Ch60. Ivan Vanko

Tony knew what he had to do. He couldn't fight Vanko in the midst of all these people and he had no doubt Vanko would have no care for collateral damage in the least.

In the past, the man had no qualms with slashing the cars of other racers in half while they were going around three hundred and sixty kilometers per hour just because he had no idea in which car was Tony.

Then Vanko set off killer drones and made them shoot into the audience at the Stark Expo in hopes to hit Tony. That alone made the Expo a glaring failure because of how many people died there.

Tony had no reason to believe this would be any different. He had no reason to believe Vanko would not start brandishing his whips around, bisecting people left and right without a care in the world.

Natasha quickly hopped off Tony's lap and ran towards the exit leading out of the room while Tony also hurriedly stood up and quickly ran towards another exit, one leading onto the racing track where the rich sponsors were supposed to get an audience with the winner after the race.

Unfortunately, Tony couldn't go in any other direction as people were everywhere, crowding the place to the brim. Only the middle of the racing track was an empty plain of grass where Tony could lure Vanko and not worry about him killing the bystanders.

When Vanko saw Tony running away, he threw the tray he was holding away, causing the drinks to spill on a nearby snob, and chased after Tony, knocking down people left and right as he tried to get them out of his way.

Naturally, the bodyguards were also present in the room but before they realized there was a commotion, Vanko was already exiting the room, hot on Tony's heels.

As Tony ran through the racing track, passing through the road and going deeper into the grassy plain in the middle, he inwardly thanked for Natasha forcing him to exercise more because running so much would have been a problem otherwise.

Not that Tony was not fit previously, because he totally was!

But he would have been a huffing and puffing mess after the run and that simply wouldn't do considering the restriction all the audience had posed.

Tony could not use the Mystic Arts in front of so many people. Nor did he want to reveal his Iron Man golems or suits earlier than necessary. That would bring him so many problems... and Vanko was not worth it.

'I will have to play dodge the whip until Natasha does her part, won't I?' Tony morosely thought as he stopped in the middle of the grassy plain and waited, watching Vanko finally catching up.

'Damn, this was an incredibly stupid idea.' Tony realized. He felt naked, unable to use his biggest advantages while his opponent wanted to kill him.

The worst part, he had nobody but himself to blame for this situation. Sometimes being arrogant sucked despite it being so much fun...

Vanko stopped a few feet away from Tony, breathing hard from all the running, and asked with a grin, "Ready to die, Stark?"

Tony dryly chuckled, "If I say no will you turn back and go home? Pretty please?"

Vanko's reply was a derisive grunt as his upper shirt burned and fell apart, revealing his arc reactor and the vest that spread its energy towards the whips he previously pulled out from his pockets.

Tony had to admit, the idea was good for a close combat weapon.

The design, energy source, and wiring have been quite atrociously interlocked and Vanko's style plainly sucked hard but the concept in itself was solid.

"Oh, kinky! Unfortunately..." Tony started and was promptly forced to dodge as Vanko brandished his right energy whip at him.

Hitting the ground, Tony rolled to the side and sprang back to his feet in preparation for the follow-up attack.

Vanko seemed a bit surprised Tony managed to dodge so Tony quickly made use of his momentary hesitation to shout, "Oi! I am not into BDSM!"

That apparently earned him more of Vanko's ire as he swung his left whip at Tony.

Because of its reach, dodging a whip was extremely hard. Dodging an energy whip that would go right through the human body like a knife through butter though... now that was a real challenge.

Tony barely managed to throw himself to the side onto the ground into a barrel roll as the whip passed above him.

As he got back onto his feet, Vanko was already in the motion of swinging his other whip at him and Tony inwardly groaned. This was becoming quite a strenuous workout for him.

Nevertheless, Tony once again jumped forward, rolling onto the ground, wondering if he will be forced to use the nanobot clothes on himself to protect himself. While that would not bring as many problems as bonafide metal armor, it would still get the attention of several high-ranked unsavory individuals who will try to get a piece of that cake.

'Natasha... any time now if you please.' Tony grumpily thought as he stood up, ready for another whiplash.

At least, he was completely safe since the warded necklace around his neck would prevent damage if the whip landed. This was reckless enough to do it without any condo-, er, protective measures.

...

It took Natasha some time until she found a people-free place after she ran out of the spectator area. Even the toilets were full of people, whether those who needed to go or those that used them for different purposes.

Eventually, she got fed up when she burst into the third lady's toilets and heard moaning coming from a closed stall.

Risking it, she opened the portal and hopped home. At worst, someone would be proclaimed crazy if he or she started spouting nonsense about magic.

Finally at home, Natasha made a beeline towards the pre-prepared case and ported out onto an empty roof a kilometer away from the racing track.

She opened the case and got to work, swiftly and nimbly putting together a sniper rifle.

Finally ready, Natasha looked through the scope and inwardly cursed when she saw Tony barely evading Vanko's whiplashes, tired and annoyed.

When she prepared her rifle, she thought she could end this before it became a problem but apparently, she slightly miscalculated.

It warmed her heart that Tony trusted her to deal with Vanko so he didn't start using his nanobot clothes. But from the way he looked, he was not far from doing just that.

Aiming at Vanko's head, Natasha ruthlessly shot, her heart fresh out of mercy for daring to try killing her lover.

...

Tony's body ached, his lungs screaming at him in displeasure. He was dodging Vanko for five minutes now and wondered why nobody helped him yet.

Wasn't there supposed to be a literal army of bodyguards with pistols or something?

It wasn't like Vanko had full-body armor! Heck, the dude was practically half-naked! One bullet and he would be out of commission.

But apparently, the show was too enthralling to put a stop to it.

Retarded people...

With each missed whiplash, Vanko was more and more angry, trying to hit Tony with increasing ferocity while Tony tried to get closer to him but the length of his whips prevented that quite easily.

Tony was watching Vanko, preparing to lunge out of the way of his next attack when Vanko's head suddenly snapped back, followed by his body that slowly bell backward.

All tension suddenly left Tony as he flopped onto his ass and let out a relieved sigh.

'Finally. Took you long enough, Nat.' He thought as he sprawled on the grass, greedily taking in the air.

This took a lot out of him and preferably he would have his afternoon workouts on the lighter side.

"Never gonna play hero again." Tony grumbled.

He only did this because Vanko was targeting him and it would have left a bad taste in his mouth to leave bystanders to get hurt because of that. But such stupidity... he decided he will never do it again.

"Being a hero sucks." He added to strengthen his conviction.