There was little point in looking for the enemies in silence. They couldn't afford to let them approach the village and damage the place. So, even though that would reveal their positions, Verkan and his soldiers proceeded as fast as possible to stop the enemies. Zaos was several meters behind them. Verkan gave him the order to stay away from the enemies' sight and attack them from a good position once the battle starts.

"Focus on protecting yourself. Make sure to attack from a place they can't see you," Verkan told him. "Do not do anything even if you see some of us dying. You will prevent many more deaths by making sure that you will use your magic freely."

While Zaos knew that was true, he couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed. Even though he trained his swordsmanship more than his magic, it looked like he wasn't good enough to make a difference in the frontlines yet. Regardless, the idea of disobeying those orders didn't even pass in Zaos's mind. Not only he had to bring down as many followers of the demon god as possible to prevent the death of the guards, but the main reason is to protect Salide.

Suddenly, something shining appeared in the distance and flew toward Verkan. In the blink of an eye, he swung his sword and blocked the Fire Arrow, but soon after, many others appeared and bombarded the guards. They raised their shields to protect themselves, but they didn't stop their advance. Even when their arms began to be burned by their hot shields.

Zaos immediately began to run to his left side and moved away even more from the group. Although he had to keep his presence hidden, he had the luxury to move as he saw fit since the noise caused by the start of the battle was much bigger than what he could make.

When Zaos approached the battle from another direction, he noticed that something was off. He felt the presence of only two mages, although their allies armed with swords was close to twenty, that was too much of a number for an attack.

"What is wrong here…" Zaos asked as he cast Fire Sword.

While the guards were fighting, Zaos killed the two mages. They didn't even react to his attacks. That only made things look even more suspicious… It looked like they were too focused on controlling those twenty or so brainwashed soldiers. After thinking for a few moments, a single idea came to mind.

"Shit… it was a diversion!" Zaos said as he dashed toward the battle. "Sir! It was a diversion. They only wanted to lure us out of the village!"

When Verkan heard that, he froze on the spot. Although the followers of the demon god never used that kind of strategy, it made a lot of sense. Since they weren't being controlled anymore, the brainwashed soldiers were quickly defeated.

"Let's hurry to Salide," Verkan said.

Even faster than they charged to meet the enemies, the group returned to Salide, and it didn't take long for them to realize that something was amiss. They could see the villagers in the center of the town, even from far away, but there were no signs of battles. However, a certain building was on fire… it was their post.

"What happened here?" Verkan asked.

"Sir… dozens of mages bombarded us, but it was only a diversion. One of their soldiers entered the post while we were defending ourselves. After a few moments, they left, and the mages put the building on fire." One of the recruits explained.

That was very odd behavior, but it didn't take long for them to understand what they did… They silenced the prisoner. They made sure that the kid's body would be cremated.

"I felt for their traps…" Verkan bit his lips in annoyance and then said. "It looks like the kid knew something important, and they changed their modus operandi to make sure that we will never discover what it was. Shit… it was such a golden opportunity. Is anyone hurt?"

"No, sir. Our shields received some damage, but their attacks didn't hurt anyone," The recruit replied.

As expected, the whole attack had been a diversion to silence one of them that could expose their plans. Regardless, Verkan didn't let that slow his thought process and gave the order to his men to move around the area and put the other villages and towns under alert.

"Your squad will stay here until they return," Verkan said and then sighed. "I hate to say this, but the operation I planned is over. I fear that I can no longer attack them after this failure. Instead of risking another failure, we should strengthen our defenses."

Verkan was trying to look calm, but Zaos could see that this incident was bothering him more than a little bit. Perhaps he was even wondering if he should have tried harder to obtain information from the boy. That was a dangerous way of thinking.

The villagers soon began to return to their homes. Although they didn't look that calm thanks to the attack, they couldn't spend the rest of the night outside their homes, as for Zaos and the others who lost the only place they could use to sleep, not having a roof above them was the minor of their troubles. Besides, they had to keep patrolling the place and make sure that no other attack would happen. A group of mages was nearby, and fighting in the darkness of the night was dangerous when they knew about them.

"Something smells fishy here…" Zaos thought. "The group that attacked us certainly isn't small, but it wasn't a big group either, and I am pretty sure there isn't a town or village nearby that would be worth attacking with such numbers… what are they planning this time?"

Trying to attack another walled city wouldn't work since commander Ruvyn made sure to garrison those places with the best soldiers and archers the region had. Not to mention, the population also began to work with the soldiers in countermeasures against sieges. However, at the same time, the enemy also had plenty of time to prepare…