Chapter 56 The Load Up

"Good! You're doing great!" Leon roared as the men pushed against the wall.

It was a massive shift with over fifteen hundred men pushing to the wall on the left and female candidates weaving between them to get to the other side.

The pacing was a miracle. However, some still thought they could get away with using their powers by blending into the chaos.

"...hhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHH!"

BOOM!

"But as you can hear, there are still people who aren't complying, so hurry the fuck up!" Leon roared, "If you don't, those people might accidently kill you on their trip back from the stratosphere!"

More men pushed past each other to get to the side.

"Now, female candidates! Move forward quickly!" Leon barked, "Eighty two women are risking their lives to save you from these pigs. They'll help you file in!"

The women ran forward. They didn't want to be in [drop zones] where Tricksie smashed human beings down like meteorites. So they immediately complied.

"...hhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Boom!

"Lindy, you're up." Leon whispered, "Do me proud, and I'll give you a reward later."

Lindy shivered and immediately sprung into action.

"Listen up! Look around you! There is one man and eighty-two women risking their lives to save you!" Lindy yelled at full volume.

The candidates looked around and confirmed her words instantly.

"Unless you believe this man can subjugate eighty-two women into being slave captors, you should understand we're here to rescue you, not enslave you!" Lindy asserted, bending the truth.

"Once you're at the Lemmox Sanctuary, you are not bound to stay with us, and we can't hurt you. So trust us."

Her words eased the women's immediate concerns and anxieties.

"We have forty women on the retrieval team who will fight on your behalf!" Lindy yelled.

"Do not, under any circumstance unless granted permission, use your powers!

I repeat, do not use your powers!

We're organized, and using your powers will cause traffic collisions, disrupt communication, and you'll die as a result.

For the safety of all members, we'll ruthlessly blow up your bus if you hijack it, use your powers, or cause issues!"

Most candidates shook with fear at Lindy's declaration. Her words brought reality back into focus for them.

"You're dangerous, and we don't trust you to not kill us! One idiot releasing flooding magic on this may prevent us from driving. Then hundreds of people will die.

We're willing to kill 40 people indiscriminately to prevent that. So do not use your powers!"

Leon watched the candidates closely. As expected, having a female give the orders to the women had magical effects.

"Equally important! While it will only take ten minutes to run to the sanctuary, you are forbidden to leave.

Anyone that tries to run, fly, or use stealth skills to get past us will be mowed down!

As you can see, only two women are holding back an army of men. If you think you'll escape a swift execution, you're dead wrong!"

The candidates that planned to volunteer to run were shocked by her statement.

"It seems some of you are slow on the uptake, so let me break this down for you!" Lindy yelled.

"As superhumans, most can make it to the Lemmox Sanctuary in ten minutes. You've been given [three] hours. Haven't you considered why that is?"

The male and female candidates were listening with equal attention.

"It's because they're offering candidates prizes to massacre the survivors and kill one another!"

A wave of realization washed over candidates and survivors. It was obvious, but they hadn't thought about it due to their anxiety and panic.

"Right now, there's just under a thousand candidates with random superpowers!" Lindy continued.

"To kill people, candidates will use what they have.

And one person using flood magic could prevent trucks from moving. Explosions will leave gashes trucks need to navigate to move through.

Using wind magic unskillfully can send debris on the road. There are a thousand different ways your power can kill everyone here!

So from here on out, you're on a bus and will NOT use your powers—for any reason—unless given permission.

We're here to save you from the savage idiots that would use their powers to kill you and save you from yourselves, but we will not risk our lives to do it!

If the operation becomes too chaotic, we'll massacre everyone except one candidate and survivor, have Kazz eat one of each, and casually walk back to collect every prize for the event!

Do I make myself clear!?" Lindy screamed.

An icy shiver crawled down their spines. Assuming Leon's group was as powerful as they appeared, they could sweep the event easily. It put things into perspective.

The female candidates nodded in consensus.

Now that the men were calmer, they also understood the tertiary benefits of Leon's presence.

"Our goal is to load up in one hour, but you can expect it to take longer. The sooner you're done, the sooner the women and men will be safe in the Sanctuary!

Now join one of the twenty lines! You will be asked your power and be assigned a bus accordingly.

If you lie about your power, you will not be able to join us, and you'll find an army of women waiting for you once the asylum period ends! Now move!"

The female candidates quickly complied, giving Leon a great feeling of satisfaction.

He couldn't embrace Lindy, but he let her know how pleased he was by holding her hand for a moment behind her back.

The small gesture greatly impacted her emotions, sending her into a manic frenzy. Leon chuckled and watched the events unfold.

"Skill." Quinn demanded.

"I-I can run extremely quickly and can blend into my environment! I have an escape class." The female said.

"Okay, get on bus six. You'll get immediate trauma therapy from a god like the rest of the women Leon saved yesterday. You're looking at the ones he saved. Now go, hurry! Next!"

She said her words loud enough for ten people in line to hear them, comforting people en masse.

Two beautiful, dark elves walked up to Quinn.

They were identical two dark elves with white hair, dark skin, and neon green eyes. They were doubtlessly sisters.

"Names." Quinn ordered.

"Zora." Said the first.

"Zena." The second followed.

"Skills." Quinn ordered.

"Sword attacks primarily focused on sun-related attacks." Zora said.

"Norse god Freyr, the sun god." Zena added.

"Both of you?" Quinn asked for clarification.

"Correct." Zora confirmed, triggering a nod from her sister.

The tone they used was cold as ice. The elves quickly answered Quinn's questions rationally and didn't even flinch when men flew from the sky, killing half a dozen people at a time.

They were cold and calculating like Leon, something she found increasingly valuable.

"You two seem capable, and you can follow orders." Quinn prefaced, "Would you like to earn rewards by being part of the retrieval team?"

"No." Zena said, "We also don't like risking our lives for others."

"Absolutely not. We'll comply with your requests out of fear of death, but we won't help you." Zora followed.

"Understood. Bus one on the far left." Quinn said while pointing.

The two elves nodded and silently walked away.

"What a pit-y-Oh My God!" Quinn cried, aggressively slurring her words when she saw a candidate approach.

The redhead immediately turned bright red when she realized she had voiced her thoughts aloud. She also felt fear.

"I-I'm sorry, I was just surprised and also extremely concerned how we'll… accommodate you." Quinn stuttered.

A woman slithered over to Quinn with an amused expression.

"Stop the pandering. We have shit to do." She chuckled with a mocking expression.

The candidate was half snake, half human. Her snake body had dark green scales with brown splotches down them. They were jagged, and Quinn felt every scale was a weapon.

The woman was eight feet tall, and her snake body was twenty feet long, with a three-foot diameter. Her snake body made her massive.

Quinn wasn't even thinking about that. Her snake body was the least intimidating part of the woman!

"Name's Manka. I'm a lamia, and I crush shit." Manka said matter-of-factly, "My power can make me up to five times larger, so I can crush bigger shit."

Quinn nodded in a gesture that said [I'd be surprised if you didn't]!

Manka's upper half was human… ish. She looked exactly like a dark African woman and had long dreads moving down her shoulders.

The [ish] referred to the comical size of the muscles on the woman. She made Olympic bodybuilders look like children!

The likelihood Manka took titan steroids while eating grizzly bear steaks was an 8/10 on the probability scale, even though such a thing was absurd!

Her forearms were one foot in diameter and displayed all of the muscles people would usually only see in medical books.

And that was just her forearm!

Manka didn't need a superpower because she was already [death]!

"R-Right. Well…." Quinn looked at the buses and then glanced awkwardly at the moving trucks, trying to estimate whether they'd fit the woman.

Seeing Quinn's hesitation, Manka spoke up.

"Look, reddy. I like your hesitation." She chuckled.

"That means you're smart because I crush shit that offends me. But I don't crush shit that's considered an ally, and your hesitation about my looks doesn't offend me. It's just bad taste."

Quinn's expression crumbled, and she fell speechless.

"So look, I'll volunteer to be part of the retrieval team if you let me slither next to the trucks.

Otherwise, load me up in a storage truck. I'll coil in easily, and women can stand or sit on me fine. But I'm ripping out of it if I hear monsters."

"Yes… that's a great idea. No, both are great ideas." Quinn replied.

It was a hard choice. The order was to keep the candidates together so they couldn't cause issues. However, putting Manka into a truck would end in disaster when an attack hit, and she needed to escape.

After glancing at the army of women that still needed loading, Quinn sighed.

"Welcome to the retrieval team, Manka. Go talk to Mirth over in that pickup truck." She instructed while pointing to the muscular canine woman standing behind the retrieval members.

"You're responsible for your actions and consequences."

Manka chuckled mockingly, triggering a sharp look from Quinn in return.

"I'm warning you because you're part of our team." The redhead said calmly.

"That angel destroyed this ten-mile stretch of the city single-handedly, and the walls you see are proof of that.

If you think you can survive misconduct because you're strong, it shows you're looking at a manic bunny and ignoring the grim reaper. You've been warned."

Manka's eyes widened in bewilderment. She scanned the walls of the wreckage with a huge smile on her face.

"Wheeeeeeeew!" She whistled, "That girl knows how to have fun. Warning received! I look forward to seeing that myself. I might even join you lunatics if she impresses me."

Manka slithered away to meet up with Mirth with a beaming grin.

The lambia only respected one thing—power. So if Quinn was telling the truth, she was stoked.

Quinn scoffed and turned her head. "Next!"

There were twenty women interrogating candidates about their powers and organizing them.

The leader was Cynthia, whose amethyst eyes were more lifeless than usual.

For someone with a chronic case of resting bitch face, it spoke volumes about her quickly deteriorating patience levels.

While she was the leader, she couldn't coordinate because the candidates took forever to answer two simple questions.

Most were crying and unable to speak to save their lives, chose stupid powers, and winced every time they heard a few feeble men die.

Their performance nearly guaranteed that they wouldn't hit their one-hour goal.

"Names," Cynthia ordered coldly. Five women of the same race approached her. Judging by their different yet culturally similar Kimonos, she saw them as a group.

"Filo, Pan, Feris, Like, and Toga. I'm Filo." A woman with a crimson, white-flowered kimono said.

She had straight, pitch-black hair and a single stroke of crimson stripping through it on the right side.

All five were of the same race and had a similar look but were stylistically unique.

They had different colored kimonos and hair. One had a tattoo on their arm, and another had a crest on her Kimono.

The style indicated that they were from rival clans but bonded on Earth to fight other races.

Cynthia nodded in acknowledgment. "Skill."

"We're dragons." Filo replied, "More accurately, we transform into dragons."

The elf chuckled to herself and turned to face Filo head-on.

"Well, you're extremely dangerous and a front grade liability." Cynthia remarked, "However, the fact you didn't fly away shows you're not idiots that are overconfident in your skills."

"Correct. We're confident, but that blonde is terrifying. So we didn't risk it." Toga explained.

Cynthia's eyes narrowed. "She hasn't done much; how do you know?"

"Bloodlust." Pan chuckled.

"Terrifying bloodlust. We're dragons, and we've never experienced someone with suffocating revenge-grade bloodlust for a casual flying job." Feris nodded.

"And her speed is faster than ours. She's bad news." Like said.

"Well, you're smart. That woman destroyed this entire area, and they had to build a road to let the trial continue." Cynthia replied frankly.

"Since you're not idiots who will use your powers haphazardly, go to bus 10."

The elf pointed to the far left.

"That's where the useful non-combat classes are. Protect them, and you'll get rewards. Next!"

All five bowed gracefully and walked toward the line to board the bus.

—

[A/N: Privilege for two chapters was automatically applied with premium, I didn't set it up purposely at this time. Thank you for understanding!

Don't worry about remembering names and descriptions. I'll briefly redescribe them and connect them back to the story.

Thank you to the people who gave me suggestions for haremites; your requests are my rewards! These characters aren't cameos; I've designed them to have a general, lasting purpose in the novel.

So congrats, you've made your mark on the novel!

There's one more haremite coming in the next chapter. The changeling doesn't have a battle class, so adding her would force development and detract from the story. But her character is designed and certain to delight. :)

If you didn't catch it, in chapter 48, I'm accepting haremite fantasy races, powers, gods, or anything else in the comment section. I'm currently taking people's ideas and bringing them to life, so drop by the chapter. All these characters are recommendations. I hope they meet your expectations!

While Leon's intimate harem will always be small, there's endless room for haremites.]