The Scumbag's Guide To Heroism novel Chapter 474

Chapter 474: 474 | The One and Only

Wednesday. 8:20 AM. Downtown Verano.

The burning sedan flew through the air like a four-thousand-pound fastball, trailing smoke and the screams of the family still trapped inside.

Radiant caught it with one hand.

His palm connected with the undercarriage. The impact was a shockwave, traveling up his arm with enough force to shatter a normal man’s bones. The metal groaned. The suspension crumpled where his fingers sank into it. He lowered the vehicle to the street with the gentleness of setting down a sleeping child, then ripped the driver’s door off its hinges and tossed it behind him without looking.

"Good morning, citizens!" His voice carried across the intersection in a boom that made pigeons scatter and civilians stop screaming long enough to stare. "Please exit the vehicle in an orderly fashion and proceed to the safety perimeter! Radiant is here, and that means your day just got significantly better!"

The father inside the car gaped at him with the particular expression of someone whose brain had not caught up to the fact that they were alive. His wife clutched their daughter in the backseat, both of them covered in glass from the windshield that had shattered during whatever impact sent them airborne.

Radiant reached in and unbuckled the father’s seatbelt with two fingers. "Sir, I’m going to need you to move those legs. Walking is preferable to being carried, though I am absolutely prepared to princess-carry you to safety if that’s what this situation requires."

"I... you..."

"Outstanding verbal communication! Now let’s get that family moving!"

The father stumbled out of the driver’s seat on legs that didn’t quite believe they still worked. Radiant was already at the rear passenger door, peeling it open like the lid of a sardine can and extending his hand to the mother with a smile that could have sold toothpaste to a nation.

"Ma’am. I have exceptionally good news. You and your daughter are going to be absolutely fine, because Radiant does not permit alternative outcomes."

The little girl stared up at him with eyes the size of dinner plates. She couldn’t have been older than six. Her pink dress was torn at the shoulder and there was a cut on her forehead that would need attention, but she was alive and conscious and looking at him like he had personally descended from the heavens to rescue her, which was technically accurate depending on how you classified his flight trajectory.

"Are you really Radiant?"

"The one and only!" He lifted her out of the car with hands that could have crushed steel and cradled her against his chest with the softness of holding something precious. "And I have to say, young citizen, you are being exceptionally brave right now. I’m going to recommend you for a commendation."

"What’s a commendation?"

"It’s a fancy piece of paper that says you did something heroic. Would you like one?"

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