The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 94
The opponent’s left arm was cut off.
‘Ilya-style secret technique, Flowing Water!’
Originally, it was a technique to slash the neck while digging into the opponent’s side, but due to having to block his spear, the movement became smaller.
Cutting off the left arm was certainly encouraging.
For a spear user, losing one hand was a fatal flaw.
To give an easy example, think of billiards.
Imagine hitting a billiard cue with only one hand. Surely, a proper stroke wouldn’t come out. This is because there’s no arm to balance the center of gravity.
The same goes for a spear.
Unless one had practiced handling a spear with one arm in advance, there’s no way to show normal movement in a situation where an arm is suddenly lost like this.
‘I’ll end it here!’
I decided to drive in the final nail.
At the point where I had turned to his back, I swiftly rotated the spear, grabbed it in reverse, and thrust it towards my side.
‘Ilya-style secret technique, Trailing Inhalation!’
That technique I used on the bandit leader when saving Erina in the past.
It was Master Ilya’s signature technique.
‘You know about the Chester style? Then I’ll use the technique my master created!’
However. Whoosh! He twisted his body and avoided this attack.
“What…!?”
Too surprised, I was aghast as his spear swung behind my back.
Having attempted big attacks in succession without being properly prepared, I had to tumble after being hit by the spear shaft.
“Kuhuk!”
Though my arm blocked it, preventing damage to my ribs or internal organs, the pain felt in my arm was not ordinary.
A dizzying pain felt in my right forearm.
‘My arm is broken!’
While it was much better to have a broken arm than broken ribs piercing the liver or lungs, with this, I too could no longer use one arm.
Moreover, the right arm was the one I used for my main weapon, the spear. In a way, I had taken an even bigger hit than my opponent.
However, the mental confusion was greater than the physical pain.
“You want to ask how I avoided it?”
Fischer said, breathing heavily. He wrapped cloth around his left arm and tightly tied it with his right arm and teeth to stop the bleeding.
“That’s simple. This isn’t the first time I’ve received Ilya’s techniques. Well, I didn’t notice until halfway through. Only after taking the Flowing Water did I realize you were Ilya’s disciple. Well, thanks to that, I was able to avoid the Trailing Inhalation.”
“…!?”
Why does this guy know my master’s name and even the technique names?
“You… What is your relationship with Ilya Anfei?”
“You know this isn’t the time to ask such things amicably. Ask Ilya after you die. Or kill me now and go back to ask her.”
For some reason, I felt his gaze towards me soften a bit.
“Haha… Ilya’s disciple. There couldn’t be a more fitting person to take my head. Come on! Try to take my head!”
“Kuk!”
The injury situation was almost identical.
I couldn’t use my main arm, the right arm, but he had damage from blood loss.
Shaking! I tried to use my right arm somehow, but I could barely clench my palm, unable to hold the spear due to the pain.
The only weapon I had was the sword in my left hand.
On the other hand, although the enemy had lost his left arm, he could handle the spear with his main hand, the right arm.
‘Still, I have to try. This is the only chance…!’
The surroundings were gradually being cleared up. The enemy was continuously receiving reinforcements. Our forces had suddenly decreased to just 30 men.
I took a deep breath while putting strength into my left hand.
That’s when it happened.
“Don’t hog all the cool scenes to yourself, pretty captain. Ptui!” Aggert, who had gotten up at some point, spat blood and approached.
To this, Fischer threatened with a fierce face. “This is no place for you to interfere, you runt. Stay crumpled up!”
The intimidating spirit emitted by a strong person. My heart sank at the fear that made one face death. If Dorofei had been here, he would have fainted while foaming at the mouth, and I don’t know, but even guys like Ruan Chase or Casper would have been scared and sat down.
I wasn’t much different.
The difference was that I had a higher mental age due to special circumstances, and I had a lot of experience fighting strong individuals like Eonia, Anton, Ymir, and others.
Inwardly, I thought Aggert would be scared. He’s a year younger than me, after all.
But that wasn’t the case.
“Heheh.” Aggert smiled as if enjoying the opponent’s pressure. “A runt, you say? You’ve got the wrong person, mister.”
“…?”
“My name is Aggert! The man who will become a great general! Uwooooh!”
Aggert charged. For some reason, the power of his aura seemed to have amplified even more.
His movements were the same.
He who had been one-sidedly pushed back until now was now swinging his sword more boldly and aggressively. Fischer, who had already lost one arm, was pressured by these movements.
‘This is no time to be like this.’
I quickly joined the fight as well.
Focusing on avoiding the opponent’s attacks, I swung the sword in my left hand.
“Not yet! You won’t reach me with just that level!”
Slash! The spear tip cut deeply across Aggert’s chest area.
“Kuhuk…!”
Aggert clutched his chest and fell to his knees.
‘It’s now or never!’
The upper body that became wide open due to his big movement.
I thrust the sword deeply towards his neck.
“Hmph!”
But he barely managed to pull his body back.
The sword pierced not his neck but his left chest, and even that wasn’t deep.
“Ha!”
Clang! As he swung the spear shaft to deflect it, the sword flew up and away.
This situation where I had no weapon in my hand.
“Now die!”
Fischer, who had been closing the distance to me, gripped the spear and shot it towards my head to stab me.
I somehow twisted my upper body to dodge, but thwack! The spear deeply pierced my right shoulder blade.
“Urgh…!”
My vision blurred from the pain.
‘It’s over…!’
With this, all resistance was meaningless. I stood at death’s door.
However, there was no flashing of my life before my eyes.
Rather, as I faced death, I became surprisingly calm.
Some say that the flashing of one’s life is the brain forcibly retrieving memories to avoid death.
I was in the same situation. The only difference was that my brain was trying to find an answer in the present situation, not in past memories.
My head cleared, and my vision widened.
Thanks to that, I could see it.
“…!”
There was only one chance.
I raised my trembling right hand and grasped the shaft of the spear that had pierced my shoulder.
“What…!?”
Fischer frowned at this action, but only for a moment.
My left hand that had been empty.
The handle of a sword appeared there.
Aggert, who had been lying down, had lifted his sword upside down towards where my left hand was.
I grabbed that handle and swung.
Fischer seemed to have not expected this at all. Because I was holding the spear shaft, he was late in pulling back.
“Checkmate…!!”
Whooch! Slash! A chilling sensation felt in my hand.
Fischer let go of the spear and stepped back, but slash! The right side of his neck split open, and blood poured out.
“Gah…! Uh…ah…!”
He seemed to be losing consciousness from the bleeding of his carotid artery and soon fell to his knees.
“I… Like this…?”
Thud! Fischer collapsed, seemingly losing consciousness.
“Did we take him out…?”
Because Aggert said such words, I moved with difficult steps and stab! I stabbed his heart to confirm the kill.
“Haa! Haa! Haa!”
A mix of the sense of achievement from victory and relief from survival made me feel light-headed.
I sat down from exhaustion, but there was no time to stay like this.
“Captain! We must escape quickly!”
Dilas, covered in blood, urged me.
“Whew…! I’m fine. You take care of Aggert.”
At least my legs were okay, so I was able to escape the battlefield through the retreat route Dilas had created.
* * *
Having escaped the battlefield, we barely managed to hide ourselves.
“Argh!”
A burning pain felt in my shoulder. The spear head was still lodged in my shoulder.
Pulling it out would drastically increase the bleeding.
I was still better off. Aggert, who had been deeply cut near his chest, had no uninjured area and lost consciousness as soon as the battle ended.
Dilas, who had finished emergency treatment on Aggert, soon approached me.
He took out a medical cord, tightly tied my right shoulder, and said, “Bear with it even if it hurts.”
Dilas carefully pulled out the spear head. I wanted to scream from the splitting pain, but I had to grit my teeth and endure it, as it could have drawn the attention of enemy soldiers.
After pulling out the spear, Dilas wrapped a bandage to apply pressure to the wound.
“Captain, we need to move now.”
Dilas asked where we should move.
But I didn’t have a proper answer either. Right now, both enemy and ally had lost discipline, so chaos had erupted.
‘If we think about that, rather…’
Going down directly seemed fine too.
The important thing now was to escape quickly and treat the wounds.
About 100 troops were deployed for this operation. Only 40 of them returned alive, and even among those, 15 were seriously injured.
As their lives were hanging by a thread, we needed to quickly retreat to the rear to reach the medics and priests.
“We’ll go down in this direction while minimizing combat.”
“Understood!”
Since we had changed into clothes suitable for stealth rather than uniforms for this surprise operation, we were able to avoid drawing the enemy’s attention.
The enemy, seeing us coming down from above, mistook us for allies and couldn’t respond quickly.
‘Good, not much left now!’
We just needed to see our troops.
As we were thinking that, in front of us appeared a group of about 50 enemies.
“It’s them! They’re the villains who killed General Barret!”
They seemed to have chased us after seeing Barret’s corpse in the main camp, unrelated to Fischer’s intrusion.
They seemed to have identified our attire by looking at the corpses of our soldiers at the site.
‘This is bad! We don’t have the strength to fight these guys!’
Seemingly making the same judgment, Dilas handed Aggert, whom he had been carrying, to me and said, “I have one request. Please give ample compensation to the families of the mercenaries who sacrificed themselves in this war. That will be enough.”
“Dilas, you…!”
“Go now!”
If we hesitated here, we’d end up neither here nor there.
I closed my eyes tightly and decided to leave the battlefield.
But then.
“Such heroic sacrifice doesn’t suit you, Dilas.”
Along with that familiar male voice.
“Haaah!”
She intervened.
Thwack thwack thwack! A spear piercing through the enemy’s neck.
A woman wearing gray armor and a gray helmet.
“Eo…!?”
I was too surprised to know how to react.
“How are you here…!”
“I’ll explain the circumstances later! For now… Ah, aah!? Lord Ars. T-those wounds!”
Eo, who stood guarding in front of us, saw my shoulder and the wounds all over my body and trembled. Then she exuded unrefined killing intent towards the enemies.
“You bastards…!!”
Her pure white aura distorted with anger.
Overwhelmed by this, the opponents stepped back. Given the divine rank Eo had shown by intervening, the enemies seemed to realize that if they stayed, they would die in vain.
“Damn it! Retreat! We’re retreating!”
At their retreat, our soldiers sighed in relief, panting.
The man approached us who were in such a state.
“We don’t have time for this. We need to go down quickly.”
I thought it was a familiar voice. Indeed, it was.
“Olaf…! Why are you even here…!”
“I’ll explain that after we go down. Let’s get out of here first. Miss Rania, let’s quickly take this guy away.”
Receiving the signal, Eo immediately picked me up on her back.
As her nostalgic scent tickled my nose, the tension suddenly drained away.
As the tension eased, I started feeling sleepy for some reason. It seems my body was seeking sleep to endure the pain.
“I’m going to sleep for a bit…”
“What!? No! Don’t fall asleep!”
“Then tell me an interesting story…”
“An interesting story!? Even if you say that…”
Eo, not knowing what to do, started talking about her time in the Holy Kingdom of Kuravel.
“So His Holiness scolded me and…”
My consciousness became hazy.
I lost consciousness before I could even hear that interesting story.
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