Knight and Wand

Chapter 101 Wheel Battle
Looking at the blond young man wearing Uriah scale armor and impatiently picking up a blunt spear from the shelf, Leon sighed in his heart.

This young man from the Pletton Village team has a good figure and a much healthier complexion than the average farmer. It is obvious that he is not from a low-level tenant farmer family.

I don’t know if he is one of those rich young men who can ride horses that Azerien mentioned.

Honestly speaking, looking at his physique, Leon is quite optimistic about his future potential if he can receive long-term training and development.

Unfortunately.

Perhaps it was because the blond young man was too eager for the huge annual salary of forty-eight gold crowns, too confident, or too underestimating himself as a young knight with a tender face.

Leon looked through the visor grid and when he saw that the opponent chose the spear with the greatest offensive efficiency, he already had a premonition of the opponent's fate.

The so-called five moves to hit his vital points before being defeated can not only make him a guard but also double his salary. In fact, it is just a pretext to stimulate everyone and not be timid because of their status as lords.

In this test, holding a shield and fully dealing with their own five attacks is the best option for them to try to survive the test and get an annual salary of 24 gold coins. If they want more, they can just dream about it.

The magic energy in his body boiled instantly.

Leon felt the familiar feeling of power filling his whole body.

Raising the sword, he held the hilt horizontally in front of him with both hands, and using the nameless sword technique that Olivia had learned by herself and this unique key-style sword stance, he aimed at the Pletton youth who was holding the spear steadily.

On a whim, Leon gave the girl's unnamed sword skill a rather childish name, which was -

Spear breaking style.

Facing the gun tip that was coming straight at him, Leon pushed his feet against the ground, took a step sideways with his lower body, and rushed out in an instant.

The weak sword rubbed against the attacking gun barrel and slid underneath. The sword guard deflected the gun tip and hit the gun with a bang, lifting it up. The gun tip, with its stabbing momentum unabated, just passed through the gap in Leon's right body, which had already moved along a large triangle with his steps.

The yellow-haired young man hidden in the helmet wanted to step back and put away his gun, but he found that Leon raised his shoulders and exerted force at his waist, causing the cross sword guard to rotate to the right. The L angle formed by the sword and the guard pressed down on the spear, and the whole person was approaching as fast as a ghost.

After being beaten for a long time, Leon has deeply understood the most important spirit of the "Olivia School" swordsmanship.

Attack, attack, and attack.

Every move, every style, whether it is sword skills, steps, physical skills, blocking, all actions and combination moves must be aimed at completing a set of attacks.

After the hind foot provided the power for the body to move forward at a high speed, the moment it floated in the air, Leon's front toes had already firmly stepped on the ground.

The half-way cat-spin step led to a sideways twist, and the long sword was pulled up while exerting force, and the strong sword body slashed towards the enemy's neck at a close distance.

The yellow-haired young man had no way of retreating when the sword was so close, and the long spear was hanging down and could not be retracted. He could only barely raise his back hand to block the sword.

The gun between his hands was barely raised to block the long sword.

Bang! !

The blond young man was frightened and worried because of the force that made his palm vibrate painfully.

Leon knew that he could completely overwhelm his opponent with his inhuman strength at the moment.

But his purpose is not only to defeat the opponent, but also to test the skills of the candidates.

She leaned to the right, turned her shoulder and hand at the same time, and moved the long sword vertically in a narrow V-shaped trajectory, delivering Olivia's proud close-range double slash.

Leon also gave the girl's move a childish name.

——Swallow returning to the nest.

The sword blade that disappeared in the blink of an eye suddenly appeared on the other side of the body and chopped down along a graceful geometric trajectory, leaving the yellow-haired young man's mind blank. His right hand instinctively tried to follow the direction, but his hanging right hand left his right side exposed.

The blunt blade slashed between the opponent's right shoulder and right neck. Leon turned the handle in time to reduce the force, changing the chop to a hit, and used all the strength to press down the neck armor of the man in front of him, knocking him to the ground.

The young man, wearing thick armor, fell heavily with a clang.
After just three moves,
Looking at the challenger who was knocked to the ground in less than three seconds, the originally excited and expectant crowd felt as if they were suddenly poured with a layer of cold water.

Most people didn't even see how many times the young knight swung his sword.

All we saw was that the young man from Pletton, who was fully armed and even holding a long weapon, was "beheaded" by Lord Pendragon with just a single blow from his sword and gun, despite having such a huge advantage in weapons.

If it weren't for the solid neck armor protection provided by the lord, if someone was hit like this in actual combat, everyone knows what a miserable end that would be.

The Pletton youth turned over on the ground, staring blankly at the sky, his mind still in a daze.

"Unfortunately, you failed the test. Go aside and take off your armor and give it to someone else," Leon sighed.

Not to mention the young and strong men from various villages in front of him, even Olivia.

If he wanted to defeat himself, who had the strength close to that of a knight thanks to the blessing of a Noble Phantasm card, in just five moves, even if he fought ten games in a row, his success rate would probably be only 50%.

As long as he defended with all his strength, it was not impossible for him to survive Olivia's six or seven swords in the boiling heart state.

Olivia couldn't even guarantee that she could defeat herself within five moves every time they sparred.

What about other people?
Besides, if there is a martial arts genius stronger than the blonde girl among these villagers...
Not to mention paying him an annual salary of forty-eight gold crowns, even if you sold everything you had and paid such a genius an annual salary of one hundred and forty-eight gold crowns, it would still be a huge profit for you.

However, it is certainly impossible for the area of ​​Kossos County to produce another "Olivia".

Being able to survive five attacks without being defeated while using his own cheating skills is already the most appropriate standard that Leon has considered for these conscripts.

The various training weapons displayed on the weapon rack are the first level of the test. Choosing long weapons instead of shields is enough to screen out those who lack combat wisdom.

Leon also did not think that those who had no self-awareness and had unrealistic fantasies about the double treatment, or those who were impatient, could take on the responsibility of protecting their own future safety.

"Lord Pendragon! Please give me another chance!" The yellow-haired young man took off his helmet, turned over with an unwilling look on his face, knelt on one knee and begged.

Leon waved his hand: "Everyone only has one chance today, and I have already understood your level in the fight. Even if you fight again, you have no chance of winning. Practice more and look forward to the future."

After saying that, Leon looked at the remaining candidates who were wearing armor and waiting outside the venue: "Who's the second one?"

The candidates, holding their helmets, swallowed their shock at the young knight.

You look at me, and I look at you.
Several people were originally glad that they got the chance to be selected first before others, but now, they all regretted their impatience in their hearts.

The contempt buried deep in their hearts had long since disappeared. If they had known that this young lord really had such martial arts skills, they would have tried their best to hide behind and wait until the challenger in front had consumed Lord Pendragon's physical strength and energy as much as possible before trying again.

But at this point, it was obvious that they could no longer take off their armor and ask the lord to replace them.

Looking at the silent and hesitant candidates, just as Leon was about to raise his hand to point someone forward, a slightly older man took the initiative to speak: "Let me do it, sir."

After the middle-aged man finished speaking, he turned around and signaled to his eldest son who was also nervous to wait patiently. Then he put the sickle spear he had just picked back on the shelf, took down an infantry kite shield, picked up a one-handed blunt sword, and stepped forward to pave the way for his son's subsequent challenge.

Leon saw the middle-aged man change his weapon to a sword and shield, and nodded silently in his heart.

This is the wise choice.

There is no need to dream of defeating yourself. If these rural conscripts who have not yet left their jobs can survive five attacks from real knights, it will prove that they are talents worth training.

Raising the sword again, Leon looked with satisfaction at the middle-aged man hiding his body behind the shield with his sword at his side.

This uncle is at least a warrior who knows how to protect his body.

But my requirements are far more than that. An annual salary of twenty-four gold coins is not so easy to get!
With his eyes fixed, Leon ran towards the veteran walking along the sidelines.

He used his left hand to fake the weight of the sword's tail and made a feint like a noble lady's to chop it down on the head.

The middle-aged man looked at the undisguised furious attack and did not dare to be negligent. He raised his shield to protect himself and cunningly used the huge shield to block the counterattack trajectory of his right-hand sword.

The one-handed sword stabbed upward from the side of the shield, stabbing the young knight's exposed waist.

As expected, Leon gripped the tail of the sword tightly, turned sideways and slashed diagonally with his hands crossed. The blade went around the edge of the shield and hit the opponent's empty blade, bringing his attack closer.

The middle-aged man was astonished and didn't understand why the other party would get so close to him as to allow the sword to be restricted by its length.

But the veteran soldier still turned around instinctively with surprise and pressed down the shield, fiercely throwing a shield strike in the face, blocking Leon's vision, waiting to stab the opponent immediately the next second when he got close to cover his eyes.

However, the person who lost his vision was also the middle-aged man himself.

The soldier, who had no deep understanding of full-armor swordsmanship, had his shield edge pried open by the front blade of Leon's half-gripped sword that attacked from the lower left side.

Even if Leon did not use force to bully others, the original arm strength of his hands was still much stronger than that of the middle-aged man holding the shield with one hand.

The opponent's hasty counterattack in astonishment was also deflected by Leon's vertical grasp of the half sword like a stick.

This is not Olivia's swift and deadly nameless swordsmanship, but Leon's favorite half-swordsmanship in his previous life, the full-armor martial arts of the knight.

Raising his right arm that was tightly gripping the hilt of the sword, Leon pulled the blade horizontally and pushed it forward, hitting the opponent's neck armor and chin, and directly and violently pressed the opponent in front of him to fall on his back.

With a thud, the middle-aged man in the squire's armor fell on his back. It was not until he fell to the ground that he suddenly remembered how to breathe. The shocking feeling of being suppressed by a fierce attack, only those who have faced it directly can understand what it means to be able to overwhelm the opponent with momentum alone.

There was no further pursuit.

Leon knew the outcome was decided.

If the fourth blow just now had been a real fight, his attack would not have been a throat push to knock her down.

Instead, he backhandedly thrust the blade into the visual gap of his opponent's helmet.

"How is it? Can you stand up?" Leon squatted down with his sword and asked with his head down.

To be honest, this middle-aged man's level is pretty good. If he works harder, he might be able to pass the test.

"Thank you very much for your concern. I'm fine." The middle-aged man took off his helmet, turned over and got up, but his expression seemed a little reluctant.

"If you feel dizzy later, go ask my servant to help you. He knows some 'medical skills' and can treat some minor injuries." Leon nodded.

Although he held back, for the sake of safety, he did not want to leave any injuries on this veteran who only knew some rudimentary fighting techniques.

Even if he doesn't reach the level of guards he requires, this man's ability is enough to serve as a captain among the ordinary soldiers.

The crowd watching the game looked at each other in bewilderment, especially the villagers of Pleaton.

Because the defeated middle-aged man was actually the leader of their group of fellow villagers when they enlisted in the army.

However, his failure was not completely unexpected by the crowd.

After seeing how the young knight easily defeated the first challenger, the young men from the three territories understood.

Why are the seemingly simple selection criteria accompanied by generous and high remuneration?

This young lord with a childish face is actually a real military knight with real martial arts skills. Now, the urge of the conscripted soldiers who were originally vying to give it a try has begun to die down.

Most people have already given up the idea of ​​taking the challenge at this time.

Among the hundreds of people, except for a few militiamen who were still thinking about how to fight to turn the tables, many of them were just farmers and tenants who had temporarily trained in the fortress. At most, they could only stand in line and fight a few ordinary farm moves.

It would be fine if they followed their fellow villagers to form a formation and stab and chop people, but if they were to duel with a real knight, the old farmers would not feel that they had gotten up so early and slept too much.

"If you don't have the courage to challenge me, then take off your armor and go down to replace someone else!" Looking at the hesitant candidate, Leon frowned and shouted.

The time he could endure the effects of the Boiling Heart was not unlimited, and the magic energy in his body was constantly being consumed.

Although Corvis had already recovered his magic power in advance for today and could restore his vitality at any time, Leon still wanted to try to finish today's round-robin selection within one cycle.

Looking at the candidates who were already in a state of hesitation due to the threat of force, Leon didn't waste any more time and pointed at a man who was not short in height: "It's you, either step forward or take off your armor and return to the team."

The candidate who was pointed out wanted to continue waiting for the Knight to be exhausted by others like everyone else, but now he can only blame himself for his bad luck.

After all, since we are here, we cannot waste this opportunity to change our fate by taking a gamble.

Learning from the experience of the two people before, he also changed to sword and shield. At least the shield can help him hold on for a while.
When he walked to the center of the field, he saw a young knight wearing a helmet rushing towards him. He focused all his attention, raised his shield, stepped back a few steps, and tried to block the attack from behind.

However, the completely passive defensive posture only lasted three times before it was pried open by Leon's sword at an extremely tricky angle, and the one-handed sword that he used to fight back in vain was also knocked out of his hand.
Even in this round, the veteran's son who was mentally prepared and played last could not survive Leon's fourth sword strike.

In this way, one candidate after another came on stage, and one by one was defeated amid the boos of the crowd.

But soon, the original test process of selecting guards gradually evolved into a wonderful competition celebration in the eyes of everyone.

New challengers constantly take over from the previous loser, put on armor, pick up the weapons they are good at, and face Leon's test.

Such a wonderful duel in which one person defends the ring and faces continuous challenges without any restrictions is really rare in the eyes of the villagers.

Watching these duels, the young and strong people became excited unconsciously.

Seeing Leon swinging his sword continuously and chopping down the challengers who came forward without any delay, the sounds of spears hitting the ground, which were made unconsciously by the people who were originally just watching the fight, began to become more and more continuous.

The team of more than one hundred people seemed to have gradually developed a tacit understanding. Whenever a new challenger came on stage to face Leon, people would celebrate and cheer at the same time, banging their hands on the ground and creating a deafening noise.

From the time the tenth challenger fell, no one knew who took the lead, but when they saw the lord defeat one person fiercely, the young and strong men began to shout Leon's name, as if cheering for the champion in the celebration arena.

Leon!

Leon! .Leon!!
Leon!

Hearing the shouts that were getting louder and louder throughout the sky above Selva, Leon hid under his helmet, his face showing traces of heat and sweat, but a hint of shame was revealed.

After all, this call was not obtained through a fair competition.

In order to be able to personally select the guards, the knight's reaction ability and extraordinary physical strength that he possessed through cheating were not entirely his own.

So he felt unworthy of facing the admiration of the crowd.

And
Leon turned around and looked at his companions who were standing in front of the soldiers and cheering together, and he felt even more embarrassed.

Others don’t know that I’m using magic to cheat.

What are you guys who know everything about the matter shouting?
He was annoyed to find that even Olivia had a smile on her face and raised her hand to her mouth, cheering for him with her clear and pleasant girlish voice, mixed in with the shouts of a group of men.

Leon wanted to dig a hole and bury himself in it. He didn't know what the little girl who beat him up in the backyard every day was doing here.

Is this a public execution?
But it’s a good thing that the crowd reacted like this.

After today, I have established enough prestige in the hearts of these territorial conscripts.

How can we convince the soldiers as quickly as possible?
Showing favor is a means.

But using force to overthrow all of his soldiers is also a quick and easy way.

The fights proceeded in an orderly manner as expected.

It wasn’t until the eighteenth challenger that a strong man finally managed to block Leon’s fifth attack.

The crowd who had been silently counting the moves suddenly burst into warm cheers. They finally saw someone survive the test of the Knight Master!
The man, who was concentrating on holding up the sword and shield, was then pleasantly surprised to hear the young voice of the lord through the visor.

".Put down your shield. You have passed the test. You don't have to take off your armor. From today on, it belongs to you."

Leon took a few steps back and looked at the first soldier who passed the test with approval from inside his helmet: "What's your name?"

After receiving the approval from the Lord Knight himself, the man's nerves that were about to break finally relaxed.

He suppressed his excitement and put down his weapon. He immediately knelt on one knee, took off his helmet and tucked it under his armpit. He lowered his forehead covered with cold sweat and answered in a trembling voice:

"My name is Zabron, sir."

"I remember you came from Longka's team. Did you do anything in the army before?" Leon asked curiously.

"Yes, sir. I am a hunter from Longka, but I was only an archer in Lord Elifer's army before." Zabron replied, unable to hide his joy.

Leon nodded in understanding.

Hunter, a skilled archer. No wonder he is tall, his reaction ability and force technique are also very good.

"From today on, you are my first guard. Please step back."

After saying that, Leon raised his sword again and pointed it at the next candidate.

However, looking at the young and strong men in the territory who were ready to come up and learn a few tricks, Leon couldn't help feeling helpless.

What I said before, that everyone has a fair chance, is really asking for trouble.

Perhaps these people have watched many fierce fights in succession, and their emotions have been mobilized from the initial frustration of feeling unable to pass the test to become "high morale" again.

Many people saw that the challenger who was knocked down by the lord's blunt sword was wearing armor and was not injured, so they could not help but line up to challenge him.

The purpose is no longer to pass the test, but to join in the fun, as if treating this selection as a carnival.

However, seeing the enthusiastic expressions of these young men, Leon had no choice but to endure it silently.

If he were to change his words at an inappropriate time and eliminate those challengers who were obviously incompetent, it would really destroy the atmosphere of "fighting" between himself and his subjects at the moment.

Forget it
Leon shook his head.

Anyway, for him, swinging a sword to fight is also a kind of manly pleasure. Hmm? Thinking that Olivia also likes this, he had to change his way. It is the pleasure of martial artists.

(End of this chapter)