They didn't use any technique, didn't activate their spirit bodies, and didn't show anything noticeable about their spirit elements.
She informed everyone and informed William first. The latter was already getting closer to her, only one hour away at most.
What delayed him was to arrange the huge influx of masters following him. He sent out many of his guild's top masters to help in leading others, getting advantage of this chance to deepen the impression everyone had of him.
A true leader shouldn't just win wars, but lead others to win their own battles as well. William tried to do that, and when he learnt about the incoming monster tide, he knew it was the right time to make a bold move.
"Spread out my words, there are two monster tides coming at the city in a few hours from now. I want all the masters following us to return, and I'll keep the guild masters leading and organising their defensive battle to save the city. As for the mysterious force lying up ahead, trust us guys and leave this to the Fox guild to handle."
William instantly spread the news to everyone, and didn't miss taking the chance to show off his guild as the main hero here. He didn't just plan to deal with that mysterious force with his guild only, but he also dispatched lots of strong masters to help others in the upcoming defensive battle.
Once the masters following him heard that, they all got riled up. The news about the mysterious force lying inside such a highly defensive fort already reached their ears. Either by sending scouts up ahead to see what William aimed at, or by asking the masters he sent to organise their colossal numbers and lead them, or by using the spirit sense of the strong masters when they drew closer, they learnt about this and were sure of how hard that battle was.
It wasn't the problem of the masters waiting there, but the tons of traps and defences built. Not to mention the hard rocky terrain inside, the huge size this fort covered, and that trouble-looking trench surrounding the place.
When everyone heard about William's intention to handle all this with his guild, they could only think of one word to describe him: Legend!
As William said, everyone listened. Many offered their services to help him and his guild in taking down that force faster, then return altogether to help in saving the city. But William refused to share such glory with them, and just told them the monster tides weren't a game and they had to take it far more seriously than that.
They finally listened to his words and went back to the city. Even if they marched all this distance for nothing, none was complaining about it. In return, they were all hyped about the incoming monster tide.
The newly joined masters asked the old ones about the last monster tide that hit the city. And they all got shocked when they learnt how fierce and deadly it was. When they heard about how it ended, not by monsters running away but continuing to fight down to the last one of them, they felt something was amiss here.
Yet they were monsters, with all materials and cores any monster would have. As they got no explanation for that, they all thought someone was controlling them, making the monsters advance without showing a single moment of pause or retreat.
They were right, someone did indeed control them, and that was the master who instigated all this from the start.
As they heard everything about the last monster tide, they got why William refused to keep any with him and insisted on sending all of them back. They admired him even further, knowing that he took such a hard decision for the sake of everyone and the city masters.
Few tried to dig into the reasons for all this. It was widely known that this city, alongside the Scorching Lands city, was the two safest spots in the entire world for masters.
Not a single monster was spotted for a long time, not even in the faraway places related to these areas. Not to mention there wasn't a single dark master daring to come here again after what happened here.
No matter how these curious masters tried, the truth was kept hidden from them as no one here knew about it. In the end, they returned back to the city, listened to the words of William's masters, and started to take over defences there.
The city was already vacant of most masters, so they handled everything without an issue. Not to mention the high-end masters left here to handle things out warmly welcomed them.
War was at every corner now, and the entire safety and survival of the city were under questioning. Everyone was too hyped to even think about losing, how could such a huge master army lose?
Yet they were going to face a true challenge when things would turn south. Always the main reason to sunset empires didn't stem from them growing weak, but from internal schemes and conflicts, from treason.
"So… This is the place you mentioned?" When William arrived, he met with his friends. They got informed about his arrival, and followed him using the spirit sense, "it's indeed quite challenging to crush."
They were inside a border forest, just a few hundred of metres away from the trench surrounding that fort. They were slightly elevated than the level of the trench, but much lower than the great mountains and hills standing deeper in the zone.
They were well protected by the trees, but they could only see a few kilometres inside that fort by eyesight. Using spirit sense made it feasible to see deeply inside, but mountains and hills always stood in the way.
William's friends needed lots of time to scan through everything in every mountain and hill. So they decided to take a grand tour around, scan the areas they could easily inspect, plain areas away from the rocky terrain.
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