Chapter 170: A Pure Heart

The three people who appeared later were far less attention-grabbing than Captain America and Iron Man.

However, Gu Chongyan, who was observing from the shadows, almost dropped his jaw in shock. Others might not know, but how could he not?

Who could the subsequent three individuals be if not Hawkeye (Clinton Barton), the Hulk (Bruce Banner), and the Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff)?

Aside from Thor, who was far away in Asgard, almost the entire roster of the original six Avengers was now present.

With the Fantastic Four and the Avengers combined, Doctor Doom truly lived up to his reputation as one of Marvel's most classic villains. Right out of the gate, he faced an all-star lineup—what an absolute spectacle.

The continuous, one-after-another appearance of these reinforcements finally exhausted the last shred of patience Doom had managed to maintain since Captain America's entrance.

"A bunch of rabble! No one can stop me from taking back what belongs to me. You all are going to die!"

Blue electrical currents spread outward from his body once more, bolts of electricity shooting out like unleashed swords, sweeping wildly in all directions.

"Tony, Banner, prepare to attack! Clinton, provide ranged interference! Natasha, evacuate the civilians! Operation, begin!"

Captain America rapidly issued his orders, raising his shield and charging straight toward Doom as he spoke.

Rushing toward surges of electrical current with a conductive metal shield looked for all the world like a suicidal move.

In reality, however, Vibranium possessed the ability to absorb energy. Captain America's shield, in particular, was a precision-engineered special product of the Shield Brotherhood. Though it appeared to be merely a Vibranium shield, its internal structure was designed to maximize the metal's energy-absorbing capacity.

Over all these years, only a single shield of this kind had ever been forged.

The violent currents crashing against the shield were simply absorbed, failing to transfer through to Captain America or inflict any secondary harm upon him.

Bracing against the raging electricity, Captain America quickly closed the distance to Doom. With a slight bend in his knees, he sprang forward like a coiled spring, his agile frame weaving impeccably through the gaps in the electrical arcs.

He tightened the muscles in his right arm and unleashed a ferocious strike, swinging his shield downward with immense force. A resounding metallic clang echoed through the air as the circular shield slammed heavily onto Doom's head.

Bang!

With a deafening crash, Doom, who had been levitating in mid-air, was driven straight down into the earth by the blow, leaving behind a human-shaped crater in the solid ground.

Seeing this, Tony followed up closely. Spreading his hands apart, he fired two golden-red laser beams from his palms, unleashing them mercilessly upon Doom.

Meanwhile, Dr. Banner let out a roar, his body expanding amidst the furious bellow. His muscles, piled high like mountains, instantly burst through the plaid shirt he wore.

Only the elastic trousers—which looked suspiciously like the same model worn by the Thing—managed to steadfastly protect the Hulk's modesty even after Banner's waistline expanded severalfold.

Upon transforming into the Hulk, Dr. Banner—or rather, the Hulk himself—felt a rage burning far more intensely than Doom's.

Roaring furiously, he charged toward Doom like an out-of-control tank, every massive footprint leaving a deep depression in the ground, while his basketball-sized fists rained down mercilessly upon Doom's head.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Punch after punch landed solidly. If not for the fact that Doom's body had been metallized, he likely would have been beaten into a pulp of flesh by the Hulk's iron fists long ago.

Being attacked one after another completely infuriated Doom.

"Get away from me, all of you!"

Accompanied by the man's loud roar, countless electrical currents brimming with immense energy instantly swept across the entire battlefield.

Amidst the thunderous electromagnetic field, Iron Man felt his body lose control in a fraction of a second. His previously fluid movements were instantly hindered by the intense electrical currents, and his armor began to malfunction, trembling violently.

The Hulk's massive physique was likewise blasted high into the air by the raging electromagnetism. Unable to fly, he thrashed his arms and legs about laboriously, attempting to regain control over his out-of-control body.

Captain America was similarly blown away by the colossal force, but fortunately, the Invisible Woman had recovered a significant portion of her strength by then. Spotting him, she hurriedly activated her invisibility force field to catch him.

"Thanks!"

Without looking back, Captain America offered a word of gratitude before raising his shield and charging toward Doom once again.

Whether it was because the shield-bearing Captain America made him particularly hateful, the enraged Doom hovered in the air, his hands acting like energy emitters as they discharged countless tiny electrical orbs.

Blue orbs of lightning burst forth from his hands, falling like a collapsing galaxy, continuously pouring down onto Captain America's shield.

Bang, bang, bang! The sounds of explosion were incessant. Amidst the bursting blue lightning, everyone could only witness the massive arcs of blue electricity raging and expanding, dyeing half the block in an azure glow.

Within the blue current, Captain America held his red-and-white shield high, his left foot forward and right foot back in a half-lunge. He was pushed back step by step under the impact of the thunder, his boots carving two shallow trenches into the ground before he finally managed to halt this wave of assaults.

"Huh? What is this?"

Witnessing this scene, a ripple stirred in Gu Chongyan's heart, and a flash of surprise crossed his eyes.

When it came to Captain America's nicknames, the most famous ones were undoubtedly "America's Ass" and "Cap, the Fifty-Fifty Man."

The former referred to Captain America's near-flawless physique, while the latter implied that as the Marvel Cinematic Universe progressed, Captain America's conventional hand-to-hand combat skills were increasingly starting to fall short.

Especially with the birth of Tony's Mark 50 and 85 armors, as well as the arrival of Thor's Stormbreaker, Captain America's conventional combat style seemed increasingly out of touch with the times.

Yet, in the films, Captain America seemed endowed with a special attribute—a forced "fifty-fifty" stalemate.

No matter how tricky or formidable the opponent he encountered, Captain America always seemed capable of trading blows with them, frequently reducing the battlefield to a fierce stalemate.

Consequently, throughout the series, Captain America fought ordinary grunts to a fifty-fifty draw, the Winter Spider to a fifty-fifty draw, Spider-Man to a fifty-fifty draw, and even Thanos to a fifty-fifty draw.

Beyond that, Captain America seemed to possess a "taunt" attribute tied to his shield.

That is, as long as he held the shield and the shield remained unbroken, enemies were somehow unable to bypass it to attack him.

Most of these were simply running jokes among Marvel fans, but right now, Gu Chongyan realized that the matter might not be so simple.

The moment Captain America raised his shield to meet the explosive thunder, Gu Chongyan sensed an unprecedented psychic energy emanating from him.

This psychic energy was not overwhelmingly powerful, but it was exceptionally pure.

It was so pure that had Gu Chongyan not been a psion, he wouldn't even have been able to perceive its psychic nature.

This nearly one-hundred-percent pure psychic energy caused a strength defying conventional explanation to erupt from Captain America the very second he raised his shield.

Under the influence of this power, both Captain America's physical conditioning and the shield in his hand acquired extraordinary capabilities.

And it was precisely because of this power that even thunder of such dense proportions was successfully blocked by Captain America.