Alex was not going easy on the thug; he kept hitting him and breaking his bones, one after the other. That was his way of sending a message to everyone who was watching. At one point, the thug couldn't counterattack anymore, so Alex stopped. There was no reason to keep beating up someone who could not even defend himself.
After dealing with that thug, Alex did not say a word and simply walked away, going up to the second floor of the tavern where his room was. On the middle of the staircase, the tavern owner yelled from behind the counter, "The room is free for you, lad."
Once upstairs, SwordSlash77 and the others could not believe what had just happened. "Why did you beat him up so badly?" ChangeGlassesYearly asked. "He was not the only thug there; others were watching," Alex explained. "If we let him talk trash to us and get our money, other thugs would try too, and soon the word would spread. We had to make sure people were scared of us to avoid future problems."
