CHAPTER 536: CHAPTER 536: GREAT MENTOR TONY?

Ethan covered his face. He suspected Tony had wanted to run up to Bruce and say that from the very moment he arrived in this world.

"I can’t believe you held back until now."

Ignoring Ethan’s muttered complaint, Tony, clad in his Iron Man suit, stood before Bruce.

Bruce, standing opposite, looked at the strange suit with a hint of surprise.

"Magic?"

There was no way the Iron Man suit could just appear out of thin air. Considering the magic mentioned earlier, Bruce’s first thought was that Tony had used mystical means to store his equipment.

"It’s nanotechnology."

"Purely a product of technology?"

Bruce was a little surprised. He had initially thought Tony, like Ethan, was skilled in mystical arts. Although Tony had shown extensive knowledge, proving a deep understanding of modern technology, Bruce hadn’t thought about it more deeply.

And just now, he had said he wanted to reintroduce himself... Iron Man? Was that his hero name?

"Want to spar?"

Tony made a slight "bring it on" gesture. Although the amplified voice from the Iron Man suit didn’t sound provocative, everyone felt like he was practically begging Bruce to charge at him.

Bruce didn’t hesitate for too long. In fact, he had a similar thought. He also wanted to test his current abilities.

"But if we fight here, won’t there be too little space?"

"You don’t need to worry about that," Tony said without turning around, giving Ethan a small wave. "It’s up to you, Ethan."

Ethan didn’t argue. It was impossible to stop Tony at this point. Sometimes he was like a willful child, and with Ethan watching, he wouldn’t cause too much trouble.

Besides, Ethan could see Bruce was itching for a fight too, so why spoil the fun?

With a slight lift of his hand, transparent, glass-like walls appeared out of thin air. As he waved his left hand, the walls swept from one side of the Batcave to the other.

Alfred stood quietly to the side, watching in awe. The transparent walls swept straight through Tony and Bruce as if they were illusions, not touching them at all.

He then realized the area they stood in seemed enclosed by uneven glass.

Bruce was also observing. Compared to Alfred looking around, he noticed that although the ground looked the same as before, it also gave him the feeling of being "behind a layer of glass."

"This is a Mirror Dimension."

Tony, standing opposite, gave a brief introduction.

"It’s like a world inside a mirror, a small pocket dimension. Any destruction here won’t affect the real world."

Bruce nodded. He understood the purpose of this space. It was very suitable for combat or carrying out dangerous experiments. For mages, it could probably also be used to practice riskier spells.

"Come on, let me see what you’ve got!"

Tony felt quite superior standing before the young Batman. He had been a superhero for several years already and had far more combat experience than Bruce.

Although he lacked the life-or-death battles of his original cinematic storyline, his strength was already much greater than the original Iron Man’s.

Even without considering his increasingly powerful arcane magic, the Iron Man suit itself was stronger.

In the original story, the nano-suit had only been used in combat against Ebony Maw. But the current Tony had used the nano-suit many times and had been continuously improving and upgrading it.

Especially the weapons. The firepower equipped on this suit was enough for Tony to easily wipe out an army.

In comparison, Bruce was only wearing a Batsuit modified from protective gear. His weapons were just a grapnel gun, homemade Batarangs, and blades on his gauntlets.

These couldn’t even scratch Tony’s armor. Even without the energy shield, ordinary metal weapons couldn’t pierce the hardened shell.

Bruce had trained in many martial arts, stealth, and assassination techniques. But unless he mastered energy and could bypass the armor’s protection to inflict internal damage, ordinary punches and kicks were useless against Tony.

What was even more unfortunate was that The Dark Knight Trilogy world was ordinary, with no energy-based power systems.

And so, the sparring became one-sided. This was less a fight than Tony Stark showing off his arsenal. Even without magic, the gadgets on his suit left Bruce struggling.

Alfred, watching from the side, grew displeased. He felt Tony was simply cheating. A shield taller than a man appearing with just a wave of his hand left Bruce, who lacked comparable gear, completely helpless.

Then came small missiles (though they didn’t explode), a machine gun glowing blue (using electromagnetic propulsion to fire metal particles, adjusted so as not to seriously harm Bruce but still painful if hit), and even a sonic disruptor that severely threw off Bruce’s balance.

Under these conditions, the sparring ended quickly.

Tony had naturally held back. He didn’t use magic, and many functions of his hybrid suit weren’t activated. But this suit was no longer purely technological. Its machine gun core was powered by magical energy, not technology, so completely avoiding magic was impossible.

And Jarvis’s program to analyze Bruce’s fighting style and calculate counter-moves wasn’t even needed.

Tony, in his suit, didn’t need any special moves. Any casual punch was something Bruce couldn’t parry. In the original storyline, the Winter Soldier and Captain America were super soldiers with enhanced physiques.

Tony, having disengaged the nano-suit, now stood before a disheveled Bruce. But instead of looking smug, he frowned, examining the badly damaged Batsuit.

Even while holding back, the suit couldn’t withstand his attacks and was wrecked. The large cape was shredded into rags, the mask and cowl shattered, losing all concealment. Even the voice changer was broken, forcing Bruce to remove it.

"Your gear is even worse than I expected."

Bruce could only smile bitterly. When he saw the heavy Iron Man suit, he had known he stood little chance, especially in direct combat.

But he didn’t complain. He knew if he wanted to carry out his plan, head-on confrontations like this were inevitable. He wouldn’t blame an opponent for being too strong. He only thought about how to deal with such powerful enemies.

"Indeed, there are quite a few issues to address."

Bruce had seen that Tony wasn’t going all out. He didn’t believe those toy-like missiles were what Tony would use in a real battle, or bullets that only caused pain but weren’t lethal.

After reflecting, he realized that aside from avoiding direct fights with heavily armed opponents, he needed better equipment to at least protect himself against such firepower.

The sonic weapon also made him wary. He needed better defenses against it.

In fact, he even thought about acquiring one himself. The weapon’s disruptive ability was excellent, making it useful for crowd control. Against a large group of enemies, tossing out a sonic emitter could throw them into chaos and create openings.

After this simple sparring session, or rather one-sided beating, Bruce realized many of his shortcomings. He gradually understood that if he wanted to grow stronger, relying only on existing equipment was far from enough.

Tony seemed to notice his thoughts and offered advice.

"I have dozens of Iron Man suits. Do you know where they all came from?"

Bruce stayed quiet, watching Tony, waiting for him to continue.

"I built them all myself."

Although Bruce didn’t react strongly, the flash of surprise on his face still gave Tony a sense of satisfaction.

"I think you can do that too."

At this point, Ethan deactivated the Mirror Dimension, and Alfred brought out a first-aid kit to tend to Bruce’s injuries. No matter how much Tony held back, scrapes and bruises were unavoidable.

But Ethan directly handed Bruce a small glass vial. Looking at the red liquid inside, Bruce didn’t hesitate. He drank it, then casually pocketed the vial, which still had a single drop left.

As his wounds and bruises vanished before their eyes, Alfred was no longer surprised. He calmly put the first-aid kit away.

"It seems I still have a lot to learn."

Hearing this, Tony suddenly grew excited and clapped Bruce on the shoulder.

"If there’s anything you don’t understand, just ask me. I’d be happy to answer any questions you have."

Ethan glanced at Tony, grinning mischievously, and suddenly suspected that this guy hadn’t come here to chat with Batman at all, but had really come to be his teacher.

(To be continued.)