Mystery (1)

CHI!

Angele shot the arrow drawn by him with his longbow. The target who was one of the mounted bandits cursed in surprise as he fell off the horse after being struck by Angele’s arrow, which the latter heard through the chip. He stayed calm as he grabbed another arrow from his quiver, nocking it once again on his longbow. He was about 200 to 300 meters away from the mounted bandits, but with his chip’s assistance, his accuracy and precision had reached 100%. That was an advantage he had over his opponents.

Angele focused on his targets while he pulled the bowstring to a full moon. He kept switching positions accordingly using the information provided by the chip. Suddenly, Angele felt a pain coming from his left arm, and he lost his balance along with his bow. The white-feathered arrow he had nocked on his longbow was dropped on the ground. A black crossbow bolt pierced his left arm, such that it nearly went through it.

‘It’s a crossbow!’ Angele became surprised at this realization, and without hesitation, he rolled away.

CHI!CHI!CHI!

Three crossbow bolts sank onto the land Angele had formerly been, leaving only half of the shafts visible.

‘How… Crossbows are actually impressive in this world!’ Angele thought. He ran and hid behind a tree while applying pressure to his wound.

‘The person who shot from such a distance must be strong and might even be a knight.’ Angele tried to withstand the pain and grabbed the chain claw from his back. He cut the bolt head and the fletchings along with a part of the shaft, leaving the remaining part of the bolt in his arm.

‘Zero, any good plan?’ Angele thought as he cut the bolt to prevent his wound from continuously bleeding.

‘Thank god they didn’t poison their arrows. I’d already be dead if they had done so.’ Angele felt lucky. It would seem that people in this world frowned at the notion of using poison, or he just hadn’t encountered one. The chip analyzed his wound right away and sent the data to his mind.

‘The head of the bolt has the shape of a rhombus, thus making you bleed constantly. You are losing blood at a rate of 1% per minute. Please finish the fight within 10 minutes.’ Zero provided the most optimal plan.

‘Damn! They have rhombus bolts!’ Angele thought as he checked the battle record from the chip. He saw the warning of the incoming crossbow bolt, but because it was way too fast, it got overwritten by the data regarding the inflicted wound.

‘The chip won’t be helpful if it’s an attack that has absurd speed.’ Angele grabbed another arrow from his quiver after he thought of this matter. He was in great pain. Nevertheless, he still fully drew the longbow. His face was covered in beads of sweat from feeling the pain coming from his left arm at a constant rate. With a difficulty like this, he needed to double his focus in maintaining his accuracy.

The sound of hooves stomping on the ground became louder as the mounted bandits pursued him closely. He suddenly jumped out of the cover toward his left and shot the arrow when he was still in the air. It struck only empty space, then pinned itself onto the tree beside a mounted bandit. The wound on his arm and this situation he had never encountered before lowered his accuracy. He had also never practiced such maneuver, thus it only made the horse scared. Two horses at the forefront stopped and raised their hooves, neighing as they tried to flee, yet their riders held the reins tightly to stop them.

“He can’t run from us! Anker, let’s go!” One of the mounted bandits yelled.

“Got it!” Two other mounted bandits increased their speed, rushing toward Angele. Each drew their respective broadsword on the way. As Angele heard the sound of swords being unsheathed, he threw his longbow right away and grabbed the chain claw.

Angele listened intently to the sound of the hooves drawing closer to his position. He momentarily shut his eyes and pinned one side of the chain to the tree he was hiding in. When the sound reached Angele’s position, he threw the chain towards that direction quickly. The black chain claw flew to the thick branches and twined around it, thus making a simple trap to trip the horses.

The two horses, being unable to slow down in the slightest, rushed toward the trap.

BANG!

The branches broke into pieces and the horses crashed down with the chain on their feet. The horses neighed in pain resulting from their front legs being broken from the impact.

“Crap!” One of the mounted bandits fell off the horse and smashed his head against a stone on the ground. Angele became ecstatic in the effectiveness of the trap. He dropped the chain and unsheathed his sword, slashing the mounted bandit who rolled toward him after he stepped forward.

DANG!

The mounted bandit blocked Angele’s sword and attempted to kick the latter in retaliation. Angele stepped back but felt a chill from behind before he could attack again. He leaned to the side, successfully dodging a slash.

“Little f*cking bitch!” The mounted bandit behind cursed loudly, his accent resembling to that of a resident of Saladin. Angele could easily understand him because the language of Saladin resembled that of Rudin’s. The dialects might be different, but it wasn’t hard to understand. The mounted bandit who nearly got pummeled by Angele took this chance to stand up and waved his sword toward Angele right away, perfectly complementing the other mounted bandit’s attack. Angele couldn’t retaliate and even had to retreat.

These two mounted bandits flawlessly kept on attacking Angele in perfect coordination, such that they began to increase their pace. Although Angele blocked nearly every attack, he started having trouble in handling the strength of his opponents.

‘These two have impressive coordination with each other, and they are definitely close to a top-level knight. Even Audis will have trouble facing them.’ Angele seemed calm on the outside, but he was actually getting overwrought.

PONG!

Angele was blown away by the impact of a kick that he had failed to dodge. Since he himself knew he couldn’t stop moving, he rolled toward the side. His high agility helped him dodge four crossbow bolts when he rolled, but his wound had gotten worse in return, which left a trail of blood on the ground. Angele hid in a bush and ran behind another tree to take a breather. He started to breathe heavily and beads of sweat even dripped down his chin.

‘What should I do in such situation…?!’ Angele was really nervous. He even thought it was already the end of the line for him.

Two knights that were close to top-level and superb coordination skills. About four crossbows aimed from the side. With these factors, he couldn’t take chances in fleeing with his speed. Also, he wouldn’t be able to win against the two knights head-on. Angele racked his brain for ideas, but he couldn’t come up with a plan. He was starting to become frustrated at his helpless situation, especially when his current circumstance was much worse than his encounter with Dice. Dice’s knives were much slower than the crossbows that greatly hindered him from reading the information gathered by the chip. The first bolt had already taught him of the lesson.

‘Zero, give me a plan.’ Angele ordered.

‘Stamina dropping quickly. Please take out the ranged enemies and escape right away.’ Zero reported.

‘I wouldn’t ask this question if I could deal with these goddamn crossbows!’ Angele got angry.

‘The left part of your head will be hit after one second,’ the chip warned. Angele lowered his head and counterattacked with his sword. He blocked the attack successfully, but the opponent blocked his slash easily. The two mounted bandits performed pincer movements with perfect coordination. Angele was forced to remain encircled by their attacks and the sword skills he was proud of couldn’t do anything. Those two mounted bandits also had some well-practiced sword skills, leaving little or no unnecessary actions in their movements. Angele couldn’t find the chance to retaliate since after one of the two mounted bandits missed an attack, the other would fill the gap right away.

The two continued striking Angele, such that the three had already exchanged no small number of blows within a short span of time. Actually, Angele was being forced out of his cover due to the pressure they were exerting on him.

‘The crossbows will easily get me from any angle once I’m out of the bush. They don’t even need to get close.’ Angele grasped the situation correctly, but the two weren’t letting him move freely. Angele was being forced backward due to the impacts of the blows that the two mounted bandits showed especially since it was because they had a similar strength level as him.

Angele would’ve already been long dead if he didn’t have the special sword skill set constructed by the chip. There was barely any unnecessary movement in the set, which made him gain the ability to block the attacks perfectly. However, Angele’s wounds were inevitably opening because of his actions. The kick also injured his left arm and he was losing blood and stamina at a fast rate. His blocking capability was becoming weak and his eyesight was getting blurry. Sweat even dripped down into his eyes.

“You are very strong as a teenager. Are you some child of big noble family?” One of the bandits laughed and said.

“Only those kids have the chance to learn grand knight level sword skills and your attributes are quite high for your age. It must be nice to be a kid in a big family.” He continued.

“If Master Ceylon was here, this kid would’ve died already.” The other bandit said, not even slowing one bit. Their swords seemed like two silver flashes in their hands as they continued attacking Angele from both sides. Every attack was accompanied by another, showing no flaws at all. Angele tried to find an opportunity, and yet he failed to do so. He wanted to take out his knives, but he had absolutely no time to spare.

CHI!

One of them slash Angele’s chest, resulting to an injury about 10 centimeters long.

“It’s over!” One of the bandits yelled as he slashed toward Angele with his full strength.

Angele did his utmost to block the attack with his crossguard sword, but he was still blown away to the ground. He couldn’t stand up after the impact. His plan had failed and the power of the crossbows was something he hadn’t expected. Angele had already experienced death before, and at this instance where death had once again chanced upon him, he actually calmed down completely. However, he was out of strength and severely injured, even losing no small amounts of blood and stamina.

There was no way for him to stand against two bandits with strength of a top-level knight and four crossbows. His eyesight was already too hazy, but he could still see the bandits slowly walking toward him while shaking the blood off their broadswords.

‘Zero, any plan left for me?’ Angele thought.