The sunlight begins to gradually weaken.
The earthquake-like dull sound gradually approached from afar.
Standing above the canyon, Bai Qianzhi looked at the horizon - the monster group they had been waiting for for a long time began to emerge like a tide from the other end of the canyon.
There was no need for further communication, Haril, who was already in place below, was on high alert, and Bai Qianzhi above also turned his head again and checked the parts that were to be pushed down and trampled down in order.
There is nothing more to do.
Next, just wait for them to arrive at your door-
The first shock came quickly.
Since this is the slow part of the monster tide, there are almost no flying or agile monsters in the attacking gang, and they are basically vicious and bloated big guys who prefer to move from flat riverbeds rather than steep mountains.
This is also one of the important bases for Bai Qianzhi to believe that rockfall tactics are feasible.
As soon as the vanguard appeared, Hahalil began to move back, but Bai Qianzhi was not in a hurry to attack. If he was too impatient and caused the mountain to collapse on a large scale and block the riverbed, he and Hahalil would be comfortable when the large army behind them caught up. He hid behind a pre-prepared boulder on the edge of a cliff, delicately maintaining his balance and waiting for more monsters to enter the trap.
Fortunately, the monsters at the bottom of the valley had not noticed him yet.
「…… It's now."
Seeing a big guy below who was far larger than other monsters leading a dense legion into the range, Bai Qianzhi mobilized all his strength to push the boulder, and then quickly trampled on the edge and pushed down the stone along the pre-planned route.
Boom——
The bottom of the valley suddenly became noisy.
The sound of rolling stones, footsteps, and the screams of monsters, many sounds merged into a hodgepodge, and the dust that was stirred up even had to hit Bai Qianzhi's face for a while. There was no time for distracting thoughts, and he repeated the mechanical movements all the way. Until the last boulder was toppled as planned, panting he made a slight adjustment and began to look for Hahalil's location.
——However, I couldn't see the big eagle flapping its wings to push away the dust.
"Hahahalil!"
This is in vain.
The chain reaction of the continuous collapse of the canyon and the screaming of the monsters continued, so if he didn't leave the edge quickly, even he might stumble and fall. In such a chaotic situation, it is impossible to get a response just by verbal calls.
After realizing that he was a little anxious, Bai Qianzhi immediately stopped this behavior that would only be a waste of energy, and just came to a safe position and quietly looked at the canyon covered by dust.
Phew——
In the corner of the valley floor, a cloud of dust seemed to be stirred by something.
——Huh!
Can't go wrong, that's the movement of trying to spread your wings.
Bai Qianzhi lifted his spirit and looked down, but the other side just slowly fell silent again.
"Did you stop it by a monster...... Hahalil!"
Even though he knew it was in vain, Bai Qianzhi still couldn't help but shout loudly over there. After all, in addition to calling...... Now he can't help at all.
Fortunately, the chaotic sound was soon mixed with the sound of wings flapping in the air. This time it seemed to have successfully taken off, and the bottom of the valley that was about to stop collapsing no longer stirred up new haze, and the dust from the heights gradually sank to the bottom.
——Huhu-huh-huh——
With a strong sound of flapping his wings, Hahalil's tall body finally broke through the gray-yellow miasma and appeared in front of him. Bai Qian breathed a sigh of relief, and the corners of his tense mouth curled up a hint of curvature for the first time in a long time.
"Don't scare me, I thought you couldn't get ......"
And so on.
The boulder that had just fallen in his heart was immediately lifted again, for no other reason than - Haha Khalil's posture in the sky seemed to be different...... No, it doesn't seem like it. The crooked wings and the awkward flight posture like a young bird leaving the nest for the first time could not have been a deliberate move by Ha Khalil to tease him. They are undoubtedly telling one thing - his wings are no longer able to support his normal flight.
The young man who watched this scene immediately sensed in the dark that something had begun to slide towards the irreparable abyss.
"Ha Khalil, what are you doing! It's time like this, what kind of hero are you!"
The anxiety hidden in his heart was instantly detonated, and Bai Qianzhi yelled at him suddenly. Hahalil in the air looked over, showing a bitter smile intertwined with guilt and exhaustion - and then fell back into the dust like a kite with a broken thread.
"Damn it......
Glancing at the bottom of the situation that could not be identified, Bai Qianzhi made a choice without thinking. He found a place where the slope was not too steep, and carefully stepped on the gravel and slid all the way to the bottom of the valley.
The situation below was even more chaotic than he imagined. The panicked monsters rushed around like a swarm of headless flies, and perhaps the monsters that were killed by falling rocks in the end were not as many as the number of monsters that were trampled down and attacked to death by each other. But whether this is good news or bad news Bai Qianzhi doesn't care, he only cares about whether the big eagle is still alive now.
"Hahalil! Answer when you hear it! Bastard ...... Answer!!"
All the way through the edge of the monster group, occasionally cutting down one or two guys in the way with the blade full of anger, Bai Qianzhi ignored the pain of being shocked by his internal organs, and roared at the bottom of the valley looking for Hahalil.
Eventually, he found the other party near the place where the Great Eagle fell.
"I'm sorry...... If I tell you the truth, you may not agree ......"
"Stop talking nonsense, can you still stand up?"
He directly ignored the big eagle's apology. The previous fury also completely dissipated at this time. This young man who was not in a better state than the eagle just stuck his sword in place and used his right hand that was overly driven to the trembling to pull the eagle.
Hahalil stood up, and could see that his wings were completely tattered, and his torso had a few new wounds.
"We still have a hard battle to fight...... I won't ask you to run away now, but if we can survive together, it will be a big help to me. Can you still fight?"
「…… Of course."
At this moment, words are pale to them.
The two bruised warriors just supported themselves to stand up straight, picked up their weapons, and threw themselves into the fight again.
——The dust flying at the bottom of the valley returned to silence.
The corpses of monsters mixed with rubble piled up on the riverbed, and blood of different colors converged into a trickle flowing everywhere. Needless to say, this was a successful ambush.
At least 80% of the originally unstoppable monster tide fell to the bottom due to this chaos, and some of the remaining monsters were blocked before they could reach the bottom, while others were broken by the two of them one by one. The battle finally came to an end.
The setting sun is cold.
On the Gobi Desert at the other end of the canyon, the exhausted young man and the eagle lay side by side on the ground, letting the cold wind hit the wound.
There are no words, no movements or eye contact with each other. It's just like looking at the dimly dimmed sky, breathing silently.
– No, it's not over yet.
At a certain moment, Bai Qianzhi, who had lost consciousness in a daze, suddenly woke up.
The faint vibrations transmitted from the ground to his body stimulated his survival instincts, and his reason briefly regained control and began to operate in the severe pain of extreme exhaustion in his brain.
It's not over yet.
I can't ......
It can't fall yet.
Standing up with his body that was about to fall apart, Bai Qianzhi tried to penetrate the night with his blurred gaze to see clearly how many enemies there were to deal with.
"Hahalil...... Are you still alive?"
"Hmm."
Hearing his voice, if you don't look closely, you will think that it is already a corpse. And then he slowly stood up and held the bow again.
"And ...... Enemy."
"I know."
The two looked at each other in the faint moonlight in the night, and both saw each other's bloody faces smiling bitterly.
"Check the weapons and the body...... It seems that there is no need to check."
Bai Qianzhi glanced at his left hand that was distorted and his right arm was missing several pieces of skin, and finally endured the pain and forcibly tied Philopis' blue-patterned straight sword to his left hand with a strip of cloth.
"Hahalil."
Bai Qianzhi tilted his head to look at the eagle.
"Well, I'm here."
"Do you regret being involved in my trouble?"
"I'm very fulfilling."
"Hehe...... It seems that Wen Nalian is right, we are indeed of the same kind."
Bai Qianzhi turned his face back and turned his gaze to the white-clothed sword held in his right hand.
In the dark night as if to eliminate everything, the low roar of monsters sounded in all directions.
"White clothes."
Bai Qianzhi asked the thin and rock-like back in his heart -
"You have been to a more brutal battlefield than here and traveled a more difficult road than me.
You might as well answer me a question."
"Just with this ridiculous piece of iron.
With this small body alone.
How much does it cost...... to survive those desperate battlefields?"
「…… Let your sword and the skills you teach
Come and tell me the answer."
Holding the last support in his hand, Bai Qianzhi and Ha Khalil stood back to back.
——Bai Qianzhi can't remember the battle process after that.
His consciousness was broken many times, and when he recovered, his body was slashing and smashing the monster's torso by instinct.
I don't know how many enemies have been solved, and I don't know the situation on Hahalil's side at all.
The vision is blurred, and there is no need to specifically target anyone. Just attack the guy who rushes in front of you.
After using the inertia of his body to suddenly lean forward to drive his hands to deliver a sacrificial blow and cut down the last monster, he suddenly found that a dazzling light had penetrated into the vision obscured by scarlet blood.
That ray of light awakened his spirit.
"Oh my God...... Is it bright......"
Bai Qianzhi stopped all his movements and stood there blankly.
In front of him, it seemed that there were no more monsters still standing.
The fruit of victory, the bitter fruit, was swallowed by them after all.
"Won...... Is it?"
The blade quietly fell from his hand. The moment he reacted to the situation, his consciousness was almost disconnected.
…… By the way, Hahalil......
However, because he cared about the situation on the big eagle's side, he still barely maintained his consciousness. He wiped the blood stains on his eyelids with the back of his hand - he found that it was useless, and then he turned out the relatively clean part of the inner layer of the clothes that was almost soaked in blood and wiped it.
Ha Khalil was standing not far away. Like him, he raised his head slightly, as if he was looking at the rising sun in the distance.
"Hello......
It was so dry that it seemed like it was about to spark and its throat hurt at the slightest movement, Bai Qianzhi thought about it and felt that it was easier to walk over. So he came to the eagle and struggled to raise his hand to touch the other party.
"Ah, Bai Qianzhi. You are still standing...... That's great."
Hahalil seems to be able to speak normally, great.
It was only when the big eagle turned around slightly that Bai Qianzhi realized...... His left leg was long gone, leaving only a terrible wound. The reason why he can still stand is because he is supporting himself with a large bow with a broken string. But that's not the scariest thing...... In his abdomen, there was a penetrating wound more than this horrible, forming a huge cavity.
If you look directly behind Hahalil at this time, you will be able to easily see the rising sun through that big hole.
"Don't show that expression...... Bai Qianzhi."
The blood was almost dry, and now looking at the eagle, whose life was almost hanging by a thread, he showed a calm and satisfied smile at Bai Qianzhi, who had a distorted face.
「…… It's all bastard......
Bai Qianzhi gritted his teeth so hard that he squeezed out intermittent words from his thirsty throat. With his help, the eagle was facing the direction of the sun, leaning against the monster corpse next to him.
"What, brave man...... What, destination...... What glory...... Cough...... Uh-cough...... They are all bastards who eat people and don't spit out bones......"
Facing Bai Qianzhi, who was almost collapsed, the big eagle still calmly comforted him.
"Bai Qianzhi, don't feel sorry for me."
"The only place where the lonely soul belongs is the cold wind and the mountains. If you have the same cold home as me - if you have a colder home than me, you should be able to understand my current mood."
Ha Khalil struggled to take off his lute from behind his waist, hugged it to his chest and took a breath, blooming with his usual optimistic smile.
"Bai Qianzhi, my grave is you."
"Where is your grave?"
「…… Keep on your journey. Keep pursuing, my friend. This is destined to be an extremely long and painful road."
"And then, when you arrive at that place—"
"I think it must be a ...... A grand funeral."
After Hahalil finished saying this, he used his last strength in Bai Qianzhi's deadly silence and popped out the poem that the young man had heard several times -
"There is no end ahead
Fingertips are immersed in cold mist.
Looking back, I can't see the way it came from
Only a large area of darkness remains."
"O wanderer
Why don't you want to stop?"
"On this long journey that is difficult to put into words
Wherever you go
Who do you see?
How much blood and tears you shed silently."
"Let's go, let's go, let's go
Let's go.
I will take you home.
Even if you are at a loss
Even if you have forgotten where it is."
"The body is full of scars
As if talking to the dead.
His eyes were gloomy
It's like looking at a ghost."
"O wanderer
Why don't you want to sleep peacefully?"
"In this never-ending whirlpool of pain
What do you lose
What have you turned your back on?
How much nostalgia and guilt you swallow silently."
"Let's go, let's go, let's go
Let's go.
I will take you home.
Even if you look like a withered person
Even if you are lost in the deep night."
"Let's go, let's go
Let's go.
We light the fire
We climbed over the hills."
"Let's go, let's go
Let's go.
We go all the way
We sing loudly."
"Let's go
Let's go
We're going home."
"One day
We're all going home—"