"You don't look good these days."

On the first floor of the tavern, Elena, who was sitting at the dining table, put a piece of dried salted fish into her mouth with a fork, and the fishy smell that permeated her mouth made her show a disgusted and unpalatable expression, and then looked at Ronan who was sitting opposite and asked.

"Speaking of which, I seem to have faintly heard any movement in your room these past few nights, have you ever gone out at night?"

"Well, sometimes I go to the river beach in the evening to learn about the terrain by the way." Ronan replied as he leaned back in his chair.

His face did look a little pale now.

In the past few days, a total of more than 300 Holy Blood parasites have been dispersed, causing the speed of mana recovery in his body to be halved, which can only reduce the operation efficiency of [Material Activation], thus making his skin closer to the pale of the statue.

Of course, the harvest is not without it

The objects he chose were basically the natives of the Wildfire City port area, most of whom had lost their important relatives in the war, were severely oppressed by the major mercenary groups, and lived in a painful state of death at any time.

As a result, the thirst for power is far beyond that of ordinary people, and the spirituality is in a highly active state, which greatly improves the efficiency of the magic absorption of the Holy Blood parasite.

One serving of Blood Parasite can reserve up to 20 mana.

If these hosts are able to maintain their intense emotional state, it will take about a month to be able to fill the Holy Blood parasite.

And they will continue to be strengthened in the process, gaining strength comparable to that of knights.

That being said, this power comes at an additional cost.

In the process of assisting the host to absorb magical power, the Holy Blood Parasite is equivalent to overdrawing their spirituality, and the physical enhancement does not have Ronan's detailed control, and lacks a step-by-step process, which is also equivalent to overdrawing their future life force.

To put it simply, it is a kryptonite life, using the life span of the next one or two decades in exchange for the strength to become stronger quickly within a month.

This price is obviously nothing to the port residents who will not see the sun the next day.

Accepting this power, they are like grasping the last straw, curling up in the corner of the shadows and accumulating silently, waiting for the day when they will fight back in the future.

However, not everyone had this patience, and Ronan felt that dozens of Holy Blood parasites had returned ahead of schedule.

It is estimated that he suffered an accident, or he couldn't wait for revenge, but he was killed by a mercenary.

Ronan's thoughts turned to Elena in front of him, who was staring at him with a suspicious look.

"Looking at the terrain? It's better really to be, otherwise why not call me along. Elena muttered, her gaze lingering on his bloodless cheeks.

She knew how ridiculously indulgent the mercenaries had been at night during this time.

All the women in the port city were caught by them for their own amusement.

At night, the obscene sounds coming from the major taverns and inns are almost uninterrupted.

At this time, Ronan ran out at night, and when she came back, she had an exhausted and prostrated expression, which inevitably made her feel unhappy.

Ronan read her thoughts in her reaction and yawned unconcerned.

Unlike Alice and Isa, who he watched grow up, Elena was close to twenty years old, and with the environment of Black Rock City, she was probably used to that kind of thing for a long time, and she didn't have any other thoughts about her, so there was no need to explain anything.

As they chatted casually, a low trumpet sounded faintly from a distance, and the tavern door was suddenly opened.

Mr. and Mrs. Vano, who were outside patrolling the streets, ran in with a strong sense of unease and panic on their faces.

"Commander, the army defending on the bank of the river has sounded its horn, and the enemy is coming!"

Elena tensed up after hearing the news of the enemy, and her spirit was stimulated by the dual emotions of nervousness and excitement, and she hurriedly threw away the unpalatable salted fish and stood up.

She stroked the dagger tied around her belt one by one, and then put on the heavy chain mail that lay beside her.

"Go out and have a look." Ronan saw her and Mr. and Mrs. Vano tidy up their gear, and got up and walked to the front.

He wears a knight's sword at his waist on his right hand.

With his left hand, he stretched out his hand towards the door and picked up a thick halberd that was more than three meters long and had a dark gray color as a whole.

Elena followed behind him and glanced curiously at the halberd in his hand.

She had tried to pick it up before, but the weight of nearly fifty kilograms made it difficult for her to just pick it up, let alone use it as a weapon wield.

It may seem amazing, but does this long weapon really work well in narrow urban terrain?

And it's a waste of physical strength to cut it on a person and pull it out again, Elena doesn't quite understand.

After leaving the tavern, they soon came to the wall at the edge of Whitefish Street, looking out over the one-meter-high stone wall to the Valan River in the distance.

Under the noon sun, the surface of the river sparkles, like a blue silk blown by the breeze. But soon this calm was broken, and a dozen large warships, pushed by the combined force of oarsmen, broke through the water and were speeding towards the harbor beach.

And on the banks of the harbor, where the defensive line of the Second Army of the Silver Alliance was, a knight in bright armor stood on a high platform, shouting incessantly.

The soldiers, under his command, were constantly gathering downward.

The archers at the forefront, armed with strong bows, form an array and aim at the enemy ships.

Large bed crossbows that had already been assembled were erected, and the soldiers pulled together the winches on both sides of the bed crossbows, and pulled the bowstrings apart by rotating the lever force of the winch.

In the cleared space nearby, the trebuchet was also ready, and at the judgment of the craftsman, the direction was pointed at the place where the warship was docking.

Ronan carefully watched the enemy ships attacking.

The Dragon's Tooth army sailed a typical single-deck galleon, which was also equipped with sails, but relied mainly on the oarsmen on either side of the ship to propel the ship forward.

In fact, the three-masted galleons of this era were already beginning to take shape, but they were more used for overseas trade and transportation.

In the inland river basin, galleys are still the mainstream, especially in front of them, navigation is not limited by wind and wind direction, manpower is strong, and is widely used in military warfare.

Towers were erected in the bow and stern of the warship, equipped with specialized archers.

There is also a bed crossbow and gravel shooters on either side of the deck, which can be used for long-range attacks and large-area strikes at close range.

The rest of the ship was full of soldiers, roughly estimated to be between five and six hundred.

There were a total of twelve warships attacking the port, scattered in three directions, and attacked the port, and a total of four ships in Ronan's area were galloping.

The first wave of the confrontation between the two sides was a volley of bed crossbows.

Huge arrows nearly two meters long tore through the air under the propulsion of the bowstring, constantly whistling.

With a range of 1,000 meters, many soldiers were torn apart and nailed to the wall without even seeing the enemy's shadow.

The situation was almost one-sided, and in the face of the covering blow of the enemy's warships, the ten bed crossbows in the hands of the soldiers on the river bank were simply not enough.

At the end of the first encounter, only one or two of the enemy ships were shot, but it did not affect the navigation.

On the other hand, the soldiers on the riverbank suffered more than 50 casualties, and what was even more troublesome was that many ordnance were destroyed.

(End of chapter)