"It's a Bloody army..." Senka uttered as all three of us hear the sound of distant marching, as-well as a horn that was sounded. They were a bit obscured for visual contact.
"Senka." I spoke, my tone was filled with anxiety, with no capability of glitching, I was faced with a problem I can't run from anymore. Or rather, I didn't want to run anymore.
"Y-yes?" She replied.
I eventually handed her the sniper rifle.
"Cover my back." I said, to which she responded with a reluctant nod.
"I'm coming." Lynette spoke, which drew my attention to her.
"Say what now?" I spoke.
"I said, I'm coming with you."
"If they spot you, you will be attacked on sight, No questions asked." I disagreed.
"Either way, I will be found. Either now, or next time, I think I'm going to uphold what you said, So I'm done running."
I just accepted it, I doubt she would refuse to back down here.
Only for me to catch a bright glimpse from my peripheral vision, I turned around to see a volley of Arrows, their tips appeared to be engulfed in fire.
"Tryhards..." Senka muttered
I immediately raise my hand to influence the surrounding air particles into a dome, to create a feasible barrier against the incoming projectiles. The arrows either bounced off or impacted the air particles, most of which snapped or fractured, after the volley ceased, I immediately let the dome dissipate.
"*gulp* Are You still sure?" I asked Lynette, referring to her sentence prior.
"I cannot be anymore Sure than ever." She replied.
———
(Andr POV)
I have ordered the main army to be on stand by, even though our steam-powered Tanks could easily overwhelm them, They are overkill in my eyes as I can easily deal with her and what the disturbance was myself.
We slowly traversed the semi-steep slope of the middle of this valley, me and a platoon were detached from our main forces, As we are more than aware of our might. Actually it's more like them, They used to treat me less of an equal and more like an inferior, and even after I got respect, they still stand true to their pride. Whatever, this pride and number is what helped us earn victory after victory, This country was at-least good enough after getting summoned.
Upon getting into visual range of our strike spot, we eventually see our target.
"Huh... So you actually managed to survive that?" I asked, as I see her standing there alone. 'Hmm... Then what was that disturbance? Bah... Imperial mages aren't always as accurate. Perhaps he must've detected an abandoned Subterranean Temple or some other S**t.'
"I always have ways to dodge an onslaught."
"Pretty Good... But not good enough." I replied, immediately dashing towards her, Faster than she could react, However.
"Kuh!" I yelled, as I was knocked back and was now several meters just in-front of my platoon, Who were about to charge but I stopped them as I slowly got back up, and faced ahead to see what sent me back.
A person roughly of similar age to me, wearing a Grey Attire, and has greyish-blue Eyes...
...
Y'know It just screams Nazi, but who am I to judge?
"I'm guessing your the disturbance that Mage sensed?" I asked, ready for Combat.
"Disturbance?" He seemed confused
"An Otherworlder... Like myself." I said
His expression turned from confusion to realization, before simply reverting to a blunt expression.
(Matthew POV)
An Armoured individual stood Yards upon Yards in-front of me, He seemed to be of similar age, He had black hair, and his eyes were a dull silver. In my eyes, he seemed to be the leader, second-in-command, or high-ranking individual in whatever army that it.
'An otherworlder... He's a transmigrant like me and Senka? I doubt he is a Reincarnated one because that flash-like charge towards Lynette seems something that no reincarnated one could do, at-least according to Esther and Senka. And I doubt he is a Resurrected one, because he seems quite calm by compar- Actually never mind he is calm, unlike a Resurrected one. His demeanour says it all. Then he must be another variant.'
"Well... Yes?" I replied nonchalantly.
"Perfect..." He faintly smiled,
"I'am Andr Æthelsige the summoned one of the Empire, Ill give you three choices, Stand aside and let us finish off this treacherous royalty, Join the Reichian Empire and conquer with glory, or Be stupid and fight us. I'm giving that privilege because you are like me." He continued
I noticed several men behind him were protesting, but he personally ordered them to remain silent.
"If the end result means the continuation of harming lives, particularly civilians. I choose the Third Option." I said, right now my focus is what's behind me.
"Wrong choice, Bud." He spoke
Eventually two heavily armoured individuals just slightly taller than him began to approach to his sides.
"Alright You Burly behemoths, Take them Dow-" his sentence was cut short as a bang measuring in the tens of decibels in the distance caused them to flinch, however what caught his attention more was the fact that his berserkers have stopped responding.
He turned around partially to see the bodies of the two berserkers on the ground a pool of blood forming from their heads like a barrel filled with beer that got shot with a musket.
"What!? Hero! What just-!?" What appeared to be the Platoon Commander too fell victim to another shot, and with his head unprotected a larger hole appeared from the other side of his head as he fell and his blood sprayed.
'Senka... I take back what I said about your capability as an assassin.'
However andr simply turned back to face me, with a grin.
He raised his hand in the air and a blue flash erupted from his palm a trailing projectile sped towards our location only to redirect itself further towards an area to our left and strike one of the rocks that Senka hid behind, the rock was immediately turned to rubble, and she was injured and blood slowly trickled from her back.
Both me and Lynette were wide eyed, Lynette attempted to rush for sneak, only to be stopped as another bolt struck next to us blowing her off of her feet and onto the ground several meters to my right, another bolt was hurdling towards me however With matter manipulation I used the surrounding air particles to redirect it around me and launch it back towards him, before the bolt could hit him it simply disappear into the air.
"Hmm... So you reflected it, nothing much. But It seems that you don't have anymore cover." He spoke.
Lynette eventually got up to her feet but she staggered to remain up straight.
"Let's not escalate this shall we?" He spoke, before one armoured man approached from the crowd behind him, and held what appeared to be chains. Only when what the chains were dragging along came into view, Lynette gasped, and my eyes widened.
"... W-wha...? P-P-Princess...!" A young man spoke with a fatigued voice, only to be kicked to be silenced.
Five individuals were restricted by chains, showing signs of malnourishment, Healed wounds, and bruises. The Armoured Individual quickly pulled his sword to their necks.
"N-No, wait!" Lynette eventually yelled, as she staggered to move forward.
"Let them go!" She ordered with anger.
"Then surrender yourself to us, and accept your execution!" He replied.
All five were berated once more by the people holding them in place, some coughed out blood before.
"Oi, could you stop, You are aware doing that will make things more difficult, right?" Andr frustratingly ordered the men to stop.
Lynette only stared at the five of them, and then towards Senka, before looking back at Andr, and standings straight.
"Well? I'm guessing, that you accept our-" He Cut himself off as he quickly jumped into the air, the same split-Second I fired my pistol.
My eyes dulled , I was slowly beginning to cross negative limits, I raised my pistol to shoot him in the shoulder, as he attempted to slow fall back to the ground, upon being shot he dropped quickly to the ground and slowly stood up to face me, and drew his Sword.
In response I tossed my pistol from my left to my right hand and reserve it back into my inventory, and quickly created and drew a Carbon Fibre-reinforced Sword. The sword in question was a combination in a sense, I created a sword that was essentially a hybrid of a Japanese Katana, and an 1897 Canadian Militia Light Pattern sword in terms of appearance.
I hoped that my control could still be ascertained, but I let it occur for now because this individual seems to be at my level, especially for the fact the He is a transmigrant like me, He likely won't be fazed by the capability of Firearms.
"Hmm... I see... Well then, if that's your choice... So be it..." He Spoke Before he dashed towards me. Using a Pistol now would already make his men view me as having a weakness, Melee Combat would suffice... as by this point, I didn't care about my injuries, all I cared about was to stop this predicament.
He was incredibly fast, in-fact he seemingly vanished after closing the distance between me, only...
"Matthew! You can't He is-!" Lynette Yelled, But She ended in disbelief as I quickly turned 180 degrees around and blocked a swing with my blade.
He too looked partially surprised before, vanishing from my eyes again. But instinctively I turned forward again, to meet him just between me and his platoon, Speaking of which most of his platoon began to draw their crossbows.
"...Well that was something..." he spoke, but his deameanour seemed quite out of breath, did that maneuver cost him stamina?
"I must say I didn't expect-." He continued to talk, only to be cut by the sound of distortions ripping through the air, as several crossbowmen of his platoon were silenced, and their bodies fell.
However, In a blink of an eye, he quickly retaliated and drew his sword towards me it's light increased in luminosity.
"You just...-" I quickly spoke out before a sharp pain traversed my body, I quickly looked down to see an electrical-like current spread out my body originating from my upper torso, before everything went slightly numb.
With an emergency panel, that only I could see, My Matter manipulation seems to have been temporarily disabled for a quarter of a day (6 hours). I looked at him with a questioning expression. 'Wha bu... How on earth did he just-?'
"That's enough... This will be your downfall...!" He once again lunged towards me, as several of his men scramble, some heading for the main army to inform more men. I drew my sword again, and began to clash
We began trading blows, he was faster than usual, and I was less reactive. Matter Manipulation tends to use surrounding air particles to its advantage, unexplainably air particles that were disturbedcan 'transmit' a signal, which my brain can easily interpret and identify.
It was quite phenomenal, but the problem was that it was restricted to only this cold state, not normal states, and now my Matter manipulation has been disabled.
I began to desperately attempt to block or deflect, as a few normal bowmen also began to sustain shooting arrows, alongside Andr beginning clash with me.
This was practically uneven, I had to spread my focus thinly as artificial projectiles were hurdling towards me, and this Imperial Summoned one continuously attempts to strike me with a sword, the damage dealt by one blow will likely be more powerful than the one I have, sometimes weight contributes to rather than depletes efficiency.
"KA-*cough*!" Is sword managed to slip past me, and horizontally sliced through the left side of my lower torso, blood began to pour, and I was forced down onto one of my knees, and my head faced down.
I looked further down on my form, to see blood quickly pooling out.
Senka and Lynette attempted to pull herself together and run for us, only to be Sent further by a shockwave downsizing of heated air particles produced by Andr.
"*cough* N-No!" Senka yelled as she began to notice a pool of blood
"...*pant* *cough* Matthew..." Lynette Spoke with worry, as she looked at Me and to Andr's sword strewn with blood.
However almost immediately upon hearing their voices, I felt a numbly static feeling traverse my body, and then my body's nerves felt as if they disconnected from my brain.