Chapter 859: The Comical Battle in the Valley of Babtali (Part 3)

When Jier slowed down and turned his horse around, the Dwarf who had been chasing closely behind him was overjoyed; he let out a shout, clanged the pair of axes in his hands together twice, and slowed his pace, preparing to fight this outsider Human.

This fellow was either so inexperienced in fighting Human Cavalrymen or Knights that he had no concept of Jier's strength, or he was simply overconfident, believing that with his own set of weapons and equipment, he could—while others were constantly arriving behind him—

finish Jier off.

At least, that was how Jier felt.

So, he kicked his horse's flanks hard, urging the warhorse to accelerate into a charge toward the Dwarf, while his right hand tightened its grip on the spear shaft, lowering and leveling the weapon to aim at the opponent's upper body.

"Ha!"

He shouted this aloud, and the Dwarf opposite him simultaneously let out a cry.

Tianxuecao galloped across the soft ground of the Valley, and the tall Knight and the Dwarf standing ready on the ground crossed paths in an instant.

The two did not actually make contact, because in the brief moment of the charging acceleration, Jier noticed while aiming at the opponent that this Dwarf's target was not himself.

Looking through the gap in the front of the opponent's dark gray horned Metal Helmet, the opponent was currently focusing his attention on the legs of the galloping Tianxuecao.

In just a split second, Jier understood the opponent's plan: that fellow wanted to break through the thick horse armor Tianxuecao was wearing, thereby wounding one of Tianxuecao's legs and subsequently restricting Jier's mobility.

Hmph, a very good plan, and a very pragmatic one at that.

In a flash, Jier weighed the outcome of stabbing the Dwarf to death against the possibility of his own warhorse being injured.

Needless to say, Jier naturally had to prioritize the condition of his own side.

You see, unlike the stories sung in taverns, a Warrior's greatest combat effectiveness is not when they are supposedly making a comeback with low health or surviving a mortal wound, but when they are well-fed, well-rested, and in full health.

Only then can a Warrior truly exert their full, or even exceeding, combat strength in battle.

Therefore, protecting oneself and the state of one's mount during a fight is directly proportional to maintaining one's own combat effectiveness.

A Warrior who is constantly getting injured and unable to protect themselves will inevitably find it difficult to go far on the battlefield.

At least, that is what Jier believes nowadays.

As the two crossed, the Dwarf on the ground stirred, his body half-turned, his right-hand axe swinging to hack, and his left-hand axe poised to follow up. But Jier only slightly shifted the target of his spear tip, and with a pull on the Jiansheng with his left hand to give the warhorse a small adjustment, he instantly changed the subsequent situation.

The moment Jier changed the direction of his spear tip, the Dwarf, who was posturing to hack, sensed it keenly; after all, the two were locked in combat with no one else able to intervene, and every detail of the fight was observed by the two men who were concentrating with all their might.

The Dwarf realized that the Human's target was no longer his torso, but rather his weapon or the right arm wielding it, and he frowned. He was confident that the thick armor he had crafted for himself could block the Human's Long Spear; although he might get injured, it certainly wouldn't be fatal, and that was enough. He didn't demand too much of himself; as long as he could use his weapon to injure the opponent's warhorse and restrict the Human's mobility, he could naturally provide important combat assistance to his other companions.

Once he was injured and retreated, the Human whose warhorse had been wounded would inevitably dismount to fight, and when the companions rushed up to surround him, they could fight however they pleased.

In the past, when dealing with the three types of Monsters that broke into the mine, it was often like this: several people would go up and rely on the thickest armor to hack at the Monster's legs, restricting its movement, and then leave the subsequent fight to other Dwarf companions to finish off.

But it wouldn't work now; this Human was cunning, seeing through his plan in an instant and shifting the Long Spear's attack to his weapon and right arm to restrict his strike. If he continued to hack, his axe might not necessarily cut the opponent's warhorse first, but instead, the opponent would use the length of the weapon to knock his axe away or pierce through his right arm first.

A sacrifice without a good result is better not made at all.

The Dwarf thought, and after the Human changed his move, he also changed his plan. The left-hand axe shifted from a rear-loaded position to extending forward to support the back of the right-hand axe; with both arms braced together, the weight of the axes and the strength of his arms should be able to block the spear thrust by the man on horseback, right?

And if he blocked the opponent's spear head-on, he would also have the chance to leap out with both legs and use the protruding axe to strike back at the warhorse's right front leg.

Although it was no longer a hacking axe, his full-body leap using the axe as a spear would surely be able to cripple one of the opponent's warhorse's legs, right?

However, Jier did not give this Dwarf the chance; he tugged slightly on the Jiansheng with his left hand, and Tianxuecao immediately understood its master's intent: to shift slightly to the left while sprinting.

So it followed its master's intent and shifted slightly.

The direction of the warhorse's run changed just a little bit; Jier felt it, but the Dwarf opposite did not notice. That Dwarf must have had all his focus on the weapon about to clash with Jier, right?

He thought too much.

The two were over ten meters apart, and with the warhorse galloping and shifting slightly, by the time they reached the distance to engage, Jier had already opened up a two-meter gap to the Dwarf's right, his own left.

"Ha! You clumsy Potato!"

Jier let out a strange cry, and amidst the opponent's confused gaze, he bypassed the Dwarf's front and the reach of his right-hand attack. But it didn't end there; he backhanded the Long Spear toward the side and rear, sweeping it horizontally to strike the Dwarf's horned Metal Helmet!

Jier put strength into this strike and had intended to sweep the back of the opponent's head; if that spot were hit, regardless of the severity, this Dwarf would lose the ability to continue fighting.

But unfortunately, or perhaps, Jier's own skill in mounted spear-fighting was not as high as he had imagined.

The backhanded sweep only struck the horn of the Dwarf's Helmet.

A cluster of sparks burst from the top of the Dwarf's head, and then a broken metal horn spun away.

The Dwarf himself stood quite steadily, after all, his center of gravity was low and his armored body was heavy, so after taking this hit, the Dwarf only swayed, but the Helmet that was struck rotated under the force, tearing out quite a bit of the Dwarf's hair and beard, which were flung off his head and fell to the ground.

"Ow—"

The Dwarf howled in pain, let go of the axe in his hand, and immediately reached one hand toward the back of his head and the other toward the black beard on his chin.

"%%! &%%!"

The Dwarf shrieked miserably, completely ignoring the Human Knight, and began to check the beard on his chin that had been swept away by the Helmet in a panic. The more he checked, the more he wanted to scream; his originally well-maintained beard was now more than half ruined, all sheared off when the Helmet was knocked away.

Once the panic passed, the Dwarf became enraged; the Human had destroyed, er, ruined most of his beard, damn it!

He maintained this thick, lush beard every day, carefully combing it with a comb and applying rare Grease to make it shine; therefore, among the Miners in the mine, his beard had always been the object that everyone vied to emulate. He was also proud of this beard of his!

But now, his pride, his dignity, his beard! They had all been ruined by this damn Human!

Thinking of this, the Dwarf grabbed the two Single-handed Axes that had fallen to the ground, raised his head aggressively, and scanned left and right for the figure of the Human on horseback.

Very well, over there, is it? See how I show you!

Jier was not very satisfied with his combat performance just now; if the spear tip could have dropped just a little lower, it could have hit the back of the opponent's head. He wouldn't dare say it would kill the Dwarf in one blow, but it would have been highly likely to knock him unconscious or give him a severe concussion.

"A pity, what a pity."

Jier said this, his eyes glancing to one side, and then he flattened his body against the horse's back, dodging two long-shafted Arrows flying toward him.

Whoosh, whoosh—

The sound of the Arrows cutting through the air was soft and short, feeling quite different from any he had seen before.

He raised his eyes to look in the direction the Arrows came from, his eyes narrowing, his breath hitching, and his hands subconsciously adjusting the direction of the Long Spear, using the broad double-edged blade on the spear to deflect another subsequent long-shafted Arrow.

The opponent's Arrow struck the blade of Jier's Long Spear, the metal arrowhead sparking as it was deflected, while the long wooden arrow shaft shattered under the force, creating a spray of wood splinters.

With a clatter, Jier tilted his head slightly to avoid the wood splinters heading for his face and head, ignoring the rest and letting these things, which didn't even count as tickles, strike the surface of his armor.

Looking toward where the Arrows came from, Jier finally saw that those launching the attack on him were three Humans holding Large Bows over a meter long.

He had an impression of these three; they hadn't set out from the Cunzi earlier, but were they archers? Hunters? Or bow-wielding guards who had walked down from the Stone Wall in front of the Forest at the other end of the Valley?

Regardless of what these people's identities were, they were clearly not ordinary Villagers.

That was how Jier judged it.

Thinking was one thing, but Jier then tapped the horse's belly, letting Tianxuecao charge toward this group of Humans.

He shouted, "When there are non-Humans present, I hope Humans do not fight Humans!"

Hearing this, the three archers holding Large Bows looked at each other, smiled disdainfully, then nocked the newly retrieved Arrows onto their Bowstrings again, aimed the bow limbs toward Jier, and without needing much aim, released the Arrows.

Surrounding the three archers were dozens of young people from the village; they also found this outsider Knight's rhetoric amusing, so they began to curse one after another.

"Compared to the Dwarves, you Nobles are the real freaks and non-Humans!"

"You are not welcome here, either surrender! Or go die!"

"Don't accept this person's surrender! If he surrenders, he will climb onto the heads of all of us, just beat him to death!"

"Beat him to death! Let us beat him to death! Torito Village does not welcome outsider Knight Nobles!"

"We don't pay taxes! We live however we want! We won't be ruled by outsiders!"

"Uh, what is paying taxes?"

"Paying taxes, uh, my grandfather said, it's just giving away more than half of our annual grain harvest for nothing to Nobles who don't care about anything but ride on top of everyone's heads. That seems to be paying taxes."

"Is that so? Then that's definitely not happening! Why should we? No taxes! No being ruled by outsiders! Beat him to death!"

The male and female Villagers said all sorts of things, a chaotic mess, but as dozens of them waved various tools in their hands and marched toward Jier with big strides, there was indeed a certain momentum to it.

Facing the renewed shooting from the three somewhat capable archers, Jier gave the Jiansheng a sharp tug, letting the warhorse slow down first, then accelerate again, slightly avoiding two of the Arrows, while the last one only hit the Weapon Rack behind Jier, shooting through the Arrow bag inside the rack.

Jier took the initiative to dodge the opponent's shooting, not because he was truly afraid of their bows and arrows; previously, when fighting Bandits behind the Baishi Chengqiang Guanka, he had relied on the armor on his body to withstand the volleys of the Bandits' bows and arrows.

Of course, the bows and arrows in the hands of those Bandits were simple Hunting Bows with poor sizes and draw weights, incomparable to the sturdy Large Bows over a meter long in the hands of the three in front of him now. Moreover, the Bow and Arrow used by both were naturally different.

The Bandits had limited resources, and their technical skills were even worse; the metal used for the arrowheads on the fired Bow and Arrow was very stingy, and they were crudely made, with the weight and flight speed of the Bow and Arrow being very average, so Jier naturally wasn't afraid of his armor being pierced.

But these few were different; just from the first encounter, Jier discovered that the metal arrowheads on the opponent's Bow and Arrow were quite large, and combined with the long arrow shafts of the Large Bows, the weight of one Bow and Arrow plus the speed fired from a Large Bow were all very threatening to him.

Jier was not confident in hard-taking the opponent's Bow and Arrow on his body, even if the armor could block it. Even if it really did block it, the impact would not be pleasant.

He had not forgotten the Knight Training that took place south of the Naonu River during his southward journey.

Formal Knight Metal Armor had been "polished" by hundreds or thousands of Crossbow Bolts, almost costing the life of the Knight wearing it.

This full-coverage Metal Armor that Jier had made with a Craftsman friend before he had undergone Knight Training was clearly far inferior to the defensive power of formal Knight Armor.

And since the weight and power of the Bow and Arrow were clearly stronger than Crossbow Bolts, Jier did not dare to hard-take the shooting from these few.

Although he was still some distance away from these people at this moment, and it was difficult for the average person's shooting skills to accurately hit a moving target like him at this distance, blindly dodging and taking hits was not a solution; he had to resolve them.

That said, these three stayed firmly within the crowd of Villagers, guarded by dozens of young Villagers; wanting to get close and kill them was not an easy task.

To attack them, one had to pass through the crowd, and passing through the crowd would inevitably lead to slowing down, limited mobility, and having to engage with the Villagers, spending more energy on the fight with the Villagers.

At this time, one would inevitably be subjected to close-range shooting from these three archers; if one didn't pay attention to their bows and arrows, it was possible to be shot and injured or killed by the three of them.

What to do?

He was only one person; it was impossible to suppress three archers while breaking through the obstruction of the Villagers. And while breaking through the Villagers, he would inevitably be subjected to the lethal shooting of the three archers.

Moreover, Jier was still hesitant, not knowing whether he should deal lethal blows to these Villagers and archers. The number of Human Villagers in the Valley was not small, at least two hundred or more, with men, women, old, and young; just excluding the old and weak left in the Cunzi, and the middle-aged farmers he had driven away and intimidated, there were dozens of local young men and women in front of him right now who were disgusted by outsiders.

Jier estimated that either the vast majority or all of these people had never left this Valley in their lives.

Considering that the people here were not ruled by the Nobles of Sasi County at all, making them integrate into the outside world again would be very difficult, which made Jier quite troubled.

A thought rose in his mind: should he kill all these young people who were most stubborn toward outsiders?

Shaking his head violently, Jier dispelled this idea, which couldn't be worse; how could he? If he killed these young people, should he then kill the others in the Cunzi who hadn't fought him yet?

Just thinking about it, he knew those people would definitely fight to the death.

Not to mention the huge sin created by doing so, did Jier himself really dare to take action? Was he crazy?

How would the Refugees entering here later view him? And how would the many troublesome Dwarves here view him?

He couldn't act recklessly.

Jier shook his head, driving these far-fetched thoughts out of his mind, and concentrated on dealing with the problem lying before him.

He didn't know how many Arrows these archers had brought before coming, but Jier clearly could not let these few people drag him here. Because there were large numbers of Dwarves approaching him from both front and back.

More than a dozen Dwarves holding Heavy Throwing Spears were one or two hundred meters away; relying on the Dwarves' short legs, it would only take about a minute to come over and join the battle. And the Dwarf he had just fought behind him was even closer, only fifty or sixty meters away; it would only take two breaths to run there at full speed on horseback, and it wouldn't take long for the opponent to rush over either.

"What to do? At least I cannot be dragged here and let them surround me."

Jier dodged another round of Arrows shot consecutively by the opponent; he felt some pressure at this moment.

In his ears were his own panting, the warhorse's panting, and the swishing sound of Arrows cutting through the air. Not far ahead were the curses and hostility of the crowd, and behind him were the incomprehensible curses of the Dwarves.

"Damn it, I am clearly the protagonist! How is it that once I get here, I've become the villain instead? Everyone is cursing me, everyone is swearing at me, when I'm clearly the one who has been under attack the whole time!"

Jier gritted his teeth, his cheeks puffed up in anger.

He subconsciously reached out and brushed the Heartfire Dagger at his waist, a thought of setting fire and burning everyone here to death constantly growing.

But he quickly came to his senses and tightened his grip on the shaft of the Long Spear in his hand again.

He gave up on the fight with the people around him for now, turned the horse's head, and ran; it wasn't that he was afraid, but after calming down slightly, Jier remembered his previous battle plan.

These enemies who treated him as an enemy clearly would not let him move around in the Valley, and would inevitably pursue him constantly. Therefore, he could instead take advantage of this point, using the opponent's pursuit of him to completely stretch out the opponents, who had different moving speeds, into a long line that could not support each other.

And he could then use the warhorse's high mobility to choose the targets he wanted to attack at will along the opponent's stretched-out line.

Just like the previous plan, although the locals opposed him, an outsider Knight, there was still a chance to win them over. Therefore, he should first focus on dealing with the local Dwarves, and in the process of striking the Dwarves, demonstrate his martial power to the locals to weaken their will to fight.

After figuring it out, Jier took a deep breath, looked at the surrounding environment, and instead rode his horse toward the Huitou Forest where he had come from.

Hmph, want to chase me, right?

Let me take you for a ride first.