They traded punches, a blur of speed and reflexes. The suit's engines gave Karl an edge in velocity, but F01's reaction time was eerily equal, countering each strike with unnatural precision.
"Target reaction speed: 20 milliseconds," the suit's digital voice reported. Karl shifted his stance, channeling his honed martial arts training—a unique blend of karate, aikido, and Muay Thai he had perfected over years.
F01 countered every strike, its movements a mirror of Karl's techniques. "Impossible," Karl muttered, heart pounding. For the first time, an opponent blocked his every move flawlessly. Freja's warning echoed in his mind—she had uploaded his combat skills into F01 before the cockpit screen went dark.
A moment's distraction cost him dearly. Two crushing blows slammed into his right shoulder, another under his left chest. The suit's Non-Newtonian-like fluid fibers tightened, absorbing the force to shield his body, but the immense pressure left the impacted areas rigid, etched with F01's fist marks.
Karl staggered back, gaining distance to assess. A body status panel displayed.
All combustion engines were intact, but two frontal regions were compromised. F01 had read his fighting style perfectly.
Switching tactics, Karl abandoned close combat for mid-range. Miniature rocket launchers deployed from the suit, firing a salvo at F01. The rockets struck true, but the creature's wounds sealed almost instantly, rendering the attack non-lethal.
"Damn it," Karl growled. "If only I could use the thermonuclear …" He cursed the restrictions—unleashing nuclear force would devastate Granitz's citizens and the Reich's vital NRE, a cost far outweighing F01's defeat.
F01 snarled, its repeated healing draining its energy. Hunger overwhelmed its fading consciousness, transforming it into a feral beast. Its speed surged, perception giving way to raw reflex.
As F01 charged, Karl drew a vibrating sword, its blade humming with lethal resonance. With one shot to end it, he aimed for the neck and switched the suit to reflex mode—an autopilot pushing maximum speed at the cost of immense physical strain.
"Reflex mode on" Karl initiated voice command.
"Reflex mode: ON"
As F01 entered striking range, the processor chip took control of the whole suit, the suit's engines roared, powering Karl's right arm to full thrust. His shoulder screamed under the force as the blade sliced through F01's neck with surgical precision. The creature's head thudded to the ground, its arms frozen mid-reach, body still.
The suit's chip overheated from the intense processing, and the nuclear cell shut down. Karl struck a triumphant pose, chest heaving.
A silence took over, as the remaining soldiers could not catch up with the scene. After Karl's victor's pose.
A roar of victory erupted from the remaining soldiers, their cheers swelling as they tossed their caps in celebration of their admiral's heroism.
"Congratulations, Admiral!" the comm room crackled. "Well done!"
"Are you alright?" Freja's voice followed, laced with maternal concern.
"We need to talk about uploading my skills," Karl quipped, a wry grin breaking through his exhaustion.
—
(Shelter)
(Few minutes before the incapacitated)
In Granitz's fortified shelter, despair gripped the evacuated citizens as F01's overwhelming power crushed their troops. A monitor broadcast the carnage, fueling their desperation.
"Fight, my brave soldiers!" Karl Feta's commanding voice boomed through the feed, reigniting hope. The familiar timbre rallied the battlefield and stirred the shelter, where people shouted with renewed fervor.
"That's our admiral, our hero!" a man cried, pointing at the screen.
Cheers erupted when Karl donned his combat suit, the crowd's voices rising in a hopeful chorus. "Drive it out!"
"Kill the beast!"
(After Karl beheaded the beast)
The shelter sang with joy as Karl beheaded F01, its body collapsing motionless. "He did it!"
"Our hero!"
"I love him!"
"Marry me, Lord Karl!" Men and women alike chanted, their voices a jubilant hymn to their savior.
Minutes later, silence smothered the shelter. All eyes locked on the monitor, where Karl lay crumpled in his torn suit, blood-soaked and unconscious on the NRE's floor. No screams, no songs—only a stunned, unbearable stillness.
—
Outside the NRE, a few soldiers crept forward to check F01's headless corpse. As if sensing their approach, the creature stirred, driven by reflexive muscle memory alone. With no perception, it mimicked its earlier stance—muscles bulging, arms swinging back—then unleashed a thunderous clap.
"RUN Away!" Karl saw the beast's quick movement, tried to warn the soldiers, but it was too late.
The unrestrained shockwave, pure beastly force, obliterated nearby soldiers, their bodies slamming into the ground, lifeless.
Karl, closest to the blast, bore its full impact. His suit's fibers tightened but lost all flexibility, encasing him like a steel coffin. His trained body endured the shockwave, but the suit's chip had overheated, leaving his reflexes no match for F01's feral onslaught. The headless beast pummeled him with his own martial arts—right punch, two lefts to the face, a right kick to the ribs, and multiple strikes as his guard faltered. An elbow-driven uppercut followed, powered by Freja's uploaded memories.
Karl recognized each move but couldn't react, exhaustion and the suit's weight dragging him down. The final uppercut nearly knocked him out.
Yet his love for the Reich and the will to protect the island kept him conscious. He refused to show his weakness.
Regaining his last reserves, Karl shoved against F01, hand-to-hand.
"Damn beast!" he roared. "Get off my island!"
His courage pushed the creature back a few meters, but internal injuries and fatigue overwhelmed him. F01 retaliated, its grip tightening. Karl screamed as his hands and wrists twisted under crushing pressure.
"Ughh!"
The beast hoisted him aloft, then…slammed him to the ground with bone-shattering force. The suit shattered, blood pooling from Karl's head and body. The few remaining soldiers fled to a bunker, abandoning their fallen admiral, the nation's hero.
No more obstacles, as F01 lumbered toward the NRE's entrance, stomping on Karl's broken form. Its torso's array detects a familiar heat radiation, coming from the left wing of NRE. It began the thunderclap's stance. Then, it halted.
A few moments later, its skin began to tear, revealing dense muscle layers that rapidly degraded. The decay spread, exposing disintegrating organs. Within moments, its body collapsed into a gelatinous sludge, bones protruding from the mire.
Soldiers and shelter onlookers, watching via live feed, stood baffled. Their admiral lay defeated, barely breathing, yet the beast had inexplicably dissolved. The beast was dissolved but no cheers followed—only grief as their hero – Admiral Karl Feta – fell unconscious on the ground. The comm room watched the situation closely.
"You did it, admiral" A soft compliment from Steven in the comm room, "Soldiers!, It's over"
"GO and SAVE our hero" Steven made his announcement and demanded. Followed by his command, the remaining soldiers went out from bunkers retrieving what remain and rescued their hero.
In the leftwing of NRE building, unseen by all, two figures lingered in the shadows on the NRE's second floor, their presence unnoticed.
"You did it!!"
"Not a big deal"
The next day's news announced that Karl Feta, the nation's hero, had risked his life to save Granitz, by turning the enraged beast into jelly substance.