Ch.92No Country for Old Men! (3)

#092

The Twin-Clawed Demon lunged forward and began slashing at Dexter with its sharp claws.

“So they call you a Twin-Clawed Demon, but you really only know how to use your claws? Can’t even make a fist?”

Dexter said smoothly as he bent backward to avoid the demon’s swinging claws.

“Shut up, you bastard!”

Even while jumping backward repeatedly to dodge the Twin-Clawed Demon’s fierce attacks aimed at his vital points, Dexter continued to talk without even catching his breath.

“How can a man fight with claws? Does that mean you do nail care every night? Why not just cut off your dick while you’re at it? Men should obviously use their fists, not claws like some little girl.”

—Whoosh.

As he kept running his mouth, one of the Twin-Clawed Demon’s nails passed right in front of his face. Dexter was a bit startled, but his expression didn’t visibly change.

‘Keep a relaxed face.’

When Dexter was learning martial arts, he was taught to maintain composure when facing an opponent, whether they were skilled or not.

‘Only amateurs show anxiety! Show calm but serious determination!’

Even with the unbridgeable gap and the Twin-Clawed Demon’s experienced attacks continuing, he couldn’t let on that he felt any sense of crisis.

Recalling the phrase barked at him by one of his grandfather’s subordinates who had taught him martial arts, Dexter maintained a serious expression but with a subtle smile lingering at the corners of his mouth.

“Now you’re just silently mocking me!”

“Huh? That’s not it.”

He had only kept a small smile on his face to show composure, but the Twin-Clawed Demon grew angrier and launched a more vicious attack. Dexter twisted his body to dodge again.

“Geez. How can someone be so narrow-minded?”

“…Aren’t you the one who made me this way, you bastard!”

Seeing the Twin-Clawed Demon’s exasperated reaction to Dexter’s taunting, Himena wore an expression of utter disgust.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s obvious Dexter is making fun of the abomination. I can tell without even looking. How can he enjoy teasing others so much?”

As Himena finished speaking and briefly headed to the passenger seat to gather some items, Dexter began his counterattack.

However, rather than continuing to dodge and then landing one heavy blow, he was now demonstrating attacks that were impossible to avoid.

—Keeeeeng…

When Dexter clenched his left fist to prepare for charging, the Twin-Clawed Demon flinched, and in that moment when its grip weakened, Dexter aimed a right hook at its jaw.

“…You coward!”

“The winner is always right, you know.”

Then Dexter stepped on the demon’s instep to restrict its movement before delivering a low kick.

To the Twin-Clawed Demon, Dexter’s fighting style was no different from a street thug’s, and it could only grind its teeth in frustration.

If their earlier fight had been a series of fierce attacks and skillful defenses, now it was a scene of desperate attempts to land effective blows by any means necessary.

“This is brutal.”

“You can say that again.”

Kuma and Himena each commented as they watched the fight.

Considering Dexter’s usual style of boldly beating down opponents, Himena, who knew him well, felt particularly frustrated by what she was seeing.

Dexter was well aware of this, but unlike ordinary humans or aliens unfamiliar with martial arts, the Twin-Clawed Demon possessed skills that made it difficult for him to handle.

‘I really want to land a clean punch.’

But the demon’s martial arts were too solid for that.

All he could do was bait it into lowering its guard and land one or two heavy effective hits.

However, Dexter didn’t realize this would create a snowball effect.

The Twin-Clawed Demon’s remote control only allowed it to sense when pain was transmitted to parts of the abomination’s body, but the demon’s own body didn’t actually feel the pain.

That’s why it failed to notice that as Dexter’s attacks accumulated, the abomination’s reflexes were gradually slowing down.

‘This insolent bastard’s hands are getting faster!’

While the Twin-Clawed Demon mistakenly thought Dexter’s speed was increasing, Dexter himself was realizing what was happening.

The demon’s expression remained fierce, but Dexter found he could dodge the swinging claws more easily than expected.

‘The speed of its claw swings has slowed down from before. Why?’

Unlike larger abominations, smaller ones don’t have unlimited regenerative abilities.

As Dexter’s attacks accumulated, the abomination’s body was trying to heal itself, but that process had its limits.

‘But damn, it still won’t go down.’

Dexter prided himself on his leg strength, but kicking the abomination’s legs felt like kicking steel pillars.

‘And if I attack carelessly, it could be the end of me.’

Still, Dexter had no intention of stopping.

He continued his efforts, striking the Twin-Clawed Demon’s face with his elbow while trying to fire his charged blaster into its abdomen.

But the demon seemed to be catching on, twisting its body to avoid Dexter’s blaster or knocking away his hand when he tried to charge it.

Meanwhile, the person watching this fight was frowning in disapproval.

“What on earth… How did this turn into such a low-class brawl?”

The fight—or rather, battle—that person wanted was different.

They wanted OSA to bring in all their firepower against the abomination, with most agents getting infected by the virus, producing scores of minor and serious casualties, and throwing Las Vegas into chaos.

Then that person would take advantage of the chaos to deploy pre-purchased vaccines and manufacturing facilities, bringing Las Vegas under their control.

‘If only things had gone that way…!’

But the reality on the monitor showed an ugly creature being beaten by a muscular handsome man.

“Haah….”

While that person sighed deeply, Dexter was gaining the upper hand in the fight.

As the old saying goes, even a mighty oak falls after enough chops. Dexter’s relentless kicks to the legs had finally sapped the Twin-Clawed Demon’s strength.

The demon noticed its vision momentarily wavering and looked down in panic.

Only now realizing that its legs weren’t moving properly, it glared at Dexter with its perpetually fierce face.

“So that’s why you’ve been kicking my lower body all this time….”

“I pride myself on my strength, but you weren’t showing any pain? That means you can tell you’re being hit but don’t actually feel the pain.”

Dexter grinned.

“I’ll crush you bit by bit.”

“Wait, what are you—!”

Dexter’s fists and feet began to rain down in an instant.

The abomination’s body, already accumulated with damage from Dexter’s previous attacks, could barely respond anymore.

“What good is speed or regeneration now?”

—Thwack, thud!

Dexter’s fists slammed into both of the Twin-Clawed Demon’s shoulders, deforming them into an unnatural shape.

He had rendered it unable to use its claws by making it impossible to raise its arms.

“In the end, there’s a disconnect between body and mind.”

While the demon was disoriented, Dexter delivered one final low kick to the back of its knees, causing it to buckle and fall to its knees before his eyes.

“To think I would lose so… disgracefully….”

“You should have disappeared with the others when they turned to dust earlier. Would’ve been less disgraceful.”

Dexter charged his blaster.

—Keeeeeng….

“Ah, Ms. Himena. Please bring me the rocket launcher.”

“Huh? Oh, here you go.”

When Dexter turned around at Himena’s matter-of-fact response, she was already holding a rocket launcher loaded with an enhanced nuclear fission rocket.

“I told you to prepare it earlier, remember?”

Himena, who had anticipated how things would unfold, had prepared the enhanced nuclear fission rocket as soon as Dexter gained the upper hand.

“…Ms. Himena, you’re always so thoroughly prepared.”

“Hehe.”

—Bang!

After flashing a smile at Himena, Dexter blasted the Twin-Clawed Demon’s head with his blaster, then extended his hand toward Himena and said:

“I have a feeling more will appear.”

There was no guarantee that no more human-sized abominations would emerge from the giant abomination’s body.

As the saying goes, when pulling weeds, you must remove the roots. Dexter decided to eliminate everything cleanly.

He placed the enhanced nuclear fission rocket launcher on his shoulder and aimed at the large abomination corpse through the holographic sight displayed on reinforced glass.

“Hasta la vista, Baby.”

“Wow, how old is that line.”

“What? I think it’s cool.”

Dexter delivered his one-liner while Himena rolled her eyes, and Kuma, who thought it was cool, grinned.

—Wheeeeee…!

The launched rocket cut through the air with a high-pitched sound.

After firing the rocket, Dexter turned his back without watching the impending explosion.

Confused by this, Himena turned around to see if there was something behind them.

“Why, what’s wrong?”

“A real man doesn’t look at explosions.”

“Coooool.”

Kuma, who had turned around with Dexter, gave him two thumbs up.

“Do you really think that’s cool?”

“The people watching us from behind might think so.”

—KABOOOOM…!

As the enhanced nuclear fission rocket detonated, the explosion sent fierce winds in all directions.

Witnessing the mushroom cloud rising before her eyes, Himena felt the full impact of a nuclear weapon exploding right in front of her, and shouted while shielding her eyes from the direct blast of wind:

“This doesn’t have any radiation danger, right?!”

Dexter nodded and waited for the wind from the blast center to subside before answering.

“As long as we don’t get too close, you don’t need to worry about radiation.”

“This is seriously no joke….”

Himena stared intently at the spot where Dexter had hit with the enhanced nuclear fission rocket.

All that remained on the ground was a deep crater, with no trace of the abomination.

It had been cleaned up so thoroughly that not even a scrap of flesh could be found.

“Where on earth did you get a weapon like this?”

“Secret.”

Dexter glanced at Himena and put his index finger to his lips.

“…I bet you got it from that rich friend of yours, Mr. Tenpenny, right?”

“You know me well.”

Dexter shouldered the rocket launcher and pointed to his pickup truck.

“Looks like we’ve wrapped things up here, shall we go?”

Dexter sat in the driver’s seat, Himena in the passenger seat, and Kuma in the truck bed in the back. They were about to depart when:

—Thud-thud-thud-thud…

The sound of helicopters came from somewhere, and Himena and Kuma’s earpieces began to buzz loudly.

—Agent Libero, Agent Patel! Where are you? Why haven’t you been responding?!

“Ugh. I can hear you, please lower your voice since I can hear you.”

Kuma winced momentarily at the eardrum-piercing sound from his earpiece.

“Situation resolved. Honorary Agent Hughes has dealt with the abomination, and we’re currently on our way back…?”

Kuma looked up at the sky with a questioning tone, and Himena also stuck her head out of the passenger window.

“What are you looking at… Oh my god….”

—Thud-thud-thud-thud…

Five military helicopters were flying in formation toward the three of them.

One of them had its searchlight on, scanning various parts of the state park.

—Agent Patel, what did you say?

“The situation has been resolved. Honorary Agent Hughes who is on site has—”

—What are you talking about?!

“What are you talking about?!”

Along with the voice from the earpiece, a middle-aged man’s shout could be heard from the sky, cutting through the sound of the helicopter rotors.

“Um, Mr. Hughes. I think you need to get out of the car for a moment.”

“…Looking at the situation, I think I can guess what’s going on.”

Under normal circumstances, this would have been handled internally by OSA without Dexter’s involvement.

“We couldn’t contact headquarters until Dexter arrived.”

Himena, who had gotten out of the pickup truck, waved at the helicopters as she spoke.

The many personnel now arriving by helicopter had likely been dealing with the abomination, but due to some issue, they hadn’t been able to contact the temporary command center.

After that, Dexter had fortunately rescued the two from the abomination’s clutches, making Dexter wonder if he should consult a famous astrologer about his luck.

‘More things are happening here than when I was in space, really.’

Dexter shook his head as he watched the helicopters slowly landing near his pickup truck.