Chapter 23: Crystal Attack

Rachel motioned to Mateo, gaining everyone’s attention after the evacuation order was swiftly changed. Additional information soon reached Lt. Thompson from the new Florida OIC; escape was not an option. They were now telling people to barricade the facility and stay in rooms as the Coast Guard set up defensive zones.

"Lt. Herrero, I can help you identify where the threats will come from, but I need to upgrade my Stats; we don’t have time to explain."

"Do what you need to—everything goes through me, though."

Rachel nodded as the man’s focus shot to her ears, still coming to terms with the murder of someone he probably knew very well on his team; it wasn’t as if he had much choice in the situation since they needed all the intel they could get.

"Anthony, Zoe..."

The legend was already taking a sitting position. "Say no more. Uh, can one of your guys get my spear or sword? I’d rather have something to defend myself if we’re going to be under attack."

Zoe’s ears pulled back; she was already kneeling and taking a few deep breaths to enter the mind-space where they could upgrade their Feats. "I don’t know what help I’ll be, but I’ll try."

Scarlet still kept her back to the wall, refusing to look or come inside. "What’s going on?"

"I’m sorry, Scarlet, I’ll explain later," Rachel responded, sitting in one of the pulled-out chairs and closing her eyes to enter the meditative state.

"Okay..."

Mateo ordered his men to set a perimeter inside the building, working with the Coast Guard; weapons and supplies checks were being issued through coms to identify what options the Green Beret Special Forces platoon had. Just as she went under, she heard those by their armored vehicles list Javelin missiles in their arsenal if they needed to hit anything big.

Entering the white space, Rachel swiftly got to work opening her status screen. Naturally, the first thing she did was throw points into her Stats—she was on a clock—Power, Speed, and Quickness each got a point.

However, something new popped up that snagged her eye: she’d apparently gained something called a Feat Extension that would expand upon one of her current Feats, yet of the three options, only one could be selected.

[Mental Acceleration I: Rapid Mode - Allows the user to enter an advanced mode for two seconds; 5-minute cooldown.]

[Lunar Pool I: Overload - Allows [Lunar Pool] to go 5% beyond its cap.]

[Strategic Mind I: Split Focus - Allows the user to split their attention to multitask better.]

Rachel wanted to curse; all of them were great, and it wasn’t certain the same options would be available later. The decision could be critical in the long run, especially if it opened up further branches.

Rapid Mode sounded amazing—it could undoubtedly be clutch in a fight—but its cooldown meant it would likely only be used once. Plus, if the Rapid Mode was an advanced form of the Feat itself, it would become less valuable as she increased the base—unless it grew with it, yet that wasn’t for sure; she struck that option for now. Split Focus and Overload were very tempting.

Split Focus would let her keep track of more conversations, which meant more secrets, building off [Strategic Mind] itself to give her a wealth of information. Although there was a potential bottleneck she had to consider: could she process it?

Sure, [Mental Acceleration] was giving her the edge right now, but that didn’t mean it would hold up if she doubled her workload.

Overload’s use was multiplicative, though; it allowed her to use [Lunar Burst] without losing [Lunar Cap] while also adding to [Divine Lunar Surge]. It was viable far into the future, too, and might even provide a cushion for other Feats she might obtain involving her Lunar Energy. From where she stood, it was the best option.

Glancing at her Feat advancements, she figured most of them had received minor improvements from the increased tiers, but [Divine Lunar Surge] snagged her attention; the 1.2% multiplier had increased to 1.22%, which was passive overall. Overload was the right choice.

Exiting the meditative state, she saw Anthony and Zoe still sitting cross-legged as the soldiers gave them looks. Her guess was that [Mental Acceleration] also applied to her meditative state, which gave her the edge here and may be critical in the future. Scarlet remained outside, not wanting to come in to see her old teacher or the cultist symbols.

"Finished?" Mateo asked, still getting reports from his men. "It was quicker than I expected with how you phrased it. We’re trapped in a cracked dome of light from what I’m hearing—whatever that means."

"I didn’t have to think too hard on my decisions," she replied, catching the clock as she took in more sound and flexed her fingers; her strength had increased dramatically with just a single point, which showed how effective the higher grade Stats were. "I was gone for two minutes?"

Not happy with how time stretched from inside the space, Rachel got to her feet and scanned for any irregularities; it was exactly like the mist of the world Anthony took them to, utterly silent at the barrier. The cars, screams, and loud noises that had traveled much further than speaking volume were simply...gone.

Their tech guy, Cameron, sighed and shook his head, working on a laptop. "It’s no good, Lieutenant. We’re running on a generator and only a local network. No outside help. I expect it won’t last long either since the gas line seems to have been cut off as well. The generator might have a diesel or bi-fuel option; I’m not sure."

Mateo swapped a radio to the Coast Guard channel to listen to what they were doing as Rachel went to the hallway, noticing the far dimmer lighting, even if it didn’t bother her supernatural eyes.

"You doing okay?" she asked the raven-haired girl, spotting many of the Green Berets lining the hallway, one bringing Anthony’s weapons. "So, some big light shot into the sky and created a huge dome that looks similar to The Oscillation."

"The Oscillation?" Scarlet asked, holding her arm and looking up at the sky. "Is that what they’re calling it?"

"Mhm. Primarily because of how people are telling the military how it made them feel."

"Hmm." The girl’s pupil-less red eyes had returned, wandering between various areas as if she were looking beyond the walls. "I’m not really doing okay. I’m questioning my entire life...my parents. I don’t know. Do you hear the monsters?" she redirected.

Some of the soldiers listened in, waiting for further orders while everyone tried to figure out what was happening; Rachel shook her head, large ears tilting left and right as she looked for anything out of the ordinary.

"There’s a lot of panicking people but nothing—wait..." Sitting straighter, her gaze darted down the corridor as she heard a Coast Guard soldier opening dorm rooms at the edge of the dome, looking for people to escort to the main facility.

"Anyone in here?" He paused, finding something he wasn’t expecting. "The hell? A...frog person—is that a Crystal? Hey, we’re, umm—put down the weap—"

His words died in his throat, and Rachel’s tail stiffened as a dull thump came from the location, followed by whistling wind; voices came from further down the hall as soldiers responded to his shouts, yet by the time Rachel spun away from Scarlet to inform Mateo, every Coast Guard man in the dorm hallway ceased making noise.

"It’s in the dorms to our northeast. I think all the Coast Guard on the 3rd floor are dead—it killed them in seconds. The first soldier described it as a frog person, and demanded that it drop its weapon. Right now, I only hear...wind?"

Mateo swiftly relayed the information through the radio, repeating what Rachel had told him. The Coast Guard buzzed with activity, rushing to the location and lookouts, keeping an eye out for the description.

"No," she further clarified, closing her eyes to focus on the location. "It’s the sound of sand hitting paper, I think? He also said there was a Crystal inside the dorm room. We need someone to check it out."

Her mind was distracted by screams to her left, making her mouth tighten. "Another one of the creatures is to the west—in a suburb that was pulled into the dome with the university—they’re slaughtering people faster than I can follow them!"