Chapter 106: Enemy Attack and Counterattack

"Enemy attack!"

The Wilderness Hunter suddenly growled under his breath, tossed aside the roasted meat in his hand, and several tactical scrolls appeared between his fingers in an instant.

He had always kept Luoyong's words close to heart.

The great wolf at his side let out a low rumble, having caught an unusual scent drifting through the air.

Then, without warning, a piercing bird cry rang out. Everyone's ears buzzed and hummed, and a wave of dizziness washed over them all.

An invisible sound wave crashed into Gale Squad.

Yet the attack, which should have been enough to render a person unconscious on the spot, did not inflict much damage upon them at all.

Above each of their heads, a halo of shimmering color materialized, deflecting the sonic assault.

"Form up!"

Wendy shouted the command, shaking off the lingering dizziness, and began directing her teammates.

Hum—

The sound of beating wings filled the air as one Reaper Dragonfly after another took to the sky, circling overhead in a defensive perimeter.

More than twenty level-fifteen Reaper Dragonflies, their compound eyes blazing with light, hovered like lanterns above the stone circle, illuminating the entire area. The kaleidoscopic shimmer of their wings carried something almost hypnotic about it.

Whoosh!

Without warning, a dark shadow flashed past, violently snatching one of the Reaper Dragonflies from the air and killing it with incredible speed. In the blink of an eye, the shattered remains had already tumbled to the ground, raising tiny puffs of dust.

"Damn it!"

"That's a Wind Eagle!"

"Sky Rider... the little squad?"

"It has to be them — who else could pull something like this off!"

"Charlie Brown! You shameless bastard!"

The members of Gale Squad erupted in curses, but beyond the sound of dragonfly wings and eagle cries, not a single voice answered from the darkness around them.

"Cowards! Only brave enough to ambush from the shadows!"

Whoosh!

High above, a flash of shadow and light — a dark silhouette plunged downward in a dive.

"Damn it! That Wind Eagle is at least level twenty! Our Reaper Dragonflies are no match for it!"

the Wilderness Hunter shouted.

"Sisters, no more holding back — pull out everything you've got!" the Storm Warlock suddenly bellowed.

"Lilian! Mira!" Wendy gestured sharply with one hand while raising her voice: "Show some initiative, will you? Must I call your names every single time?"

"..."

Lilian and Mira exchanged a glance, neither saying a word. In silence, they raised their staves. One conjured a towering stone pillar that merged with the surrounding megalith formation into a formidable defensive arrangement. The other summoned a mass of thorned vines that coiled around the pillars, weaving a web of traps.

"Sacred Light!"

The Barbarian Shaman raised her staff and cast the spell in the direction from which the Wind Eagle was diving.

It had to be said that in an environment like this, Sacred Light functioned much like a flash spell — devastatingly precise in its effect.

Not only the Wind Eagle, but even the teammates nearby nearly had their eyes burned out.

Fortunately, they had been fighting together long enough to know each other's habits well. The moment the Barbarian Shaman moved to cast, everyone else instinctively turned their heads away.

And every one of them wore spectacles crafted from green crystal ore — glasses that not only offered protection against the Reaper Dragonflies' mental attacks, but also provided a measure of defense against the Wind Eagles' sonic strikes and against blinding light such as this.

The enemy, however, had no such equipment.

Green crystal ore was a rare commodity in all the nearby camps.

Whoosh!

The Wind Eagle, whose eyesight was ordinarily exceptional, was struck blind by the Sacred Light and faltered, its assault broken as it instinctively tried to climb back into the sky. But in that moment of hesitation — advancing, then retreating — it lost its speed.

And in that instant, Gale Squad caught sight of it.

So—

Whoosh!

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Several tactical scrolls were triggered in rapid succession.

Brilliant arcs of lightning blazed through the air, scattering the darkness and striking the Wind Eagle full on.

It let out a wretched shriek and plummeted to the ground.

Hum—

Several Reaper Dragonflies swarmed the fallen eagle at once, tearing it to pieces and devouring it on the spot.

"Ah, what a shame — I actually wanted to taste one of these Wind Eagles," the Wilderness Hunter said with a note of genuine regret. "I wonder if they'd be any good roasted... better than pork, maybe?"

"Ahhh—!"

From somewhere in the distance came a cry of anguished heartbreak.

Then followed a succession of heavy thuds, as though a great many things had dropped to the ground all at once.

"I let you fly, and you call yourselves Sky Riders — a squad of fewer than twenty people daring to call themselves a corps!" Aria said with undisguised contempt, then activated a tactical scroll in her hand and launched it toward the direction of the sound.

Boom!

An enormous fireball detonated, blasting a crater into the earth. After the blinding flash faded, the world seemed somehow darker than before.

"Let's talk this out — no need to go for the kill!" a man's voice screamed from the distance.

"Hmph! You opened with a level-twenty Wind Eagle ambush — that's an act of war!" the Storm Warlock shouted back.

"Sky Squad, you will pay for what you've done! Sisters — blast them!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

In an instant, lightning, fire, howling wind, and the detonation of ice-element scrolls tore through the night, inflicting devastation across a wide swath of ground.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, another dark shape swept through the air, and a Reaper Dragonfly was smashed to pieces!

"Watch out — there are more of them hiding in the dark!"

"Another Wind Eagle, at least level twenty!"

"Despicable Sky Squad — ruthless to their enemies and to their own allies alike, not caring whether their comrades live or die!"

"Mira! Summon more thorns! I'm about to set fire to everything!"

"Lilian! Conjure a ravine!"

"Everyone else — link up with the Reaper Dragonflies and hold a full perimeter defense!"

Even as Wendy issued orders, she reached into her pouch and drew out a teleportation scroll.

At the same time, she hesitated.

Their captain Luoyong was not here. If they simply fled, the two dozen or so Reaper Dragonflies he had left behind would become prey for the Wind Eagles.

Though, knowing him, he probably wouldn't care all that much about that...

Still — retreating with their tails between their legs like this — wasn't that a bit, well...?

"Hold on just a little longer — Luoyong and the others should be back soon!" Wendy called out.

"Sky Squad probably has no idea about the Hero Society people," Aria muttered with dark satisfaction. "Let them have a taste in a moment."

"I wonder how a level-fifteen Sacred Light Priest would handle a situation like this."

"Hard to say — might go berserk on the spot, or might just write it all down in a little notebook and settle the score later."

Rustle—

Once the mass of thorns had been summoned, Wendy immediately laid down a wall of fire, igniting the entire tangle.

As the flames roared upward, the Wind Eagle no longer dared to dive. The circling Reaper Dragonflies, too, instinctively gained altitude.

---

Luoyong and the few members of the Hero Society emerged together at the outer perimeter of the Land of Tears, drawing exasperated sighs from the assembled crowd: "How is he back again? Hasn't he done enough to torment us already?"

Luoyong wasted no words. He deployed the miniature aircraft from his shoulder at once, and it returned shortly with two Reaper Dragonflies.

The Sacred Light Priest and the Oracle Priest accepted the contract scrolls he passed to them on the spot and completed the bonding ritual.

The Oracle Priest had protested verbally right up until the moment she didn't — the law of irresistible temptation proved inescapable once again.

When the light flashed and the contract was sealed, the Sacred Light Priest still looked faintly puzzled: "The success rate is really that high? I was half-expecting some kind of backlash..."

"Is success not a good thing?" the Oracle Priest said, and stepped directly onto the back of her Reaper Dragonfly.

"Luoyong, that gadget of yours is something else," the Sacred Light Priest remarked, watching as a flash of light came and went, leaving a tiny, pale-colored dragonfly perched on Luoyong's shoulder — seemingly capable of turning invisible. She gave a soft, deliberate cough and patted his other shoulder lightly, glancing back over her own.

"Hm?"

Luoyong blinked, followed her gaze — and, well...

There were still several men staring at him with barely concealed longing.

They'd all come along together. He couldn't very well send them back empty-handed.

So he let out a couple of sheepish chuckles, and the miniature aircraft on his shoulder took off again.

A short while later, the guards had completed their contracts as well, and the group activated a teleportation scroll.

"This is blatant gift-giving — they're not even pretending anymore, just handing out benefits right out in the open! Is there no justice left in this world!" some members of the Fearless Corps muttered furiously.

"You'd like to do the same, but you'd need something worth giving — something they'd actually want," Handsome said with a dismissive snort, suppressing a quiet sigh.

The Hero Society — a fortress that his own people had never managed to breach — and now this kid who had appeared out of nowhere had simply walked right in and claimed it?

"Luoyong, where did you get that gadget, anyway?"

The Sacred Light Priest had barely stepped through the light gate before she sidled up beside him and asked in a low voice.

And then they all saw it—

Whoosh!

A Reaper Dragonfly was smashed to fragments and came crashing out of the sky, hitting the ground hard enough that the larger pieces gouged craters into the earth.

If that had landed on a person, it would have done serious damage.

"Is that... a Wind Eagle?" the Sacred Light Priest said.

"Sky Rider Corps?" the Oracle Priest said.

"Captain!" The moment Wendy spotted Luoyong, she forgot about everyone else and launched straight into a rapid report: "The moment you left, they hit us. Seven or eight of the Reaper Dragonflies have been torn apart — the ones you left behind have taken about half casualties, Captain..."

"Sky... whatever Corps?" Luoyong drew a long, slow breath. He couldn't think of any past grievance or recent offense. So why had this fight suddenly started?

"Is everyone all right?"

"Fine — no casualties among us so far."

"That's what matters." Luoyong said.

"Yes, that's what matters." the Oracle Priest echoed.

"A level-twenty Wind Eagle is no easy thing to deal with," the Sacred Light Priest said, turning to Luoyong. "That gadget of yours seems rather extraordinary. What level is it, exactly?"

"Not that high, really..." Luoyong gave a slightly awkward laugh, then raised one hand and pointed upward, just as a dark shape swept across the sky above them.

Whoosh!

A streak of light flashed!

The tiny dragonfly launched itself at the shape in an instant.

A moment later, a piercing, anguished shriek rang out, and the level-twenty Wind Eagle exploded in midair, dissolving into a rain of blood that scattered down upon the earth.

"No—"

A heartbroken wail tore through the distant treeline. Then another voice rose, seething with rage that could no longer be contained:

"Gale Squad — I will see every last one of you buried! All of you can go straight to—"

The fury in that voice reached them clearly even across the distance.

Not that anyone could blame him. Even Wendy and the others felt a pang of genuine grief over the Reaper Dragonflies they had just lost — and those Wind Eagles had been raised like beloved pets.