The serene dawn painted the horizon a pale white.
At six o'clock in the morning, the airborne forces of the Land of Demons launched another attack on Windmill Town.
The town's various buildings, after days of continuous bombardment, had long turned into uninhabitable ruins.
Yet the Hidden Sand Ninja stubbornly stood guard over the ruins of the town.
"Here they come again?"
Maki looked towards the sky with a headache.
The airborne forces of the Land of Demons would invariably launch attacks here at nightfall and dawn.
Moreover, each time with a standard force of fifty men.
After days of intense consumption, the bows and explosive tags of the Hidden Sand Squad were nearly depleted.
If the Land of Demons were to launch another air raid tonight, then by tomorrow morning, they would not have sufficient bows and explosive tags to deal with the airborne forces of the Land of Demons.
At that point, without anti-air capabilities, the Hidden Sand Squad would surely become sitting ducks for the airborne forces of the Land of Demons.
Compared to what one might call an air raid, the airborne forces of the Land of Demons seemed more like they were using a thousand Hidden Sand Ninja as wooden stakes for live practice.
Their airstrike capabilities improved daily, and their operation became more skilled.
In yesterday's air raid, the Land of Demons lost only six aircraft, while the Hidden Sand Ninja paid the price of dozens of precious ninja lives.
Up until now, less than half of the Hidden Sand Ninja survived, and half of those who did survive were injured. The number of Hidden Sand Ninja who could maintain full combat capability was very few.
The humming of aircraft engines resonated in the sky as they began a new round of high-altitude bombing.
"Do not slack off, as long as we endure this morning's attack, reinforcements will arrive in the afternoon! Then will be our best moment to counterattack!"
Maki shouted to the surrounding Hidden Sand Ninja, a statement that greatly boosted their morale.
After several days of relentless bombardment, they had developed a significant psychological shadow regarding the Land of Demons.
Now, hearing Maki say that reinforcements would arrive in the afternoon, hope was rekindled in their hearts.
As long as they endured this morning's bombing, the days of humiliating entrapment would come to an end.
At that time, the Hidden Sand Ninja would advance as if breaking bamboo, directly attacking the capital of the Land of Demons, and regain their prestige.
Maki, seeing that the morale of the people had been rallied by him, nodded, picked up the radio communicator, and began commanding the fight.
Soon, Maki noticed something amiss.
The communicator suddenly emitted a raspy, sharp sound; such a sound was identical to the noise of a stone scraping across glass.
"Third Squad, what's your status over there? Can you hear me? Please respond if you can hear!"
Maki asked quickly.
The raspy, sharp sound grew louder, yet no reports came through, drowned out by the ferocious sound of artillery.
Maki blankly stared toward the southeast, where the third squad was positioned, now engulfed in boundless firelight and sand, plunged into deathly silence.
Radio... malfunctioned?
Maki had to accept this despairing fact.
Why would the radio malfunction?
He hurriedly picked up the backup radio device, only to hear the same raspy noise; the voices of himself and the other squads were completely obstructed by something, unable to transmit communication, let alone direct combat.
"What's happening here?"
Maki couldn't figure out why the radio would malfunction at such a critical moment, and even the backup radio failed.
This was certainly no coincidence.
But if it wasn't a coincidence, he still didn't know what the ninja of the Land of Demons had done to cause their radios to malfunction simultaneously.
Without his unified command, he dreaded to think of the fate that would befall the Hidden Sand Ninja on the ruins of Windmill Town.
His eyes flashed red as he looked at the airborne forces of the Land of Demons still relentlessly dropping explosive kunai, with a fierce fury in his heart that could not be vented.
Because the explosive arrows from the ground shot indiscriminately towards the sky, severely weakening the Hidden Sand Ninja's anti-air capabilities, they could not form effective anti-air combat strength against the airborne forces of the Land of Demons.
"Lord Maki, watch out!"
An explosive kunai suddenly fell to the ground, landing dangerously close to Maki's body.
In a state of extreme anger and shock, Maki momentarily froze, unable to accept such a situation.
A Hidden Sand Ninja quickly tackled Maki to prevent him from danger.
Bang!
The two were flung through the air by the impact of the explosive tag, coming to a dusty, disheveled halt.
Maki started coughing, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, as he glared at the airborne forces of the Land of Demons in the sky, his heart filled with bitterness and discontent.
Logic told him that a Hidden Sand Squad without centralized coordination would be picked off in the subsequent air raids.
The outcome was already decided.
He had often imagined that the defeat of the Hidden Sand Squad here might be due to a lack of food and water, or to bows and explosive tags running out too quickly, leading to a loss of combat capability.
But he never imagined that the root of his failure would be the inability of radio devices to function properly.
The Hidden Sand Squad was perfectly divided on the battlefield by the ninja of the Land of Demons, and when facing the coordinated onslaught of the airborne forces of the Land of Demons, isolated action would lead to nothing but being picked off one by one.