Chapter 02: An Encounter

Friedrich POV:

'Well it seems that I will be going to sleep under the stars tonight' I sigh, the city of Lyon was further than I thought. 

At this instant I heard what it seems like armor rattling and I saw light

'The amount of reishi that they emit is so minuscule, but I can't judge with only that it would be unwise' I pondered for a while before deciding to approach the group of supposed soldiers by the rattling that I heard previously.

I used Hirenkyaku to approach them at a moderate speed which is already so fast that a human wouldn't even be able to even catch a blur of me.

I appeared above the group that consisted of over a dozen soldiers armed with different weapons like halberd, spear or some bow at the rear of the group. I stayed above them, listening to their conversation.

"Hey Jean" cried out an archer "is this true ? the saintess returned back from hell ?"

"Yes, it is true and above everything she killed the king and destroyed Orleans, there is nothing that remains of this city, the habitants devoured by the dragons that she now commands " said Jean with a dry tone 

"This was a massacre and I heard that she is coming toward Lyon and La Charite, " added Jean with apparent fear. "How can we fight dragons with a spear and arrows ? This is suicide right ? " questioned Jean to the soldiers around him, all of them nodded at this question

"Should we even continue to fight ? asked one of the soldier 

"Yes Louis we should, for I will continue to fight for my country !  I am a knight of the House of Cartiens and I will continue to fight until I draw my last breath this is the oath that I made back then when I was a squire" Said Jean with a unconcealed fervor, The group continued to walk away at a slow pace

This conversation was pretty informative, first I learned in which era I am in, the Middle Ages, the epoch where our empire fell in the battle with the Shinigami. I am sure that I am somewhere between 1420 and 1440, I don't recall in which year was Jeanne D'Arc

burnt. 

I wanted to continue to follow them but I detected around one kilometer away the same reishi signature as earlier that day, it meant more dragon to kill.

But first I will play my cards well, let's not charge head first into the slaughter and use this encounter to my advantage. So first I use Hirenkyaku to go past the group of soldiers and hide. The dragon will arrive in around five minutes.

"Is this one of the beast captain ?!" shouted one of the soldier to Jean

"Yes, that's one of them, the unholy beasts that destroyed Orlean, men take position ! Use your range as an advantage and try to kill them !" Jean shouted to his soldiers as he unsheathed his sword and took position behind the line of pikemen.

The "dragon" rapidly approaches the group from above and despite getting shot by the archers continued his relentless approach from above 

"Merde ! " shouted one of the archer "our arrows are not doing anything "

The beast dove rapidly onto the group and as he is going to hit them, a white figure appeared between them and the "dragon"

Friedrich POV:

Before the "dragon" could hit the group and devour them, I dashed between them and at this moment, the dragon opened his maw to bite me but as the dragon close it's maw, I reach out with both of my arms to each  one of the extremities of the beast's maw and use my Shrift to rip  apart the beast, bending his maw at an impossible angle.

'His end was quick' I thought before bending the now headless body of the "dragon" far enough so that it would not fall on the group. 'Now let's introduce myself' 

"Hello, soldiers, my name is Friedrich Braun, a Knight of the Star Cross Order, pleased to meet you" I said while reaching the ground, after my rapid introduction, I glanced around, I saw the group was still on high alert, it didn't surprise i would too still be ready for combat if someone killed something as strong as this from their perspective.

"Hello, Lord Braun, I am knight Jean de la Boudes from the house of Cartiens, thank you for saving us from this foul beast" said the captain of the group, clearly still wary of me by the minimalist introduction that he provided, but before I could continue to speak Jean continued

"I'm sorry but it seems that I'm uninformed about the order of the Star Cross, could you tell me more about it good sir ?" 

It could be beneficial for me to have the trust of this group of soldiers, so I could tell a little lie about the Stern Ritters.

"Yes, of course Sir Jean, our order is an order that is tasked with the elimination of beast like the "dragon" before, so for this mission, I was dispatched here to help the French army defeat these beast, but upon arrival in France,I couldn't even find a settlement to gather information" I explained with a little lie

"And you Sir Jean, what are you doing here in the middle of nowhere ?" I questioned 

"We are a group of soldiers given order by Lord De Rais to patrol around Lyon at the research of survivor of the nearby villages that were attacked by the witch servants

"I see" I replied

"It seems that you're not traveling with a group for now, I would like to guide you myself to Lyon for.." before Jean could finish his demand, an enormous explosion occurred north from where we were situed

"Well, Sir Jean, I would advise you to go south from the explosion, it's not a fight that you involve yourselves with you and your group" I advised the knight

After a moment of silence bar the explosions that are happening north from here, Jean nodded to me 

"Alright, everyone, we're going to the village of Saint-Christophe at the south"Jean said to the group before turning to me "Good luck to you sir Braun", I nodded back to him

I waited for them to have left to use my senses to see the number of enemy

'A lot of "dragon" and eight enormous reatsu, it seems it's seven of them versus just one,he is condemned, and  lot of weaker reatsu that seems to be of human nature are disappearing each second'

"What ?" I exclaimed

Like a meteor, an arrow exploded at my right, my Schrift automatically deflected the arrow that was detected as an attack.

"Oh ?" I marveled "Someone can actually tell if I spy on them with my reishi manipulation and retaliate at my exact location, not even the Shinigami could detect us like that. It seems that I was a bit too arrogant" I silently observed , changing my mindset "Let's just observe for now"

I retracted my senses, warped the light around me to make me invisible to the human eye and used Hirenkyaku to appear above Lyon in less than 10 steps.

"So let's see how far the fight can go" I said, quite impressed by what I was seeing below.