novelbest Chapter 251
Chapter 251
“Leave Queenstead City for later,” Magnus Specter said, his voice low but steady. “Whether that place is real or not, Ridgehaven City comes first. For us, nothing matters more than digging out those Crystals.”
“I’m with him on this.” Liana Jabbar nodded, arms crossed as she leaned against the door. “I ran the numbers. Unless we dump everything on Magnus alone, our convoy burns through at least thirty Super Fire Crystals a day. If we don’t keep digging, we won’t last.”
On the matter of excavating meteors, everyone agreed. But Queenstead City—with that so‑called giant electric net sealing the whole place—felt like a fairy tale. Sophia Reid and Charlotte Renard both had reservations. They favored heading to the Ironvale County shelter instead; to them, that place still seemed more grounded, more believable.
After a full day of rest, Magnus barely sat still. He spent the entire daylight hauling beast blood, splashing it over vehicle after vehicle, and distributing food and women’s supplies across the fleet.
That afternoon, Charlotte Renard had teased him, half laughing, “With so many of us, Magnus... The amount of blood we drip every month could drench half the convoy on its own.”
It wasn’t far from the truth. One woman bleeds nearly a quarter of each month, and with more than eight thousand women in the group, around two thousand were on their cycle on any given day. In its own strange way, Charlotte’s words weren’t exaggeration at all.
Hardly anyone lacked a cycle either—just a few elder women. Even the youngest, Paige Fisher, came every month like clockwork.
So as long as women existed, supplies were never enough—especially with this many.
By the time the night deepened from ten to two in the morning, the work had dragged two hours past Magnus’s estimate. Still, every driver was finally in position, and every one of the thousand‑plus vehicles had been washed with beast blood. Only then did Magnus return to his RV, shoulders heavy with exhaustion.
Chloe Clark and Isabel Finch were already in their front infantry vehicle, ready to lead the convoy. Megan Bennett and Amber Shelton handled the rear. Slowly, the massive procession began to crawl forward again.
Emily Ward and the others didn’t leave the RV either; they had already gotten used to sleeping here these last few nights. When Magnus climbed back inside, he had Sarah Franklin and Ashton Honda clear a space in the living area, spreading a clean sheet over the floor.
Magnus shut his eyes for just a breath. His left palm hovered downward—and a huge steaming chicken leg dropped onto the sheet with a heavy thud.
He had roasted it in the underground garage the morning before. Inside his space, time seemed frozen; whatever entered remained exactly the same when it came out.
Sophia Reid and Sarah Franklin, having never tasted mutated beasts before, stared wide‑eyed at the enormous leg. Its fragrant steam curled upward, warm enough to make them blink in disbelief.
“These past days have worn everyone thin,” Magnus said quietly. “Tonight, we eat well. After that, sleep. Tomorrow... we’ll face whatever comes.”
With that same live‑for‑today attitude, he pulled out two five‑liter barrels of imported monk’s beer from the bar counter. Its nine‑month shelf life had long expired, but none of them cared. They drank anyway—no hesitation.
...
The convoy crawled at a painfully slow pace. It took them two whole days to cover barely a hundred kilometers, creeping from Hanford City to the outskirts of Ridgehaven City.
Those days were uneventful, but the road was a mess. Every few dozen meters, something blocked their path—mutated chickens, ducks, geese, even rats. Every time a creature refused to leave, someone had to jump out with a Super Fire Crystal and drive it off.
On the first day, Magnus handled every incident himself. But after a full night of splashing beast blood over a thousand vehicles, his strength hit its limit. By the next morning, he was barely holding himself upright.
So he left the task to the Ice Regiment’s other second‑awakening members.
Magnus lay in the RV the entire second day, eating and resting without shame. Even he had limits; one man’s strength could only stretch so far.
Night had settled over Ridgehaven City, and the convoy’s beasts needed blood again. Killing the animals was still Magnus Specter’s job—no one else could handle it.
More than a thousand vehicles stretched in a long, winding line, five or six kilometers of metal and wheels. It looked grand, sure—but in this broken world, that grandness carried a weight that pressed on Magnus alone. Every car needed his attention. Every woman in this convoy lived under his protection. That pressure sat heavy on his shoulders, like a stone he couldn’t set down.
Riding in Harper Quinn’s vehicle, Magnus, Sophia Reid, and Emily Ward circled Ridgehaven City once. The place reeked of ruin—worse than when the first red light had ripped the world apart.
The streets were choked with abandoned cars. Mutant rats skittered everywhere. Giant chickens, ducks, and geese squatted at crossroads, heads buried under wings as if the world hadn’t ended. Between the buildings, massive bats glided past every few seconds, wings spreading wider than the street itself.
And the meteorites—huge chunks of rock scattered every few dozen meters. The biggest towered seven or eight stories high. Even the smallest stood two or three meters tall. Buildings beside them were either collapsed or cracked, scarred by spiderweb fissures.
No living humans in sight. But Magnus did see a mutant rat standing upright, holding a human thigh bone in its claws, crunching down on it like a snack.
They reached the residential complex that had once housed the Ridgebreak Battalion’s headquarters—the biggest complex in the whole city. Seventy-something buildings, some high-rises, some six-story blocks, six underground parking lots.
Harper drove slowly through. Every few meters another mutant rat appeared. The six steel bars mounted on the front of the truck jabbed into several of them. The rats screeched and scrambled aside, but they didn’t dare slam into the truck. If they got skewered, the bodies would drag along the ground and slow the vehicle, their thick tails whipping the sides nonstop. Just a nuisance Magnus didn’t want.
“This spot should do...”
Magnus sat in the passenger seat, told Harper to stop, then stepped out. He checked the area, pacing with steady, quiet steps, then returned to the car.
“The Ridgebreak Battalion picked a decent location,” he said. “No problem fitting a hundred of our big trucks here. Emily, you three head back to the main convoy first. I’ll stay and see how many troop carriers are left here. I’ll count them and bring the number to you when you arrive. Then we’ll plan.”
“Alright. Just stay safe. Do you still have enough Super Fire Crystals?” Emily Ward asked.
“Enough. Before we came, Liana Jabbar gave me thirty of them. Worst case, I’ll do what Amber Shelton did—dig myself a hole in a meteorite and hide inside.” Magnus chuckled, watching them leave before turning back into the complex alone.
Tonight, tomorrow, or the day after at the latest—he aimed to hollow out every meteorite in Ridgehaven City. He wanted to see just how many Crystals this entire prefecture-level city could yield.