The Stukas had already formed up within the clouds. Now they formed a vast, funnel-shaped encirclement, trapping the Dragonhawk Knights' Order below in its center.
Each of the five hundred Great Skuas at the center carried a hemispherical mechanical device on its back-an omnidirectional gyroscopic turret.
At the very front, atop the largest Stuka, Ola wiped his frost-covered goggles.
A fervor fierce enough to melt steel burned in his bloodshot eyes.
"Surprised, you hairy bastards?"
Ola grinned and gripped the triggers with both hands.
[Kill them! Avenge our brothers!]
Countless replies rang out over the communications channel.
[Vengeance!]
The next second, the Dragonhawk Knights witnessed a sight they would never forget.
The Great Skuas folded their wings and began spinning in midair.
Sensing danger, the Dragonhawk Knights sent their mounts darting to either side, trying to evade with their nimble bodies.
But the Great Skuas dove even faster, plunging like meteors and punching straight into the Dragonhawk Knights' Order's formation.
The Dragonhawks tried to stop them with blasts of flame, but the Great Skuas used the momentum of their rapid descent to slip past the heart of each fiery blast with a slight shift of their bodies. The immense wind pressure of their dives scattered the remaining flames.
At the same time, these spinning aerial "tops" unleashed their power, flinging crossbow bolts out as they rotated.
Their accuracy was poor at first, but as the distance closed, the bolts grew increasingly precise and deadly.
Drawing on his previous combat experience, Mordred maneuvered his Dragonhawk evasively, trying to escape the Stukas' narrow firing arcs. But he soon discovered it was useless. Whichever way he dodged, unseen bolts dogged him like a festering wound.
Then the distance between them shrank to two hundred meters.
Only then did Mordred see the horrifying truth-the