Flames spread across Sunset Canyon. "Hellfire," blended from highly concentrated whale oil and alchemical thickener, clung to rock walls, shields, and human bodies. Anything it touched stayed coated, no matter how hard they tried to shake it off.
Count Belia stood beside his warhorse, watching helplessly as his Third Heavy Infantry Regiment turned into moving torches.
"Spread out! Hug the rock walls! Mage Corps, bring down rain! Rain, now!" Belia frantically directed the men, more than half of whom were still frozen in place.
But Count Belia had clearly forgotten the hundreds of Griffin Knights still in the sky.
And now, after one bombing run, nearly two thousand Stuka knights were ready.
Dark red wings spread in the wind, forming a sea of blood. At Ola's command, they plunged toward the griffins below.
The two sides collided violently in midair.
With their powerful, alchemically augmented bodies and the momentum of their dives, the Great Skuas were far more maneuverable than the griffins. The extra-long dragon lances in their riders' hands pierced enemy armor with ease, driven by the wind, skewering Griffin Knights and their mounts together before flinging them to the ground.
Ola hauled on the reins with a wild laugh. His Stuka traced a breathtakingly sharp zigzag through the air, dodging a griffin's lunge. He squeezed the trigger beneath his saddle, and the Falcon Strike Aerial Ballista thundered.
At ten meters, the bolt had devastating penetrating power. It shattered the Griffin Knight's chest in an instant, then drove deep into the griffin's spine without losing momentum.
More Stuka knights chose to hunt at medium range.
A dense barrage of ballista fire rang through the sky. Griffins shrieked as their wings broke, and severed limbs mingled with swirling eagle feathers, pattering down like rain onto the Eastern Foothills Province's formations