As Extraordinary Ones of the Second Tier, Liens and his companions naturally traveled quickly, and after a long journey, the six of them finally arrived at Patridge City at noon.

However, before they even entered the city, they saw others at the construction site outside, which was bustling with activity.

"You're back, how was it?"

Balder put down his shovel, patted the dust off his body, and asked Liens and the others.

"Liens's sword strike destroyed Baker City's city-protecting ritual and caused a large-scale collapse of the city walls. Sera and I observed it; it will be very difficult for them to repair the ritual in a short time."

"Additionally, in this surprise attack, we gravely wounded an enemy Great Knight and caused nearly a thousand casualties among the enemy."

"The damage to the city-protecting ritual and the large number of casualties should buy us some more time, but we still cannot be sure what action Liens will take next."

"It's also possible he will disregard Baker City's condition and directly send troops, or he might adopt the same tactics as us."

Lucrezia briefly explained the results of their operation and predicted the enemy's possible actions.

"Indeed, it's very likely to happen. If we can carry out a surprise attack, Liens naturally can too."

The others nodded in agreement with Lucrezia's speculation.

Single-person or elite small-team surprise attacks on enemy positions are not uncommon strategies in war; on the contrary, in a world where individual strengths vary greatly, this method might even be the orthodox approach.

"If that's the case, then we must be prepared to face Liens's surprise attack."

"However, we cannot throw out the baby with the bathwater… Lucrezia, please go set up some warning magic in the outer perimeter."

"If Liens truly comes, we can be alerted in advance and won't be caught off guard."

Balder turned to Lucrezia and requested.

Although they couldn't defeat Alfred, they weren't completely powerless to resist. Moreover, compared to the other side, they at least had an advantage: they had more people.

More people meant they could arrange sufficient forces in various areas, allowing them to hold out until others arrived as reinforcements in case of a surprise attack.

"I'll go too… I can serve as a certain standard for judgment. If the warning magic cannot escape my perception, then it would probably be difficult for it to work against Liens."

Liens also took on the task of being a test subject.

"Hmm."

Balder nodded.

Subsequently, Liens and Lucrezia, who had taken on the task, did not waste time and immediately turned to walk towards the outer perimeter of the construction site.

After the two left, Balder continued to say to the others, "The rest of you, don't be idle. Let's all work together and quickly build the Outer City defense line."

"Sera, check if the pits we dug are correct?"

"With you few mages not present, and only us brutes here, we don't even know if the placement of the protective ritual is correct?"

Balder took out the construction blueprint and spread it on the ground. From the blueprint, it could be seen that the so-called 'Outer City defense line' was to build an Outer City surrounding Patridge City.

As for why not directly use Patridge City as a defense line, but instead build such an Outer City separately?

It's simple: it couldn't accommodate them.

Patridge City was only considered an ordinary city in the Hartwin Kingdom. Before the war, the combined permanent and floating population was at most 100,000, which was already quite crowded.

If the entire Rebel Army was added, there simply wasn't much space to accommodate nearly 200,000 people.

Therefore, building an Outer City was necessary.

Moreover, after the Outer City is built, it can also minimize attacks from the battlefield falling into the city, endangering the Life and property safety of ordinary citizens.

Sera carefully looked at the blueprint, then scanned the surrounding construction site, and nodded, saying:

"This side is fine… as long as it's not too off, there generally won't be a problem. The ritual will be fine-tuned according to the environment at the time of placement."

"Since there's no problem, let's continue working."

"Um, I'm going back to have lunch with my wife and kids. I'll come back after I eat."

Hearing that he had to do manual labor, Donahue showed an embarrassed smile and then tried to leave like Liens and the other person. However, before he could move, a hand grabbed his shoulder.

"Brother, you can't leave. A Great Knight can at least do the work of hundreds of workers. Many soldiers are already very tired after traveling all day, so it's up to us leaders to take over."

"Besides, lunch time has long passed. I imagine your sister-in-law and niece have already eaten lunch. Just take this bread to fill your stomach."

Saying that, Uria took out a thick loaf of bread from his storage equipment and placed it in Donahue's hand, then pulled out a shovel from who knows where and pressed it into his other hand.

Looking at the bread in one hand and the shovel in the other, Donahue gave a wry smile. He felt that his aristocratic demeanor had completely vanished at this moment.

Having lived for decades, it was his first time picking up a shovel. In the past, such rough work was always done by his subordinates.

On the other side.

While Balder and the others were working hard to build the Outer City defense line, Liens and the other person were not idle either. After discussion, the two decided to set up magic at a pass several miles outside the Outer City defense line.

Although setting up a fully covered warning magic ritual around the Outer City defense line would be the best measure.

However, putting aside whether it could be done, just the sheer workload alone would be difficult for Lucrezia to complete in a short time.

Therefore, choosing a suitable place to set up the magic was an inevitable choice.

At this point, they could only pray for luck, hoping that Alfred would pass through the path where they had set up the magic.

Lucrezia took out some magic stones, inscribed magic arrays on them, then buried these magic stones underground or inside tree trunks, and then infused them with magic power to activate the simple magic ritual.

The magic stones were to provide the energy to maintain the ritual's existence, as Lucrezia couldn't possibly transmit magic power from thousands of meters away.

As magic power was infused, the magic stones buried in various places glowed and connected with each other, outlining a huge magic array.

But soon, the entire magic array quickly faded, like an illusory bubble that vanishes in an instant.

"How is it?"

The ritual was completed, but Lucrezia did not relax. After the magic array disappeared, she turned to Liens beside her and asked.

"I can still feel something unusual, but it's much more subtle than before… Is it the effect of your magic power?"

Liens glanced at the scene in front of them and asked Lucrezia.

"Yes."

"I changed the energy of those magic stones, making them exhibit some dreamlike characteristics."

"This is already the most subtle ritual I can set up at this stage. If it doesn't work, we can only go back and discuss with the others if there are other feasible methods?"

Lucrezia nodded in response.

"No need. I learned a technique at an Adventurers' Association outpost before, which might be useful here."

Liens did not continue to explain what the technique was, but instead directly walked through the ritual Lucrezia had just set up.

Sometimes he would cut down a few trees, or move some large rocks.

Lucrezia followed him, looking at his actions with a bit of confusion, until he stopped. Only then did Lucrezia seem to perceive something, and her brows furrowed slightly.

"Your methods, I truly understand them less and less."

Lucrezia sighed, realizing that she had somehow overlooked the magic ritual she had set up, as if it were already a part of the surrounding environment.

If it weren't for the magic power in the ritual reminding her, she might not have even noticed the existence of a magic ritual here.

"This should be fine here. Let's go to the next place."