Elf Tensei Kara no Cheat Kenkoku-ki

I could see all of the hidden archers fire their bows from all directions…rather I could sense it.

From the beginning of our negotiations I had 【Perception Expansion】 and 【Program】 activated. Because of that I already knew about those hidden archers and even the people that had been slowly approaching from other directions.

The speed of arrows were at best 180 km/h.

With over 20 meters of distance separating us it would take 0.4 seconds for the arrows to reach me.

Even that much time was plenty.

At the same time the archers released their arrows the angles, speed, and force of them were all told to me by the wind. With that much data my 【Program】 spell automatically chose the optimum course of action and moved my body.

I stepped forward once, ducked down, and twisted.

With those simple movements all the arrows barely missed my body. From calculation to implementation it was 0.1 seconds and the time it took for my body to complete those actions was 0.2 seconds. I was able to evade with 0.1 seconds of leeway.

I could see the faces of the nobles and soldiers in front of me warp with shock.

Of course they would since I had been shot at from five different directions by soldiers who had erased their presence while hiding amongst the trees. Furthermore it was from a close distance of around 20 meters. It was furthermore enhanced by the assumption most people made that no one would use bows against an elf. In fact if another elf had been here in my place they would have certainly died.

Despite how incredible Elves were with bows, blocking arrows required a certain distance and even then it was limited to simple long distance attacks. In close distance they wouldn’t have enough time to use wind to influence the arrows too much. Furthermore if it was from multiple directions we would be unable to use the wind to deflect all the arrows.

It wasn’t as if there weren’t elves capable of creating a wind storm around themselves, but it was hard to control and those elves who could do it, could not do it instantly.

The bowmen also had good skills. They were all at different distances, but all the arrows arrived nearly at the same time. If I hadn’t moved then they would have all hit. If that wasn’t enough, then the directions they fired from made it so that there was practically nowhere to run.

The bowmen were surely shocked that I had dodged, but even still they did not freeze up and were ready to send out another barrage.

「It’s a shame for them to die in vain.」

I honestly praised them. Even amongst elves there were few who were as well trained as these bowmen.

For that reason they had to die here.

I touched the mechanical bow attached to my left wrist.

It folded up so that it didn’t look much like a bow at all.

However, once I pressed a button it would automatically fold out as the bowstring stretched out. I would then have a perfectly good short bow.

I pointed the short bow at one of the hidden bowmen.

My wrist covering had small bolt-like arrows hidden within it. I grabbed three of them in my right hand.

This short bow was quite small, but because of the special alloy I had made it out of, the tensile strength was around 55kg and was around 60% as strong as the normal crossbows that I had made. It’s piercing power was around 1.3 times as strong as a long bow so it could barely pierce through the Empire’s armor.

I placed one of the arrows on the string and pulled back with my right hand.

The reason I kept this bow so small was to make it easier to carry around and also because this was the limit to how much draw weight I could pull using one arm when using 【Body Enhancement】.

After eat a few hundred of the soldiers’ souls my magic power quantity was increased by a large amount, but the amount I could use all at once hadn’t changed very much. Plus if I strengthened my body too much I could end up badly injuring myself so there was a limit to that as well.

If I wanted to overcome that limit I would have to use a magic like 【Samsara Recursion】 to change my body into one that could handle such an emission of magical power. I’d have to use that trick.

I let the arrow fly and cast 【Wind Blessing】 on it so it flew straight on with terrifying speed.

「~~」

One of the bowmen took the arrow right between the eyes and collapsed without even a scream.

Before he even finished falling to the ground I knocked the other arrows and fired them.

This wrist mounted metal bow didn’t have a clasp or trigger like other crossbows. I had prioritized rapid fire so I judged they were unnecessary.

「Be careful! That bow can pierce our armor! Protect the archers! Knights charge!」

On Baron Lurvish’s orders 7 armored knights came charging towards me.

I see, though it was a fearsome weapon this bow wasn’t suited to close quarters fights. He must have also thought that I had no other methods, other than using this bow, to pierce their armor.

As I thought that my hand finished moving and my arrow shot out and killed the third archer.

However, there was no time to fire a fourth. The Knights were already before my eyes.

Without panicking I pulled my knife from the scabbard at my waist. The moment the black blade of the knife emerged I poured my magic inside it and a sharp buzzing sound echoed out.

Though I called it a knife the length of the blade was 50 cm it was closer to being a hatchet.

I then purposefully attacked with a wide swing.

「Oi damn elf, I can see it.」

The knight I swung at position his sword to receive my knife blow.

He had plenty of leeway and said “I can see it” with a leisurely smirk.

He probably thought that he could easily block my knife then cut me in two. Even if I dodged that I would be surrounded and his allies would finish me off.

「Shi!」

I put in more strength into my blow as I swung.

Then my blade…cut through the sword, armor, flesh, and bone of the knight without any resistance.

I had created this knife for Lucy using all my skills in science, alchemy, and magic. I had made it so that it could slice through iron like paper.

「Wha—?」

He couldn’t understand it. He died and collapsed to the ground as blood shot out with a foolish look on his face.