Over the course of its long history, Rigal's world of swordsmanship, or the martial arts used to fight together, has essentially evolved into two inseparable branches.

Wealthy nobles have enough money to buy complete armor, and more than the dueling arenas, cavalry arenas, and frontal battlefields appear, pay attention to steady and steady fighting, to achieve a balance between attack speed and garrison.

Many of the swordsmanship of the nobles in heavy armor abandoned a certain aspect of defense, and most of them even paid attention to the cost of "taking a few attacks" to go up and kill the enemy with one blow. The presence of armor provides them with excellent protection in all aspects, but it also limits their ability to move quickly - which is quite different from the other methods of combat developed by the vast number of poor mercenaries and ordinary soldiers.

Fast, accurate, ruthless.

With or without a professional swordsmanship foundation, the fighting style of most mercenaries and ordinary soldiers can be summed up in these three words.

Attacking the calf, attacking the throat, stabbing the chest, cutting, slashing, this kind of sword skills evolved against light armor units of the same level often fall into the sand when they encounter a knight with full plate armor, except for a small number of people who have really reached the top level, they can use their speed and accuracy to raid the weak parts of the plate armor, ordinary mercenaries encounter heavily armed knight nobles, and there is almost only a dead end- But then again, this kind of swordsmith who has reached the top level in terms of fast and accurate sword skills without armor can deal with heavily armed knight-level swordsmen, and in fact, there are many who can have superb combat power as well as wearing plate armor.

Words go back to square one.

The red-haired mercenary standing opposite Henry was about one meter seven or eight tall, and the color of his skin was not very dark. Compared with the steppe people and even the local aborigines, he is a little shallow, and if he has to say, he is more like a fair-skinned northerner with a tan.

The orange mercenary card he wore around his waist meant that he was a mainstay of his power - but perhaps more than that. Mira could notice the strangeness of this man's eyes, and Henry could naturally - the sage flashed directly to the side, widening the distance, and at the same time drawing the great sword behind his back.

The sun was shining, and he deliberately caused the reflection of the blade to shine on the other man's face.

"......" The red-haired swordsman tilted slightly to avoid the dazzling reflection, a movement that did not escape Henry's eyes. 'It's not completely invisible,' the sage's eyes narrowed slightly. Then start controlling your bearing.

Mila next to her noticed that her teacher had chosen to face away from the sun, apparently using the strong light of the day to make her opponent unable to see herself, she had not been able to do so before, but now Mira noticed more and more that Henry used his surroundings during the battle.

"Joshua......" The young girl with long blond hair stood panting and muttered with some concern, and this orange mercenary, the red-haired Joshua, was obviously a well-known character in the local area, because he had just begun to face off with Henry at the door of the mercenary guild, which immediately attracted countless people to stop and watch.

"Huh-" Henry deliberately guided the situation, and the other party immediately realized this, Joshua took a step forward and stabbed directly with his sword, forcing Henry to turn.

"Ding-" The sage swung his sword horizontally, and the gold and iron were combined. Sparks splashed around, and the two sides clashed for only a moment. The blades of the swords did not bite together, and many of the mercenaries who were watching immediately judged the fact that the two were colliding with their swords.

"Master!" As we mentioned earlier, Joshua was well-known in the local area, so this exclamation was clearly addressed to our sage. But at the moment, Henry didn't have time to pay attention to the applause around him - in fact, his character probably doesn't manage money at any time - he held the sword in one hand, and then defended and attacked, using his own arm length and the length of the sword to directly and brutally swing a horizontal slash.

"Whew-whew!" The sword was lightning fast, and because the blade was no more than a few millimeters thick and line of sight, it would be embarrassing if he were not defeated at the moment, if he was usually a swordsman who relied solely on vision—but Joshua was not.

The sole of the cowhide boot slid across the dirt floor, and he stretched out one foot forward, leaning forward, directly dodging Henry's sword, and closing the distance--this was not over, the red-haired swordsman held the sword in both hands, and as he forward, he received the sword to the side of the waist, and then stabbed straight towards Henry's sword-holding right hand.

- This is the action that swordsmen who often choose to take the fast and accurate style of swordsmanship, and young people who can't let go of their hands and feet often choose to block counterattacks, because it is a safer way to judge the opponent's attack trajectory and defend themselves, but for swordsmen who have reached the level of human sword integration. What they are more inclined to do.

It is a sword wielder who directly attacks the opponent and abolishes force.

"That blue card is over. Many of the mercenaries made the same judgment, but only the two who were actually on the scene realized that their judgment was outrageously wrong.

In some places, in some cases. There is an old saying that "the authorities are confused, and the bystanders are clear" would be very applicable, but in this situation. But it's the opposite.

The mercenaries who didn't have enough eyesight couldn't appreciate Henry's ease, and Joshua's stab came from the blind spot of the perspective and was fast and ruthless. However, the sage only slightly deflected the blade and once again engaged the other party with Kramer's sword.

"When-bang!!"

Like the flamboyant pas de deux that would have existed in the court of Sivalier, the two swordsmen, who were supposed to meet for the first time and were also in high ranks, put on a gorgeous and dazzling sword show in broad daylight - but it wasn't over yet.

Initially, for some reason to draw swords against each other. At this point, it doesn't really matter.

A person who also lives with a sword can understand what kind of person he is without words, from the opponent's dodging movements and the way he wields his sword.

The things that he blamed for others were already judged by Joshua from the first encounter.

But he won't stop. This is because the blood belonging to the swordsman in the body is boiling.

On the calm surface of the lake, a drop of dew in the early morning bent the overwhelmed leaf and flowed down its edge to the tip of the leaf, and then dripped down.

It's like rippling ripples in circles and circles. Henry's sword-swinging movements and steps were calm and orderly. Precise and powerful, but not angry - like a ripple that spreads, with a gentle force that keeps you from approaching the swordsman himself as the central point.

Only for many, many, many years, and countless battles, can we forge such a mentality and technique.

With such a person acting as his opponent, people can't help but be enthusiastic.

"You're laughing. The sage said this, but even he himself had a slight curvature at the corner of his mouth.

"No more hands. His eyes still seemed unfocused, Joshua said. In the next second, the speed of the action is even faster. "Qiang-Cang-" He struck at Henry's vital point with a "long" thrust, which would expose his attack range, and Joshua naturally understood that he did not intend to win with this move, because he understood that Henry was not a weak hand of this level.

"When--Qiang-"

"Iron Gate Guard!" someone among the surrounding mercenaries let out an exclamation sound, and before the lightning flashed, the sage turned and stepped back, and at the same time deflected the great sword in front of him, successfully blocking Joshua's sword, this move was obviously from the regular sword technique, but many people only knew the general appearance and did not know the exact way to use it.

"Huh-" The gap between the red-haired swordmaster's level and the people around him was obvious, and when they sighed in surprise, Joshua didn't even hesitate and strode forward with his left foot, and at the same time let go of his left hand, which was originally in the position of the counterweight, and grabbed the top of the blade, and approached.

"Half-sword style!" More and more onlookers became the best commentators, and the move that was originally used to deal with knights with full plate armor was used by the orange mercenaries perfectly. His left hand grasped a half-sword about thirty centimeters from the tip of the sword, then retracted a small point backwards and stabbed straight towards Henry's front door.

The Kramer in the hands of the sage is like the plate armor of the knights, although they have good defense, but will limit their movement to a certain extent.

Its size gives it more attack power and range than any other weapon against people, but it is precisely this size that can become a disadvantage when used like a dagger when used like a dagger at close range.

Looks. Joshua ate Henry this time.

Even Mira, who had always been confident in her teacher, clenched her little fists.

But as we've been saying all along, it's a battle of bystanders, but of the authorities.

"Bang dang!" Henry crossed the greatsword between the lightning and flint, and raised the tip of Joshua's sword with an inverted V-shaped gauntlet, causing it to stab into the sky. At the same time, he twisted his body to close the distance, and with his other hand, he directly slammed his elbow towards the red-haired swordsman's face.

"Click-" Joshua let go of his right hand, holding the blade in his left hand, and shook the sword in the other direction, slapping his palm on Henry's elbow, he took a small step back, but didn't make the mistake of choosing to pull away like other mercenaries would do - not allowing Henry's greatsword to be used. Joshua understood this deeply, and he once again deceived himself. Henry was still in the position of directing his sword upward—in other words, the sage's hand was raised in mid-air.

Joshua's height disadvantage became an advantage at this time, as he raised his right hand and pushed straight towards Henry's sword-wielder, blocking the sage's movements so that he could not attack, while his left hand, which was still holding the blade, flipped over and struck at Henry's abdomen with his gauntlet.

"It's settled!" the experienced onlookers said again that it was too early.

"Woo-" With a bow, Henry staggered Joshua's attack towards the abdomen.

The red-haired swordsman leaned towards the right side, he understood the fact that his sword missed, so he didn't control this strength and planned to take this opportunity to open the distance, but how could Henry let him succeed, the sage also retreated behind him at the moment when he dodged the attack with his bow, and then took a step to fix his waist and twist his calf, and directly swung a big diagonal blow from the other direction.

"Tsk-" Joshua finally showed nervousness for the first time now, and he hurriedly adjusted his posture and avoided the object in front of the blade where Kramer's energy could be fully transmitted. With his right hand grasping the hilt of the sword, the palm of his left hand "rubbed" the blade of Kramer against the surface of the sword, swinging it backwards.

"When-!!" even if the sun is shining, Mars is clearly visible. Flying in the air.

Joshua, who managed to unload some of his strength with the momentum and friction of the forward, made up for the disadvantage in his physique with skill and reluctantly slid away the sword, but the overexerted physical strength contrasted with the sage with endless energy. His defeat was a foregone conclusion.

"Huh...... Huh...... Haah...... "The red hair tied into a single ponytail and the side hair were stuck to the side of his face because of sweat - he would fail, he had actually judged it as early as the third fight.

-- It should be pointed out that he had no intention of reining in his attacks just now.

In other words, if Henry's ability had not reached a sufficient level, then he would have just died.

In other words, Joshua. It was an all-out attack.

Not only that, but in fact, the reason why he was so physically exhausted was because he almost gave up his defense and single-mindedly attacked at the highest speed.

When a swordsman of his caliber chose to do so, the intensity and density of the attack should have been able to exert itself to the point where it would have overwhelmed people and led to failure.

However.

-- Unfazed.

The battle with Henry reminded Joshua of the days when his mentor was still alive, and it didn't feel like he was fighting an equal opponent, in fact, the red-haired swordsman could even feel the other person even reminding himself what not to do during so many encounters.

- Several attacks by Henry. All the sights were at Joshua's empty door.

He has a physical advantage, an advantage in the size of his weapons, and even an overwhelming advantage in swordsmanship. However, he did not use a sharp attack to unilaterally suppress Koshua in order to achieve an outright victory, this man - from the beginning, it was as if he was exchanging ideas about swordsmanship with him. Constantly use attacks and movements to alert yourself to which aspect should be more perfect.

The sweat that oozes out, in addition to the physical exertion, may be some cold sweat that wakes up.

-- If this is a frontal battlefield. If you bump into someone else and get caught by that weakness. What will happen to you?

The red-haired swordsman doesn't lack a solid foundation, he just lacks some awareness of the changing situation because he's young - and in the course of our sage battles. He was like a sponge that touched the water—no, perhaps it should be described as salt sprinkled in a pot of soup—dissolved, stirred, and became one.

"Qiang-dang-"

Sweating profusely, it was Joshua's last sword, and Henry caught on to the fact that he was physically exhausted and shook the sword flower with Krammer in quick succession from two directions.

A half-handed sword flew out of his hand.

"Knock-bang-" The tip of the sword plunged into the dirt and fell flat to the ground because of its own weight.

“...... Ahh "Phew—" Henry flicked his broadsword and withdrew it into the scabbard behind his back.

"Just kidding...... Yes. ”

"Joshua the Blind Swordsman...... Lost...... everyone except the two of them were all stunned, but unlike the others who were surprised by Joshua's defeat, our white-haired Luoan girl was shocked to see someone able to fight a sage so many times for the first time.

"Ahh

"I'm fine, Amonica, I'm fine. The red-haired swordsman smiled at her, while Henry, on the other side, walked up to the diminutive registrar with a calm face.

"Hello, where are the horses to be kept?" asked the sage, and the staff, still immersed in the intricate narrative of the scene, which actually lasted only a few minutes, just looked at him with a stunned expression, and said nothing.

"......" Henry frowned, and footsteps were heard behind him.

"Whew...... If you want to store horses, lead them in, there will be stables in front, and temporary storage is free of charge. Although horseback riding is not allowed, it is okay to get off the horse and lead it in. Henry turned his head, and the sweaty red-haired swordsmith smiled in his general direction as he unsheathed his sword.

"That...... If you don't mind, how about acting together. ”

"I feel like we're pretty compatible. Joshua smiled sincerely, and Henry responded with the same expression, "I thought so too." ”

He stepped forward, and the red-haired swordsman held out his hand, and the two held together.

"Please advise, I'm Joshua, and this is Amonica. He pointed to the girl next to him and said.

"Troubadour and melodica, what a name, I'm Henry, and over there is my student, Mila. The sage said with a smile, and the white-haired Luoan girl next to him also walked over. (To be continued.) )