Chapter 187: Flying
Emily and the others took advantage of these people’s stupor to unceremoniously rain attacks down upon the knights.
Dazzling spells and fierce fighting aura exploded at the same time, smashing into the knights like bombs and causing great injuries and casualties.
Faced with extreme threat to their lives, the previously shell-shocked Gryphon Legion knights started fighting for their lives. Javelins, arrows, and sharp spears all shot towards Han Shuo’s groups.
The knights had completely blocked off the street, and so Han Shuo’s group would have to meet them in head on battle if they charged over. When the Gryphon Legion knights shrugged off their fear and fought desperately, they immediately became a great hindrance.
However, Han Shuo’s group was created of all experts with strong martial arts techniques and magic. They fought on the narrow streets since it wouldn’t allow the Gryphon Legion soldiers to spread out. Only ten or so soldiers could face Han Shuo and the others at any given time.
These soldiers were naturally no match for Han Shuo and the others in this regard. The soldiers were all struck down from their horses in an exceedingly short period of time. It was a pity that there were roughly a hundred or so soldiers with the Gryphon Legion crew, and they were all experienced soldiers who had weathered many battles. They charged forward without heed for their own lives, greatly obstructing the group’s speed.
The cry of gryphons came from the direction they had come from. Han Shuo took one listen and immediately understood that a larger portion of the Gryphon Legion were on their way. Perhaps even Bill Ascher was amongst them.
“Charge through this group or we’ll be in trouble!” Han Shuo roared furiously. He turned and looked at Gilbert, “Transform back into your dragon form and destroy everything you see.”
Gilbert immediately jumped up upon hearing these words and transformed into the enormous body of a dark dragon in the air. Gilbert’s body hurtled through the sky over the crowded streets, opening his maw to send out a jet of flame on dozens of soldiers.
A dull thud sounded at the same time as Belinda’s ironclad golem of the three eyed demon god, Ansidesi, charged into the crowd under her orders. It caused mass destruction, along with Gilbert, dealing disastrous blows to the soldiers.
Han Shuo took stock of the surroundings and noticed that there were several noticeable marks on Belinda’s ironclad golem. Although it was as powerful as ever, it seemed a bit more bedraggled and was even a tad bit slower than last time.
Han Shuo knew without much thought that the golem must’ve been damaged in the operation to assassinate Bill Ascher, or it wouldn’t be appearing in such bad shape. Han Shuo turned his head and was about to shift his gaze elsewhere, when he suddenly saw the light of excitement shine in Lawrence’s eyes. Lawrence looked at the ironclad golem in fascination, seeming to continuously emit sighs of amazement as he looked at it.
Perhaps Lawrence had wanted to save Belinda because he was targeting the value of the golem. This was an enormous entity of mass destruction. If it could be used as a weapon in war, then he would have a great advantage in besieging cities and ravaging lands. No wonder Lawrence was so excited.
Due to Gilbert and the ironclad golem leading the way, those following behind immediately felt a lot more at ease. Their charge was accompanied by howls of pain and agony from their enemies as Han Shuo and the others treaded through the devastated streets, continuing forward.
Several large earth spikes suddenly appeared towards the front at this moment. They were all several meters long and shot fiercely towards the low flying Gilbert. Two water dragons also materialized into existence also churning ferociously towards Gilbert.
Gilbert had been squalling in his excitement when he was hit on all sides in his stupor. His large body completed a forward roll and fell down again. The knights, who were still alive after all his attacks immediately shot all their weapons at Gilbert, injuring him as well.
“Damn it, you guys actually injured me. I’m going to kill you!” Gilbert shrieked after a howl of agony and spewed flames towards the water and earth archmages in front of him. His enormous body thrashed and crushed some houses around him as he once again took to the air.
“We go.” One of the archmages said coolly as both of them used the levitation spells to float into the air and leave in another direction.
“Don’t chase them, we need to get out of here!” Han Shuo immediately yelled out when he saw that Gilbert seemed to want to chase after the two magi in his rage.
Gilbert had just set foot into this world and lacked sufficient battle experience. He was also full of himself and quite arrogant, so no wonder he’d been injured by the two magi. If they didn’t have Gilbert with them, the group may not be able to destroy a section of the city wall later with only the slow moving golem by itself. Therefore, there was no way that Han Shuo would allow Gilbert to leave at this moment.
Due to the contract between Han Shuo and Gilbert, although the latter complained a bit after receiving Han Shuo’s order, he continued charging forward in the end. However, his speed wasn’t as fast as it had been. It seemed that his injuries were indeed affecting him.
The calls of the gryphons drew closer and closer as Han Shuo’s group finally made it to the closest section of city wall in their desperate flight to escape. All of the scattered soldiers they met along the way immediately vanished beneath everyone’s attacks.
“Break through that section of the wall!” Han Shuo ordered when they arrived.
Gilbert and the ironclad golem charged a section of the wall at the same time. However, this study wall only creaked and trembled beneath the tremendous force and wasn’t instantly destroyed.
“Valen City used the most durable of rocks to build its walls in order to defend against invasions from the Kasi Empire. As opposed to having the dark dragon break through the wall, it’d be easier to fly over it.” Emily immediately suggested when she saw that Gilbert’s first charge hadn’t resulted in immediate effect.
Han Shuo swept everyone a glance and immediately said decisively, “Those who can’t fly over the wall, take a place on top of the dark dragon using the levitation spell and leave the horses behind.”
As a dragon, Gilbert would rather die than let a lifeform many times inferior to him crawl on top of him. To force him to carry them would make this become the dragon’s lifelong shame and disgrace. Han Shuo naturally understood this taboo and so had given up the notion of having the dark dragon ferry the battlesteeds across.
Angelica, Candice, Caspian, and members of the Battlefire mercenary band, who weren’t able to fly, immediately discarded their horses and leapt on top of Gilbert. Emily grabbed the chubby hotel owner Elaine and slowly flew up as well.
Lawrence used an expensive flying scroll and also flew up leisurely with the assassin, Lucky. His speed wasn’t that slow, so it looked like the scroll must have been the work of, at least, a wind grand magus.
To Han Shuo’s surprise, Belinda from the Calamity Church released another golem, shaped like a kite. It was made out of bizarre wood and actually brought Belinda and Johnny into the air. They weren’t as helpless as Han Shuo thought they would be.
Everyone started showing their hidden aces in this time of need, and this was also when Han Shuo suddenly realized that apart from the mercenary band and Caspian, everyone else was rich and all had objects that could allow them to fly and take them away from here.
Seeing that everyone had taken their places, Han Shuo moved to Phoebe’s side. She too was preparing to leap up to the dark dragon’s spine, but Han Shuo suddenly grabbed her by the waist and activated the “Art of the Demonic Ninth Heavens” to soar into the sky, amidst Phoebe’s panicked expression.
A faint fragrance flowed into Han Shuo’s nose due to their proximity. Phoebe’s breathing was a bit labored in her panic and her eyes sparkled with an odd light. Her red lips drew close to Han Shuo’s ear in her incredulity, “How can you fly?”
Not only Phoebe, but even Lawrence, Candice, and the others were all looking at Han Shuo dumbfounded. Exclamations of disbelief sounded from the back of the dragon, as they too couldn’t seem to understand why Han Shuo could fly.
What surprised them even more was that, despite bringing Phoebe along, Han Shuo’s speed was actually the fastest. He’d soared over the city wall like lightning in the span of a second and continued his flight to the other side.
He hadn’t flown as they’d run for their lives because for one, it was an enormous drain on his resources. Flying drained Han Shuo’s magical yuan quickly, whereas it drained Emily’s mental strength. For an archmage such as Emily, using the levitation spell was an enormous depletion of her mental strength. Prolonged flight would quickly exhaust an archmage.
In addition, for an archmage of Emily’s level, her speed wasn’t that much faster than a horse’s, even if she flew. Long stints of flying was also quite tiring for great dragons. Gilbert had flown with everyone on his back for a while, and he’d also suffered injuries from the soldiers earlier. This was why Han Shuo only commanded him to give everyone a ride now.
Now that they had left behind the battlesteeds and the Gryphon Legion soldiers were hot on their tails, flying wasn’t an easy thing for any of those in the group, but they all had to grit their teeth and bear it, hoping to get as far away from Valen City as possible.
Their pursuit didn’t let up. As the group cleared the city wall and continued flying forward, Han Shuo turned back to see a thousand cavalry and a dense collection of black dots in the air in hot pursuit. It looked like Bob Ascher was truly enraged this time and wouldn’t stop until he had killed them all.
The Kerlan Grand Canyon, the geographic marker that separated the Kasi and Lancelot Empire, was just ahead. There were many great and small mountain ranges around the grand canyon, with thick growths of trees and not that many people. They’d be able to shake off their pursuers if they set foot into that area.
Thus, once their path had been plot, Han Shuo once again became the leader. He explained the situation at hand and then dashed forward with Phoebe in his arms, the dark dragon following close behind.
In these moments of danger, everyone was flying full speed ahead. Lawrence and Belinda however, were looking at Han Shuo in the front with odd expressions of excitement. Their speed kept increasing, seeming to want to pull ahead of him.
“You’ve concealed this operations from both of them and was the person in charge from beginning to end. Those two proud people must be a bit irritated. Now that you’re flying faster than them with me in hand, they must be even angrier.” Phoebe looked behind her and then said softly to Han Shuo.
“That seems to be the case, but there doesn’t seem to be a need for this at all!” Han Shuo abruptly understood why.
“If you weren’t the person I liked, then I’d want to triumph over you as well, since you best me in all areas. Heh, such is human nature!” Phoebe explained lowly and then mischievously said next to Han Shuo’s ears. “Will you beat them?”
Laughing loudly, Han Shuo felt a surge of heroism in his heart that he forgot all about the danger at hand. Looking down at the beauty in his arms, he said lowly, “Hang on tight, I’m going to make them despair soon!”