Chapter 616 — Breakout and Fire Support
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 4
Leaving behind his bewildered "passengers," Suo Jilin quickly returned to the driver's platform at the front of the vehicle. Signaling the soldier steering the war machine to keep pressing toward the riverbank, he swiftly opened the vehicle's Magic Web terminal.
Events had proven that laying relay points along the route during intelligence gathering had been a stroke of foresight.
The Magic Web terminal activated, and a small holographic projection rose above the instrument panel of the armored vehicle. At its center was the stubble-bearded Byron, with the busy command deck of a warship in the background.
"We've seen your signal flares," Byron said before Suo Jilin could speak. "You'll be in coverage soon—don't die before then. Just run flat out south!"
Suo Jilin spoke rapidly: "We're being pursued. Once we pass Relay Point Temporary-16, open fire—just aim for the area around the relay point. Blowing up the relay is fine too; I'll come back and replace it later…"
"That conservative, are you?" Byron had somehow found a pipe and now held it unlit between his teeth, his expression saying, *I advise you to be a bit bolder.* "Actually, you could fire another round of flares in ten minutes, and I'd recalibrate off them. That's standard naval gunfire support procedure—it could help you deal with a lot more…"
A bright arcane bolt came streaking from the distance, bursting into a spray of shattered light against the war vehicle's shield, and the return volley of searing rays swept over the direction it had come from. Suo Jilin gripped the handrail on the roof, holding steady amid the violent shaking as he answered the mercenary knight on the other end: "My fear is that you'll blow up my entire unit along with them—that's a naval gun you're firing!"
"My gunners have excellent live-fire records, and the *Pathfinder*'s main guns use the newest sights and rangefinders. Give me a wisp of smoke and I guarantee I won't miss. I'm serious—you really won't give it a try?"
Suo Jilin could not fathom how this feckless fellow had survived in the army to this day and still enjoyed Gao Yang's high regard. In the end, however, he chose to trust the "naval gunfire support"—which was to say, to trust the thoroughly trained gunners and the newest magical warship.
Once the fire-support plan was confirmed, Byron on the other end of the communicator visibly brightened. This mercenary knight, now a fleet commander and ever more enamored of the newest magical warships, held his pipe with a smile and made a man's promise: "Rest easy—if my naval guns so much as scratch one bolt on those precious war vehicles of yours, I'll shave my head and parade twice around Xuanyao City…"
The speaker meant nothing by it,
but the listener took it to heart.
Two veins bulged instantly on Solgilin's forehead, but the communication had already ended.
Amid the sudden, inexplicable fury of the Steel Ranger commander, the breakout convoy drove into flatter terrain, and its speed abruptly increased once more.
Seen from high above, two multi-purpose war chariots and two armored transports tore across the wilderness in a whirlwind of dust. Countless crystal-cluster giants were converging from every direction, layer upon layer, in pursuit of the tiny convoy fighting to break through. Arcane arcs and the flashes of rail howitzers streaked back and forth between the convoy and its pursuers; the flames belched by heavy incinerators licked at the earth. On that battlefield woven of explosion and blaze, the gap between hunters and hunted was torn open again and again, and again and again it closed.
The giants, once running at full sprint, were in no way slower than vehicles driven by magical-energy engines.
The chase looked as though it would drag on for a long while, but all at once the roof of one of the arcanotech chariots swung open.
A Steel Ranger warrior leveled a light launcher at the sky and fired three signal flares.