Steel steam and flame

Orders were flowing in the radio signals, and all the teams quietly hunkered down, waiting for the final action to begin.

In the airship staying in mid-air, the power of the lift device has dropped a little again, and it is enough to maintain the power that can keep these steel behemoths suspended in mid-air. The wind in the sky suddenly became stronger. Through the window, a layer of clouds below slowly fluttered under the influence of the wind. More clouds slowly formed in the empty sky. They merged into the clouds, making them Thickening at a visible rate.

Not long after, a muffled "rumbling" sound came from the distance, passing through an extremely long distance and sweeping across the entire uninhabited land of the volcano at extremely fast speeds. It was thunder, and heavy rain had begun to fall elsewhere. The wind and clouds seemed to be affected, and gradually became more violent in a few breaths.

The clouds began to change, like an angry sea, with layers of clouds rolling across the sky, becoming thicker and thicker. Originally, the mountains below could still be vaguely seen, but now, except for the white snow-covered mountaintops that broke through the clouds, everything was completely separated by the clouds. The sky and the ground became two disconnected worlds at this time.

In the airship, El and Theodore did not pay attention to this, or in other words, this was all within their calculations. Choosing such weather and then making corresponding plans to get here is also part of their pursuit and killing of prey.

Rolling thunder reached their ears, and their concentration on the map was distracted a little.

"Sitian, help me ask about the specific time range of this rain." Il raised his head and said to Sitian, "If I remember correctly, the weapons of the ground troops have been waterproofed, right? This It doesn’t look like the rain will be light, it should be a continuous heavy rain.”

"Everything has been processed accordingly, and it will not be unusable due to rain." Stian came over. She had already issued the relevant orders, and now it was time for execution and mutual testing and communication with each team.

"The news I got from the Astronomy Palace of the Seminary is that there will be a heavy rainstorm. After two or three hours, it will turn into light rain and then stop. The clouds will not dissipate in the future. If you accumulate enough power, it will It will cycle like this. It will clear up completely in three days."

Stian added: "If the predictions from the Astronomy Palace of the Seminary are correct, the general situation will be like this."

"It's enough. We only need this heavy rain now, and we won't have to worry about it after that."

"Tell the ground troops to move forward in ten minutes. You can judge the distance by yourself, but you cannot reach the danger zone we drew in advance." Theodore interjected. He rubbed his forehead and simulated the scene on the map in his head for a long time. , very draining his energy, "It's almost time to start, thunder has already sounded. When thunderclouds are detected, remember to let all airships descend to a height and try to avoid the range of lightning strikes. They are all small and medium-sized airships, resist In terms of natural strength, its capabilities are not comparable to those of merchant ships above the cruiser level, so be careful.

"Understood." Stian chuckled. The communicator in her hand vibrated at this moment. After a short answer, she said, "Several machines are ready. The data connection and communication connection are also isolated from the interference of the weather and can be started at any time. .”

"Just follow the plan in five minutes."

Under the clouds, the withered grass swayed in the strong wind. They grow wildly in no-man's land and provide excellent camouflage for ground troops. Wearing field combat uniforms with mimicry capabilities, the function of changing colors on their own and the ability of each member, there is no visual problem.

"Trono, you can't go there?" Resa squatted carefully in the grass, lowering his body and asked.

"It can't be passed. Il and the others are already here, and everything will be handled by them. I have completed everything I should have done, including information collection and terrain exploration." Trono said matter-of-factly, "Don't you I didn't find that the mountain range in front of me is the source of these 'germs'. You must know how much the concentration of 'germs' has increased as we advance from the periphery these days. There is no specific statement on the samples brought back for testing. We brought a temporarily prepared medicine, and based on the characteristics of the experiment, a layer of response material was added to the inner layer of the clothes. As long as the skin is not exposed too much, the influence of the 'germs' can be isolated in a short time."

"That's what I say, but do you really believe the news Du Er brought?"

Reza didn't speak, just looked at Trono, thinking. He had the same idea as Trono, but the current situation forced him to consider other things.

Trono grabbed a handful of withered grass and waved it in front of Resa: "This is the result. I don't want to become like these withered grass. The concentration in the mountains will only be higher, and fighting will inevitably involve injuries and bleeding. Ilhe Theodore didn’t say it, but it would definitely be troublesome if the ‘germs’ invaded the body. The group of prospectors is the best example.”

"Or do you have the confidence to face prey without suffering any harm?"

"But before I face the prey, he has to deal with a huge team." Ressa retorted. He acknowledged Trono's words, but he just felt that Trono's whole person had changed since the incident in the Messelia area. His temperament became different, "There is only one prey, and the number is too different from ours. I can't think of a reason why this operation failed."

"That's what you think about Cyprie, whose body was turned into pieces, and Milton, whose body has not been found yet."

No longer speaking, Trono closed his mouth tightly, and the sound of "rustling" from the friction of weeds spread in his ears.

It's so quiet, he thought. He really hopes that things will end soon and he can leave here intact. Whether it is El and the others who are still alive in the end, or the prey standing on the corpse, it has nothing to do with him. For him, this mission completely changed its taste and became something like a joke.

The communicator vibrated at this moment, and Resa answered in a low voice. It was Clecy, asking about their location.

After Il and Theodore arrived here, Crecy handed over the command of his men to the two. This is the meaning of the temple headquarters above, and Clexi is also willing to do this. He asked Mi Weijia to help him check the information. The combined strength of the two was indeed beyond his comparison.

Cressy briefly asked Ressa and Trono about their next plans. The three of them are the captains of the team. Although they still have to follow the instructions of Il and Theodore, in case of emergency, they are the ones to take command. Organize the ground team's attack.

His mood was not much different from Trono's, and he was affected during the few days they spent together. Moreover, because of his own personality, Clacy was unwilling to contribute to this matter. The environment was so weird, and the dead plants around him made him think a lot during this time. There was just a deviation in the direction. He believed that the reason for this situation was caused by something running out of the forest in the south behind the mountains. There is news that the team stationed there were completely annihilated by the second-type creatures.

With their own moods, the three of them looked at the mountains ahead as the light became increasingly dim, waiting for the time to come.

The thunder was approaching, and above the lake, the two airships broke away from the formation and came to the protruding snow-white mountain peaks, slowly descending.

In the snow and mist stirred up by the lifting device, nearly a hundred people landed on the peak through ropes. In a few breaths, their light gray clothes all turned into the color of snow. At this time, more than a hundred people also separated one after another. Several teams formed and headed down the mountain from different directions for a short distance, then stopped and started waiting. The encirclement was truly completed at this time.

"Didi-di-di-" At the same moment, everyone's communicators remembered a burst of rapid short sounds. At this time, everyone took out their earplugs and looked at the mountains in front of them, or the piles above the mountains. The clouds seemed to be unable to bear their own weight.

In fact, no sound came out, but based on the operator's feeling, something was still captured. It was as if it acted directly on the brain and synchronized with its own frequency, making them feel a little nauseous.

The surface of the snow on the top of the mountain moved slightly at this time, and many ice blocks appeared cracked. Even the clouds had obvious lines, boiling and exploding, like water ripples pushing towards the huge mountains below.

"The power has been turned on to the maximum and the output is normal." In the control room of the airship, the operator's voice explained the current situation. "The specific detection pattern is being analyzed and generated. It will take about five minutes."

According to the calculation and analysis of the proprietary program input into the analysis machine, a picture gradually appeared on the magnetic plate. The outline of the huge mountain range was fully formed, but it lacked obvious details. As time progresses, the interior of the mountain begins to appear. The overall color of the whole picture is black, but some places are much lighter.

Where the color is lighter, the shape is irregular, but presents a curved or straight shape. There are connected caves and some larger cavities.

"It's a really useful machine." Stian walked up to El and Theodore and said.

Before arriving in the Borghese area, Stian integrated the information collected by Trono and Crecy - believing that the purpose of the prey coming here was not to simply avoid them, but to have a clear goal. Because they discovered the entrances to some caves during their early observations, before coming here, Yier and the others made a special trip to change their route and first went to a more prosperous area on the road.

There is a regional branch of the Imperial Minerals Corporation there, from where the machines now in operation were purchased.

What is the most important thing about a mineral? Maybe it’s the difficulty of mining. But in Imperial Source's case, mining will be the easiest thing. How to discover the rich minerals hidden under the ground or in rocks is what they think is the most important thing. As a giant company specializing in the mining, excavation and subsequent processing of various minerals, Imperial Mining has rich experience in finding minerals.

The machine they are using now is one of them that serves this purpose. It is guessed that the prey may be hidden in the cave, and the machine only needs money to solve it, so it will not be an obstacle to its realization. Even if the prediction is wrong, the money spent for the Holy Church and the Knights of the Rose is just an increase in the expenditure of another project by one figure. For example, change seven to eight, and the problem is completely solved.

,,,,,,

The light blue lake surface turned into a red and green color, and the shadows of countless tiny creatures floating in the water could be seen with the naked eye. Almost all the floating fish sank to the bottom of the lake. The water quality could no longer be simply described as turbid. The smell caused Cassia, who had a keen sense of smell, to subconsciously reduce the reception of sensations in her nose.

The weight of the black cloud put a lot of pressure on Cassia. He didn't know when the enemy would attack, but he knew that he must have made multiple plans for different situations. Things in the Mesalia region remind them that their actions will only become more and more perfect.

Jumping into the lake, Cassia dived into the water and swam towards the abandoned town. It felt like I had just swam halfway, and my head was suddenly filled with the sound of "嘤——".

The unusually sensitive sound reception made his head swell, and he immediately blocked part of his perception. Cassia hurriedly swam to the lake. When he walked ashore, without turning his head, the three-dimensional image generated in his brain told him the situation behind him.

Circles of arc-shaped ripples swayed in the air, continuously penetrating the mountain layer by layer. What is more rippled is the feedback formed after the sound is blocked. The three sound sources are above the clouds, standing at the triangular position of the mountains, completely covering the mountains without any gaps.

"They are detecting the structure inside the mountain!" Cassia looked at the ripples, and the scattered sound waves allowed him to receive patterns composed of many lines and lines. Outside the town, Cassia also felt the eyes that were looking towards the mountains.

"I'm really well prepared..." He didn't know how to express his feelings at the moment. He originally wanted to use the interlacing of the cave network to give himself an advantage. But now, compared to the enemy, maybe the map in his head is still lacking. After all, he had not explored the entire cave network during this period of time.

Arriving at the temporary resting place, Cassia opened the carefully wrapped stone rubbings. Although he was a little regretful, he finally lit a fire in the corner. Except for the small book that recorded strange characters and symbols, all other information quickly turned into ashes in his eyes.

"We can't contact Ye Jielin." Opening the cover of the communication machine, Cassia looked at the flashing red light there and completely destroyed it while shaking her head, and the storage structure inside was also taken out and placed under her feet. Becomes fragments mixed with gears. Communication machines have been improved by the Ato ring, adding a not too complicated function that can detect whether there is information interference in the surroundings in a smaller range.

Although I think that the enemy will definitely have similar means, whether it is interference or interception and deciphering, I still hold on to a little hope. It’s just that Cassia thinks that she should be more confident in herself or her enemies. There are many things that everyone can think of.

Taking the weapon box, Cassia simply cleaned up the traces here, leaving no specific information, and prepared to return to the cave immediately. When we came to the lake, half of our body was already in the lake, but at this moment, a strange wave was transmitted through the earth, which seemed to be there and not there, and it was impossible to catch it.

For just a moment, Cassia even wondered if she had stepped on the fish bones at the bottom of the lake. On the rippled lake surface, from the direction of the mountains, a wave like a white line rose from the connection between the lake and the foot of the mountain. , and slowly swept across the entire lake, gently hitting the shore. During this period, the strange fluctuations occurred several times under the feet, and then everything calmed down.

Cassia stood there blankly, feeling the subtle fluctuations carefully. After a few breaths, in his eyes, circles of sound waves with smaller fluctuations rose from under the lake. To be more precise, it rises from the roots of the mountain range in front of it that go straight into the ground, and spreads out in all directions.

In a short period of time, Cassia was moved by the different aura spreading from the mountains in front of her. The feeling of heaviness and oppression turned into an angry rage in a very short time.