Vol 1 Chapter 16 (1/2)
Chapter 16: Street Corner
After he saw Jackson, John spoke to Lucien calmly, “You haven’t been officially trained, remember, don’t panic and hit accurately. The only weapon they have are daggers, if we utilize the length of the wooden rod, they can’t get close to us. Also, don’t stop, there’s too much of them. If they surround you and attacks from several directions, there’s no way to defend.”
He briefly reminded Lucien about the possible dangers because Lucien might panic or attack recklessly.
Actually, Lucien had a deep understanding in this, he nodded in agreement, and answered humorously, “Don’t worry, John, I’m the brave man who broke through the witch’s secret room.”
John stopped talking, they hid their wooden sticks behind their back, preventing the pa.s.sers from noticing them, and approached Jackson quickly.
It was a street in the Market District, ten minutes away from an Aaron gang den. The street was bustling, with many merchants, adventurers, and mercenaries pa.s.sing through. Therefore Jackson didn’t notice John and Lucien at all.
Several paces away from Jackson, Lucien and John exchanged glances, and drew their wooden sticks out, gripped them with both hands, and rushed toward the nearest two gang members.
Lucien realized that his target was the gang member who kicked him away and broke his plan to a.s.sault Jackson. Lucien got near him, swung the wooden rod, and strike fiercely toward his head.
Although he didn’t have enough strength or enough training, Lucien still learned something from the previous several fights: Not only does he need to be calm, concentrated, steady and accurate, but also ruthless. Whenever he decided to attack, there’s no s.p.a.ce for mercy, or himself will suffer from that.
The slight sound made by the wooden stick alerted that gang member, yet there’s no s.p.a.ce for him to dodge. He got hit by the rod before he could even turn his head.
BOOM, Lucien’s rod punched the spot under the gang member’s ear, he felt a heavy blow and immediately went black, and fell onto the ground.
John, on the other side, was not as “cruel-hearted” as Lucien was. He didn’t target the head, but instead, he held the wooden rod with both hands, like a greatsword, and hit the gang member’s right arm.
Although it’s not a fatal spot, since John, a formal squire, was much stronger than Lucien, his’s strike still knocked the gang member up and fell on the ground. There’s a swell on his arm, disabling him from moving.
After knocking down a roughneck, Lucien didn’t stop but ran around the enemies. He heard a strange sound and turned his head, then punched toward another roughneck’s head, hitting his face.
That guy fell on his back and drew two traces of blood in the air with his nose.
He didn’t pa.s.s out, but intense pain and a buzzing head kept him rolling back and forth on the ground.
Now the gang members in the from finally realized what happened, when Jackson saw there’s only two of them, his eyes became vicious, signally all twelve remaining fighters to surround them.
They drew the daggers, their blade reflects the morning sun, casting cold lights.
Lucien kept the hit & run principle in his mind all the time, and ran irregularly around the crowd, sometimes forward, sometimes left, and sometimes he even drew back a little bit. However, once he noticed an opportunity, he leaped back, utilizing the wooden rod’s advantage in length, and punched the gang member’s heads or necks.
The key point of such strategy is to not be panicked or greedy, even though the enemies separated and besieged from multiple directions.
The street was long and wide, and the crowd already scattered and fled. As long as Lucien wasn’t pa.s.sively defending in a corner or got entangled with a single enemy, about four or five gang members wouldn’t be able to block Lucien.
Of course, this was a challenge on his physical strength, most people won’t be able to do that for more than several minutes. Soon, another roughneck fell on the ground, however, Lucien suddenly noticed that John, on the other side of the battlefield, was ambushed and encircled.
Although his physical strength was much better than Lucien and other gang members, John wasn’t heavy handed enough. Although he knocked down several gang members, they could still move and fight. They lied on the ground and tried to stab John’s ankle. While he was dodging those attacks, John fell into the ambush of the rest gang members and got surrounded. s.p.a.ce for him to run became smaller, without his agility and outstanding swordsmans.h.i.+p, John would be stabbed by the daggers for multiple times. But even so, his conditions appeared to be in peril.
After a second of hesitation, Lucien clenched his teeth and leaped forward, swung the wooden stick toward the back of one of the roughneck’s head.
“Watch out!” “Johnny!” The three gang members behind Lucien yelled and reminded their fellow.
The guy named Johnny reacted quickly, he threw himself on the ground, and Lucien missed the hit.
However, that gave John the chance to leave the encirclement. His sweeping strike forced the gang members around to step back, which allow him to jump through Johnny.
Johnny jumped up and stabbed at John;s back, while the other three roughnecks, chasing after Lucien, already stood in front of John.
However, after he forced Johnny to fell down, Lucien didn’t run away like he suavely did, but stayed where he was. Now he swung the wooden stick and hit right on Johnny’s back.