"You look a bit different from before," Beatrice said. "Harsher, I guess. Less friendly."
"It is just your impression," Billy said.
"I guess you are right…" Beatrice said.
Beatrice realized that Billy didn't want to talk and left the area. Billy always tried to be quite diplomatic when he met new people, but it was time to change his approach a bit. He helped Icarus even though he went to face the summoner instead of helping him face the dragons one year ago, and now Beatrice's family lied to him about the existence of the relic. That kind of people couldn't be trusted and he had to consider those that get close to him since he had kids to look after. He couldn't take any chances… While he would be seen as rude by a lot of people, he didn't want to be liked by everyone, he just wanted to make sure that nothing troublesome would happen to his family. That definitely would put him in a path of no return...
The hordes of enemies came again when the sun was setting and Billy couldn't help but feel worried. Svan said that they attacked five times per day, after all. When he looked at him, Svan just nodded. The monsters even come at night… He didn't notice that before, but some people around the city were pretty tired. Despite that, they didn't feel like abandoning the place.
"How do you guys fight at night here?" Billy asked.
"Well, it is kind of hard to prevent the attacks, so we usually retreat and the flying monsters at first," Svan replied. "We also divide the soldiers and adventurers into two groups. The first half use spears to attack those hairy beasts that come from below."
Billy nodded. It was the best option. Besides, it wasn't like everyone could use long-ranged weapons, and using them at night was even worse. Billy wondered what he could do to help them. If he wanted to make a good number of the soldiers advance and attack the enemy base, he had to help them win at night as well.
After thinking for a while, Billy concluded that using fire to illuminate the sky would be a waste of time since the enemies were resistant to fire. Considering that attacks come from below as well, perhaps he truly would have to deal with all the enemies above. While that wasn't exactly impossible, that would make the soldiers, and adventurers rely on him too much at night.
"I suppose it can't be helped this…" Billy thought while furrowing his eyebrows.
When the enemies appeared in the distance, Billy attacked them even before they could enter the range to attack. It was hard to see what was happening, only Billy and a few others could actually see it. In any case, he made sure to massacre the crows and left the other guys to deal with the giant moles.
Although Billy dealt with the crows and gave Galatea's followers the chance to help the others the giant moles, many still lost their lives on the first attack of the night. Some who survived still sustained heavy injuries on their legs. Some of them could be healed, but some others… Those who got lucky lost and legs and those who weren't bled to death.
Another wave of enemies came at night and things repeated themselves. More and more Billy confirmed that they needed to advance in the enemy's territory and attack the summoner, otherwise, things will just repeat themselves until he wins since he has the advantage in a war of attrition.
"I forgot to ask, but where are your friends?" Svan asked.
"Other states are also being attacked, so they are helping them," Billy replied. "The summoner tried to prevent us from coming with that strategy, he even went as far as splitting his forces into many small groups to attack many places at the same time."
"It seems he knows quite well the geography of the states… I assume he spent the last year studying that to put this plan into practice," Svan said.
"Anyway, you know that we can't stay here forever, right?" Billy asked.
"Yeah… However, I find it hard to believe that the people from here will want to leave and advance in the enemy territory," Svan said. "They will think that the enemy will make the monsters ignore us and attack the town that will have its strength decreased."
Svan had a point… maybe Billy did the wrong thing coming to the temple city to help since they probably won't leave under most circumstances. In any case, Billy had two options. The first was to convince Svan to lead his men to invade the enemy territory or he could go by himself. The problem with the first option was the fact that many would die along the way without the healing skills of Galatea followers. Even if Billy recovers tons of mana by defeating the monsters, he will waste too much time healing them and that would only make things more complicated in the long run.
After thinking for a while, Billy came up with an idea that might help the people around a few more motivated to counterattack. The next attack would come at sunrise, so Billy had to Skip that night of sleep and while he headed to one of the inns, he soon disappeared when he closed the door. Using Flash, he returned to the Northern part of the city, and then he used Earth magic to feel the paths that the giant moles had used to approach. The range was quite large, but that would work for Billy as well.
Billy began to dig a hole and then eventually opened a tunnel that covered all the paths that the giant moles had used. After that, he enlarged the space to the sides and then increased its depth. When that room was finally fifty meters deep, Billy began to craft the bottom with many iron spikes…
