Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Rowan landed punch after punch on the Destroyer Armor. While enjoying the thrill of the fight, he couldn't help but admit—this so-called Asgardian trump card was definitely something else.
It wasn't like that first-gen hunk of junk, the Iron Monger, which had blown apart with a single punch.
Compared to his fight with Iron Monger, Rowan's current combat power had grown significantly. And yet, even now, simply relying on melee wasn't enough to bring the Destroyer down quickly.
Meanwhile, back in Asgard, Loki stood dumbfounded.
He had never seen anyone withstand the power of the Destroyer Armor. Not even his father, King Odin, had done so—though Odin was close.
Normally, when the Destroyer joined a battle, it could turn the tide singlehandedly. This was evident in Asgard's history of wars across the Nine Realms.
Over the years, the Nine Realms under Asgardian rule had remained mostly stable, though small-scale conflicts and skirmishes never truly ceased.
Otherwise, where had Thor been spending all his time fighting?
Usually, Thor alone was enough to take down weaker alien civilizations—his Mjolnir was absurdly powerful.
And if even Thor couldn't get it done? They sent in the Destroyer.
In those cases, it typically flattened more formidable civilizations. That's why the Destroyer was considered one of Asgard's ultimate trump cards.
But now, here it was—getting thrashed by Rowan.
Rowan's strength seemed endless. Though the Destroyer Armor managed to put up a fight, in reality, it was being utterly overpowered—beaten without the slightest ability to retaliate. Its only defense was occasionally blasting out beams of terrifying energy from its head, and Rowan didn't even bother dodging them. He just took the hits and kept fighting.
The only reason the Destroyer Armor had held up so far was because it was forged by dwarves from rare cosmic metals, then inscribed with divine runes by Odin himself—runes that carried universal principles and immense energy.
That's what let it endure this long.
Still, Rowan's punches were already warping its form. If Rowan had a weapon like Mjolnir in hand right now, he might have already cracked the Destroyer open like an egg.
No matter how sophisticated something looks, it's useless in front of overwhelming brute strength.
Rowan didn't rely on technique—he simply steamrolled his enemies. Even Phil Coulson and the others could tell that Rowan had never formally trained in combat arts.
He fought with raw strength alone, leaning entirely on his godlike physique—a bully's brawling style through and through.
Everyone recognized it. This kind of approach even had a nickname: "Wang Ba Quan."
The old saying goes that "youth beats experience in boxing," but that only applies when someone uses technique.
Rowan wasn't interested in finesse. He just overpowered everything.
Nick Fury watched the entire scene unfold and concluded that Rowan truly was just an ordinary man from outside the fourth wall.
That matched S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal psychological profiling: Rowan was, at heart, a regular guy who'd accidentally come into immense power.
He didn't have the spirit of a selfless savior, but he was kind in his own way—willing to protect the peace in the neighborhoods around him.
All in all, he was just a very normal person. If anything made him stand out, it was that he was now wealthy (thanks to Tony Stark), ridiculously strong, and—well, extremely handsome.
But on the flip side, this also meant Rowan had not yet reached the peak of his potential. If he were to receive real combat training, his power would undoubtedly climb even higher.
He had so much room to grow.
S.H.I.E.L.D. also deduced that Rowan's increase in strength wasn't from concealment, but from actual improvement over time.
After all, what reason did he have to hide his true power?
Who was even watching closely enough to notice?
From what they could tell, Rowan didn't even realize people like Nick Fury were observing him. He probably just chalked up all the deviations to the butterfly effect.
A butterfly flapping its wings in South America could cause a storm across the Pacific.
Nick Fury understood that concept, too. Rowan seemed to interpret the world as a branching Marvel multiverse. Comics, animations, TV shows, alternate versions—everything formed parallel timelines.
Even the cinematic universe gave birth to spin-off timelines that could be discarded at any moment.
And knowing about the Time Variance Authority, Rowan wasn't surprised by any of it. He'd already seen a Scarlet Witch massacre the Illuminati in another dimension. A bit of timeline chaos was hardly disturbing anymore.
After Kang's death, who knew how many branches had split across the universe?
So, even if Rowan felt a bit strange about things, he could live with it.
Back in the present, as Nick Fury contemplated all of this, Rowan was having the time of his life in the sky.
Every punch he landed on the Destroyer lit up with golden light—those divine runes Odin had carved into its surface.
That's what made the Destroyer Armor so formidable.
It wasn't just the material—cosmic metals that were virtually impossible to find—it was also the divine inscriptions that gave it its magical side.
There wasn't even a core reactor or energy source inside. And yet, it had lasted this long against Rowan.
That alone proved how terrifying the Destroyer really was.
If Tony Stark's Mark III armor took a punch from Rowan? It'd be scattered to the winds in an instant.
They weren't even in the same league.
Eventually, after countless blows, the golden glow began to flicker and fade.
Odin's divine energy within the runes was finally depleted.
And with one last crushing punch, Rowan shattered the Destroyer Armor mid-air, sending its pieces plummeting from the sky.
Boom!
Just like that, the battle ended.
Rowan descended slowly.
Even he had burned through a bit of energy during the fight—but within a few breaths, he had recovered.
If not for the thunderclouds blocking the sunlight, he wouldn't have lost anything at all. In direct sunlight, he could heal while fighting.
"It's over," Rowan said, gazing at the sky.
He knew Loki was watching through the Bifrost. This was his warning shot.
Though Rowan didn't want to get tangled in too many affairs, it was better for Loki to play things safe from now on.
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