บท 8: Ambush
บรรณาธิการ: Tehrn
To Wang Tong’s dismay, bloody lessons didn't stop coming. Instead, they followed one after another. Over the month, Wang Tong had been injured more than twenty times; almost an average of once a day. Like many other things in life, Wang Tong found that fighting Zergs without getting wounded was harder said than done. In a real life situation, anything could go wrong. Nevertheless, Wang Tong had survived and had since then acted more mature during a fight.
The lower tier Zergs that were scattered around the mine cave had been picked off cleanly by Wang Tong. A few days ago, Wang Tong even killed an airborne Zerg, the kind that liked to scoop a human high up into the air, and listened joyfully while falling humans screamed in despair. This particular one was on patrol while it was skewered by Wang Tong with an iron rebar.
The vicinity of the mine cave, an area of about one mile from the mine in all directions, had become a safe zone. With his increased ability and clear understanding of the Zergs’ capabilities, Wang Tong would be able to fight his way out even under an ambush of five to six Zergs.
Wang Tong was lectured by Wannabe for his mistakes after almost every single battle, although Wang Tong felt indignant at the time, he knew Wannabe was right, and that Wannabe was looking after him in his own way.
Once, Wang Tong was injured at the same spot for the same reason, Wannabe furiously scolded him: "Humans make mistakes from time to time, but only idiots make the same one!"
Wang Tong wanted to talk back, after all, he was a human, not a machine, he would not be able to follow Wannabe's instructions meticulously without any errors, especially when he was under immense pressure on the battle ground. But as soon as Wang Tong saw Wannabe's blackened face that had irritation and anger written all over it, he swallowed his pride and didn't dare to speak up against him.
If one is determined to succeed, he will always find a way.
Wang Tong had never easily given up on anything ever since he was little. Other's criticism never deterred him but only served to motivate him to try even harder.
Once, when Wang Tong was still a little boy, he was scolded harshly by Old Fart for not trying his hardest while practicing the tactic. To Old Fart’s surprise, his scornful actions didn’t scare nor deter little Wang Tong; it only stirred up more ambition and determination in him.
Wang Tong refused to make excuses for himself; he believed that he could do anything if he put his mind into it.
Wang Tong had defeated all of the surrounding Zergs and had created a safe zone around the mine; however, this had only given Wannabe an excuse to sneer at him for being overly confident after a few triumphs over bottom tier enemies. Wang Tong had hardly felt the urge to celebrate after Wannabe repeatedly doused Wang Tong’s inflated ego with ice cold smirks. But occasionally Wang Tong boasted about his victory to Charcoal; he was a young boy after all and needed someone to celebrate and commemorate his achievements.
To be fair, Wang Tong had already achieved the unthinkable. He had neither GN power nor METAL suit, with only his bare fists he had slaughtered Zergs with ease. It might seem like a morning stroll to a grand master, but not to a boy who was only a fifteen and a half years old.
Wang Tong patrolled his territory every day, and the size of the safe zone had been increasing. Charcoal had taken on the duty of tending to the communication radio. There had been no signals from the orbital space, only violent explosions in the sky indicating that the conflicts between the humans and the Zergs had become a stalemate.
This day Wang Tong was on his routine patrol inside his safe zone when he suddenly sensed danger and stopped. As he took the time to study the situation with the aid of all of his six senses, he quickly realized that he had walked right into an ambush.
He had finally paid for his continuous killing spree. The airborne Zerg Wang Tong had skewered a few weeks ago must have been a member of a scout team. After the scout team detected Wang Tong as an immediate threat, with the price of one of its members, they quickly swung their forces towards the mine to eliminate this menace once and for all.
There were too many Zergs for Wang Tong to count; Wang Tong estimated roughly in his mind that there were at least a few hundred Zergs surrounding him. He was doomed unless he started running right then.
The Zergs seemed to have sensed Wang Tong's fear, and they swarmed towards him. Before Wang Tong was able to take his first step towards the mine, he found himself already surrounded by Zergs in a quickly shrinking circle.
Mr. Wannabe emerged out of the crystal, and bawled out: "I told you to always be on high alert, you idiot! Even I had to do that, never mind rookies like you!"
Although the Zergs were large in number, Wang Tong knew that he would be able to escape thanks to his speed. The ambush must have been well planned; the Zergs had set their ambushing parties far away to avoid detection, and that explained why Wang Tong had not noticed them.
Charcoal could not run as fast as Wang Tong, and he fell far behind Wang Tong seconds after they started running.
Wang Tong turned his face back and saw the swarm of Zergs behind his fumbling companion. He regretted bringing Charcoal out with him; he had indeed grown overconfident like Wannabe had said:
“Remember always to expect your enemies' unexpectedness and act unexpectedly.”
Wang Tong finally understood the meaning of one of Wannabe's lectures that had seemed like gibberish at the time. In light of this new insight, he stopped and turned around to face the swarms of bugs.
"Hold on Kiddo, what are you doing? You’re not gonna-" Before Wannabe finished his sentence, Wang Tong bolted towards Charcoal and the Zergs behind.
"Hold…Hold on, you moron! Charcoal is just a robot, you are gonna get both of us killed!" Wannabe shrieked angrily in disbelief, “You are acting like a little fool. A professional soldier would know the rules of the battlefield: ‘do not risk your own skin for anyone on the battlefield, not even a sibling, let alone a useless robot’.”
Wang Tong shut off the space crystal with one flick of his pinky finger; he had no time for squabbles.
Although Charcoal was a low tier robot, he was still equipped with basic AI, such as the AI that mimics human emotions. The AI program “fear” had been called into Charcoal’s mainframe since the ambush party appeared, under the effect of the program “fear”, Charcoal ran as fast as he could. But when Charcoal saw Wang Tong was running towards him, he fumbled and almost fell to the ground.
"Master, the other way! Danger! Danger!"
Charcoal waved his set of mechanical arms strenuously in the air; he acted according to the first law of robotics: “To warn and to protect humans in times of danger”.
Wang Tong didn't say a word; he was too focused on his current task: to save Charcoal. What Wannabe had said about Charcoal, that he was not worth saving had irritated Wang Tong. Wang Tong knew that without Charcoal's care and attention, Wang Tong would have already been dead by now.
Screw the rules of the battlefield, the only rule he followed then was to let Charcoal live.
"Zushhh."
Wang Tong leaped towards a Zerg and hit its head. Before he had fully retracted his fist out of the rice bowl sized hole, he had thrown his body against another Zerg and punched another hole; brain matter splattered out from the hole. "Charcoal, run as fast as you can! This is your order!"
Wang Tong figured that as long as Charcoal could break out of the encirclement, he could then easily outrun the Zergs himself.
Charcoal wanted to help Wang Tong, but he had to obey his orders as well.
Leap...punch...leap...punch... with every punch, Wang Tong delivered a Zerg to its maker. But after having repeated the process ten times or so, Wang Tong felt his EMF starting to respond sluggishly.
There were simply too many of them.
"Czennn..." A giant claw nearly grazed Wang Tong, two more followed immediately. Wang Tong had been pushed into a corner, defending against only frontal assaults. Wang Tong saw from the corner of his eye as two shadowy claws hacked towards him from the side. Wang Tong wanted to dodge but felt like his body was too heavy to move. His EMF must have been drained after the continuous intense outbursts of soul energy.
He realized it was then too late to avoid the attack. He only managed to maneuver his body to the side hoping the angle would deflect some impact from the vital parts of his body.
"Khommm."
Wang Tong's body flew a few paces away at the impact; he felt excruciating pain as he thudded on the ground. His body stiffened, and he couldn’t even lift a finger.
Without GN power, he had to use only soul energy from his EMF, which under normal circumstances, was mainly used as stimulation for GN power. Soul energy alone was enough to handle only a few Zergs, but it fell short in combat with Zergs in such large numbers. Wang Tong knew that he had reached his limit.
The Zergs sensed the location of the immobilized Wang Tong as they closed in on him in a circle. The Zerg who had attacked Wang Tong from the side raised his two claws again, this time they were not at Wang Tong’s side, but raised high up in the air pointing directly at Wang Tong's eyes.
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