The battle between Liam and Felix, if one could call it that, to begin with, ended in an instant.
Felix had run straight toward Liam, whose upper body had leaned back just for his leg to flick up the moment Felix was about to reach for Liam's shoulders.
The moment Felix's head was pushed upward, Liam jerked forward to press the battle-axe's blade against his neck.
Everyone stared blankly at the two combatants. There was almost nobody in the city who didn't know Felix or was oblivious to his strength. Thus, it was an even bigger surprise to see how easily he had been defeated, especially after Felix's speed had increased so suddenly.
"I hope that you can create a strong defense in the gym. Did you consider turning it into a fortress?" Liam asked nonchalantly as he reached forward with his free hand.
He retracted the battle axe and acted as if the fight between them had never happened.
"Huh? What?" Felix responded barely. His mind was still shut off after realization struck him. He had been defeated in the blink of an eye, seemingly effortlessly!
Liam looked at Felix and reconsidered something for a moment before he sighed deeply.
'Should I rest for a bit, or go out and pull more Natives into the gymnasium?...Will the system count them as the people I saved here, to begin with? Probably not…I didn't really do much to save the Natives who were already inside, to begin with. If all those I saved personally are added by the system, I should have saved enough to finish the mission…but they might not survive until the rain stops. It might continue to rain for a few days, after all…so securing the gym is the most important…I guess?'
Liam's mind was rattling. He wanted to receive the additional rewards of his customized mission. To achieve that he had to protect as many Natives as possible.
"If you want to become stronger you should think about turning the gymnasium into your first hideout, or even a fortress. I will seal the entrances to make sure nobody will be able to enter the gymnasium unnoticed. Will you help, or are you playing to stay here like these hoodlums?" Liam asked, changing his question a little as he pointed at the idiotic young athlete who had pointed his sword at him before.
The young athlete was just about to grumble or snap at him when he began to shudder. He recalled how Liam had defeated him and Felix without breaking a sweat.
It was obvious that Liam was different from them…he was dangerous, far more dangerous than they assumed him to be!
Felix got up from the ground, his eyes warily staring at Liam. He couldn't help but feel overwhelmed since he had never expected someone to be able to defeat him after his powerful Soultrait had awoken.
For a while, he had also daydreamt of becoming one of the superhuman existences that were only known in movies, and webnovels. Liam had barely attacked him but his simple move had jolted Felix back to reality, whether he liked it or not.
"I will come with you…" He mumbled while trying to force a smile on his face. Liam nodded in response before he averted his attention to the surrounding area.
"How many people listen to you?" Liam asked when he saw the rugby goalposts of the three rugby fields. Many people were spread all over the football fields but none of them seemed capable enough to start fighting with their lives on the line. At most, the athletes and a few loners could fit his requirement.
"How many do you need?" Felix countered the question with another one.
"Enough to disassemble the rugby goalpost, carry them to the entrances in the outer layer, and block them off. I would also need a bunch of people who're willing to actually fight. Using monster corpses to block the main entrances will be quite helpful as well. Everyone needs to learn how to fight in order to survive in the Arcane Apocalypse sooner or later, either way!" Liam answered before he thought of something else as well.
"If you know where other furniture or sport equipment can be found, it would be good to use that as well to seal the entrances. As long as the doors are closed and several meters of a blockade erected, monsters would have a hard time paving their way through everything. Not even Elite Ratatuo are intelligent enough to force their way to the inner ring of the gymnasium if we put up a lot of difficult obstacles."
Once Liam finished speaking, he noticed that he was looked at weirdly. This was not actually something new for him so he didn't bother about the gazes and turned around when he heard Kian's voice from behind.
"How do you know that not even the Elite Ratatuo are intelligent enough to think about creating a pathway through the blockade you've been talking about? Did you analyze the intelligence of the rats that quickly?" Kian's voice was filled with surprise. He didn't seem suspicious of Liam but rather baffled to think how someone as intelligent as Liam could end up by their side.
It was as if their guardian angel had descended in the form of their mysterious savior, Liam. That was, at least, how Kian felt at this very moment.
However, Liam also noticed that many grew suspicious of him after hearing him. Nobody really knew him and it was not as if his mask made him look like a friendly and trustworthy person. The only reason why nobody chose to confront him was that Liam was evidently trying to help them.
One had to be blind, deaf, and stupid not to understand that Liam's words and actions were a clear indicator of what he wanted to achieve-safeguarding them, though nobody understood why he was going to such lengths to save them.
"The ordinary huge rats are merely normal rats, the Blazing Tooth Rats feel like mutations of ordinary rats while the Elite Ratatuo is more like advanced evolutions. When I fought it, I could clearly tell that it wasn't adept at using special tactics to fight, but that it relied on it's bestial instincts to fight," Liam explained nonetheless. He didn't know how long it would rain, which meant that he could hardly allow anyone to push him away even if that would make things a lot easier.
His explanation wasn't anything special but it was enough to disperse the suspicion of most people.
Felix didn't think much about it and nodded his head before he looked at the condition of Liam and the students behind him.
"You and your people should rest for a bit while I will gather everyone who is willing to have a rendezvous with some rats in the rain!"