Chapter 229: Poring 3
Junhyuk realized that the cause of the incident was the poring, and when thinking of it, all of the monsters had green eyes.
"Zaira! Kill the poring! It's the source!"
A voice came from the iron soldier in midair.
[Porings can't be killed with the monster decomposition liquid. We have to use napalm, but we'll destroy the entire building if we do that.]
Junhyuk grimaced. Destroying the building was a problem, but they had to kill the poring.
After thinking for a quick moment, he asked, "If the poring comes up here, would be it possible to prevent burning down the building?"
[You are on the roof. We can throw it off the building first and then explode it. That won't damage the building.]
It would be better if Tsubasa stepped in, but that wasn't his decision. Junhyuk looked at the iron soldier and said, "The poring used other monsters to block the machine gun fire, which means the machine gun can damage it. Bring it here."
Pilot was shocked and asked, "Do you want to let the monster up here?"
"If a napalm bomb went off inside the building, we wouldn't survive. However, we can't possibly allow the monsters to live."
At that moment, the monsters were attacking them, but if the monsters disengaged and went elsewhere, there was no telling what they would do, and the iron soldier couldn't be responsible for that.
The iron soldier zoomed below and fired its missiles, hitting the monsters on the wall of the building. The explosions left a hole on the wall, which the iron soldier used to enter the building.
Junhyuk had the group retreat from the parapet.
"The iron soldier took care of the monsters on the walls, but we still need to watch them for other monsters climbing up."
He looked at Soyeon and added, "You stay here and watch the entrance, the other should find a wall to keep watch over."
Everyone nodded, and Soyeon protested, "I'll take a wall too."
"There is no need. Things aren't stable. Stay here and gather your strength."
"No," she said curtly. "We survived because you made the right decisions. This is the most dangerous place, so you should stay here and watch over it."
Junhyuk patted her shoulder lightly.
"Fine," he said.
The truth was that not only would the poring come through the door, but other monsters would as well, so Junhyuk should stay there waiting.
Soyeon went to the left and kept watch on the movements below. Junhyuk looked around. At that moment, his cell phone rang, but he did not pick it up. The situation was too dangerous to have someone calling him. However, even though he didn't answer, he still heard a voice through the device.
[Why aren't you picking up the phone?]
"Zaira?"
He grabbed his phone and heard the supercomputer.
[I put it on speaker. There are thirteen monsters at the stairs, and the iron soldier is short on ammo.]
He took the call off speaker. The situation wasn't good, and there was no need for the others to hear about it. Junhyuk placed the cell phone against his ear.
"You said you were short on ammo. What about your other weapons?"
[I have five missiles and two napalm bombs remaining.]
Junhyuk let out a long sigh.
"The iron soldier was not properly equipped!"
[This was an emergency deployment. It was supplied with extra ammo, but that was it. That's how the iron soldier has been able to fight so far.]
Junhyuk thought Zaira's AI was very advanced. It was even making excuses.
"Fine. Send the monsters up."
Junhyuk glanced over at Tsubasa. A chain of explosions inside the poring would be the best way to kill it, if she could do it.
There were loud noises coming from the stairwell that Junhyuk could hear.
[It's dangerous.]
"What are you talking about?"
Boom!
Even louder noises rang out, and the pilot shouted, "The iron soldier got pushed back!"
"What happened?!" Junhyuk asked his cell phone.
[The corpses of the monsters grouped up creating a larger monster.]
"What?!"
Another bang rang out by the windows, and the pilot backed off, scared.
"Wh-what is that?"
Junhyuk looked at the stairwell and ran toward it. The iron soldier was holding onto an arm that was about seven meters long. The arm was composed of parts of dead monsters.
"That arm is so long! How big is the monster?" Junhyuk murmured.
It wasn't just a simple monster brought back to life, but a conglomeration of monsters. The palm of the iron soldiers hand shone blue, and a big beam shot out of its arm.
Boom!
The dead pieces making up the arm scattered, and Junhyuk asked the cell phone, "How about the poring?"
[It's moving up. Dealing with this monster is not easy.]
"The beam just now. How about using it on the poring?" he asked.
[The chance of it killing the poring is less than 30 percent.]
"It didn't die with the napalm bomb. It came back to life, which means the bomb might not be the answer," he said.
[Among the weapons the iron soldier is carrying, only the napalm bomb will do the job.]
"Push it out of the building with the beam and then use the bomb on it," he said.
The iron soldier flew up and entered the building again. Because it could fly, it could avoid the other monsters and deal directly with the poring. However, the poring wasn't an easy enemy. More loud noises rang out, and the iron soldier got pushed through the roof. Seeing that, Junhyuk frowned. The iron soldier flew away, making a hole on the roof, and Junhyuk could see another arm made up of dead parts through it.
Just the arm was seven meters long, which meant that the monster had to be at least ten meters tall. Its size shocked him.
"It's almost art."
The iron soldier fired the five missiles, and they all hit the monster and exploded.
Boom!
The monster was killed, and its dead bits flew everywhere. Being made up of other dead monsters, it wasn't that strong. Now, however, the iron soldier only had one napalm bomb left in its arsenal. It could not make any mistakes when dealing with the poring.
The others gathered behind Junhyuk as he observed the situation. He thought the poring would appear through the door, but the giant dead monster's body was being sucked through the hole on the roof.
"Is that the poring?" Junhyuk asked his cell phone.
[It's eating the giant monster.]
"Will it get bigger?"
[Yes, it will.]
Junhyuk sighed. When all of the monster disappeared, a ten-meter tall poring took its place.
"It doesn't look like it has a brain!"
[I'll commence the attack.]
The iron soldier flew at the poring and extended its hands, releasing the blue beam.
Boom!
The impact against the poring was significant, but it did not look like the attack could kill it. The poring bits scattered apart, and two poring headed toward Junhyuk and the other people. In response, Tsubasa ignited the chain of explosions on them.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!
After that, nothing remained of the two, and Junhyuk thought her power worked even better than the napalm bombs.
Tsubasa's cell phone ran, and when she picked it up, she heard Zaira's voice.
[The iron soldier will buy you more time until you power comes off cooldown.]
"How did you know about me?"
[I'll buy you more time.]
Tsubasa frowned, and the iron soldier fired the remaining bullets at the poring.
Rat-at-at-at-tat!
The pieces of poring that had scattered were recomposing themselves. If things continued that way, the iron soldier wouldn't be able to do anything.
It waited for the poring to gather itself up to fire the beam at it. However, instead of sending it out as a beam attack, it gathered the energy into an orb. When the orb entered the poring's body, it exploded.
Boom!
The huge explosion destroyed part of the poring, and only half of it remained. The rest of the parts started gathering themselves up again, and that's when Tsubasa whispered to her phone, "I'm ready."
She waited until the poring bits gathered in one spot and used her power again
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!
The poring exploded again, and the pieces flew all over. Junhyuk took one of the pieces into his hand and looked at it. It was still moving, and he frowned, thinking that they probably all had to be burned.
"Zaira, we have to burn the poring bits!"
[I'm scanning the area.]
The iron soldier took off, and Zaira relayed through his cell phone, [There are 122 poring pieces. Starting collection.]
The iron soldier gathered the other pieces while Junhyuk looked at the one in his hand. He had never seen a monster like that. It revived and ate other monsters, getting bigger in the process.
"It'll be dangerous if more of these show up!"
[Gather the specimen, and we'll come up with a way to fight it.]
"Gather the specimen?"
[It's for later.]
Junhyuk agreed. They needed to be ready for more poring, but he still said, "Be careful. It might revive."
[I know. I'll keep it in small pieces so that it won't get strong.]
Junhyuk looked at the people behind him. They looked frazzled and they walked toward him. However, after seeing the poring bit in his hand, they took a few steps back. The piece was still moving.
"It doesn't look that dangerous," the pilot said.
"Th-that is the monster?"
"Correct."
The iron soldier approached Junhyuk and took the piece from his hand.
"Take the specimen and come up with a countermeasure," he said. Then, he looked at Tsubasa and Soyeon and added, "You did well."
Soyeon shook her head and smiled.
"We didn't do anything?"
Tsubasa stared at Junhyuk. During the last monster attack, he had held the door. Now, he had made all the right calls.
She smiled and said, "You worked hard."
"You worked hard," he said, looking back at her.