Chapter 57: Unplanned execution.
"Luha… jump. JUMP!" I shouted while looking down the window.
Her mech tightened its grip around my waist and crouched before launching into the air. We jumped. The warm rash air would have obliterated us had it not been for the mech and the fall would have shattered our spines had it not been for the mech.
Right there and then, through the already shattered window, we fell four floors down. There was gun fire behind us. The bot broke our fall and then broke its appendages. It didn't matter if it was capable of becoming an asset, it was useless now.
"RELEASE!"
Luha tapped a button and her frightened self fell from the seat she was mounted on.
Without wasting a second I threw Luha on my shoulder. She might have matured mentally quite a bit but her body was still tiny and cute. And light.
'NOT THE TIME TO GLOAT, MAO!'
I ran straight to the door that led back inside the building from the open-air part that we jumped into. Whoever designed this school needed to have their architectural degree taken away. I had seen labyrinths less complex than this.
Not to mention, there was barely any open-air except for the space in the centre. The space in the centre was covered in plants and took the heat from all the corridors. It was a furnace. This whole damn building was a fire hazard.
There was a door to my left that lead straight to the main school entrance. And then on the other side of the corridor there was a door that lead to the hangar through an obscure path. Both were gambles.
But I decided that running straight through a bunch of terrorists was riskier when you could only run at 25 kilometers an hour max. A speed I would only be able to achieve after dropping the braces and enhancing my body through the max.
So I need another solution.
A solution that came to me instantly. A solution that went by the name of 'buggiez'. I, now, had a destination. The hangar. I turned right and broke into a sprint.
While running I unbuttoned Luha's shirt.
"What are you do-" I pulled it over and covered her head.
"Into the fire we go."
The long way to the door on my right was the destination I chose. Yet again, thanks to my terrible luck, the corridor looked like the last thing you'd see while getting cremated alive. Flames everywhere. Flames neither of us were resilient to. I couldn't even cover my head because I needed to see.
No one would ever understand how hot a fire is. Not the one you see on your stovetop that would take 10 minutes to boil 4 cups of water for your ramen.
I meant wild flames that could burn you whole in a matter of minutes.
My sweat started to feel like melted skin. My burns became worse. It didn't hurt, I was already numb to everything. But I didn't know if my body could take it.
'Speed will solve it all speed will solve it all speed will solve it all.' I kept telling myself. And running 25 kmph really did help my case.
Mind you, even I didn't know that I could run this fast. But my body automatically began to push itself way past its limits. Or maybe it was because of all the body enhancement I did without taking my physical growth into account.
Before I knew it I was, thankfully, already all the way across to the other side of the corridor. I pushed the door open. A push resulted in the door breaking off the hinge. I blamed my momentum.
The first thing I saw to my annoyance were-
3 facking terrorists.
Time slowed down again.
I was confident in my strength. It was above the average for a 14 year old. But there was still no way for me to take on 3 guards at once.
"Mao! The guards from upstairs!" Luha shouted while pulling the shirt back down. Her finger pointed at the guys behind us.
HOW'D THEY EVEN CATCH UP SO QUICKLY?!
15 guys behind me and 3 in front. These people were like actual zombies. Taking all of them on in this body wouldn't just be a chore. It was straight-up impossible.
There was no wa- Unless!!
I didn't have to take any of them on!
"RUNE TURN THE FIRE SYSTEM-"
"ON IT!"
The fire system was a thing I took for granted. Now that the school's appliances were under Rune's control, so was the one facility that would always survive a fire.
Using it was genius.
Before I could finish asking him, he took it upon himself and a huge cloud of dust started to rain down. The system that stopped because of the sudden explosion was back up with Rune's intervention.
I slipped out as the gunfire started. Dodging the trajectories using my mana sense. Unable to see each other, their primary targets were their own people. I saw some clean headshots. Luckily I think the 'fog' was too thick for Luha to see anyone die but she could only stray away from that sight for so long.
I, at the very least, didn't want the young girl to see actual heads being emptied by a bullet. These people took off their bulletproof helmets and put on fire masks when they headed into the building. Probably to be able to breathe.
While running outside, I came across another terrorist. I wasn't stunned. I pulled my wrist back for that punch JiiJii taught and pushed it straight into the guys chest. My fist broke through his vest and I could feel his ribs crack.
The man was not reinforced with magic.
"RUNE! Intel! The terrorists are not mana users. They just seem to be military trained guys."
"They can't belong to our military, no. We only have the best of the combat attribute mana users."
"Then…"
"It has to be a local troop."
"So this was definitely an insider job."
"Looks like it." Rune confirmed. "I'll relay this. If we get the source first, popping these bitches would be rather easy."
"Damn it!"
The fact that I didn't have the liberty to stand for a moment and make sense of this was annoying. If given time I could have figured the whole thing out, I was sure. But time was a privilege I didn't have while running for our lives.
I picked up my pace again.
My body was slightly tired. But the adrenaline more than made up for it.
Getting all the way to the hangar was a tough mission in and of itself. Add to that the Luha girl I was carrying? This was killing me.
Moreover, I couldn't help but think that this was highly unsafe for her. But the fact that if I had left her there a little earlier right before the terrorists showed up frightened me.
She was the safest next to me, after all.
'It isn't brute force or weapons that makes someone strong. It's the thing in their skull.'
My intelligence alone was enough to ensure my- our survival.
I glanced up at the clock and it read 1 hour and 10 minutes.
The terrorists from upstairs should be on my tail. Granted it was a 15 v 3 shootout. Many of the terrorists who we met upstairs would have survived whereas the 3 would have probably died.
Do I go straight or do I- AH! I could do that.
I took a sharp right turn into the library and threw the doors open.
"Are you hiding?" Luha asked. "The library is pretty open, it wouldn't be a good place."
"I'm not hiding, just hold on tighter."
I rushed past the bookshelves and ran up the stairs.
'Hehe, running up the stairs in the library? The librarian would have murdered me for that.'
I turned around and ran in the direction where the main door I just entered through was. Right towards the path which led to the hangar.
Rushed, I opened the window and jumped on top of the roof that covered the path. That should mean that I have a straight path and throw those losers off my trail.
I blasted off but this time kept the weight of my steps in check. My wrists and ankles were still weighed down from the braces. But after wearing them for years their weight was negligible. Add to that the fact that they might help me fight off another weight class. I didn't bother taking them off.
My senses were picking up the traces of the terrorists on the ground behind me. Pesky little-!
"AND DONE!" I heard Rune shout over the lens' bone conducting speaker. "I linked your location up to a local satellite and started tracking different heat signatures. The little red dots on the map in your lens are people."
"Were you doing that on the side?"
"Yep."
This man really went above and beyond. When put in the situation, he knew exactly what to do.
"I apologise but I couldn't set enemies apart from the allies." Rune was too humble under pressure. It took me off guard. Like, what happened to that snarky little piece of crap?
"It's completely fine. In fact, I want to thank you… because now I know." I stopped right at the edge of the roof of the path. "I know that there are at least 20 people in the hangar." I took my eyes away from the lens and looked into real life to see the hangar a couple of hundred metres away.
I glanced at the two red dots following me that almost reached my location.
I jumped down and crushed their head with the 220+ kilos on me.
There was no sneaking around anymore. My next stop was the hangar.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
bligboi
bligboi Keeping track of all the moving parts is hard. So if I make a mistake, please tell me. I'll edit it.