Extremis Virus

Luo Xia's guess had been right. The terrorists arrived even faster than the American military, and there were more of them than he had expected.

On the fifth day after they had taken down this terrorist base, a total of fifteen desert off-road vehicles and more than sixty terrorists appeared on the horizon.

Luo Xia lay prone in a hastily built shelter, watching it all through binoculars. Beside him were Tony Stark, whose chest was glowing, and Yinsen, the weather-beaten doctor.

After Luo Fei had been repaired, the powerful robot had also helped Tony considerably, allowing him to replace the magnet in his chest with a first-generation Arc Reactor in a short time. At the very least, Luo Fei had fashioned the reactor's casing with his bare hands, saving Tony the trouble of hammering it out.

These three were the only survivors left near the cave. The other prisoners had driven off on their own several days earlier. Whether they would survive was up to luck.

Only the three of them had stayed near the cave.

First, Tony had already built a Locator Communicator and notified the American military of their position. Second, Luo Xia was certain the terrorists would keep searching for Tony. Rather than trek through the desert without knowing the terrain or the route, it was better to lie in wait and wipe out the terrorists who came after them.

If they could take out this wave of attackers, even the American military, slow as it was to respond, would probably make it in time.

"Tony, are the mines you rigged actually going to work?" Luo Xia asked, a little worried.

"Who do you think I am? I'm Tony Stark. I've never designed a weapon that was a failure." Tony sounded utterly confident. "You should be worried about that guy Luo Fei. I'm afraid he won't be able to hold back and will jump out there on his own..."

Before Tony could finish, an explosion rang out. One of the fifteen desert off-road vehicles vanished in a ball of flames, blown apart by a rocket.

A sand dune beside the road erupted. A five-meter-tall robot emerged from it—it was Luo Fei. After Tony's careful repairs, Luo Fei no longer looked as crippled as before. Both his arms were intact, each gripping a rocket launcher.

The launcher in his right hand was now empty, smoke curling from its barrel.

"Commander, I didn't do it on purpose. A scorpion just crawled into my air intake valve." As Luo Fei shouted, he fired the rocket launcher in his left hand at another off-road vehicle.

A deafening boom followed, and another desert off-road vehicle was blasted into the air.

The terrorists immediately returned fire, but their guns were little more than a tickle to Luo Fei.

After tossing aside the two rocket launchers, Luo Fei's hands sprouted rings of gun barrels that spun rapidly like Gatling guns. He unleashed a storm of bullets, sweeping several off-road vehicles into scrap metal.

Luo Xia had found the weapons in the cave's armory and had Luo Fei equip himself with them.

A commando like Luo Fei needed overwhelming firepower to suppress the enemy.

An armed Cybertronian Robot could completely overpower an ordinary military force. As long as he avoided being caught in the crossfire of heavy weapons, he could take out the enemy with little to no damage.

"We're all sharpshooters, every bullet takes out an enemy..." A bold, rousing song rang out as Luo Fei sang the old revolutionary tune in Chinese while firing.

"What song is that? It's pretty catchy," Tony asked Luo Xia.

Luo Xia could only reply, "You don't want to know."

In just one exchange, more than half the off-road vehicles had been destroyed. The remaining seven immediately turned around, intending to split up and surround Luo Fei from several directions. But before they could complete the encirclement, several metal discs suddenly sprang out of the sand and clung tightly to the sides of the vehicles.

They were Magnetic Bombs designed by Tony, capable of sticking firmly to a vehicle's body. These bombs were actually easy to spot, but the terrorists had neither the time nor the means to clear them.

Luo Fei's disruption had, however, diminished the effectiveness of the minefield.

"How did you design this robot's artificial intelligence? Did you download its personality from a children's cartoon?" Tony quipped.

"I guess... he was born that way." That was all Luo Xia could say.

The battle was completely one-sided. Luo Fei wasn't some clumsy weapons platform. Though he was carrying two Gatling guns, he was as agile as Leng Feng in Wolf Warrior.

They had expected the battle to end in such a one-sided fashion. But after Luo Fei blew up the last off-road vehicle, a man emerged from the flames, his whole body burning.

The man looked like a walking mass of magma. Wherever he stepped on the desert, he left behind glassy footprints, the result of the heat melting the sand. His skin was cracking all over, dark red light shining through the fissures.

Luo Fei's Gatling guns swept toward him, but the man pushed off with both feet and leaped dozens of meters, dodging most of the bullets. Luo Xia also noticed that even when a few bullets struck his body, the wounds healed almost instantly and didn't hinder his movements at all.

In just a few seconds, the fiery monster reached Luo Fei and slashed at his leg with a hand held like a blade. Luo Fei hadn't paid the "thing's" hand any mind, but Luo Xia immediately used his authority as commander to order him, "Dodge!"

As the wielder of the AllSpark, Luo Xia had absolute control over every Cybertronian Robot he had created. In this situation, Luo Fei could only obey and take several large steps back.

Still, Luo Fei couldn't help wondering why he had to dodge. Why would a mere carbon-based life-form attack him with its hand?

Only Luo Xia understood how terrifying the fiery monster's hand was.

"What is that monster?" Tony's face was full of astonishment. His kidnapping had shown him another side of the world—a shocking one.

It was the Extremis Virus!

It had originally been a form of biological modification intended to regenerate limbs for people with disabilities. But something had gone wrong, and it turned those injected with the Extremis Virus into superhumans who radiated intense heat.

In the Iron Man movie, the villain Killian, who had been injected with the Extremis Virus, had cut Iron Man's armor in half with his bare hands. That showed just how terrifying the heat was.

Luo Xia didn't think Luo Fei's armor was much stronger than Iron Armor. If he tried to fight the monster head-on, his leg would probably be cut right off.

Luo Fei was enormous, but once the monster closed in, his massive Gatling barrels were useless. And because Luo Xia feared the Extremis Virus, he had ordered Luo Fei not to fight it head-on. The fiery monster quickly gained the upper hand, leaving Luo Fei no choice but to dodge awkwardly.

Looks like I can't save my trump card after all. Luo Xia sighed inwardly, then ordered Luo Fei to retreat.

Luo Fei used the Gatling guns to force the fiery monster back, then transformed into an off-road vehicle and sped away. In this form, Luo Fei was as fast as a Chinese high-speed train—even at top speed.

His tires kicked up clouds of dust, and he had already raced hundreds of meters away. The fiery monster was agile, but it couldn't match Luo Fei's straight-line speed.

But the monster clearly wasn't going to give up so easily. It chased Luo Fei all the way to the cave.

Luo Xia was lying in wait at a concealed vantage point. When he saw the fiery monster reach the cave, he drew the Pulse Pistol from his waist.