I stare at the man intently, never missing his movement because that is very important. To attack, one must be sure to notice the right opportunity to strike instead of foolishly rushing it. That’s a lesson of life I learnt after patiently doing enough research on my assignments for my class to get good grades compared to some of my classmates that got bad marks for rushing it with care.
The man was standing a little away from the wall of the tavern while holding a knife in one hand and having a firm hold over the woman with the other hand. He seemed to be wary of his surroundings with the way his eyes kept darting back and forth from place to place. I have to hand it to him for his sharp skills and eyesight in being wary of danger from any side.
Still, there has to be some chance, even a minuscule opportunity to charge in, so I waited. Time passed by and the people remained silent without doing anything with the negotiating people still doing their best to convince him. I didn’t mind much about their words of persuasion as I continued to stare at the man with the woman that looked she was going to faint from exhaustion.
“Shut up, bastards!” the man yelled, his temper suddenly flaring up. “Hurry with my money or I’ll really kill her! Besides, she’s pregnant. Do you seriously want me to harm here and this unborn child of mine?”
“Bastard…!” I thought quietly, watching the man make a twisted smile on his face that shocked others.
Just then, a man on the other side moved between the crown to hide his presence. When he saw the man making such a twisted smile, he jumped out of the crowd and attempted to charge at him but is stopped when the twisted man whirled turned to face him with the knife pressed to her throat.
“Stay back or she’s dead!” he roared, glaring fiercely at him.
As the attacker faltered, his surroundings shouted using similar words to stop him. I, on the other hand, saw that the twisted man is distracted and took it as my opportunity to charge in.
My body shook a little before I clenched my fists in determination as I thought, “Please work.”
I charged towards the man at a run, but I was amazed when my charge suddenly became a dash.
“Wow!” I yelled in surprise.
The speed of my running suddenly increased exponentially and made me leave a trail of dust behind. Seeing that I had reached him, I stopped running and my feet got dragged on the ground as I slid to a stop right in front of him. At the same time, the man turned and was momentarily surprised to see me there.
I immediately used my left hand to grab his hand holding the knife and pulled it away easily because he had slackened it due to being distracted. Then, with my other hand, I delivered a powerful punch to his stomach.
Well, it felt powerful to me because he suddenly widened his eyes in surprise and groaned in pain. In reflex, he let go of the woman and took a few steps back while clutching the place where I had hit him.
“Oh!” I said, reflexively saying out loud my surprise to see her suddenly fall sidewards.
I quickly caught her and held her in my arms with her feet still on the feet. It was no princesses’ cradle, but it was sufficient enough to not upset her stomach in this position. Still, I was startled to see so much sweat pouring out of her head and body due to the amount of stress she endured while being held captive.
“Good work, kid,” said someone’s voice from nearby. “Let me take her.”
I turned and saw that it was the same man that had attempted to sneak attack on the twisted guy. Merely nodding my head, I handed her custody over to him and allowed him to carry her away. He was soon followed by several women and men as they were concerned for her safety.
Seeing that the trouble was over, I sighed when a voice shouted, “Damn you!”
Widening my eyes in shock, I whirled around and saw that the man was seriously mad and drove his knife in an attempt to cut me. I immediately stepped back hastily, but the knife managed to cut me slightly on the check because I moved sideways to evade it unsuccessfully.
I stepped back and held a hand to my cheek where the knife managed to cut me a little. Taking the hand away, my eyes widened to find traces of blood on it when I held my hand in front of me. While staring, a window suddenly popped up in front of me detailing my stats with status changes.
HP:
41 [-1]
CON:
16 [-4]
“My HP and CON dropped a little. That’s fine, but… this blood… I know this world is real, but… seeing the blood just makes this more realistic and scarier…” I thought, staring at the slightly dropped values of my stats in astonishment.
The twisted man straightened up and held his knife at the ready while shouting, “Bastard! Die!”
“You know… I made two mistakes dealing with you,” I said, still staring at my hand.
“Ha?!” the man exclaimed, looking confusedly at me.
“One: dropping my guard and two: letting you off with only a punch,” I finished, lifting my head and glaring angrily at him.
The twisted man was startled to see my expression, and he angrily roared while charging at me to attack. I beat him to it, though because I ran at him and my Runner ability pushed increased my speed. Reaching him in a second’s notice, I pushed the knife held hand aside and grabbed him from both sides. Continuing to run, I dragged him backwards before slamming his head hard against the wall.
“Gah!” the man groaned, his eyes widened from the shock of impact.
I pulled my right hand back and punched him forcefully with my clenched fist. He groaned from the pain, and I pulled my left hand back and punched him against with my clenched fist. Like this, I continued to release my anger on him by punching him several times while he groaned in pain. Then, my punched both of the sides of his face a few times before grabbing his hair and pulling them up.
“Ah!” he yelled, throwing his arms aside helplessly at the pain.
My actions would seem a little out of place, but I was angry, and I wanted to take it out on him. Honestly, I am a quiet person and always minded my own business while lending help if I could. Even my parents and teachers praise me for my behaviour, labelling me as one of their best students. Still, there is this side of me that unexpectedly undermines that side.
Whenever I hurt myself, I would just say, “Oh well,” and let it go, but if I was hurt by someone, say, through bullying, then I get angry, so angry that I would want to hurt them back. Bullying is something I especially hate, and I was the target since I am usually quiet and honest person.
Of course, getting angry has its consequences as I often ended up fighting the bullies and ended up getting scolded pretty badly by my father. Since then, I followed my mother’s advice of ignoring pigs with a mouth because they are worse than trash. Still, the feeling of wanting to fight back is still inside of me.
“How does it feel?! Does it hurt?!” I shouted, glaring angrily at him.
The man groaned in pain before glaring back at me. To my surprise, he clenched his fist and delivered it straight to my stomach.
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"Ugh!” I exclaimed, placing my hands on my stomach as I took a hasty step back.
A window popped up in front of me, showing me my decreased status values.
HP:
39 [-2]
CON:
13 [-3]
The villainous man seems to have recovered from the beating I had dealt him. His face was filled serious anger, making him charge wildly at me. I quickly took steps to evade the attack a few times, which made him quite mad at his unsuccessful attempt to take my life.
“Still, when will these adults come and disarm this guy?”
Glancing around while dodging, I noticed that everyone is either awestruck, surprised or amazed by the spectacle. It reminded me of the few times I saw people gather to watch street fights between two or more people angry over something. They just watched without lifting a single finger or speaking out loud to make an objection.
They didn't even seem to share the same concern for me like they did for the pregnant woman. I guess, to them, this is more like a street fight than a situation of life and death.
“Worlds change, but the people don't ha?” I thought, inwardly sighing in resignation.
“Die!” the twisted man yelled, once again failing to cut me as I dodged him.
My temper flew up once more at his stupidity and feeling the pain lessen in my stomach, I lifted my left hand and grabbed his swinging knife hand. He momentarily became surprised, and I took the opportunity to grab his shirt front with my free hand and grunted as I lifted him into the air. Flowing with the movement of how I imagined it to be, I lifted him over my head and threw him to the ground.
“Wow...” I whispered, breathing a little quicker.
I'm amazed at myself for managing to stop his arm and even lift him over my head. Sure, I'm tall, and I weigh quite a bit, but it still doesn't explain away how I managed to do that. He did weigh a little, but I suppose the deciding factor lay in his sloppiness. That's the best explanation I could think of from what I've seen and experienced.
He lay on the ground and moaned softly while moving around a little. Watching him grovel on the ground made me feel a little bit of sympathy because I believed the man to have just lost control due to his unstable feelings and alcohol running in his system. Well, there is a saying that the teachers at school tell us.
“Alcohol is the worst enemy of any man.”
I walked forward, intending to help him when, all of a sudden, he lifted himself up and swung his knife at me. I got shocked and reacted a second late to get away, resulting in my right hand getting cut.
“Ouch!” I shouted, wincing from the stinging feeling on my hand.
I backed away and opened the palm of my hand to see fresh blow oozing out of a horizontal wound he had given me. The pain caused my hand to shake a little as the blood slowly trickled to the corners of my hand and lately fell silently on the ground. At the same time, a window popped up in front of me and again displayed my reduced stats.
HP:
36 [-3]
CON:
14 [-2]
The man rose to his feet and is cackling with laughter as he said, “You fell for my trick! Ha! You’re stupid!”
I glared at him in great anger and replied, “Yes. I am stupid for showing you the slightest bit of mercy!”
This guy has no idea what he's getting himself into with that lunatic like behaviour. He's too dangerous, and I don't know what he'll do in his intoxicated state. I guess I have to... I have to...
Feeling confused, I thought, “What do I have to do? Defeat him? Kill him?”
The last words made me gulp in nervousness.
This guy's trying to aim for my wife has completely lost all reason so it's natural for someone wanting to kill him, but... Can I do it? Can I take the life of someone from no other world because killing is killing no matter the differences in worlds and standards...?”
I knew I was taking a huge risk in attacking this man to test my skills and save that woman, but I would never have guessed it would be this dangerous. Feeling that I wouldn't get anyway like this, I decided to test something out and do something about it depending on the result.
“Okay...” I muttered, taking my first step forward.
I took a few steps before the twisted man lunged at me while aiming to stab me with the knife. Reacting completely by reflex, I caught the hand and stopped it a few centimetres from my chest. Taking this chance, I used my cut hand to slam it against his hand freed the knife from his grip.
The pain from hitting his hand with my bleeding hand stung me a little, but my anger allowed me to manage it. Now, with a weapon firmly in my hand, I decided it is time for some payback.
I smiled and asked, “You seemed to have enjoyed cutting me so why don't we see how you fare as well?”
“Eh!?” his response was as he blinked at me in surprise.
In his surprised state, I moved forward and grabbed his hand before swiftly cutting an “x” mark on his hand. Instantly, blood began to seep out of the opened wounds and it soon covered his hands. He yelled in pain and wrenched free his hand from my grip before clutching it with his own.
“That's for my cheek and hand,” I thought, smiling in satisfaction upon seeing his reaction.
While I did feel satisfied, my hands still shook a little. Punching someone is okay but to cause deliberate harm to someone using a blunt object as a knife certainly felt strange. Still, I didn't feel disturbed and instead, I felt this feeling of fascination upon seeing the blood.
This reminds me of the time a year ago when our biology teacher brought a large plastic wrapped with newly dissected lungs of a goat. The purpose of the lesson was to see the live beating of lungs and my teacher demonstrated to us by pushing up and down on an air pump connected to the lungs.
As the lungs inflated and deflated with blood going everywhere, most of my peers hurriedly exited the classroom to throw up. A few, including me and our teacher, remained behind, and I felt fascinated to watch the process of how the void seemed to go everywhere inside the plastic wrapping. I will admit that I don't like the theory part of biology but the practical parts of it interest me greatly.
So I stood there with the knife in the hand that was slowly getting covered I blood from my own wound. The man stood before, wailing in terror with his hand being cut twice before he could react. The positions have changed with me becoming the hunter and with him becoming the hunted.
Just then, I heard the sound of footsteps, and I also heard the sounds of metal hitting each other. Turning to my left, I saw a group of fully armoured knights with swords and shields marching towards us. The crowd parted to give them the way and they quickly encircled us to block our way out.
“Drop the weapon this instance!”
“Okay,” I replied casually, instantly letting go of the knife because I understood the command and because I didn't want to give them the wrong impression that I was suffering from some mental disorder.
The knights moved cautiously towards us and wrapped a gathered around the twisted man, who was still crying over his wounded hand. For some reason, they didn't surround me as I stood there and watched them put his hands together before uttering the name of what sounded like a magic spell.
In that instant, lightning chairs like the metallic cuffs from my world to stop him from breaking free. At the same time, a window popped up in front of me with a notification message.
“You have acquired the ability: Magic I.”
“You have acquired the Magic Spell: Lightning Chain.”
“Wow...! So magic does exist...!” I thought before realising something and thought, “Actually, that shouldn't be a surprise considering this is a fantasy virtual environment world, so magic obviously would exist. I'm silly to think otherwise.”
As the guards escorted the arrested man away, u heard a feminine voice that sounded crystal clear.
“Bravo, warrior. Bravo.”
Once again, I turned to the left and this time, I raised my eyes in amazement. The woman before me was quite shorter than me, but she was extremely beautiful while wearing a beautiful set of outfit that looked like one of those princesses’ dresses. She also seemed to be wearing diamonds around her neck as well as several other expensive looking jewellery.
At that moment, a window popped up in front of me showing me information about her.
Name:
Aimi Rashwan
Race:
Human
Title:
Princess
“Oh. Well, it's obvious considering her clothing and all,” I thought, smiling wryly at the message before it disappeared.
Holding an umbrella over her shoulders to protect her against the glare from the sunlight, she gracefully walked towards me. Several guards remained behind from the group as they are stationed for her safety while the populace knelt down with their heads bowed before her. I quickly knelt down to mimic the others because I did not want to stand out unnecessarily.
“You can rise,” said a crystal clear voice filled with beauty.
I looked up and saw that the princess was staring at me intently with a smile on her face. As I rose to my feet, it became obvious of how tall I was compared to her. She appeared to be around my age as she peered intently into my face while showing a curious smile on her face. That and coupled with her beautiful looks, it is enough to make any man fall head over heels for her. I was wary though because I couldn't understand why a princess of all people is here.
“What brings a princess here of all places?” I asked, deciding to pretend that I know her as one of her subjects instead of stupidly ask her who she is.
The beautiful girl straightened up and smiled at me brightly before saying, “I heard there was a commotion here and so I followed. Upon my arrival, however, I saw you bravely taking on a fully grown adult and succeed. You are so gallant.”
Normally, any man would've felt very proud of themselves and even boasted about their achievements and themselves, but I'm different. The princesses from my world are usually self-centred, self-interested and always on the lookout for personal gain. So, I am cautious as such behaviour might be present in this world since the idiot crowd didn't bother to help me out earlier.
“What do you want?” I asked, narrowing my eyes suspiciously as I wanted to get to the point.
She momentarily looked surprised before her expression softened, and she stated, “You.”