40 Revenge

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...

I shivered. There was no doubt in my mind if that was a full strength blow it would have split my head open or crushed my...

The loss of momentum caused the chains to land short. I couldn't help but stare and breath a sigh of relief. At the same time the large man recovered from the shock of Snake King's Aura. I flipped one of my daggers around grabbing the tip and flung it at the large man's face. Seeing me fling the dagger he brought his left hand up to block and the dagger buried itself up to the hilt.

"AGGHHH!"

"You'll pay for that!"

With his right hand he reared the chain back ready to strike again. Needing to see to aim he lowered his left hand from his face. Unfortunately for him at that exact moment my other dagger left my hand. He didn't have time to block again and the dagger pierced right through his eye into his brain. His body went limp and collapsed on the ground.

Essence Gained + 1659

I let out a massive sigh. Never again will I wish to be attacked just to gain some essence. My series of success's and high level had inflated my ego. Just because I may be a strong fighter now doesn't mean I could take everyone on. I almost lost my life to just a level 4, 3, and 2. Amazingly, I had came through without a scratch.

I stood up dusting the dirt off the back of my clothes and retrieved my daggers from the body of the large man. I then went through their clothes and found just 1 gold and 35 silver between all three of them. I also found a Lieutenant's badge on the large man and Sergeant's badges on the other two. Sure enough they were part of the mercenary group and the large man was even one of the two Lieutenants on Sauer's payroll.

Every member of the mercenary group carries a badge with their rank on it. Personally, I think it's an inefficient system since badges can be easily stolen and none of them have names on them. As a matter of fact Barry used this loophole to get into Sauer's office. After taking a badge off a sleeping Sergeant he used it to make the guards on Sauer's office chase after a "nearby thief" so he would have time to steal the documents.

After collecting the badges I stood over the corpses searing the image into my brain so I wouldn't forget the lesson I learned here. Even a small low level group can be a threat if they are trained and have teamwork.

Just as I was ready to leave I barely noticed a shadow moving behind me. The shadow stopped when I slightly turned my head. I'm really getting sick of this now. Can I just go somewhere once without someone attacking me. Seriously, if my last life had been like this I'd have died a thousand times over.

I had to admit though, this person was way more skilled than the others. Even now I hadn't heard so much as a pin drop nor had I felt any killing intent. I turned my head back to the front and used the edge of my vision to track the shadow. I let out an audible sigh and relaxed my shoulders. The shadow suddenly dashed forward. I still hadn't heard anything but the faintest killing intent appeared. Just as the assailant was about to arrive I side stepped. A dagger flashed by followed by the assailant who had expected to meet the resistance of a body instead of the air. As he was passing I grabbed the back of his clothes and slung him forward increasing his momentum.

"SMACK!"

Unable to stop, the assailant flew forward smashing his face into the wooden boards of the house in front of me. I darted forward expecting a fight but the assailant had already gone limp. Confused I pulled back the assailants hood. Underneath was the face of a young girl with jet black hair and pretty features. That is, except for her nose, which was currently smashed and bleeding.

"What is going on?"