The Extra is a Hero?-Chapter 300: THE CHARGE
Chapter 296: The Charge
The distance to the train was three hundred meters. In a sprint on a track, that was forty seconds. In a blizzard, waist-deep in snow, facing an army of beasts? It was an eternity.
"Shield up!" I roared.
Leon didn’t hesitate. He slammed his tower shield against his shoulder, tucked his head, and became a human battering ram.
The first line of Frost Wolves met us.
CRUNCH.
It wasn’t a fight; it was a collision. Leon, fueled by A-Rank Strength and the desperate need to save his friends, hit the pack like a runaway locomotive. The lead wolf, a beast the size of a pony, was launched backward, its ribs shattering audibly. The two behind it tripped over the carcass.
"Keep moving!" I shouted, staying in Leon’s slipstream. "Don’t stop to kill! Just break the line!"
I didn’t have a shield. I had a bent steel sword and a body running on fumes.
A wolf lunged from the left, its jaws snapping for my neck.
I didn’t try to block. My [Strength] was high, but my [Stamina] was critical. I pivoted on my back foot, letting the wolf sail past me, and drove my elbow into its temple as it flew by.
[Critical Hit.]
The wolf yelped and plowed into the snow.
"Right flank!" Leon warned, swinging the [Breaker’s Hammer] in a blind, backhand arc.
The heavy iron head connected with an Armored Ursa that had risen from the snow. The bear’s bone-plate armor disintegrated. The beast roared in pain, staggering back, opening a gap in the wall of fur and teeth.
"Through the gap!"
We surged forward. Fifty meters down. Two hundred and fifty to go.
The snow was churning into a slush of ice and blood. The howling of the wolves was deafening, drowning out the wind.
High above on the ridge, General Vargr watched. He didn’t move. He didn’t need to. He just pointed his red spear.
The command rippled through the pack.
The wolves stopped trying to bite us individually. They began to pile on.
"They’re swarming!" Leon grunted.
Three wolves latched onto his shield. Two more bit into his greaves. The sheer weight was slowing him down. The snowplow was stalling.
"Nox!" I tapped my collar. "Eyes!"
The Wyrmling burst from my hood. He was small, barely the size of a cat, but he was an Apex Predator. He didn’t breathe fire—the Zone of Silence suppressed his magical breath—but he had claws that could cut diamond.
Die! Meat!
Nox flew into the face of the wolf biting Leon’s leg. He raked his talons across the beast’s eyes.
The wolf screamed and let go, thrashing blindly.
"Thanks, buddy!" Leon kicked the blinded wolf away and surged forward again.
One hundred meters. We were halfway there. I could see the frosted windows of the train. I could see the pale, terrified faces of the students pressing against the glass.
But the path ahead was blocked.
Three Armored Ursas stood shoulder to shoulder, forming a wall of muscle and bone plating. They weren’t charging. They were bracing.
"We can’t push through that," Leon panted, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "I can’t knock down three tons of bear, Michael."
"We don’t push," I said, my eyes scanning the formation. "We jump."
"Jump? In this snow?"
"Trust me!"
I looked at my status window. The [Void Cut] skill I had unlocked in the dungeon was grayed out, marked [Sealed] by the Zone of Silence.
But space... space wasn’t mana. It was a constant.
The Zone of Silence stopped the flow of mana. It didn’t stop the existence of dimension.
"Leon, throw me!"
"What?"
"Throw me over them! I’ll clear the path from behind!"
Leon looked at the bears, then at me. He nodded.
He lowered his shield, creating a ramp.
I sprinted. My legs screamed in protest, my broken rib burning like a hot coal. I stepped onto the shield.
"HUP!" Leon roared, heaving upward with all his strength.
I was launched into the air.
Time seemed to slow. I soared over the heads of the three Ursas. I saw their confused expressions as they looked up. I saw the roof of the train. I saw the swarm of wolves closing in from the rear.
I was falling behind the bear line.
But I wasn’t just falling. I was aiming.
I reached for the Void.
System, override safety protocols. Burn HP instead of Mana.
[Warning: Life Force Conversion.]
[Skill: Void Step (Forced).]
My vision went red. Pain, sharper than any blade, tore through my nervous system.
For a split second, I ceased to exist in the physical realm. I became a coordinate error.
BLINK.
I didn’t land on the snow. I materialized directly behind the center Ursa, mid-swing.
My sword was gone—shattered in the dungeon. But I had the dagger Ren had dropped. The silver one.
I drove it into the base of the Ursa’s skull, right where the spinal cord met the brain stem.
The massive bear went rigid. It collapsed instantly, dead before it hit the ground.
The sudden gap in the line confused the other two bears.
"Leon! NOW!"
Leon charged into the gap. He didn’t hit the bears; he hit the corpse of the one I had killed, using it as a shield to shove the others aside.
We broke through the heavy infantry.
Fifty meters.
"Open the door!" I screamed at the train, waving my arms. "OPEN THE DOOR!"
Inside the carriage, Eric William saw us. His eyes widened. He dropped his crossbow and scrambled toward the heavy iron lock of the passenger door.
"They’re coming!" Eric shouted, his voice muffled by the glass. "Get the bar! Help me!"
Arthur joined him, and together they heaved the heavy locking bar up.
Behind us, the howl of the Alpha cut through the air. Vargr was done playing. He was leaping down from the ridge, clearing thirty meters in a single bound.
"Faster, Leon!"
We were sprinting now. The snow was trampled flat here by the siege, giving us traction.
Ten meters.
Five.
The train door slid open with a screech of frozen metal. Warm, stale air blasted out.
"Get in!" Eric yelled, extending a hand.
I grabbed Eric’s hand. He hauled me up the steps. I spun around, grabbing Leon’s strap.
"Jump!"
Leon threw himself through the doorway just as a massive white wolf—Vargr’s personal guard—snapped its jaws at his boots.
CLANG.
Arthur and Kaelen slammed the heavy steel door shut.
THUD.
The wolf impacted the door a second later, denting the metal, but the lock held.
We were inside.
Silence.
The roar of the wind and the beasts was instantly muffled, replaced by the heavy breathing of twelve terrified students.
I collapsed onto the floor of the carriage, my lungs burning. Leon slumped next to me, sliding down the wall, his armor coated in blood and slush.
"We... we made it," Leon wheezed.
I looked up.
The students were staring at us like we were ghosts. We were covered in black ichor, red blood, and dungeon slime. We smelled like rot and death.
"You’re alive," Lyra whispered, stepping forward. She looked at Leon, then at me. "We thought... we saw the explosion in the forest. We thought you were dead."
"Not yet," I managed to say, pushing myself up.
My legs shook. My vision blurred. But I forced myself to stand.
"Michael?" Eric asked, looking at me with a strange mix of fear and respect. "What happened out there? Where is Ren?"
"Ren is gone," I said coldly. "Traitor."
The word hung in the air, heavy and final.
"Traitor?" Arthur frowned. "What do you mean?"
"No time," I cut him off. I patted my chest pocket. The vial was there. "The girls. Are they alive?"
Eric nodded, pointing to the rear of the car. "Barely. The pods are flashing red. The temperature... Maria is freezing the room."
"Move," I ordered, pushing past them.
I didn’t stop to rest. I didn’t stop to explain. I limped down the aisle, leaving a trail of black dungeon muck on the expensive carpet.
Leon forced himself up and followed me, dragging his hammer.
We reached the medical bay door. It was frosted over completely, thick white ice coating the metal.
"It’s stuck," Eric said. "We tried to open it an hour ago to check on them. It’s frozen shut."
"Leon," I said.
Leon didn’t ask. He stepped forward, raised his boot, and kicked the lock.
CRACK.
The ice shattered. The door groaned and swung open.
A blast of cold air, absolute and biting, hit us. It was colder than the blizzard outside. It was the cold of a dying Ice Mage.
I stepped into the medical bay.
The stasis pods were dark. The batteries were dead.
Maria’s pod was a coffin of ice. She was visible inside, pale as death, her skin turning translucent.
Selena’s pod was filled with a red mist—her blood, leaking from her injuries, suspended in the anti-gravity field. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺
"Six days," Leon whispered, remembering my calculation. "You said six days."
"The dungeon took two," I said, walking to the console. "But the cold accelerated the timeline."
I pulled out the vial.
The [Tear of Gaia].
It glowed in the dark room, a beacon of golden hope.
"Hold the door," I told Leon. "Don’t let anyone in. This is going to be... violent."
"Violent?" Eric asked from the hallway. "It’s a cure, isn’t it?"
"It’s the blood of a planet," I said, uncorking the vial. "And we are about to inject it into two unstable vessels."
I walked to Maria’s pod first. There was an emergency intake valve on the side.
"Michael," Leon said, his voice low. "Are you sure?"
I looked at the freezing girl. I looked at the gold liquid.
"Trust the item," I said.
I poured half the vial into Maria’s intake.
Then I moved to Selena’s pod and poured the rest.
I stepped back.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then, the golden liquid hit their systems.
HUMMMMM.
A sound, deep and resonant, began to vibrate from the pods. The ice on Maria’s pod cracked. The red mist in Selena’s pod began to swirl.
"Get back!" I shouted, diving behind a metal cabinet.
BOOM.
The glass of both pods shattered outward.
(To be Continued)
