Harem Legion: Queens of the Apocalypse-Chapter 167 They Hit First, We Hit Harder

"They’re still useful."

Magnus mentioned briefly about the meteorite site in Xiaoshan, then glanced at Emily. "When you caught those folks, did you get a rough count of how many of them aren’t Awakened?"

"No tally yet..." Sophia and Emily shook their heads almost in sync. "But minimum two thousand for sure. You thinking of using them to dig meteorites?"

They got the idea right away. Only non-Awakened could be used. If an Awakened dug up a Metal Crystal, they could just crush it and make a run for it.

"That’s the plan."

Magnus tilted his head, deep in thought. He leaned back on the couch, leg lazily crossed. Right then, Victoria and Isla stepped onto the RV. Victoria gave Isla a subtle look, and Isla hesitated a second before nodding ever so slightly. She pulled out a pack of cigarettes - worth 1800 dollars a carton before the collapse - and offered one to Magnus.

He was caught off guard for a moment but didn’t refuse. She lit it for him without a word.

Magnus didn’t have time to figure out what Victoria was playing at now. Liana had already hinted Victoria had been acting sneaky lately. Who knew what was cooking in her head again?

Truth was, Victoria’s motive was simple - she wanted another child. But she also knew Magnus wasn’t the type to make that happen easily. So she schemed, used people like Isla as pawns. No one knew what kind of spell she used to win over the team’s girls, but many of them trusted her blindly now.

Putting that odd moment aside, Magnus called on a few squad leaders to go count how many prisoners were non-Awakened. Then after a pause, he muttered, "We might not have lost many in that fight, but we can’t just take the hit and let it go."

All eyes turned to him, waiting for the rest. He looked at Sophia. "Sophia, you remember the last time we raided Lightwater Residences?"

"Of course..." She blinked, nervous. "You... want to hit them again?"

An attack deserves a response.

Magnus took a long drag of his cigarette and said with resolve, "Damn right we hit back. We’ve only pissed them off, not scared them off. Once they recover, they’ll come at us again."

He leaned forward, grabbed a pen off the table, and tapped spots on the map. "It’s not just Cliff. The Ridgebreak Battalion, Evan... They turned on us. We’ll deal with every single one of them."

"But Magnus..." Emily frowned. "We’re out of rockets and mortars. We’ve got no ammo left for those."

"We will," Magnus said calmly. "Once Teacher White’s team finishes sweeping the battlefield, we’ll have what we need."

"So what now? Same plan as last time?" Sophia asked quickly. Last time, she led the attack. It had shaken her deeply. And now... even though part of her resisted, something inside trembled - not from fear, but something darker. Something savage.

Bloodshed had a way of pulling people in.

"Tonight... we go."

Without giving the team time to rest, Magnus stood quiet for a bit, then rattled off a string of orders.

"Sophia, Grace, this one’s going to be tough. You two take a hundred Awakened and set out tonight for Springvale City. Bring a hundred Metal Crystals and a hundred Fire Crystals. We’re not just bombing this time. Bomb them, then head straight into their base and kill. Keep it going for an hour, then pull out. On the way out, blow up their highway toll station, then scatter nails and broken glass across five kilometers around the area - roads, farmland, everything."

For convoys, blowouts were a nightmare. If the front vehicle got hit, the whole line had to stop. Magnus figured if they wrecked the toll station and laid traps over five kilometers, it’d slow the enemy down hard.

"Hold on, Magnus," Emily cut in. "We don’t have enough Metal Crystals left to send that many with Sophia’s group - we’ve got less than twenty in the whole team."

"There’s enough," Magnus replied. "Still got a stash from the Anomaly Zone. More than enough Metal Crystals."

He still had over 2,200 various Crystals tucked away in his spatial storage, untouched. With another dig planned at the meteorite mountain, they didn’t need to ration Crystals just yet.

"Emily, Abigail, Emma - you three do the same as Sophia. Take a hundred each, find a few Ridgebreak Battalion prisoners, get the location of their camp. Wipe out their top brass if you can - throw the place into chaos. Also, blow up the toll station near Ridgehaven, and lay down those five kilometers of nails and glass. Move out tonight."

"Charlotte, you stay here with Liana, keep running the underground granary. Operations stay as usual - just like any normal day."

"Ashton, gather five hundred and tell them to get a good rest. Tomorrow, we’re taking the prisoners into the mountains."

"And Chloe, round up everyone who can still fight - everyone except the cooking crew. Go back out and help Liana’s team wrap up the battleground cleanup."

Once all the instructions were out, Magnus went over some details with them. Everyone got to work. Sophia and Emily each picked a hundred people for their squads and went to prep. They’d head out at dark.

Not long after, news came from the prisoners. Total count: 2,728. Of those, 1,876 were non-Awakened. Magnus told the logistics squad leaders to get food ready – feed them well. Tomorrow, they’d be digging. Perform well, and they’d earn their freedom.

By afternoon, Liana’s recovery team got back from the battlefield. The loot haul was massive.

They had recovered 7,038 intact assault rifles, 16,771 magazines, 8,117 pistols with 19,778 spare clips, 587 grenades, 78 rocket launchers, 187 rockets, 117 mortars with 252 mortar shells, over 40,000 various knives, 48 infantry carriers, and 12 light tanks.

They also seized over 930 functional troop transport vehicles - mostly trucks, long-haulers, and modified buses.

While storing weapons and ammo was easy - they just hauled crates to the underground depot - the vehicles were another story. There was no way to park them all inside. In fact, packing those 930-plus troop carriers into Ashbrook Town transformed it into a hulking steel maze, tight as a drum.