Thursma

The line of sight returned to the inn. The assassins upstairs had suffered heavy losses under the surprise attack by the elf knight and could no longer pose a threat. It was estimated they would be dealt with soon.

The fight downstairs, however, had run into trouble. Without armor protection, Ronan had to carefully dodge the enemy's attacks. Furthermore, once their identities were revealed, the remaining orcs no longer concealed themselves. Tearing off their black robes, they became even more ferocious.

Most importantly, Guldan could no longer hold back. His original plan was to hide and launch a surprise attack, just as he had defeated Knight Warren. But the current situation left him no choice but to act.

Although he didn't know what was happening upstairs, the fact that Ronan and the others had enough energy to come downstairs to resist them, coupled with the screams constantly coming from above, indicated that the situation was not optimistic.

Ronan, who was using an enemy's arm as a shield by clamping it and using their body, suddenly felt a pang of dread. Without time to think, he directly used the enemy in his hands as a shield in front of him.

There was a scream and a splattering sound. The enemy Ronan used as a shield was hit by an acid, which corroded a large portion of his black robe. The leather armor underneath offered little resistance before being pierced. The acid landed on his skin, emitting white smoke, and soon corroded the unfortunate fellow down to the bone.

Ronan's eyelids twitched, and he loudly shouted to the Nords around him:

"Careful, there's a mage!"

As soon as Ronan finished shouting, a Nord guard, who had just knocked an enemy down with his shield and was preparing for the finishing blow, was sent flying backward by a shockwave, incidentally knocking a comrade behind him back a few steps.

After Guldan made his move, Ronan and the others quickly fell into a disadvantage. They had to divert a significant amount of attention to defend against Guldan's spells. Ronan, in his haste to dodge the acid, was grazed on his left forearm by a longsword, but the wound was not deep.

The Nord formation was very skilled. They defended each other and reminded each other. Although they were hesitant to inflict damage on the black robes, they also prevented the black robes from breaking through their defenses.

Guldan was also anxious. Time was limited. Whether the pirates escaped or were captured, the Whiteport Guard would quickly discover the situation here.

But anxiety was of no use. After all, his studies were short, and his talent was mediocre. His magic power was not profound, and most of the spells he learned were functional spells. His offensive spells were only air cannon and acid splash.

Functional spells like Soul Search had helped him and Lase solve many problems, but they were useless in this situation. He also couldn't cast Blood Burn Technique on the orcs beside him, as they were his last subordinates. The others were merely hired mercenaries and assassins who did not obey him.

Casting Blood Burn Technique meant certain death. Even if he could defeat these enemies, without strong physical fitness and his subordinates, he would not be able to take away the target. As for the soldiers of other races who had fled after the Battle of Ravenwood Town, they had all returned to Moran after Lase's death, and Guldan could not command them.

The screams from upstairs had stopped. Guldan knew that the situation was unfavorable and had already begun to consider retreating. After urging the mercenaries beside him to charge again, Guldan quietly withdrew from the inn with the help of a few orc warriors.

As the soldiers and elf knights who had resolved the battle upstairs came downstairs, the battle had already reached its conclusion. Only a portion of the black-robed mercenaries fled the inn in disarray; the rest had become corpses on the ground. Ronan and the others did not pursue them.

Almost all of Ronan's subordinates were injured, but under mutual protection and cooperation, no one had died. However, some individuals' injuries would require a period of rest and prevent them from participating in combat.

The battle ended. Belicha found the trembling innkeeper and his employees hiding in a room, gave them five gold coins as compensation for the damage, and then had them serve some wine and food.

The less seriously injured soldiers piled the corpses in a corner, while the more seriously injured tended to each other's wounds. Fortunately, Ronan still had plenty of healing medicine from the system.

Ronan, Belicha, and Thursma sat at a table, staring at each other. Daisy was on the side, helping Ronan apply medicine and bandage his wounds.

"It seems you still have many things you're hiding from me, Belicha. Who is this handsome young man?" Ronan said, looking at Thursma, who was sitting beside him wearing emerald green armor.

"I am Thursma Phantom Feather, Captain of the Third Detachment of the Sinterland Royal Guard. I've been ordered to escort Her Highness the Princess home." Before Belicha could speak, Thursma answered first.

"Her Highness the Princess?" Although Ronan already knew, Daisy was right beside him, so he had to pretend. However, he was immediately pinched hard. Ronan turned and looked at Daisy with an innocent expression, as if to say, "Why are you pinching me?"

"Stop pretending. Uncle Belicha told me everything upstairs just now, about Mother and about Ravenwood Town."

Seeing the sadness in Daisy's eyes, Ronan reached out his right hand and held Daisy's hands, which were bandaging him, and smiled at her gently.

"I'll help you!" Daisy responded with a forced smile.

Thursma, seeing this scene, raised his eyebrows twice but remained silent under Belicha's gaze.

"Captain Thursma had actually caught up to us earlier, but considering various factors, I didn't let him show himself. Instead, I had them hide near us. We have a special way of communicating, so it's normal that you didn't notice."

"If the Moran side makes any further moves, tonight and tomorrow when we leave Whiteport will be the last opportunity. Once we enter Sinterland territory, they won't succeed. Therefore, I predicted they would make a final push in these two days, and that's why I had Captain Thursma stay next to us. I didn't expect my guess to be so accurate."

"If that's the case, why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"We were likely being monitored after entering the city. I had intended to capture the enemy commander alive. If we had appeared prepared, they might have become wary and not acted. I just didn't expect the enemy to be so cunning, always hiding in the middle of the group, and slipping away when they saw the situation turning unfavorable."

"Then what should we do when we leave the city tomorrow?"

"Judging by tonight's attack, this should be their last remaining strength. They should not have the energy to attack us when we leave tomorrow, but we still need to be careful."

Ronan remained silent, but he was still somewhat angry, after all, Belicha had kept many things from him. Tonight, a slight misstep could have resulted in casualties. However, based on his experiences during this period, Belicha definitely had more than just this to rely on. Moreover, Ronan realized that most people in this world didn't care much about death, especially the lives of soldiers.

To achieve their goals, they didn't care about sacrifices. Ronan had not yet adapted to this, but he would probably become numb over time. Weren't all the ambitious figures in history from his previous life like this?