"Everyone dismount, prepare for battle." I ordered.
Ten cavalrymen, plus Bingbing and I, and a "driver," totaling thirteen people. I divided the squad into three parts, with the horse-drawn carriage and horses as the center. Four cavalrymen faced the left flank, four faced the right flank, each finding the nearest two large trees. They paired up, back to back, providing mutual cover.
The remaining two cavalrymen, along with Bingbing and me, and the driver, formed a group on the carriage. The driver was still responsible for driving and for quickly releasing the horse harnesses so they could become cavalry and escape. The carriage also carried two guns, prepared by Jiang Jun for Bingbing and me. We hadn't planned to use them, but now we had to bring them out to make an impression – because Jiang Jun hadn't brought us extra ammunition. These were taken directly from the sixth-floor battlefield. I checked mine; there were no bullets. Bingbing's had three left. One magazine would be depleted instantly.
With the formation set, I observed the enemy's presence again. They maintained their three-sided encirclement, slowly advancing toward us.
For a few moments, I saw figures flash through the trees, only to disappear again.
"I think I saw something!" Bingbing suddenly pulled back the bolt of her rifle.
"At this distance, if you were to aim, could you guarantee a hit?" I asked.
"No," Bingbing replied with certainty. 200 meters was too far for an untrained civilian. Bingbing, being a professional athlete, understood this intuitively.
There were fools who thought playing shooting games automatically made them sharpshooters. Bingbing was definitely not one of them.
"Then why did you chamber a round?"
"...To boost my own morale," Bingbing shot me a sideways glance.
I looked back at the cavalrymen on either side and said loudly, "If the enemy doesn't attack, no active shooting!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Sir, they don't come in peace. I feel them closing in!" the captain said.
"Don't panic. They might not be enemies," I said. If they were enemies, they wouldn't use such an "encircle three, leave one open" formation. With their speed and numbers, they could have easily achieved a "four-sided ambush." Enclosing three sides and leaving one open was partly for their own safety, partly to display their strength, and partly to prevent us from being cornered and fighting desperately.
We remained still as the opponents quietly tightened their encirclement. Soon, I "saw" the closest group of "enemies" to our left, less than thirty meters away. The enemies in front were still fifty meters out. They were also using the large trees for cover, darting rapidly between two trees, so fast that even professional snipers couldn't hit them.
"Chamber rounds!" I shouted.
All the knights cycled their bolts. In reality, most of them had automatic rifles and could shoot without chambering a round, but this was just for show, to intimidate the enemy.
As expected, with the crisp sound of bolts cycling in the silent forest, the opponents stopped advancing and remained in place, unmoving.
After waiting for a minute, I felt this couldn't go on. I climbed onto the roof of the carriage and shouted towards them, "Friends from where? Who are you? Please have your leader step forward to speak!"
A few seconds later, a figure emerged from behind a tree in front of us. He wore a long white cloak with a hood – ah, it should be called a cloak, but unlike ordinary cloaks, his material resembled "fur" from some kind of bird, with a sheen. The edge of the cloak was also adorned with many long feathers, like the tips of an eagle demon's wings.
"What kind of bird-man is this?" Bingbing muttered.
"A… person disguised as a bird," I hesitated on the last word before finally saying it. But it was clearly wrong, because as I spoke, the "person" raised its head and lifted its hood. Beneath the cloak, a large bird's head was revealed, bearing a nine-tenths resemblance to an eagle demon's demonic form. However, its limbs were entirely human.
Human body, beast head?