The villagers began to charge as well, so they didn't notice when the first enemy was killed. Gaius confirmed that he only got five thousand points of experience, so the strength of the enemy soldiers didn't increase. It was too early to celebrate, though.
When the frontlines collided, the massive sound of metal and screams echoed in the area. Gaius saw the moment his father swung his sword twice in a row, and each impact destroyed the enemies' shields and their skulls. Still, at the same time, Gaius noticed several enemies looking and dashing at him.
"You made yourself too easy to spot," Gaius thought while nocking the first arrow. "I guess you stood out the previous night as well. A two meters tall beardo stands out too much anywhere he goes anyways."
The enemies targeting Zairus didn't notice Gaius hiding behind his father's shadow, so they didn't see the arrows he fired in quick succession until they pierced their eyes. Gaius wanted to save some stamina, so he saved his strength and focused on accuracy. Thanks to that, two of the four enemies targeting his father were killed before they could swing their weapons at him.
Gaius felt a bit of a shiver when his father stepped forward and swung his sword horizontally with all his might. It was a big swing that exposed his right side. Gaius was ready to fire some magic bullets, but the attack actually pierced the enemies' shields and also separated their upper and lower bodies.
"Since he doesn't look like it, sometimes I forget that Father is also a powerhouse," Gaius sighed in relief and then chuckled. "You can be a powerhouse and also a whipped husband as well, I guess. They aren't mutually exclusive."
Around the same time, Gaius noticed that the second and third groups were starting to move in order to join the battle. While the enemies had already sent one thousand soldiers, they were still planning to wipe them out without giving them the chance to escape. The second and third groups joined the fight fast and began to stab the enemies from the sides. Suddenly, many of them found themselves surrounded and unable to move in any direction. The carnage started, but soon the villagers noticed the second group of enemies approaching.
"It is time to speed up," Gaius thought while nocking the next arrow.
When Gaius fired it, no one noticed that fact, but he also fired two mana bullets alongside the projectile. When the first enemy fell, two others fell alongside it. Gaius took a short window of time to confirm that none of the enemy soldiers paid attention to the bodies. He could keep up with it.
Gaius triplicated his attack speed, and he rarely missed the targets even when he aimed at three of them. So it didn’t take long for Zairus to frown since there were no more enemies in front of him, only on the sides.
“What the…” Zairus muttered while looking around. “I saw some of his arrows, but… did he fire that many? Am I seeing things?”
Zairus recklessly turned around to check on Gaius and only saw him slowly aiming and choosing another target. He didn’t see the mana bullets because Gaius didn’t use them this time. Gaius still hoped that people wouldn’t think anything weird when they saw the bodies of the enemies with holes in their heads but no arrows.
In any case, Gaius wanted to slow down on the mana usage, but the second group of enemies was about to reach them. At the same time, the first group still had half of their forces. Gaius couldn't stop thinking that, from the three groups, they had already lost thirty or so soldiers for good, and more than one hundred were wounded. They still could fight, but not at their peak, and that was bad.
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"It should be about time now," Gaius thought while picking the next quiver. "This is working, but we need more."
When the second wave of enemies was two hundred meters away, the sound of some large trumpets began to echo in the area, making the enemies stop moving for a moment and look behind. That was probably their sign for a complete retreat, and only one thing would make that happen: a back attack.
Gaius smirked as he watched his experience increase. It looked like the archers were doing a better job than expected. All of a sudden, Gaius gained fifty percent of the total experience he needed to level up, but he also noticed that Relia's health had dropped to twenty percent.
"That idiot," Gaius muttered under his breath. "Stop rushing to your death... I can't bring home a corpse... you would be too heavy to carry!"
Gaius lifted some of the restrictions that he had put on Relia to make her fight better. It would be a waste if she were to die now. Contacting her seemed a bad idea since he didn't know what she was doing, so he just waited while watching the second group of enemies retreat.
In the end, the second group of enemies never returned, and the first didn't have the chance to escape. They kept fighting until they were all wiped out. Still, the villagers lost more than sixty soldiers, and more than one hundred suffered some kind of wound. Their strength quickly decreased at a steady pace, even though they were also winning the fights.
"Sorry, little master. I pushed myself a bit too far and I won't be able to help for a while," Relia suddenly mentioned. "I killed the commander on their right flank and two of the guards with a surprise attack, but I lost my arm while I was at it."
"... All right," Gaius said while scratching the back of his head violently. "Let's see what we can do about this. Give your gear to Rein and alert me once you are done. Maybe returning to where Angela is will help solve the problem."
Gaius couldn't heal wounds, but he could bring back copies of those he had defeated. He would have to use a ton of mana, but Relia's body would probably return to normal. Although he was planning to summon more soldiers, Relia was more useful than ten ordinary foot soldiers.
Soon enough, Gaius confirmed that Relia had really succeeded in killing the commander of the enemy's right flank. Some of the scouts kept coming and going during the night, and it looked like some soldiers were executed on the spot for failing to protect their commander. The enemies weren't joking around.
After a while, Gaius also confirmed that Relia finished her preparation, and he sent her to where Angela was. He leveled up a couple of times that night, but the same thing happened the previous night. Angela didn't show up until the next time Gaius fell asleep, though.
"Hey, I heard about your experiment. Your guess was right; she will return to the real world in one piece once you summon her again," Angela suddenly said when Gaius appeared in that place. “You will have to use some mana for her body to be restored, though.”
"Are you ready to explain what power this is that you two have?" Relia asked.
"It will be better if you don't know about it. Anyway, you are as reckless as I had imagined," Angela tilted her head while frowning. "Your idea wasn't half bad, though. Unfortunately, the enemies have a precise chain of command, so the commander of the right flank was already decided."
Gaius waited for Angela to explain more of the things she wasn't supposed to know, but she stopped there. Regardless, Gaius already knew that half of their true forces had died or were heavily wounded. Things were going to get harder, even though the enemies had lost more than two thousand soldiers in two failed attempts to win some of their target's terrain.
"Am I going to return tomorrow?" Relia asked.
"I am still thinking about that. I will see if it will be more beneficial to me," Gaius looked around, seeing the spirits of those he had defeated and who were in that place unable to do anything, not even hear their conversation. "The enemies will be warriors from surprise attacks so that they will guard their new leader with even more numbers. You won't be able to do the same things as before."
"Time here passes rather fast, so I will send you back to think with more focus on your next plans," Angela declared. "By the way, you are fighting well, but you are focusing too much on the problems in front of you. You need to be more cautious."