Chapter 177 - To The Rescue (9)

You obtained 400 experience points.

The skill Fire Manipulation obtained 400 experience points.

Billy nodded to himself when he saw the results of his experiment. It was more powerful than a grenade, and it only used ten of his mana points. In any case, once the first was done, the others were formed a lot faster, and Billy began to bombard the monsters. For a second, the battlefield grew silent since neither side could understand what was going on. The tamers that were three hundred meters behind the monsters looked at that hill where the attacks were coming from, but there wasn't much they could do from that distance. They couldn't even see Billy properly.

Billy's excitement died down when he saw some soldiers being crushed in the mouths of those weird creatures. They were piercing the soldiers' line like a hot knife in butter. Despite that, some of the monsters began to retreat. Their masters understood that both armies would be destroyed at that rate, but the tamers would lose their best tools.

"As if I would let you," Billy thought.

Billy pointed both hands toward the back of the enemies lined and began to bombard them like there was no tomorrow. The explosions decimated one and stopped several others when they happened. The soldiers who were blocking the monster's path didn't know who was helping them, but they decided to use the chance that was given to them. They charged toward the monsters with their spears raised, even when some of them had broken bones or had missing limbs. Even while bleeding to death, they didn't want to leave even a single one of those beasts running wild in their lands. Billy wondered if he would have that same determination in their place… still, he decided to do the same as them, do their utmost best.

Billy's firing speed increased, and the whole battlefield was being taken by smoke and burned corpses and beasts running around on fire. After a couple of minutes, one hundred or so monsters managed to escape, but they didn't escape unscathed. Some were still alive on the battlefield, but the soldiers were moving to finish them off. Even though they were bound to die eventually due to bleeding or the flames still consuming them.

"Phew… It looks like it worked well," Billy said, but he didn't hear anything else from his allies.

When he looked to the side, Billy saw his father, Nikola, and Alexander with their mouths hanging open. One couldn't say that he defeated all the monsters by himself, but he certainly put them against the corner on his own.

"Your magical power is a lot stronger than six months ago…" Alexander said.

"Well, while you were here playing with a bow, I was training my magic," Billy said. "Anyway, let's get out of here. We can't let either enemies or allies know that we have this card. Only a few people should know, that we way, we will have fewer chances to find a counter."

Billy was right, but it was hard to imagine them mixing in any crowd now that he made fire rain down on the horde of monsters. Fortunately, the armies had too much work to do than pay attention to them, like treating the wounded and keeping an eye for the next moves of the enemies.

Marie also understood the meaning of that secrecy, so she just nodded when they returned. Billy went to meditate since there was no telling when he might need to use his mana again… However, the enemy army didn't move in any way for the rest of the day.

"Hmm… I suppose they are being wary of another bombardment," Billy rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

Billy wondered what the officials on the other side were thinking… he wished that they had some spies infiltrated, but as expected, that would be too much. In any case, their caution wasn't actually helping them… it was helping Billy recover his mana while meditating and eating the Edish fruits.

After sunset, Billy and his group reunited with the guild masters to have dinner. While they weren't in the position to command anyone, they still called them every night when it was possible. Gustave was a bit wary of them, but Marie and Gerald knew Billy and Alexander, so they didn't feel any suspicion toward them. In any case, while they were eating around a campfire, a hooded figure approached and sat nearby them.

"Don't make much of a fuss about this," Jean's voice echoed from under the hood.

"Lord Jean… why the secrecy in this visit?" Gerald asked.

"Since I didn't hear much of the name of the person who attacked the monsters with fire, I imagined that he wouldn't want to be the center of attention again, that was a wise thing to do, hence, I came like this," Jean said. "I also am patrolling to check if we have some spies infiltrated. It is easier to find them myself."

"They sure are paranoid if they had spies here despite their numerous cautious actions," Marie said. "Anyway, until now, they have been losing at least two times more soldiers than us, but things won't keep going like this forever. We will need to find a turnaround as soon as possible."

"I suppose you couldn't do that with a night raid?" Jean asked while looking at Billy.

"I used all my mana to kill those brainless beasts and that was because they kept charging until their masters decided to give up," Billy said. "I will need two days to recover all my mana… my stomach is about to burst from eating so much Edish as well. We will need another plan."

"Well, it would be weird if it were that easy," Jean said and then scratched his chin. "As of now, I can only think that stalling for time is our only option. The enemy didn't show all his power yet, so I can't make accurate precisions or plans."

That was disappointing, but in the end, Jean could only do so much when he was the lord of the state.. Being a master tactician wasn't something required for him to rule peacefully.