Mercenary Black Mamba

The photon cannon required an interval of 10 seconds between each shot. An area wider than Ulleung Island.

Pillars of scarlet flames soared from the ground. The 20mm warheads hailed down on the Garuda's body. Orange flames rose from the struck areas. Shrapnel from the warheads rained down.

"They have indeed deployed the Predator."

The screen showed two groups that moved at a fast speed with M61 Vulcan cannons and 40mm CIW anti-aircraft cannons. The M61 Vulcans mounted on fighter jets had a proper weight of 100 kilograms. The 40mm CIW anti-aircraft cannons weighed 380 kilograms. It could not be manned by a single individual.

The Garuda opened its beak. The space shimmered. The group of Predators swept by the high-level ELF quietly disintegrated into bloody sand.

A fearless tank escaped the shelter. With a boom, white smoke erupted. The cannoneer thought a 200-meter wide target gliding 1,500 meters above the ground could easily be struck. The cannon's projectile struck the Garuda's body.

"They are like suicide bombers!"

Black Mamba clicked his tongue. The sporadic resistance reminded him of the Japanese military headquarters at the end of the Pacific War. He didn't know if there were some ulterior motives but the resistance was futile.

"Chicken, leave no cockroaches."

The scouter scanned the underground shelter, hidden armored vehicles, artillery ranges, and remaining structures.

"Seven insects have survived across five hideouts."

The tail shone. A 20-meter wide, 10-meter deep pit was made as if a giant circular stamp was stamped on the ground surface. On the bottom of the pit, a Bradley armored vehicle mounted with the MLRS container was flattened. With a boom, the tank that was raising the barrel of its cannon became a splatter.

With each flash of light, a crater was made in the ground and the steel shelter and hidden armored vehicles were flattened as if passed through a press. The Predator firing at the sky was shattered into pieces.

"What is that?"

"Angry Slippers! It is good for killing a hard-shelled insect."

"It looks just like a stamp on a contract."

Black Mamba shook his head. The mistakenly stamped stamp in his past reminded him of the Angry Slippers of the Garuda that squashed vermin.

"Cleaning done! Landing now."

Black Mamba got out of the cockpit and stepped on the ground.

"How horrible!"

The surface, with its soil cover blown away, glinted with melted silicon. The unstable atmosphere herded dark ash from place to place. It was just like the ending of a movie depicting an atomic war.

"Mother, the core is intact. The 90-meter thick bedrock is enhanced with concrete and steel. Only one layer of the shielding doors of the entrance to the building remains, two are blown away."

"A sinner is naturally adept at hiding. How wide is the surface underground?"

"The depth varies from 300 meters to 500 meters. The area is 25.395 square kilometers. Shall I blow it away?"

"No, if the fault is touched, a catastrophe would ensue."

Black Mamba jumped.

"It's not like that building is your child. Why are you worried?"

"That's why you are a Chicken and I am a human. Open the entrance for me!"

The extreme-temperature atomic laser cut a circle out of the five-meter-thick titanium shielding door. It seemed as easy as puncturing a hole in a door covered with traditional Korean paper by using the saliva on one's finger. The dark hole seemed like the maw of hell itself.

"Mother, I am hungry."

"Get your own food."

Black Mamba left a remark and jumped into the dark hole.

"Something smells delicious."

The Garuda vanished with a batting of its wings. Black Mamba didn't know that Chicken would go to a nuclear waste dump 1000 kilometers away in Los Alamos.

'It's too deep!'

The elevator's corridor was 300 meters long. When he reached the ground, a dark metal wall blocked his path. It couldn't even be penetrated with Billion Water Armor.

"Vajra!"

A jade-colored light shone from Mu Ssang's right palm. The antipersonnel weapon of the Concretus police jumped across vast space-time and materialized on the hand of an epidium.

"Great!"

When he grasped the Vajra, he felt a rushing of force. As Billion Water Armor and Vajra were originally one, he didn't feel the hilt at all. It was a different feeling to the Rakshasa or the kukri.

The jade flash splashed across the space. The shattered 500mm titanium partition collapsed. The inside air rushed out.

"Ugh!"

He felt stuffy. The cantarella mixed in the air burned his windpipe and lungs. Deuteronion rushed out from his brain and spine. The heavy hydrogen compound that Kamdoong complimented as a great janitor disintegrated cantarella molecules into atoms. The damaged tissue was scissored up and the ISP cells activated their division mechanisms.

"Look at these!"

Black Mamba's eyes shone blue. The cantarella-infused glass fibers filled the 1650 square meter space. It was an unexpected non-humanoid obstacle. The cantarella was less toxic than botulin but was still the foremost blood neurotoxin that was very vicious.

Even a strand of the tiny glass fibers floating in the air would cause necrosis of the lungs. A gas mask and anti-toxin garment would prove ineffective. Even though the purifying filter could filter out the fibers, the cantarella combined with oxygen would still seep into them.

He infused the Vajra with Inhalation Wave. The air swirled and swarmed around the blade. Vibrant sparks jumped off it. The fire was the mortal enemy of poison. The heat from the Vajra burned the cantarella glass fibers sequestered by Inhalation Wave.

The main control room of Sector 3 of Area 51.

Executor Davis and the member of the committee and a Freemason Master Ian eyed the monitor nervously.

"Davis, do you think we can catch him?"

"I think we can. We must. Even though the shell may be hard, the innards would be soft. The cantarella can feel a Super Grendel."

Davis gritted his teeth. The more you fought with Black Mamba, the stronger he became. When he appeared in the Sahel, he was weaker than Ocelot. Now, he was on par with a Grandmaster. Someone who became stronger was more fearsome than someone who already had strength because there was no limit to their power.

"What happened to Adam?"

"He went missing in Korea. Operation Raid the Nest was a complete failure."

"Everything involved with Black Mamba goes to ruin. Where is his family?"

"They vanished without a trace. Master Gregory found a missing link between Black Mamba and Novatopia. We are trying to figure out if he is a simple patron or the unknown Dubaiburupa himself."

"We made a big mistake. We didn't know he was the owner of the flying Baphomet."

Ian sighed deeply.

"It is my fault. Oparts and the flying Baphomet took all of my attention." Davis blamed himself.

In retrospect, Black Mamba was at the center of all the incidents. They should have deployed more forces when he finished off Matilda and Chifon. It was a belated regret and insight only possible in hindsight.

"He is a legendary opponent. Is there any way we can alert Lamartin?"

"No. The emergency landline buried underground was blown away too. The ionosphere above Africa is messy now. It will take at least three days to re-establish satellite connection using the Pegasus deployed in the Far East."

"It's driving me crazy. One Black Mamba is causing all this problem. The damage is extensive."

Ian shook his head. He didn't understand how their organization, with a superpower like the United States of America backing it, was in deep trouble.

"Humans instinctively cling to their lives. Even extreme emotions like love and hate could be destroyed and doubt could be erased, but no one escapes the fear for one's life. When damage accumulates and Black Mamba is shaken, that is our chance."

Davis glared at the monitor with gritted teeth. Davis's ambition was too big for him to lose an opportunity to acquire the flying Baphomet and Oparts and ascend to a Grandmaster.

Even a stray dog has an advantage where he lives. Lamartin could distract them with hypnotic waves but chose to let them come close by instead. Life was a series of gambles. If he could kill them, that would prove to be a great advantage.

"Executor, cantarella is totally ineffective. The oxygen level has stabilized."

"Oh shit! They must be fundamentally different from us."

Davis was dumbstruck. That must mean that they didn't just withstand cantarella but neutralized it. Only a life form from outer space like Nialatep would be able to exact such a feat. A human could never be able to do that.

"But the brain waves are human."

"Fuck! Let's bleed him out. Deploy a psychic Haunter and a mechanic Haunter."

"Yes, sir!"

The partition door opened. Chimeras flooded out. A centipede crawling on the floor, a bat flying in the air, an alligator jumping on all fours, a gorilla charging on two feet, etc. Various animals were spliced in their genes but the face always resembled a human's. The plane of asuras was manifested in reality.

No question or answer was required. Twenty or so chimeras charged with their eyes glinting with savagery. Screeches and roars as varied as their appearances resounded in the empty space.

"I, the Eastern Swordsman, will punish those who toy with life itself."

Mu Ssang's eyes shone blue. The Vajra's blade shot forth.

"Burn!"

Hundreds and thousands of bolts of lightning shot forth from the Vajra. The blue discharged electric sparks and dying roars of the chimeras filled the space. It was one of Vajra's main abilities, Thunder Stram. The outcome was destructive. There were no more chimeras who jumped about. The large cavity was full of hazy smoke and a revolting smell of burning protein and ash collected on the floor.

In the midst of hazy smoke, five streaks of lightning shot forth. A high psychic Haunter started throwing punches camouflaged by an ESPer who could distort space. It all began with a Taser man's charge.

"I knew it!"

The Vajra parleyed the lightning. Blue sparks rained down. A sticky object wound around Mu Ssang's body. The air was a hundredfold heavier. Black Mamba, crushed under a 10-ton pressure, stumbled.

As soon as his ankle was submerged in the steel floor that melted like pudding, thousands of nail-sized wind saw teeth and lightning struck. A tingly sensation bound his movements and his blood started boiling.

"Get lost!"

A jade-colored flash of light swept across the cavern. It was the Destruction Orb that amplified and radiated deuteronion, the source of epidium. A breeze swept across the fine sandy shore with a soft whistle.

Destruction Orb cut the covalent bonds of the electrons of the target. The atomic bonds formed molecules and molecular bonds formed crystals and tissues. When oxygen, hydrogen, iron, carbon, sodium, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus disintegrated into individual atoms, the integrity of the tissue became lost.

The cavity was submerged in deep silence. There was no blood or pieces of flesh. The six psychic Haunters were disintegrated into atoms. The hazy smoke cleared as well. A layer on the walls and on the ceiling was lost. The cameras installed in the cracks of the ceiling and walls met the same fate.

"It was deuteronion. It's an ability that is very taxing to the caster."

Black Mamba stumbled. One stroke of the blade took all of his energy. He felt that ten times the energy when he cast Finger Wind, was lost. The essence of his very life seemed to have departed his body. He was a bionic weapon resonating with deuteronion. When he first grasped the hilt of the Vajra, it had felt as though the sword was one with himself.

"All the cameras are broken. Block his advance! Close the partition walls and fill the space with white phosphorus and radiated water!" Davis yelled in his consternation.

Dozens of metal pipes fell from a height of 10 meters from the ceiling. The blueish water and hazy smoke spread. The white phosphorus ignited. A drop of flame jumped on his hair. Resonance Wave deflected the burning white phosphorus.

"He is quite vicious."

Resonance Wave enveloped his body. When the vapor of white phosphorus exploded, the cavern would turn into a fiery hellscape. Even Black Mamba would be a statue of coal faced with thousands of degrees of heat. The vaporized radiated water was even more terrible.

It varied from the kind and the amount of accumulated energy of the radiation, but a human would die within an hour once exposed to 600 rads. The condensed radioactive fume was 60,000 rads. The radiated biological tissue could be crushed with one single blow.

"The game has begun. Let's have the second match in a wider space."

The Vajra was buried deep in the wall. The enemy must be counting on the partition walls made of alloys. But they were feeble against Resonance Wave that could even damage the micro-lattice of Garuda's hide.

The pillar of light vibrated. The 1,000mm titanium alloy partition walls crumbled down like fine sand. Black Mamba exited into a corridor. He didn't intend to keep staying where the enemy had more advantages.

The cavity exploded. Flames and radioactive fumes shot forth from the open hole.

"Let them fill their own house with flames and radiation if they want."

Black Mamba smirked. No human would want to be burned alive with white phosphorus or radiated to death. Of course, no human would want their body cells to be disfigured or pass down faulty genes to their children.

A normal human would flee from the radiated underground facility. Of course, any abnormal human or Grendels were to perish.

"The beast has escaped the cage. Block the flow of the radiated water."

"Deploy Grendels."

Speakers yelled.