"What are they doing in there?"
"They're definitely not building missiles!"
"Forget that. Open the door!"
A burst of urgent shouting came from outside, pulling Tony Stark's attention toward the entrance.
"Oh no. They found us."
Yinsen's heart immediately leaped into his throat. Inside the heavy armor, his body had already begun to tremble slightly.
Every one of those terrorists was a brutal killer. The suit still had not activated, and if they broke in now, what waited for him and Tony would be an even crueler round of torture.
Beep. Beep.
Hearing the footsteps outside getting closer and closer, Tony calmly turned around, gritted his teeth, and forced himself to start loading the operating system into the armor.
The steady alert tones rang out as the progress bar began to move.
Bang bang bang!
"Break the door down!"
Tony had already locked the door from the inside with a device, so it could not be opened easily from the outside.
After peering through the viewing slot and realizing he could not tell what the two men were doing inside, the man in charge immediately ordered them to breach it.
"Come on. Faster!"
The iron door had never been especially sturdy to begin with, and under that level of force, it was already on the verge of collapse.
Tony clenched his hands tightly, praying over and over for the progress bar to move just a little faster.
Boom!
At last, with a deafening crash, the double iron doors gave way and fell.
Fortunately, Tony had anticipated that possibility long ago. The high explosives he had set by the entrance detonated at once.
In the ear-splitting blast, a powerful shockwave and an intense burst of heat erupted outward, hurling the terrorists outside off their feet and slamming them into the hard stone walls.
"Bomb!"
"Go check it out! See what happened!"
"Grab your weapons and move!"
"No. It's too late..." The explosion failed to stop the rest of them. Tony turned back. With the doors no longer protecting them, the dense pounding footsteps from outside the cave sounded even harsher.
And even now, the progress bar had only just reached about sixty percent.
"Yinsen, I'm going to buy you time."
Tony closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath.
A faint stab of pain was spreading from his heart. At that moment, his hands were trembling slightly from weakness.
When he opened his eyes again, there was no hesitation left in them.
"Live."
Tony lightly patted Yinsen on the shoulder, casually picked up an AK that one of the terrorists had dropped by the doorway, and charged for the entrance without looking back.
Bang bang bang!
With his miserable aim and his body already weak and failing him, Tony had not even finished one magazine before the rifle muzzle was already drifting almost up into the sky.
"Tony!"
After three months spent side by side, the bond between them had grown deep. Watching Tony stagger out of the cave, barely able to hold the rifle steady, Yinsen shut his eyes in pain inside the armor.
Listening to the fierce gunfire outside, along with the occasional explosions, there was nothing he could do now except wait silently for the suit to finish booting up.
"Watch the ricochets! Fall back! Fall back!"
"This guy's insane!"
"Stop shoving me! Why are you shoving me?!"
Amid the terrified shouting, Yinsen was frantic with worry.
"Come on... faster! Faster!"
Time dragged on little by little. After what felt like an eternity, the gunfire outside suddenly stopped cold, and with it, all the panicked shouting died into silence.
"No..."
As if realizing something, Yinsen clenched his jaw and balled his fists tightly.
Beep beep!
The computer's alert suddenly rang out. At the exact instant the progress bar completed, the steel beast wrapped around Yinsen seemed to come alive, letting out a series of furious mechanical growls.
"Tony, I'm going to avenge you!"
Blood rushing to his head, Yinsen heaved forward with all his strength. The armor on his body exploded with tremendous power, and the iron chains suspending it snapped free with ease.
Feeling the violent force hidden inside the suit, Yinsen had completely forgotten Tony's final plea for him to survive. Grief and fury surged through him. At that moment, this frail doctor wanted only one thing: to send every last man outside to hell to keep Tony company.
Carrying a heart full of rage and vengeance, that crude-looking steel beast was about to bare its fangs to this absurd world for the very first time.
Boom.
Boom.
Heavy footsteps echoed through the cave. The twisted iron doors lying in his way were kicked aside with ease. As Yinsen slowly passed the narrow bend, the sharp stench of blood flooded into his nose, and the steel fist powered by grief and fury rose high.
"M-monster..."
"There's a monster!"
Several terrified cries suddenly rang out, coming closer and closer, as if some unstoppable horror were chasing them from behind. The man in front, panicked beyond reason, slammed straight into the chest of the steel armor.
"Yeah. I am a monster."
"Die!"
Looking at the tall, broad man with a cloth wrapped around his head and terror all over his face, Yinsen was already so consumed by rage that his mind had gone white-hot. His eyes looked ready to spit fire.
His raised right arm came down without a second thought, carrying horrifying force as it smashed into the man's skull.
Thud!
A dull impact sounded. The man had no time to react. He only saw the cold steel mask before losing consciousness forever.
Even though Yinsen had never seen this kind of bloodshed before, he now felt no fear at all. He turned his gaze toward the remaining men and strode forward.
The suit might have been crude and unfinished, but against a pack of ordinary men already scared out of their minds, it was more than enough.
One. Two...
All Yinsen had to do was swing his arms clumsily, and these flesh-and-blood bodies were crushed with ease.
"Why are there only two of them?"
Instinctively, Yinsen felt that something was wrong. But by now he had already killed his way into a frenzy. He did not think any deeper about it and simply kept striding down the path ahead.
Past the final turn lay a broad open area. In the escape plan they had imagined before, that was supposed to be the last and hardest obstacle.
The armor plate on his left arm opened, and a missile was ready to fire. The moment he saw anyone, that finely made Stark missile would tear their body to pieces without difficulty.
"Die!"
Yinsen took a huge step forward. Bright light spilled in from the cave mouth. Seeing a tall, thin silhouette standing with its back to him in the backlight, Yinsen did not hesitate for even a second. He slammed his thumb down on the launch button.
Boom!
The small missile arrived in an instant and struck the figure dead on.
Haaa...
Seeing that, Yinsen could not help letting out a breath of relief.
"Tony, I didn't fail you. I made it out!"
"Why is it that every one of you likes greeting people with a missile the first time we meet?"
From the thick cloud of smoke left by the explosion, an annoyed voice rang out.
"What?"
Yinsen's advancing steps stopped dead.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]