The martial arts used in the world of Rigal, except for the type of warhammer for plate armor, including sword skills, are far more complex and effective than those who know anything about it.

It can't be summed up by simple brute force and speed, it is true that the guy with the dominant physique and the tall and tall brute strength can also suppress the person who is shorter and weaker than himself by wielding this strength in a one-on-one battle, but when the physical conditions of the two sides are equal or at least closer, they will always be the ones who know how to fight, and they will win.

The original intention of the birth of martial arts is to make up for the lack of other aspects. After all, the vast majority of people do not have the physique that can be suppressed by brute force too much beyond ordinary people, and in the case that the opponent and himself are almost the same in many aspects such as strength, speed and reflexes, what determines success or failure, and even life and death, is naturally the mastery of skills.

Simply attributing the power and speed of a certain attack, judging the strength or weakness by pure strength and speed, is the only answer that most people who don't know anything about real martial arts can make because their knowledge is too shallow and can be understood and accepted by themselves.

Admittedly, strength and speed training are also quite important components. But martial arts or martial arts, no matter which method is used, it sums up "the technology of using weapons", in other words, the real core component, "technology", and not any other one.

In Rigal's world, all races, including human beings, and all ethnic groups within races, have many differences, from skin color, hair color, to eye color, language, habits, and even physical size - but one thing is always the same.

The structure of the body.

Head, neck, limbs, torso. Similar body structures, how to swing and how to exert force are naturally the same. The operation of the arms, the movement of the feet, the force of the lower back. After studying all this, the martial arts created can naturally be used universally no matter where they are.

Experienced fighters, fighters who have been through many battles and even wars, will understand that the weight and size of weapons used against people are not necessarily related to lethality. This may not be understood by the average person, after all, a larger and longer weapon means more weight, and a heavier weapon can cause less damage than a lighter weapon, which is obviously contrary to perception.

It would be a great deal to dissect this question completely, and for the sake of space, we will confine ourselves to the part that is relevant to this chapter, that is, to the sword.

The weapon itself does not attack the opponent, and the user of the weapon is always more important than the weapon. A longer and heavier weapon does mean a larger range of attacks and more momentum when hitting, but at the same time, you have to expend more effort to "control" it so that it hits the enemy "as you want it to".

Fighting is a continuous process, and a light sword that can be wielded with one hand will move like an "arm" in the literal sense of the word You don't need to think about anything else at all, just like moving your arm, and the width and thickness of the blade are too thick, and the size is too large to exceed the weapons within your control, although it looks very scary, you use a lot of physical strength to just make a single action to lift it up and not be able to command it freely, the answer is obvious.

Well, let's think along that lines.

If there is a man who is physically and strong enough to afford a greatsword larger than a normal weapon, to wield it in the same way that a normal person wields a one-handed sword and a one-and-a-half sword, and is proficient in how to use it. So what will the result be?

-- It was a one-sided battle.

Whether in terms of equipment or training, as the Knights of the Cathar of the White Holy Sect, their own group are all top-notch existences. Beneath the bright white cloak of armor flutters in the wind, there is a strong body and mind that has been cultivated by living an ascetic life, with continuous high-intensity training for nearly ten hours a day from the age of six.

Solemnity and solemnity, restraint and frugality, and strict discipline are the root of the strength of a warrior, and with the protection of the gods and saints, even if it does not belong to the great church empire on the other side, the knights of their own on the west coast still have that glorious tradition and unrivaled fighting ability.

That's how it should be...... But what's going on here?

The most typical Lamanic type of legion warfare is that the infantry uses square shields to form a formation to contain them, and then the cavalry attacks from the flanks or rear to defeat the opponent - the same is true of the Order, which was founded centuries ago by the White Church of the Old Lamanite Empire, with a hundred infantry soldiers paired with two or three cavalry. Although the opponents targeted this time did not send out infantry, a detachment of eleven to twelve men as elite cavalry was more than enough to deal with a sparse number of opponents.

――Even if most of the members are still novices.

He still remembered the man rushing down the hill, a white-haired girl from Luoan, whom he had never seen before. She wore a single ponytail, and although she was a little dirty and muddy, she couldn't hide the sparkle revealed in her bright eyes, which fascinated him very much.

Is she the companion of the blasphemous creature, probably deceived? The only thing he had ordered to kill was the blasphemous creature, so he didn't need to be an enemy of this lovely girl.

The slight affection for the other party's appearance, along with a knightly complex similar to a hero saving beauty, prompted the young knight to puff up his chest and inhale deeply. When the captain of the same young man gave the order to chase after the girl, he took the lead, kicked the spurs, pulled the reins, and chased after the horse with a loud "thump" sound from his crotch.

The girl turned and fled back into the woods in a little panic, and he deliberately urged the horse under his feet to chase after her, what to do? to scare her, and then tell her that it was a wonderful misunderstanding, and that he was going to save her from the filthy and blasphemous creatures—and that he might win her heart? A smile tugged at the corner of the knight's mouth under the armor, and he turned the horse's head and kicked the horse's belly again to drive it forward, and the horse let out a wail of pain, but was ignored by the young knight along with the rebuke of the captain behind him.

The scenery shrank rapidly behind him, and he rode his horse and rushed quickly, the girl who was hungry and tired and had no strength to run could not escape his pursuit, and the young knight saw her look back at this side, and the look of horror in her shining eyes was obvious. His smile was even greater, but in the next moment the girl stopped, turned and leaned against the thick trunk of the tree with her back.

Did she stop? So did she win her good chance, did she want to give in? After all, it was a knight riding a war horse like this, and this girl must have never seen such a formation before, plus she had been abandoned by her companions and left here alone.

Alone-

In the midst of the lightning, all his thoughts were about how to get her knight's eyes, and something that he was more or less familiar with.

The last time I saw it was in the first cavalry class in the church's training camp, when the instructor was teaching himself how to be a cavalry instead of an infantry on horseback - and in his explanation, the most important and cheapest tool for restraining such a cavalry was this simple sharpened stake and rope - the horse repulsion.

"Oh my God—" "Hiss-" The momentum could not be stopped, and the subconscious action of pulling the reins caused the horses to fall into a panic, and the inertia pushed the horse into the wooden barrier, and the horse's chest and neck were pierced by sharp stakes without resistance. A moment of distraction made the knight miss the opportunity to react, he flew out of the way, fortunately the experience still saved his life, instinctively curled his neck with his hands and feet to protect his body, and the result was that he was not directly knocked unconscious, although the impact on his arms and legs was so great that there was armor, and the bones and muscles were badly damaged, he survived - this is a good thing - or should have been a good thing.

"Damn it, you slut, I'm here to save the fuck you know what! Damn little slut, you come out for me!" the pain was so painful that the knight began to curse loudly. The so-called strict discipline that he boasted of five minutes ago, solemn and solemn, and powerful mind and body, were now gone.

"I'm Jackman of the White Pontifical Knights, get out of here, I'll give you God-" The second half of the sentence could not be spoken, the weak riveted chain mail throat guard was pierced by the tip of the sword, the severed carotid artery was soaking the cotton armor and underwear with blood, and the broken vocal cords made him only make a stumbling sound, the knight's eyes widened and his mouth was wide open and he made a "cough-" sound, and through the observation port on the visor, he saw the panting girl leaning against the trunk of the tree and looking this way.

Those clear blue pupils were full of disdain.

The bloody sword was drawn.

When Mikhail led the team to rush here, he saw such a scene.

A refusal, he thought, he still made the mistake of being young after all. Having just become a commander, he had already learned in the previous class that cavalry should not chase his opponent into the forest, and now that he thought about it, it seemed like an obvious trap to show up only this girl herself. He knew all this, but the moment the other party appeared, he didn't be able to apply all this, so there was no point in saying anything.

"Spread out! Spread out! Outflank them!" Eleven knights were reduced by one of them, which was quite a regrettable thing, although this was the first time Mikhail had led the team, and even the team members were not very familiar with each other, let alone have any feelings, but after all, they all came out of the church where they lived, and they were all their own families, and if they didn't avenge him, they were ashamed of their predecessors.

"Boom-Boom!" "Boom-Boom!"

Ten seconds after the order, Mikhail's mind went blank.

On the left is a huge log trap, and on the right is a trap with spikes made of sharpened bamboo.

The knights, who were left with only ten men, were reduced again, their armor was able to withstand the spikes, but their horses were dead. The falling log that flung horizontally dented the entire cuirass, and the three of them died immediately, and the remaining two were still dead in the pit—but it wasn't over.

"Damn, what's going on on this ground!" Having survived the trap, they retreated to a wooded area with a wider view to the left to prevent more sneak attacks, but as soon as they arrived, one of the knights yelled and cursed. War horses weigh hundreds of kilograms. Coupled with the knight himself, who is also fully armed and weighs more than a hundred kilograms, the weight of nearly a ton will become an unstoppable lethality when fully accelerated.

But it's not always an advantage.

The horse's movement became very, very difficult, and as soon as he went down, he sank into the dirt for some reason, and Mikhail's mind went blank, and he looked to the ground, and only then did he notice that the leaves of the grass and shrubs were full of droplets of water that were incompatible with the hot and sunny day.

He didn't have time to think, and the rapidly changing situation was completely impossible for Mikhail to react - he just watched blankly as the man with the great sword and another red-haired man rushed over the horse and rushed towards this side, until an older knight next to him roared: "Dismount and fight!" Mikhail woke up, drew his sword fixed to the left side of the saddle, and rolled over and landed.

"Ding-ding!" the knight who had just shouted met the red-haired mercenary at great speed, and the armor issued to the knights by the church was a finger-splitting hand armor with a forearm armour, plus a whole breastplate with a short lower rim and several patchwork shoulder armors. This armor does not have the large throat guards attached to the shoulders that are popular in Sivalier or Avenella, nor does it have the armor of the thighs and upper arms.

So technically, it should probably be some kind of half-body armor, not a full-body armor. Protection of certain parts is sacrificed in exchange for greater flexibility.

The red-haired mercenary was entangled in place by the experienced knight, and Mikhail and the other two knights tacitly chose to fight the black-haired man first, intending to solve him first with his numbers and excellent cooperation, and then go back to support his companions.

The first knight who came into contact with him made a false move, and when he saw his opponent raise his right hand to grab the hilt of the great sword behind his back in the middle of the run, he made a false gesture and pretended to attack the weak point of the man's exposed armpit, but in fact he intended to take advantage of the opportunity to stab him in the throat when the opponent retreated or lowered his arm.

It's a very simple move, and with the agility of armor, it's pretty fast—but the opponent sees through it and cracks it with ease.

- For a moment, Mikhail remembered a black cat he had seen in the church when he was a teenager that had hunted rats. The scene of playing with the opponent with overwhelming combat effectiveness is very similar to the current situation.

A staggered, tall black-haired man who didn't pull out his sword. The knight was obviously stunned, he didn't withdraw his longsword in time, and the man directly turned around and let the blade of his longsword pass through the gap between the big sword and the plate armor behind him.

"Oops!" Mikhail cried out, and the man then used the blade and his back to jam the knight's long sword, and twisted the blade of the sword.

"Bang-bang-" The steel blade bent in an instant, and then flew out of his hand, and in the next moment, he drew his greatsword like a cloud, and then sparked against the surface of the breastplate, piercing the knight's unprotected jaw from the bottom to the top.

"How is that possible!" this set of armor is unique to the Holy See. It has some weaknesses that circulate only among the knights - so how does this man know?

"Who the hell are you!" shouted another knight in front of Mikhail, in Lamani, regardless of whether he understood it or not. "Don't be impulsive!" the young knight captain was the pride of the sky, and the other knight, who was in a panic, raised his weapon high above his head to vent his uneasiness and anger with a powerful slash, and he saw it at a glance. If the situation is not right, you must support yourself immediately!

Mikhail grabbed the long sword and rushed over from the other direction, trying to force the black-haired man to return to the defense and give up the attack, but the big sword in the opponent's hand seemed to have no weight, and before the captain of the knight arrived, a wrong side attack, simply, plainly, from the gap under the exposed armpit, straight into the knight's heart.

"No!" Mikhail shouted and rushed over, but at that moment a whistling sound suddenly came from his right, and the captain of the knights hurriedly reacted to a block. The steel sword that struck at high speed hit the riveted side of his visor, skewing the helmet entirely, he strode back and widened the distance, the crooked visor seriously affected his vision, and the armor did not play much role in front of opponents of this level, Mikhail held the sword in one hand and quickly tore off the belt with the other hand, and threw the helmet aside.

"Boom-" The surface of the helmet that rolled to the ground was covered in wet earth, and it was covered with a layer of moisture, reflecting the sparkle of the sun spilling in through the cracks in the forest.

"Come on!" There are no more teammates, and even if the two who fell into the trap are not dead, they are afraid that there will be no way to support them for a while. The young man made up his mind, his white-blond hair pressed against his head from the helmet and the sweltering heat, and his eyes were sharp and bright, but then the black-haired man on the other side sighed.

"Half-blood?" he said, his voice calm and steady, but full of energy. Mikhail was stunned for a moment, then nodded: "This doesn't mean anything, fight with me!"

“...... You should know you can't beat it. The man spoke again, and Mikhail's eyes remained steadfast: "I know, but that's not a reason to back down." ”

"......" he shook his head, and the white-haired Luoan girl behind him gasped, and a blonde girl came over to help her. Mikhail glanced at it, he didn't know who he was aiming at until then, but if you think about it by elimination, it is clear that the girl in civilian clothes is the target.

'How could a girl with a concerned face and look so weak-' he shook his head: 'Can't be fooled, can't be fooled' The momentary hesitation was diligently forgotten by the young knight captain, but how could the seed that had been planted be so easily shaken away.

"You were only recently promoted to the rank of Captain of the Knights, right? The black-haired man lowered his broadsword, and the red-haired mercenary next to him turned to the man with a frown, hesitated for a moment and lowered his posture. "What do you have to do with it!" Mikhail cried out so loudly that only he noticed a slight tremor in his voice.

The courage and strength of the rapid secretion of adrenaline, as it gradually subsided, combined with the doubts that began to arise at some point, made his hand holding the sword unsteady—Mikhail looked at the two girls behind him again, and the blonde girl was still wiping the white-haired girl's face with a clean white cloth, even though she was also dirty.

'Why does it look so human!No, it must be some kind of disguise!' he shook his head again, but his eyes couldn't help but look in that direction. At the same time, the black-haired man spoke again: "I can see from your shoulder armor, the shoulder armor equipped by a real knight captain should be brass-edged, and there is a larger holy emblem on the breastplate, although you have a sword, but there is no armor, this proves that you have only recently been promoted, and the tailor-made armor for you has not yet been completed." ”

He said this, and Mikhail frowned: "......"

"Who the hell are you and why do you know so much about the Knights. The young knight captain asked rhetorically, and the other party sighed again: "...... Looks like you really don't know anything. ”

"Well, I guessed a little bit when I captured the peasants and questioned them and found out their whereabouts in a simple way, and when you ran in exactly as I had arranged for you, I was sure of all this. ”

"You were sent out as a substitute for the dead. ”

"Shut up!" Mikhail scolded loudly, while the black-haired man shrugged his shoulders and smiled: "You shout like this, it proves that you have some doubts in your own heart, so you try to stabilize your confidence by raising the volume." ”

"Let me guess, this is a secret promotion, and they told you that there is an urgent task for you to carry out and you will not make a formal announcement for the time being, right?" The man raised a finger, and the words as if he were there at the scene made Mikhail's heart inevitably begin to waver - he could no longer convince himself, and the sword in his hand hung limply, while the man sighed for a third time, and then said.

"Your team is full of newcomers. ”

"How could it be...... How did you ......"

"They've done this before, many times. He put away his broadsword, and then walked over slowly: "When there is a big man above who needs to do something by force, and it is inconvenient to mobilize regular knights and papal troops, the newcomers scattered all over the country who have little experience will be gathered to create a knight team called a special squad." ”

"And for the members of this team who know the secrets of those big people, the best ending is to 'go to dust'. Mikhail raised his head, and when the other party stood in front of him, he felt that this man was really very tall.

“...... Have you ever been through all this? "The blood-boiling hostility has disappeared.

The feeling of emptiness in his heart made Mikhail feel that he could no longer trust anyone. He is not a fool who can be disintegrated with a casual few words, but it is precisely because of his relatively intelligent mind that young people know better that what the other party says is true.

Before that, he had guessed somewhat, after all, how could such a good thing that seemed like pie in the sky happen so easily.

“...... Yes, it was experienced a long time ago. Henry's tone became a little low, and then he continued, "I have one thing to ask you for help with. ”

"I guess you want to know the truth, too. He turned his head to look at the dead knights on the ground.

"The truth of this senseless bloody conflict. (To be continued.) )