If they had followed the plan they had originally agreed on in the group chat.
To thoroughly enrage Winterhold's leadership, only one or two members of the knight squad sent to Fog Town could be allowed to return alive with the news. The Cultists had to kill every other knight!
And carrying out that plan perfectly.
Would not actually have been difficult for Ma Lou and the other three.
All they had to do was pretend their legs had gone weak with fear and refuse to climb onto the horses.
Or pretend to fall off their horses during the escape, then roll around in the mud, wailing.
With Kairils's personality, he would never abandon them.
Once the warhorses were slowed down, Lao Lu and [God Never Laughs], both still at full strength, could close in from behind with dozens of fanatical Cultists.
They could definitely use the chaos to claim another batch of Winterhold Knights' heads!
But...
An inexplicable unease stirred in Ma Lou's heart.
It was not frustration over a failed scheme, but a sense of guilt that seemed almost out of place in a player.
Kairils was certainly a stubborn NPC, with a temperament as foul and cold as a block of ice.
But during that almost hopeless battle against encirclement, he had stood at the front with nothing but a Long Halberd and weathered every attack.
Even at the critical moment when the tide turned and the entire knight squad had to flee in disgrace.
His first instinct had still been to keep the four "rural refugees" safely protected in the very center of the formation.
In this brutal Wasteland filled with betrayal, parasitism, and flying flesh and blood.
Such almost foolish integrity and dedication were like a glaring steel needle, stabbing unexpectedly into the players' hearts.