A Sudden Attack

As night deepened, dark clouds obscured the bright moonlight in the gloomy sky. In the pitch-black darkness, it felt as if terrifying monsters lurked nearby, instilling an ancient fear.

A biting cold wind swept across the desolate land, making the leaping bonfire dance and cast grotesque, clawing shadows on the ground. The merchants huddled around the fire, whispering about the terrifying sights they had witnessed during the day, while some timid laborers shivered nearby.

The events of the day had undeniably affected the caravan. After a careless guard let slip a word, everyone in the caravan gradually learned of the orc threat. The entire caravan was now in a state of panic. Fortunately, the presence of the guard team and mercenaries largely reassured the people, preventing them from losing their minds in despair.

"Jelona, how are things?" the dwarf shield-bearer asked, downing a pot of mead, as he questioned the half-elf ranger who was maintaining her bow and arrows nearby.

Jelona frowned slightly and hesitated before replying, "Things aren't good. I found traces of orcs on the trade route. The footprints are still fresh, so they can't be far from us. We need to be careful tonight."

"I'll go set up a few more warning traps and scout the surroundings again. I'll leave the second half of the night watch to you, Kasla."

"No problem, leave it to me! You go ahead with peace of mind." the dwarf promised heartily.

The agile half-elf picked up her longbow and rose from the campfire. The dwarf shield-bearer glanced at the barbarian still snoring loudly in his sleep, shook his head, added more wood to the fire, and gazed into the inky night, lost in thought.

After another hour, the desolate plain under the dark night was silent. Only the occasional "crackling" sound came from the burning bonfire, and the dwarf's rugged face flickered in the dim firelight.

"Whoosh!" Suddenly, a sharp, piercing sound shattered the night's tranquility. The dwarf looked up abruptly and saw a bright flaming arrow streak across the sky in the distance.

"Damn it, it's Jelona's warning arrow! They must have encountered enemies!" The dwarf was shocked and immediately punched the sleeping barbarian Arata awake, shouting in his booming voice, "Enemy attack! Enemies are here!"

The entire caravan erupted in commotion, with noisy shouts echoing everywhere. The guards lit their torches, grabbed their weapons, and emerged from the caravan, nervously watching the direction from which the sound came.

Suddenly, a slender, agile figure rushed towards the caravan from the darkness ahead. The guards immediately aimed their crossbows at the unknown enemy.

"Hold your fire! That's Jelona, she's back from her patrol. She was the one who sounded the alarm!" The dwarf, seeing the situation, immediately shouted, fearing Jelona might be mistaken for an enemy.

Hearing this, the guards relaxed and lowered their bows and crossbows, looking at the beautiful half-elf ranger sprinting towards them.

Seeing the ranger return unharmed, with no signs of injury, the dwarf breathed a sigh of relief and quickly asked Jelona what had happened.

Jelona's expression was serious. She glanced at her companions and the nervous guards around her, then said solemnly, "A pack of orc wolf riders is heading this way. They probably discovered the caravan and followed our tracks. I came back to warn everyone as soon as I spotted them. Everyone, prepare for battle."

As soon as Jelona finished explaining, a group of figures riding direwolves appeared at the edge of the distant plain.

"Prepare for battle!" the dwarf's booming voice echoed over the caravan.

"Waaagh! Another human caravan! Gruumsh bless us, crush them!" The leading orc captain, seeing the panicked caravan before him, bared a cruel grin on his ugly, ferocious face. He then shook his reins and led his troop in a charge.

As the orc cavalry charged, a brutal, killing aura swept over them.

The caravan guards immediately fired their crossbows at the orcs, but the orcs paid no heed to the bolts. Even when hit, they showed no signs of stopping, charging ferociously towards the hastily formed defensive line of the guards and swinging their jagged longswords. Occasionally, a few unfortunate orcs were hit in vital spots and fell from their mounts, but the orcs charged forward as if they hadn't noticed.

"Get behind me!" the dwarf roared, raising his man-sized shield to block the orc charge. The stout dwarf held his shield in one hand and a cast-iron warhammer in the other, smashing it towards the hindquarters of a direwolf.

The barbarian, slowly regaining consciousness from the blow, roared and charged forward with his oversized greatsword. With a swing of the massive blade, several orcs were instantly bisected, sending flesh and blood flying. The orcs' charge faltered for a moment, but then more orcs roared and charged forward even more fiercely.

Facing the fierce onslaught of the orcs, the burly barbarian braced himself, but still sustained several wounds. The barbarian roared in anger, his body instantly growing a size larger, a ferocious red glint appearing in his eyes. He charged forward wildly, swinging his greatsword with great power. In this critical moment, Arata directly unleashed his berserker rage.

"Careful!" Jelona cried out, warning her companion, and simultaneously fired a rapid shot towards Arata's back.

With a "ding," the speeding arrow was blocked by a sharp dagger. Only then did Arata realize that a slender orc rogue had stealthily appeared behind him. He roared and swung his greatsword at the rogue.

The orc rogue glared hatefully at the ranger in the distance, nimbly dodged the whistling blade, and with a few leaps and bounds, disappeared back into the darkness.

But at that moment, a spell of dancing light illuminated above the orc rogue's head. Soft, bright light radiated from the top of the rogue's head, illuminating the surroundings. The bewildered rogue instantly became the brightest target on the battlefield. Jelona reacted instantly and immediately nocked three arrows, firing them rapidly at the disoriented rogue. The caravan guards also followed suit, shooting their crossbows towards the brightest light source on the field.

Despite his agile movements, the rogue, after blocking three crossbow bolts, was ultimately killed by the concentrated fire.

At this point, Ryan frowned, observing the unfavorable situation on the battlefield. As soon as the warning arrow sounded, Ryan had woken up. Feeling that his magical wards had not been triggered, Ryan knew the enemy was still some distance away, so he quickly tidied himself up and left his carriage.

After observing for a while using invisibility and a floating spell eye, Ryan hadn't found a good opportunity to enter the fray. It wasn't until he discovered the hidden orc rogue that he used a simple magical trick, a light spell, to eliminate a dangerous intermediate-level rogue.

Around the caravan, shouts of killing and the clash of swords filled the air. The orcs were aggressive, but fortunately, the caravan had received a warning and hastily constructed a defensive net. The guards had shot down some orcs with their bows and crossbows. The sturdy dwarf shield-bearer had immediately stepped forward to engage the orc leader in a fierce battle. With the barbarian charging in to draw the orcs' attention, their assault was effectively contained.

However, the vast gap between the ferocious, bloodthirsty orc warriors and the caravan guards could not be bridged by superior equipment. The guards were either wounded or dead, and the caravan's defense relied entirely on the half-elf ranger filling in the gaps, making the entire situation precarious.

With a standard casting gesture, Ryan cast a fly spell and soared into the sky, releasing magic missiles recorded in his spellbook. Three pale blue magic missiles flew from his hands, hitting and detonating the heads of three orc warriors engaged in combat at peculiar angles. Ryan then cast a grease spell on the area where the orcs were gathered. The violently moving orcs immediately stumbled and fell, and the ranger Jelona, seizing the opportunity, took the lives of several orcs.

"It's a spellcaster! Quick, archers, take him down!" The orc captain, witnessing all this, roared with rage, ordering the orc archers to eliminate Ryan in the sky.

The orc archers, who were confronting and engaging Jelona, looked up at Ryan in the sky and grinned ferociously. They had never seen such a foolish spellcaster, willing to risk his life for attention. He was a perfect aerial target.

With powerful arms, they drew their bowstrings, and sharp arrows shot towards Ryan. However, the whistling arrows passed directly through Ryan's figure. The smiles on the orc archers' faces froze. "Damn it, it's a mirror image."

Just as the archers were regretting their actions, a basketball-sized fireball, burning fiercely, was launched from behind them. With a deafening roar, a large crater appeared on the ground, and rolling heat waves spread out. The orc archers in their original positions were instantly reduced to ashes.

Simultaneously, scattered sparks ignited the oil residue from the grease spell on the ground, and the flames instantly spread to the orc warriors still within the grease spell's area, causing chaos among the orc ranks.

Ryan used invisibility again to conceal his figure and retreated from his original position towards the edge of the battlefield. He smiled and muttered to himself, "Who says mages can't take the sniper's position? I shoot and move, I'm the legendary ace sniper. Come at me, little brothers."

The mage's intervention directly changed the tide of the battle. As the flames spread, the orcs gradually discovered that the fire on their bodies could not be extinguished, and they rolled on the ground, howling in agony.

(Ryan had specifically improved the grease spell's model, reducing the friction coefficient of the oil while increasing its flammability and adhesion. The third version of the grease spell could now achieve the effect of "Greek Fire" on Earth.)

With the complete demise of the orc archers, the half-elf ranger was completely freed up. She began to pick off orcs on the battlefield one by one with her superb archery skills, while Ryan assisted from the side, using his simplified magic missiles to eliminate orcs.

Seeing the situation deteriorate completely and his troop suffer heavy casualties, the orc captain, still entangled with the dwarf, roared in hatred and ordered a retreat. With a powerful, heavy blow, he forced the dwarf back, cast an angry, hateful glance at the caravan in the firelight, and then turned his direwolf and fled.

Ryan watched the three or four orc knights who ultimately escaped the battlefield. He said to the mercenary trio who had come to his side, "We must eliminate all threats. I'll go finish them off."

Orcs typically operated in small squads. If these few remnants were allowed to return to their tribe and report, given the orcs' vengeful nature, the caravan would likely spend its remaining days in constant fear and orc attacks.

To avoid such a perilous situation, Ryan, relying on his courage and hidden trump cards, decisively chose to cut the weeds and remove the roots.

The handsome half-elf ranger wiped the dirt from his face and said to his companion, "I'll help him." He then summoned his animal companion, a swift black panther, and mounted it, giving chase.