Basically, all creatures in the world have the instinct to protect their chicks.
There are ancient legends about the dragon, which humans admire for its nobility, power and beauty, burning down the city-state in anger because of thieves' attempts to steal the dragon eggs. Even the insects, which were scorned and belittled, made the ultimate sacrifice by using their own bodies as food for their offspring. sacrificial individuals.
This is the most basic instinct of living things. Individuals will age and die, so they will have feelings of hope and protection for the descendants who inherit their bloodline. But just like other instincts, it has been amplified and complicated by the social structure and culture of human evolution over thousands of years, and its impact is far greater than that of a beast in the wilderness.
The so-called dandy is a person who uses the power and connections of his parents to bully and dominate the market. The concept of princes and nobles has been with mankind since the emergence of the concept.
This is just another old thing under the sun.
It's just that this time, this dandy boy doesn't like women or property, but likes to enjoy blood and killing.
And his elder happened to be the lord of Chester.
The development of the rest of the story is actually not as expected by any knowledgeable and experienced person. When Henry and his team tied up the werewolf whose wounds had begun to heal after being beaten severely, he put them on Mithia and prepared to take them back to Chester for a mission. While exchanging money, a whole squadron of 12 armed knights appeared in their path.
They are the greeters and the bodyguards of their young master. They are responsible for dealing with the foreign adventurers who are lucky enough to survive after accepting the mission.
The royal family nationalized most of the mercenary guild branches, but Chester's was not among them due to the influence of Parnilla. The local nobles were originally dissatisfied until they discovered that retaining the old-style guilds could attract many unemployed low-level adventurers. . Even in the heyday of the guild, these poor and unknown adventurers often died in the cold wilderness with no one to collect their bodies. Now this situation has created conditions for their special hobby.
Lamanite nobles all like hunting.
This tradition originated from the gladiatorial hobby during the Gulaman Empire. In the process of fighting with powerful beasts, nobles can prove their superiority as rulers, and become higher and better in body and mind. Excellent presence.
Including the nobles of the Sivalier Knights on the other side of Morbigas, hunting wild boars and even monsters with spears is a required course.
At this moment, these knights sitting on imperial horses are holding special hunting spears with raised steel wings parallel to the broad bloodletting blade of the spear. The nickname of this type of wing spear is "wild boar". spear". Their raised wings are used to limit the position of the spear tip after it pierces the stubbornly resisting beast, preventing the opponent from rushing along the spear shaft to the user and causing damage.
And rightfully so.
They are also very useful against adventurers who are in dire straits and are frantically resisting random swings of swords.
Both sides immediately understood each other's position and situation just by looking at each other.
Precisely because they are all experts, the knights understand that there is probably no room for negotiation in this matter - at least until one of them pays a heavy price.
They had the advantage in numbers and equipment, but the opponent with two little girls who seemed to have no fighting ability could catch their young master in the werewolf state without anyone losing the chance.
This is not a low-level mercenary that can be seen casually.
The knights in the Padrosi Empire are slightly different from those on the west coast. Although many people are also from noble families, knights are more like a professional title in the army.
Newcomers who are just starting out are often not qualified to wear the heaviest armor and ride armored horses. They will be equipped with light armor and light spears to act as scouts. Some also serve as foot knights and are used as bodyguards for dignitaries. Only when they have accumulated enough qualifications, they will be allowed to wear fully enclosed plate armor, hold lances and charge on war horses.
Among the 12 people in front of Henry and his party, 8 were light cavalry wearing only light half-helmets, breastplates and shoulder armors.
The remaining four people mostly gave up parts such as calves and shoe armor in order to walk in the mountains and forests. The helmets they wore were not fully enclosed. Their faces were exposed and their throats were only protected by mail.
Only the leading knight was truly heavily armed, and after he recognized the situation at a glance, he immediately called on the other three experienced knights to dismount. The remaining eight light knights used the mobility of their light armor and the length of their hunting spears to dismount. Swirling around and harassing.
Defeating Henry and his party simply with the impact of cavalry is actually the best choice for facing infantry like them who lack mounts and anti-cavalry weapons and are still numerically inferior.
But why don't they do this?
Because the sage and his party have hostages.
The moment he saw the group of knights coming over, Henry reached out and tied the thick hemp rope around the werewolf's neck, and then asked Mira to fix the other end of the hemp rope to Mithiya's saddle and untie it. The fixed belt that was used to prevent the werewolf from falling off the horse was replaced.
This series of operations only lasted a few seconds, but the meaning revealed was enough to shock the other party.
Once they try to rush forward, the Luoan girl only needs to let Mitya kick and rush forward, and the fallen werewolf will be dragged around with the rope around his neck until he is strangled.
They didn't even need to free up manpower to put the knife on his neck, because the other party's professional level was sufficient, so the threat could be conveyed using such action language.
The four pedestrian knights stood at the front with the best-equipped captain, while the remaining three used the relative flexibility brought by not wearing leg armor as substitutes to form a wedge formation. The heavily armored knight captain wearing a fully enclosed helmet is enough to withstand many attacks, and once the opponent's attention is attracted to him, the three people behind him can immediately launch an attack.
Henry and his party are all dressed as adventurers. Even though their torso is covered in armor, other parts of their body are extremely vulnerable to the threat of sharp weapons. Especially the pursuit of visibility and lightness without wearing a helmet. Before this, many adventurers had died from knights on horseback who were slashing or stabbing at the head from a high position.
In addition, the remaining 8 people who took advantage of the mobility of the light cavalry formed a team of 4 and fanned out to the left and right sides respectively. Their purpose was to cooperate with the advancing foot knights and constantly roam and harass to compress the living space of Henry and his party. , forcing them to enter deadly close combat with knights who are better equipped to withstand attacks, or seize the opportunity of attracting the opponent's attention to attack from the side or rear.
As soon as the formation was laid out, Mira understood the other party's intention. She frowned and looked at her teacher.
The shortage of manpower and equipment means that even if they know that the opponent intends to encircle and compress themselves, they have few ways to counterattack. Faced with the compression of living space, actively expanding the front line is the best response plan. The knights spread out in three directions need at least three people to deal with them. However, the sage may not have any problem dealing with four knights on foot, but she has no confidence in dealing with four light cavalry. Not to mention the dumb guy who didn't have any professional training and just held the rare weapons and shields obtained from the Crescent Continent.
With his combat experience and tactical level, a person facing four light cavalry would probably be quickly stabbed to death by someone taking the opportunity to bypass the big shield with a spear.
The quality and number of personnel are not good, and the equipment is not the best choice for dealing with armor.
Even if it is a great sword forged from moon core iron and dragon bone, its edge can only cut through strong muscles and bones. It is as powerless against steel armor as any other sharp weapon. Although the swordsmanship technique already includes the anti-armor technique of inverting the counterweight and handguard to hit hard, that is only a temporary use in critical situations.
It is not a warhammer or a pickaxe, nor is it an armor-piercing halberd or ax hammer used for anti-armor——
Halberd, she thought.
The light lit up, attracting the attention of many knights.
The wonderful weapon snatched from the hands of the strange creatures in the inner world originally looked like an inoperable spear or long-handled blunt instrument, but when it was attached to it, it was modified by the Grand Magister Druyin and could only be used 7 times. After the rune stone was consumed once and activated, the thin light blade revealed a sense of danger that frightened the knights even though it was different from any weapon they were familiar with.
It seems that the steel plate armor he is wearing cannot provide any effective protection in front of this weapon.
Padrosi's knights are trained according to the empire's standard tactics, which have been summarized and popularized by outstanding soldiers, including the composition of the squadron and the formations they deploy.
They are professional soldiers, well-equipped and well-trained.
But it also makes it easy to predict courses of action.
Why could Mira recognize the unfolding of this formation at a glance?
Because the bloodline of the contemporary Imperial Knights can be traced back to the White Church Religious Knights two hundred years ago.
The code of conduct, personnel composition and formation deployment that they regarded as the holy book has been handed down to this day and is still used by the army as a standard textbook for teaching novice knights.
It was written by Henry.
"The unknown is the best weapon." The sage raised a finger, and the Luoan girl also realized their way to break the situation.
The strange appearance of the light halberd in Kaleva's hand, combined with the large mithril shield he held and his tall appearance made the knights have an unrealistic overestimation of him.
And when their attention was turned to Leng Tou Qing to be wary of him, the sage, who was still at a safe distance 6 meters away, disappeared from sight.
Their formation is spread out, and the combination of personnel and equipment is so standard.
They followed the plan step by step and did not relax their vigilance after seeing that this group of mercenaries had the ability to bring down the werewolves.
But no Imperial knight would wake up today thinking that he would meet a ruthless man who had lived for more than two hundred years, had rich combat experience, and had enhanced magic to suppress werewolves head-on, and would be prepared for it.
This cognitive gap is their biggest and best weapon.
"Peng——!" The sage who left a deep footprint on the dirt rushed in front of the walking knight. The distance was shortened in the blink of an eye so that the knight had no time to react. He tried to push the spear forward. , but the sage who did not draw his sword put his hand into his arms and then swung his arms up and down to forcefully snatch it away.
A light spear cannot do anything against full-body plate armor without the impact of cavalry, but what he needs is never to directly penetrate the armor.
When the numb knight was still in the aftermath of his disarmament, one end of the sage's spear was stuck at the ankle of the knight's right foot, and the other side was slapped in the direction of the inner thigh of his left leg.
The knight, who immediately realized what was about to happen, quickly reached for his waist, but before he could take out the dagger, he felt his feet fall into the air, and then he fell heavily to the ground with a heavy metal muffled sound.
】
The fully enclosed steel plate armor weighed more than 20 kilograms. Although it was not completely immovable, it still caused a lot of trouble for him to get up again. The sage, who was familiar with the structure of armor, then used the metal tail grip at the end of the spear shaft to hit the movable armor plate of the elbow joint of his right arm hard, causing it to deform and get stuck.
The knight captain who fell on the ground continued to try to pull out the dagger on the right side of his waist, so he failed, and the long sword hanging on his left side could not be drawn out in this state due to the length of the blade.
The poor vision of the fully enclosed helmet made it impossible for him to identify the mercenary's position. Although he did not suffer any external injuries under the protection of the excellent armor, he could only be stepped on by him and unable to do anything at this moment.
The rest happens in less than 30 seconds.
Another knight on foot who was not wearing plate armor and gorget was hit in the Adam's apple by the sage with the tail of his hunting spear the moment the captain fell. He stepped back with difficulty breathing, while the two knights next to him had not had time to kill the spear-wielding knight. The hand gesture switched from the conventional attack posture of holding the end of the spear and attacking with the tip of the spear to the close combat posture of holding the middle part. One person was directly pierced by the sage's unprotected calf and then he was thrown down.
At the moment when his teammates fell to the ground, the last uninjured knight made a seemingly standard but extremely wrong decision - he planned to abandon the lance that was disadvantageous in melee combat and draw the sword from his waist, but this was a waste of time. Only a few seconds became the last mistake of his life.
The already superior combat experience combined with the high reflexes brought by enhanced magic allowed Henry to accurately stab the back of the knight's right hand with a spear the moment the opponent's hand reached for the hilt of the sword.
The steel gauntlet was dented by the impact of the hunting spear but resisted the attack. However, the half-drawn sword of the knight was slapped back into the scabbard, and a small section of the blunt hunting spear tip was still sharp. Using the impact, The reaction force of the middle gauntlet pulled upwards, as if guided by gods, Henry accurately aimed at the end of the chainmail gorget and penetrated the knight's chin through the protective loophole.
Dark venous blood and bright arterial blood flowed out from the silver spear blade. The knight whose cervical vertebra was cut off in an instant fell to his knees weakly with a heavy metallic sound, while the sage released the sword without hesitation. He turned around with the stuck hunting spear and at the same time pulled out Klemmer from behind and slashed diagonally. The last knight, whose face was red and had difficulty breathing but was still trying to attack with the hunting spear, was not protected by a metal guard. The spear shaft broke, and then the weight hit him hard on the eye socket.
The knight who was hit hard again couldn't even stand, but the knight behind him whose calf was pierced by a hunting spear and bleeding profusely struggled to get up and stabbed him with a spear in the middle of the torso, but was easily hit by the plate armor. Block.
He turned around and thrust the sword forward, piercing it through the protective loophole on the inside of the arm armor and crippled the knight's right hand. Then he crossed the sword across the V-shaped guard and smashed two front teeth. It penetrated the upper jaw of the knight, who was screaming in pain.
When the gauntlet stained with saliva and blood was pulled out again, the knight who was injured in several places was groping for his breastplate and still trying to pull out the dagger to fight back, but Henry had already stepped back to avoid it because of his attack. The hunting spears thrust by the light cavalry who reshuffled their formation after attacking.
The sudden and decisive battle disrupted the thinking of the light cavalry. In addition, the commander fell to the ground and the situation was chaotic. These young imperial knights could only act on instinct.
They wanted to cover their teammates, but the sage was clinging to several injured knights on foot. The light cavalry tried to attack him, but they were worried that the impact of the horses would hurt the friendly troops. This hesitation resulted in the impact and impact they should have had. The light cavalry failed to show its mobility, but after rushing towards it, it failed to stop in front of the sword——
It must be the best target for that unparalleled blade.
There was nothing fancy about the bottom-up slash, splitting open from the belly of the lightly armored horse to the unprotected thigh of the cavalryman.
Blood and intestines bloomed with heat mist in the slightly cool air. The neighing horses and the knights who had lost too much blood and screamed before dying stirred the nerves of the remaining people.
And when he picked up the bloody hunting spear with his toes and then threw it accurately, it hit the thigh of another light cavalry, penetrating him and the horse, and the horse with damaged spine directly pressed him under him.
The morale of the new recruits unsurprisingly collapsed.
"Run, run!"
“We need more people!!”
The battle that was supposed to be evenly matched or even dominant in the eyes of the knights turned into a one-sided crushing. It only took about ten seconds for their attention to be attracted, and only three to five minutes.
The remaining two severely wounded knights fell to their knees and shouted their names and words of surrender, but one of them tried to feign surrender and drew his sword, so Henry stabbed him cleanly through the throat.
The blood of friendly troops dripped from the gaps in the faceplate of the fully enclosed helmet, making the knight captain feel like the entire inside of the helmet was sticky.
He controlled his breathing carefully, fearing that he would attract the other party's attention by making any loud noises.
Although he also knew that the other party did not kill him just because of the pursuit of efficiency. In the absence of armor-piercing weapons, it was not as fast as his men to kill those with armor coverage.
It's not that he can't, but he doesn't dare to get up.
Although he did not suffer any real damage, this sturdy full-body plate armor could no longer bring him a sufficient sense of security.
It's as if the turtle that thinks its shell is solid will break into pieces with a "kacha" sound when bitten by the earth dragon.
You can only try not to move as much as possible to prevent the other party from remembering that you are not dead yet.
There was nothing he could do when he got up. There was really nothing he could do about such a monster. The knight captain kept using these words to excuse himself. In fear, confusion and disbelief, he Through the ear holes of the helmet, he heard the steps that were extremely light for his body approaching him.
"Ka-ba" the visor was opened, and the sudden sunlight that came in made him squint his eyes involuntarily, and he waited until he adapted to the light again.
He saw the man staring at him with a pair of gray-blue eyes and speaking calmly.
"Now we can talk."
