"What... what happened? Am I still not fully awake?" Watching as Robert single-handedly killed ten fierce animal warriors, tearing apart the entire secret base, Bucky looked bewilderedly towards Robert, instinctively taking a step back.
Bucky, already wary of Robert due to his previous actions, grew even more apprehensive upon witnessing Robert's strength and destructive power, unaware that Robert hadn't even used his true capabilities...
Especially after Robert dealt with the ten animal warriors, he seemed somewhat unsatisfied, as if he was about to shout "Who else wants to fight?"
"Did he make me hold the shield just to prevent accidental injuries? Not to help in the fight?" Steve didn't speak, but various thoughts began to flash through his mind. "Last time, he even left an opponent for us to fight, but this time he didn't leave any? And, this scene seems so familiar..."
Steve fell into thought, recalling his battles with Hydra. As Captain America, he often took the lead, eliminating Hydra soldiers one after another, while his comrades, impressed by his performance, could only stand aside and watch. After the battles, they would praise his combat prowess...
"So this is what it feels like to be a bystander! Should I praise him too?" Steve pondered, reminiscing about the past.
"It's over, huh, looks like there's no one else..." Robert, somewhat dispirited, turned to Steve and said. Honestly, Robert didn't feel fully satisfied.
The animal warriors' strength hadn't improved compared to before. Besides an increase in their numbers, there wasn't much difference.
As for the animal warriors' reference to themselves as "defective products," apart from their ability to speak and seeming more rational, there didn't seem to be a significant difference.
At least, under the dual pressures of depleting strength and worsening injuries, these animal warriors also ended up like the previous batch, their life force suddenly depleted, turning into mummies...
"Let's go find Diana later, I wonder if she's in the Louvre or the Temple of Athena. Diana's aura isn't strong usually, so it's a bit hard to find her just by sensing her aura..." Robert, not fully enjoying the battle, drifted off in thought. He wanted to fight Diana to see how big the gap between their strengths was.
"That's it? If I had you in my battles back then, maybe I wouldn't have needed to do much..." Steve, hearing Robert's words, snapped back to reality, looking at him somewhat nostalgically.
"Not necessarily. I can feel that you're a very outstanding warrior..." Robert shook his head, smiling at Steve.
Combat ability does reflect a warrior's strength, but it's not the only measure. Some are limited by their potential and can't increase their combat power much, but that doesn't mean they aren't excellent warriors!
"Thank you for your help, if it weren't for you..." Steve, hearing Robert's words, wanted to thank him, but Robert interrupted him.
"If you want to thank me, contact me if there's a situation like this again. And about Hydra, it seems like you have a history with them. If you have information about them, let me know. I'm quite interested in such opponents!" Robert waved his hand, looking forward to Steve's response.
"If they knew you were targeting them, they'd probably be losing sleep!" Steve said with a wistful smile.
"Then I'll be going, contact me if there's anything..." Robert nodded and left abruptly, not giving Steve a chance to continue the conversation.
"He left just like that? I was about to invite him for a meal, to connect..." Steve watched Robert disappear, then laughed self-deprecatingly. "When did I become like this? Sigh! I'm old. Seeing such a pure kid makes me feel somewhat ashamed!"
"If you feel ashamed, what does that make me? Completely dishonored?" Bucky patted Steve's shoulder and said with a laugh, "He's my lifesaver, and I haven't properly thanked him yet. Instead, I got scared by him. By the way, how did you meet such a terrifying guy?"
"Honestly, I didn't expect him to be so powerful. He seems even more formidable than the last time I saw him..." Steve, holding his shield, smiled and said, "It seems we just need to locate Hydra and leave the rest to him!"
"I can finally enjoy watching the show from the sidelines like you guys did back then. It's a strange feeling..."
"Really? Are you content just watching?" Bucky, touching his metal arm, squinted his eyes and said, "Anyway, I'm not content. After all, they used me as a tool for so long, made me kill so many people. I can't rest easy without getting revenge!"
"Then let's, two old guys, scout ahead for that kid. Let's see if Hydra is still the Hydra we remember!" Steve said with a laugh, his eyes shining with a strong fighting spirit. "However, compared to an old man like me, outpaced by time, Hydra has probably developed well. We might be facing a challenge!"
"Isn't life all about one challenge after another?" Bucky said, his eyes gleaming.
As the elderly duo decided to search for Hydra and continue their decades-old unfinished business, Hydra wasn't sitting idle either.
In a secret base of Hydra, Baron Strucker was furiously ranting over a phone conference. He had painstakingly cultivated ten animal warriors who could communicate and follow orders, only to have them all killed. How could he not be infuriated?
Cultivating these ten animal warriors cost countless experimental subjects, not to mention those defective products that died soon after transformation.
Robert thought there was no difference between the two batches of animal warriors, but that was a conclusion from a power standpoint. Baron Strucker had invested so much effort to make these animal warriors more controllable and durable...
Today's five updates of ten thousand words are dedicated to our supporters. Thank you for your votes and recommendations. I appreciate it~ We're close to reaching the power list requirements, but the average subscriptions are dropping. I'll see how to adjust without affecting the update frequency...
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