40 Revenge (1/2)
The muscular man suddenly whipped the chain up and then back down sending it slashing at my head. At the same time the other two lowered into battle stances. As the chain headed towards me, I sidestepped only to find a shortsword headed for my neck. I leaned backward, bending my body like a horseshoe and placed one hand on the ground. As the shortsword passed overhead I whipped my leg out towards his side. I connected and felt a couple ribs crack. He grunted falling to his hands and knees. A shocked and pained look on his face, he clearly hadn't expected me to be able to dodge his attack that way.
Noticing the opportunity, I prepared to stab one of my twisted serpents into the base of his skull, but before I could the man with the dagger lunged at me. I could either kill him and get stabbed in the side or block the dagger. I pulled my dagger back and blocked his while gaining a small distance. There were three of them I couldn't afford to trade blows.
It takes a long time to say but happened in a short moment. I pulled out my other dagger that I didn't have time to use. I had to find a way to kill them all off. I couldn't let a single one escape. Individually I could easily kill them, but their teamwork was excellent which revealed fewer openings. Obviously, these men weren't amateurs, even on Earth. They had to have been formally trained before. This level of skill and coordination couldn't be learned in a few months. Luckily I had somewhat injured one of them.
Now the three men were in front of me with the chain wielding man behind the other two. I quickly realized that this could limit his attacks since he'd be afraid to hit his companions if I got in close to them. I lunged forward aiming my dagger at the man with the shield since he was struggling to get up. I had almost certainly knocked the air out of him and it'd take him a moment to recover.
Noticing my approach he raised his shield with great effort. Since he was crouched it covered most of his upper body but not his thigh. I swung my dagger down at his thigh as I lunged at him. The large man couldn't hit me without hitting one of the other two. As I expected, when I was mid swing the dagger wielding man used the other mans shortsword to try to deflect my blow. Normally, this would repel me since the weight of the sword had the advantage over my dagger. However, in our earlier blow I confirmed that my strength was greater than his. I switched my dagger to a reverse grip and positioned myself beneath his blow. I used my dagger to block his strike up forcing the shortsword to deflect in an upward arch that opened his left side. In that brief moment after the shortsword was deflected I drove my other twisted serpent toward his throat. He tried to use his dagger to block but was a hair to slow since he hadn't expected me to block the sword like that.
Essence Gained + 572
In truth he was my target all along, he was the fastest and weakest of the three which meant he'd be the first to runaway if I killed one of the other two.
I quickly pulled my dagger out of his neck and he fell to the ground. I then prepared tolung at the man who only had his shield left before he could recover and retrieve his shortsword. However, to my dismay he abandoned any attempt to retrieve a weapon and dove at my legs tackling me to the ground.
I was stunned. I hadn't expected him to recover so fast or make such a suicidal move. He only had his shield left and had no way of blocking my daggers from that position. His arms were firmly locked around my waist and he was pinning me to the ground. His shield was strapped on his arm which after wrapping around me covered the mans head which he tucked close to my side. Without being able to instantly kill him I knew it'd take a moment to get him off me even if I plunged the daggers into his exposed back and sides. The large man realizing what his friend had done reared his chain back ready to bring it's full weight down on me. I had little doubt that at the bare minimum I'd be crippled if that hit me.
My mind started running at top speed I knew my situation was bad now so I used every ounce of willpower to analyze things quickly. I don't know if it was because of my high willpower or divine intervention but everything seemed to become really clear as a plan revealed itself to me.
I could tell from the large mans arm swinging the chain the trajectory of where the chain would land. The man had me pinned to the ground determined to not let me move so I stabbed both my daggers into the dirt and used the leverage to just barely shift my position. I then leaned back bringing my arms back to my side, leaving my daggers stuck in the dirt.
This adjusted our positions just enough so that when chain came down it landed on the mans right lower back, across his back to his left shoulder, and into the dirt centimeters from my right side.
”AGGHHHHHH!” The man howled in pain.
His arms let go of my waist and he arched his back in pain. The large man realizing he missed started to rear the chain back for another blow. I reached out and grabbed my daggers swiftly slitting the man with the shields throat as he screamed.
Essence Gained + 734
His body began to fall to the side as I realized I wouldn't have enough time before the next blow landed. I locked eyes with the large man and activated Snake King's Aura. The large man's eyes filled with fear which interrupted the momentum of the chains causing them to falter mid-air. The chain landed between my legs just centimeters before...