Tripoli

Draco climbed up the open latch, and he was surprised to find three powered individuals standing on the bus.

One of the figures spotted Draco, and Draco ducked down just in time to avoid being decapitated.

Addo seemed aware of the situation, and he violently swerved the vehicle. 

This knocked the people atop the bus down, and they were forced to drop onto the roof to stabilize themselves.

This gave Draco an opportunity to climb onto the roof.

Using his powered strength, Draco heaved with his muscles and launched himself through the hatch.

Draco landed on the roof and caught his footing below him. He had to crouch down to avoid being sent tumbling off of the edge by the vehicle's erratic movements.

One of the attackers had evidently already been sent off of the edge, and he was holding onto the side of the bus for dear life. 

When Draco appraised the other two figures, he found that they were not run of the mill powered. 

They wore an armored chest plate with plated leggings, and had fierce looking shoulder pads with a horn on them. 

Their helmet were armored as well, and they were fashioned to look like a grinning demon. 

They also wielded curved longswords, and these swords radiated the aura of standard-grade artifacts.

'Scary!' Draco thought, for these powered soldiers were intimidating to say the least. 

Draco's whip was hanging off of his waist, and he quickly pulled it out to fend off the attackers.

These two soldiers were well-coordinated, and they simultaneously launched themselves at Draco before he could even fully get out his whip. 

Draco jumped backwards, but remembered that he only had a few feet of space to work with. 

He swung his whip out in a desperate attempt to fend off the soldier's swords, but there wasn't enough space to fully extend it. 

One of the attackers deflected the whip off to the side as the other pushed past Draco's guard. 

In only a few steps he was in front of Draco, and he stabbed at Draco with his sword. 

Draco twisted out of the way of the strike, but was almost sent tumbling down the side of the bus. 

He looked down to see that the third powered soldier was right below him, and he had almost climbed back up the side of the bus. 

This gave Draco an idea, and he stomped down on the soldier's head with a powered kick. 

His foot impacted against the man's helmet, doing no real damage. However, the impact knocked the man's grip loose, and a second stomp sent the man flying down from the bus. 

He fell several feet to the sand below and rolled for a long while before getting up shakily, watching the bus speed off into the distance. 

Draco turned back around to face the soldiers who were now sending relentless slashes at his form. 

He ducked a sword that was aimed at his neck, and kicked outwards at the other soldier right when he started an overhead strike. 

The soldier stumbled backwards, and Draco seized this opportunity to pull out his own sword and slash at the man. 

The sword made contact with the man, but it only sent sparks flying as it impacted against the man's chestplate. 

Draco cursed as he was forced to dodge another strike that was aimed for his heart. 

He had now been pushed towards the other end of the bus, and he looked down to see the rapidly moving terrain below him. 

If he fell, these soldiers would certainly slaughter all of his men. 

The second soldier attempted to swing at Draco again, but he was careless in his strike, likely assuming that Draco had nowhere left to dodge. 

Draco dropped his sword and grabbed the man's arm, throwing him in a way he saw done during Prince Rayad's trainings. 

He had never executed this technique before, but it seemed simple enough. 

The man was not expecting Draco to utilize a grappling technique, and he was unable to stop himself as he flew over Draco's shoulder. 

He dropped his sword and twisted around to try and grab the sides of the bus, and was just barely able to grab onto the edge of a window. 

The soldier attempted to climb back up, but the sounds of gunfire suddenly went off from inside the bus. 

Draco's men had started shooting at the enemy soldier!

The man's torso was lit up with bullets, and most of them were deflected. However, some of them found a way past the man's armor and pierced his abdomen. 

The high caliber bullets ripped through his flesh, and he was unable to hold on to the bus any longer and collapsed into the sand below. 

He rolled for a long time in the sand, but after stopping he didn't get back up. 

Draco laughed as he turned back towards the remaining soldier, who was wondering how Draco had managed to turn the tables so fast. 

Draco no longer had a weapon though, so the man decided to simply rush Draco and finish him off. 

The soldier slashed at Draco's head, but then suddenly feinted and sent a slash towards Draco's legs.

This caught Draco off guard, and he was unable to dodge the blow in time. 

The sword dug into Draco's leg, leaving a deep gash as he stumbled against the bus' roof. 

The soldier was willing to give Draco no room to breathe, and he was already advancing on him again. 

Draco ducked a strike that was aimed at his chest, and then side-stepped an overhead slash. 

However, this last movement took Draco too far from the edge of the bus, and he slipped off of the roof!

Draco reached out and grabbed a hold of the edge, but was left dangling above the ground. 

When the soldier saw this, he chuckled darkly as he approached Draco. 

He walked up to Draco's form and held his sword above his head, intending to strike downwards and finish Draco off. 

"Ahmaq." the man said disdainfully, swinging down at Draco. 

Draco closed his eyes as he watched the blade descend on him, but no strike landed.

Opening his eyes, he saw Snow standing behind the attacker, and a sword was sticking out of his chest. 

Somehow, Snow had climbed up to the roof and picked up one of the soldier's swords. These swords were standard-grade artifacts, and as such they were able to pierce through the metal of their armor. 

Snow shouted a curse at the soldier as kicked at his back, sending him tumbling down the edge of the bus. 

She then dropped down and reached a hand out to Draco, "Hey there, it seems like I came in handy, huh?" she laughed. 

Draco smirked as he grabbed her hand, climbing back up the bus. 

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." he said, but he was smiling broadly. 

The wound in his leg was already healing, and soon it was as good as new.

Draco looked towards the city and saw that Tripoli's gates were just a short distance away now, and the gates were still open. 

When the few guards that were stationed at the gates saw the massive armored bus barreling towards it, they rang alarm bells and attempted to close the gate. 

Except, it was now too late. 

The bus sped through the gateway, crushing several guards who were unable to get out of the way in time. 

There was little military presence left in the city, and it seemed most of the forces were either within the palace or already defeated outside of the city's walls. 

A few armored military vehicles attempted to stop the bus, but they were unable to do more than act as speed bumps as the bus smashed through them. 

Looking in the distance, Draco saw that the monumental royal palace was only a mile or so away now. 

Draco grabbed the horn that was tied to his waist, he decided to wait until they were closer to summon Formica. 

After all, he didn't know how close he had to be for Formica to target the palace. 

It's not like he cared if the city was destroyed or not, but he would rather Formica at least destroy the royal palace first. 

The drive through the city was largely uneventful, and they only encountered a few stray military vehicles on the road.

Some of them shot at the armored bus, but they were unable to breach its defenses. 

Bullets would occasionally hit Draco or Snow, but they were largely impervious to small arms fire. 

After a few minutes, they could see the outskirts of the palace. 

The palace itself resembled Benghazi's palace to a tee, but it was nearly double its width. 

More noticeably, there was a sea of soldiers standing within the palace's courtyards. 

There were too many to count, and they were prepared to stop any invading force. 

In front of the courtyard's walls were scores of armored vehicles and tanks, and they had blocked off the roads leading to the palace. 

If Draco continued any further, their armored bus would be annihilated by a hundred tank shells. 

The front line of defenders had evidently spotted them already, and Draco could see the barrels of several tanks slowly aligning towards their position. 

"Addo, take cover behind that building!" Draco shouted down at the bus.

Hering Draco's orders, Addo swerved to the right and drove the bus into an alleyway. 

Draco told Snow to stay with the bus, and promptly jumped off of the bus and onto the street below. 

He then calmly walked down the main street, it was as if he was oblivious to the hundreds of weapons trained on his position.

When he was only a few hundred meters or so away from the palace's wall he stopped. 

A squad of powered soldiers had seen him advancing towards the palace and began to approach his position. 

They were cautious of this strange man's seemingly suicidal advance. 

'This should be far enough.' Draco thought to himself.

Draco paid the soldiers no mind as he reached for his waist and pulled out the bone white horn.