>>5659489Johannes was the first to emerge from the woods. A man wearing three quarter armor, and only armed with a sword. Sira saw this large man sprint towards the carriages and rapidly gaining distance against horses in full gallop.
Without ammunition to spare and increasingly sparse evidence, Sira tried to knock him off balance with a long gun when he approached. A single cut from his sword deflected the strike and knocked the empty arquebus out of his hand.
It was too late. Johannes ran past him and went for the driver. That elderly man tried to thrust at him, but the Reiter pushed aside his blade with his own and thrust back, impaling him through the armpit.
In one last attempt at preventing his dream from crumbling, Sira dashes to the front of the carriage and slams into Johannes, who was distracted with pulling the blade from the elderly driver’s corpse.
The crash sends both of them tumbling onto the jagged road. Scraping against it at such a high speed was tough. Sira can feel the burns through his clothes and some his skin being torn up. Superficial, but painful.
That Reiter turns his attention to Sira.
It wasn’t going to end well for him. He only had a sidesword and some padded clothing while this large man has three quarter armor.
.. the duel itself felt like an eternity. The exchanges became quicker but his body felt slower. His right hand was beginning to hurt from the shock of deflecting the cuts. Johannes always managed to push aside the thrusts to the unprotected upper arms or head. Hopes of lunges or grappling were snuffed out when he landed horizontal cuts to Sira’s thighs.
He remembers that moment vividly. A lunge from Johannes made Sira to push it aside.
That very moment reminded him of a particular sparring session back when he was part the Adamant Spearhead academy — practicing the ‘heart thrust’ play.
Sira pushes his blade up, allowing the quillon to catch and bind Johannes’ blade. He turns the sidesword downward, moving the point towards that Reiter’s unprotected neck.
With himself safe from a counterattack and his blade targeting a vulnerable spot, Sira steps forward and-
He can’t.
His right thigh shivers relentlessly but the leg cannot move.
Johannes uses this opportunity to step to the right and perform a diagonal cut towards his left thigh. The cut glides through his flesh, severing his left hand that was pressing against the bleeding thigh.
He collapses.
