"Who the hell are you? Cough... cough... What are you doing on the grain truck?"
That was the first thing Luke blurted out. Magnus paused, then sneered, "I’ll give you a shot at living. Now tell - how many grain trucks does your unit have, and where are they?"
"What? Who are you? What do you want?" Luke’s eyes widened in panic.
He was just a kid, fifteen or sixteen at most. In another life, in peaceful tis, he’d still be in school. For a second, sothing in Magnus stirred - mories of those school days, being dirt poor but still smiling, crushing on girls, liking teachers.
The feeling ca out of nowhere, hit fast, and went just as quick.
But the blade in his hand didn’t move away - it pressed harder into the kid’s stomach. "Don’t make kill you, kid. I said I don’t want to - but you keep wasting my ti, and I will. Got it?"
"Y-yes! Yes!" Luke nodded like crazy, stamring, "You - you want to know about the trucks? I - I only know each one’s got a red circle on the back door. That’s all, I swear! Don’t kill ! My mom’s still in the won’s slave camp in Springvale City!"
The ntion of his mother, of that hellhole, cracked his voice, tears already welling.
Red circle? Magnus’s eyes narrowed. That checked out - he had noticed the markings on the trucks earlier but hadn’t thought much of it. Now it all made sense.
"How much grain you all brought this ti?"
"F-fifty tons, maybe? That’s what Chad guessed. We - we don’t really know."
"How many of you had guns?"
"I don’t know that either! and Chad, we - we don’t have any. Just knives, that’s it!"
A few more questions. Magnus could tell the kid really didn’t know anything more. He eased up.
"I won’t kill you. Get off this truck. Run wherever you want - back to Springvale, I don’t care. Just hope I never see you again. Clear?"
"Yes, yes, I understand."
"And don’t start yelling after you get off. If you do - I’ve got ways of shutting you up fast. Understood?"
"U-understood!" Luke scrambled to get out.
"Wait."
Magnus suddenly reached out, grabbing the kid’s arm.
"W-what - what are you doing, man?! I told you everything! I swear, that’s all I know!" Luke trembled, face white.
Magnus breathed in deep. The thought in his head honestly pissed him off a little - it felt pathetic, soft. He wouldn’t have done this before, not in his past life. It wasn’t smart.
But sothing inside him wanted to do it anyway, like he was making up for sothing long broken.
"Take this."
He dug into his pocket, pulling out a fire crystal.
"You know what this is?"
"I-It’s a fire crystal," Luke said, stunned. Frozen.
He hadn’t expected that in a million years. That thing was worth a fortune. He just stood there, jaw half open."You’re not an Awakened, I can tell. You can’t use this crystal. Head back to Springvale City, don’t tell anyone you were on this mission. Find your officer, and use this Fire Crystal to buy your mother out of the female slave camp. Then leave with her. Disappear."
Magnus tossed the crystal into Luke’s hands. The kid stood there stunned, completely dumbfounded.
In this kind of world, eting soone like Magnus... it was unthinkable. Hell, even in peaceti, folks like him were rare.
Luke stamred out thanks, again and again. Magnus let out a long sigh and waved him off the truck. When he saw the boy obey without causing a fuss, he felt a little better inside.
"Only doing this once," he muttered. "Next ti, no more bleeding heart nonsense."
Now that he had the food convoy’s markings, there was no need to rush. He leaned back in the seat, lit a cigarette, and started thinking about how to blow the whole thing sky-high.
His original plan - rocket grenades - was out. Too far away. Couldn’t make out the marked trucks at that distance. That left only one way.
He snubbed out the cigarette, swung the truck door open, and jumped down. Pulled out a Nature Crystal, lit it. Way off in the distance, one of the guard trucks caught the flicker - its headlights snapped on him, blaring through the dark. Then ca the alarm.
Didn’t matter anymore.
Magnus lifted a blue-fla-wrapped log and hurled it onto the nearest cargo truck. The fire caught instantly, spreading like oil on water.
The other trucks joined in with their sirens, their noise pounding through his skull. He didn’t care if the next targets weren’t all food carriers. One flash step after another, he leapt from one truck top to another, lighting them ablaze as he went. The convoy turned into a blazing serpent in the dark.
By now the Cliff squad had noticed. They opened fire - but weren’t using heavy weapons. Too risky; they couldn’t afford to blow the convoy. Bullets were useless anyway - Magnus was loaded up with a tal Crystal.
Then, two jets of fla roared toward him. Heat slamd into his face, searing his lungs. He dropped to the ground and made a run for it, darting forward before jumping atop another truck. Eyes peeled, scanning desperately for the ones with red-circle markings.
At this point, he stopped setting fires. Couldn’t kill too many. If he wiped them out entirely, Cliff’s n wouldn’t even fight tomorrow. His whole plan would fall apart.
Behind him, fuel tanks exploded one after another. Just as another blast roared out, Magnus stumbled - tripped over sothing. The burning log flew from his hands, and he fell off the bus roof.
Right into a sea of n.
In a blink, over twenty soldiers sward around him. They saw he was running tal Crystal - held their fire. Instead, three or four of them lunged, trying to pin him down with their weight.
One. Two. Three. Four.
Darkness closed in around him. The weight crushed him down, chest tight as his hope drained away. If they caught him alive, it was over.
"Shit! This is what I get for trying to play saint!"
The pressure grew heavier. He couldn’t even twitch a finger. Breathing got harder.
What now? Was he really about to be taken alive?
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