Chapter 3: Barbarian Routed Soldiers

Can't catch up.

Simply can't catch up!

Can't run away.

Also simply can't run away!

Combat instinct told the sinister knight in front of him that as long as he dared to expose his back, he would immediately take a Frankish throwing axe from the opponent.

But how did the enemy know his position and play hide-and-seek with him in this battlefield of no more than fifty meters?

Listening to the sound?

The sinister knight tried to slow down to cover his footsteps, but it was still useless; the opponent completely grasped his every action.

Ghost!

The enemy was wandering around him like a ghost, as if a cat was playing with a mouse, waiting for the moment he was exhausted.

In fact, Deng Ken was also highly nervous right now, because the battlefield space that allowed him to play 'Qin Wang circling the pillar' was only that big—a dozen haystacks, wooden houses on both sides; a slight carelessness and he would be caught by the enemy. If he hadn't played many horror games in his previous life, being chased by ghosts and aliens in a tiny space, and now with God's eye view and controlling his body with his mind, he wouldn't be able to pull off this fine micro-operation. If the opponent caught even a single chance, full armor against no armor, that was an overwhelming advantage.

But in such a small battlefield, the sinister-looking knight couldn't catch up no matter what.

He wanted to run.

But the moment he had the urge to turn and run away, he immediately felt his hair stand on end, and the back of his head suddenly became chilly.

He couldn't describe the feeling at this moment.

But if another Earthling came, they would definitely exclaim: this guy is wallhacking, he's carding the vision.

360-degree, no-dead-angle.

The enemy's every move, even a heavy pant, was under Deng Ken's all-around surveillance.

That sinister knight should regret throwing away his long-range weapon during the rout. Of course, if Deng Ken were given a bow and arrow that could break armor, the opponent would have already been shot into a hedgehog.

"It seems this knight's physical fitness is just a bit stronger than an ordinary person."

"This different world should be low-magic."

Although it was game perspective control, the combat was infinitely close to reality; neither side's health bar could withstand one or two attacks.

Deng Ken's perspective was locked tight right now. The distance between the two sides was twenty meters, with several haystacks two or three meters high, making it impossible to see the situation on the opposite side. There were wooden houses on both sides to card the vision; no matter which direction he bypassed from, he could respond calmly.

Advance to attack, retreat to defend; as long as you can't catch up, you have no way to deal with me.

No armor against full armor, definitely can't fight head-on.

Deng Ken was now relying on being young, running fast, and being agile to bully the opponent who couldn't run due to heavy armor.

The current situation even reminded him of playing hide-and-seek with his partners when he was a child. The rule then was that you had to catch them; at least touching them counted as winning. Some nasty guys relied on running fast to play 'Qin Wang circling the pillar', and you couldn't catch them no matter what.

The opponent is about to run.

The moment the enemy retreated, Deng Ken immediately realized that the 'offense and defense had changed'.

A few short minutes.

He had changed from a farmer being chased by a knight to a farmer chasing a knight.

"Stamina bar is still half full!"

Pitchfork in one hand, throwing axe in the other, Deng Ken followed the opponent's movement with the 20-meter wallhack. If he left this area, he wouldn't be able to card the vision.

"Can't keep consuming like this!"

The sinister knight's expression already had a trace of fear; he felt like he had met a ghost today.

He had changed from a hunter to prey.

The enemy seemed to have opened his heavenly eyes; his every move was known by the opponent. The sinister knight chased for a long time in armor, but couldn't even touch a corner of his clothes. The key was that the opponent didn't run far, just kept circling him here, circling until he was a bit dizzy.

His spirit was highly nervous, worried that the enemy would suddenly pop out from behind or the sides.

Retreat.

At least retreat to an open area; can't consume here.

Just as the sinister knight retreated out of the haystack pile bit by bit, suddenly his hair stood on end, and he subconsciously lunged to dodge, but it was too late. A Frankish throwing axe didn't hit his head, but it smashed into the side of the back of his head. The chainmail blocked the attack, but the heavy blow made him dizzy and spinning for a moment. Before he could crawl up and swing his sword to counterattack, a pitchfork already filled his vision.

Under God's eye view.

The enemy had a short dizziness icon after being hit in the back of the head.

Deng Ken attacked decisively.

"Don't kill me..."

Pfft!

Blood sprayed, eye socket burst.

When Deng Ken pulled out the pitchfork, it even brought out a poked-out eyeball tissue.

He turned around, picked up the Frankish throwing axe, and hit the enemy's forehead!

Headshot!

The knight still had thick blood.

One axe split his forehead before he finally kicked the bucket.

"Combat ended."

In a daze, Deng Ken seemed to see a flash of light appear on the enemy's corpse, which disappeared directly into the body he was controlling.

—"Military Weapon Mastery: You have gained the ability to proficiently use conventional military weapons. You are more proficient when using one-handed, two-handed, polearms, bows and crossbows, javelins, throwing axes, etc."

—"Basic Combat Skills: You have gained combat styles such as stab, split, flick, slash, etc. You are familiar with most basic moves when using military weapons."

—"Block and Parry: You can attempt to block and parry enemy attacks in combat."

The combat column in the projection screen was suddenly filled. The originally light gray 'Stab' style even had a light blue border, while the other styles had no changes and remained light gray borders.

"Is this a skill drop?"

Deng Ken found that he seemed to have plundered their combat skills from the enemy, as if he had experienced years of military training, and various basic styles were at his fingertips.

Although he wouldn't say how brilliant it was, the foundation was absolutely solid, and it definitely couldn't be practiced without three or five years of effort.

Consciousness slightly dazed.

When Deng Ken's vision recovered, his consciousness had already left God's eye view. He smelled a thick bloody odor; although he felt it in the previous battle, it wasn't this clear, and it even made him want to retch.

The hideous corpses in front of him also made his heart tremble. Unlike God's eye view, which was like playing a game, Deng Ken couldn't help but retch a few times.

His consciousness returned to his body, only his mind seemed to have more combat skills from years of training.

A sense of hunger struck.

Deng Ken searched around, finally turned over the knight's corpse, and found a bag soaked in blood, inside which were small pieces of dried meat, feeling like venison. These dried meats were soaked in blood and had a fishy smell, but he couldn't find other food nearby for the time being. He washed them with water by the well and chewed them dry directly.

In his previous life, he would absolutely not eat things stained with dead people's blood, but now he had killed three people, and he didn't care about these at all. The blood stained on it was just seasoning; replenish energy first.

He now understood why everyone said that a new soldier is different as long as he survives the battlefield.

Deng Ken found that his mentality was changing rapidly.

Looting corpses.

He dragged the three routed soldiers' corpses over, looted them one by one, and put the things he found in a pile on the side. The sinister knight was about the same height as him and should be of noble origin, because he wore something like silk inner clothes and trousers inside.

He stripped them off directly, washed the blood stains, and it was much better than the tattered clothes Deng Ken was wearing.

Still wearing dead people's clothes.

He had already transmigrated, what else was there to be taboo about.

The sky gradually darkened.

Only then did Deng Ken have the energy to digest the original owner's memory. This guy actually had the same name as him, which saved trouble. The original owner of this body lost his parents when he was young, grew up relying on relatives, stole chickens and dogs, fought, and was notorious. Fortunately, he was already thirteen or fourteen at that time, counting as half a laborer, and could always get a meal. After the original owner became an adult, he was sent to a blacksmith shop in the town to learn a craft through connections, which was actually just doing chores; the old blacksmith didn't teach him seriously at all.

This guy wasn't honest and wanted to take shortcuts, hooked up with the charming landlady next door, and finally, when things were exposed, he could only sneak back to this poor, remote mountain village.

The original owner's memory didn't have anything; the part he remembered most deeply was actually all about the landlady with white skin.

Pfft!

Not a good thing either.

As for the cause of this village massacre, it was unclear. The original owner only heard a sentence: "You damn lowly people!" Then a fierce conflict broke out. These routed soldiers killed everyone they saw, and others could only rise up to resist.

According to Deng Ken's guess, the cause must have been the routed soldiers looting the village, either because of robbing property or because of insulting women, which triggered the conflict.

After losing a battle, slaughtering some lowly people to vent, it was an old tradition of the Empire.

The Empire's military discipline was quite poor!

Whenever they were slightly defeated, they would loot nearby towns and villages.

The sky was getting late.

Surrounded by wild mountains and ridges, Deng Ken couldn't leave either. He gathered the corpses, found a relatively clean house, spread some thatch, and made do for a night. This village had long been looted clean; even a chicken couldn't be found. There were no livestock in the shed, only a little livestock dung left.

Early the next morning.

He piled the victims' corpses by the wooden house and haystack, found some firewood, and facing the dawn at the edge of the sky, burned them all clean with a fire.

"I can only do this much!"

Deng Ken carried a low-quality hunting bow found at the hunter's house on his back and said calmly toward the direction where the fire rose: "Brother, I helped you avenge your grudge, and I helped you bury the people."

"You can go in peace."

Deng Ken didn't want to bear any karma from the original owner. That charming landlady wasn't slept with by him either; he had no more worries from now on.

The wooden house was ignited.

The fire soared into the sky.

In the dust flying all over the sky, Deng Ken carried the things he could use on his back and left this remote little mountain village without looking back.

Half a day of traveling, throw things away first.

Those armors were heavy as death; carrying them on mountain roads was simply torturing himself. Deng Ken finally only wore a set of inner short robes with studded leather armor, a bit like a ranger's outfit, a light armor unit; everything else that affected movement was thrown away.

He was carrying food and water on his back, holding a few coins he had looted, feeling like a refugee fleeing famine.

"I have to find a way to get a horse."

This ghost place is really desolate; I don't know where those routed soldiers were defeated from. It is said that there was a rebellion by a lord on the southern border, who directly defected to the enemy country.

After the Empire weakened, border lords often rebelled.

Not strange.

It's a pity the original owner didn't have much knowledge and hadn't been to too far places; he had to find a way to collect a lot of information himself.

Deng Ken walked for half a day on mountain roads and finally stepped onto the official road.

Four-square avenue.

Built during the peak of the Empire, it was actually just a bumpy, dusty road that hadn't been repaired for decades.

But fortunately, he finally ran into other people.

A northern caravan.

They had about twenty people in total, with many refugees following behind. The caravan guards on horseback became alert when they saw him and drew their bows. After some questioning, they reluctantly agreed to let him follow behind the caravan to escape to the next city.

Deng Ken consciously walked with the group of refugees.

Asking a little, they were basically people fleeing from nearby, just hearing that the Empire's army had been defeated again, fleeing north to avoid the war. This caravan was also urgently retreating to the rear; they didn't expect the nearby lord to actually rebel and defect.

Anyway, it was a mess right now, and the routed soldiers had stirred up the place.

"It seems this Empire is not doing well either!"

Before Deng Ken could get familiar with the refugees and find out more news, suddenly a sharp whistle sounded, followed by the caravan guards being in a panic. The mules and horses of the convoy were being gathered, goods were piled on the outside, and people were gathering inside, each with a nervous expression, already prepared for battle.

"It's the barbarians!" A terrified voice sounded nearby.

Whoosh!

A sharp arrow struck, and a refugee following behind the caravan fell to the ground instantly, making a shrill wail. Others scattered like birds and beasts. Those who were slightly more awake immediately ran toward the half-circle gathered by the caravan's horses and vehicles, because there weren't enough mule and horse carts to barely surround a half-circle.

The Empire's most loyal mercenary army.

Barbarians.

In these years of endless war, the few victories of the Empire were won by barbarian mercenary armies. They maintained the last trace of glory of the twilight Empire.

But if the barbarian army was defeated and became routed soldiers, that was a thorough, complete disaster.

They burned, killed, looted, and slaughtered villages and towns, even more brutal than the enemy army.

"Enter combat state!"

Deng Ken felt his consciousness leaving his body. The next second, he cut into God's eye view again, only this time there were quite a few red dots on both sides, and the caravan guards were marked as blue light dots. What surprised him a little was that in the central area of the caravan's vehicle formation, there was actually a special yellow dot mark.

—"Witch 【Neutral】 (Skull mark)."

Holy crap?!

Although when the empty mana bar appeared at the beginning, Deng Ken had thought that this world might possess certain supernatural powers.

However, the knight he killed was just physically stronger than an ordinary person, so he thought that even if there were supernatural powers, they should be relatively rare, but he didn't expect to run into one so soon.

The witch in the crowd couldn't be seen clearly at all.

Deng Ken was like a wild horse off the leash, his speed far exceeding other refugees, running wildly all the way and hiding in the caravan's semi-circular vehicle formation.

A rain of arrows struck.

Those who were fleeing behind the caravan fell half instantly. A few young and strong ones barely kept up with the speed. A sturdy man behind him saw his companion fall behind and stumble, and turned to want to pull him, but didn't want the arrow to break through the air, directly shooting through his neck.

As for the person he wanted to pull, he let out a terrified scream, pushed his companion away, and crawled into the caravan's defensive circle with hands and feet, pissing his pants.

Only the man's corpse fell down in place with a thud.

"In troubled times, one cannot be a saint."

Deng Ken couldn't help but shrink his head back. That sturdy man should have been a hunter among the refugees, quite prestigious, and should have had some skills, but he didn't expect to die so quickly.

As for the young man who was pissing his pants, he was already scared out of his wits, paralyzed on the ground and unable to crawl up for a long time.

A strange roar came.

In the woods on both sides of the road, barbarian routed soldiers walked out one after another. They had lush beards and hair, looked like wild men, wore animal skins, had tattoos and totems on their upper bodies, and some even smeared bone ash, using strange roars to scare everyone.

The Empire's most loyal mercenary army once again turned their butcher knives toward the Empire's civilians.

……………… ===== CHAPTER 4 =====