At this time, Helros was already under martial law throughout the city, with no pedestrians to be seen on the streets. Although uneasy, the foreigners obediently stayed in the inns, waiting for checks by the city’s defensive soldiers.
After all, the city’s mobile corps was fully equipped with various automatic weapons, while most of the aliens were adventurer teams. They would be fortunate to have one or two old-fashioned bolt-action rifles among them; most were equipped with cold weapons, posing no threat to the soldiers of the mobile corps.
The advance team was moving in the direction of the air force base, avoiding many dwarf soldiers along the way. By the time they could see the airbase, they hadn’t been involved in a single capture.
The airfield was right in front of their eyes; if they could manage to get there, steal a flying vessel, and escape from Helros, that would be enough. No matter how far they could get, as long as they could take off, it would be enough.
Everyone quickened their pace with this thought in mind. Suddenly, hurried footsteps came from the distance. The five people paused, instinctively stopping to let them pass. But this time, luck was not on their side.
Around the corner, six tall foreigners appeared, dressed in adventurer’s clothing with a hood on their heads, yet with their faces hidden by black masks, completely obscuring their faces with only a pair of light-colored eyes visible.
This group of people turned the corner in a panic, and when they saw the advance team, they paused. On seeing them, Luo’er and his friends also froze.
If these people were adventurers, their weapon equipment was too superior. Among the group of six, three of them were equipped with SCAR modular rifles, two of which were small-caliber L-model rifles, and one was an H-model heavy barrel type. In addition, one of them possessed an M14 rifle, which bore the traces of modern modification, its body mounted with a Picatinny rail and an ACOG optical sight.
The burliest and tallest among them was carrying a handheld American M60 machine gun, with a bandolier draped over him. Luo’er could see his black skin from his exposed wrist. Even though his face was hidden, Luo’er was sure he was not of Otherworld origin.
After the standoff, both sides remained frozen for about three seconds. Luo’er was the first to react, making the first move. He pushed Baiyue standing next to him and pulled out his magic wand from his bosom to recite a spell, while Baiyue followed suit upon being pushed by Luo’er.
As the duo’s magic shields deployed, the people finally reacted and raised their weapons immediately, firing concentrated shots at the advance team.
"Da da da da da!!!!!"
The opposing team unleashed a hail of bullets against the duo’s shields. Fortunately, the shields were of the third-grade level, otherwise, it could be questionable whether they could withstand the onslaught.
While the two were shielding themselves and covering their teammates in search of cover, the advance team started retreating and used the flower beds made of blue strip stones as cover. They had lost the element of surprise and were kept under the thumb by their opponents, barely managing to raise their heads.
Everyone hid behind the flower bed, bullet whizzing overhead. The bullets hit the blue strip stones, chipping away at them, and sending debris flying.
Luo’er rummaged for throwable items on his person and came across a magic crystal capable of exploding, taken from an airship recently. On a whim, Luo’er took out the magic crystal from his pocket, recollected the spell recited by the dwarf mage, and repeated it.
The moment he finished reciting the spell, the runes on the magic crystal emitted an unusual glow. Seeing this, Luo’er quickly shifted to the side of the flower bed and tossed the magic crystal to the side. He’d lost a finger due to gunfire in the simulation machine at the Haiya Academy while throwing a bomb. He wouldn’t make the same mistake this time.
The magic crystal rolled between the two teams. As the glow intensified, the crystal suddenly detonated violently. The magical energy stored within it was released instantly, spreading rapidly like shockwaves.
All could clearly feel the intense magical energy sweeping over their bodies, and sure enough, the opposing team halted its gunfire. Seizing the moment, Luo’er lifted his rifle above his head and pulled the trigger in the approximate direction of his enemies.
The distinctive sound of the AK rifle firing served as a signal for the members of the advance team to counterattack. Baiyue pulled out her magic crystal pistol, switched it to shotgun mode, and jutted it out from the side of the flower bed, firing without caring whether she would hit anyone.
The power of the magic crystal pistol, especially in shotgun mode firing fragmented ice crystals, had always been underestimated by the team members. But it effectively suppressed the fire power of the other side, leaving them unable to return fire.
Seizing the opportunity, Hu Daoke stood upright, put his light machine gun on the flower bed, and started shooting intensively. His light machine gun might not suppress the enemy as effectively as the M60 machine gun, but with its high firing rate, it kept them pinned down.
As expected, under the counterattack of the Advance Team, the opponents no longer had the opportunity to fight back. They threw a smoke bomb into the middle, and as the white smoke blocked both sides, Luo’er suddenly realized an important issue: their mission was to infiltrate the air force base, find an air vehicle, and leave Helros, not to exchange fire with these unknown people.
With this realization, Luo’er stopped shooting and frantically signaled Baiyue and Hu Daoke to cease fire. As the two of them stopped firing, the opponents also seemed to tacitly stop their counterattack.
"What do we do, charge towards them?" Hu Daoke, hunched behind the flowerbed with a machine gun, asked.
"No, we retreat from the fight and leave this place. Our mission isn’t to fight with them but to get away from here." Luo’er replied.
"Damn, I almost forgot what we are supposed to be doing." Hu Daoke slapped his forehead as if he had suddenly been enlightened.
"They should be preparing to retreat too!" Cheng Ziang looked over to the other side and commented.
"Fall back, fall back! Yue’er, Moumou, activate the magic shield for cover while everyone retreats!" As he gestured, Luo’er stood up and beckoned everyone to retreat.
"Ziang, lead the way!" Luo’er and Hu Daoke held their guns towards the opponents, slowly retreating under the cover of the two girls.
"Understood!" Cheng Ziang nodded, pulled out his revolver from his waist, and started clearing the way. The situation was now dire, and it was no time for him to play hero.
Upon reaching the crossroads, the smoke in the distance began to dissipate. Luo’er finally noticed that the opposing troop had vanished without a trace. He lowered his gun with relief and instructed everyone, "Find another route towards the air force base. Keep to cover!"
Following his command, the Advance Team had no choice but to take a different route to the air force base. Their intense gunfire exchange on the streets was bound to have attracted the attention of the city’s defense corps, and the area would soon be surrounded.
Taking a different route, the team luckily didn’t encounter those men again or any of the city’s defense corps. Luo’er let out a sigh of relief and began to analyze the identity of those men.
He remembered an abduction incident a few months ago at the Sacred Heart Magic Academy, where the gunmen claimed to be from Earth. But Luo’er could easily tell they were not really from Earth. Unlike that group, these people were undoubtedly from Earth,
He tried to recall the features of these people: light-colored eyes, deep eye sockets, and the occasional glimpse of their dark skin. All these clues pointed to one powerful organization, the Central Intelligence Agency of Earth!
There was no doubt that these people were special agents from the CIA. This could be deduced from their choice of weaponry and strategic tactics. Both suppressing fire during encounters and pulling out smoke cover for retreat were not actions that people from Otherworld would carry out.
It was important to note that ammunition was scarce in Otherworld, so they have no means to use gunfire liberally like water splashing out. Hence, the people of Otherworld had developed the habit of using focused fire, even attempting to use focused fire with machine guns which are difficult to control in terms of firing speed.
It’s not that only Earthlings knew how to suppress with firepower, but those who used such tactics were mostly Earthlings. This was the experience Luo’er accumulated during his time in Otherworld.
After walking for more than ten minutes, the sound of concentrated gunfire came from a distance again, indicating that the unfortunate group had clashed with the city’s mobile defense corps. Luo’er recalled the sound of gunfire in the city when they were preparing to break through the inn and correlated it with this group. If he did not guess wrong, this group probably ran into the city defense corps’ search unexpectedly, causing a chaotic situation where they had to fire their way out in panic.
If the city’s mobile defense corps’ manhunt was due to Yila and her daughter, then the soldiers should be searching for them, and that group was obviously implicated as a result.
The distant gunfire became more and more intense, accompanied by occasional large explosions. Matters had evolved to this extent with not just the city’s defense corps being dispatched for the crackdown. If Luo’er’s guess was accurate, the Marines at the air force base should have also engaged in the battle.
Although this group were well-equipped, they were still no match for an entire pack of wolves. It was just a matter of time before they were wiped out. What they needed to do was to take advantage of the turmoil caused by them, find a way to sneak into the air force base, find an air vehicle that can take off, and escape from Helros.
Because of the previous farcical fight, the Advance Team was forced to take a huge detour around the city and ended up at the southwest corner of the air force base. There were a runway and hangars, and through the wire mesh fence, they could see a dozen air vehicles parked on the flat runway, with some ground crew performing maintenance on them.
The entire air force base was originally sparsely populated. Now, with the Marines being dispatched into the city to surround that group, the extensive base seemed deserted. From their vantage point, they could see the high-peak class airship docked far away in the air harbor.