The sky darkened, flickered bright, then dimd again - like a dying bulb with moths flitting wildly past. Tiny black specks appeared on the horizon, growing larger as they streaked through the atmosphere, sparking against the air and dropping fast toward the earth.
But they weren’t crashing - they were landing.
Magnus narrowed his eyes, finally seeing it clear. No wonder those massive teors hadn’t triggered earthquakes. They struck with thunder, sure - but the shockwaves were unnaturally contained, like soone put a lid on them.
"It’s real - teor rain!" Dakota shouted behind him in disbelief. Lana was frozen, mouth open, the hairs on her neck standing upright.
Tens of thousands of teors, big and small, tore through the sky. Just a few hundred ters aboveground, they suddenly slamd the brakes, their speed curving down to a slow, controlled descent - targeting cities. Big ones, small ones... didn’t matter.
It looked unnatural.
They grouped, shifted, swerved - like troops assigned to hit urban centers on cue.
"This is it! This really is the teor rain!" Grace scread, pointing toward the sky, her voice rising in excited hysteria. "Magnus! You were right! You were really right! It’s happening! Right now!"
"Watch out!" Magnus shouted and lunged forward.
He wrapped his arms around Grace and Sophia, pulling them hard to the ground as he dove toward Lana and the others.
All six hit the dirt just as a massive teor blazed past overhead, slamming down into Ashbrook Town.
"It’s not safe here! Get back to the shelter, now!" Magnus yelled, still covering the won’s bodies.
He rolled sideways, hitting the slope and sliding down first. The rest followed, scrambling in his wake.
The entrance to the underground granary was an arched steel door nearly six ters tall. Magnus, running on Fire Crystal, reached it first, dropping from the top of the arch, kicked the air for balance, and landed on one knee.
The other five weren’t using any Crystals. Magnus looked up just in ti to catch the falling Reid sisters, bracing their impact before letting them go. Then ca Lana, Dakota, and Mia - he repeated the move with each one.
"It’s too dangerous up there! Get inside, all of you! One of you stay near the door, listen for my signal!" he instructed.
The won darted toward the door. Magnus shook his numb arms and activated tal Crystal, leaping down the slope behind the warehouse. Pressed against the mountain’s base, he raised his binoculars, scanning the skies above Ashbrook Town.
The teors, despite slowing their fall, were still powerful. Every impact leveled buildings nearby, sending massive clouds of dust into the air.
The ground trembled beneath his feet. The dust thickened. No visibility.
Sticking close to the rock wall by the warehouse entrance, Magnus slapped the steel door hard, then darted inside the underground vault.
"Magnus! Is it really teor rain out there?"
Emily, Charlotte, and Liana rushed up to Magnus, circling him with questions.
"It’s a teor shower!"
Magnus shut off the tal Crystal device. Inside the underground granary, nearly all the female team mbers had gotten off the trucks, eyes full of fear. So leaned against the stone walls, others crawled under vehicles.
"No need to panic. This mountain overhead should block anything falling here. We’re safe."
His reassurances barely landed when the ground started trembling again. Screams echoed through the granary.
After about three or four minutes, silence finally returned outside. Emily couldn’t help but ask, "Is it over?"
"Not sure. I’ll check. Get your shovels ready to dig for the teors."
Covering his mouth, Magnus cracked the small door open and stepped outside, quickly shutting it behind him.
Dust choked the air. The scene was just like what he had seen back in Springvale City in his past life - visibility barely reached three ters, everything was buried in thick, yellow dirt fog.
He pushed forward a few more steps but still couldn’t make out a thing. Sighing, he turned back, reentered the granary, and saw the won already scrambling. Combat shovels in hand, several squad leaders were gathering their teams.
"Get your helts on and prep the floodlights. I need a thousand out with !"
Magnus turned and headed out again, with Sophia and Emily flanking him. A thousand fully equipped won filed out of the small side door behind them.
Inside the thick smoke and dust, the group started digging. Each ti they passed a teorite, he left behind two squad leaders and a hundred won - one to lead, the other to find crystals. The rest moved on.
Ten teors in, the thousand-strong team reached their assigned targets. Magnus took Sophia back to the granary and brought out another 2,000, fanning out across Ashbrook Town to search.
Hanford City, Ridgehaven City, and other towns could wait. For now, no one was getting a piece of Ashbrook. That was Ice Regint territory. Non-negotiable.
The dust slowly thinned. After an hour, visibility reached nearly 20 ters. The team’s pace in finding teors picked up sharply.
"Magnus, so far we’ve found 33 teors in Ashbrook. All teams are digging now. Shouldn’t take more than three hours to finish."
Sophia had been tracking the count. Magnus sent the third batch of 700 out to start hauling teor soil, then returned to the granary with Sophia and Emily.
If each of the 33 teors yielded 8 to 10 crystals like last ti, they were looking at nearly 300 crystals total.
"Liana, do we still have empty trucks for the teor soil?"
Magnus found Liana looking overwheld.
"No! We filled the last few empties with rice days ago. No trucks ready for hauling teor soil."
"Then start converting now!"
Magnus barked, "Liana, drop everything else. Count how many trucks we’ve got left that can be converted. Check how much steel we’ve got and estimate how many more trucks we can rig from that."
"Chloe, Isabel, find a few empty trucks. Take 200 people, load teor soil, and bring it back. gan, Amber..."
"Hold on!"
Just as Magnus rattled off orders, Lana suddenly stepped in, her voice cutting clear, "Commander, I need to speak!"
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