Deadpool gritted his teeth and used all his strength to pry off the metal arm pressing down on his shoulder.
Once free, he scrambled a few meters away to avoid being grabbed again, cursing simultaneously.
"Shit! Big guy, don't touch this body I use for hooking!"
Then, he stared at Harvey and Wanda opposite him, his face serious as he slowly drew the two katanas from his back.
The sharp gleam of the blades brought a heavy, murderous atmosphere to the scene.
But the moment Deadpool opened his mouth, the illusion was shattered.
"The great battle is coming, yet Yoda is still riding on Luke's back. I'm going to ruin you guys just like Limp Bizkit ruined music in the late '90s!"
"Die! A hundred thousand volts!"
Colossus also smashed his fists together, producing a dull, metallic clang.
"Usually, after the talking is done, it's time to fight. As it happens, I don't mind a fight."
With that, Colossus started running with heavy thud, thud, thud footsteps, carrying the terrifying momentum of a falling mountain as he charged towards Harvey.
But—
Harvey, who couldn't figure out why the X-Men were crashing the party and decided to temporarily ignore it, silently cast Levicorpus and Sectumsempra.
The charging Colossus suddenly found his legs snagged by an invisible force, and then his entire body was uncontrollably hoisted into the air, hanging upside down.
"What? What kind of ability is this? Put me down right now!"
With nothing to push off of, a frantic Colossus flailed his arms wildly like a fish washed ashore.
Meanwhile, Deadpool, facing the semi-transparent invisible blades hurtling towards him, didn't slow his forward charge in the slightest.
Instead, he swung his katana, delivering a vicious downward slash.
He imagined he could forcefully slice this semi-transparent attack in half, just like he used to slice bullets.
Anyway, the great Lord Deadpool feared nothing!
Just fucking do it!
As a result, the power of the attack exceeded Deadpool's imagination. Not only did it instantly slice his katana clean in half...
The semi-transparent blade, its momentum undiminished, casually sliced him in half as well!
"Splat!"
Only the upper half of Deadpool's body fell to the floor. From the neat, clean stump at his abdomen, fresh blood continuously spewed out; the scene was incredibly gruesome.
"Holy crab!"
"That hurts like a motherfucker, argh... !?"
While howling in agony, Deadpool used his hands in place of his feet, crawling across the floor toward his lower half.
He wanted to piece himself back together.
If no one stopped him, in less than ten minutes, Deadpool, with his freakish regenerative abilities, would be whole again.
But a flash of red light darted past.
After hitting Deadpool's lower half, a blinding, eerie golden flame instantly ignited. In less than a few seconds, it burned his lower half into a pile of charred ash.
Seeing his lower half burned to nothing, Deadpool's eyes went wide, and he started cursing profusely.
"Fuck!"
"You evil devil, you actually dared to burn off Lord Deadpool's lower half?"
"Are you jealous because my dick is longer than yours?"
"Very well, you have successfully captured Lord Deadpool's attention..."
Listening to Deadpool continuously running his mouth with a death wish, Harvey felt his temples starting to throb with pain.
So Deadpool's trash talk really can make someone want to brutally murder this annoying bitch!
"Silencio!"
Harvey cast a spell to silence the source of the annoying noise.
While struggling with muffled "mmph-mmph" sounds, Deadpool picked up his severed katana and glared at Harvey with resolute eyes.
Even with only his upper body left, he was determined to give his all to complete the mission.
Coming from a mercenary background, he knew deeply just how important reputation was.
Moreover, he had already figured it out in his head.
The harder the target was to deal with, the more justification he'd have to demand medical expenses from the Black Egghead when he got back.
After all, he had sacrificed a full half of his body as the price. If the Black Egghead dared to refuse to pay him extra...
He would go take a shit right on the Black Egghead's desk to disgust him.
Seeing that Deadpool was no longer a threat, Harvey looked at Colossus with mixed feelings and asked, "Did Professor X not come today?"
Colossus was still roaring and shouting 'put me down'. Hearing the Professor's name mentioned, he instantly calmed down a bit, his eyes full of vigilance as he replied, "You know the Professor?"
Harvey shook his head, not trying to bluff him.
"No, I don't, but I've heard of the world-renowned X-Men."
Colossus was so surprised his volume increased another notch. Already loud-mouthed, his voice boomed even louder.
"Impossible! The Professor clearly erased the memories of all humanity regarding the X-Men..."
As he spoke, the simple-minded Colossus realized he had seemingly let something slip and quickly changed the subject.
"If you have the guts, let me down. Sneak attacks don't prove anything. Let's fight fair and square!"
Harvey sneered, "Do you think I look like an idiot?"
Deadpool reacted excitedly, struggling even more violently with muffled "mmph-mmph" sounds.
Clearly, his instinct to trash-talk was flaring up again.
Good thing Harvey had silenced Deadpool's mouth in advance.
Otherwise, he was genuinely afraid he might impulsively cast the Killing Curse.
He really did want to test if Deadpool could withstand the Avada Kedavra curse, which specifically annihilated the soul.
With an immortal body, would he be so freakishly resilient that he wouldn't die even if his soul was shattered?
Harvey stroked his chin, staring with malicious intent at Deadpool, who was currently crawling with one hand while holding a sword in the other.
"I hear your ability is immortality? If your soul is shattered to pieces, can you still not die?"
Deadpool: "Mmm? Mmph-mmph!"
"Put me down..."
Colossus was still stubbornly demanding a rematch.
Harvey watched for a moment, found it boring, and preoccupied with his thoughts, prepared to take Wanda and leave once again.
But another woman walked into the building.
Wearing a black leather combat suit, possessing short white hair and smooth chocolate skin—Storm, Ororo Munroe.
From the moment she entered, her vigilant gaze was firmly locked onto Harvey.
Ororo Munroe was originally stationed on the Blackbird jet monitoring the overall situation as backup.
For this mission, she had thought it would just be a simple walk in the park, an easy two million dollars in appearance fees.
She never expected the target to be this difficult to deal with.
Especially the various bizarre forms of magic. Even though she came from a lineage of Sangoma witches stretching back thousands of years, she found this magic entirely foreign.
Seeing his teammate arrive, Deadpool started making excited "mmph-mmph" sounds again. From the eagerness in his eyes, it was clear he felt he was saved.
But Harvey felt intensely annoyed by this seemingly endless battle of 'beat the young, here comes the old'.
Without a word, he fired a Blasting Curse.
Boom—
It blasted Storm, who was gathering tornadoes in both hands, right out of the building's revolving doors.
"Pfft..."
Spitting blood as she traced a beautiful arc through the air, Ororo Munroe smashed through the building's revolving glass doors, flying over thirty meters before crashing heavily onto the ground.
Don't call Harvey out for lacking martial virtue by launching a sneak attack. No normal person would just stand by and watch an enemy charge up an attack—clearly preparing an ultimate move—and not strike to interrupt them.
He wasn't a brain-dead villain who would arrogantly and deliberately wait for the enemy to unleash their ultimate move.
Therefore, although Storm was one of the X-Men's top combatants, she was defeated the fastest.
At least Colossus and Deadpool had managed to exchange a few words before being taken down.
For Storm, from the moment she entered the door to the moment she was blasted out, only a brief three or four seconds had passed.
"Don't tell me someone else is going to walk in looking for a beating?"
Harvey muttered, frowning as he stared at the entrance of the building.