After fifteen minutes, the group began to move. At first, everyone used bows and fired arrows, and while some of those landed on the guards that were awake, only Billy and Lily actually managed to hit those they aimed at.
"Enemy attack!" A random soldier shouted
As soon as the first guards began to fall dead, the others shouted and quickly raised their shields. Despite being small, that group had some specialists that could hit enemies in the head, even when they were one hundred meters away. So, the guards hide behind the shields until everyone was wide awake and ready to fight.
However, even before all of the guards were ready to fight, some individuals dashed at them with superhuman speed. Billy used Appraisal on them and confirmed that they were level eighty…
"Of course, someone like the target would have sole elite guards," Billy thought and prepared his magic.
Lily fired her arrows toward those five individuals, but armed with swords, they easily repelled the projectiles. They weren't run-of-the-mill guards...
When they got close enough, Billy and Sarah fired Stone Bullets toward them and this time, the enemies were forced to slow down. Three of them managed to block the projectiles, but the other two that failed were rolling on the ground while agonizing in pain since they were hit in the stomach. As for the other three, they could tell that their weapons wouldn't last long if they kept blocking.
Although those guys stopped moving, their arrival mobilized the others and they soon began to run toward Billy's group. Alexander, Natalie, and the guard leader of the hammersmiths stepped forward to face them, but they wouldn't win.
"They are stronger… focus on defending, remember our mission," Billy said.
"I know that," Natalie said while sweating cold.
Most likely, Natalie could tell that the enemies were way stronger than her. Winning wasn't an option since she could tell that wouldn't be able to block the Earth Bullets that Billy fired, but those guys did it. Although they approached slowly since they didn't see what knocked down two of them, once they entered they got close enough, those three charged. Natalie, Alexander stopped their charge, but it was clear that they were struggling just blocking their attacks. Billy had to help them, but Sarah grabbed his shoulder and then pointed toward Lily who was trying to decrease the number of soldiers approaching. If those guys get close enough, then escaping will be impossible.
Without any other choice, Billy left those three to his friends and pointed his index fingers toward them. Without holding back, he fired Wind Bullets toward the guards and every time he moved his fingers, a guard died after having their heads pierced.
Sarah opened her eyes widely when she saw that, but then she realized that wind magic was the best option in such a situation since it couldn't be seen. When the guards saw their allies falling for no apparent reason and with their faces covered in blood, they slowed down their charge. However, while the ordinary guards couldn't understand that, the three elite guards saw Billy moving his hands suspiciously and the girl on the side of him doing the same thing. They had to get rid of those two…
However, before they could come up with a way to do that, they noticed that things were getting noisy behind them… all the way to the tents. Some soldiers began to retreat for some reason and eventually, the message arrived at them.
"The Captain was captured!"
That was fast… still, Billy smiled when he saw those three hesitating. Since the other soldiers weren't approaching, Billy and Sarah attacked those three with Earth Bullets and forced them to move away from Alexander and Natale they dodged.
"Hey… my magic is two times higher than Sarah… How come they can dodge my Bullets so easily?" Billy asked himself.
Billy wasn't holding back, so perhaps the difference in strength was higher than the levels. Nevertheless, it was time to take the kid's gloves and fight for real. Instead of Earth Bullets, Billy fired Fire Arrows toward the enemies, this time, those three were forced to move away as they blocked since their speed was higher.
"Go for the tents, I will keep those three busy," Billy told Sarah.
Lily was about to run out of arrows, so Sarah nodded and began to shoot Fireballs toward the tents. Those easily began to burn and the guards panicked without knowing what to do or what was going on. The fire quickly spread, but for some reason, Sarah didn't put on fire the tent where the food was. Not only those weren't their orders, but she disliked doing that, Billy had heard that life in the desert was hard, so the elementalists didn't have much food aside from the meat of monsters.
Those three elite guards tried to move, and rescue their leader, but whenever they turned around, Billy bombarded them with Fire Arrows. They didn't have any other choice but to retreat slowly.
"They are coming from the East, we can leave now," Natalie said.
She was probably talking about Drew and the others. Nevertheless, Billy nodded, but before leaving he fired a wave of fire toward the sides of the hill. Thanks to that, the quantity of smoke increased tremendously.
"This should slow them down for a while…" Billy muttered and began to run.
Billy, Sarah, and Natalie stayed on the backline to stop the enemies in case the pursuers find them. It wasn't simple to find traces at night, but they eventually would connect the dots and begin to chase his group.
After a couple of minutes, they reunited with Drew and the others and he was carrying an unconscious figure on his shoulders.. The captain was just a kid who wasn't older than seventeen, so Drew looked even more troubled than Billy in doing that kind of thing… Still, orders were orders and favors had to be repaid.
