First Group Battle (I)

'This guy is the straightforward type huh.'

I thought as I tightened my grip over my sword. I turned to look at Ellie and noticed that she had already removed her katana from her back and was holding it in her hands. She had a deep frown etched across her gorgeous face.

I nodded my head subconsciously as I looked at her. She was already alert and ready to pounce, instead of cowering in fear at the enemy numbers and levels. I was starting to like her more and more…as a guild member, of course.

Igor grunted and stopped smoking his pipe as soon as Captain Maximus spoke. He looked at the number of enemies and inspected their levels. He frowned and responded to Captain Maximus,

"This convoy is the property of Count Orphius Kent of Gallen. I suggest you think carefully about your next steps and get lost if you want to keep your heads. I doubt you and your men can remain alive if you decide to provoke a Count." He sneered, intending to scare the enemies away by mentioning his noble client.

Captain Maximus just started laughing loudly, which startled Igor.

"I'll take that as a refusal to surrender then." He said with a stoic face, ceasing his laughter.

Igor was stunned seeing that. Was this man not afraid of a count? Igor knew that House Devont, the house the knight served, was the house of a count as well so he could not understand where his fearlessness came from. Even if they stole the goods successfully, they would surely die once the count learns of it and sends assassins after their heads.

Igor was about to change his tactics and try to appease Captain Maximus but the latter did not give him the chance to. Captain Maximus unsheathed his sword, pointed it to the sky and yelled,

"Men! Charge! Kill them all!"

Immediately, all 25 of the figures brought out their weapons and charged towards us. The knights on horseback led the charge and the cloaked figures amongst the knights, which I assumed to be mages, started casting spells in our direction.

"Ellie! On me!" I yelled as I unsheathed my sword, and charged towards the enemies alongside the other mercenaries that Igor brought for the trip as guards.

I had never fought on horseback before so it felt rather…foreign to ride one into battle, to say it simply. As I neared the horde of enemies, my mind started to revolve rapidly, noting the position of all the enemies relative to Captain Maximus, and thinking of the ideal strategy to deploy for this scenario.

The enemies charged in a disordered manner, which confused me. Was this Captain Maximus guy so confident that he didn't feel the need to command his men to charge in a formation? Or were the knights not as trained as I assumed they were?

Either way, it was foolish to charge blindly in a cavalry battle so I quickly decided on the optimal strategy based solely on my synergy with Ellie.

I've never seen the other mercenaries battle so I couldn't incorporate them into my strategy too much, though I planned to actively observe them during the battle and modify my plan should I deem it necessary.

"Ellie, Switch with me when I say so! Stay close to me, we're going for a quick pincer strategy." I yelled as I squeezed the sides of my horse tighter to increase my speed and gain momentum. I inspected the frontmost enemy charging towards me once I neared him.

[Sir Landon Brown | Lvl.11| Knight of House Devont]

[HP: 3,000 (100%)]

His Health was lower than I had anticipated, which was good because for my pincer strategy to work, we needed to kill enemies as quickly as possible. Even though Ellie and I's damage technically wasn't high enough to instantly kill him, I hypothesized that it was still possible to do so, given the realism of this game.

For a game that emphasizes realism, I hypothesized that killing normal humans should be more straightforward than a monster, simply because normal humans have weaker fatal points, like their necks, that pretty much guarantee a critical strike and ignore any defense or damage reduction from physical traits, gear and items.

My strategy was built on that crucial detail and I decided to go with it, even though I was technically taking a risk, because I felt that my conjecture was highly likely and also because there was no time to think too much, doing so would do more harm than good.

I charged as fast as possible towards Sir Landon, who was wielding an ax. Once we were within attacking distance, Sir Landon swung his ax towards me fiercely. I smiled seeing that and responded by swinging my sword firmly to clash head on with his ax.

Because of my momentum, my slash was significantly more powerful than his ax swing so I parried it easily and deflected his ax upwards and away from my direction. Immediately after, I reeled my hand back and slashed horizontally at his chest, before he could react; I was able to do this within that split second because of my synchro rate.

*Clank!*

-150!

[HP: 2850/3000 (95%)]

I frowned slightly upon seeing the damage. It was lower than I expected, most likely because his armor was sturdier than I anticipated. Though, I quickly discarded my thoughts and yelled,

"Switch! Aim for his neck and use all your strength!"

~.~.~

POV | Ellie Vault

Once I heard what Tristan shouted, I immediately slashed my katana at breakneck speed towards Sir Landon's neck with all my strength, making sure to be as precise as possible so I could decapitate him in one go.

*Slit!*

[Critical Hit!]

[Fatal Hit!]

-2950!

[HP: 0/3000 (0%)]

[You have gained 300 Experience]

[Your «Quick Draw» mastery has increased]

[You have earned 50 silver]

Blood gushed out of the now headless knight like a fountain and sprayed over me and my armor. The knight's corpse fell off his horse as I rode past him,

I was over the moon once I saw that I killed the knight in one strike because I didn't want to disappoint Tristan. However, once my short burst of feeling ecstatic ended, I started feeling very nauseous and conflicted, my hands were even trembling slightly.

It was then it dawned on me.

I had just killed a person and immediately felt excited instead of feeling somber…I-Is something wrong with me? …Am I demonic? …How is Tristan fighting these knights so emotionlessly? All sorts of thoughts started to cloud my mind, and I soon started to feel slightly dizzy.

"Ellie! Watch out!"

I was suddenly brought back to reality by Tristan's shouting. My eyes widened when I saw a huge fireball headed straight towards me. I looked towards Tristan and saw him charging back towards me at light speed.

I gave a wry smile as I looked back at the fireball that was now in front of me. I let myself get distracted because of my thoughts and probably crumbled Tristan's strategy as a result. I can't believe I botched this fight when it just started.

I sighed heavily and braced myself to get blasted…

-----------

POV | Tristan Vinter (Perseus)

'Fuck! Why did she not dodge that? It was literally so easy to dodge'

I thought, feeling both annoyed and concerned as I raced towards Ellie as fast as my horse could allow me, dodging the attacks of knights on the ground. Fortunately, the distance between us was very short so I'll be able to get there before she is surrounded.

The other mercenaries had cut down most of the other knights on horseback, like I predicted. Seriously, this Captain Maximus was an idiot for letting his men charge into a cavalry battle without a formation.

By the time I was in front of Ellie, the fireball had already reached her. I quickly glanced around her position to assess the level of danger she would be in once she got blasted towards the floor. We were currently on the flank of the battlefield, just slightly outside the area where most of the knights and mercenaries were fighting.

The fireball hit Ellie square on the chest and she flew off her horse and fell to the floor, with parts of her armor and hair burnt. I quickly inspected her health to see how injured she was.

[Ellie Vault| Lvl. 8 | Warrior]

[HP: 217/500 (43%)]

I sighed as I looked at her. She took quite the hit. She was struggling to get back up and 3 nearby knights noticed this and immediately surrounded her, intending to take her out.

'Shit, my prediction was off.' I thought upon seeing her getting surrounded from all sides.

Realizing I would not be able to get there on time, I quickly stood up on my horse and jumped off it towards where Ellie was, preparing myself to unleash a Cyclone Slash on those unsuspecting knights…