Chapter 1340: Hunters At The Rear
"The enemy has discovered us! Quick, everybody pack up your things and get on the trucks. Evacuate in the direction we came!"
Although she wasn't clear why the First Army seemed to know the demons' movements so well, Farrina leaped onto the truck as soon as she heard the command.
She familiarly closed the exhaust valve and pushed the gear sticks that controlled the magic cube back into the starting position. The front of the truck began to vibrate and the needle on the pressure meter moved rapidly to the right, reaching the desired spot in seconds.
This meant that as soon as she released the brakes, the truck would move.
She poked out her head and looked towards the direction of the mountain. The mountain peak that had been enshrouded by mist before was now a lot clearer. The miasma-like Red Mist was rapidly dissipating, and may small black dots the size of sesame seeds came into view on top of the pure white slope. They surged down the side of the mountain, charging towards the truck convoy, like a swarm of ants leaving their nest. Dozens of flying demons spread across the sky, giving off a feeling that they were definitely not going to let the convoy off easy.
The scene involuntarily reminded Farrina of the city wall at the Hermes Plateau.
There, tens of thousands of demonic beasts had charged at the Judgment Army's defense line in the same manner.
"Set off!" A God's Punishment Witch patted the door of her truck hard, a signal that everyone was prepared to leave.
Farrina breathed in deeply, and pulled the brake lever.
The steam-powered truck began to slowly move.
The other truck convoys also started their trucks.
Everybody turned around and drove away from the launching site flawlessly, even better than during the test. But even so, the distance between them and the enemy didn't widen. Even when the convoy had accelerated to their maximum speed, the pursuers in the sky were had actually become closer.
"Oh... Oh no, they're too fast. At this rate we'll be caught!" Joe yelled in panic.
Farrina gripped the steering wheel tightly and remained unfazed. Those with wings would always be faster than those on the ground, this was common sense. Since the enemy even had a flying squadron, they would have been caught sooner or later. The people of Graycastle was likely aware of this, considering that they had crossed swords with the demons for so long. Currently their only hope was that they had long taken precautions against such a situation.
No matter how the First Army planned to deal with this, it was not something she could intervene.
Thus, her most important job at the moment was maneuver the truck properly and not be a burden to the others.
"Ignore our pursuers and help me look at the road ahead. Warn me ahead of time if there is a ditch!" she said, her expression unchanging.
Joe swallowed before nodding vigorously. "Understood!"
...
After a whole hour, the only thing that Good could see was the tail of 'seagull' and the flickering wakelights.
Being in the clouds for so long had caused him to lose his sense of direction and height. It was both mentally and physically exhausting to fly under such conditions. He had to focus all his concentration in order to maintain the plane's position.
From the changes in the compass, apart from flying towards the north from the very beginning, the Aerial Knights had been circling the sky, clearly waiting for the enemy to appear.
As for the location and situation of his other companions, Good didn't have a single idea.
Apart from the unshirkable feelings of pressure and not knowing anything, the terrible environment in the clouds was also a big problem. The wet fog created a layer of frost on his windshield, and although the coldness was insulated by the rubber lining of his jacket, the moisture still carried away part of his body temperature, encumbering his hands and feet like they were pieces of wood.
If he didn't have Finkin at the back seat to make conversation with him, he probably wouldn't have held up until now.
Tilly had once informed him that His Majesty was currently developing a type of messaging device which allowed two people in different locations to communicate with each other wirelessly. His biggest hope at the moment was that this object could become a reality as soon as possible.
"Look, the lights have changed!" Finkin suddenly yelled.
Good looked toward 'Seagull.' The yellow light that hung from its tail had somehow turned into a bright red.
He felt a rush of adrenaline!
Red was a signal for attack. As soon as the wakelight emitted red light, this meant that they were to immediately fly down and out of the clouds and launch an attack on the enemy!
Nobody cared who the enemy was.
Whoever they were, it would be better than going around in circles in the labyrinth of clouds!
Good pushed the control stick down without hesitation.
Instantly, he was engulfed by pure white clouds.
As soon as his vision returned, Good felt his body lighten all over. The black and white earth and gray sky seemed to combine to become a stunning and breathtaking view. At the same time, he saw a group of Devilbeasts flying in staggered formation—they had not noticed the sudden emergence of Aerial Knight from the layer of clouds at all. They were less than three hundred metres from the ground, and clearly their target was the convoy of steam-powered trucks that were dragging long wheel-ruts in the snow.
The nose of their planes were coincidentally pointing toward the direction that enemy was heading, this was the ideal combat angle. Just by quietly controlling the planes tilt, the bullets shot from the machine gun could penetrate the enemy's formation lengthwise. What's more, the Aerial Knights were in at an absolute advantage in terms of height. After a barrage of gunfire, it didn't matter how the demons reacted, it would be difficult to escape the biplanes' subsequent pursuit.
It was as perfect as a textbook example.
The discomfort he felt previously when he was hiding in the clouds vanished instantly. Good swooped the plane downwards while pressing the firing trigger.
Finkin, who was sitting at the back, let out a strange yell.
Instantly, over ten streaks of silver light appeared in the sky, all from different angles. They shot at the group of Devilbeasts, going from the front to the back. Against the sudden attack, the demons were unable to react in time. Several blobs of blood blossomed in the sky and the Mad Demons and Devilbeasts that suffered fatal hits dropped to the ground like stones.
Only at this moment did they realize that they were not the only hunters on this battlefield.
The demon group scattered apart, a part of them continued to charge toward the truck convoy, and the other changed direction, as if deciding to initiate a fight to the death with the Aerial Knights.
Good very quickly counted their numbers, there were twenty-six of them.
In a sense, the enemy had basically equal numbers. Apart from the few sporadic encounters with some of the Devilbeasts, this probably could be counted as their first large-scale aerial battle.
"Signal Hinds with a flag for him to follow behind us!" Good hollered.
In a short span of twenty seconds, the Aerial Knight squadron had already flown over the heads of the Devilbeasts, ending the first round with their complete victory.
Using the speed of his dive, Good very quickly completed a turn back in his original direction on his 'Fire of Heaven', completing a perfect arc to appear right above a Devilbeast who was attempting to fly higher. The distance between the two was less than two hundred meters, he even saw a Mad Demon trying hard to turn around in attempt to find the best angle to throw its spear.
But obviously, he wasn't going to give the demon a chance.
A tongue of fire spat out from the barrel of the gun—as it emitted bright light, the tracer shot through the Devilbeast's back like a shooting star. The sudden fall of its mount doomed the Mad Demon's attack attempt. Even if it was not fatally shot by a machine gun, the result was no different if it fell from this height.
Finkin couldn't help but let out a whistle.
His other teammates were all locked onto their targets, and the two sides were very soon at each other's throats.
The second round began.