Pillar of Yita

Fang Hong looked at everyone, and the closer to battle, the calmer he appeared: ”Is everyone ready?”

Wu Xiaopang secretly admired him, almost losing his composure earlier. He quickly nodded and said: ”Boss, I’m ready. I actually came here for this.”

”Then we can set off now.”

”Now?”

”Now.” Fang Hong replied confidently.

Wu Xiaopang thought for a second and said: ”Boss, your team hasn’t practiced, so should our team go first? I’ll divide everyone into groups, three in each group, the ones behind follow the ones in front; that way we won’t get confused. Why don’t you arrange your own sequence?”

Parker instinctively retreated, and if it weren’t for Luo Hao grabbing him, he might have tried hiding in the rock crevice. Gita took a deep breath, holding her big book, stepping forward, but Fang Hong stopped her:

”Gita, you’ll go last, with me.”

He turned back: ”Parker, you’re first, Luo Hao, keep an eye on him, Xiangzi, you’re in the same group.”

”Why me!” Parker screamed.

”No reason.”

Seeing the Papalarian like a deflated ball sitting on the ground, Fang Hong added: ”Luo Yu, you and Elisa are in the second group.”

Both nodded their heads.

Miss Natural Historian blinked, silently watching him.

Wu Xiaopang, feeling a bit amused, comforted Parker, telling him that it’s not that dangerous. The Papalarian’s eyes darted, countering: ”Really?”

Fang Hong interrupted him: ”Let’s begin.”

The little fatty nodded, immediately calling out three people from the Shield of Lufu group, including a swordsman, a tall Berserker, and a Nightingale. Their equipment wasn’t lacking; the Berserker had two ’Blood Beak’ flying axes worth over ten thousand Lycel and a non-standard Magic Guided Helmet.

All three carried winged backpacks, not showing much nervousness, clearly having led flights more than once. Fang Hong watched them walk to the cliff edge before looking away, pulling down his wind goggles. The view before him shifted, revealing a misty Sky Sea scene.

He slightly adjusted the field of view, knowing the enemy had four Clockwork Fairies, and he needed at least two rounds of attacks. It was nearly impossible not to alert the controller on the other side.

But increasing the number of Bee Swarms wouldn’t work either, as the ’Hornets’ in the air couldn’t last that long; the mist here was filled with fine dust.

Fortunately, Combat Fairies hadn’t become widespread, and if the opponent was a Wandering Alchemist, they’d be relatively unfamiliar with the Artisan Association’s new technology. If he hid in the mist, the enemy might not be able to quickly figure out what was attacking their Clockwork Fairies.

This was his greatest advantage—

But he had to race against time, as the opponent’s sluggish reaction was only temporary.

He controlled two Hornets to fly upward, circling in a counterclockwise direction around the Overturned Mountain. Since the opponent’s Clockwork Fairy had already made its first round, he had to shoot down those Clockwork Fairies before they returned to the front again.

Luckily, he was extremely familiar with Clockwork Fairies, never considering the possibility of missing them.

At this moment, he heard Wu Xiaopang shouting commands in his ear: ”Depart!”

Then there was a soft sound, like something unfurling.

Fang Hong knew the action had begun, instinctively switching the Clockwork Fairy’s vision crystal to wide-field mode. The visual crystal of the Hornets, being more advanced, performed much better than that of ordinary Clockwork Fairies in wide-field mode.

The normal wide-field mode of Clockwork Fairies suffered from severe lens distortion and a misty blur effect at the edges, capturing at most thirty percent of the available information. The ’Night Owl Crystal’ improved effectiveness by at least over fifty percent.

He glanced at the system panel; after switching to the ’Night Owl Crystal’ usage state, the magic power output of the two Hornets increased to nearly eighty, roughly equivalent to that of an Energy Angel, far surpassing the original Clockwork Fairies.

Since he hadn’t yet replaced the Magic Guided Reactor, he had to continuously monitor the magic power output status.

Fortunately, the calculative power consumption remained controllable.

However, the Night Owl mode caused the crystal to heat up, and the extra +5 core temperature/S had exceeded the cooling system’s control limit, causing the core temperature to slowly rise and potentially overheat in about a minute.

Fang Hong memorized this data, then turned his head. Sure enough, a faint trail appeared through the distant clouds in the next moment.

”They’re here.”

Fang Hong thought.

He stopped the Clockwork Fairies, hovering motionlessly in the mist. The silver Hornets, in such an environment, were almost naturally camouflaged compared to the golden Clockwork Fairies. Moreover, his assessment of the enemy’s patrol route was spot on—

The two Hornets waited quietly on the inevitable path of the enemy’s Clockwork Fairies.

The second group of three also leaped off the platform, unfurling their wings in mid-air.

Wu Xiaopang notified Luo Hao, and while Xiangzi and the Papalarian prepared, Luo Hao dragged a shouting Parker along without caring if the latter was willing or not.

Wu Xiaopang turned back, eyeing the screen suspended next to Fang Hong—he too saw the sky’s cloud trail extending forward, formed by the condensation of water droplets in the air after the Clockwork Fairy had flown by.