BOOOOOOM!

The maglev train rocked and instantly, a commotion started inside the train as the passengers panicked.

The maglev train rocked but it didn't suffer any damage because at the last moment before impact, a shimmering blue shield appeared around the train and deflected the damage, but the force still made the train rock.

Others may have not seen what happened, but Leon saw it.

He was not hallucinating and what he saw was not shadows either. Instead, they were people, people in dressed in black paramilitary armor and armed to the teeth, accelerating towards the maglev train at breakneck speed!

They seemed to have been hiding behind the scrapyard in the distance, and they rode super bikes just like the Karaki CT-3X.

Immediately after the attack, the train security reacted.

WOM! WOM! WOM!

The sounding alarm made the passengers panic even more, and then those sitting on the right side of the train finally saw the bike riders in black paramilitary armor charging towards the train at a rapid speed.

The passengers melted in horror as everyone recognized that attire.

"I-it's the Extremist Movement!"

"It's the Demon!"

Panic set among the passengers of the train immediately as they began screaming in hysteria.

At that moment, the speakers across the train sounded as an authoritative male voice that didn't belong to the Engineman sounded.

"My name is Lieutenant Johnmark, I am the head of security of this train today, and I want all of you to calm down".

That first sentence brought a measure of calm and the voice rode on the opportunity to continue.

"Yes, those people coming are terrorists of the Extremist Movement, but I want to tell you now that everything is under control".

"I will protect this train with my life, but I promise you that it won't come to that".

"At the moment, the Engineman is trying to supercharge the maglev engine to accelerate at peak speed and escape from the terrorists".

"Even if this isn't successful, you still have me and the dozens of security personnel stationed inside the train".

"We'll fight and we'll protect the train, we'll repel the terrorists".

"All I need from you is to stay calm".

With that, the voice connection was finally cut off.

The passengers were still panicking but they were no longer hysterical and shouting at the top of their lungs, they simply shook in fear where they sat.

The same applied to the Priest that sat beside Leon.

This man had a brown bead around his neck and at this moment he clutched it tightly, his eyes closed as he mumbled, praying in a low voice. He was shaking and his voice was filled with fear.

Sitting beside him, Leon looked outside again and leaned back against his seat because he knew what was about to happen next.

'It's those terrorists that I just watched on the TV'. He thought.

The moment he saw the black paramilitary armor, he immediately connected it with the terrorists in the video that he watched.

He suddenly felt annoyed. 'And here I was thinking that I won't go after the terrorists if they don't directly cross paths with me'.

His lips twitched but his face was serious, he knew how serious the current situation in the train was.

And then, what he was waiting for finally happened.

VOOM!

The maglev train made a sudden jerking motion like it was changing gears or was jumping into supersonic speed mode, then it accelerated with force and speed.

For a moment, it felt like a God grabbed the train by the head, then pulled it with such force that it's speed increased by a staggering 1/3rd.

And finally, the train started accelerating away from the terrorists.

The force of inertia pushed all the passengers, including Leon against their seats as oxygen was briefly knocked out of their lungs.

Leon stayed perfectly ok though.

With the corner of his eyes, he paid attention to the terrorists who were coming straight for the train.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

They kept on bombarding the energy shield surrounding the train with devastating energy attacks and powerful projectiles, chipping away at its battery percentage as it drained steadily.

As he observed them through the corner of his eyes, Leon calculated the angle separating both targets and their velocity.

'We're going to make it'. He thought, but then…

CRKSH!

A loud cracking sound reverberated as a part of the energy shield was finally overloaded, cracking to reveal a hole which made the energy shield's overall stability to be destabilized, causing it to fall apart.

And as it fell apart, the attacks finally started hitting the train.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The maglev train was rocked, almost knocked off its guideway as the passengers in the train once again began screaming in horror.

Even Leon felt his heart skip a beat in that moment.

At the moment, after supercharging its maglev engines, the train was moving at speeds close to 900km/hour!

That was close to going supersonic already!

A body attains supersonic speed when its speed exceeds the local speed of sound which is approximately 1,235km/hour at 200C in dry air.

The temperature at the moment was slightly higher but considering the long, slender and aerodynamic design of the maglev train, Leon's calculations told him that it was close to going supersonic already.

If the train was to topple at such extreme speeds, every single passenger in the train, including him would die from the impact!

BADUMP! BADUMP!

He could feel his heartbeat skyrocketing.

'F*ck, f*ck, f*ck…!' He cursed, desperate.

And finally, the Engineman seemed to have also realized the danger of continuing at this speed.

With the shield generator gone, their chances of escaping the pursuit of the terrorists just became basically non-existent. There was no use making the situation even more dangerous by going at such high speeds.

And finally, he made the rational decision, slowing the train down.

In that moment, Leon felt like he heard an illusory gong sound. It was the sound that said battle is inevitable.

While everybody around him screamed in horror and fear, panicking, Leon turned his head right and looked at the rows of almost 15 super bikes that were now very close to the train.

His brain whirred. 'That Lieutenant, there's no way that he's D Rank, but there's a high chance that's he's E Rank'.

'No matter what his Class is, he's going to be a great boon in battle'.

He focused on the terrorists again. 'What are the chances of an E Rank Ascended being among them?'

'On paper, the odds of victory in a head-on battle seems to favor the security in the train if I join the battle'.

But at that moment, he noticed a faintly familiar face seated in the back of one of the enemy super bikes.

Leon looked at that face again and he felt a sudden sense of déjà vu.

First of all, he looked clearly different from all the other terrorists. He didn't wear the same paramilitary armor and full-face black masks that they wore.

Second, this man wore a half-face black mask and a hood. He wore tight-fitting black clothes that hung extremely close to his body, clearly outlining his lean physique and the clean abs on his abdomen.

With his Ascended perception, Leon saw his small brown eyes that were scanning the train the same way a snake scanned its prey.

On his right hand, he held a black scabbard of a sword.

Leon's eyes widened. 'Swap that sword scabbard to his back and you have… it's the terrorist in the video!' He hissed.

In that moment, he directly tore the paper odds of the potential battle that was about to erupt that he previously drew in his head to pieces.

He didn't know who this man was but for him to be in that video alongside the leader of a terrorist movement that had its tentacles across all of Neo-Tokara according to the Priest, Leon didn't know how strong he was but he was sure that he was not weak!

The firepower from the terrorists as they approached was so suffocating that the security inside the train didn't even get a breather to retaliate and shoot back.

And finally, they closed the distance to the train.

They didn't recklessly jam into the train, instead, they oriented the bikes to ride parallel to the train along the train's guideway, granting their companions who rode at the back the opportunity to directly jump into the fast-moving train.

It was a risk.

To normal people, this was foolishness at its highest order, courting death at its finest but terrorists have never been known to think rationally.

Bam!

The first terrorist jumped but he was not strong enough, the force and speed of the maglev train directly squashed his body to bloody goo on impact!

The passengers screamed even more in horror at the sight.

2 more terrorists tried, dying gruesome deaths as the security in the train finally retaliated, shooting at the terrorists.

And yet, it was in that moment when the man that Leon had his eyes on since the moment he saw him finally move.

With his predatory brown eyes, he jumped and floated through the air like a bird and when he landed on the train, he wasn't squashed like a bug, instead he clung to the train's surface like a lizard.

Thud! Thud!

With his knee, he immediately started hitting the window of the train close to the front coach where the Engineman was.

The window was clearly tough and reinforced, yet at this moment it seemed fragile in the face of this man's knee.

Leon who already stood up at some point, peeking outside watched everything that was happening amid the chaos. The reason he watched this man so closely was because he wanted to gauge his strength.

He wanted to gauge his strength by how fast he was able to break the reinforced glass window.

If he broke it in one kick, then Leon would confirm that the man was definitely a D Rank Ascended.

He would not hesitate to escape from the train with his Karaki CT-3X super bike. Fighting a D Rank Ascended at the moment, no matter what Class the enemy was is simply suicide.

But the moment the man hit the glass twice and it still didn't break, Leon heaved a sigh of relief.

By the 3rd knee strike, the glass cracked.

By the 4th, it shattered.

'E Rank'. Leon accurately gauged the enemy's rank.

With the window shattering, breeze rapidly blew inside the maglev train, forcing the Engineman to once again reduce the speed of the train or else the rapid wind alone would kill passengers.

And then…

Tututututututu!

The sound of gunshots finally sounded from inside the train, meaning the battle already came inside the train!

At the same moment, Leon grabbed his black leather bag and jumped from his seat, charging forward.

'The Engineman must not die!'

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