Harem Legion: Queens of the Apocalypse-Chapter 243 Iron Fortress, Crystal Riches

Vegetables, canned food, water, some warm clothes and shoes, toilet paper - Magnus had been handing out supplies nonstop from noon till ten at night. That was ten hours straight, and by the time he was done, he’d burned through nine of the ten Super Fire Crystals Liana gave him. Only one left.

This time, he didn’t rush. He stopped by each vehicle, chatted briefly with the women, trying to ease their nerves. They’d been cooped up in those cars for days. He could see the toll it was taking on them - nervous eyes, sluggish responses.

They needed a change - either let them out into a proper space like an underground warehouse, or send them into battle. Even dying in a fight beat dying slowly in a tin box. People weren’t meant to be locked up like this, packed tight and breathing the same air day after day. That kind of life drove folks insane.

Starting at ten, Magnus spent the next two hours dousing every vehicle in the convoy with beast blood. He kept careful track of the usage - over 1,300 vehicles left, and he used up 364 barrels.

Back in the RV, Emily and the others were already ready. Liana still had 13 Super Fire Crystals. Ten were set aside for Sophia. The rest, three, they took with them.

Magnus still had six in his personal stash. Just for emergencies.

Emily, Liana, Charlotte, and Magnus - four of them total. Harper’s off-road jeep was still parked on the convoy’s outer rim.

Magnus had gone to her twice since last night. The first time, no time to explain - asked her to get out, she refused to budge. Second time, later that afternoon, same results. Her excuse? Rejoining the team would just get her laughed at by the other girls.

What kind of joke would that be? He wasn’t saying anything.

He didn’t have the time or energy to argue, so he let her be. Honestly, having her stay put wasn’t a bad thing. She knew Hanford City well.

When he and the others got into her vehicle, Harper looked surprised. She’d been expecting just him - not the whole leadership. That caught her off guard. All those lines she’d rehearsed to say to Magnus, she couldn’t spit out a single one. Instead, she just quietly started the engine.

Since that second wave of red light fell, it was the first time Emily and the others had set foot in Hanford City. Back when they came from the underground warehouse, they’d seen the oversized poultry from the driver’s seat, but that was nothing.

Compared to the highway, the beasts in Hanford were thicker. Hundreds of them, at least. And the roads leading outward were still funneling more in - more than Magnus could kill fast enough. Once it got crowded enough inside, damn things might decide to start moving out.

Harper drove the off-roader around Hanford’s perimeter, finally stopping near the outskirts by a group of three meteors - closest spot to the main convoy.

In the second half of the night, while the chickens, ducks, and geese were asleep, the rats had taken over the streets. Magnus stepped out first with Emily and Liana in tow, keeping an arm protectively over each of them. While the women watched the meteorites, he kept eyes on the sky, the shadows, the sounds.

After ten minutes, he sent the two back and brought out Charlotte.

"Captain, let me come out too," Harper said, pleading. "I haven’t breathed fresh air in forever."Her words made sense, and the other women didn’t dwell on it. Magnus, of course, wouldn’t say something unnecessary and draw attention.

He took the two of them out of the vehicle and carefully studied the three meteorites. They were arranged in a triangle. The one in the middle was the largest - about five stories tall and just as wide, shaped like an ellipse. The ones on either side were around three stories high, about the size of a giant goose.

"If only we could haul it away," Harper mumbled as she looked at the large meteorite. Her arm snaked around Magnus’s waist, her chest brushing against him shamelessly.

At this point, she wasn’t bothering to hide anything. In a world where death could come any day, what was there to hold back now?

Back in the car, Liana and Emily spoke in hushed tones. Magnus lit a cigarette and pulled a thermos from his space ring - the coffee inside brewed by Sarah.

"I’ve got an idea we might be able to try."

The four women turned to look at him. Magnus thought for a moment, then said, "I’m thinking we set up a steel canopy extending from our sleeper van all the way to the meteorite. Coat the outside with animal blood. Our crew can dig inside the covered space."

"Steel... canopy?" Liana widened her eyes in surprise.

Magnus nodded. "I think it might work."

Emily frowned. "Even if the outside is covered in blood, people inside still have to breathe. It’s like how smearing blood on ourselves doesn’t stop the monsters. They still come."

"I’ve thought about that," Magnus replied. "Right now, we’re breathing inside the vehicle, but the creatures don’t attack us. I believe the canopy could act the same."

"What about the connection points?" Charlotte asked. "Between the van and the canopy, between the canopy and the meteorite? If those aren’t sealed, the whole thing’s just a giant breathing body. Blood or not, the ends would be like mouths, still breathing, still drawing the monsters in."

She made a solid point.

Magnus lit another cigarette, brows furrowed in thought.

"If that doesn’t work, we can assign two people to stay on top of the canopy with Super Fire Crystals," Liana suggested. "Magnus used one before - he was breathing just fine, and nothing attacked him."

But she frowned and shook her head. "No... that’s way too wasteful. One meteorite gives only twenty crystals. We’d burn two of them every hour, that’s like using twenty normal Fire Crystals..."

"Seal the ends with plastic sheets," Magnus said after a pause. "We’ll just try it and see what happens. During the test run, I’ll use a Super Fire Crystal. That way, even if something goes wrong, I can keep everyone safe."

Keep them safe.

The women all nodded, then started discussing the size of the steel canopy.

Magnus added, "As for construction... we’ll do it in the underground parking lot at Hanford Advanced Finance College. I’ll block the entrance with a slaughtered animal. Our team goes in with welding gear and steel plates to get started."

"In size, I think we should match it to our freight truck - just enough to clamp right over it. We’ll weld rebar across the top of the steel canopy too. That way, if we stumble on another truck in the wild, we just snap this thing on top and boom - it’s a makeshift third-gen combat rig."