Genrallas made the first move, slamming his fist into the ground in an attempt to crush the trio. They luckily managed to dodge his attack and jump to the side. The brute then swung his other hand at Klonoa and knocked him into a large boulder, forming a sizable crater from the impact. As Klonoa picked himself off the ground, he did his best to ignore the pain and press forward.
Pango threw a bomb at Genrallas, who swiftly swatted it away. Klonoa saw this as a chance to attack whilst he was distracted - he ran forward, leapt towards Genrallas, and fired a wind bullet straight at his head. However, all it seemed to do was slightly stagger him - apart from that, the attack did nothing.
Before Klonoa could get out of harm's way, Genrallas grabbed his body and held him up to his face. Klonoa could see a confident smirk appear from under what he assumed was his bottom jaw - in reality, it was nothing more than a mouthguard.
"DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU'D DO ANYTHING WITH THAT PEASHOOTER OF YOURS?"
"Errr…yeah?" Klonoa sheepishly responded.
"HEY BIG RED!" Pango called out to him, "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"
He hit Genrallas with an underarm punch to the torso, causing him to stumble backwards and release his grip on Klonoa.
Klonoa and Lolo had to think - the bullets do nothing, Pango doesn't have unlimited bombs, and Genrallas is a very pissed off powerhouse. There has to be a weakness, a fault in his programming, or an error in his manufacturing, something to exploit.
Their thinking was cut short once Genrallas regained his balance, smoke billowing out his pipes in anger.
"OOOOO YOU'RE GONNA GET IT NOW!" he threatened, shaking his fists and stomping his foot.
He once again slammed both his fists in an attempt to flatten Klonoa and Pango, who dodged just in time. Genrallas was starting to fight more aggressively now. He swung his fists at Klonoa, so much so that his body started to spin a full 360 degrees, turning his flurry of haymakers into a full on 'tornado'. Klonoa tried his best to move out of the way, but one of the jabs managed to connect with him, launching him into the side of a nearby cliff wall.
"KLONOA!" Pango yelled out, concerned. He looked back at Genrallas with gritted teeth and a rageful look in his eyes. He pulled out many bombs and threw them at the powerhouse. Although the external damage was minimal, aside from a dent or two, it overwhelmed the bot and knocked him back.
Klonoa tried to get back on his feet, but was staggered by a sharp, agonising sensation in his right arm. Lolo quickly jumped out of the ring to assess the damage.
"I'm fine." Klonoa said to Lolo. Although his tone came off as slightly snappy, it was only because of him fighting through his pain, with limited success.
"Klonoa, your arm!" Lolo responded, a worried inflection in her voice. "I can heal it. Just stay still, please."
"There's no time!" Klonoa said through gritted teeth, getting back on his feet. "We can't sit here whilst Pango fights that thing alone."
Lolo wanted to stop him, but she understood his point. There's no time to argue right now, even if it's out of concern. She looked back at the knocked-down Genrallas, and noticed something interesting.
It was faint, but she could see the inside of his smokestacks. Through the smoke coming out of them, she could make out a faint, orange light coming from within. It looked like it was giving off heat - must be something in relation to his engineering.
That was when she had an idea.
"Klonoa," she said, turning back to him, "If we can't do any damage from the outside, maybe we could try and damage him from the inside."
"How, though?" Klonoa questioned, "There's no way any of us would be able to get inside him."
"We need something that can be dropped into those pipes on his back." Lolo replied, racking her brain to build on her idea, "Something that could possibly overheat his internal workings."
"Something to overheat his insides…" Klonoa thought to himself, "What could generate enough heat to do so?"
"Wait." Klonoa spoke up, "I think I know what to use. Come on!"
Lolo retreated back into his ring as the two set off to back Pango up in the fight. His arm was still in a lot of pain, but Klonoa knew he had to power through it for now, for the sake of the village.
Klonoa and Lolo returned to Pango, who was doing his best to push Genrallas back with his explosives.
"Klonoa!" Pango said in slight relief, "Are you okay? That was quite the hit you took."
"I'll live," he responded, "we have an idea! Do you think any of your bombs would be able to fit inside those pipes on Gen's back?"
"Probably not the ones I'm using right now, but I do have some smaller, remote detonated ones that we could use."
"That'd work!" Lolo answered, "If we can get a couple or so into his internal workings, we can detonate them and destroy him from the inside."
Before they could continue, Genrallas knocked Klonoa and Pango off their feet with a swing of his arm.
"NNNYOU KNOW I'M NOT DEAF, RIGHT?" Genrallas intercepted, readying his fist to squash his foes. "OOO I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY AND STO-"
His monologue was interrupted by a faint yelling that seemed to get louder and louder. Whatever was making that noise was getting closer by the second.
Genrallas turned around to see what was making that ear-grating sound, when suddenly, a foreign object landed on his face, obscuring his vision.
Upon closer inspection, the heroes noticed that this wasn't any ordinary object.
"Popka!?" Klonoa and Lolo said in confusion.
"KYAAAAGH!" Popka yelled out, punching and scratching Genrallas' face in the hopes of doing any form of damage.
"NYYYYAAARGH GEDDITOFFGEDDITOFFGEDDITOFFGEDDITOOOOFF!" Genrallas yelped in a blind panic. He started moving more frantically, throwing his arms around and running in sporadic circles. Klonoa and Pango had to keep their distance just to stay out of harm's way.
Eventually, Genrallas tripped on his own feet and fell on his back. He grabbed Popka in an attempt to pry him off of his face.
"Quick!" Lolo shouted, "Now's our chance!"
Pango grabbed a remote from his pocket and handed it to Klonoa. He then pulled out a handful of small, rectangular explosives and ran towards the still-struggling Genrallas. He quickly chucked a couple bombs into each of the pipes, before running back to Klonoa.
He did it just in time as well, as Genrallas finally managed to yank Popka away from his face and threw him towards the heroes, slightly winding Klonoa from the collision.
"Ow," Popka said, rubbing his head, "Hey Klo, how's it going?"
Klonoa gave a slightly nervous chuckle, pointing towards the giant robot a few feet away from them.
"Take a guess…"
Genrallas was furious now - his fists were clenched, smoke swelling from his stacks, eyes aflame.
"RRRIGHT!" the brute yelled, "NNNO MORE GAMES, MAGGOTS! YOU DIE NOW!"
He charged towards the group in a final attempt to crush them with all his might. But before he got too close, Klonoa held up the remote Pango gave him and pressed the big red button.
Genrallas stopped dead in his tracks as he heard a faint beeping sound coming from nearby. The heroes covered their ears and braced for what comes next
"OOOOH DEAR…"
- ! ! !-
Flames erupted from Genrallas' insides - through his pipes, his body, his mouth. Each explosion knocked him around and caused major damage to his body. His left arm was blown to pieces, and his smokestacks burst from their connections, causing more smoke and flames to shoot out from the hole on his back.
After the explosions ceased and the dust cleared, the robot was down for the count, lying face down on the ground and smoking like an overcooked steak.
"Did…did we do it?" Popka asked, still covering his ears from the explosions. "Did we win?"
Klonoa approached Genrallas' unconscious body and gave it a slight nudge with his foot. No response nor movement came out of the robot.
"He doesn't look active, I think we got him," he said, turning back to Popka and Pango.
As Klonoa started to walk away from the charred body of metal, a large, ominous shadow started to loom over him.
"Look out!" Lolo cried out.
Klonoa shot around to see none other than Genrallas, still very much functional, about to smash him to pieces with his one remaining arm.
Just before the brute could secure his kill, Lolo jumped out of the ring and blocked his attack with a green energy shield. The sheer force of Genrallas' strength pushed her back slightly, but she stood her ground.
"HYYYYAH!"
Lolo then pushed her hands forward and caused the shield to explode into a shockwave, pushing Genrallas back and giving both her and Klonoa enough time to create some distance.
"NNNYEEH HEH HEH HEEEH!" the automaton cackled. "YYYOU'RE GONNA NEED TO TRY A BIT HARDER THAN THAT TO DESTROY MY BEAUTIFUL BODY!"
"Good Goddess!" Pango blurted out, "What on Lunatea are you made of?"
"NNNYAH HAH HAAAH…" Genrallas laughed again, much louder than before, "...I HAVE NO IDEA."
There was a slightly awkward pause between the two parties.
"MMM BUT I DO KNOW THAT OUR WONDROUS AND MAGNIFICENT LEADER MUST'VE BUILT ME FROM THE FINEST MATERIALS HE COULD FIND IF HE WANTED ME TO SUCCEED ON MY MISSION."
"Shame he didn't use said resources for your brain processor." Popka remarked, getting him a sharp glare from Genrallas.
"Who is your leader, exactly?" Klonoa asked. Lolo noticed him fumbling for something in his pocket.
"THAT IS PURELY CONFIDENTIAL, HAIRBALL!" Genrallas answered. "NNYI AIN'T TELLING YOU A THING!"
"I see," Klonoa acknowledged, "It's just that I have a message for you to pass on to him, if that's alright with you."
"OOOOH YEAH? AAAND WHAT WOULD THAT BE?"
Klonoa's face quickly switched from nervous, to determined.
"CATCH!" he shouted out, throwing a small, ball-shaped object at Genrallas. It bounced off of his chest and landed on the ground in front of him. As the bot bent down to pick up and get a better look at what Klonoa just lobbed at him, the cabbit motioned for everyone to stand back a bit.
"Wait a sec…" Pango looked closer at the ball. "Is that my-"
Before he could finish his sentence, the ball exploded, splattering green goop all over Genrallas' outstretched arm and body. Much to his horror, the goo started melting the robot's red outer armour, revealing the metallic skeleton underneath.
"NNNO NO NO NOOO!" Genrallas said in a panic, "I'M NOT GOING OUT LIKE THIS, IT'S TOO HUMILIATING!"
Before his hand could dissolve any further, he frantically pressed the G-shaped buckle on his belt, revealing it to be a button.
His head started shaking rapidly, before suddenly rocketing into the sky at high-speed. It was launched so high, that Klonoa and the gang couldn't even see it as it disappeared within the clouds. Not that they were really looking at it in the first place, as they couldn't take their eyes off of what was happening to the rest of Genrallas' body.
The remaining arm fell off of the body and melted away, then the torso fell off of the waist supporting it.
In a matter of moments, all that was left of the automaton golem was a pile of green and red goop, surrounded by a mass of scrap metal.
As the four victors surrounded their opponent's remains, the grizzly image of watching their foe dissolve into nothing was so uncomfortable to watch that they didn't even feel like celebrating at the moment.
Lolo looked down at the green goo that caused the machine's defeat, then at Klonoa.
"You had THAT loose in your pocket the whole time!?"
END OF CHAPTER 1