The dagger pierced right through Magnus’s palm, its tip jutting out the back of his hand. The searing pain set every nerve in his body on fire, but it only drove him harder. Letting out a fierce roar, he bolted up the mountain, slapping himself in the head with his good hand to stay conscious.
The scent of blood quickly drew a swarm of giant mosquitoes from the sky. Fortunately, the tal Crystal wrapped around him kept them from biting into his flesh. All they could do was drink the blood dripping from his hand.
The buzzing horde blocked so of his vision, but it didn’t matter. Even without them, he was staggering around half-blind already - bumping into trees every few steps like he was walking in total darkness.
Suddenly, he thought he heard sothing ahead - a sound, faint but real.
Was it just in his head? No... it sounded real.
His mind sharpened instantly. Biting through his lower lip, Magnus clawed his way up toward the summit.
The sound got louder, clearer. By the ti he hauled himself to a spot just short of the peak, it was loud enough to drown everything else out. He gritted his teeth, pushed on, dragged himself twenty more ters - finally, he reached the top.
The sun hadn’t vanished entirely yet. In the dim orange light, hands shaking, he fumbled out his binoculars and scanned the slope beneath him.
His eyes blurred. Cursing under his breath, he wiped them, then squinted again.
People. A whole crowd of them. That image burned into his mind. He lowered the binoculars, trembling legs barely holding up under him, and started sliding back down the slope. He lost his footing fast, tumbling downhill until a tree slamd into him, stopping his fall with a jolt to the ribs.
Pain lit his nerves again, snapping him back into focus. He forced himself upright.
He saw it clearly now: hundreds of enemy soldiers down below. From the opposite mountain, rocks were being sent tumbling toward them.
The enemy wasn’t charging. They were clustered together, obviously planning their next move. None of them were fools. Their commander had already been taken out. They knew with over five hundred of them charging uphill, they’d probably make it - probably catch those won on the run - but there was no promise the next mountain would offer more rocks to shield their retreat.
And who’d want to be in the front line? That was the real problem.
anwhile, Magnus stayed still halfway up the slope behind them. Maybe the noise from the opposite hill covered his approach, or maybe no one expected soone had survived to sneak up from behind.
Either way, no one noticed him. A mont of clarity flashed through Magnus’s muddled mind. Without wasting ti, he dug into his space storage and pulled out over eighty grenades. Half of them were spoils from last night - he hadn’t handed those out to Luxe and the others since they were heading into buildings. No point tossing grenades inside confined rooms.
The rest, well... he’d stocked up after his last skirmish. He’d learned then - as long as he had grenades and his tal Crystal shield active, it was damn hard to get caught. The things didn’t even take up much room, just slightly bulkier than a Crystal.
He dumped all the grenades out, eyes sweeping over the pile. No way to asure the exact distance to the enemy forces swarming at the foot of the mountain, so he simply gave a tired shake of his head, gritted his teeth, yanked the pin on the first grenade, and threw it downhill.
Then ca the second. The third.
He lost count fast, body swaying on that steep slope. One thought remained: keep chucking the grenades. Aim for the thickest crowds. Make them pay.
When his hands finally fumbled and found nothing left to throw, he slumped back against a tree. His eyes locked on the chaos below, smoke and fire cloaking the battlefield. Swarms of jet-black mosquitoes poured over the area. Nothing was clear. His mind, too, had gone foggy, like a blank canvas. He didn’t even rember his own na, just that - he’d been tossing grenades... for so reason.
From sowhere across the mountain, the sound of shouting won echoed faintly. Distant, dreamlike. Yet sohow, it gave him peace. For the first ti in what felt like forever, sothing inside him settled.
Then, the last shred of strength in him snapped. He slid sideways, collapsing by the tree like a puppet with strings cut.
No idea how much ti passed... now and then he’d wake briefly, then drift off again. Voices buzzed nearby - female, familiar. His lips were forced open, sothing warm pressing against them, liquid trickling into his mouth. His body jolted with each rough step, slung across soone’s back, being carried through who knows what.
"Sophia... he’s burning up. What do we do..."
After moving nonstop for a day and night, Sophia and Emily had only thirty-seven people left from their unit. But they’d survived - and that was thanks to him.
When they’d heard the string of grenade explosions last night from the base of the mountain, they’d charged down without a second thought. The Ridgebreak Battalion, all five hundred of them, assud it was a full ambush. Panic spread. Discipline shattered. They broke and ran. So died, so scattered.
Of those who fled, less than a hundred made it out. Most were torn apart by the blasts. And in this hellhole, a bad wound was the sa as a death sentence - just slower and more painful. Including Magnus, there were 38 of them hunkered down in a cave.
Night had fallen, and they planned to camp there till morning. Magnus had been out cold for a full day and night, burning with fever, but still hadn’t co to.
Emily stepped over to check his wound again. She frowned, "It’s infected. But I’d bet he stabbed himself. Otherwise, with his ability, he could’ve healed this kind of injury in no ti."
"Why would the Commander do that?" a girl asked, confused.
"Probably because he was too exhausted. He forced himself to stay awake the only way he could..." Emily mused, her voice a bit softer. Her pretty face showed a flicker of worry beneath her helt - though no one could see it.
"The Commander..." The girl’s voice trembled. The others were quiet, their eyes rimd with red as they looked at Magnus in silence.
"He’s a damn pervert! A complete and utter pervert!"
Sophia had been sitting beside Magnus the whole ti. She spoke through gritted teeth, slapping his chest over and over. None of the others stepped in to stop her. They’d all heard her, and they could tell - there was a hint of tears in her voice.
After a while, Sophia spun around, shouting at the group, "Listen up! Don’t you dare thank him! He didn’t save you out of kindness! He’s just a pervert, trying to trick you into bed! Got it? You all hear ?"
The girls looked at each other, heads down, saying nothing.
"I said - did you hear ?!"
"Y-Yes... we heard you."
"Got it..."
Under Sophia’s sharp tone, they could only nod and mumble their agreent.
By sunrise, the girls had taken turns on watch, and Sophia and Emily had both spent the night taking care of Magnus.
A few ca back from the outside, hands full with plastic sheets left out overnight to collect dew.
Sophia took one sheet, sipped a little dew to moisten her dry lips, but didn’t swallow. She turned and walked over to Magnus. Emily quickly opened his mouth, and just like before, Sophia leaned down, letting the dew pass from her lips to his.
Even after doing it a few tis, she still blushed. Every ti, she’d close her eyes and feel around with her lips, a little clumsy but careful. But this ti, when she finished and slowly opened her eyes -
Magnus was wide awake, eyes locked right on her.
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