Chapter 72: Countermeasures

As Throg passed by, the ice and snow were deeply sunken, revealing the dark ground beneath, which had been plowed into a deep trench. Snowflakes descending upon it vanished the instant they touched its surface.

Tony’s instincts proved correct. Throg had grown by devouring the very materials it traversed, and Jarvis’s report confirmed the suspicion.

“Master, detection of a creature designated Throg that consumes matter. Please refrain from close combat.” Jarvis, through rapid scans and comparison, reached the same conclusion as Tony.

“It appears this is indeed a formidable adversary,” Tony murmured, understanding at last why Steve had been left so battered. Creatures that consumed matter were notoriously difficult to handle.

Tony’s armor, however, had never been designed for melee combat. He therefore relayed the warning over his earpiece and immediately launched his assault, seeking to halt Throg’s advance.

The Iron Man suit carried Stark’s latest portable weapons. Missiles soared toward Throg like petals scattered by a celestial maiden. Once the first wave was devoured on contact, Tony recalibrated them to detonate five centimeters from Throg’s surface, ensuring they retained lethal force.

Unfortunately, the missiles’ explosive yield and shockwave had been deliberately weakened to minimize collateral damage and unintended destruction. The plan failed.

The weakened projectiles bloomed like fireworks before Throg, inflicting no harm. Beneath the smoke rose its ever-swelling bulk.

Throg answered in kind. Its rounded form extended two tentacles, one arcing toward Tony hovering in mid-air and the other toward Qu Yizhi who held the line on the ground.

Tony darted and spun through the air, trying to entangle the tentacles with his own body. The moment he succeeded, the knots fused into one seamless mass, and the limbs whipped back toward him.

Qu Yizhi, though distant, found herself on solid ground where concealment was limited. She condensed an ice shield to deflect the assault while using the tentacles’ own immense force to retreat. The crystals she had formed resisted Throg’s crushing power far longer than ordinary matter, proving their exceptional hardness and the reason they had escaped the ancient base.

Yet Throg possessed more than mere consumption. It pulverized any material it touched before devouring it; the harder the substance, the longer the resistance. It could not assimilate materials on par with vibranium, adamantium, or Edmanite, though the characters remained unaware of this limitation. Qu Yizhi’s ice layer had barely slowed Throg’s force, underscoring its formidable density.

The situation left no time for reflection. Seeing his entanglement technique collapse, Tony spun and fired a laser beam at the incoming tentacles. Because Throg’s position remained visible to the naked eye, the creature evidently did not absorb light. Whether it rejected the energy contained within the spectrum or simply could not process it, the phenomenon offered Tony a potential opening.

The tentacle struck by the beam recoiled. A smile curved Tony’s lips at the success of his strike.

The smile faded swiftly. The beam forced the limb back toward Throg’s main body, yet its effect on the creature diminished rapidly.

“Master, the creature designated Throg is rapidly adjusting its biological structure,” Jarvis reported, and the display revealed the transformation.

The irregular surface—wrinkled, tentacled, and roiled by distorted orbs—smoothed into flawless uniformity, neutralizing much of the damage from Tony’s rays.

Witnessing Throg reshape itself in mere moments, Tony, as a master scientist, longed to study the phenomenon firsthand. Yet the moment he recalled the fate of any who had unraveled Throg’s origins, he dismissed the impulse. It was wiser to bury the creature here forever.

The tentacle that had assaulted Qu Yizhi withdrew the moment its core was threatened, granting her a moment’s respite. Her relief, however, curdled when she saw Throg’s renewed changes.

After forming its reflective organs, Throg resumed its evolution. It restored the untouched portions to their original configuration and extended two fresh tentacles toward its pursuers.

Tony adjusted the laser’s angle at once, but Throg moved with startling speed. It shifted that small reflective patch to intercept the beam; wherever Tony directed the light, the skin moved with it.

“This won’t do,” Tony muttered, dodging the tentacles in the air while firing occasional bursts. Each time his ray struck, the creature swapped its reflective skin for something more flexible, sharply diminishing the beam’s potency.

As he maneuvered through the void, Tony’s gaze fell upon the ice crystals Qu Yizhi had formed. Starlight refracted through the crystalline surfaces, casting a luminous glow that sparked an idea.

“Hey, Miss Qu, I have a notion.” Tony veered toward her rather than circling endlessly. Throg, now locked onto a target, followed suit.

Seeing Throg behind him, Tony accelerated and seized Qu Yizhi, lifting her clear into the open air.

“Well, Mr. Stark, what brilliant scheme have you devised?” Qu Yizhi glanced down at the two tentacles still trailing beneath them, breathing a little easier. She doubted she could maintain this position much longer.

“Can you fashion a colossal concave lens capable of enclosing Throg?” Tony’s voice came through the earpiece, and Qu Yizhi instantly grasped his intent.

Although Throg could generate reflective skin to blunt much of Tony’s firepower, the covering lacked the original flexibility, a fact starkly demonstrated moments earlier. If Tony could blanket the entire creature with his beam, the concentrated radiance might pin it in place, granting them a safe escape.

Qu Yizhi nodded without hesitation. “Rest assured, Mr. Stark. I’ll handle it.”

Relief washed over Tony. Such a dangerous entity was truly formidable, and his calculations held that once Throg discovered its countermeasures had failed, it would swiftly evolve new defenses. Their only advantage lay in the speed of that evolutionary response.