Miklos has never been a man with great memories.
But it is true when you are just hovering between life and death, when survival is at stake, you find yourself exerting more and breaking some limit.
In any other times, he would not have taken in so many and remember so many things with just one glance
But when he sees hope, his brain seem suddenly to be able to exert itself to the fullest.
Miklos got up as he pushes the body of this people.
He pushes them gently like fearing it would disturb them. He could not just see them as corpses.
Maybe if the corpses are not the corpses of people he knows, he would not be this gentle either.
Some of them have lost limbs and some of them is full of stabbing wound and some even have blood still dripping down from the holes on their bodies and heads.
For those who die with their eyes open, Miklos gently closed them with his hand.
He looks at the distance, and his eyes could see that the line on the other side is about to break.
And so is the line on Henrik side
"Is that cavalry?" he narrows his eyes and he frowns
"A knight?"
he could not really be sure.
There are flames and smoke all over and he himself is drenched in blood and mud right now.
He had to wipe the blood and mud from his face.
And he wipes it off but even after wiping it off it's not like everything become clear.
Instead from what he sees, there is even more chaos and all he could see is death and destruction all around
He narrows his eyes but then he shakes his head
Then he looks around and he sees a hill in the distance.
"Higher than this area" he notices there are people riding horses on that other line. Knight commanding the soldiers?
Or a cavalry unit?
But too little to be called a cavalry unit.
If Miklos is not wrong, this area is not the place where the most bitter fight is taking place
As he got up these bloods and muds slowly falls off from him, dripping down his clothes and it is only now as he moves that he could feel how heavy his clothes have become.
He looks toward Henrik who is still fighting and he could not help but smile.
Then he looks around him and he could see some men at arms corpses, wearing armours and holding onto their swords.
And he nodded. Those nobles' child might care about looting corpses, bhut for him there is not so much restriction
He took off a sword and armour.
The armour is dented and is full of mud and blood and the sword is chipped and seems fragile.
But for him this is better than the things he wears before and the weapon is better than his rusty old sword
And then he walks back to the top of that hill of bodies, look down and then look in the distance.
"Regroup" he thought and then he rushed down toward the hill
..
Henrik did not know any of this matter
he did not know that his action had spurned the action of another person
Nor does he know what it gave that person.
Hope in a hopeless situation
Right now, Henrik is still absorbed in this feeling. The feeling of power. From the moment he arrived in this world, there is only a feeling of hopelessness.
He had no power and he die nine times under the same blade. Not once in that nine times of life and death that he feels like he could win this. Each fight, each time he met death, it was always a desperate struggle.
Now, it is different.
As he dodges and deflected the blows and strike he grew confident.
"My stamina seems to be rejuvenated, and my proficiency seems to increase. After passing through some kind of death obstacle, did the mechanics of this loop give me something?" he thought to himself.
He could feel that his mastery over some things had increased. This is his feelings and it is hard to describe this feeling.
The feeling of having suddenly mastering something.
Of course, it is not like he had suddenly become a master swordsman. He would know if he became a master swordsman.
It is just that right now, he felt like he had some kind of some understanding of swords and his ability seems to have risen a bit.
There is no sudden explosive muscle growth or sudden increase of strength. It is more like gradual.
And as he fights this mastery or proficiency seems to catch up.
Like his level cap has increased and actions like this increases his mastery to reach the cap.
This is just his feelings, and he could not confirm it.
But he did discover something
And this thing makes him smile bitterly
It is like a dilemma
The more he fights, the more proficient he becomes
Like his body is adapting to it.
There lies the dilemma
The thing is…Henrik didn't like to fight. He hated it
Why?
Because fighting means putting himself in danger and putting himself in danger brings him closer to death. Just because his death loops back did not mean experiencing death is a pleasant thing. He is not a masochist.
He has many question in his mind right now.
One of them is none other than if he dies this time.
Would he return again if he dies again?
And if he returns, at which point would he return.
Would he return back to the muddy scenery again?
Did he have to fight that squire again?
If that is the case, he did not want to die.
And he did not want to die early.
He himself did not know if this lopping power has a limit or not.
The rules of this mechanism of looping and reversal is still something he does not yet quite understand
And since he does not know how many lives he has, it is better to try not to push it too far.
It is better if he thinks of way on how to survive.
"When I have time I need to summarize my own experience"
but for now, other than familiarizing himself with this newfound sensation, he is deflecting left and right.
The sound of the steels clanging is like some kind of melody. Sparks flying and even though his mind seems to be thinking many things, his eyes did not stray away from the enemy in front of him
He looks at the hand and the shoulders. And the moment he sees it, he guesses. But it is not some idiot guess.
It is simply an educated guess.
When the guess is accurate, it is not really a guess
But a deduction based on available evidence.
Though, Henrik did not only deflect and dodges.
Deflect and doges is to create openings and in some degree tire the opponent. But deflecting also tire yourself.
After all, one wrong mistake and the sword of the enemy could hurt him. And once he is hurt, then the initiative lies on the enemy
So, he deflected, he dodges and then Henrik would stab. He stabs, slashes and cut at this soldier.
Heavy blows, light blows, swift attack, swift slashes, all of it could not suppress him and he moves in rhythm now.
He could even raise one leg and pivot the other leg to sidestepped in different direction to dodge, with the enemy missing him only by a hair breadth
It is not luck.
And it is not because Henrik had fought this person before. It is just that he could read the rhythm and see the attack even before the attack is coming
He had grown.
Of course, no one but him knows how much he pays for this growth.
This kind of explosive growth could only be achieved in a life and death battle.
To some people that knew Henrik deeply, could only marvel at how Henrik is fighting. Only he knew the truth.
Of course, Henrik himself did not have the memory of the original owner and did not know whether he have any friends in the army or where he comes from.
There is too many question but then he focused back on the battle and he frowned.
"I have a feeling something bad is about to happen"
This is just his feeling
Little did he knows that bad feelings is rarely wrong.
Henrik is still fighting but around him, there is changes to the battlefield.
Even though Henrik had won a victory, and is now even contending with a soldier easily, but one victory in the battlefield did not change the war and did not change the general trend.
And for a small soldier like Henrik, the death of a few people could not even create a ripple in this battlefield.
It was during this battle suddenly someone shouted. And this shout is directed at him
"Quickly finish him!" Henrik hearing this frown but that shout also seems to have made the men at arms distracted.
"Now!" Henrik is getting good at spotting his opportunity and there is no better opportunity than now
All Henrik needed was that one moment. That one moment is the deciding moment that separate life and death.
And Henrik did not miss it.
Kuh!
..