"Whoa, whoa, whoa, that's quite a lot of people."
Ivan Vanko spoke in English with a thick Russian accent.
His tone was frivolous, and he had a lollipop dangling from the corner of his mouth.
Yes, a lollipop.
Ivan had originally wanted to find a toothpick, but Justin's office only had these things.
He scanned the room and didn't see Tony, so he spoke again.
"Where is Tony Stark?"
Everyone present was a guest at Tony's birthday party and had a good relationship with the Stark family, so—
"The Underground Room!"
Someone immediately pointed in the direction Tony had left and shouted.
Are you kidding? They were only fair-weather friends; who would actually take a hit for Tony?
Ivan directly remote-controlled two Iron Soldiers to go check it out. He had brought a total of twelve Iron Soldiers this time; if it weren't for the time pressure, he could have made even more.
Boom!
Boom!
His caution paid off. The Iron Soldiers were blown up halfway there, and then Tony, wearing the brand-new Mark 6 armor, stepped out from the smoke and dust.
This armor was equipped with the new Arc Reactor, and Tony felt terrifyingly strong.
Then he was whipped to the ground by Ivan.
Although Tony had updated his armor, Ivan had upgraded even more. Even though he hadn't used the new element architecture for his reactor, Ivan had increased the rotation speed on the original basis, making his energy source even more powerful.
Moreover, the primary weapon Ivan chose wasn't missiles or lasers, but still the Energy Whips.
This resulted in most of the energy from his reactor being applied to the whips. Even though Tony was using new armor, being hit by the whip would still leave a deep gash.
Most importantly, there were still many guests on-site, so Tony didn't dare use lethal weapons, making it impossible to exert the full strength of the Iron Man Suit.
Ivan saw this as well, so he pressed his advantage, his two Energy Whips forcing Tony to retreat repeatedly.
He got more excited as he fought, even opening his faceplate to reveal his face—and the lollipop at the corner of his mouth.
"It's that Ivan!"
"Oh my god, isn't he dead?"
The guests present all had some connection to Tony, so they naturally knew about the attack he suffered not long ago and recognized this Terrorist who had attacked him.
After all, this was no ordinary Terrorist; Ivan's ability to manufacture Iron Man Suits was of incalculable value.
Perhaps behind the scenes, some of these guests had secretly plotted to get their hands on Ivan, only to be beaten to it by Justin Hammer, who just happened to be in Monaco.
"Ivan! You really won't stay dead!"
Tony had actually expected this, because those signature whips had beaten him before.
He consciously retreated away from the crowd, even if it meant the Villa was torn into ruins.
But Ivan had brought twelve Iron Soldiers this time. Even if two had just been destroyed, there were still ten left, enough to keep an eye on these guests easily.
Bang! Bang!
Rat-tat-tat!
But then, another person wearing silver Iron Man armor rushed out from the Underground Room, firing continuously at the Iron Soldiers and shouting to the guests: "Go, hurry!"
This person was, of course, Rhodes. When Tony was making the Iron Man Suits, he had specifically set aside a suit for his Good Big Brother, Rhodes.
Just now, Rhodes had been familiarizing himself with the armor's controls and having Jarvis add some weapons to it.
Tony rushing out first was also to provide cover for Rhodes, allowing Rhodes to save the guests so they would have a chance to defeat the enemy.
They also knew there were still many Iron Soldiers on-site, but Tony figured these soldiers were remote-controlled and certainly couldn't achieve perfect control during combat; they could only act based on the robots' original software settings.
Rhodes could handle fighting bots, right?
The people on-site woke up as if from a dream and hurriedly seized the opportunity to run outside, but their path was quickly blocked by the robots.
Although Tony and Rhodes had a good idea, they didn't know that these Iron Soldiers weren't just being remote-controlled by Ivan alone, but also—Zola!
As one of Fang Yuan's loyal dogs, he naturally wouldn't let Zola stay idle.
Zola was an electronic lifeform, and remote-controlling Iron Soldiers was perfectly within his expertise, which led to a certain situation—
Under Zola's control, the Iron Soldiers' strength was much greater than when Ivan controlled them, and they were now even able to coordinate with each other!
And Rhodes, after all, wasn't Ip Man; he couldn't fight ten at once, not to mention he also faced the problem of being held back by his surroundings.
The Iron Soldiers didn't care about any of that; they were all equipped with heavy weapons and would unleash a barrage of fire whenever they got the chance, sending the guests scurrying in terror.
In his desperation, Rhodes was hit by a shell and fell to the ground. Although he wasn't injured, he instantly fell into a disadvantage.
However, none of the people present noticed that although there were many Iron Soldiers and they were firing everywhere, they didn't harm a single guest.
Was Zola too merciful?
Of course not.
Everything was merely the Master's command.
Fang Yuan had Ivan attack Tony ahead of time for the purpose of allowing Howard and himself to make a heroic entrance.
Since they were going to be heroes, the hostages naturally couldn't be harmed. Otherwise, if they came out and stopped the criminal but the hostages suffered heavy casualties, there wouldn't be much credit left.
Now that Iron Man was suppressed, War Machine was being ganged up on, and the lives of the hostages were in grave danger, it was exactly the time for a hero to save the day.
Any later and Iron Man would be out of the Villa's range and able to use heavy firepower to fight back.
Bang!
Ivan, who was in the middle of a passionate exchange with Tony using his whips, was suddenly knocked off balance, and the familiar blue armor descended from the sky once again!
"Iron Guardian!" Iron Man called out his name.
He was surprised that this knock-off Iron Man had come, and at the same time, he felt something strange in his heart.
Because this was already the second time that the Iron Guardian had stepped forward at a moment when he was in crisis.
And the situation on Rhodes' side also changed instantly.
A trail of orange-red sparks quietly appeared, drawing a circle on the ground in front of the guests, enclosing all the hostages within it.
Then everyone instantly fell through. By the time they recovered from their panic, they found they had been transferred to a spot dozens of meters outside the Villa.
"We're saved!"
Everyone couldn't help but be overjoyed.
"Who saved us?"
Someone pointed at the sky: "Look at the sky!"
A figure was seen floating in mid-air. Amazingly, he wasn't using any tools, and orange-red energy was dissipating from his hands.
"A Mage!"
"A Wizard!" everyone immediately shouted.
The mystery of how Fang Yuan transferred them out of the Villa followed. Everyone could clearly see Fang Yuan's appearance; at this moment, reflected by the energy and spells, Fang Yuan's Chinese face gained a lot of mystery.
"It's truly miraculous!" someone exclaimed in wonder.
Because Fang Yuan's appearance was too stunning—setting aside everything else, the main focus was that the special effects were maxed out.
He was surrounded by three orange-red runes. As his hand seals changed, a huge magic circle immediately appeared in mid-air. Various marks and incantations that the crowd couldn't understand shuttled through it; one could tell at a glance that this was a Great Mage.
In fact, it wasn't just them who couldn't understand it; even Fang Yuan himself didn't understand it.
It was all pure special effects!
He knew one thing well: it didn't matter if you were powerful or not, as long as you made others think you were powerful.
So even if he was being intentionally mysterious and using magic power to create such a big commotion, when in reality he was just using the [Black King Template] to fire a few Impacts to destroy three Iron Soldiers, it still made the guests incredibly amazed.
At this time, Zola added more fuel to the atmosphere.
It controlled the remaining seven soldiers, acting as if they were exasperated, and actually pointed their cannons at the guests not far away!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Iron Soldiers fired all at once. The guests were terrified, thinking they were about to meet their end here.
In the nick of time, Fang Yuan suddenly flickered to the front of the guests, raising his hand to summon a huge magic shield that blocked all the gunfire one by one.
The guests stared blankly at Fang Yuan standing in front of them. The blazing fire was entirely confined outside the shield, and the Impact of the concentrated fire couldn't even ruffle a corner of Fang Yuan's clothes!
"Is this... magic?" someone couldn't help but blurt out.
But Fang Yuan smiled in his heart. magic?
Hardly.
The one who should truly be thanked was the Good Big Brother.
Praise the Black King!
Fang Yuan's performance wasn't over yet; he waved his right hand.
The flames from the Iron Soldiers' volley suddenly came to life, rapidly expanding in everyone's eyes until they turned into a Fire Phoenix two people high. Then Fang Yuan pointed lightly toward the Iron Soldiers, and the Fire Phoenix immediately dove straight at them.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
In a series of explosions, the Iron Soldiers were wiped out!
"Wow!"
"So powerful!"
Seeing Fang Yuan resolve the robots that had been pummeling Iron Man so effortlessly, the group of guests all felt a sense of yearning.
"Excuse me... who are you?" someone stepped forward and asked.
Fang Yuan gave everyone a big smile: "Fang Yuan, just call me Fang."
In the darkness, Fang Yuan seemed to hear the sound of his reputation rising.
Seeing that Fang Yuan seemed quite easy to talk to, another person asked: "Are you... a Mage?"
"Yes, I come from Kamar-Taj, which has existed for thousands of years." Fang Yuan continued to maintain a genial smile, looking kindly at the 'leeks' in front of him.
Those who could attend Iron Man's birthday party were all upper-class individuals; they were wealthy, valued their lives, and were curious about the exotic—they were the best possible 'leeks' in Fang Yuan's heart.
Sure enough, hearing Fang Yuan admit it, everyone became enthusiastic, not just because Fang Yuan had saved them, but also because—
"Uh, excuse me... can we learn magic?" a guest asked boldly.
They had tried high-tech and couldn't get a handle on it for now, but if they could learn magic, that would be fine too!
Occultism had a very wide audience among these wealthy people.
"Hmm... magic requires a lot of talent." Fang Yuan frowned, making everyone's hearts tighten, "But it's not completely without a chance. Kamar-Taj also recruits Outer Disciples."
"But whether you have the chance to obtain extraordinary power depends on whether you have the 'yuan' (fate/money)."
Yuan, as in the 'yuan' of the U.S. dollar.
Hearing this, most of the guests became enthusiastic and hurriedly stepped forward to ask about the method to join Kamar-Taj.
"The crisis hasn't been resolved today, so how about this," Fang Yuan replied. "On the 20th of next month, Kamar-Taj will have an Outer Disciple recruitment gathering at the Metropolis Opera House in New York. If you are interested, you can come and participate then."
"Great, great, great, we will definitely attend!"
Everyone was full of thanks. They didn't lack money and liked these mysterious things, which was why cults were endless among the upper class.
Those empty and nonsensical things could make them obsessed, let alone a Superhero like Fang Yuan whom they had seen with their own eyes.
Fang Yuan was also very happy; the combined influence of this group of people was not small and would be very useful for the Vought Corporation.
Of course, the most useful people here to Fang Yuan were still the Stark father and son.
You will get 90 chapter ahead for this fanfiction.
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