Dreu made the decision to not wake the civilians. He was worried they would panic in the situation and give away their element of surprise should the intruders be enemies. While he and the front liner crept closer towards the intruders, the other adventurers stayed further back ready to support. Dreu felt tense as he recalled the powerful demon in the tunnels. The idea of facing one of those demons with subordinates made him shiver.

The intruders had yet to light a fire which concerned Dreu. Unlike humans, demons possessed the ability to see in the dark. This made battles at night or, in their case, battles in a dark cave far more favorable for the demons. To make matters worse, his side wasn’t fully rested either. They had at most a few hours of rest which was insufficient for classes like clerics and sorceresses. Mana regeneration might vary between casters but proper rest could greatly increase the regeneration and a full rest generally fully replenished one's mana. Dreu was fairly certain that the casters in their group were running empty on mana by the time they fled the tunnels. The odds were looking less and less in their favor.

“Fireball!” shouted one of the intruders.

The fireball briefly illuminated the human caster before it flew in the direction of the cave mouth and made contact with a dark silhouette. The burning creature flayed helplessly prior to its collapse onto the ground. Yet, more dark silhouettes appeared at the cave mouth. Then, Dreu was caught off guard by a light similar to the Illumination casted by the cleric back in the tunnel and shielded his eyes with his arms.

“Shield Wall formation!” shouted another voice while Dreu’s eyes slowly adjusted to the light.

The young man could hear the shuffling of armor followed by war cries. Once his eyes were adjusted, Dreu was greeted by the scene of armored knights in a tight formation faced off against demons clad in armor and weapons. Behind the knights, a sorcerer supported himself with a staff and another caster laid on the ground with a bloodied robe. Then, he noticed an odd shadow moving along the cave wall by chance. The way it stood out grabbed his attention and it moved past the knights towards the injured caster.

Summon Footman, he thought in his mind.

A footman appeared beside him. This time, its equipment looked a lot more presentable as there was no sign of rust or damage. In addition, the footman also possessed a shield similar to the one he gave the first footman. Compared to his first summon, the second summon, with the recent footman class upgrade, seemed far better suited for battle.

During Dreu’s research into the Knight Academy, he came across a fascinating book on knight formations. He learned that the knights, being the front liner, must hold off enemy attacks to protect their backline and the wounded at all costs. Due to this mentality, the knights’ focus was entirely on the incoming demons and not the suspicious looking shadow. Having bypassed the shield wall, the shadow chose to ignore the sorcerer and target the wounded person. Dreu determined that it was in his best interest to keep the latter alive.

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Protect that caster on the ground, ordered Dreu.

The footman nodded and charged towards the humans. Its presence was first noted by the sorcerer who tried raising his hand towards it. Dreu wanted to get the sorcerer’s attention to alert him the footman was on his side but his attention went straight to the shadow which had gotten a few meters from the wounded person on the ground. His eyes widened when a demon materialized out from the shadow with its claws directed at the helpless human. Before the demon’s claws could make contact, the footman intercepted the claws by diving forward and putting its shield between the demon and the human. Due to the dive, the footman landed awkwardly so it couldn’t recover while the demon, being far more agile, already pivoted to go around the footman and finish what it started.

“Fireball!”

A fireball hit the demon’s arm forcing it to back away. Before the demon could focus on the sorcerer, another fireball hit its other arm. Dreu turned his head to see the sorceress in his group with her arms raised. When he focused on the demon again, it dematerialized into its shadow form and withdrew from combat. Following that demon’s withdrawal, the other demons also fell back. Dreu breathed out while he watched the footman standing guard over the injured caster.

“Uncle!” said the sorceress who ran up and embraced the sorcerer.

After overcoming the initial shock, the sorcerer laughed and embraced her back. While those two enjoyed their reunion, the cleric made it to the side of the caster and promptly casted healing spells. Dreu, the front liner and the ranger approached the humans slowly. Once they stopped beside the cleric, they noticed the caster was a woman and she was looking up at everyone with a smile. With the battle won and the caster in the process of recovery, all the humans sat down and began introducing themselves.

The knight captain first introduced himself as Baldwin. Next, the sorcerer introduced himself as Aleit and introduced the wounded cleric as Isylte. The adventurers then introduced themselves. Dreu learned the sorceress was called Sela while the cleric was Jeane. Sadon was the name of the front liner and people called the ranger Gaenor. Finally, all the gazes turned to Dreu and the footman.

“My name is Dreu,” he said in response, “and this is my summoned unit.”

Dreu watched as the sorcerer’s eyes widened from his introduction. The sorcerer then studied the footman from head to toe before turning to the young man.

“I have studied magic for over a decade and had never come across such summoned units. Are you, by chance, a genius summoner?”

“I only unlocked my ability recently,” said Dreu as he quickly shook his head.

“Truly fascinating! If it weren’t for the demon invasion, I would love to learn more about your ability.”

“I’d hate to interrupt,” said Baldwin, “but we should be resting now. We don’t know when the next attack will arrive.”

Everyone agreed and headed deeper into the cave where Dreu discovered the civilians somehow managed to sleep through the entire battle.