“Demons are not blind!” As soon as she finished speaking, Iffi immediately rejected the idea, “You can use the setting sun to see Taqila, they must be able to see you too! There's no cover in the sky. Do you want to be a sitting duck?”
“I also think it's too risky,” Lian added. “Lady Tilly said you can only control the flying stone to descend straight down. If you're discovered, you won't even be able to escape. Can't you go take a look at night?”
Hearing the two's dissuasion, especially the Bloodfang Witch's obstruction, Ash felt quite emotional. A year ago, they were still mutually hostile opponents. Hedy Morgan even wanted to put her and Tilly to death. If Tilly hadn't insisted on forbearance, she would have attacked the Bloodfang Clan long ago. She originally thought this was an unbridgeable rift on Sleeping Island, but she never expected things to turn out this way.
And now, they are standing on the same front.
And the tactics she envisioned also rely on the cooperation of everyone to be realized.
“At night, all you can see is darkness—the ruins are now overgrown with vines. Without enough light, it's hard to find them, so dusk is the most suitable time.” Ash insisted, “Maybe we haven't deviated from the intended direction. The ruins may be behind a dense forest or a low slope. All I have to do is fly up and crush the magic stone.”
“What if there are flying demons nearby who discover you?” Lian frowned. “Your combat ability in the sky is probably less than ten percent, right?”
“Regarding the countermeasures, I've thought everything through,” Ash calmly held out three fingers. “Depending on the situation, there are three plans—”
“Oh?” Trajectory leaned in with interest. “Isn't that what Lady Tilly often says?”
“Really?” Lian's expression also softened a little. “Tell us about it?”
“Listen carefully. During the period of observing in the sky, the only ones who have a chance to discover me are the Terrorbeasts carrying Mad Demons. Therefore, the three situations are encountering one Terrorbeast, two Terrorbeasts, and three Terrorbeasts. Dealing with three is also treated as dealing with three, so that everything is foolproof.”
“Oh my god…” Lian weakly covered her forehead.
“Pfft,” even Iffi couldn't help but laugh.
“Hey, aren't you guys going to listen to what the specific combat plans are under the three situations before expressing your opinions?”
“If I were Maisie, I would definitely agree with both hands,” Trajectory said seriously. “I finally understand why that guy used to like acting with you the most.”
……
However, in the end, Ash still convinced everyone.
According to Lian, it was "Although the first half of the assumptions sounded very unreliable, the countermeasures were surprisingly okay"; Iffi's view on this was "Beast intuition accumulated from thousands of actual combats" – of course, the most important thing was that they couldn't think of a better way either.
After continuing to travel underground for another day, the light seen through the vents gradually dimmed. The white clouds seemed to be ignited, merging with the dim yellow dome. Obviously, the sun was slowly sinking into the end of the Fertile Plains. The moment to act according to the plan had arrived.
As Trajectory imprinted a mark on Ash's body, a blue "spot" appeared out of thin air above the latter's head – it looked like a puddle, and the soft light shook in the water, as if the three were standing underwater, looking up at the blue sky above the undulating ripples.
Ash knew this was just the inherent form of the passage, not the real scene on the other side.
After confirming that there were no demon patrol teams around the hiding place, she nodded to the three, pouring magic power into the ring. Immediately afterwards, an indescribable feeling surrounded her, as if she had gained an extra hand or foot – and Tilly called it "wings".
If you've never tried flying before, you naturally can't know the feeling of birds. The difficulty of controlling a part that doesn't belong to you is conceivable. In fact, among the sleepers of Sleeping Island who can use the flying stone as if it were natural, only Tilly could do it.
Ash closed her eyes, imagined herself flapping her wings, and then jumped!
In an instant, fresh air rushed towards her face, and the rustling of the trees swaying in her ears also sounded. In addition, there were the cries of homing birds, the buzzing of insects, and the whistling of the evening breeze across her cheeks - the unchanging space underground instantly became extremely layered.
She opened her eyes, and the whole world suddenly became clear. The ground quickly shrank under her feet, and the exit of the passage soon turned into an imperceptible spot of light.
This feeling… maybe experiencing it once in a while wouldn't be bad.
Ash put away her thoughts of admiring the scenery and looked intently to the north. Her heart suddenly sank.
Even to the end of her sight, she didn't find a place that looked like ruins, let alone the skeleton monsters that the Wolf Girl mentioned – there was nothing but groves and grasslands reddened by the afterglow.
Could it be that they were completely wrong?
She turned around, wanting to judge her current location from the direction of the Endless Mountains, but suddenly froze – she saw several huge monsters standing in the jungle on the southeast side, no more than a few miles away from her. And below those demon creations with obvious unnatural characteristics was a broken wall, which was the ruins of Taqila Holy City!
It turned out that it wasn't that they hadn't walked far enough, but that the constantly accumulating deviation had allowed them to pass the ruins from the east!
If placed on a map, this position would probably only have an angle of one or two degrees from the planned route, but in reality, the deviation was the difference between arriving in front of Taqila and behind it.
If she turned south now, it would probably take another two or three days; she could also fly directly south, complete the positioning, and then fly back, which would only take half a day at most – but apart from descending straight down, she had never really tried flying horizontally.
What should she do?
However, before Ash could make a decision, a muffled horn sound had already come from the direction of Taqila.
With the sound of the horn, a dozen Terrorbeasts suddenly rose up from the skeleton monsters and rushed towards her! At the same time, a black mass of Mad Demons also emerged from the soil around the ruins, besieging the holy city completely.
Okay, it seems they are quite vigilant, she thought. Calculating more than three as three, this seemed to be the worst situation in the plan.
Ash took out the Five-Colored Magic Stone without hesitation, crushed it into powder, and then plunged downwards –
The most important ability of a warrior is to judge the situation and then make corresponding countermeasures: capturing one Terrorbeast alive, killing two Terrorbeasts, and retreating from three or more. It wasn't because she didn't have the confidence to deal with so many demons, but simply because she couldn't ensure that she could shut them all up before they sent out an alarm.
As for the current situation, the risk of approaching the Taqila ruins using the broken bridge method has undoubtedly greatly increased, so even if the location is not very ideal, she can only give up on this idea.
She certainly didn't have Tilly's amazing talent, being able to control "wings" as if they were arms, but she had her own way to make the flying speed faster.
That was to infuse more magic power into the magic stone.
As the magic power continued to grow, Ash could feel the invisible wings behind her expanding to the limit, and every imagined flap was stirring up a gust of wind. She fell to the ground almost like a shooting star, her speed being three or four times faster than when she ascended.
Even the precise javelins of the Mad Demons could not hurt her in this state.
But the extremely high speed brought great inertia. Due to the length of the tunnel, Lian could only create a cavity ten steps high at most. With such a short distance, she could never stop the momentum by herself.
Now, all she could do was trust her companions.
In just over ten breaths, the blue spot symbolizing the entrance of the passage, along with the rapidly approaching earth, reappeared in front of Ash.
She folded her hands on top of her head, tensed the muscles of her whole body, and pierced straight into the passage!
Almost at the same time, several purple halos emerged out of thin air and bound her tightly – it was Iffi's magic prison!
The speed of the fall was instantly resolved, and when she completely stopped, her hands were only an arm's length away from the ground of the cave.
"You're really heavy," Iffi said, shrugging while maintaining her grip. "Now do you understand where we are?"
"Of course, but now is not the time to discuss this," Ash looked at Trajectory, "Immediately evacuate towards the Misty Forest, the demons are coming!"