Reincarnated to the Past (Patreon)

Reincarnated to the Past
Chapter 14: Clash (4)

-VB-

5…!

There was no point for me to stay behind this shield and spear wall, not when -
(I reloaded the crossbow)

4…!

- my enemy looks like he can dodge literal arrows on a mount, which was harder than dodging on your own, and - 

3…!

- so there was no way he was going to get hit by any of the spears here - 

(I finished reloading)

2…!

- letting this guy come in with his bow and sword was asking for unnecessary casualties!

(I slung the crossbow unto my back where my precise movement slotted the latch on my crossbow onto the latch holder on my shoulder pad close to the center of my upper back)

1... !

So I jumped. I jumped up, stepping on one of the spearmen’s shoulder to jump over the shield and spear wall and came down upon the horse rider with my axe. 

The rider looked up at me in surprise but his hands were moving and reining in his horse.

And halfway through my downard strike, I changed my target. My arms strained from the sheer force of the blow I was redirecting, but I redirected it.

That caught the rider off guard, but the horse didn’t respond as well or quickly as my own muscles did. He tried to pull the head of the horse away from the path of my descending axe head but gave up halfway and kicked himself off of the horse. 

“HA!” 

With a sickening crunch and splatter of blood, my axe was buried into the skull of the horse. I didn’t even try to pull it out as the horse went down, opting to go for my crossbow that I’d slung onto my back. I landed on both of my feet no more than half a feet from the closest speartip behind me. I grimaced as the force of my own landing sent painful shocks up both of my legs, but I endured through it was I took a long step forward with my left leg while half-crouched as I finished whipping out the crossbow.

By that point, the rider was still midair but had pulled out a shortsword from its scabbard by his waist. He was swinging it as I fired the preloaded shot. My bolt whistled as it crossed the mere eight-nine feet of space, but the bastard parried it with that “pre-fire” strike. 

The horse finally hit the ground, dead.

“Fucking precog!” I shouted angrily as I realized what had to be his power. There was no way a human could move faster than arrows and bullets unless they acted before the projectiles or had physical powers. It had to be a visual or combat precognition for this guy, because why would he be swinging that sword even before I fired? And before that he’d dodged multiple shots from me and others. 

And then he pulled out his bow, notching an arrow while pulling the string back at the same time while still holding onto the sword by a hole at its pommel by his pinkie.

Cursing, I reloaded with one hand while I pulled harshly at one of the spears behind me. 

The spear let go easily and I hurled it just as he released his arrow.

The act of hurling the spear twisted my body counter clockwise and the arrow hissed by where my heart had been. It continued on and smashed into one of the shields behind me. The shield nearly folded from the impact - from what I was hearing. 

The spear I’d thrown flew but the Scythian dodged it effortlessly, ducking underneath it and coming up with another arrow drawn.

Yeah, at this rate, I wasn’t winning against this guy. 

“FIRE!”

And a dozen and a half of my crossbowers peeked just enough out from between the shields to aim and fire.

The Scythian blinked in surprise before he parried one of the bolts coming for his chest with his shortsword. He tried to pull at his bow again, but I was faster.

“FIRE!”

And the second set of my crossbowers switched with the first set and fired in under a second. At that point, the Scythian had fired an arrow that I’d effortlessly parried with my precise parry.

He parried another bolt. Then he stared for a second and I stared back. 

Then he charged in.

“You fucking mad lad!” I laughed even as I furiously struck horizontally with my axe. He jumped up, dodging the blow, but I wasn’t done yet. I lowered myself as I continued the axe swing, and then pulled my body backward. I kept a firm angle on that axe, and it followed me through with that pulling but instead of going down, it went up towards the expecting Scythian. Almost casually, he struck the neck of the axe with his shortsword, and our two momentums was enough for his shortsword to cleave right through the wooden handle. He landed on the shield wall, and kicked off like some kind of shounen protagonist and counterattacked on the spot. 

I knew there was one way I could take him out… but it would require a sacrifice. 

I pulled my crossbow up.

He swung down.

I didn’t fire. 

He looked surprised.

His sword cleaved through my crossbow. 

And so focused was he on the fact that I hadn’t fired and he in the end of a downward swing midair, that he hadn’t seen my clenched fist behind me. 

With a roar, I punched, and my fist connected with the Scythian’s alarmed and gaping face by the cheek. His face spun and then the rest of his body spun. 

He spun/flew away from me, the momentum from his jump still moving him, but it took only one hit to the ground before he jumped up. He quickly got up, and stared at me, a single line of blood dripping from the corner of his lips and a huge bruise starting to form on his left cheek. 

After shrugging -SHRUGGING! - and then giving me one nasty glare, he turned and just … ran away?

My eyes snapped to the side and I saw another Scythian horse rider quickly running up. He caught the fleeing Scythian and … ran away. 

I almost gave chase. That was a threat I needed to neutralize! Instead, I stopped myself and looked around.

The Scythians were in full retreat. Or rather, they had been, and I’ve been so focused on this one man, a superpowered man just like myself, that I’d forgotten about the rest of the battle.

… And it was only now that I noticed that the horse riders who I’ve seen much of showing themselves not to kill the overreaching Kettin but just gathering the rest of their troops and retreating rather orderly from the battle.

We’d won.

“We won,” I muttered disbelievingly. “We won!” I shouted in relief.

It took no more than a few moments for the rest of the fighters behind me to start cheering thunderously, loud enough to shake everything around me.