Chapter 8: Ambush (2/2)
“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.