Chapter : 50

  The ground shook violently. Massive, thick walls of solid rock ripped out of the earth, towering high into the air. The stone walls curved inward perfectly, creating a solid dome of protection around the 13th Unit. The sniper bsts smmed into the rock with deafening explosions. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Dust and gravel flew everywhere, but Zinia’s walls held strong. The deadly shots were completely blocked.

  "Nice shield, Zinia!" Laxmi shouted, a wild, excited grin spreading across her face. "Now drop the front wall! It is my turn to say hello!"

  Zinia waved her hand, and the front wall of rock instantly crumbled into dust, creating a perfect opening.

  Laxmi lunged forward. She took a deep breath, throwing both of her hands out toward the massive wave of gang members charging at them. "Fire Torrent!"

  A roaring, blinding wave of pure orange fme exploded from Laxmi’s palms. The fire was so intensely hot that it instantly melted the gravel on the ground. The massive wave of fire rushed forward like a bzing tsunami, smming directly into the front line of thugs. The gang members screamed in panic, dropping their weapons and diving out of the way to avoid getting roasted. The sheer force of the fmes pushed the entire mob back, creating a massive wall of fire that blocked their charge.

  "Luna! Ira! Take out the snipers!" Sayma commanded, keeping her own golden barriers ready.

  Luna, who usually looked half-asleep, suddenly moved with terrifying speed. She pointed two fingers at the rooftops. "Lightning Strike," she muttered zily. Bright yellow bolts of pure electricity shot out of her fingers, zigzagging through the air and bsting the snipers right off the top of the shipping containers.

  Ira moved like a dancer. She summoned a massive whip made of highly pressurized water. With a simple flick of her wrist, the water whip sshed across the train yard, sweeping the legs out from under five charging swordsmen all at once, sending them crashing face-first into the dirt.

  It was a brilliant, highly coordinated dispy of elite combat. The girls were fighting like a perfectly tuned machine, covering each other's blind spots and pushing back a mob that outnumbered them ten to one.

  And then, there was Ken.

  While the elite girls were busy holding the line and looking like legendary warriors, Ken was putting on an absolute mastercss of fake incompetence.

  The moment the first sniper shot had hit Zinia's wall, Ken threw his hands onto his head and let out a high-pitched, totally ridiculous scream. "Ahhhh! Loud noises! Loud noises! I am too young to die! I haven't even tried the new fvor of potato chips yet!"

  He didn't stay behind Zinia’s shield. Instead, he started running around in wide, panicked circles right in the middle of the chaotic battlefield. He looked like a headless chicken. He waved his arms wildly, his crooked tie fpping in the wind, completely ignoring the massive magical explosions going off all around him.

  "Ken! What are you doing?!" Naomi screamed at him, kicking a gang member in the chest and sending him flying. "Get back in formation! You are running right into the crossfire, you idiot!"

  "I don't know where to go!" Ken yelled back, his voice cracking on purpose. "Everywhere is dangerous! This pce is terrible! Zero out of ten stars!"

  Two rge gang members with heavy, rusty axes saw Ken running around like a crying fool. They grinned cruelly, thinking he was an incredibly easy target. They rushed right at him, raising their heavy axes high into the air, ready to chop the screaming farm boy right in half.

  But Ken’s luck was about to be absolutely, unbelievably perfect.

  ----

  The two massive gang members charged at Ken, their axes swinging down with lethal force. They were aiming right for his head.

  "Die, you crying little rat!" one of the thugs roared.

  Ken was still screaming, running forward without looking. Just as the sharp metal bdes were inches away from his neck, Ken suddenly let out a loud gasp and looked down at his own feet.

  "Oh no! My shoeces are untied!" Ken yelled.

  He instantly tripped over his own feet, falling face-first toward the dirt. The two heavy axes swung right through the empty air where Ken’s head had been just a millisecond before. The thugs missed him so completely that they lost their bance, smashing their axes into the hard gravel and tangling their arms together.

  While they were struggling to pull their weapons out of the dirt, Ken scrambled back up to his feet, totally ignoring them. "Phew! That was dangerous! Tripping is a serious safety hazard!" he mumbled, dusting off his knees and running away again.

  Naomi, who had watched the whole thing happen out of the corner of her eye, practically ripped her own red hair out in frustration. She couldn't believe what she just saw. "How did he survive that?!" she thought. "He literally tripped over his own shoes! He is the luckiest idiot on the pnet!"

  But Ken was just getting started.

  He kept running in his panicked, zig-zag pattern, constantly finding himself right in the middle of the most dangerous spots in the train yard. A magic user from the gang pointed a staff directly at Ken's back, firing a fast, deadly purple energy bullet.

  Just as the magical bullet was about to hit him right between the shoulder bdes, Ken stopped running. He gasped loudly, his eyes locking onto a small spot on the ground.

  "Ooh! A shiny quarter!" Ken cheered happily.

  He bent straight down at the waist, reaching for a completely useless piece of scrap metal sitting in the dirt. The deadly purple magic bullet whizzed right over his back, missing his jacket by exactly one millimeter. The bullet kept flying and smmed directly into the face of another gang member who was trying to sneak up behind Naomi, knocking the bad guy out cold.

  Naomi turned around, seeing the bad guy fall. She looked at Ken, who was happily rubbing the dirty piece of metal on his shirt to make it shine.

  "Ken! Get out of the middle of the battlefield!" Naomi screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice hoarse from yelling at him. "You are literally useless! Go hide behind a train car before you get yourself killed!"

  "I am helping!" Ken yelled back, looking deeply offended. He pointed at the bad guy who just got hit by the stray magic bullet. "Look! I totally dodged that so it would hit him! It is called advanced tactical evasion!"

  "That is called pure, dumb luck!" Laxmi shouted, throwing another fireball at a group of thugs. "If you aren't going to use magic, just sit down and cover your head!"

  "Fine! I will fight!" Ken shouted, acting like he was finally being brave.

  He turned toward a group of three gang members rushing toward him. Ken puffed out his chest, trying to look very tough. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and pointed his index fingers at them like two tiny guns. He squinted one eye, sticking his tongue out of the corner of his mouth like he was trying really hard to aim.

  "Take this, bad guys!" Ken yelled. "Pew! Pew! Pew!"