There is a saying among West Coast folk whose origin has been lost.
"Things related to the nobility are never simple." Obviously, it is the common people who complicate things and add a lot of red tape. Things that could have ended there have been revealed again and again. They were deeply impressed by the lords and nobles above their heads.
Take the most common joke as an example: a peasant had a dispute with another peasant, and the peasant punched the peasant directly in the face; a lord had a dispute with another lord, so he first had to- —Invite the other person to a meal.
Then invite a group of people to watch, stand on the opposite side in an elegant manner in front of everyone, then take off your gloves and throw them to the opponent.
If the opponent picks up the glove, then they will have a duel, and if the opponent does not pick it up, then... his honor will be damaged.
This quite 'efficient' method, together with many other things that are completely unnecessary in the eyes of ordinary people, has become the talk of these civilians who are more or less envious of their lives - it needs to be mentioned that rumors The authenticity is not very high, because people always just selectively listen to the parts they like to hear, and then exaggerate the facts.
Although there are some red tapes among the real lords and nobles, most of them still live a relatively normal life. If we say what makes them truly pestering, it probably lies in their unyielding persistence in their own face.
Jean Raoul Rene, a poet from Civalliers who was a member of the aristocratic circle, once recorded a story about a baron whose treasury was empty due to years of war. He had to go to a craftsman to customize a baron even though his family was already hungry. A set of gold plate armor. But now, in Chester, a small town on the border of the Crant Kingdom, our Mr. Sage, who completed the commission the day before and returned to the hotel for a good sleep, found that as soon as he got up, he found that there was a lot of people outside.
The small wooden window was not opened at night, and the mosquitoes in the swamp area were large and fierce. Henry glanced down through the gap and roughly guessed what happened.
"Should I say I expected it?" He shrugged, while the sleepy Mira on the other bed got up and stretched, then tilted her head and looked at him with a puzzled face.
"It's okay. Let's go have breakfast."
Henry smiled slightly.
It took more than half an hour to finish the morning affairs leisurely. When I finally walked out of the hotel door, it was almost ten o'clock in the morning.
This caused the eye corners of the person at the center of the crowd to twitch almost to the extreme. Another woman next to her, who was also dressed in a way that was incompatible with the surrounding civilians, said in a slightly worried tone: "Miss..."
Even Mira could guess the identity of the other party clearly after just meeting him for a moment. Henry looked down at this young aristocratic woman with red hair who was over 1.6 meters tall. She was holding a half-handed sword, the blade of which was deeply embedded in the soil. She had obviously maintained this posture for a long time.
"Are you the mercenary Henry Meyer?" The sage's tall figure and the big sword carried on his back made the female knight next to her look even more worried. She took a step forward as if she wanted to Dissuade your own lady. But as soon as he walked over, the red-haired young woman turned back and glared fiercely: "I know what you are going to say, but I won't listen, Margaret. This is related to the glory of the Rosita family."
"My father refused to take action, but I can't swallow this breath. A mercenary actually shamed my brother!" The female noble grabbed a half-sword stuck in the dirt, and then pointed at Henry's chest. The civilians watching next to him let out a burst of laughter. Noisy, and the red-haired female noble declared every word in a high tone.
"I am Sheila Rosita, the eldest daughter of the Rosita family, mercenary Henry Meyer. I challenge you." Sheila continued: "Until one of the parties admits defeat or dies."
"If you don't accept it, it will be regarded as my victory." Raising her slender eyebrows, the woman looked quite determined, while the knight guarding her, Margaret, looked worried.
The people around them all looked at the two of them. Exciting things like a life-and-death duel happen early in the morning. It is not something you see every day. For civilians who are extremely lacking in forms of entertainment, compared to the risk of being accidentally injured. The excitement is even more attractive.
Sheila tried to put on a high profile to show her disdain, but she was unable to do so because of her height. The air seemed quite tense, and people were waiting in silence for the sage's answer——
"Okay, then you win." Henry shrugged, and then planned to turn around and leave.
"Humph. This is so decent - eh?" Sheila was stunned, while Henry and Mira turned and walked towards the direction of the stable - they were already planning to leave, the white-haired Luoan girl turned her head and glanced with pity. He glanced at the red-haired female aristocrat, and she changed her calm and firm look before and came up in a panic and shouted: "Wait, wait a minute. Are you going to just turn around and leave? Is honor worthless to you?" !"
The bewildered look showed that she was indeed still young. Margaret behind her, with short hair and a swordsman costume, held her forehead and sighed, while Henry in front turned his head.
"Yes." He replied with a shrug, and then turned to leave. However, Silla was filled with anger because of this answer, grabbed a half-sword and rushed towards him.
"Damn mercenaries, they regard honor as nothing!" After just a few words, he lost his composure as if he had been touched by his scales. However, Henry, who turned around to avoid this sneak attack that seriously violated the spirit of noble honor, closed his eyes slightly.
'It's interesting.' The sword made a clear whistling sound when it stabbed, which proved that the opponent's technique was very good. Henry stopped moving forward and became interested.
"Aren't you like this yourself?" He was still soft-spoken, but he signaled Mira to step aside with his eyes.
"You, you..." Sheila gritted her teeth and was choked by this sentence. She didn't know how to answer and could only get angry. Margaret also came over at this time - Henry turned around and faced them both. , obviously intending to attack.
"That's about right." Unlike the female knight's worries because of the sage's physique and blue card's class, Sheila's face was filled with eagerness and confidence in herself.
"You are better than your brother." After a little observation, Henry discovered the fact that this young female noble was quite skilled in both her stance and her sword-holding posture - he reached out and touched his big sword.
"Thank you, but even if you praise me, I won't be lenient." The female swordsman distanced herself.
——Just like the most standard swordsmanship textbooks will tell you, she lowered her entire center of gravity, then put her hands down naturally, letting the entire long sword tilt upwards, pointing at the sage's chest.
"Plough position..." Mira from the back murmured quietly - obviously Sheila learned the same system of swordsmanship as Henry taught her, and the whole person's aura was natural, and her movements were much better than the girl herself. .
"The middle section." The sage pulled out a huge sword of astonishing size. But he didn't show any signs of defense. The opponent's choice of this starting posture further proves that she does have two moves - taking starting postures such as the rooftop posture as an example, according to the posture of holding the sword from top to bottom, it can be summarized into three stages: upper, middle and lower.
The lower part is suitable for teasing, usually as a means of forcing the enemy back or as a continuation of a continuous attack. Or it can be used to defend when the enemy intends to attack your legs - the "Fool's Pose" among the basic starting postures belongs to the lower level. And it got its name because in most cases the opponent will choose to attack the head or torso, so assuming this posture at the beginning will often lead to attacks on one's own vital points.
The lower section is like this, while the upper section is mostly focused on output. The "Roof Pose" that is held high above the head and the extended secondary move "Wrath Pose" that is swung hard on the back. Severe slashes from top to bottom can often Inflicting the most fatal wounds on the opponent - but that being said. The starting position in the upper section is very easy to avoid or block.
Because the intention of its movements is too obvious, the trajectory of the attack is naturally expected - what is really difficult to judge is the mid-section posture adopted by Sheila. This starting posture that firmly protects her chest can be transformed into other postures at any time. posture. Coupled with the focus of standing as a noble female swordsman, it is obvious that even though she is a bit impatient and quite young, she is steady in swordsmanship and has a better level than ordinary noble knights.
This may be the opponent Henry has encountered in a long time who is truly good in both theory and technology.
Sheila had a serious look on her face. She was only wearing a dark blue swordsman costume with white vertical stripes, slim sleeves to facilitate movement and a double-breasted top. She was not wearing a skirt underneath but a pair of white jodhpurs with leather pants. boots.
He must be around twenty years old. At such an age, he already has a good foundation. There will definitely be a bright future in the future - "Are you looking down on me!" - Well, if you can get rid of this kind of personality that pretends to be calm but is actually impulsive. Henry was thinking this way, and Sheila, who had endured all morning and finally lost her composure, stepped forward with one foot and then stretched out the sword tip with both hands in the "long style" and pointed it directly at the sage's right clavicle.
She planned to be merciful, hoping to make Henry's sword-wielding hand unable to use force due to pain and win. This was obviously another young mistake. Sheila made the biggest mistake from the beginning by using the sword move of thrusting forward with both hands fully extended.
——She exposed her attack range.
"Wha—" Henry turned slightly sideways to avoid the attack, and there was a surprised sound from the crowd next to him. Sheila's stab seemed to be fast and hard to their weak eyesight, but the sage easily avoided it, without even using his sword to block it.
"Humph, is it because the sword's response is too slow to block it?" the female swordsman said, and these words, together with her choice of first attack, exposed another weakness of the young noble swordsman - —She has no actual combat experience.
The look of disappointment flashed across Henry's face. The opponent's energy and posture had indeed reached the level of an excellent swordsman, but his hasty attacks and wrong choices told another story.
'Probably I have been able to defeat my opponent by relying on my reflexes and sword skills before this.' The sage made the judgment easily, and at the same time dodged another attack from Sheila.
"Alas..." Margaret, the older woman behind her, sighed. This female knight seemed to be able to judge the development of the situation. Sheila, who had already exposed her attack range, thought she had the initiative. He wanted to rely on his fierce rhythm to overwhelm Henry and then win gracefully, but he didn't know that he was destined to be unable to even touch the hem of the sage's clothes from the first attack.
"Pacha -" Henry lost interest. Naturally, Henry didn't intend to continue this kind of sparring game where you come and hide. He turned around and missed another "long" thrust from Sheila, and then took a big step back. Pulled away.
"Qiang——" The sage finally took a stance and put the big sword on his shoulder. It's obviously the "angry" move from the previous paragraph.
"Humph -" Silla saw Henry's posture, but a smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.
The cutting ability of the "Wrath Style", which is the upper level of the slash, is even better than that of the "Roof Style". In addition, due to the size of Henry's sword, this attack may be enough to eat even a Deinosuchus——But Sheila exposed Smile, that's because the size of Henry's sword is both its strength and its weakness.
The Furious Style, which was swiped with full strength from behind, was unable to use any other slashes afterwards due to the huge range of movement. This was the case with ordinary long swords, and it was even more inevitable with a sword of this size. As long as you focused on dodging Henry's blow, Then she can seize the opportunity of the opponent's slow attack speed to get close and win.
"Crack--" The sage swung the sword, and Sheila dodged the blow. As she expected, the attack was with all her strength--the female swordsman had a smile on her lips, but in the next step Seconds were replaced by sluggishness.
"It's not over...it's a lie!!"
"Boom - Woo -" The sage's attack did not end when he landed. The tip of the big sword barely scratched the ground, then he turned his hands and stabbed it fiercely from a high position. Sheila was stunned. He dodged the blow, but then Henry raised his hands above his head, flipped the sword, and swung a blow in the other direction.
The one and a half meter long sword swung out three swords in one second.
"Wow!" The lightning-like continuous attacks caught the female swordsman off guard. She rolled on the ground to avoid it, but it was not over yet. The sage took a step forward and turned around while twisting the sword. Smoothly connected to the end of this cassock slash and turned it into an upward tilt——
"Ding! Clang——!"
In panic, the one-and-a-half-handed sword that was blocking downwards could not withstand the pressure and fell to the ground, followed by another slant thrust. Sheila could not avoid it. She closed her eyes with tears in her eyes, but Henry stopped the sword steadily.
"Woo-" Due to inertia, the big sword made a slight metallic trembling sound, and the shining tip of the sword stopped at the tip of Sheila's nose.
"Pah!" The female swordsman who was sore from the tiger's mouth sat down on the dirt ground in a dull manner, while the female knight Margaret behind her stared blankly at the sage who slowly retracted the sword. The loud voice murmured.
"Iron Butterfly..."
This word with unique beauty attracted Henry's attention. He glanced back at the other party. It was unexpected for the sage that someone in a small kingdom like Crant would recognize this kind of sword skill, but he didn't intend to do it for him. This does something.
"Ah! Miss!" The female knight who finally woke up panicked and ran over to support Sheila, who was stunned. Then she raised her face and looked at the sage, using a voice that could only be heard by a few people at this distance. said.
"Who are you, Your Excellency... There are only a few words describing the lost sword skills. This kind of thing is not something that a mercenary can possess." She looked at Henry with vigilant eyes and said this, while the sage shrugged. He shrugged and replied in a relaxed tone.
"Actually, I am a sage."
After leaving such words, Henry turned around and walked to the stable with Mira.
Only Margaret, who looked thoughtful, and Sheila, who still looked dull, were left.
…
R: I tried to use a popular method to explain the real swordsmanship battle. I think it was easy to understand in a simple way and the rhythm was well controlled. This chapter is quite satisfactory to me, and I will make similar attempts in future battle descriptions. If you think it’s good, please let me hear your feedback. (To be continued.)
