'Go!'
With a single thought in my mind, my hand sent the wooden pole flying straight in the face of the mercenary.
Sadly, this was no gun but a simple wooden pole. And between its weight, air resistance, and the power of my body… It still took a moment for the wood to cross the distance.
A moment the mercenary used to nimbly lean his body to the side, easily dodging the attack while swatting it with the fist he held his sword in.
But the dodge caused the man to remain rooted on the spot, too focused on avoiding the attack to actually set himself up for the coming fight.
'Go!'
My soul screamed away, causing my body to tense up…
And spring forward in a maddened rush.
I only had a window of two seconds before the man would regain his composure.
My foot kicked the ground away, sending me flying forward with all the might I could gather from my legs.
In the bout of an animalistic drive, I leaned forward before using my hands to propel myself even further.
One breath passed, and the mercenary started to lean back into a proper, stable position.
Freed by my hands, my legs shoot forward, allowing me to make one more leap with my legs.
I kicked the ground, using all the energy I could gather in this singular moment.
The mercenary now regained his stability. Yet, before he could bring back the hand that he used to swat the projectile off its course, my first reached the pommel of his sword, pushing it right back from where the mercenary wanted to pull it back.
Feeling my fist bouncing back, I rapidly lowered my hips over the ground while spreading my legs far apart and bending back on my knees. And form this newly stabilized position, I used the force of the rebound to swing my hips along and redirect it with my other hand straight into the mercenary's spleen.
A strike that no chainmail of the mercenary could protect from.
'Not enough!'
My mind exploded with this simple realization, activating the neurons of my muscles.
I operated on mere instincts and muscle memory alone.
In a fight like that, my awareness of a modern person was of no use whatsoever.
After all, I wasn't fighting just a mercenary. Judging by the satchel of mana stones hanging from his hip, he was someone who was of sixth rank or higher!
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The mercenary bent down in half, his breath escaping along with his saliva and some drops of blood. His face twisted in an ugly grimace of unbearable pain as all the breath escaped from his mouth.
'This is it!'
I relaxed my fists right as I reached out with them as if trying to embrace and reassure my opponent with a friendly pat on the back.
But instead of going for his shoulders, I clasped my hands on both sides of the man's head, holding it in place and staring right into his torture-stricken eyes…
Before delivering my knee to his chin from below.
"Haaa…."
All of this happened in a single breath.
With my training showing its fangs, not a single part of my body dared to misbehave.
My body fully focused on the combat, discarding all the motions that threatened to subvert my desired outcome.
"Haaa…" The breath leaving my mouth was much warmer than usual, proving just how much my body heated up in this short exchange…
But looking into my host's history, it was only the first phase of the physical engagement. And as soon as the immediate threat disappears, my body would instead turn cold, slowing down the flow of my blood to counteract the blood loss from any potential injuries.
A reaction of a body one could train only by spilling their own over and over again.
The body of the mercenary fell down to the bare stones of the alley.
No matter how high of a rank, no man could take such a knee to the bottom of their chin and remain standing.
Before this strange mercenary could fully fall down, though, I reached out and grabbed his wrist, prying open his now relaxed hand and taking the handle of his sword.
'Now that things escalated, I might really need one of those,' I thought, gripping at the still-warm handle of the weapon.
I glanced down to judge the shape and condition of the weapon before taking two quick swings test swings.
"Will do," I muttered before taking another breath and finally allowing myself to glance over my shoulder at the woman I spotted before.
"Are you two okay?" I asked, recalling what was the reason why I even engaged with the mercenary instead of just running away in the first place.
One part was the strange pull that I felt dragging my soul and attention to this alley and the inherent curiosity that followed. And the other part…
Well, what kind of a man would I be if I just ignored a woman and a kid who were about to be attacked by some brute?
Speaking of those two, though…
The black-haired woman was clearly shocked. That much was clear from the extremely tense and surprised look on her face. But the kid she held in her arms…
I twitched when I saw the state of the young girl's long hair and the sad joke about the clothes that she wore.
Still.
The very moment I looked at the kid, it felt as if my entire soul twisted.
'It's just a simple kid!' I internally protested, refusing to accept this feeling.
This feeling that I knew well enough.
The pull drew all the players towards the events of the main storyline of the partial-dive kind of immersion games.
After all, the developers couldn't allow the curious gamers to wander around, never to find the story prepared for them to experience.
What it mean for me, though, was that this young kid was somehow tied to my fate in this world.
But how? For what reason? To what end?
I knew no answers to any of those questions.
Again though, the very moment I laid m eyes on the kid, she suddenly started to struggle in the woman's arms, clearly trying to wrestle herself free.
The kid's face was perfectly empty, devoid of a single thought or emotion…
But the desperation behind her struggle was obvious.
'Why is she stopping her…' I thought, raising my eyes to the woman's face…
But there was something wrong with it.
I couldn't clearly see her features, the shape of her eyes, or anything.
Yet, the more I looked… The less I allowed her black hair to fool me, the feeling this woman gave off, just from a single glance at her face…
'Wait, isn't she the…'
My head rapidly turned around when I sensed another threat.
And it happened just in time for two more soldiers to step out of the corner, near instantly turning their heads and scanning both me and their companion at my feet.
'Shit,' I thought, lowering my stance and tensing up the muscles in my leg. 'It was never going to be easy, was it?'