The Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail was a marvel of engineering. A straight shot of concrete and steel cutting through the dense bush.
Currently, the Iron Horse was eating that track at 160 km/h.
"Engine temperature holding at 90 degrees," Elara reported from the engine room, her voice shaking slightly over the vibration. "Although the Iroko Heart keeps trying to grow vines into the carburetor. I had to freeze them off."
"It misses the forest," Bhy Khay said, keeping his hand on the throttle. "Tell it we're going to a concrete jungle. It'll love the smog."
"Contact!" Zayn shouted from the roof turret. "Kilometer 49. Radar is lighting up!"
Bhy Khay checked the dashboard. A swarm of red dots was closing in from the service roads running parallel to the tracks.
[ENEMY FACTION: THE ASPHALT REAPERS (Syndicate Sub-Branch)]
[VEHICLES: MODIFIED OKADA (Motorcycles) x20]
[SPEED: 140 KM/H]
"Okadas?" Tomiwa asked, sticking her head into the cabin. "They're chasing a train on bikes?"
"Not chasing," Bhy Khay watched the monitors. "Intercepting."
Through the side cameras, they saw them. Twenty motorcycles, stripped of plastic fairings and reinforced with scrap metal. The riders wore spiked leather jackets and wielded chain-whips and sawed-off shotguns.
They roared alongside the train, matching its speed.
"They're trying to board!" Zayn yelled. "They have grappling hooks!"
CLANG.
A metal hook slammed into the side of the train, the cable pulling taut. A biker released his handlebars, surfing his bike for a second before leaping onto the side ladder of the Iron Horse.
"Unacceptable," Bhy Khay sighed. "They didn't pay the fare."
He toggled the [DEFENSE MENU].
[SYSTEM: AUTOMATED TURRET]
[STATUS: ONLINE]
[AMMO: BAMBOO BOLTS (Unlimited)]
"Zayn, you have permission to validate tickets," Bhy Khay ordered. "Violently."
THE ROOF
Zayn sat in the gunner's seat, the wind whipping his hair. The Windforce Bow mounted on the swivel turret hummed with green energy.
"Okay," Zayn muttered, adjusting his glasses. "Relative velocity is zero. Crosswind is 40 knots. Target is... ugly."
He lined up the first biker climbing the ladder.
"It's not murder," Zayn whispered. "It's geometry."
TWANG.
The automated bow fired. The bolt flew straight and true, pinning the biker's shoulder to the train hull.
"ARGH!" The biker lost his grip and tumbled off the train.
[PHYSICS KILL: 0 XP (Fall Damage)]
"One down," Zayn swiveled the turret. "Nineteen to go."
But the Reapers were smart. They split up. Ten bikes swerved to the left side of the train, out of the turret's angle.
"Bhy Khay! I can't cover the port side!" Zayn shouted. "They're breaching the cargo door!"
THE CARGO CAR
The side door of the train hissed as sparks flew. A biker was cutting through the lock with a [Plasma Cutter].
KACHUNK.
The door slid open. Three Reapers jumped in, landing on the metal floor.
"We're in!" the leader grinned, revving a chainsaw sword. "Find the Engine! Kill the Mage!"
They looked up.
Standing at the other end of the car wasn't the Mage.
It was Tomiwa. She was holding a bucket of [Mercury Ink].
"Hi," she waved. "Do you like cartoons?"
"Get her!" The leader charged.
Tomiwa splashed the ink onto the floor.
"[LIVING INK: PORTABLE HOLE]!"
She drew a perfect black circle on the floor beneath their feet.
In a cartoon, a hole is just a drawing.
In the System, Tomiwa's drawing became a hole.
The floor vanished.
The three bikers looked down. They saw the train tracks rushing by at 160 km/h underneath them.
"Uh oh," the leader blinked.
They fell through.
THUD-THUD-THUD.
The train ran over them.
[TRIPLE KILL.]
"That was strictly Looney Tunes logic," Tomiwa noted, sketching the hole back into solid floor. "Beep beep."
THE CABIN
"We're clear on the left," Tomiwa reported.
"Right side is clear," Zayn added. "The rest of them peeled off. They gave up too easily."
Bhy Khay frowned. He looked at the track ahead.
KILOMETER 50.
"They didn't give up," Bhy Khay said, scanning the horizon. "They were herding us."
Ahead, the tracks crossed a massive steel bridge over the Ogun River.
Standing in the middle of the bridge was a single figure.
He was huge. He wore a suit made of concrete slabs. He wasn't holding a weapon. He was the weapon.
[BOSS: TITAN (The Syndicate's Wall)]
[CLASS: GEOMANCER (Lvl 15)]
[ABILITY: UNSTOPPABLE OBJECT vs. IMMOVABLE OBJECT]
"He's going to derail us," Elara shouted from the engine room. "Bhy Khay, brake!"
"If I brake, we slide," Bhy Khay calculated. "Stopping distance is 2 kilometers. The bridge is 500 meters away. We can't stop."
Titan slammed his hands onto the bridge.
[SKILL: EARTH SPIKE]
Massive spikes of concrete erupted from the bridge deck, blocking the tracks.
"He spiked the rails!" Zayn screamed. "We're going to fly off the bridge!"
Bhy Khay looked at the spikes. Then he looked at the train's cowl.
"Tomiwa," Bhy Khay said calmly. "Did you reinforce the cowcatcher?"
"I drew a shark on it," Tomiwa replied. "And I added [Diamond Dust] to the paint. Why?"
"Diamond is the hardest metal," Bhy Khay grinned (ignoring the scientific inaccuracy for the sake of RPG logic). "And speed is the ultimate armor."
He didn't hit the brakes. He hit the Overdrive.
"Elara! Dump the mana! All of it!"
"The engine will melt!"
"Do it!"
Elara unleashed a blast of mana into the Iroko Heart.
ROAAAAAR.
The train surged. 180... 200 km/h.
The green runes on the armor flared blindingly bright. The shark mouth on the front seemed to roar.
Titan saw the train accelerating. He braced himself, turning his skin to stone. "Come on, little toy!"
Bhy Khay engaged the [HORN].
HOOOOOOOOOOONK.
The train hit the concrete spikes.
CRASH.
The spikes shattered like glass against the diamond-reinforced cowcatcher. The train plowed through them without slowing down.
Titan's eyes widened. "Wait—"
BAM.
The train hit Titan.
There was no epic struggle. No clash of powers. Just 120 tons of steel moving at 200 km/h hitting a biological object.
Titan was launched. He flew off the bridge, soaring over the Ogun River like a skipped stone.
[HOME RUN!]
[DISTANCE: 400 METERS]
The train rattled across the bridge, shaking violently, but it stayed on the rails.
"Clear," Bhy Khay eased off the throttle. "Track integrity 80%. Hull integrity 90%."
"Did we just... punt a boss?" Zayn asked, staring behind them.
"Momentum," Bhy Khay said, adjusting his collar. "It's a harsh mistress."
[QUEST UPDATE: KILOMETER 50 CLEARED.]
[NEXT STOP: ABEOKUTA.]
Bhy Khay opened the Global Chat.
[User_BhyKhay]: @Godfather Your wall broke. Do you have a warranty?
[User_Godfather]: Enjoy the ride, admin. The tracks end at Abeokuta. Literally.
Bhy Khay closed the chat.
"He's right," Bhy Khay looked at the map. "Abeokuta is the rock city. If he controls Gravity... he can drop a mountain on the tracks."
"So we go around?" Elara asked.
"No," Bhy Khay looked at the [Iroko Heart] pulsing in the engine. "We go through."
He turned to Tomiwa.
"Can you draw a drill?"
Tomiwa looked at the front of the train.
"A drill?" she smiled. "Boss, I can draw a Mole."