All thousand-plus female students in the building had been rescued. The n? All wiped out.
Right after the sudden explosion, Luxe imdiately gathered her won. They were discussing whether to use the chaos to break out when Magnus appeared.
Luxe ran up and threw her arms around him. "Magnus! You finally made it. We got ambushed. Emily and Sophia... we still haven’t found them. I..."
"I know. I know everything." Magnus gripped both her shoulders. "First things first - how many of you are still standing?"
"Fifty! With , that makes fifty-one. We’ve got zero casualties!" she reported, voice brimming with excitent.
"Good." Magnus handed her a pouch he’d taken off Travis earlier. "There are a bit over thirty tal Crystals in here. How many do you still have?"
"We’ve got over fifty left! We’ve been trying to break through, to get word back to Teacher Liana and the others, but every attempt’s been blocked, we - "
Before she could finish, Magnus cut her off. "That’s enough. Here’s the deal - head outside. Take your fifty - "
He paused, then shook his head. "Not enough. Too few. Are there any other won here who can fight? Do they have any combat experience?"
"There’re plenty! A lot of them have gone out scavenging or hunting Crystals before. They know how to fight," she answered quickly.
"Great."
He looked around, spotted a backpack on the ground, walked over, and pulled out fifty more tal Crystals from his space. Handing the bag to Luxe, he said, "Here’s fifty more. Go find fifty won who know how to use guns. Give them these."
Then Magnus turned to a corner, dumped all the automatic rifles he’d confiscated, and pointed at the pile. "There are over thirty rifles here. Split them among the hundred. If it’s not enough, share your handguns, or take weapons from the enemy. Got it?"
"Got it!" the won shouted in unison.
"Good. From now on, you’ll be divided into ten-man squads. Within the hour, I want every last damn Ridgebreak Battalion soldier in this campus wiped out. No prisoners. Kill every single one. Don’t show rcy."
"Yes, sir!"
The trapped won had spent a full day under siege. Now their morale surged like a wildfire.
After assigning Luxe’s squad, Magnus turned and left the dorm. His mind was filled with only one thing now - Emily and Sophia. They had to live. No matter what.
In the two front dorms, chaos had already broken out. He didn’t know what was happening inside. Without hesitation, Magnus leapt through a blown-out second-floor window. He caught three enemy scouts - interrogated them quick.
All three gave the sa story. Travis hadn’t lied. Their troops had entered the mountains to the west two days ago. A few runners had been sent out with updates, but no confird word on Sophia. Just one ssage - still chasing.
Two days. And still chasing. Magnus had a bad feeling gnawing at his gut. He didn’t know how Sophia and Emily were doing now, but if anything had happened to them - if they were really gone - he swore he’d storm Ridgehaven City himself. Even if it killed him, he’d make those bastards pay, down to the last man.
The mountain path was too rough for horses or carts. He had no choice but to charge up on foot. But damn it - two days had passed. They’d been fleeing for two days already. Could he really catch up?
In just three hours, Magnus pushed over six mountain ridges. He was running on fus. He yanked a glucose vial from his inventory, tilted his head back, and downed it fast. The mont it hit his throat, he choked hard - his throat too dry from thirst. He coughed violently.
The corpses he ran into along the way weren’t new to him by now. Most were torn apart, barely human. Gender was hardly recognizable - just bones and tattered clothing giving small clues.
At dawn the next day, he’d run straight through the night. He couldn’t even tell how many peaks he’d crossed anymore - his vision spun, his skull hamred. "Shit," he muttered. "Did they change direction?"
Grinding his teeth, he dropped to the ground and scanned for tracks. Still the sa. Sophia and Emily had kept heading deeper into the mountains.
He’d spent the night before with Ashton. A full night of chaos. Then, a full day on the road. After that, back to the underground granary, barely catching a breath before racing off to Hanford City.
Two days. No sleep. His whole body was burning. His mind twisted with worry for Emily. And now it hit him - this was what it ant to be pushed to the edge.
Only raw willpower was holding him up. Anything less, he’d already be down.
"Just an hour," a voice inside begged. "Let sleep, just one hour." But Magnus knew better. If he lay down now, it wouldn’t be just an hour. He wouldn’t be able to get back up.
And worse - out here in this goddamn wilderness - his tal Crystals only kept him awake for three hours. Once that ti ran out, if he blacked out... he might never wake again.
"Screw that!" he snarled.
He tore out his dagger, gritted his teeth, and jabbed it straight into the flesh of his left fingertips one after another - sharp pain, imdiate, blood pouring out. It made him snap awake, rage burning hot in his chest.
He didn’t heal the wounds with a Life Crystal. Just clenched his bloodied fist and leapt forward again, bolting down the mountain trail like a beast unleashed.
From morning to noon, he only stopped three tis. Each pause just long enough to treat his wounds, and each ti - he’d cut them open again to stay awake.
From noon till the last light of day, Magnus didn’t stop once. His legs kept pounding the ground, the world around him spinning. Every damn tree blurred into three, swaying, twisting like they were alive. Didn’t matter where he ran, he kept crashing into trunks like they were following him.
"I can’t... can’t keep going... Living hurts. Why am I still moving forward? What am I holding on for?"
The voice wouldn’t stop. Whispering right in his ear. He knew it was a delusion, a trick. No one was talking to him. It wasn’t real.
But the numbness crawling up his limbs, the dizziness clouding his head - those were real. Painfully real.
"Ahhh!"
His roar shattered the silence. He threw his head back and howled with everything he had. Then, without a mont of hesitation, he raised his right hand, gripped the dagger, and drove the blade straight through the palm of his left hand.
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