Weaving in and out of the hailstorm of arrows aimed at me, I slid on the ground, hacking through the ankles of multiple Younglings, then allowed my momentum to carry me forward as I bounced up and caught the face of a petrified Fae before slamming him into the ground with a messy splat as its skull caved in after connecting with a rock.
"FILTHY HUMAN, I WON’T LET YOU CONTINUE!" The Elder, a middle-aged-looking Fae with bright Red hair, screamed while drawing a hatchet from his hip and racing forward to meet me.
While his movements may seem fast to ordinary people, or even the Fae Younglings, in my eyes, it was like watching a video at a negative two times speed.
Thus, it was incredibly easy for me to lean out of the trajectory of his attack and then lash out with my dagger, severing his hand at the wrist and allowing the hatchet to go airborne.
"Thanks for the second weapon, you old fool," with a smirk, I maneuvered my body in such a way that it resembled a viper coiled to strike and caught the hatchet before burying it in his skull with a sickening thud.
’A crude tool made with shitty materials, but it will do nonetheless, as I don’t have any other options apart from my dagger.’ Extracting the hatchet from the deceased Elder Fae, I whipped around and launched it into the chest of one of the four remaining younglings who were being protected.
As the weapon spun through the air in a tight and neat arc, I pounced on the closest young Fae, ending his life swiftly and moving on to finish the other two right as I heard a cracking thud, indicating the hatchet had met its mark.
Calmly walking over while avoiding any incoming arrows by leaning my body and head to the side each time, I bent down and ripped the hatchet from the fresh corpse before taking in my surroundings.
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’For a bunch of arrogant and prideful weaklings, they sure know how to cut tail and flee like rodents. Still, the situation could be worse; at least they didn’t try heading toward the mainland; well, that’s my fault since I targeted the group closest to the land bridge, but still.’ Slashing the hatchet and dagger toward the ground, I flung the visceral golden fluid off both weapons and began twirling the hatchet in an attempt to get used to its balance and weight.
Unlike daggers or most bladed weapons, for that matter, the weight of a hatchet is all in the back half of the axe head, making it an incredibly awkward weapon to use in close combat.
With its awkward balance and odd weight distribution, it was a weapon more so meant to be thrown instead of swung around, which was precisely why I had chucked it at one of the Fae; well, that and it was a pretty good diversionary tactic since the attention of the other three would be directed toward the flying weapon instead of me for a split second.
If life in the Origin Timeline had taught me one valuable thing, it was that it’s always a good idea to have a backup weapon. As I hadn’t gotten around to buying anything new from the Arkadia shop, nor had I examined my loot from killing the Overwatch Trio, I didn’t really know if I had anything better in my inventory at the moment, so instead of wasting time to check, I opted to go for a shoddy hatchet instead.
Getting a good feel for my new off-handed weapon, I scanned the horizon, located the four remaining clusters of Fae, and began speaking loud enough for them to hear, even with the distance that had opened between us.
"Where once was five, now, only four remain; your lives are the cost for entering my killing domain." Speaking in my Xipher Persona again, even I found my words to be cringe-worthy, yet I shrugged it off, and with a burst of sudden speed, I accelerated to the left, in the direction of the nearest group of fleeing Fae.
I want to say they at least put up a decent fight, but not even the Elders stood a chance against my capped-out stats, as within seconds, I had slaughtered the 12 beings like chickens and ended up snatching a bow and quiver from the poor sap before moving on.
Now, while I may be a decent fighter with most cold weapons and could even go so far as to say there weren’t that many that I couldn’t use with some varying level of proficiency given enough time, even I have to admit, my skills with a bow were pretty terrible.
At the very least, I could hit a stationary target a few feet away from me while standing still, but something in my brain just didn’t like using it; that isn’t to say I COULDN’T, only that the likelihood of me pop shooting Fae from a distance was near zero, maybe like, 5% at best.
Add in the fact that I was in the process of teaching myself how to shoot arrows while on the move, and that chance of me hitting anything but air dropped DANGEROUSLY low to nil, and the first three arrows I launched proved that fact as they couldn’t even get remotely close to their mark.
Yeah, yeah, I know; I can already hear what you’re thinking… "Then why bother picking them up in the first place if you can’t use them?" Wellllll, you seem to be forgetting that I’m fighting against beings capable of flight… eh… ok maybe not full-on soaring in the air like birds, since in the Origin Timeline, they would use particles to strengthen their wings, but even so, they could still get a few dozen feet off the ground and travel a short distance.
Think of it as, instead of actually flying, the best they could do is maneuver in the air for a few seconds.