A messenger from Daneswald came the very next day, while a company of knights on horseback arrived in the evening. Without Marissa's prompting, they immediately went to scout her former village.
Marissa's worries about her incorrect reports proved to be unwarranted, as the scouts saw activity from Latvin's soldiers in the village. They really had marched right into Litmus' territory.
"These Latvin scum are dishonorable. We have a treaty with them!" one of the Daneswald legion commanders said, unable to hide his disgust.
"They're like bandits. No declaration of war, no provocation. We even let their transgression with the dungeon break in the past slide."
"We'll mount a counterattack tonight. At dawn, we'll attack them," the knights discussed. Marissa nodded, but she stopped agreeing when they asked whether Cecile would come with them.
"Will Cecile, Rebecca, and Nana come with us?"
"Eh? Why?"
"Having a symbiote user will help all of us."
"But… they haven't killed a human yet, I believe. I don't think they will help much in this war…"
"All the more reason to send them to battle. We know that Hiro is not a combat symbiote, but he'll have to work toward it if he wants to defend this land. Lord Seraphine will come here in two days. Together, even if Jonathan comes, we should be able to kill him."
"Well… if you say so. Please ensure their safety, okay?" Marissa hesitated, but she let them go. What the commander said was true—Cecile and the others needed to get used to fighting humans.
"Thank you, Lady Marissa. We shall depart immediately." The knights then saluted and excused themselves to prepare for the assault on Marissa's village.
The crescent moon watched over them. Hiro had just realized that he was now in trouble. Elysia was a lich—she didn't have nutrients. Back when cell storage was unified, Hiro didn't have to worry about her. But now, Elysia had to be attached to one of his living hosts to transfer nutrients, or Hiro's core would die.
Elysia was not chosen to raid Marissa's village. That meant Marissa had to supply her with nutrients. Hiro sighed, knowing he'd have to force her to eat later.
"Hm… shouldn't we attack them now? Do we have to wait until dawn?"
"We can't see anything in this darkness, so we have to wait," the commander said.
The crescent moon didn't provide enough light for the knights to distinguish friend from foe, so they had no choice but to dismount and camp near the village.
Before dawn broke, Hiro nudged his girls awake, rousing them for the raid.
The knights then swarmed into the small village. Like kicking a hornet's nest, the Latvin soldiers scrambled for their weapons. But without armor and horses, they couldn't withstand the onslaught of Litmus' knights, who came at them like waves.
In mere hours, Marissa's village was freed, and hundreds of Latvin soldiers were captured.
"Good work, everyone. We have triumphed!" the knight commander cheered as rows and rows of Latvin soldiers were lined up as prisoners.
"Yay!!" Cecile and Nana also cheered as they enjoyed the roasted pork presented to them.
The knights partied until late at night before settling in the village, taking over some of the homes to rest for the night.
Meanwhile, Cecile's group was called to Marissa's manor.
"Alright! Good work, Cecile, Nana, and Rebecca. We took over the village without much opposition. Now, we shall focus on reinforcing the village. The reason we called you here is because Hiro is a production-type symbiote, right?"
"Um… yes. He can dismantle their swords and turn them into ingots. But will that be helpful?"
"Um… that's not what we were looking for. We were wondering whether he could help us speed up the fortification of this village."
"And how is Hiro going to do that?"
"Can he carve stone? Or turn dirt into bricks?" the knights asked.
"Hiro?" Rebecca summoned Hiro, and he nodded. Bricks were made using clay—if he sucked out all the moisture, technically he could make something similar. With his new water storage, he could make it work.
"Great! We shall begin work tomorrow morning," the commander applauded.
"We only stayed here for a few months, but it really does feel like home, doesn't it?" Rebecca giggled as they stayed in Marissa's former house.
Hiro had been testing his new skill, Water Storage. As expected, he could now draw water from his host or from the environment. However, he could not inject it directly into his host like an IV; he needed to feed them manually.
Hiro nudged his girls, hugging them like a body pillow while occasionally embracing their warm bodies. He didn't do anything more because he knew that tomorrow, he would be busy making bricks.
However, he never got the chance to show his prowess—as Latvin counterattacked them.
"Their reinforcements have come! We should flee!"
"Damn it! I should have planned around guerrilla tactics instead of fortification and walls," the commander cursed. "Everyone! Retreat!"
"What are we going to do with the prisoners?"
"Leave them. We only have fifty men, and they have over two thousand coming here."
"We should kill these bandits!" one soldier suggested. But the commanding officer refused.
"Let's leave. We are not like them." The commander climbed onto his horse. "Destroy their supplies and bring all their weapons. That's the least we could do."
"Yes, sir!"
Hiro sighed as they didn't gain much during this raid. Sure, they had won the battle, but seeing most of the enemy soldiers return unharmed certainly didn't put him in a good mood. Hiro wondered whether he should leave one core behind to finish them, but ultimately went against it.
The knights arrived at Quantora Village at noon and reported the news back.
"You should have killed them!" several officials groaned.
"That's against the chivalry code," the commander answered.
"He is correct. We are not like them. We do not kill an unarmed enemy. Let's be satisfied, At the very least, we have destroyed their supplies. There's not much we can do against an army of two thousand with merely fifty knights. So, Commander, they'll come here, right? How do you think we should fortify our village?" The General nodded.
No war crime here, huh? Hiro sighed at the realization of how the war here was conducted, but letting those prisoners free certainly put him in a bad mood. He wanted to do more.
"We should make a second wall, or maybe we should make the wall higher," the commander said.
"Do you know how much each stone costs? We don't have time to transport the bricks here!" a finance minister beside Marissa complained.
"We have Hiro. He said he can make some bricks from dirt," the knights answered.
"Ugh… but he's busy extracting iron ingots. That's more important! The blacksmith will use those ingots to make your weapons. Besides, can he really make a better wall in a few days?" The General said.
Hiro shook his tentacle. If he had several months, he probably could do something. But he certainly couldn't do it if it was only a few days. He could make bricks, but who will plaster them on the wall? Who will gather the clay and dirt? Bricks from clay are fragile without cement. If they wanted to make them from stone, who would gather the stone from the quarry?
"Well… I guess you have a point. But we need to do something."
"It doesn't matter. Once Lord Seraphine gets here, he'll drive these Latvin scum away," The General sighed. The knights paused for a moment, then nodded.
"Well, when will he get here?"
"Two or three days at the latest. He'll bring about two thousand soldiers with him. If Latvin only has two thousand reinforcements, plus two or three hundred freed prisoners, we can easily get rid of them," the General said confidently. "Your job now was to delay them."
"Commander, can we hold out for two or three days?"
"We shall do our best to delay them." The commander gave a salute. "We have horses. We have speed. I don't think we should defend the town—how about guerrilla tactics?"
"On it then," The General nodded.
Marissa, unaccustomed to war, stood aside like a wallflower. She could only sigh as the war progressed beyond her control.
Once again, Cecile's team was chosen to accompany the knights for their guerrilla war. The team of four dozen knights marched in the dead of night toward Marissa's village.
"Ugh… they've built watchtowers and fences. We won't be able to attack them at dawn anymore," Cecile groaned. The commander also sighed.
"Our objective is to delay them. We don't need to win or liberate the village. We should try to locate their supplies first. Armies without supplies are dead armies," the commander said.
"The supplies are obviously inside the village. Their supply lines would be in the forest. We couldn't possibly reach them. Even if we took the long detour, it would be difficult to maneuver through the forest with our knights and horses," Rebecca rolled her eyes. The basic strategy was there, but these commanders had never fought wars against humans before.
"Then what should we do? Lie here doing nothing?"
"Maybe that's the correct decision. There's a forest next to Quantora Village. If we can plant traps there, we might be able to delay them," Nana said. As a hunter, she had made simple traps.
"Yes, you're correct. We're not here to take the village, but to delay them. Good thinking!" the commander nodded. Hiro looked at him as if he were a curious creature. On one hand, he lamented this substandard commander, but on the other, he praised his ability to take advice—even if it came from women and former adventurers.
"Hiro," Cecile called. Hiro then began to slither. By taking nutrients from the trees, he turned his tentacles into shovels for the men to dig holes around the forest.
"Alright. Five of you, watch over the village. Report back if anything happens. The rest, use your swords and daggers to make traps. we need stakes, lots of them."
And so, they began scouring through the forest. The group immediately split further. Some kept making spikes while others kept digging holes with Hiro's shovel. They worked through the night making short pitfall traps. The traps were designed to wound their legs, not kill the enemy. With wounded allies, the commander hoped it would delay the army from reaching Quantora before Seraphine arrived.
"Argh!!" A knight was speared in the leg as he fell into a trap—one set by another group.
"I told you we needed to put markings…" one of the soldiers complained.
"We're fighting against humans, not monsters or wild animals. We can't mark the traps… Besides, we have Hiro," the commander answered.
Hiro slithered silently from Rebecca to the injured knight. Using his tentacle, he extracted the spikes and mended the leg. Hiro sighed this was the third time the knights fell for their own traps. They worked fast, but they certainly weren't used to this.
"Thank you," the soldier groaned as the wound was treated.
"Alright. I think this area is good enough," the commander said. "Move on to the next one."
"Ugh… what if they take another path…" Rebecca said, feeling their efforts might be wasted.
"We simply need to do our best. If they take another way, then Lord Seraphine will have already arrived in Quantora Village. There's nothing to worry about then."
The knights continued working through the night, unaware of the dangers they would soon face.