Magnus stood there, dumbfounded. He hadn’t expected the won on his team to be tougher than most n - not a single one threw up.
One of them pulled a massive lump of goose guts out. Isabel stepped aside, and another woman crawled into the goose carcass to keep going.
Covered in blood like so kind of war ghost, Isabel walked over, wiped the blood off her face with her sleeve, and gave Magnus a faint smile. That smile made the corner of his mouth twitch.
"What’s wrong? More trouble outside?"
She was still smiling. Magnus cleared his throat, quickly pulling a cigarette from his pocket and lighting it as he gave her an awkward grin. "You lot’ve been working hard."
"This? Please."
Her pale face, finally showing a bit of color, was soon streaked again with blood trickling from her forehead. She wiped it away and ran her hand through her sticky hair. Her smile revealed red-stained teeth.
"We’re just doing heavy work. It’s a bit gross, yeah, but still easier than what you do out there. I heard from Harper - you got hurt earlier, didn’t you?"
"I’m fine." Magnus paused. "But I know it’s not easy for you all either."
While they were talking, a nearby woman held up a massive goose liver and shouted, "Vice Captain! Too good to throw out. Can we roast it?"
"Yeah, co on! They always say goose liver’s a treat. Never seen one this big - let us have a taste!"
Isabel turned to Magnus for his say. He’d wanted to test out if those mutated beasts were fit to eat anyway. Seeing the suggestion, he gave the go-ahead. A few idle won grabbed a pile of teor soil, poured bottled water on it, and got a fire going.
They tore down the security room door nearby, chopped it into planks, made tripods on each side, and slamd a beam across. Then they skewered the liver on top and started roasting...
Before long, the underground parking lot was filled with the sll of sizzling at. Every girl stopped working and stared at the roast, swallowing hard.
That goose liver must’ve weighed at least seventy, eighty pounds - over a ter long, half a ter wide. Now it sat on the grill, dripping with fat. The surface was nicely browned. The rest watched it with shining eyes, then turned pitiful glances toward Magnus.
He figured he’d better test it first. If it wasn’t safe, he could still use a Life Crystal. No way he’d ask soone else to do that.
"I’ll try it first. If it’s not poisoned, we can all eat."
He pulled out a knife, sliced off a small piece, and popped it into his mouth.
Delicious.
A bit overdone, but still - rich, buttery, and it lted before he even had to chew. Without thinking, he cut off another big chunk, jabbed the knife into it, and shoved it into his mouth again.
"How is it, Captain? Is it good?" Harper tugged at his sleeve, eyes bright with hope.
It was good. Damn good. Even without a single pinch of seasoning, Magnus knew - this was hands down the best thing he’d ever eaten. Not even five-star cuisine back in prosperous days could match this goose liver. That stuff didn’t even co close.
Surrounded by a hundred hungry eyes, he nodded to himself, sliced another hefty chunk off the liver, stuffed it into his mouth, and only then said, "Tastes good. You can try it." He’d completely forgotten this whole thing was supposed to be a poison test.
The cheers that exploded around him nearly made him jump. Only then did he realize he’d been too busy eating, not noticing all the won around gripping knives, watching him while gulping down saliva. Damned if they didn’t look like they wanted to eat him instead.
One huge slab of liver, shared among 500 people - each got less than a palm’s worth - and it was all gone in under ten minutes. The won licked their lips, tongues tingling, casting blazing eyes toward what was left of that massive white goose’s carcass.
They took turns collecting blood, roasting at - they weren’t slowing down for a second. But by the ti every last drop of goose blood was drained, two full hours had passed.
Fifty-liter barrels, and they managed to fill 48 of them with goose blood in that ti. At this pace, Magnus figured collecting 1000 barrels of animal blood would take at least two full days.
And just giving the entire Ice Regint convoy a proper soak in beast blood? That’d take more than 300 barrels, easy.
Running those numbers in his head, Magnus climbed back into the off-roader. Harper was behind the wheel again. The vehicle drove out from the parking lot, pushing against what was left of the giant goose’s body. The won in the back wasted no ti, grabbing Earth Crystals and getting to work.
Next target - one big-ass rooster. Magnus didn’t even fully know why, but the mont he laid eyes on that beast, rage flared in his chest. Maybe it was just its face. He wanted it dead. Bad.
When they rolled up to the old plastic football pitch, Magnus looked out through the windshield - and nearly broke his nose from gritting his teeth.
Damn thing was blind... but didn’t stop it from "enjoying" life. There it was, feeling around and taking turns "entertaining" the two hens. Disabled my ass.
Harper flushed red just watching. She snuck a glance at Magnus. Seeing he was locked onto the rooster, her face went several shades deeper. Not that he noticed.
"Son of a..." Magnus checked his rifle, muttering darkly, "If that old Colonel Sanders could see this, he’d laugh himself awake." With that, he stepped out and strode straight for the big rooster.
These days, he’d figured out the best way to use his Fire Crystal - grab the neck, burn it dead. Clean, efficient.
Why? First, burning left no bloody ss. Second, it kept the damn things from fighting back. When they panicked and charged with their own crystals, things got ssy fast.
Killing them wasn’t hard. Hell, if he didn’t care about waste, one swipe of a Nature Crystal would toast the bird. But that was too expensive. A normal user could maybe kill ten big birds before the Nature Crystal burned out. He could push it up to thirty if needed. As for small beasts like rats or bats - he hadn’t even bothered running those numbers.
They were all blind now anyway. No need to tiptoe.
Magnus marched right up to the rooster and its hen, grabbed a feather from under her belly, leapt up, landed on her back, then reached out and yanked a tail feather from the rooster to launch himself again -
Ready to end it.
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