The crisis came without warning. Almost the instant Zhang Tie spotted it, that Level Twelve Winged Devil had already closed to within a hundred meters of him from the front.
He fired two Palm Arrows, then swung the nose around, completing both actions almost at top speed.
Zhang Tie's Palm Arrows were Sound Strikes, but they had little effect on a Level Twelve Winged Devil. They only slowed its flight slightly before it dodged aside.
In that fleeting instant, Zhang Tie went all out. His feet furiously pumped the human-powered aircraft's pedals as he guided it into a descending cold airflow to the left and began a rapid dive toward the ground.
Zhang Tie understood that in the sky, he was absolutely no match for a Level Twelve Winged Devil. Last time, a Level Eleven Winged Devil had left him in a sorry state. Now that he had encountered a Level Twelve one, other than fleeing, Zhang Tie truly could think of no other tactic.
The Winged Devil shrieked strangely as it gave chase from behind. Just as Zhang Tie sent the human-powered aircraft plunging toward the ground, it had already closed to within eighty meters. Zhang Tie leaned sideways in the cockpit and flung a hand behind him, firing another Palm Arrow. The Winged Devil swung a bizarre fork in its hand and knocked Zhang Tie's Palm Arrow away. Yet that brief delay allowed Zhang Tie to open another ten meters between them.
At this critical moment, Zhang Tie's mind instead became calm in an instant. The terrain of the region marked on the aviation map as the location of Tokei City, capital of the Titanic Duchy, surfaced in his mind all at once...
Zhang Tie knew that if he wanted to escape this time, there were only three