Looking at the horde of Blood Corpse whose saliva was clearly visible at the corners of their mouths, Gray's hands were still moving, but his heart had already sunk to the bottom.
They're doomed.
At this distance, even if I could release my root system at top speed, it would still be enough for dozens of Blood Corpse to pounce on the fortress.
Those Blood Corpse will not only slow down the fortress's movement speed, but will also try every means to kill them, and they will be facing endless battles.
As expected, being a merchant in the Graycast Corridor is a high-risk profession...
Gray, his face filled with despair, was already feeling a bitter taste in his mouth when, just then, a loud "whoosh" was heard, and the left track of the Antasia suddenly gained power.
Just like a car stuck in a mud pit, logically, it's impossible to pull a fortress out of such a sinkhole with only the left track providing leverage.
But the immense force that came at the same time as the roar was so fierce that Gray almost had his neck snapped by the sudden force.
With such a powerful force, even if it was only for a brief moment, the tracks on the left side of the fortress still gained enough speed from contact with the ground to change the situation.
The entire fortress suddenly surged forward for a moment, and in that brief instant, the part of the fortress that was originally suspended in the air on the right side briefly touched the edge of the pit.
With a foothold, the fortress's tracks engaged simultaneously, and Nora felt a sudden dizziness, her vision blurring.
At that moment, she wasn't thinking about anything; she was simply following the instructions given in the training that every member of the Graycast Corridor had received: firmly grasp the most stable thing around her.
"Bang!"
The fortress, half of which was suspended in mid-air, crashed heavily to the ground, and the three of them felt as if their internal organs were about to be shattered by the impact.
Four or five Blood Corpse who had already grabbed the edge of the fortress and were about to climb were thrown away by the impact, and then crushed into speed bumps by the Antasia swerved sharply.
"Crackling and popping..."
A strange sound came from behind. Nora rubbed her temples and saw a huge mass of dark, Blood Corpse tumbling into the bottomless sinkhole like dumplings being thrown together.
The terrifying terrain that had nearly killed the couple just a moment ago had now become their warmest protective shield.
Even without reason, the Blood Corpse ' bestial nature led them to make instinctive judgments.
Some of the Blood Corpse who hadn't been pushed into the pit by their companions behind them began to quickly take a detour. Nora's smile vanished in an instant, and she hurriedly shouted without turning back:
"Run! Run!"
Gray's head had just made intimate contact with the control panel.
At that moment, he looked up and saw that the needles on several dashboards in front of him had been broken off by his collision, and they were swaying from side to side as the fortress bounced.
Before I could even clear my head, Nora's shout came.
Seeing this, Gray didn't hesitate. He immediately turned the steering wheel with one hand and pulled the lever with the other, changing the Antasia's gears as quickly as possible and putting it into the fastest travel mode.
Each fortress from the Graycast Corridor is a sophisticated machine, a crystallization of the Graycast Corridor's wisdom.
Therefore, every Fortress Driver must undergo two rounds of learning before officially taking up their post: group training and mentorship.
The former provides drivers with basic theoretical knowledge and maintenance skills, while the latter allows for the transmission of decades of accumulated experience to newcomers with minimal loss, thus minimizing the occurrence of injuries and fatalities.
Gray's hands moved nimbly, and he quickly completed the basic repairs on the dashboard.
From time to time, the console could be heard making a "crashing" sound as something Shattered and was pushed along by the mechanical mechanism, but those small fragments posed no threat to the Antasia's propulsion system.
After making two more turns, Gray finally drove the mobile fortress out of the area where people could speak with electronic voices.
Feeling the faint tremors beneath his feet, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Call."
Gray let out a long sigh of relief, then turned and helped Nora to the chair that was strapped to the ground.
He turned his head to look at Bennett, who was sitting in a wheelchair with a slightly unsteady posture, and for the first time showed him a genuine smile:
"Well done, Old Bei."
He took two steps forward and patted the count on the shoulder through the restraining vines:
"Without you, we would all be dead today."
Bennett did not respond to Gray's heartfelt praise.
Gray's heart skipped a beat. He didn't think Bennett was plotting any betrayal again; instead, another possibility came to mind—
The play that Antasia just performed in PUBG is something that absolutely cannot be done under normal circumstances.
Just like you can't floor the accelerator when driving, the Antasia can unleash that kind of power, but it needs a certain amount of time to accumulate.
However, flooring the accelerator right away can be very damaging to the engine.
I just did some debugging and confirmed that there are no problems with the Blood Corpse inside the power unit.
So where exactly does the so-called "engine damage" occur?
Gray already knew the answer in his heart.
Bennett didn't reply to his messages. The Blood Corpse's skin was cold and there was no heartbeat; it looked no different from being dead.
So, Old Bei, could it be that he's burned out?
If the person in the wheelchair were a normal human being, Gray would definitely check their breathing right now.
However, the key to dealing with Blood Corpse is to maintain a safe distance.
So he withdrew his hands and came to the front of the wheelchair, his eyes meeting Bennett's blank stare.
" Old Bei, are you still alive?"
Bennett nodded.
"Then why didn't you say anything just now?"
"I..."
Bennett spoke in a hoarse voice:
I don't know what to say.
"It was just a couple of compliments, what's the big deal? It's not like we're going to let you go."
Gray waved his hand, genuinely surprised that Bennett was someone who thrived on pressure but not on motivation.
Looks like I should praise him less in the future.
"But..."
Bennett looked up at Gray, his cloudy old eyes filled with confusion.
But I didn't do anything!
"..."
The jarring white noise broke the silence between the two people and the corpse, but several breaths passed and still no one spoke.
What do you mean... you didn't do anything?
It means exactly what it says.
Bennett looked shaken.
"I was so intimidated by the Grand Duke's imposing presence that I couldn't hear a word you said."
After confirming that it wasn't a misunderstanding caused by inappropriate expression, an uncontrollable look of doubt slowly crept onto Gray's face.
In that critical moment, Nora was observing the enemy situation from behind while she attempted to release the root system. The task of manipulating the power components should have been Bennett's responsibility.
But the old count said he had done nothing.
So... how exactly does the fortress move?
Gray muttered to himself, looking as if he'd seen a ghost:
"If you didn't do it, then who could it be?"
Yes, it's me.
A sharply paused murmur entered Gray's ears, instantly sending chills down his spine.
"Who are you?!"
Gray's voice cracked with excitement.
The voice came again very soon:
You may call me Antasia.