Militiamen like Pompa and Osa never took these children seriously. They secretly talked about Xiao Chen's arrangement of these burdens to their village.
Some even felt that this arrangement had hindered the fighting power of their village. But after Umeda took this opportunity to let them see the power of magic, everyone's attitude changed almost instantly.
Those militia soldiers all came to the little wizards with great interest, hoping to get one or two magical blessings from them.
In addition to hoping to complete the task of clearing the countryside faster, more people want to experience something they have never seen before.
When they helped some militiamen who had skin injuries while logging and working, their popularity went up a notch. At first, although Ji Yijun and others had introduced these mages as being able to prevent and treat plagues such as blackwater disease, the locals had never seen the horror of such plagues and had no idea of the mages' abilities. But today, although Mei Tiantian and others demonstrated some basic magic, they helped them and did something that they could not imagine at other times.
Ji Yijun looked at Mei Tiantian and others who were not well received at first, and now were surrounded by the militia like stars. He sighed and said, "This girl, at such a young age, is so good at manipulating people's hearts. She made the militia who looked down on her in the past obey her in a few moves. She will be amazing when she grows up."
Pompa said: "But this is also a good thing. At least the militia should have more confidence in our strength."
According to the original plan, it would take two days to cut down all the trees outside the city wall and clear enough space. But after Umeda's move, the militia's work efficiency increased exponentially. They worked hard for an afternoon and basically cleared the surrounding area.
The sun was about to set. Osa, five militiamen, and Umeda and his group arrived at the last area where trees gathered. As long as they cut down all of them, the area around the stone wall would be completely cleared.
When Mei Tiantian was about to cast a corrosion spell, her heart tightened and she instinctively leaned to the side. A sharp arrow grazed her cheek and was directly nailed to the tree.
There were a few short roars coming from the side, and four or five arrows pierced the bodies of Osa and other militiamen.
Fortunately, in order to prevent the recoil of the axe from injuring their bodies, Umeda and others had cast toughness magic on these militiamen.
One of the arrows shot by the attackers pierced the throat of a militiaman, killing him unfortunately. The other arrows hit the militiamen but were caught by their magically strengthened muscles and failed to penetrate deeply and injure their internal organs.
At this time, everyone else finally reacted, and Osa shouted loudly: "Enemy attack!"
He took the axe for chopping trees in his hand and swung it twice. The others finally understood what was happening. They took the tools as weapons, crouched down, and began to look for the source of the enemy.
Maybe the arrow attack was too sudden, Wu Zibin and his men's performance was disappointing. Some of them cast spells randomly without a target, while others ran around looking for cover but didn't know how to fight the enemy calmly.
Even Mei Tiantian felt her heartbeat speed up wildly, and cold sweat fell from her forehead. No matter how high her level was, how calm she was at ordinary times, and even she had fought with Chang Lin before, she still panicked when she encountered such a sudden attack.
For the first time, Mei Tiantian shouted loudly in front of them: "Calm down, calm down! The enemy is coming from the west, we... we must do a good job of defending in that direction. Ah!"
She dodged here and there in a panic. An arrow was shot in front of her and almost hit her calf.
At the critical moment, she was grabbed by the waist and lifted up. It turned out that Osa ignored the arrows and used his body to protect her. He picked her up and rushed behind the cover.
The militia companions also picked up several other children and rushed to where they could hide.
While they were running, the enemy archers did not let them go, and in the panic, Umeda saw at least three arrows shot at Osa.
Osa held her and rushed behind a rock. When he put Umeda down, he groaned in pain. Umeda looked and saw that there were four arrows stuck in his back and one arrow also hit his left arm while he was holding her.
"You seem to be seriously injured! Let me heal you." She reached out to the arrow in his arm.
"Don't pull it out, it will cause more bleeding." Osa stopped her, "It's too late now, look, they are coming towards us."
Mei Tiantian poked his head out slightly and saw that the arrows were shot from the woods not far away. Seeing that they had found cover here, six or seven enemies walked out of the woods while shooting.
She realized that these people were not ordinary soldiers, almost all of them had fighting spirit and bloodline. This was a typical team of masters, most of whom should be low-level fighters. The one in the lead looked the most imposing and seemed to be much more powerful than the others, maybe even a high-level one!
"Little magician, these people are very skilled. The platoon leader and Chief Ji are still at the other end of the village. It will take some time for them to come over, but they are about to charge over here. Can... can your magic deal with them?"
Mei Tiantian's hand holding the stone trembled slightly. She said: "If someone can hold them back, I will have time to cast a spell. Otherwise, if they come at me together, I won't be able to deal with so many people at once. Unless they help me together, but..."
She looked around in panic and saw that her companions were all running and hiding with the militiamen, and they didn't look like they could fight back at all.
"Is that so?" Osa hesitated for a second or two, then spoke again, "Let me hold them back."
"You, you are just an ordinary soldier. Any one of these people can kill you." Umeda stammered.
"You can't escape, little wizard, you have to avenge me." Osa couldn't give much reason. Before Mei Tiantian could say anything else, he grabbed the axe and rushed out from the stone.
"Wait a minute, you will die!!" Mei Tiantian shouted.
"But you are just kids!" Osa said without turning his head.
"Wait a minute, magic!" Mei Tiantian found that she had lost all her calmness. She had no choice but to cast a Stoneskin spell on Osa to defend against melee damage, and then a Wind Shield spell to defend against ranged attacks. Then she began to quickly calculate what spell to use to deal with the enemy approaching Osa.
Ice spear? Fireball? Or mental magic? She was thinking about the spells one by one in her mind, and even forgot to protect herself. (To be continued)