Rosha had no intention of fighting this Extremis Virus-enhanced soldier to the death. He had only come here tonight to rescue Norman Osborn's son.
Now that he had more or less accomplished his goal, why risk his life fighting a monster that could be mass-produced with a single injection? This guy wasn't AI CEO Aldrich Killian, after all.
But getting out was a problem. There was only one passage between the first and second basement levels, and all the exits were on the first.
Rosha planned to make a tactical retreat, but Seven had no intention of letting him go.
Since he'd been ambushed, the hostages had obviously already been taken away. If Rosha escaped too, how was Seven supposed to explain that to his boss? Even if he couldn't capture Rosha alive, he had to bring back the body. Otherwise, he'd be in serious trouble himself.
So Seven charged after Rosha, flames blazing in his wake, and followed him into the second basement level.
But as soon as Rosha rounded the corner, he opened fire with his Pulse Pistol, driving Seven back with the explosions. His plan had been to cripple the man first, then slip past him and escape while he recovered.
But Seven seemed much stronger than the other Extremis Virus soldiers Rosha had encountered.
The most obvious difference was that this guy could breathe fire. When the Pulse Energy Blasts came at him, he tanked the first few shots, then opened his mouth and spewed a three-meter-long stream of flames.
Pulse Energy Blasts weren't solid objects, just clumps of high-energy power that exploded on impact. Such energy was naturally unstable, and when it encountered flames several thousand degrees hot, it detonated prematurely.
The prematurely detonated Pulse Energy Blasts could no longer use their explosive force to knock Seven back, leaving Rosha in an awkward predicament.
No matter how powerful the AllSpark equipment was, Rosha still had an ordinary human's physical abilities. If this fire-breathing monster got close, he'd be reduced to ashes in an instant.
Everyone injected with the Extremis Virus had superhuman physical abilities. Rosha couldn't match them in either strength or speed.
Seeing that the Pulse Pistol was useless, Rosha simply holstered it and ran toward the room where the hostages had been held.
"Hmph. Let's see where you can run." Seven was confident in his speed. The second basement level wasn't that big, and if Rosha ran into a narrow space, so much the better. Seven wouldn't even need to attack him. He could just corner Rosha and keep raising the temperature until he couldn't take it and surrendered.
Then Seven could capture Rosha with ease and slowly question him about the hostages' whereabouts.
Rosha didn't see it that way. He did intend to retreat, but he wasn't so afraid of dying that he'd run around blindly.
Despite all the disadvantages he faced, Rosha's eyes showed no trace of panic. He'd been through situations far more dangerous than this during his missions in his previous life, and they had long since forged nerves of steel.
Rosha ran into the room where the hostages had been held, pulled the door shut behind him, then reattached the IV drip Li Bai had disconnected earlier. When Li Bai had infiltrated the place, he'd discovered a grenade trap inside.
If anyone broke through the door, the grenade would kill not only the hostages but the intruder as well.
Rosha moved to the safe spot where the guard had been earlier, then dragged the sofa over to shield himself.
In just a few seconds, Seven caught up. The moment he kicked the door open, the grenade detonated.
The enormous, sudden blast sent him flying backward.
Seven was caught off guard by such a simple trap. After being injected with the Extremis Virus, he'd gained vitality far beyond that of an ordinary person. As a result, he'd let much of the caution and vigilance he'd had as a soldier fade away.
That was only natural. As an old Chinese saying went: "Fire is fierce, so people look upon it with fear and rarely die from it. Water is gentle, so people grow careless around it and many die."
Now Seven himself was fire, a source of heat and light, so he naturally paid little heed to ordinary weapons. A grenade explosion might be fatal to an ordinary person, but given ten or so seconds, he could recover completely.
But Rosha wasn't about to give him that time. He leapt out from behind the sofa and unleashed a rapid volley from his Pulse Pistol at Seven's face.
This time, Rosha took advantage of the shock wave dazing him and fired point-blank.
I don't believe you can still breathe fire with your face turned to mush! That was what Rosha thought.
What's more, Rosha kept advancing as he fired, afraid Seven would retreat around a corner and recover again. If this thing didn't die the first time, he'd be the one in trouble next time.
Seven's face had been blasted into a red-gold pulp, as disgusting as could be. In that state, he really couldn't breathe fire. He'd even lost his vision, at least temporarily.
The Extremis Virus could repair the damage to his body, but it couldn't let him use another organ in place of his eyes. In this situation, Seven could only raise his arms to shield his face, sacrificing them to buy his eyes time to recover.
But the next moment, he felt a sharp pain in his arm. His entire right arm had been severed at the elbow.
Unable to see because his eyes hadn't recovered, Seven couldn't spot the Alloy Dagger springing from Rosha's Sensor Glove. He could only raise his left hand to block again, with the same result: his left arm was cut off too.
Rosha looked at the Alloy Dagger, glowing red-hot but showing no sign of softening, and thought, Good thing the Sensor Glove's heat insulation wasn't exaggerated at all.
He was about to press his advantage and finish off the monster when the two severed arms began to pulse with an unusual red glow.
The Tactical Goggles immediately warned Rosha. Those two arms looked like they were about to explode.
Rosha didn't even have time to swear. He had to run back into the room. He'd barely ducked behind the wall when he heard two tremendous explosions. Flames surged into the room, and Rosha felt a wave of heat.
After a long while, the flames died down. Rosha finally took a few deep breaths, having held his breath the entire time for fear of inhaling the scorching air and burning his lungs.
"Damn it, the Extremis Virus can do that too? The severed parts turn into bombs?" Rosha cursed irritably.
He knew the Extremis Virus was unstable and could easily cause its host to explode. But who would've thought the host wouldn't explode, while the severed parts did?
That meant Rosha had lost his chance to finish off the monster in one smooth move.
Sure enough, before the heat had completely faded, Seven walked into the room, fully recovered and wearing an expression of intense fury. This time, he'd decided to take Rosha's corpse back with him.
Seeing Rosha hiding in the corner, Seven spoke in the tone of a cat toying with a mouse. "You've got plenty of tricks, but do you have any new ones left?"
Even in this desperate situation, Rosha remained calm. He only regretted that he said, "Of course I've still got a new trick. I just wanted to save it for later, but I guess I'll have to use it after all."
The next moment, three streaks of silver shot out, hurtling toward Seven at terrifying speed.
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