The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 4287 Heroes Strike! (19)

After the public enemy and the troublemaker left the scene, the duel intensified. Because the remaining fighters had some kind of mutual restraint, they were able to fight evenly matched.

First, Buggy's high-frequency barrage is a counter to Greed's channeled skills. This all-around bombardment makes it impossible for Greed to stand still and channel its abilities. Similarly, for Pikachu, it will also deprive him of good positioning for attacking and force him to constantly run around.

However, Steve also summoned the Jaeger, the very one Stark had knocked over earlier. Stark wasn't very good at controlling a cyborg's body, but he could control the Jaeger, and the Jaeger could help him filter out too much information, returning him to his area of ​​expertise.

Steve knew Bucky far too well. The moment Bucky raised his hand, Steve knew where he was going to shoot. Constantly throwing shields to disrupt him, Bucky had no room to attack.

However, while Steve possesses strong physical defense, he lacks mental defense, whereas Gray Mist, upon unleashing his ultimate attack, can directly deplete their mana and indiscriminately launch a mental attack. Therefore, they are hesitant to act rashly and need to stop to use supplies.

In short, the group formed a perfect cycle: no one could kill anyone else, but anyone could also kill someone at any moment. Therefore, the final outcome became a battle of expendable resources. Whoever had more resources could last the longest.

Pikachu was the first to give up. They didn't have any escape skills, they didn't have enough places to search, and because they had never been on a spaceship before, they didn't get a lot of supplies from it, so their consumables like bandages quickly ran out.

"No, I'm almost out of health." Pikachu took a deep breath and said, "I can still use Thunderbolt once more, I have to take someone with me."

"Steve is definitely out of the question; he has a shield, you can't kill him instantly. It's easier to fight Dr. Schiller, but he still has a lot of health and a lot of items. If you don't kill him, his health will recover quickly. It seems like it's better to use it on the Winter Soldier."

"Okay, I'll give it a try." Pikachu took a deep breath. He first shrank his body, trying to minimize his presence. Being small has its advantages; Pikachu wasn't even as tall as a person's knee, and with spaceship wreckage everywhere, he quickly darted over to Buggy.

Bucky was busy dealing with Steve and didn't notice him. Pikachu jumped out from behind cover and charged towards him, yelling, "Thunderbolt!!!"

A thick bolt of lightning struck Bucky squarely in the face. Bucky sighed helplessly. He had noticed Pikachu, but he had no way to deal with it. If he attacked Pikachu, Steve would definitely attack him too. Since he was going to die anyway, he might as well take one of them with him.

Because many of Buggy's attacks are area-of-effect, they're not easy to dodge. Now, every contestant on the field is slightly poisoned. Buggy hugged Pikachu, completely draining its remaining health. The two then turned into white light and entered the rap battle segment.

Of course, when the two of them were arguing, Pikachu and Natasha were the ones doing the talking, while the other two tried to mediate. Pikachu's rapping skills were as good as ever, and Natasha couldn't out-argue him in English, so she had to resort to her Russian. But Pikachu couldn't understand her, so Buggy had to stand between them and translate. The result was that he ended up pleasing neither side, getting sprayed with spittle by both of them.

Now, only Greed and Steve remained on the field. Stark pressed a button on his mech and shouted, "This time, I'm going to win!!!"

The massive mech soared into the air and slammed down towards Greed. He instantly dissipated into gray mist, seemingly dodging the attack, but he still lost health. Then the mech gave chase, and Greed ran.

“You know what, it does feel really safe to put a metal shell on yourself,” Steve said. “I even dared to hit Schiller.”

Stark rolled his eyes and said, "Don't you think there's something wrong with throwing shields while piloting a mech?"

"Is something wrong? I think you should also get a shield to use as a ranged weapon when you wear the mech. It's much more useful than a cannon."

"Hmph." Stark snorted coldly. It wasn't that he didn't want to use it; it was that he didn't know how! Although he piloted the Jaeger with ease, even without it, he wouldn't throw the shield. Throwing that thing required extremely high skill, not just brute force.

If everyone could easily throw a shield far and accurately, everyone would be an Olympic discus thrower. This thing seems simple, but it actually involves a very complex field. Steve's ability to use it as a weapon is simply a testament to his exceptional talent. Those without special talent are better off sticking to using guns.

“What should we do? It seems like the two of us can’t catch him,” Steve said. “This can’t go on.”

"What's the big deal? We can afford to wait."

“I suspect they have a lot of supplies,” Steve said. “They got on the ship and must have looted quite a bit. And you know how lucky Dr. Schiller is—he can’t get the good stuff, but he can find a ton of junk. He’s probably covered in bandages and hot soup or something…”

“How could I forget this?” Stark couldn’t help but slap his forehead. “I never thought that this pile of junk would actually come in handy in the final battle.”

They did manage to find some supplies, but not many. Later, when they had more spare parts, they threw away some items that took up space, which resulted in their current insufficient battery life.

Greedy's strategy of attacking while retreating was primarily to stall for skill cooldowns. Gray Mist's ultimate skill drains mana from the entire map upon activation, but such a powerful skill inevitably has a cooldown. Even with reduced cooldowns, there's still a waiting period before it can be used again. Therefore, even if it means taking damage, he'll run. He has plenty of supplies, and he can wear down his opponent until they're defeated.

As he ran, his skills became available again. Gray Mist unleashed another powerful attack, reducing Steve's mana bar by another 60%, leaving only a sliver.

He had to stop to resupply, but as soon as he stopped, greed began to roam. Although he couldn't stack many layers in such a short time, every layer he could stack was a layer, and every additional layer increased the chance of making a mistake.

Sure enough, after being afflicted with the abnormal status, Steve's attack accuracy dropped significantly. When chasing Greedy, the opponent barely lost any health. Meanwhile, the opponent could unleash a powerful attack every now and then, leaving Steve with almost no health. When he stopped to heal, he was afflicted with even more abnormal statuses, making Stark yell in frustration.

"Schiller!! You damn bastard!!! Can't you just have a fair duel?!"

“Watch your language,” Steve said helplessly. “Besides, you only use the same few phrases over and over again, and you can’t out-argue him anyway, so why bother?”

"I'm fighting you fair and square!" Greed said, turning back as he ran. "If I wanted to play dirty, I'd record your gameplay and send it to little Morgan!"

Stark was speechless, forcing back the curse that was about to escape his lips. Steve comforted him, saying, "It's okay, even if we lose, we're still runners-up, it's not shameful."

Stark was even angrier.

“Can’t you be a little more ambitious?!” Stark said. “Nobody remembers the runner-up! Morgan Jr. definitely needs a champion father!”

"Okay, then let's..."

Just then, the mental abnormality status above their heads was transformed into a distress call status, and Greed immediately executed a settlement, depleting his health bar to zero while unleashing his long-accumulated ultimate attack. Steve didn't even have time to use consumables; both his health and mana bars were empty, and he transformed into a white light and left the battlefield.

"Phew, we finally won!" Greed and Gray Mist cheered.

They thought they would be teleported away soon, but to their surprise, no victory notification sounded. Instead, they saw a large number of soul forms floating in mid-air.

"Congratulations on your victory in the 'New Earth - Snowfield' Hero Attack Duel Mode. Next, you will travel to the Final Duel Arena to face off against the winners from 'Rainforest,' 'Forest,' 'Deep Sea,' 'Desert,' and 'Moon'! Get ready, teleportation is about to begin..."

"What the hell?!" Greed shouted, "Shouldn't we have won? How come we still have?!"

The smiles don't disappear, they just shift. Now it was the souls floating in mid-air's turn to laugh out loud.

“Hahahaha, I knew it wouldn’t be that simple!” Stark laughed the loudest. “No wonder this competition is being held on New Earth. So there are so many people competing with us.”

“This event has just started, so a lot of people will be participating in the matchmaking. And the winner who can beat everyone in that region will definitely be very strong,” Bucky said. “I wonder if the Doctor can beat them.”

“I doubt it. His skill set has major flaws, and he hasn’t gotten any good signature items. Oh, wait, didn’t he have Thornmail before? Why didn’t he have it later?” Natasha asked, somewhat puzzled.

Then everyone's attention turned to Selena. By now, everyone basically knew what her abilities were, and they also knew where the missing items had gone.

Selena stuck out her tongue and said, "I didn't know there was a final battle. Besides, if I hadn't stolen that thing, our whole region might have been wiped out."

I have to admit she has a point; that Thornmail is really troublesome. Once Thornmail is deployed, everyone loses health equally, and no one can escape. The final outcome might be that everyone dies together.

"Can I give this back to him?" Selena asked, pondering. "It's not that I want to make fun of him, it's just that I also think Schiller's skill set is a bit weak, and he still needs this equipment."

Unfortunately, greed vanished in the teleportation light, and all the souls were simultaneously transported to their seats in the dueling arena. They regained their physical forms, but were unable to leave their seats.

The arena resembled the ancient Roman Colosseum, only with a more futuristic style. Circular seats floated in mid-air, filled with people, many of whom didn't appear to be competitors and likely only had spectator tickets. Among them were a few familiar faces, such as Batman, and others who were unfamiliar but looked like agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Above the dueling arena floated a small island. The Beyonder stood on this island, a beam of light shining down on his head. He raised the microphone and shouted:

Welcome to Heroes Strikes Back – The Final Showdown!!!