...
As the grey monster bird howled and charged towards the hillside, White thought he was done for.
His only remaining thought was that he shouldn't have run so far to get people!
It was all the fault of those damn sailors!
If they hadn't been jealous of the coachman's income and joined the transportation army, why would he have risked venturing so deep into the wolf's heartland?
Wasn't it all for earning a few more silver wolves amidst the fierce competition!
He didn't expect to encounter real devils for the third time.
And just having devils wasn't enough—after all, if he could outrun the other migrants, he might have survived, but the appearance of the monster bird in the sky shattered his last hope.
Two legs couldn't outrun a pair of wings, especially since he only had one good leg.
God, White clutched his head in his hands, his body weak as he knelt on the ground, "In the name of my devout faith, please let me go to your constructed divine kingdom after death, preferably with an endless supply of gold dragons..."
But the monster bird didn't tear him to pieces, instead, it emitted a series of extremely familiar sounds.
He had heard similar "hissing" in Shallow Water Bay—when the Greycastle people's weapons opened fire, these continuous howls would echo throughout the battlefield, lasting for less than two quarters of an hour, and the seemingly invincible envoy guards of the Fang and Red Stone Gate families would be completely wiped out.
Could it be… that the Greycastle people had come to save him?
White cautiously raised his head and immediately saw a scene he could hardly imagine in his life.
He saw a silver-white light whip erupt from the monster bird's head—the whip seemed to possess its own consciousness, traveling back and forth through the devil horde behind it. And where it pointed, the snow seemed to boil, and the devils fell in response, as if that flickering light contained infinite power.
This scene left him dumbfounded.
But what excited White even more was that the devils were clearly stunned by this sudden change. They not only stopped their pursuit but also showed signs of collapse after their counterattacks proved ineffective.
"Mr. White, wh-what is that?" A refugee asked in a trembling voice.
He instinctively wanted to shake his head, but suddenly a flash of lightning crossed his mind.
White pinched his thigh hard, forcing himself to stand up, and opened his arms to the terrified refugees, shouting loudly in a distorted tone, "Don't be afraid, this is the Greycastle escort army I told you about before! I summoned them!"
"Greycastle people?" The refugees asked incredulously. "From the sky?"
"That's right!"
"You mean… we're saved?"
"For the moment, yes, but this kind of escort isn't free, in fact, it can be said to be quite expensive! And my savings are limited, I don't know when they'll leave—"
White was interrupted by the excited crowd before he could finish speaking, "Don't let them leave! I'm willing to pay double the fare!"
"I'll add two silver wolves!"
"As long as I can reach Shallow Water Bay safely, I can give you this gold ring!"
"And me…"
In the face of life and death, fear made them burst out with astonishing action, and the crowd, who had been too desperate to move a moment ago, surged again.
"I'll tell the Greycastle people, follow me now—uh, my foot is not very good, can someone carry me down?"
"Let me do it!" Soon a tall man hoisted him onto his back.
This way, he didn't have to worry about being left behind during the escape.
If all goes well, he might even be able to replace the broken carriage.
As for deceiving the refugees… the most important thing now is to revitalize everyone's spirits and escape the danger, isn't it?
"Don't panic, keep your eyes open, pay attention to the footprints left by others, and don't roll down the mountain!" White directed the man to take the lead and run down the hillside.
...
Gud had been chasing and strafing the devils for a while when he noticed that something was wrong.
It seemed that one plane was missing from the flying squadron.
Although the enemy was defenseless, it wasn't so easy to wipe out these thirty or forty devils, apart from the influence of the weather, ultimately their firepower was too sparse, not even as dense as usual target practice.
He pulled up the fuselage and counted again, breaking out in a cold sweat.
Of the four planes, only the Unicorn, belonging to the Long Princess, was missing!
Apart from carrying only one person, her aircraft was basically the same as the Skyfire, so it wasn't strange to be overlooked when fighting in snowy weather. But now was not the time to reason, she was His Majesty's own sister, if something happened to her, they would all suffer.
Before he could inform Finjin, three more green spots appeared in the northern sky.
That was the signal for discovering the enemy!
But… aren't the enemies here?
Gud's heart suddenly tightened, and he abandoned the target, more than half of whom were dead or wounded, and headed straight for the direction of the signal flare.
"Hey, wait, where are you going? Desertion is a court-martial offense!" Finjin, who was enjoying the strafing, hadn't recovered yet.
"Don't talk nonsense," Gud said urgently, "Didn't you notice that Her Highness didn't follow?"
Finjin looked back and gasped.
He had obviously seen the three slowly descending spots.
Fortunately, the problem of inconvenient communication was considered during the previous search, and the angles between the aircraft were not large, and in less than a quarter of an hour, Gud arrived at the signal flare location.
Then he breathed a sigh of relief.
The biplane diving and strafing the ground in the distance was indeed the Unicorn.
And what Her Highness was attacking was a group of devils hiding in the low woods, judging from the number of enemies, the force chasing the refugees was probably even larger.
Why were there two devil forces in this area?
Why was the chasing force the smaller of the two?
Gud felt a little puzzled for a moment, but before he had time to think, Finjin in the back seat shouted excitedly, "There are more enemies here! Hurry up and follow Her Highness, I can't wait to pull the trigger!"
The other two Skyfires also followed.
Well, Gud put this doubt behind him, anyway, the mad devils couldn't fight back—the previous enemy force had completely lost its combat ability, so fighting this one would yield more results.
But as soon as this thought emerged, a group of terror beasts flew out of the woods with a whoosh, howling as they soared into the sky, pouncing on the Unicorn from all directions!
Although it was the first time he had seen the air knight's "imaginary nemesis," he immediately superimposed the image of these monsters with the illustrations in the booklet.
Gud instantly felt the blood in his body freeze.
There were at least ten or so terror beasts.
And the distance between the two sides was no more than four or five hundred meters, it was impossible to abandon the Long Princess, so how could they gain the upper hand?
Countless thoughts flooded into his mind, only to be rejected one by one, time seemed to pass for a long time, and it seemed to pass only for a short moment, he hadn't found the best answer when Tilly took the initiative to react.
The Unicorn suddenly pulled up, turned around in a clean roll, and flew directly east, while a red signal flare shot straight out, illuminating everyone's eyes.
That was the instruction to retreat!
Gud then opened the throttle to the maximum, following the Unicorn's trail, accelerating and withdrawing eastward together.
The biplane's speed advantage was demonstrated at this moment.
The terror beast closest to the flying squadron had barely managed to approach the firing range, but soon, the four aircraft riding the wind left the enemy far behind, disappearing into the snow.