Guilliman's mind raced.
He realized he had no way to deal with the night raiders outside without getting hurt.
While he could indeed hide here for a while, using the house as a barrier, once the assassins outside completed their encirclement, heavily surrounding the house's exits, he would become a turtle in a jar, and breaking out would be quite difficult.
Just a few seconds later, Guilliman made his decision.
He quickly walked to Shani's side, covered her mouth with his hand, and after she woke up, he whispered in her ear:
"The Salamandra are outside; they're trying to ambush us."
"Later, you hide under the bed, don't run around, and wait for me to come back."
Their gazes met until Shani fully woke up from her sleep and nodded to show she understood; only then did he release his hand and quickly move towards the house's main door.
Through his observation with the soul clone just now, he noticed that one of the two mages was positioned directly facing the main door, and although he was over thirty meters away, there wasn't much obstruction between them.
Guilliman's heart stirred.
He waved his hand in front of the main door, and a dwarf ballista, already prepared to fire, appeared out of thin air, its sharp bolt pointing directly outside the door.
This was, of course, a trophy from his Gwent game that afternoon; he only had one.
Although the middle-aged dwarf kept saying it was against the rules and would land him in jail, once he got into Gwent, he'd be willing to bet his underwear.
And a distance of several tens of meters was roughly the dwarf ballista's most powerful range with the least deviation; any further, and the ballista wouldn't be as accurate.
At this range, piercing a human body was effortless, and with special bolts, even heavily armored knights could be easily shot through.
To be safe, he re-entered his soul clone state and quickly adjusted the aim of the dwarf ballista.
Seeing that the enemies were about to complete their encirclement of the house.
Guilliman no longer hesitated; after opening the door just enough for a crossbow bolt to pass through, he decisively fired the dwarf heavy ballista.
Clang!
The sound of gears turning and the firing mechanism activating.
The metal ballista bolt shot out, carrying a whistling sound as it instantly flew twenty to thirty meters from the door crack.
In the stunned eyes of the night raiders outside, it struck the mage in the black robe.
Puff!
Under the immense power of the dwarf ballista, let alone flesh and clothing, even the bones in the chest offered no resistance to the bolt.
The black-robed mage let out a scream.
The metal bolt instantly pierced his chest, and amidst his screams, it dragged him several meters backward, slamming him hard onto the ground.
Blood gushed from the wound and his mouth, and shattered internal organs spilled from the pierced injury.
Injuries of this magnitude were impossible to heal unless a god descended.
The night raiders outside froze for a moment.
They seemed not to have expected that they, who were supposed to be the ambushers, had been ambushed instead, and one of their commanders, a powerful mage with magical abilities, had been killed.
This was a ballista!
Who would bring a ballista into a house? It was utterly baffling.
However, before they could fully grasp the situation.
A tall figure, wielding a heavy metal shield, roared out of the house, charging directly at the other mage.
His speed was extremely fast, and his strength was far beyond that of an ordinary person; he endured the shots from a dozen crossbows, forcefully knocking away several assassins who tried to block him, and rapidly approached his target.
The mage he was targeting was terrified, feeling as if he was being watched by a ferocious beast, and an urge to flee involuntarily arose within him.
However, as a low-level mage with limited power, he couldn't use teleportation or other escape methods. He could only suppress his fear and cast a spell at the fastest speed he had ever managed in his life.
It wasn't until the tall figure was less than five meters away that he conjured a corrosive spell capable of dissolving metal, hitting the heavy shield in the opponent's hand.
Sizzle! Sizzle!
The corrosive spell's effect was quite good; the heavy metal shield instantly melted into several large holes upon contact with the magic.
However, the distance between the two was still too short at this point; the tall figure with the beast-like vertical pupils directly discarded the shield in his hand, and a metal longsword appeared out of thin air in his hands, then he swung out a fierce sword light at him.
Slash!
The last mage didn't even have time to scream before he was split in half from top to bottom by this sword light, blood and internal organs spilling everywhere.
Guilliman exhaled a mouthful of stale air, and then, as he turned back, he cast another Quen shield on himself.
If not for this magical shield, his arm might have been corroded by the opponent's magic.
Fortunately, the two most threatening enemies had been dealt with; the remaining assassins were just ordinary people, at most only capable of inflicting minor flesh wounds.
He casually pulled out two beehive bombs from his storage space, gathered magic in his left hand, then threw both bombs into the crowd, and with the help of the gushing Igni flames, ignited the bombs along with the enemies.
Boom! Boom!
The bombs, worth forty orens, exploded with a deafening roar!
Although they didn't cause many casualties to the enemy, they severely demoralized them, thwarted their encirclement attempt, and greatly reduced the fighting power of these night raiders.
Subsequently, the witcher showed no mercy, enduring the enemy's continuous crossbow fire, and forced his way into the crowd, unleashing his Wolf School swordplay.
Wolf School swordplay is best suited for group combat, but unfortunately, his level hasn't risen yet, and he hasn't learned the most essential Wolf School Sword Dance.
Otherwise, these unarmored ordinary people in front of him would be cut down like melons and vegetables, unable to withstand more than a few of his strikes.
But even so.
By taking some minor injuries, using a trade-damage-for-life fighting style, and the effects of various Signs, Guilliman quickly cut down more than half of the night raiders.
He even completely eliminated this group of night raiders before they could even think of breaking and fleeing.
After the battle, Guilliman exhaled a mouthful of stale air, then spent twenty points of soul power to heal his wounds.
These Salamandra assassins must have been elite members of the gang; otherwise, they wouldn't have had the courage to fight to the death like that.
They would have scattered and fled like the ordinary members who ran away after half of them were killed earlier.
The witcher made a mental note to deal with the Salamandra, intending to kill every one of those bastards once he found their hideout.
He used the Axii Sign to absorb almost twenty human souls from the field into his soul space, then collected all their bodies and equipment into his storage space.
After his soul ascended, not only the storage space but also the soul space could accommodate more souls; accommodating twenty souls at once was no problem.
After he cleaned up, the battlefield, which had been littered with corpses and dismembered limbs, was completely cleared.
Guilliman looked around and noticed some villagers from Murky Waters peeking out from their rooms.
However, he didn't pay attention, instead pushing open the door and re-entering his house.
Shani, who had been anxiously waiting there, couldn't help but rush over and lean against his chest when she saw him return safely.
Subsequently, at the strong insistence of the medical student, the witcher took off his upper garment, revealing his already fully recovered strong body, proving that he had not been injured at all; only then did the young woman breathe a sigh of relief.
Seeing the young woman's eyes slightly red, her hand caressing his bulging chest, looking both worried and admiringly cute.
Guilliman's heart suddenly stirred, and he put on a somewhat pained expression, saying:
"Ouch! Shani."
"It seems I've got a bit of an injury down there; why don't you get some hot water and help me clean the wound?"
After speaking, he took off his pants before the young woman could react.