devil Fruits had completely changed the rules of the game.
In a modern era where ordinary people could command impossible, god-like powers, what did a super-soldier really amount to? Russell genuinely believed that any competent Devil Fruit user could wipe the floor with the Captain. And someone like him? An Ancient Zoan blessed with monstrous strength and prehistoric armor?
To Russell, the outcome of this fight wasn't just predictable; it was a guarantee.
"It ends here, Russell," Steve stopped roughly twenty paces away. His expression was a mask of calm, unwavering focus, the complete and total opposite of Russell's loud arrogance.
The Ancient Zoan User snorted, a puff of hot air escaping his nostrils. "You're damn right it does."
His heavy tail slammed against the pavement, sending a fresh spiderweb of cracks bursting outward.
The instant the final word left his mouth, he vanished.
*BOOM!*
The street practically exploded beneath his feet as Russell accelerated like a literal missile. Seventy meters of distance vanished in the blink of an eye. To anyone watching, it would have looked like a prehistoric nightmare had just teleported directly in front of the Captain.
Russell's massive, razor-sharp claw descended from above like a falling guillotine. The attack packed enough raw force to flatten a military armored vehicle, tear through reinforced concrete, and reduce an ordinary human into a tragic stain on the pavement.
Yet, Steve didn't retreat. He didn't flinch. He didn't even blink.
Instead, with absolute composure, he calmly shifted his weight. One foot slid back, his center of gravity lowered, and his body settled into a textbook defensive stance perfected through a lifetime of brutal battles.
With practiced, flawless precision, Captain America raised his shield to meet the incoming dinosaur.
And waited.
*BANG!*
The sound of the collision tore through the empty street like a massive bronze bell being struck by a sledgehammer. A violent, visible shockwave rippled outward from the point of impact, instantly shattering the remaining windows of the nearby storefronts and kicking up a blinding cloud of dust from the cracked pavement.
Yet, Captain America didn't budge, not even a single inch.
Russell's massive, prehistoric claw packed enough raw, bone-crushing force to pulverize reinforced concrete and twist solid steel into scrap metal. But the exact microsecond it slammed into that iconic vibranium shield, all of that terrifying momentum simply... vanished.
It was perfectly absorbed, neutralized, and dispersed into nothingness.
The shield didn't shake. The man holding it didn't tremble.
No matter how monstrously strong Russell's Ancient Zoan fruit made him, he was still nowhere near the power level of cosmic heavy-hitters like Thor. And if Steve's shield could easily withstand a direct, full-force strike from the God of Thunder's hammer, a giant dinosaur wasn't breaking through his guard anytime soon.
"Nice toy," Russell sneered, his deep voice vibrating with malice. He kept his massive claw pressed hard against the rim of the shield, leaning his immense weight forward to pin the Captain down. "Once I tear you apart, that thing's going to make a pretty decent frisbee."
Steve didn't waste a single breath replying. Trash talk had never been his style, and honestly, he didn't have the time for it.
Instead, he moved; his back foot pivoted flawlessly on the asphalt. His stance lowered, dropping his center of gravity into perfect alignment as he smoothly drew his right fist back. Then, with explosive speed, he threw a perfectly executed straight punch directly aimed at Russell's exposed chest.
It was fast, direct, and brutally efficient. There was nothing flashy about it. No unnecessary flair. Just pure, unadulterated combat execution.
Seeing the human fist flying toward him, Russell's reptilian eyes flared with absolute contempt. A mocking laugh practically bubbled up in his throat. 'A fistfight? Seriously?'
'The great, legendary Captain America was actually trying to challenge an Ancient Zoan in a straight-up contest of raw, physical strength?' The thought was so incredibly ridiculous that it was almost insulting. 'You're an absolute idiot!'
A cruel, victorious grin spread across Russell's scaly face. His free claw whipped forward through the air. Rather than blocking the incoming punch, he intended to simply seize Steve's arm mid-strike and tear it straight out of its socket.
Then…
*CRACK!*
A bizarre, unnatural sound echoed across the battlefield. It wasn't the sickening crunch of bone breaking. It wasn't the screech of metal bending out of shape. It sounded like a massive sheet of thick glass fracturing under pressure.
Russell's arrogant grin froze. His attacking claw stopped dead mid-motion. For a fraction of a second, absolute, paralyzing confusion took over his mind.
Right there, in the empty space directly in front of Steve's advancing fist, hairline fractures had suddenly spiderwebbed into existence. The atmosphere itself looked like it was literally splintering apart. Tiny, glowing cracks spread outward in every direction, resembling a shattered mirror hovering in mid-air.
'What the hell is…?' The thought never finished.
Years of surviving in a world rewritten by Devil Fruits had taught Russell one universal truth: the absolute second something impossible happens in a fight, hesitation will get you killed.
Unfortunately for him, he realized that lesson just a second too late.
*BOOM!*
The fractured air violently exploded.
A terrifying, apocalyptic wave of destructive force erupted directly from Steve's fist. It wasn't just a physical impact; it was vibration. Pure, unmitigated, overwhelming vibration.
The invisible shockwave slammed into Russell's chest head-on. The sheer force behind it didn't feel like a punch anymore; it felt like a literal mountain had just dropped out of the sky and crushed him.
His thick, prehistoric scales offered absolutely zero protection. His dense, armored hide was entirely useless. The terrifying power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit completely bypassed his external defenses, sending the violent vibrations tearing straight through his flesh and muscle, ripping through his body from the inside out.
His internal organs shook violently. His massive skeleton rattled to its core. Every single cell in his body screamed out in absolute agony. For the very first time since gaining the god-like power of his Ancient Zoan form, Russell felt completely and utterly fragile.
*BOOOOM!*
His massive, multi-ton body folded inward. And then, he was just gone.
Launched backward like a ragdoll caught in the center of a missile blast, the gigantic Spinosaurus hybrid flew helplessly across the street. He bounced violently off the hard asphalt, tumbling over and over for dozens of meters.
Thirty meters. Forty. Fifty.
Finally…
*CRASH!*
He slammed face-first into the concrete curb, completely unconscious, and stopped moving. A heavy, stunned silence followed. Then came the deep, ominous sound of stone shattering.
*Rumble... Rumble... Rumble...*
Deep, jagged cracks began to spread across the street right beneath Steve's boots. A massive web of fissures raced outward through the asphalt, perfectly tracing the destructive path Russell had just traveled.
Fortunately, Steve had delivered the strike at absolute point-blank range, ensuring that almost the entirety of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's cataclysmic force was absorbed directly by Russell's body. If he hadn't controlled it so perfectly, the entire surrounding city block would have been leveled to the ground.
For several long seconds, nobody breathed.
Then…
"YES!" From her position near the perimeter, Trish thrust her fist wildly into the air, a massive, triumphant grin bursting across her face. She had to physically force herself to keep from screaming at the top of her lungs.
Just moments ago, Russell had looked like an unstoppable, living natural disaster, a prehistoric monster capable of tossing a powerhouse like Clint Barton around like a rag doll. And yet, Captain America had ended the entire encounter with a single, devastating punch.
One punch. That was all it took.
Watching it happen right before her eyes sent a thrilling rush of adrenaline straight through her veins. Because for the first time since this chaotic mission started, she truly understood something.
The strongest person on this battlefield wasn't the monster with the ancient dinosaur powers.
It was Captain America.
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Next Chapter: The Mighty Tremor-Tremor Fruit
Next Next Chapter: The Director's Deepest Secret: Erasing a Legend's Brother
Next Next Next Chapter: The Captain's Best Friend Murdered Iron Man's Parents!
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