Daybreak had come, and Dima's trek east had no real end in sight, but it would be better to make some distance between him and Kararagi and all the Hoshin in it than stay. He'd never been farther east than Albis before which meant he had no idea where he was going.
Albis was a city next to a glacier that had only attracted Dima when a minor rebellion in the countryside needed 20 or so men to put it down. That was 8 years ago, and it would be not long after that he'd be fully desensitized to the horrors of something like the sacking of a city.
As the sun came into view riders came thundering down the path, knights of a local lord most likely, maybe men at arms. Their furious ride came to a halt as they found Dima moving forward on the trail.
"In the name of Lord Daydov of Gusteko I command you to stop!" The leader of the 10 cavalrymen yelled at Dima. He didn't listen and stepped slightly off the trail and around the small column. "I order you to stop!".
"I heard you the first time," Dima replied in a dry, cold tone of voice.
Drawing his sword the man yelled, "Stop or we'll drag you to the dungeon of Castle Daydov!" He espoused proudly. Dima continued to ignore him. "Men, Capture that Hedge Knight!" He screamed out to the column.
As soon as the first man came near with his spear Dima moved out of the way of the spear and used Hanz's Falchion to gut the man as he and his horse passed. Dima then drew his Axe and turned to face the rest of the knights. The next who was able to turn and come at Dima fell off his horse whose head and front legs were cut off before a second swing from Dima between his helmet and chest plate decapitated him. The next who attacked had the axe stuck in his stomach and was ripped from his horse which Dima promptly stole.
As Dima sped off the remaining men chased after him. He was shocked by the feeling of a crossbow bolt digging into his right shoulder. The next 2 bolts fired towards him narrowly missed, while the last one shot at Dima hit him in his lower right back. Dima, enraged by this, turned to fight, determined to kill each and every one of them.
The first man who reached him on the left was quickly cut down and was split in half down to the neck. As Dima attempted to dislodge his axe from the dead man's head he stabbed the knight passing on his right in the eye with his engraved knife after grabbing his blade with his wooden hand.
However, he wasn't able to dislodge his axe before the next cavalry men successfully hit Dima's chest plate knocking him off his horse. Dima's white long sleeve undershirt was now covered in mud as his cloak had fallen off in the commotion. Dima stood, Axeless, and drew Hanz's falchion. When the next man attacked they both hit each other, though Dima just received a decent-sized cut while the knight had a falchion lodged in his arm leaving it half cut off.
Dima now down to his old knife stood defiant and managed to dodge the next soldier's spear however his knife had gotten so deep into the man when he stabbed his leg that it dragged Dima knocking him to the ground once again and leaving him weaponless. As the commanding knight drew closer Dima got up and prepared to do the only thing he could. He grabbed the knight's bastard sword with his false hand and jumped at him, knocking the knight off his horse.
"Try taking me to the dungeons now," Dima said, punching the commanding cavalryman in the face. As Dima began to strangle him with a smug look on his face he heard something and looked to the right, where the rest of the cavalrymen had gone. Before he knew it a spear flew into his right eye socket sending him a few feet back and knocking Dima unconscious from the brain trauma as well as leaving a spearhead in his head.
"Ulf are you alright," The single unscathed knight shouted out to the commanding knight as he dismounted and ran to check on him.
"Aye Lars, I'll be just fine," He said, getting up with a groan.
"Ser Ulf, do you think this could be our arsonist?".
"Well he had one eye and a fucked up enough face. Let's check to see if that hand of his is wooden, after the stunt he pulled on me I think it might be,". The pair walked over towards Dima's unconscious body. Lars removed Dima's right glove and rolled up his sleeve to find a meticulously made wooden contraption. A metal semicircle from where his elbow once was led to a set of parallel wooden beams to a metal hexagon which connected to 5 wooden fingers segmented into 4 and controlled by the tightening of the strings inside the fingers.
"That might be our man, let's get him to Castle Daydov, Lord Daydov will be rewarded handsomely for the man who burned down The Einshold," Ulf said, relieved.
"Should I go ahead and tell Bishop Olvikov to prepare for a trial before you arrive,".
"No I rather have you around while I haul this guy, I don't want him waking up on me alone. We'll have Olvikov hold the trial in a week, in case there's someone else who fits the description,".
"Are you sure, he looks almost exactly as described by that Hoshin. He even fits the height and build of a tall muscular man,".
"There's no harm in making sure we don't kill an innocent man and send his head to the Hoshin out in Albis,".
Author's Note: Ok this one is serious, I realize in the earlier chapters I kinda didn't really establish Dima's character all too well except for the fact he's a bonehead so imma try and fix that with the next couple of arcs. I'm also going to go into his past more so for the one out of 10 people who made it this far and cares I guess you get to enjoy more bad storytelling from me, yay.