Raylo said no more and gently squeezed Baofeng's sides.
The Storm Griffin King let out a piercing cry. With a mighty flap of its wings that whipped up a fierce gale, it carried Raylo and Moonlight soaring into the sky.
Following closely behind, eleven Storm Griffins also took to the air, circling high above.
"BLARE! BLARE!"
The movements of the Black Stone Army almost instantly alerted the Stone Crow Robbery Gang inside Crow's Nest Valley.
A desolate, urgent horn blast echoed through the valley, shattering the tranquility of dusk.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
"Quick! Grab your weapons!"
The valley instantly erupted into chaos.
Countless tattered, ferocious-looking robbers emerged from simple thatched huts and holes in the ground. They wielded a motley assortment of weapons—rusty cleavers, polished axes, and even sharpened wooden sticks.
From his vantage point high above, Raylo gave them a quick scan. There were about three hundred of them.
