Chapter 116: Plasma Sniper Hunts

The gravel courtyard outside the clinic was lit by the steady amber glow of overhead work lanterns.

Tessa and Sunlark were already directing eight apprentices with wooden dollies to unload the precious molecular synthesizer from the truck.

"Move gently with the central brackets, do not let the mounting pins twist!" Tessa called out, holding a clipboard against her chest.

"Every seal must remain airtight before we hook up the distilled water feeds," Sunlark added, checking the intake valves with her diagnostic scanner.

Cole stepped down from the running board, his boots crunching against the loose gravel as he reached up to unfasten the rear cargo strap.

"You should let the apprentices handle the heavy lifting, Cole, you have been driving for two hours without a break," Tessa suggested with a warm smile.

"I hauled this beauty out of the lion’s mouth, and I am going to see her safely onto the clinic floor with my own hands," Cole insisted with stubborn pride.

A split second before his fingers touched the steel buckle, the hair on the back of Leo’s neck stood on end.

’Sniper on the northern water tower,’ Leo’s Level 44 perception screamed through his mind.

A blinding beam of azure plasma sliced through the darkness from eight hundred meters away, moving at three times the speed of sound.

The bolt was aimed directly at the delicate quartz catalytic chamber of the molecular synthesizer.

Cole caught the sudden glint of the thermal scope in the distance and instinctively threw his body across the front of the chrome machine.

The plasma bolt struck Cole squarely in the left shoulder blade, vaporizing his leather harness and searing through muscle and bone.

The kinetic impact threw Cole backward against the gravel, his agonizing scream tearing through the peaceful night air.

"Sniper! Get the children inside!" Marcus roared, raising his massive forge hammer to shield the young apprentices.

"Keep the synthesizer behind the truck’s engine block!" Tessa ordered, dropping to her knees beside the vehicle’s heavy tires.

Leo dropped beside Cole in a single heartbeat, his golden eyes assessing the catastrophic tissue damage along his shoulder.

The superheated plasma had melted through flesh and charred the upper rib cage, causing blood to pool rapidly beneath his leather vest.

"Cole, stay with me," Leo urged, placing his glowing palm over the wound to stem the arterial hemorrhage with his desire aura.

"The machine... is the synthesizer safe?" Cole gasped, his teeth clattering as shock seized his trembling limbs.

"The machine is untouched because of you, Cole," Leo assured him, keeping his voice steady and firm.

"I could not let them... smash what we bled to steal," Cole whispered, blood bubbling faintly at the corner of his lip.

Sierra sprinted up to the tailgate, her shadow threads already tracing the ballistic trajectory back toward the northern skyline.

"The shot originated from the abandoned water tower on the border of District Six," Sierra reported, her face pale with fury.

"He is loading a secondary penetrator bolt into his chamber right now," Sierra added, tracking the rifle’s heat signature.

"I can reach that water tower in forty seconds with Shadow-Walk," Leo growled, his muscles coiling like compressed steel springs.

"Leo, wait!" Luna’s authoritative voice cut through the chaos as she sprinted from the clinic entrance with her surgical kit.

Luna dropped to her knees beside Cole, her hands instantly glowing with intense emerald healing light.

"Cole’s left lung is collapsing from the thermal shockwave, and his earlier rib fractures have splintered into his chest wall," Luna diagnosed rapidly.

"Can you stabilize him without my aura holding the arterial seal?" Leo asked, looking up into Luna’s focused violet eyes.

"If you leave him right now to hunt the sniper, the drop in cellular resonance will kill him in thirty seconds," Luna answered without blinking.

"The sniper will take another shot at the synthesizer or the clinic within forty seconds," Leo countered, his jaw set in agonizing conflict.

"Then let Sierra and Kage hunt the sniper while you keep this brave man alive!" Luna commanded, her voice brooking no compromise.

"This is my triage ward, Leo, and no patient dies on my doorstep while you chase vengeance," Luna declared with fierce medical authority.

"Doctor Luna is right, Leo, you cannot abandon the wounded to satisfy battlefield pride," Sunlark urged, holding a compression bandage against Cole’s chest.

Leo looked at Cole’s ashen face, then looked at Luna’s steady, unyielding hands pouring pure life essence into the scorched flesh.

He realized in that moment that true strength was not measured by the enemies you could slaughter in the dark.

True strength was measured by the lives you had the humility and patience to preserve.

"Luna has command of the field," Leo conceded, lowering his head and pouring his desire aura directly into Cole’s heart meridians.

"Channel your vitality through his third thoracic vertebra to support the pulmonary valve," Luna instructed, her fingers weaving complex herbal runes.

"Sierra, take Kage and flank the water tower from the eastern drainage gully," Leo ordered through the comm link.

"Do we eliminate the target?" Sierra asked, her voice crackling with deadly intent.

"Do not kill him," Leo commanded, his golden eyes flashing with cold, strategic resolve.

"A dead sniper is just a corpse in the gutter that corporate directors will disavow by sunrise," Leo explained.

"Bring him back breathing, so the entire city can witness who paid him to murder our wounded," Leo declared.

"Understood, Commander, we will deliver him alive," Sierra promised, vanishing into the shadows alongside Kage like twin ghosts of vengeance.

In the courtyard, Luna worked with breathtaking precision, using silver scalpels and emerald light to excise the necrotic tissue from Cole’s shoulder.

Leo held the arterial seal rock-steady, synchronizing his breathing with Cole’s faint, ragged gasps.

"His pulse is stabilizing," Luna finally whispered after three agonizing minutes of surgery, wiping sweat from her eyelashes.

"The lung has reinflated and the bone fragments are secured in herbal splints," Luna added, exhaling a trembling breath of relief.

Cole groaned softly, his eyelids fluttering open as color slowly returned to his weathered cheeks.

"I told you... that old truck had plenty of fight left in it," Cole murmured, offering a weak, lopsided smile.

"Rest now, old friend, you earned tomorrow morning," Leo said gently, squeezing his uninjured hand with profound gratitude.

Across the northern horizon, three green signal flares illuminated the night sky above the distant water tower.

"Will Cole be able to drive again after that shoulder heals?" Tessa asked, her voice trembling as she watched Luna bind the fresh bandages.

"Cole’s bone structure will knit cleanly under the life-serum treatment, but he must rest for at least two weeks," Luna replied with absolute professional certainty.

"I will personally lock him in the back recovery room if he tries to touch a steering wheel before next month," Marcus said, crossing his thick arms.

"Listen to the smith, Cole, or Marcus will forge an iron brace to pin you to the cot," Leo joked softly, watching the warmth return to his driver’s face.

"A cot sounds pretty good after outrunning three gunships," Cole murmured, closing his eyes with a satisfied exhale.

Sierra and Kage had completed their hunt, and District Seven was about to put corporate justice on public trial.