Of course, having more legs was actually useless because Flandre Scarlet was flying in the air. Unless they could burrow deep underground, it was impossible for them to outrun her. Consequently, those without the ability to tunnel naturally had no hope of escaping her pursuit.
In less than ten minutes, she flew back to the lead vehicle, casually wiping her mouth.
"All done!" Flandre gave a cheerful thumbs-up and sat back in the vehicle.
"You took care of all those drones?" Dropper, who was sitting nearby, asked while checking his equipment.
"How could that be!" Flandre replied.
Hearing her words, Dropper breathed a momentary sigh of relief, thinking she had simply chased them off. But then Flandre continued, "Not just the drones—I killed the operators and the people protecting them too!"
As her voice fell, a heavy silence settled over the interior of the vehicle.
"Hiss... you killed them all?" Dropper asked in disbelief, his eyes widening.
"Otherwise?" Flandre looked confused. In her view, since the other party intended to act against them, they were enemies. Against an enemy, if you can strike a lethal blow, you absolutely do not leave them alive. If you don't strike first to gain the upper hand, do you expect the opponent to hold back against you in the ensuing battle?
Aside from Flandre and Dropper, everyone else in the vehicle was an elite soldier hand-picked by Wei Yenwu. They found themselves strongly agreeing with her perspective. When facing a behemoth like the Ursus army, holding back was a death sentence. Whether you showed mercy or not, if the opponent rolled over you, you were dead either way. Rather than showing misplaced compassion, it was better to take out a few more; at least then you wouldn't feel it was a loss when discussing it on the Road to the Yellow Springs.
News of the first reconnaissance squad's total annihilation was quickly transmitted back to the Ursus headquarters. The officers on the Ursus side were furious. In their view, this convoy had at most two hundred people. Even with a Flandre Scarlet who possessed extraordinary combat power, so what? As long as an artillery battalion set up an ambush, they could easily wipe them out.
Now, not only did the transport team refuse to obediently back down, but they even dared to kill Ursus personnel—they were simply seeking death. Driven by rage, the commander immediately issued orders to arrange for three mortars to form a squad to support the first ambush point.
The terrain ahead was a hilly area with complex geography; vehicles needed to pass through a continuous series of S-curves to exit. The rolling hills on both sides effectively blocked the line of sight, making it a textbook location for an ambush. This was precisely the spot where Ch'en Huijie and the others had unanimously agreed an attack was likely.
The guards in the vehicle knew this well. As they approached the hills, everyone had their weapons ready, prepared for combat at a moment's notice. Seeing the tension, Flandre decided not to stay inside. The maneuvering space in the truck was limited, and her fighting style was ill-suited for cramped quarters. As soon as she exited, she charged straight toward the hills.
On the slopes, the hearts of the hidden Ursus soldiers tightened. Their mission was to harass a merchant caravan and gauge its strength. Instead, before the battle even began, a girl came flying toward them.
"Damn it, we're exposed! All snipers prepare, knock this fellow out of the sky!" the ambush commander shouted, pointing at the figure in the air.
The next second, several crossbow bolts whistled toward her. To the commander, Flandre's flight speed didn't seem fast and her trajectory was clear; he thought it was impossible for her to dodge. However, he never expected that just as the bolts were fired, Flandre would dodge them with a few graceful, mid-air flips. Several bolts flew past her body, coming within a hair's breadth of touching her.
"Don't stop, keep attacking!" he roared.
Flandre didn't panic. Instead, she looked at the enemies shooting at her from below. While leisurely performing the supreme Touhou skill of "randomly swaying" to avoid the projectiles, she observed the terrain. Her main goal was to estimate the enemy's numbers.
Outside the hills, the convoy came to a halt, everyone looking ahead warily. Flandre's relaxed movements in the sky made many people's backs go cold with worry for her safety.
"There are about fifty people, at least half have crossbows, and there are three iron tubes in the back," Flandre reported to Dropper and the others via her walkie-talkie while dodging.
"Iron tubes? What kind of iron tubes?!" Zhang Wei, the head of the guards and a veteran captain, spoke up instantly.
"About a meter high, stuck diagonally in the ground, with two support brackets on the sides," Flandre described.
A layer of fine sweat broke out on Zhang Wei's forehead. Those weren't just "iron tubes"—they were mortars. He imagined the convoy entering the mountain road only for the opponent to rain fire down on them from behind the mountain. Even if they knew where the shots were coming from, it would be too late. While three mortars couldn't wipe out the whole convoy, they were enough to cause heavy losses. He felt immensely fortunate that Flandre had taken the initiative to scout ahead.
After several minutes of shooting, Flandre remained uninjured. The soldiers below realized she was purely toying with them. They wanted to run, but they held their ground. As regular Ursus troops, they understood that the side with air superiority held the initiative. Their only counter was the mortars. Though the convoy had stopped outside the hills, it was already within range. They planned to fire on the trucks to force the girl in the sky to go back and rescue them, giving the soldiers a chance to retreat.
It was a sound plan, and had Flandre not known the danger, she might have prioritized the trucks. But Flandre already knew the threat of the mortars from Zhang Wei, so she charged straight at the mortar squad instead.
"Stop her!" the commander screamed. Bolts were fired again as if they cost nothing. To Flandre, these were too weak, not even comparable to the Danmaku of the little fairies in Gensokyo.
She pushed through the rain of arrows and landed in front of the mortar squad. "Soul-Scattering Iron Claws!" she shouted.
She grabbed two soldiers, one in each hand, and soared hundreds of meters into the air. She dropped them directly before charging back down for the others. While the move didn't kill the entire squad instantly, it terrified the survivors. They could accept dying in a firefight, but they could not endure the horror of being dragged into the sky to fall to their deaths.
As she pounced again, the Ursus soldiers broke and fled. Flandre transformed into a swarm of Blood Bats to give chase. Seeing this, the ambush commander led his own men away from the mortar site, correctly guessing that she would prioritize the mortar squad over his retreating infantry.
By the time Flandre finished dealing with the mortar team, the commander's group had already fled over a kilometer. Flandre wanted to chase them, but she was stopped by Zhang Wei and Dropper over the radio. They argued that since the squad had retreated, the priority was now the abandoned equipment.
Flandre didn't quite understand the fascination, but she stopped and flew back to the convoy, carrying the three mortars and several crates of shells. Upon seeing the weapons, Zhang Wei looked absolutely infatuated.
"As expected of the Ursus army's stuff, this thing is not simple..." He stroked the metal, reciting the manufacturer and unit data from the serial numbers.
Flandre retreated behind Dropper with a look of pure disgust. "Ugh, this uncle is so gross!"
Zhang Wei's heart broke for a second, but he was soon captivated by the mortar's form again. Flandre asked why they needed them. Dropper explained that to remain compliant when leaving Lungmen, they hadn't equipped the convoy with heavy weaponry. Against a full army assault, they would have been defenseless. But now, thanks to Flandre, they had their own heavy firepower.
Flandre nodded. She knew that while she could handle small harassment teams, she couldn't go head-to-head with a fully armed regiment without taking damage. These "iron tubes" were their insurance.