These hijackers quickly turned back upon sensing an extra presence that preceded their allies' pained cries, but they could not even do anything as Evan's skill activation was just too fast.
A frigid cold swept through the room and the bodies of the two were quickly covered in ice from the sole of their feet all the way up to their necks.
With over 85% of their bodies encased in his ice, it was a walk in the park for Evan to induce negative temperatures that reduced their bodies' core temperatures, leading to hypothermia; and by the time Evan had walked up to them, they had lost consciousness.
After this, he withdrew the frigid air that covered the room and used his flames to release a wave of heat to warm everyone else up.
The passengers huddled up on the other side of the train were initially taken aback at how young the boy who had come to their rescue was, but that quickly got out of the way as voices of gratitude started echoing, only stopping when the other adventurers calmed them down lest they attract the attention of the hijackers in the other cars.
"A Paladin? Oh, Canis' Church."
"Yes. And may I know your name, benefactor?"
"Evan Eris, A Rank Adventurer."
Evan apported his guild card into his hand and infused magic power into it, making the symbol on it light up with a glow and proving it was his.
The Knight, as well as everyone else within earshot, were momentarily surprised upon hearing Evan's name, not having expected the person who saved them to be the 'Irregular Hero' from the western part of the continent.
But the Paladin knew now was not the time to be surprised at meeting someone famous, and quickly relayed to Evan all he knew about the situation so far.
The young hero listened closely whilst simultaneously contacting his spirits and asking for their locations, where he then discovered that they had captured one of the assailants and were about to drill him for information.
'You guys go ahead and do that; I'd focus on freeing the other hostages.'
Evan gave the latter half of that same reply to the Paladin, before turning his gaze towards the inter-car door and using his Farsight skill to get a locate a good point which he then blinked towards with his skill.
He had activated his concealment skill a moment before teleporting, so even after he re-emerged at his destination, he was still in a concealed state.
This prevented the hijackers from knowing that someone else had entered the car they were in until their arms and legs were suddenly frozen in ice.
Evan also froze the weapons they were holding as well, to prevent any accidents, after which the Paladin and the adventurers from the previous car barged in, pulled the hostages away, and knocked out the hijackers.
He repeated this for three more cars, before teleporting into a fourth and meeting the scene of Eliza whacking the head of one of the hijackers with one half of her Memoria while the other half was pinning another to the wall.
"I can see you don't need help here."
The boy's gaze went to the group of men and women bundled up on the floor with pale, wrinkled skin and sunken cheeks.
Upon appraising them, he saw that all their health stats were not only a full rank lower than normal, but their health values were also dangerously low too.
'Between me freezing them at -25 degrees or having their life forces sucked out by Eliza, I don't even know which is worse anymore.'
Right after he thought that, a voice rang out in his head, coming from his third contracted spirit who was in a different train car's upper deck.
[I've neutralised the assailants that came in the direction of our cabin.
However, I sense a lot more of them heading in the opposite direction, and they're quite powerful too.]
'Good work, Milena. Stay put and don't engage them yet.'
Evan joined up with Eliza and moved to the rest of the train cars to help out the others, but they only needed to do that in 2 more cars as the passengers in the others had already handled things themselves.
The hijackers in the last 3 cars didn't even get the chance to acquire hostages as they were dealt with the instant they pulled out their weapons and motioned to grab the nearest passenger.
Occasionally, they could hear noises coming from above and sense magic power fluctuations, showing that there was a battle of some sort happening on the train's upper deck.
"Let's go over there and see what's happen-"
**BOOOOMMM!!!
"Fuck! Again?!"
Evan couldn't help but curse out loud as he heard another explosion, one that sounded a lot louder than the previous one, even though he could sense that the point of the blast came from further up in the train.
The whispery chatters of the low-ranked ambient spirits glided past his ears and when he pieced their words together, his blood ran cold.
All thoughts about going to see what was happening on the upper deck escaped his mind as he activated his blink skill and teleported repeatedly until he arrived at the first of the fifteen rail cars—the locomotive.
The scene he met was one of disarray, the obvious aftermath of a violent explosion. A huge part of the once-organized machinery was now a tangled mess of metal and sparks, while some important-looking components had been obliterated and scattered in twisted fragments amidst the wreckage.
Looking to the side, the entire wall of the car had been blown open, leaving a jagged gap revealing the ever-changing landscape outside, through a filter of bright red sparks erupting from the train's wheels as they ground against the rails.
Amidst the debris-strewn floor, a broken weapon lay discarded, along with bloodstains that marked the scene and hinted at the violence that had erupted not too long ago.
One of the train engineers lay unconscious on the floor, a stark contrast to the frantic activity of the driver who was hunched over the controls, pressing buttons with urgency, spitting loud curses that echoed through the air.
Another engineer, wearing the distinctive uniform of the Continental Railroad Service, clung desperately to a broken handrail.
His grip was faltering, his one arm slowly slipping as his body dangled precariously in the open air, buffeted by the wind.
Evan's first action was to prevent the scene of this engineer from becoming any more unfortunate, blitzing over and grabbing onto his arms before pulling him back into the car.
He then used his Harbinger Series skill to create a surging wall of ice that blocked the hole in the wall, before turning his attention towards the still cursing driver.
"Shit! Shit! Don't tell me that's broken too!!"
"What's broken?!"
The man came out of his cab and gave the engine room a one-over, his expression quickly turning pale when he noticed one of the vital components he needed to stop the train was now a pile of metal scraps scattered across the floor.
"The brake valve!"
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