Ultron immediately gathered a ring of energy in his hand.
Karl's expression changed the moment he saw it.
He knew Ultron had a weapon capable of firing an ion cannon. Even Hulk would have trouble withstanding something like that!
"Move!"
Karl shoved Eric O'Grady aside, narrowly avoiding the blast.
Eric slammed into a nearby railing before steadying himself.
When he saw that half of the building had been obliterated, he was stunned.
Karl's expression turned grave.
This guy really was difficult to deal with.
"You two are clever. Unfortunately, Hope van Dyne turned out to be completely useless. I've already taken care of them for you."
Karl's eyes widened at those words.
Eric could hardly believe it.
Ultron had actually followed them all the way back to his home.
It seemed there truly was nowhere in this world that could be considered safe.
"Trash has no right to live on this planet and waste its resources!"
"The creatures living on Earth are even worse—stupid, primitive things that keep consuming so many resources. Do they deserve them?"
"Survival of the fittest would be far more appropriate. That's how things should have been from the beginning!"
After finishing his twisted argument, Ultron's smile became increasingly inscrutable.
It was almost laughable.
Ultron possessed an enormous amount of power. His body could even withstand forces equivalent to three thousand times his own weight.
Just thinking about it left Eric feeling helpless.
And Ultron was faster than him.
"Look at this! This isn't something we can control. Why don't we figure out a way to escape first?"
Eric felt that there was simply no way for them to continue fighting the creature in front of them.
Ultron's speed could reach Mach 33!
On top of that, he possessed an extraordinarily powerful self-repair ability. No matter what component inside his body was damaged, he could restore it to its original condition in an extremely short amount of time.
It was almost as if he possessed an endless reserve of blood that allowed him to heal indefinitely.
Trying to defeat someone like this seemed like nothing more than a fantasy.
His systems could accurately calculate virtually every piece of information about his surrounding environment, with an error rate approaching zero.
Eric had known about these abilities for a long time.
Ultron could even manipulate his body in extraordinary ways, shrinking himself and slipping into places beyond ordinary perception.
That kind of ability was truly terrifying.
Seeing Eric standing there in silence, Karl understood exactly what he was thinking.
But now that they had already run into Ultron, there was no avoiding the fight.
"There's no other choice. Rather than stand here and let him capture us, we might as well fight!"
Eric's expression remained grave.
All he could do was force himself to focus.
This was no Halloween costume.
The thing standing in front of him was far more terrifying than any devil.
"With just the two of you?"
Eric weakly echoed the question.
"Just the two of us?"
Karl nodded firmly.
The Phoenix Force instantly erupted from his hand.
He violently swung his arm backward.
A brilliant multicolored radiance immediately appeared before surging forward!
Karl followed the radiance and shot through Ultron's body at tremendous speed.
When Karl glanced back, even he could hardly believe what he saw.
Ultron's body had been violently cleaved in half.
He collapsed on the spot.
Eric immediately straightened up, trying to see exactly what had happened.
Karl's Phoenix Force was actually that powerful!
"Dead?"
Before either of them could fully process what had happened, the two halves of Ultron's body suddenly moved.
His separated body rapidly fused back together.
The entire process took barely a second—little more than the time it took them to blink.
His whole body had already reassembled itself.
They had known that Ultron possessed an incredible repair ability.
But his durability was far beyond anything they had predicted!
"I told you already! This guy is incredibly troublesome. There's no way we can keep him under control!"
"Why don't we retreat first and think of another solution?"
Eric reached out to drag Karl away.
But Karl knew that if they ran now, the dangers they faced later would only become greater.
They could not keep running forever.
"Why are you running? Get your gauntlet out!"
Karl began giving instructions.
Eric silently nodded.
He had his own specialized stinger weapon and had undergone extensive training while serving as an agent.
Running now would only encourage Ultron to pursue them relentlessly and make him even more arrogant.
If they could deal with Ultron here—or at least force him to retreat—that would be a far better outcome.
Karl had not expected him to be this difficult to handle.
"You really are something. I underestimated you."
"I never expected your first attack to be even stronger than I imagined!"
The rapidly repaired Ultron spoke with a trace of distortion in his voice, as though the attack had damaged his audio systems.
But even his voice quickly repaired itself.
Ultron's body could now upgrade itself.
That made everything considerably more dangerous.
Their covert operation could no longer truly be called a secret.
Everything was beginning to change.
At this point, most of the Avengers had already been imprisoned within the Skrulls' underground stronghold.
That made dealing with Ultron even more troublesome.
"I didn't expect you to be even stronger than I predicted."
"To think that such a powerful Phoenix Force could pass straight through your body and still fail to leave any lasting damage. That really does surprise me!"
Karl was not exaggerating.
The Phoenix Force was not something he used casually.
"I know what you're thinking."
"You must believe I'm cooperating with the Skrulls!"
"How could they possibly make me willingly cooperate with them?"
"They think that once they conquer Earth, they'll be able to control every species on the planet!"
"But my goal is to kill every last one of them!"
"Once Earth is truly under our control, none of this will be a problem anymore!"
Karl knew that everything about this situation was going to be even more troublesome than he had expected.
What he had not anticipated was that the Skrulls had already secretly deployed so many forces and assembled an army of their own.
Eric was equally shocked.
But first, they had to deal with the immediate problem in front of them.
Karl knew Ultron was extremely difficult to fight.
The two of them alone could not truly handle him head-on.
Karl noticed Ultron turning toward Eric.
Eric instantly shrank his body.
But then Ultron suddenly vanished.
Karl's expression changed.
He could only hope Eric escaped quickly and avoided confronting Ultron directly.
Eric rapidly slipped into another narrow crack.
But the next instant, the gap behind him was violently pried open by a claw.
"As expected, a tiny little ant simply can't bear that much power!"
"Dr. Hank Pym placed far too much faith in you."
"He thought giving you that so-called gauntlet would somehow let you withstand every threat in the outside world."
"But you're still far too small."
A sinister gleam flashed through Ultron's eyes.
He threw a punch.
But Eric slipped through the gaps between his fingers and escaped once again.
(End of Chapter)
[100 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter]
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