With no way to escape, the two could only turn back to fight.
Facing the overwhelming onslaught of branches swinging viciously at them, Byron initially attempted to reuse the Gun Dueling Technique he had just grasped, hoping to carve a bloody path through the chaos.
His hands, ablaze with gunfire, flickered relentlessly. With the Thorny Rose and its mere twelve bullets, he unleashed a blazing curtain of fire.
He accurately shattered one pitch-black, hand-like branch after another that struck at them. The trunk of the human bone tree was also riddled with deep, bloody holes.
This human bone tree was simply too massive. There was absolutely no need to aim.
But no matter how many hits he made, it was meaningless.
Behind the branches were still more branches. The shattered hand-like branches only needed a moment to regrow.
Byron whipped up a fierce wind, dashing left and right with Violet, but still found it difficult to break through the dense canopy of hand-like branches.
He immediately realized that what he was facing was by no means a low-ranking Transcendent, nor a creature that could be dealt with by a mere Firearm.
All the skill in the world was useless.
A marksman can't penetrate an armored vehicle; only an anti-tank missile can.
Right then, he decisively shifted his firing target.
Amid the spread fire aimed at the human bone tree, a bullet pierced the branches and ricocheted off a golden apple further away.
Refracting at a sharp angle, it miraculously struck the bloated Bone-Eating Clown in the sky, who resembled a hot air balloon.
It burst one of the small clown heads on his body but was then blocked by the thick layers of membrane, fat, and bone beneath.
A nimble fat man, armored to the max too. That's just cheating, he muttered.
With a bulk comparable to a herd of elephants, without transcendent abilities to assist, even a hydrogen blast wouldn't be enough to get him airborne.
The next moment, Byron recited the severing inscription, "Thorny Rose," triggering the burst ability of the Wonder Twin Guns.
The guns' chambers emptied in an instant, and a furious rose of crimson gunfire bloomed explosively.
Each bullet traced a crimson arc through the air, avoiding branches on all sides, converging towards a single target.
They automatically sought out the enemy that had been hit by other bullets, unleashing the most lethal concentrated fire.
Six large-caliber bullets and ninety steel pellets, without exception, all struck the exact same point as the previous bullet.
Finally, they pierced Koraskin's hide, thick as a city wall, blasting open a huge, bloody hole that couldn't heal immediately.
Though such an attack didn't gravely injure Koraskin, who could split and reform at will, it caused him to rapidly deflate, making him sway erratically from side to side.
Having lost his balance, for a while, he couldn't focus on directing the human bone tree or offer assistance.
By this point, the encroaching hand-like branches had severely limited their evasion space, forcing them back to the ground.
Seeing branches and roots closing in from all sides, Byron gritted his teeth, about to reveal a trump card.
Although he didn't have ten peer-ranked Undead Servants at his disposal, he had the Versatile Enchantress, Beatrice, and Frogman, two Third Order allies.
These were more than enough to activate his Wild Hunt Knight ability twice, temporarily granting him Third Order combat power for three minutes each time, or a single transformation lasting six minutes.
If their goal was simply to escape, the duration should be more than sufficient.
"Don't waste it. We haven't reached that desperate a point yet. Watch what I can do first," Violet, who knew Byron's trump cards all too well, immediately stopped him.
With a pat on the Traveler's Knapsack at her waist, she scattered tens of thousands of steel balls intended for her shotgun, along with a large amount of granular gunpowder.
She lifted her booted foot and stomped violently against the ground.
A huge circular Alchemy Array erupted underfoot. In a flash of electric light and trembling earth, one after another, short and stout stone cannon barrels burst out from underground.
In an instant, she had alchemically created dozens of short-range, large-caliber stone mortars.
A considerable number of them even incorporated gold, plentiful in the Golden Apple Orchard, and glinted with magnificent, splendid golden light.
Alchemy: Artillery Position Formation!
This was a signature skill of a Third Order Gunsmith.
Transforming everything around her into cannons and bombs.
Lacking such conditions at sea where even soil was scarce, she was no longer hampered upon reaching the resource-rich land.
These cannon barrels, half-buried, used the earth itself as their gun beds, compensating for the stone's lack of structural strength.
They might not be as accurate as a real artillery position, but the terrifying number was enough to make up for everything.
Besides, precision was utterly unnecessary against the massive human bone tree before them.
The scattered ammunition automatically loaded and calibrated itself.
Violet waved her little hand and shouted, "Art is an Explosion! Artillery position, open fire!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!...
Dozens of stone mortars fired thunderously, their orange-red flames instantly illuminating the night sky.
Countless scorching steel balls, carrying an irresistible kinetic energy, tore everything in their path to shreds.
Whether it was hand-like branches, mouth-like roots, or the organ-stuffed trunk... none of it mattered against such concentrated fire.
In terms of destructive power, Byron, the Second Order Storm Knight, possessed perhaps only a fraction of the capability of Violet, the Third Order Gunsmith—maybe equivalent to her little finger.
Science is the tenfold lever that widens the gap between them.
Violet, whose progress in Cultivation somewhat belied her genius title, might not yet be able to independently initiate Flow State and perfectly control this power.
But a single command, "Blow them up for me," was sufficient to unleash a force that could overwhelm multitudes, akin to Catherine's ability to overwhelm with wealth.
Back in Iron Anchor Bay, Byron had already made an accurate assessment of her:
"Just the Gunpowder Artist alone, as long as she's well-prepared, can unleash firepower that could almost rival a broadside from a battleship.
Not to mention a Middle Sequence Transcendent, even a High Sequence Transcendent wouldn't dare to withstand her artistic performance.
The increasingly abundant firepower in the hands of an Artisan is precisely the confidence of the Sea Power Countries that giant ships and big guns will dominate these seas and suppress all Bizarre phenomena and Evil Spirits."
A scorching wind howled past, making the hems of their clothes flap violently.
When the dust before their eyes dissipated slightly, all that remained on the battlefield was devastation.
The upper half of the human bone tree had completely vanished, its stump charred black and emitting a nauseating, burnt stench.
The ground was strewn with severed limbs oozing thick, black blood, still writhing slowly as they attempted to regenerate.
But the damage was too severe; all attempts were futile.
And even at this juncture, the mouths of those hailing from the Black Tongue Brotherhood, each brandishing a black tongue, were still muttering, "It's all mine, all mine..."
But before the two could catch their breath, dozens of Whist Cards, sharp as knives, once again rained down from the sky.
"How dare you spurn the clown's kindness.
I will tear you to pieces and then eat you alive."
Byron had no time to retort to this increasingly nonsensical clown; someone torn to pieces couldn't possibly be eaten alive afterward.
Unless, like the clown, one possessed the ability to be dismembered and reform.
Rapidly grabbing Violet, he dodged the card Flying Swords, negated gravity, stirred up a gale, and sprinted towards another part of the apple orchard.
At the same time, his Spiritual Radiance connected him to Crystal Skull No. 12, Polaris, fully unfolding the strategic map to scan for all outsiders within a several-kilometer radius.
Indeed, he wasn't just running; he was also attempting to redirect the disaster, to find some scapegoats for himself.
If he could manage to divert the clown's attention, nothing could be more perfect.
The Bone-Eating Clown floating in the sky had long harbored deep-seated hatred for them and was relentlessly in pursuit.
One card Flying Sword after another, capable of slicing through the wind itself, rained down relentlessly. Byron and Violet, flying low to the ground, narrowly blocked these attacks with the help of nearby trees and hills.
But the Bone-Eating Clown, also capable of flight, was fast. They couldn't last long just taking hits without retaliating.
Realizing the urgency of their situation, Violet, who was acting as the main attacker, made a quick decision and leapt into Byron's arms without hesitation, "Hold on to me, I'll counterattack."
Byron instinctively embraced the feather-light Violet in a princess carry.
When one person took the offensive, the other naturally assumed the role of the "mount," responsible for evasion.
For Byron, in both his past and current lives, this was the first time he had ever held a girl this way. He had never even tried it with his sister Catherine, despite their extreme familiarity.
He couldn't help but feel a jolt.
The girl's waist, thin as a spring steel strip yet brimming with a sense of power, and her full, shapely legs, delivered an unprecedented, intense impact to this "theoretically seasoned" man.
His peculiar tastes remained, but so did his appreciation for beauty.
Who wouldn't want to be such a mount?
Violet felt the same.
If it weren't for one hundred percent trust, she would never commit her life and death entirely to someone else.
She knew that when a sailing ship was fleeing a pursuer at sea, jettisoning cargo to gain speed was a perfectly normal tactic.
If she had trusted the wrong person, she might have ended up like that general whose charioteer delivered him to the enemy over a piece of mutton—a truly tragic fate.
The Bayfolk Princess, raised among pirates from childhood, was no sheltered debutante but a decisive Pirate Warlord.
Her trust in others was extremely fragile.
After fighting side-by-side many times, such an instinctive reaction was all the more precious.
She had come to completely trust Byron's reliability.
Perhaps because they had each unlocked life achievements, the anchor chain between this Orphan's Alliance quietly began to gleam with gold.
It was already catching up to the thick, unbreakable golden chain between Byron and Bruh, a bond endorsed by law.
However, now was not the time for idle thoughts.
"Blood of Transformation."
The two, increasingly in sync, now needed only a word or a glance to understand each other's thoughts.
"Received."
Although Byron hadn't had the chance to hunt a Third Order Transcendent for a long time, depleting his stock of Third Order Blood of Transformation, he still had a sufficient supply of Second Order.
Upon hearing her, a stream of Blood of Transformation flowed from the Warrior's Cup hanging at his waist.
It gathered into a coconut-sized blood orb in front of Violet.
The precious Alchemy Gunpowder, Flame's Kiss, from her Traveler's Knapsack also flew out on its own, instantly merging with the Blood of Transformation.
GURGLE GURGLE...
The blood-red potion violently churned between the girl's hands, bubbling profusely—a clear sign of a furious chemical reaction.
It was the most powerful transcendent gunpowder formula they currently possessed: Blood and Fire Sing As One!
Byron, who had personally witnessed the pyrotechnics of Blood and Fire Sing As One, couldn't help but break into a cold sweat, his heart leaping into his throat.
If there were any error, they would end up like that Royal Tax Inspection team from before—not even needing cremation.
But his concerns were clearly unnecessary.
This dangerously explosive substance, which had once caused the "Signal Flare Explosion Incident," was as tame as a loyal dog in Violet's palm.
Soon, the reaction was complete, and Violet tossed it into the air.
"Go!"
In the blinding flash of the Alchemy Array, droplets of crimson potion swiftly expanded into a flock of agile, red sparrows.
"CHIRP CHIRP..."
These fiery sparrows flapped their wings, trailing dazzling blood-red lines in mid-air as they darted straight for the bloated Bone-Eating Clown in the sky, who resembled an oversized hot air balloon.
The next moment, countless blasts fused into one.
BOOOOM...
Flashes of fire erupted in the sky, followed by thunderous roars, as a crimson fire Dragon burst into the night, visible to treasure hunters miles away.
The Gun Dueling Technique might be called an elegant art, and this cataclysmic explosion was even more so.
It perfectly aligned with Violet's lifelong artistic philosophy as a Gunpowder Artist:
"When poor, employ tactical insertion; when rich, engage in carpet bombing.
Caliber is justice; range is truth.
A volley is romance; an explosion is art.
Pursue truth! Uphold justice! Create art! Love nuclear peace!"