Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 90: Dominating the Battlefield

"George, ten hostiles total on the other side. Four straight ahead, three on each flank circling around. What do we do?" Penny had finally found her rhythm, playing the role of spotter with reasonable competence.

"How many archers? Any armor? Any shields?"

Li Wei asked calmly.

"Two — no, three. One with a crossbow, wearing leather armor. Looks like a leader. He's in the center. One man with a shield and an axe."

"Southern flank has one archer and one with a round shield."

"Northern flank has one too, also one with a shield. They're going around behind us. Should we keep moving forward? That would be really bad — our raft only covers the front..."

Penny was anxious but managing to hold steady for now.

Fila, on the other hand, was on the verge of tears — well, drenched in sweat, at any rate.

"Keep calling targets. Focus on the two flanking archers. Ignore the front for now. Leon, hold it steady. When I tell you to stop, you must keep this thing absolutely still — not the slightest wobble. Mom, sis — remember, balance and stability are critical for me. I only have five bodkin arrows. I can't afford to waste any."

"Don't worry, bro!"Perhaps Li Wei's preternatural calm was contagious — Leon finally looked semi-reliable.

Fila, however, seemed immune.

Li Wei softened his tone.

"Mom, don't panic. Whatever you do, don't look up. Watch your feet instead — don't trip. Leon, don't push too fast. Always leave yourself a buffer."

"George, the southern archer is picking up speed — he's drawing his bow — ahhh!"

Thwack!

An arrow struck the wooden raft. Penny, who'd been peeking out, shrieked in fright. Fila, beside her, was so startled she leapt upward, nearly flipping the wheelbarrow — and almost launching Li Wei off with it.

Li Wei was seething, but he swallowed his anger. Now was not the time.

He kept his voice as calm and level as he could: "Sis, don't scream! I won't let you get hurt. Now listen — steady the raft and keep calling targets. Tell me the southern archer's position. Where is he heading? What details do you see around him? And what's he doing?"

"Okay, got it. Don't worry, George!"

Under Li Wei's gentle words, Penny rallied. After steadying her nerves, she quickly popped her head out again. "He's reached the wild pear tree. The other two bandits are covering him — shields up. They're moving uphill. Almost no gaps. Distance from us — roughly sixty paces?"

While Penny was still working out the distance, Li Wei had already risen smoothly to his feet atop the wheelbarrow. In a flash, the bow was drawn to full moon. After a micro-adjustment of less than a fraction of a second, the bodkin arrow sang through the air, crossing over seventy meters in an instant. The archer was just passing the wild pear tree. His companions held their shields up to protect him, but Li Wei was standing on the wheelbarrow — his vantage point was entirely different from Penny's.

Beyond that, Li Wei knew this terrain like the back of his hand.

And not the way Penny, Fila, or Leon knew it. He'd surveyed every inch of ground through an archer's eyes — compartmentalized, pinpointed. When a target appeared in a given zone, Li Wei could skip the initial aiming phase entirely, bypass range estimation, and with only the slightest adjustment, release the perfect shot in the shortest possible time.

A jet of blood erupted. Over seventy meters away, the archer — who'd been hunched and moving laterally uphill — took an arrow clean through the neck from one side to the other!

A precision hit!

The man's face went blank as he toppled backward. Li Wei didn't even bother looking at him — he was already ducking back below the raft.

A full three or four seconds passed before Penny let out a strangled, ghost-seeing hiss.

"He — he — he... You — you — you... George, he's dead! You shot him dead!"

"Sis, focus! Find the northern archer. Call the target!"

Just then, Fila couldn't resist peeking northward. She blurted out rapidly: "They're about to jump into that fern gully! There's a big black rock nearby. The archer's already dropped in — I can only see his head! He's heading behind the rock..."

As Fila called out her report, the spatial coordinates were already materializing in Li Wei's mind. With two reference points established, the third was the archer — assuming Fila hadn't misjudged.

But there was no time to verify. This chance wouldn't come again.

Li Wei surged to his feet. Simultaneously, the bow arced to full draw, the arrow streaking like an assassin's blade. The entire micro-adjustment took less than three-tenths of a second before the shaft was screaming across the gap, homing in on the archer — who was sprinting, who was submerged below the gully from the nose down, who was a heartbeat away from reaching the cover of that massive rock. But he was one step too slow.

The bodkin arrow punched through his temple. It didn't fully penetrate, but the wound was absolutely fatal.

The timing and speed of that shot had been executed in the blink of an eye.

Fila hadn't even seen it. Penny was about to peek out and check, but Li Wei had already sat back down on the wheelbarrow.

"Leon, speed up! Push straight ahead. I've taken care of both flanking archers."

"What? Oh — right!"

Leon was dumbfounded, but to his credit, he didn't ask a single question. He immediately put his back into it. The wheelbarrow rattled and clattered downhill. Since they were going from high ground to low, it didn't take much effort — just the need to maintain stability.

Meanwhile, the bandits on both flanks finally snapped out of their shock. After a moment of hesitation and internal struggle — whether driven by fear or fury — they let out battle cries and charged in with blades drawn, abandoning all attempts at flanking.

"They're rushing us! What do we do?! We're going to be surrounded! George, George, shoot them!"

Fila screamed from the left.

Penny was asking the same thing from the right.

"Don't panic — keep pushing forward! We smash through those four in front first!"

"But they have a crossbow!"

"A crossbow isn't invincible either! Push! Don't stop!" Li Wei roared. As his words faded, the wheelbarrow lurched violently — Fila had tripped on a clump of grass and nearly upended the entire thing again.

Thankfully, Leon was rock-solid, and Penny grabbed the raft just in time, holding it firm.

"I'm sorry, it's all my fault!"

Fila's nose was bleeding, she'd lost a front tooth, and her mouth was full of blood. She stumbled to her feet and tried to grab the raft again, but couldn't keep up. She went tumbling like a ball down the slope.

Leon accelerated. He'd walked this route for five months — he wouldn't claim he could push the cart blindfolded, but it was close.

Thwack!

A crossbow bolt came screaming in and struck the raft. Penny, who'd been about to peek out and call a target, went white as a sheet.

But at least she held it together.

The instant after the bolt hit, Li Wei sprang up, drew, and blew the crossbowman's skull apart with a single arrow.

Against opposition this caliber, Li Wei felt like he was farming easy mode.

Truly.

The enemy front was in disarray now.

Even though they still had three men up front and four on the flanks.

Seven total — split into three groups.

They clutched their small round shields, facing a wheelbarrow that held the high ground and was barreling downhill toward them.

And behind it — an archer who apparently never missed.

'How the hell are we supposed to fight this?'

Li Wei, however, didn't nock another arrow. Instead, he stowed the recurve bow, grabbed the wooden spear from the wheelbarrow, and leapt down with the agility of a wildcat.

The reason was simple.

The wheelbarrow was moving too fast now. At this speed, neither Leon nor Penny could maintain control. One tiny bump could cause him to miss, and a miss could cascade into disaster.

He couldn't pin his hopes on miracles and luck. Everything had to remain within his control.

"Don't stop — keep pushing forward!"

Li Wei kept shouting.

Only by smashing through the bandits ahead — breaking their nerve completely — could he deal with the four on the flanks.

"George! Penny! Help me!"

Fila was screaming. She was trying desperately to keep pace, but the more she panicked, the clumsier she got, and the clumsier she got, the more she panicked. After barely a dozen steps, she'd already taken seven or eight tumbles. Her face was a bloody mess, and she was howling.

There was nothing to be done — Fila was fine in every other respect, but her nerves under pressure were terrible. Always had been.

But right now, nobody could afford to worry about her. And no rescue notification would trigger either — the system wasn't stupid; it wouldn't activate a rescue quest for this.

So as the four bandits from both flanks came howling toward her, Fila truly lost it. Shrieking like a pig at slaughter, she rolled and tumbled her way downhill — and somehow managed a decent speed doing it.

"Hold steady! Murphy, block them!"

The bandits were shouting at each other too. In truth, the distances between the groups weren't all that great.

Leon and his wheelbarrow were less than fifty meters from the three bandits directly ahead.

The northern bandits were less than thirty meters from Fila. The southern bandits were less than forty meters from Li Wei.

One miscalculation and they'd be surrounded.

But Li Wei had stopped shooting. He simply kept ordering Leon to hold steady, keep moving, push forward.

"George, do you still need me to call targets?"

"No. Just keep pushing!"

Li Wei had his reasons.

The three bandits below all had round shields. Without the wheelbarrow's height advantage, his arrows would be far less effective. Better to charge in and use the wheelbarrow's momentum to create an opening.

He held the recurve bow and two bodkin arrows in his left hand, the wooden spear in his right. He trailed the wheelbarrow by two or three meters, deliberately drifting to one side — effectively a slow, subtle flanking maneuver of his own. Dynamic yet controlled, able to advance or retreat as needed. He wouldn't claim to have everything in hand, but he was genuinely, absolutely calm.

And right now, Leon and Penny were performing brilliantly.

Leon steered the wheelbarrow with increasing speed. Even though he couldn't see ahead, his familiarity with the terrain was so thorough that he didn't clip a single low ridge of dirt — and given how prone wheelbarrows were to tipping, that was genuinely impressive driving.

In a flash, the wheelbarrow had closed to within a dozen meters of the three bandits ahead.