My Gang of Swordsmen

Chapter 495: Chapter 172: Single Saber Breaks the Bow! Copy Talent [Master of Archery]

——Arrow!

Watching the arrow fly through the air, Aoto’s brow furrowed sharply. His back pressed tightly against the alley wall, while he subtly raised his head, peeking out from the garbage heap where he and Nagakura were hiding.

At the west entrance of the alley, three samurai wielding wide yumi bows and carrying dual swords had appeared unexpectedly.

Beside these three archers, two samurai shouted urgently to the surviving people in the alley: ”Quickly, take the breathing ones and leave!”—these two samurai were indeed the ”Peace Faction” who had retreated earlier.

Originally, their retreat wasn’t an escape but a bid to find reinforcements.

After witnessing their companions being effortlessly slaughtered by Aoto, like cutting vegetables, they realized that continuing this way would lead to complete annihilation eventually.

They couldn’t fight anymore! They had to retreat! Retreat as many as possible — with such determination, the two hurriedly ran back to the nearby stronghold for backup.

The reason Aoto had been ”led” to this place by the bearded man was that they had a small base here... This was why they could dispatch 18 people here all at once to intercept Aoto.

However, being just a small base, they didn’t have many allies to call upon.

These three archers with wide yumi bows were the entirety of the support they managed to gather in their rushed return to the base.

”Tachibana Aoto’s swordsmanship is far too formidable; engaging him in close combat is suicide. We must suppress him with archery”—under the strong insistence of these two who came for aid, the reinforcements they managed to gather took the only three sets of bows and arrows stored at the base.

After their initial shots missed, these three archers swiftly reached for their right waists, fetching new arrows from the quivers and stringing them to their bows.

Anyone with keen eyes could tell just by observing how these three archers changed arrows, their archery skills were uneven.

The two young men on the left and right had clearly average archery skills, their movements crude, with one almost dropping the arrow.

Only the stocky-bearded middle-aged man in the center executed swift and skilled movements, smoothly fetching new arrows from the quiver and stringing them, clearly an adept archer.

This bearded man’s subsequent performance strongly showcased the demeanor of a ”Master of Archery.”

As soon as Aoto popped his head out from the garbage heap, the ”Bearded Middle-Aged Man” squinted his eyes, glaring viciously in Aoto’s direction before raising his bow and shooting!

Whoosh—!

The incredibly sharp sound of the arrow slicing through the air echoed throughout the alley.

The arrow, brown shafted, transformed into a brown light beam, splitting the alley’s air, this slender light beam straightly aiming toward Aoto’s exposed head.

Aoto’s pupils slightly contracted as he snapped his head back into the refuge of the garbage heap with reflexive speed and motion.

Thud!

The arrow sank deeply into a large hemp sack within the garbage heap—landing mere inches from where Aoto had poked his head out.

——That bearded guy is surely a master of archery...

Aoto’s heart sank slightly.

The appearance of reinforcements, along with the shout ”Quickly, take the breathing ones and leave!” stirred those surviving in the alley into action.

They hastily dragged their still breathing, living companions, scrambling toward the direction the reinforcements had appeared...fleeing towards the west entrance.

Nagakura noticed this and quickly murmured to Aoto:

”Mr. Tachibana, what should we do now? If we continue like this, these people will escape.”

”...” Aoto didn’t respond to Nagakura.

Engrossed in his thoughts of strategizing a solution, Aoto was currently too preoccupied to heed any trivial external information.

To Aoto, the worst possible outcome was clearly these people successfully escaping without capturing any alive.

What lay before Aoto as the biggest challenge now was...”how to deal with the opponent’s shooting support.”

A total of three archers guarded the entrance, covering their companions’ retreat, and among them, one had notably skilled archery.

The garbage heap where Aoto and Nagakura currently hid was large and thick. As long as they stayed behind this heap, they didn’t have to worry about the arrows reaching them.

But if they casually poked their heads out or left this garbage heap, they would definitely face concentrated fire from these three archers.

Japan’s yumi bow, also known as ”big bow,” commonly measures over 2 meters in length, boasting immense power.

Aoto recalled hearing about a test of the yumi bow’s power in his past life: when a yumi bow was fortified with 23kg of force and equipped with heavy projectile tips, a high-speed camera captured it easily piercing a human body up to 30cm at only 34 meters per second.

If you’re hit by an arrow from a skilled marksman... your body is likely to be shot clean through.

Quite unfortunate — the enemy side happens to have someone whose archery skill is evidently high.

Noticing Aoto deep in thought, Nagakura wisely sealed his lips, refraining from speaking further. He even slowed his breathing, fearing any actions or words might disrupt Aoto’s concentration.