"What?"
Even Natasha, who had seen more chaos than most soldiers would in a lifetime, paused at Richard's question. In a moment when the air itself felt ready to ignite, he had calmly asked about property damage reimbursement.
She recovered quickly. "We're not here to arrest you," she said evenly. "We just happened to pass by."
She was telling the truth. What she didn't realize was that her presence—and more specifically, her earlier words—had already pushed Hulk into a corner he had no intention of backing out of.
Richard gave a faint nod. "I know you're not here for me. But the big guy next to you is looking at me like this doesn't end until one of us wins."
He lifted his left hand and casually pointed the long blade in Hulk's direction.
The reaction was immediate.
Hulk slammed his right foot into the pavement. The asphalt caved under the impact, a crater forming beneath his heel as cracks spiderwebbed outward in all directions. He spread his arms wide and roared, the sound echoing off surrounding buildings like a wild animal claiming territory.
Richard didn't flinch.
"If you don't want half of San Francisco reduced to rubble," he said calmly to Natasha, "you'd better move farther away. If you get hurt, he won't stop."
He spun the sword in a smooth flourish before raising it to eye level. The blade pointed upward, left hand forward, right hand behind, adopting a two-handed stance he almost never used.
In every previous fight, he had wielded it one-handed.
Two hands meant seriousness.
Hulk didn't understand sword forms, but instinct recognized danger. The wildness in his expression sharpened into focus. His massive green eyes locked onto Richard, and for a moment, the battlefield felt very still.
Natasha understood then that she couldn't stop what was coming.
She didn't argue. She retreated quickly, moving over a hundred meters away while pulling out her phone. She wasn't calling for intervention. She was calling for cleanup. Someone would need to contain the aftermath.
The instant she cleared the area, both combatants moved.
Their legs exploded with force at the same time. Asphalt shattered beneath them as they shot forward, closing the distance in less than a heartbeat.
Hulk's fist, larger than most people's heads, drove toward Richard's chest with overwhelming momentum.
Richard swung his blade downward.
Boom.
The collision detonated like a cannon blast. A visible shockwave burst outward from the impact point, racing through the intersection and obliterating nearby windows. Glass rained down from storefronts and vehicles alike.
Richard felt the raw power in that punch and couldn't help a brief internal acknowledgment.
Hulk truly deserved his reputation.
He tapped the ground lightly with the tip of his right foot and retreated more than ten meters in a smooth glide, dispersing the remaining force without losing balance.
Hulk didn't pursue immediately.
Instead, he stared at his right fist.
A shallow but unmistakable cut marked the knuckle of his middle finger. Richard hadn't used advanced techniques. He had simply reinforced the blade's sharpness and durability with magic. Even so, it had drawn blood.
Green blood.
The sword hadn't cleaved deep; the bone had stopped it. But the fact that it had broken skin at all clearly surprised Hulk.
While Hulk examined the injury, Richard evaluated the exchange.
In raw strength, Hulk still held the advantage. There was no question about that. Fortunately, this wasn't the exaggerated comic-book incarnation capable of splitting planets. Against that version, even perfect technique wouldn't compensate.
Alpha-level super strength was impressive among mutants.
Against Hulk, it was merely respectable.
As Hulk lowered his hand, Richard attacked again.
He surged forward, blade cutting through the air toward Hulk's neck. He had no intention of trading brute force head-on. Strength might favor Hulk, but overall combat capability did not.
Hulk reacted quickly. He raised his right hand to slap the blade aside while his left fist launched toward Richard's head with frightening speed.
Richard had no desire to test that punch with his skull.
Mind movement.
In a blink, he vanished from Hulk's front and reappeared behind him.
The blade swept horizontally.
A deep gash tore across Hulk's back from shoulder to waist. Green blood burst outward and streamed down his massive frame.
Hulk didn't need to see to understand what had happened. Pain registered instantly. Instead of turning defensively, he did something far more direct.
He charged.
Like a fully loaded truck at highway speed, Hulk drove backward toward Richard, intending to smash him with sheer mass.
A trained agent would have repositioned, created distance, or countered strategically.
Hulk followed instinct.
If crashing into someone solved the problem, then crashing into them was correct.
Richard raised his right hand.
"Bounce."
The invisible force erupted outward.
Bang.
The impact sounded like an explosion. Hulk's massive body reversed direction violently, launched backward through the air as if struck by a colossal hammer. He arced upward in a perfect parabola, an enormous green projectile against the skyline.
.....
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