The blue-skinned cavalry and the driven beasts continued to rush forward one after another.

As expected, He Xie became the first target. Even though his teammates and mercenaries behind him had taken out most of them, he still dealt with several batches of alien creatures on his own, shredding them and their bodies with smart grenades, painting the surrounding plants a dull red color - it's funny, the natives of this planet have blue skin, but red blood - and then face a new opponent, four cavalrymen, two poisonous wolves, and a lightning bolt.

Using the cover of the trees, the alien creatures tried to flank him from both sides, and if they worked together properly, they might cause him a little trouble, but this assumption didn't hold up, as the xenomorphs were so poorly coordinated. The two poisonous wolves rushed too fast, so they were the first to die, and a few near-misses made them roll to the side, followed by four blue-skinned cavalrymen, He Xie first knocked out the two on the right, and then the muzzle of the gun turned left, the first short shot knocked off the head of the leading cavalry, and the second short shot opened a large hole in the chest of his companion's mount. Inertia did the rest of the work: the horse also threw the cavalry out when it fell forward, breaking its neck on a tree trunk.

In comparison, the Lightning Beast is a little more difficult to deal with. The predator at the top of Pandora's food chain deftly dodged every explosion and kept approaching, its movements lightning fast, and it shortened the distance to only a few tens of meters in a few jumps. He Xie stopped shooting, threw the cannon aside, and showed his chain sword.

One last time, the Lightning Beast leaped high and opened its mouth to bite his head. He Xie caught the predator's sharp teeth with his left arm and stabbed the chain sword of his right arm into its body. Like slicing through a piece of cream, the tip of the sword entered through its belly and then out of its back, and the Thunderbolt struggled for a moment before it stopped moving.

He Xie threw the predator's corpse on the ground and stomped on its head hard, turning it into a bloody mess.

Then he looked up and looked around. The Xenomorphs' offensive is gradually disintegrating...... In fact, it had disintegrated, the organizational structure and command hierarchy were gone, and the living blue-skinned natives and their natural allies were simply pushed forward by instinct and inertia, and in a disorganized formation, like moving targets more than warriors. No human or animal can get close to the line of defense of the ground forces, so it is even less likely to shake it.

Fifty meters. Aside from the lightning beast that attacked him, this was the position that He Xie had observed that one of the cavalrymen who had rushed the farthest could reach. It is significant in that a mercenary paid with his life and was impaled by an arrow fired by a cavalryman before he died, but that was about it.

Compared to the corpses of hundreds or thousands of alien creatures that have already fallen, the losses of the ground forces are so small that they are not worth mentioning at all.

The same goes for combat in the air: the Scorpion continues to chase the Banshee Winged Beast Knights who have lost their command between the suspended rocks, knocking them down one by one with machine guns and rockets. The Blueskins were completely unable to organize a decent counterattack, and even if one of them was in a favorable position, another "Scorpion" would suddenly cut into his rear, shoot him down or force him to switch to evasive flight.

The pilots worked frighteningly closely.

The psionic captain of the Hell Squad is using his powers to control their battles.

Aaron. Su was aware of this, but there was nothing he could do about it: psionic energy wasn't his specialty, and he couldn't be distracted by directing the rest of the Banshee-winged Beast Knights.

He's in a bad situation either. Aerial combat is an irreparable flaw of the Sapphire Squad, and it is also a trap that any paladin should avoid, because their near-better long-range attack methods are not useful in this kind of combat, so except for the very beginning, he has been in a passive situation, being tightly bitten by the "Scorpion" piloted by the commander of the attack aircraft formation, and can only flee in all directions in the air.

He also did not fail to think about getting out of this predicament, but all the attempts, dives, sharp turns, sudden decelerations, navigating through the crevices of suspended rocks, did not have a single success, and his opponent could always guess his next move and react in advance.

And this enemy's attack was incredibly accurate, and if it weren't for the protection of the Light, he would have been shot down.

This is not something that the average pilot can do.

A reincarnation. The paladin recalls the information he has gathered. There may be four members of the Inferno Team who have mastered the flying skills because they got four Scorpios from Quaritch, but only two of them should be full-time pilots, one is a half-human, half-machine monster, and the other is ...... It's still a mystery.

This is his name, and the only information that people know about him.

Aaron. Sue couldn't be sure which one was biting him, but hoped for the best one, because if he wasn't, the situation would have deteriorated to an unbearable point.

And it's already hard to bear.

Get his mount into a near-vertical dive again, Aaron. Sue enters the squad's psychic link: "Be careful, Joanna, Nick, our opponent is tougher than expected. ”

This is a reckless move, and while telepathic links are more secure and reliable than radio communications most of the time, when encountering a more powerful psyker, it becomes easily eavesdropped and blocked. The paladin could only pray that the enemy captain was busy controlling the pilots and hunting down the fleeing Banshee Winged Beast Knights, and that there was no more strength to break through the psychic shields of the squad.

The prayer seemed to work, and Joanna quickly replied in the link.

"Understood." She said, "Hold on, Aaron, and we'll come over and help you later." ”

The Elven Ranger is following Jack. Sully swooped down at full speed towards the Valkyrie, with the druid with her—he turned into a Banshee-winged beast, temporarily acting as her mount—surrounded by hundreds of Banshee-winged beast knights, the last card the defenders could play.

Their offense will be desperate, either it will succeed or it will end. Joanna didn't like the two-option multiple-choice question, though it seemed to have a standard answer: for some reason, the attack formation was still hovering in the air, motionless, unresponsive to the overhead attack.

It was supposed to be an uplifting sight, but she always felt that something was wrong.

The Elven Ranger quickly swept through the rapidly growing fleet with the superior vision bestowed by her race's bloodline: all but the "Scorpio" were all flying machines below......

Except for "Scorpio"!

She instantly broke out in a cold sweat.

The other three Scorpions of the Hell Squad were not in the formation, nor did they join the teammates chasing Aaron. Joanna doesn't believe that these enemies will leave their main objective behind and focus on attacking a few small fish that don't matter to the big picture and aren't worth much bonus points, so it's no surprise that they'll be there.

"We've been discovered!" She issued a warning and nervously searched for the "Scorpion". But the suspended rocks that had been used to block the mercenary's view now had the same effect on her and the knights.

Even when the three Scorpions attacked, she was not able to immediately locate their positions. There were so many rockets in the air that she couldn't see their carriers, and the fireballs and smoke from the explosion blocked everything out of sight, leaving only the torn knights and banshee winged beasts as far as she could see.

Nick dodged to the side, leading her out of danger. Sully and the surviving knights are still diving. But the raid had failed, and the alarmed attack formation was responding, and the pilots quickly adjusted the posture of the fighters, pulled up or dodged, and the gunners on board also spread a net of fire in front of the knights.

Many of the knights who escaped the rocket attack were smashed to pieces in the net, and the rest continued on their way, firing their arrows, inflicting a few casualties on the invaders. In response, the formation was disbanded, and the massive assault transports began to chase the defecting retired marines, "Samson" bit the tails of the knights, and Joanna found that she had become the target of three "Scorpions".

"Run." She told Nick that the warning was a little late, and that the druid's Banshee Winged Beast was already diving at full speed.

Three attack aircraft followed.

They bite hard.

"Faster." The Elven Ranger urged.

"It's already the fastest." The druid shouted in Psychic Link, "They're much faster than me." ”

"Fly close to the ground and use those trees to slow them down."

The druid rushed into the forest, maneuvering violently in a serpentine manner between the thick trunk and the luxuriant foliage, but "Scorpio" kept up with him, firing in an orderly alternating manner, neither by the trees nor by his teammates, even for a brief moment.

Bullets and rockets kept grazing the druid's body. His screams rang out in the psychic link.

"How the hell do those guys fly?"

The Elven Ranger turned her head and stared nervously at her opponent. The three pilots worked together even better than the mercenaries under the control of their captain, and even though she didn't know much about flying, she knew that it would be extremely difficult to put so many top pilots into the same unit, and that she had to make them happy to be someone else's partner - the elite were always proud and arrogant, accustomed to leading rather than being led.

There's definitely something wrong with that.

The elf had a bad guess in his heart. She wanted to verify it, but she couldn't do it with her eyes, and all three pilots were wearing the same Galactic Empire pilot uniforms and helmets, so there was no difference. She had to use other methods, the most dangerous kind.

She patted the druid on the back. "Fly in a straight line."

"What?" The druid sounded like he was about to collapse, "This is suicide!" ”

"Fly in a straight line, I need to verify something."

"Now?"

"It's now!" She shouted, "I just need enough time to shoot an arrow!" ”

The druid hesitated, but agreed: "You have ten seconds." ”

He broke away from the violent maneuver, and the three attack aircraft reacted immediately, allowing their artillery fire to get closer. The druid suspected that he would be hit if he attacked again, which made his scream rise a few more decibels: "Joanna, move faster!" ”

The Elven Ranger didn't hear his screams, she was concentrating on aiming, using up almost all of her time, not letting the arrow leave her hand until the last moment. It accurately hit the windshield of the lead "Scorpio", penetrating it, and then through the pilot's body.

She saw a distorted distortion, and everything was back to normal.

The speculation was confirmed, and the Elven Ranger's heart sank rapidly, and her voice became extremely heavy: "We were fooled! The Hell Squad does not have four pilots. ”

"What did you say?" More than one voice rang out in the psychic link.

"They probably only have two pilots, and the rest of the attack planes are all drones, and most of them are controlled by that half-human, half-machine monster, so they cooperate so well."

"How is that possible?" The druid cried out in disbelief, "This is the magnetocurrent vortex region, how can they use drones?" ”

"It's a pity, Nick." Joanna said, then reminding the others, "Beware, there are four enemies on the ground. ”

She was now terrified that the Hell Squad had cornered her and Aaron – and Nick – with just two men, so the team on the ground had to engage in a four-on-four battle that wasn't as fair as it seemed: the enemies were hiding behind armor, and with hordes of mercenaries to support them, her friends had little chance.

However, she didn't stand a chance: the drone that could fly freely in the magnetocurrent vortex region was eating away at what little confidence the druid had left, quickly plunging him into despair, which in turn slowed him down.

"Scorpio" reacted quickly.

A rocket exploded underneath him. Elven rangers and druids tumbled and fell into the grass.