Since waking up, Stelle had played plenty of games. Plus, Pei Guang often rambled about all kinds of things, so she had learned to follow his way of thinking and plan accordingly.
At that moment, Stelle felt proud. Though they hadn't spent that much time together, she had learned so much from Pei Guang.
Huohuo took a deep breath. "I… I understand. I'll use everything Mr. Ah Guang taught me."
Stelle grinned. "Good! Let's move out!"
While Stelle was distributing gear and getting ready to take down Cirrus, on the other side, Cirrus was chasing Pei Guang left and right—until it suddenly realized Pei Guang had vanished.
"Damn it! Don't think I can't find you just because you're hiding!"
Cirrus was furious. It wanted to rip Pei Guang to shreds. But first, it had to find him. And who knew where Pei Guang had gone? He'd just turned a corner and disappeared!
Cirrus flew high into the air, searching carefully for any sign of Pei Guang—but just like Pei Guang and the others had failed to look up earlier, Cirrus now failed to notice the trash bin sitting right in the middle of the path.
That's right: right when Pei Guang turned into this courtyard, he had pulled out a trash bin and climbed inside.
Where had he placed the bin? Dead center in the middle of the road.
The trash bin was massive and completely out of place in the otherwise elegant style of the Luofu, but somehow that made it feel even more natural. The bigger it was, the more reasonable it seemed; the more absurd, the safer; the more dangerous, the more secure.
Cirrus stared at the garden, searching for a long time, and somehow never noticed anything off about this clashing, out-of-place bin. It even thought Pei Guang must be hiding somewhere far more concealed and continued searching the nearby woods.
Pei Guang, watching through the crack in the bin, calmly observed Cirrus's frantic searching. But as he watched, he noticed that Stelle had stopped moving on the mini-map. He also saw a shell in the storage space blinking in and out.
That was when Pei Guang knew: Stelle was ready. The special boss raid could begin.
"Hey~ look behind you~ the prank's starting~" Pei Guang popped out of the trash bin at the perfect moment and started taunting.
"Heh. You finally came out. You're dead today."
Cirrus flew toward Pei Guang, ready to show him just how terrifying a Heliobus could be.
But Pei Guang didn't attack right away. He knew Stelle was already moving. Beyond her, he also saw Huohuo nearby, creeping forward with his flag in hand, using the same stealth techniques Pei Guang had taught her.
Seeing Huohuo trembling in the distance, Pei Guang knew she was scared—but even through the fear, she was using the methods he taught her. She was getting ready to land a big one on Cirrus.
Cirrus launched its attack. Huohuo crept in silently. And farther away, Stelle, seeing the right moment, launched her strike.
"Open fire!"
Along with Stelle's laid-back but fierce cry, the roar of artillery shells cutting through the air echoed through Fyxestroll Garden. At that moment, Cirrus, still hunting for Pei Guang, realized too late that something was wrong.
"Not good!"
In that instant, it suddenly realized it had lost its cool. If it had stayed back at the plaza, it could've used the bodies of the Ten-Lords Commission's spiritfarers to tangle with the group, or simply devoured the weaker ones using its immense power.
But in a moment of blind rage, it had targeted the most troublesome opponent—and in doing so, gave the weaker ones time to react? The moment Cirrus sensed something was off, it immediately tried to switch strategies to deal with Stelle and Huohuo.
However, just as it turned around, Pei Guang, still hidden inside the trash bin, lifted the lid above his head and flipped Cirrus off while taunting again. "Hey~ you bastard!"
The sharp and to-the-point taunt once again redirected Cirrus's attention to Pei Guang. But in that exact moment, it had already missed its best chance to evade.
Mortar and RPG shells slammed into its body again. As Stelle and the others completed their attack, Pei Guang followed up with his own assault. The string of hits successfully knocked Cirrus from the sky to the ground.
Crashing to the ground, Cirrus cursed in pain, "Damn it! Damn it all!"
It now understood: it couldn't afford to delay any longer. Those thermal weapons Pei Guang pulled out might've looked ordinary, but they possessed some kind of mysterious power that could deal substantial damage to a Heliobus like itself.
At that moment, Cirrus realized it had been completely outplayed. And badly.
It tried to run. But just as it began to move, it suddenly felt a sharp jolt in its rear. Wait, as a Heliobus, it didn't even have that part, so why did it feel like it had just been stabbed there?
In that instant, Cirrus felt like a balloon had been popped: its entire body went limp, completely unresponsive.
It instinctively looked down, and what it saw nearly suffocated it: Huohuo was trembling all over as she jabbed a plunger-like flagpole straight into the core of its lower half.
Feeling Cirrus's gaze, Huohuo remained silent. To others, it was just a moment—but to her, that moment felt endless.
Swallowing nervously, she pushed the flag even deeper and gave a hesitant wave.
"Hi~"
Tail, who had now floated over in front of her, spoke up: "You're saying hi now?"
Huohuo knew this wasn't the time, but she genuinely didn't know what to do next. "Mr. Tail… What should I do now?"
Tail replied, "Why don't I use your body for a bit? I mean, you don't know what to do, right?"
Huohuo gulped. "O-Okay, Mr. Tail… I'll leave it to you."