My body moved like that of a martial master. With my right arm that was acting as some kind of leverage already, I was in a position to sweep the guy's legs without much effort.
The man fell too easily since he was standing on one leg and because of my sudden attack being quite a surprise to him. Based on the attire and the weapons of my enemies, including the several occasions where everyone I had fought so far wasn't familiar with my form of fighting, I began to estimate that my martial arts were more advanced than theirs.
But that didn't make me arrogant. After all, I wasn't in a world where martial arts was the law, so there was no way for me to feel good about having better skills.
After the guy fell, I quickly crawled up to him so I could finish my business with him. As he was still stunned by his sudden fall, this was the only opportunity to strike. Thus, I didn't hold back at all, as I aimed my fist straight towards his throat. This was the only way I could end his life fast and guarantee my safety without the use of a weapon!
Even though I really wanted to get back at him for playing around with me earlier, I didn't want to throw ineffective punches that would only cripple him or worse, anger him. Since, at this moment, I had the upper hand in the fight, it was no longer a situation of whether I should die or bite my way out to survive. Rather, It was a situation where I had to choose whether I wanted to make things easy for myself and my opponent, or difficult.
To be emotional by fighting fire with fire, or to be rational by eliminating the threat to my survival right away…
'Killing is enough to feel satiated. I am not a sadist… If my demons force me, I'll just vent on his corpse!'
While I was on top of the guy, I struck my fist towards his throat with the intent to kill. However, right before my fist could touch his Adam's apple, he used his wind magic to launch himself away from me. I still managed to hit him nonetheless, due to how close I was to him.
My fist struck his abdomen. Because of this, he was in a lot of pain. However, it didn't make him injured. I had failed to kill him…
Knowing that I'd missed the opportunity to kill him while he was vulnerable and unprepared, I ran away immediately to escape to where I had been wanting to retreat since earlier. However, unlike earlier, now that I was aware of what made him fast, I knew not to run straight for too long.
As for the exact reason I decided to retreat, the answer is simply stratagem. My opponent already knew where I wanted to strike him, he was superior to me in battle prowess because of his magic, and his pure physical strength was a slight notch better than mine.
Confronting him with this much disadvantage would only result in my defeat, even if I somehow managed to defeat him. After all, what's the point of winning a war with too many losses? I could not afford more injuries, especially in this hell of a place where my future and the adversaries I'd encounter remain uncertain.
While my opponent was clutching his aching stomach, I escaped towards the building where I had hidden my sword. While running I quickly memorized the path I needed towards the building, because I had to run with my eyes continuously looking out for the arrival of that guy.
Fortunately, as I had punched him in the stomach, he took quite a while before coming after me with intense rage. The considerable distance that was gained between us thanks to his delay, made it possible for me to see him as he rushed closer.
I had dodged too early because of how unsure I was of how long it would take him to get to me. My calculations were wrong due to it being my first attempt. I wasn't a computer or a genius mathematician. Failing was only natural.
Despite my early attempt at dodging, he hadn't grabbed me yet. However, he could easily adjust his direction a meter to the left, taking advantage of the distance and time between us.
The distance between us was still far enough and it allowed me to dodge again, this time successfully.
I had wasted some time by attempting it two times. However, while jumping away from where I was, a good length of my legs came in contact with the body of the guy who came to me like a train. As a result, the force sent me stumbling a few meters…
In my mind, I knew that I could not stop my motion for even a second. Immediately after falling, I stood back up before running away again. The building I needed to go to was close, just a few more meters ahead.
'Dodge!'
This time, being a bit used to the guy's velocity already, I managed to evade early, but not too early to the point where he had time to adjust the direction he was being boosted to.
In the next moment, the guy crashed into a nearby building as his burst of speed was not under his complete control, and because he had lost his sense of direction because of his desperation to catch me. Again, my enemy had to deal with a game of psychology, which actually, was quite unintentional of me this time. The man's emotions were just that easy to trigger…