Was soone attacking ?
Magnus spun around, one hand grabbing a steel cable. And right then, he understood what had happened.
Since they left the Ironvale bunker, Liana had rigged thick steel cables between the buses. Magnus hadn’t seen the point, but didn’t stop her. Now, those cables were the only thing holding the disaster back.
A giant sparrow had ramd the rear of one of the passenger buses, pushing it over the edge into a mountain crevice. Luckily, the front and rear ends were still chained to other buses by the cables.
The massive force Magnus had just felt from behind - that was the falling bus yanking on the steel cable, dragging the bus behind and slamming it into him. But it didn’t fall. Its front was caught on another cable.
Now Magnus was dangling in the crevice, held up by the cable. Above him, female team mbers were clustered near the underground grain silo entrance. The cable linking the falling bus to the one above had snapped. The middle cable now held Magnus between the buses, the rear of the upper bus looming just above his head.
"Start the damn engine!" Magnus shouted up, ignoring the pain and the danger. One of the team mbers snapped into action, bolted to the bus, turned the ignition, and slamd the gas - trying to haul it upward.
"Stop!" another team mber scread.
The cables between the buses - one after another - started snapping. They weren’t built to hold this kind of load.
"Captain! Get up here! The cable’s gonna snap!" soone shouted from above, hanging over the fissure. But her words never finished - A giant sparrow dove in, beak wide, and clamped down on her neck. Her scream froze midway. A second later, her skull thudded down into the crevice, smashed into Magnus’ shoulder, then bounced onto the fallen bus below.
"You motherf - !" Magnus roared, eyes red. "Fire! Shoot that bastard!"
Gunfire erupted overhead, chaotic and desperate. But Magnus’ hand shook. He could’ve climbed up then, even with the cable about to break.
But below him - forty won trapped in that damn bus.
He couldn’t leave them.
More wires snapped above, tension biting into his body. No more ti. Magnus dropped lower, crawling along the cable until he reached the front windshield. With one hand, he pulled his pistol, aid at the glass corner, and shot.
Cracks spread across the windshield.
He tossed the gun, slapped his left middle finger - summoning a thick, ter-and-a-half-long Nature Crystal. Didn’t bother to light it up. Smashed it into the fractured glass, shattering the front completely.
"Climb up! Now!" he bellowed down into the bus. "We can’t hold on much longer!"
Inside, over forty won had thought they were done for. Then their captain broke through like thunder from the sky. So were already sobbing.
"Soone above - get another steel cable! Drop it down, now!"
Magnus kept shouting upwards, but with the gunfire overhead so loud, he wasn’t sure if they could even hear him. Still, he roared again and again toward the top.
Down below, inside the bus wedged in the crevice, one female team mber had climbed into the driver’s seat. Clutching the Nature Crystal-forged pole Magnus had lowered, she shivered as she pulled herself up. Tears rolled down her face as she clung to Magnus’s thigh, waist, and stomach, inching upward with sobs choking her breath.
Above, several steel cables were lowered along the rock face. However, the nearest one hung nearly two ters from Magnus. He quickly shouted at the girl in his arms to grab the cable. She glanced at the gap, burst into tears, and shook her head violently.
"Jump now! We’re outta ti!"
Magnus barked. She shook her head harder, terrified. "Captain, I’m scared!"
Magnus cursed under his breath. With a sudden motion, he locked his legs around her waist, changed his grip on the pole, and slamd it against the rock wall. Using the recoil, he and the girl launched sideways. Magnus’s left hand let go mid-swing and latched onto the steel cable.
"Grab the damn cable now!" he roared at the girl, still screaming in his arms. She looked up, spotted the cable, and reached for it, grabbing tight.
Once she was holding steady, Magnus twisted his body left, hooked his feet around the cable still tied to the bus, and guided her end of the cable into the shattered bus window, pushing it inside.
"Pull her up!" Magnus shouted to the people above. Then, turning to the girl, he growled, "Now get your ass climbing!"
She nodded, clenching her jaw and the cable, and started scrambling upward, pulling herself up with all she had.
Next, another girl crawled out through the driver’s window. More and more team mbers followed. They grabbed onto the steel cable Magnus had thrown inside and began their climb out.
But not three minutes later, the steel cable Magnus’s left hand held gave way with a snap. He felt himself drop. Instinct took over - he reached out and grabbed whatever he could. His hand caught a girl’s waist.
She shrieked. Her belt tore clean off. A brutal rip sounded as her pants gave way, and Magnus, still holding on, plumted with her, crashing into two other girls below.
The two girls scread from the pain in their arms and lost their grip - falling further into the depths.
Thankfully, Magnus’s fall was buffered by the impacts. His knees locked hard on a lower steel cable. He slid down it fast until he managed to loop it around his right leg, digging the cable deep into his calf and stopping the descent with a wrenching jolt.
The two girls he had crashed into were dangling just below. He was gripping one by the hair - she cried out in terror. The other girl had her elbow gripped in Magnus’s other hand. Her face twisted in pain.
"Hurry the hell up! Grab the damn cable! There’re still people below you!" Magnus growled.
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