A duel between two commoners ultimately is different from the duel of great nobles and dukes

  And it is not like a duel between two great commanders or two great nobles duking it out with each other.

  There is no battle of honours between lowly people like them

  No two armies opening a path so that you could duel and affect the entire battle in one duel. No gentleman duel like a noble

  They are just two-foot soldiers in a war, not even a sidenote in history and probably would be one of the numbers mentioned in the battle report when the dust settles.

  Then he learned something very specific to him.

  The killing bows are rarely clean.

  Bleeding out is the worst.

  He could feel his life being snuffed out from him little by little.

  Then there is the death of being stomped.

  At least with horses, it is one stomp.

  With a crowd rampaging around, it takes some time and you could hear your own skull cracks as the bloods fills your nose and your throat

  There were times when that squire cut him clean and there were times when the cut is not so clean and that is the worst thing

  Now, he understands why a great executioner is those who cut the head clean. If you cut the head and botch the job it is just torturing

  “The tenth then” this time he did not have such high hopes. He already wasted some time just thinking about the past nine experience.

  And then before he could think even further, he sees the squire rushing towards him. By now, he had treated all the noise around him like some kind of background noise. He just ignores them most of the time

  This time the squire did not waste time and swipe toward his throat

  “What an idiot. Looking around and standing still on the battlefield” that was the last thing he heard

  “This time it’s clean” that was his last thought

  ..

  The eleventh time

  This time Henrik is ready

  All around it is the same scenery though Henrik is no longer fazed with the surrounding, the screams, the smell and the chaos.

  He looks around and he waited.

  Clang!

  “It’s here” Henrik rushes toward the left and saw a destroyed carriage.

  The carriage is toppled; the horse is nowhere to be seen and there is people around the carriage all dead.

  Some of them is pierced by arrows, some of them have deep gashes of sword and holes made by spear

  Though now is not the time to play detective

  “Quickly” he urges himself in his mind

  His feet become faster and then he readied himself.

  Henrik rushed toward the carriage and slides down below the carriage and as his body slides forward, the size is just enough for his body to slide through the gap.

  The moment he appears out of the gap on the other side of the carriage, he rolls forward, grab the sword and make a run to the carriage again

  “Quick!” his heart is beating hard at this moment

  “I don’t want to die again here”

  Once again, he did the same thing. He runs toward that carriage and just at that right spot he slides through the gap like he is some kind of slippery loach

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  To the eyes of anyone who is seeing him, he looks extremely skilful and adept. It is like those action scenes one would see in action movies.

  No one would believe it would come from a peasant youth.

  But unfortunately, this is not a movie set and no one is watching.

  Everyone is fighting for their life, and no one has the time to gawk at you and watch you doing stunt

  Life and death decided by mere inches of steel, sound of screams and echoes of shouts lingers faintly, and everyone is fighting for that sliver of hope of life

  Swoosh!

  He slides down

  There is a reason why he did not break out toward the direction of that carriage. In the distance there is a cavalry

  Henrik did not see it. But he knows it is there

  Because there would be a cavalry charge. The carriage there acted like some kind of barrier.

  Whether it was there by design or coincidence, Henrik doesn’t know and right now he really doesn’t care.

  If he did not leave this area where he got the sword, if he lingers more than necessary, that cavalry charge would appear there and slaughter everyone

  Henrik himself didn’t know the fate of those who is in that area.

  Whether they were slaughtered or they have a chance of survival. One thing is clear to Henrik though.

  If he was there, he would be dead. Does Henrik want to save those people?

  No, not really. Henrik doesn’t know anyone in this world. He did not know whether he have a family or not, whether these people are good or bad.

  For now, just him trying to survive is already a tall order. How could he care about people who he doesn’t know, in a world he doesn’t know and in the circumstances he is in.

  Henrik is not a heartless person. But for him to even act like a hero, he at least has to have feelings for these people

  But to him right now, all of the people around him is like NPCs. Why? Because he did not know any one of them.

  And he is preoccupied with saving himself right now. Those people only die once. He already dies ten times.

  He has no armour and there is no magic in this world. He himself is weak.

  Fighting a squire is better than facing an entire wall of cavalry with armoured soldiers and armoured horse.

  Better the devil you know.

  That is why he had already thought that there is only a brief period of time of opportunity to grab the sword

  If he is late, then he would be among those that would be in the thick of battle against armoured knights.

  “That would really be a path to death”

  He could not even kill a low-level knight how could he dares to fight a fully armoured knight with horses. Just because he could die every time and come back alive did not mean he suddenly developed an immunity toward fear

  And no, he did not develop an immunity toward pain.

  The pain is still torturous. He wanted to break down.

  Wanted to just whine and complain.

  But he knows doing such thing would only hasten his death

  It is not he wanted to learn to fight.

  But survival instinct of humans is really great.

  Just because he did not want to feel that pain again, it is like he awakened a talent for learning. Well, when there is death chasing you from behind, there is no stronger motivation than this.

  It is not like death is painless.

  It is painful and sometimes it feels numbs but death is death.

  It is still terrifying and that moment just right before you lost your consciousness, Henrik always worries whether it would be the last time

  There is this fear like he is going into some abyss.

  After all, he did not know what the upper limit of this loop mechanic is. Is there a limit to it? Is there a number of lives that he has? Is he squandering the lives he had?

  It is like he is playing poker in a dark room. He did not know how many cards he have or what suit and number the card he has.

  All he knows, there is someone in this dark room, who knows all the card and knows all the numbers and knows all the rules.

  That kind of fear……you would not understand it unless you yourself is in this situation

  That is not a good feeling to have and if this matter escalate he fears it would affect his mental health.

  Anyway, he is now back

  “He is close” this time however the squire will not catch him unaware

  Henrik has learned that the best defence is offense

  He needs to strike first.

  The reason he did not strike before is because he did not have a suitable weapon. He looks a few feet away from him.

  His clothes are dripping with mud and the smell around him is nauseating.

  Smell of blood and dirt. Though after nine times, he is quite used to it.

  What is his advantage compared to the well-trained soldiers and squires and knights?

  Familiarity.

  Everything is familiar to him. This part of the battlefield, is something he now mastered.

  He still doesn’t know the name of people dying around him.

  He still doesn’t know where he came from.

  Who he is, and what rebellion is this.

  But in this area of a few hundred meters radius around him, he knows everything about it.

  He knows who is going to die and who is going to live, who is going to surrender and who is going to fight

  “Try it” he mutters to himself

  “Kill the squire!”

  And he launched himself.

  Not alone.

  This time he suddenly joined one of the rebels.

  ‘Henrik!” one of the old men shouted.

  The face is clearly shocked. But Henrik did not have time to answer. He only looks at a glance at the old men and nodded

  He rushed forward and then with that sword, he swings it

  Clang!

  The squire uses his sword and deflects it to his right.

  Clang!

  Henrik smirks.

  “As expected”

  And there is a smile on his face

  “I can do this” he thought to himself.

  And now, these two face each other amidst the flames and the screams, the clanging of swords and the twangs of the bows and arrows flying around

  To the squire it must be nothing special and there is nothing of significance

  But for Henrik, this is the first time he felt confident.

  Confident that he could fight

  The sword that he took from that knight, pointed toward the ground, the peasant face look toward the squire, his eyes full of defiance

  And a smirk on the corner of his mouth, a swelling confidence in his heart

  …