Heart of the Castle

Chapter 257 Combat skill assessment, charge duel

No matter how much Elder Nicholas hated Li Wei, the knight assessment must continue. The horn sounded again from outside the arena, and the second batch of 4 examiners who had tamed their horses filed through another gate. He entered, and then the sound of horseshoes suddenly increased, and the round-the-field assessment began.

Li Wei stood next to the finish line of the racing assessment and watched the performances of other assessors. Most of the people who are eligible to participate in the high-level knight qualification assessment are middle-aged men with burly stature, strong appearance, and sharp eyes. Carrying a faint murderous aura that only those who have been on the battlefield will carry.These people have performed well in terms of riding skills and personal strength, and some of them are particularly outstanding, even comparable to the high-ranking Dickway knights Li Wei had seen before.

Of course, among these middle-aged knights, there are occasionally one or two young people mixed in. The common feature of these people is that they wear exaggerated and gorgeous special armor. a feeling of.

The racing assessment was soon completed, and beside Li Wei, there were three more winners, two of whom were very young, and they achieved such results under the protection of their entourage who almost cheated .And the last person made Li Wei feel a little nervous, because that person was wearing a red and green feather cloak and a strange chain mail, and the skin on his face and hands was as dark as charcoal. Desert ethnic man in the shadow of the tent.

However, the man did not show any hostility towards Li Wei. He sat firmly on the horseback, as quiet as a statue.

Elder Nicholas came on horseback under the escort of several red-cloaked examiners, and his sharp gaze like a falcon swept over the faces of the four racing assessment champions.When passing by Li Wei's extraordinarily young face, the elder of the Knights Association paused for a moment, and nodded with a little approval.

"Everyone has passed the first step of the high-level knight assessment perfectly, and I am very pleased that you are all so young." Elder Nicholas said majesticly, "Being able to tame unfamiliar war horses, and then control unfamiliar horses The horse won the first place in the racing assessment, which proves that your riding skills have fully reached the standards of high-level knights. But riding skills are only one part of the knight's abilities. Although they are also very important, they are not as good as The importance of fighting spirit and fighting skills."

"Big, this old guy is bad. He once grabbed me and stabbed me so painfully with a sledgehammer. Can I kick him now?" Li Wei was listening to Elder Nicholas's words, and the palm on the black nightmare's forehead suddenly moved. After a moment, Black Nightmare's crisp voice sounded in his consciousness.

"No, black nightmare, this... the old guy can't kick now... oh no, don't kick it in the future." Li Wei hurriedly comforted his mount, his absent-mindedness was seen in the eyes of Elder Nicholas, and he couldn't help letting this The elder's anger grew even higher.

"The next thing to do is to assess your fighting spirit and combat skills. Now you can put on your familiar horses, put on your armor and protective gear, and then come back here." Elder Nicholas suppressed his anger, using nothing. An emotional voice said, "There are 10 high-ranking knight examiners in the Knights Association. They will stand here in full armor after a while. You can voluntarily choose what method to use to compete with them, whether it is on foot or on horseback. You can use a sword or an axe, but there are two ways you can't use it."

Elder Nicholas said, holding up two fingers high, "First, the use of long-range weapons is prohibited. Knights must not use such cowardly props in duels, otherwise they are not worthy of the qualifications of knights." The old knight He bent down a finger, and then continued: "Secondly, the use of magic spells or magic items is prohibited. The knights will always assess your fighting skills, not your wealth."

This sentence made several examiners laugh out loud, but Elder Nicholas didn't smile at all. He glanced coldly at those laughing people,
"If the above two items are violated during the duel, the examiner will lose his qualification immediately. In addition, in order to prevent cheating in the assessment, every examiner and examiner has the right to challenge others, as long as they think it is inappropriate. A fair exchange of ideas is fine. The way to challenge is very simple..." Elder Nicholas said as he signaled the examiners around him to hold up their shields, while he himself turned the long-handled sledgehammer upside down and tapped it lightly with the handle That shield.

"This means pure exchange of ideas. The weapons of both sides must be wrapped with special cloth strips to prevent danger."

The long hammer in the hands of Elder Nicholas flipped over, and the huge hammer hit the shield hard. This blow was quite heavy, and the examiner who was holding the shield immediately took two steps back, before regaining his footing. .

"This means that to be real, both sides use weapons without any protection measures, just like a real duel. The only difference is that one side is allowed to admit defeat, rather than having to divide life and death."

When Elder Nicholas said this, he took a meaningful look at Li Wei, and then waved to the four top names in the racing assessment and said: "Next, you will have half an hour to rest and get ready. When you come back again When we get here, the martial arts assessment will begin!"

All the people who passed the equestrian assessment agreed, saying that they had understood the rules of the next assessment, and then they rode their horses and ran to the gate of the arena, preparing to change into their familiar horses as soon as possible, or replace the horses they were wearing. A set of specially lightweight armor for participating in the equestrian assessment.

Only Li Wei didn't make such a plan, because his pony was obviously much worse than the Dark Nightmare in the North, and he didn't have any armor to change, but he also left the arena with everyone, beside the gate, Li Wei Wei saw Wilps with a face full of joy and almost equal parts of surprise.

"Congratulations, Master Li Wei." The Grand Knight Commander said, and then his eyes fell on the black horse, and he couldn't help but let out a voice of admiration. "Tsk, I have roamed the kingdoms of human beings, and I have seen countless majestic and sturdy war horses, and I have also seen tall horses that only barbarians can control, but this one... I don't know what words to describe it .”

Li Wei smiled wryly in his heart. Although the war horses that the Grand Knight Commander saw were tough, they were all natural life after all, and the black horse under his crotch was actually a hybrid of a nightmare horse and an ordinary horse. Of course, it could not be the same And language.After all, Nightmare's status among demons is not low, and the scene in Black Nightmare's memory is clearly a Nightmare King. Judging by that mighty and intimidating aura, its strength is even the strongest that Li Wei has ever seen. A mighty demon—above the Demon Lord.

"However, Master Levi, you have to be more careful." After the excitement, Wilps quickly lowered his voice and warned: "The part of free challenge is included in every knight qualification examination, but almost no one has ever done it. But this time, the situation may be different, and those examiners seem to be able to challenge you."

"There is Black Nightmare, and I am not afraid of anyone's challenge." Li Wei patted the head of the black horse, and the mixed-race Nightmare let out a proud neigh, and the nearby horses backed up again and again, almost throwing off the knight on his back. Turn down.Fortunately, those people's riding skills were not bad, so they hurriedly reined in their horses, and while calming down the restless horses, they turned their eyes mixed with anger and surprise to the direction of the neighing.

These little commotions made Li Wei feel a little sorry, but if he apologized, things might be more troublesome.Thinking of this, the young knight had no choice but to lower his head and not look at those people.

"This horse can indeed help you defeat a powerful opponent. However, Master Li Wei, the opponent may choose to fight on foot after failing the challenge on horseback. Your swordsmanship and grudge level are not inferior to these examiners. After training, the combat experience is also stronger than these trained knights. But in terms of professional level, I'm afraid..."

Wilps didn't say all the words, because Li Wei had fully understood the meaning of the Grand Knight Commander, frowning and thinking.

If magic can be used, Li Wei will not be afraid of any opponent at the level of a high-level knight. Whether it is fireball or healing, it can help him win the final victory.But the current situation is that the use of magic is not allowed, so things are not so simple.

It didn't take long to think, and soon a majestic horn sounded. These horns sounded from the gates on all sides of the arena at the same time, which aroused even more enthusiastic cheers from the audience outside the arena, because they knew that the knights In the qualification examination, the most exciting scene is coming soon.

The wooden door was reopened, and all the fences used for racing around the arena had been removed, leaving behind a piece of compacted land.Ten fully armed high-ranking knights appeared on the arena. Everyone was wearing fiery red cloaks and exquisite knight armor, motionless like a row of equestrian statues.They all held a heavy spear that they would only use when charging, with a small swallowtail flag on the tip of the spear. The flag fluttering in the wind was combined with the constantly fluttering bird feathers or lion's mane on their helmets. It seems that the atmosphere in the arena is more majestic and solemn.

These high-ranking knights are all holding a square shield made of fine steel, with golden sword badges and their respective family badges painted on it. The themes of these badges are ferocious beasts or sharp swords, which look very heart-warming. chill.

"Ravens, golden lions, roaring wolf heads, bloody battle axes..." Wilps narrowed his eyes and looked at the shields of these high-ranking knights, and murmured, "It looks quite scary. , I don’t know how strong these people are.”

The horn blew a few strong sounds, urging the examiners outside the arena to enter the arena to participate in the assessment of combat skills. Li Wei adjusted his clothes a little, pulled out half of the saber at his waist, and put it back into the sheath.The sound of the long sword being unsheathed was very clear, filling the young knight's heart with confidence again.

The last sound of the horn was particularly high-pitched and passionate, and then all the voices fell silent, and the cheers of the audience outside the stadium also fell at the same time, and everyone's attention was focused on the examiners who were about to enter the stadium.These examiners also showed excited expressions. They rode through the gate on horseback, straightened their bodies as much as possible on the horse, and tightened the reins at the same time, forcing the horse to walk forward with a vigorous and slow step.On the one hand, this approach can reflect the rider's superb riding skills, and on the other hand, it is also showing his elegant demeanor and posture.

For this, the audience outside responded with a burst of cheers and applause, handkerchiefs and hats waved in the air, they are looking forward to a fierce and wonderful duel of knights.

The first batch of ten examiners approached the examiners on horseback. They all held a spear in their hands, and tapped lightly on the shield in the hands of the examiner they had chosen with the end of the handle of the gun.This meant that they all chose to compete purely. For this, the audience outside the stadium let out a sigh of disappointment, even the aristocratic stands above were no exception.

But this is also expected, after all, this is just a knight qualification test, not a real duel.As the horn sounded again, the other examiners rode their horses back to both sides of the arena, leaving the field for the knights who were about to compete.

Wait for a group of examiners to start riding back and line up at one end of the arena.And those examiners also changed their posture from standing like statues, facing their opponents far away, ready to charge.

The sound of the horn suddenly stopped, followed by an exceptionally high-pitched long cry. Both sides immediately lowered their spears at the same time, kicking spurs quickly hit the horse's belly, twenty fine war horses neighed violently, kicked the dust, and finally The fast speed gallops oncoming.Both the examiner and the examiner burst out with colorful fighting spirits, and they met in the center of the arena with a thunderous momentum.

The deafening crashing sound and the tragic neighing of the war horse sounded at the same time, and the center of the arena was immediately covered by rising smoke and dust.Every audience outside the stadium anxiously held their breath, stood on tiptoes, and stretched their necks, as if they could see the result of the confrontation earlier, but the dust blocked their sight, and they could only see the gray dust and smoke Some of them turned over and fell off their horses, some staggered, and of course some parried each other's attacks and passed each other.

When the smoke and dust fell, the scene in the arena gradually became clear.There were no knights on the less than half of the mounts, either because they used too much force when they stabbed with spears; or because the opponent's spears were too fierce to resist; , but was still beaten from the horse.

The advantage completely fell to the side of the examiners of the Knights Association. All the examiners were still sitting on horseback. Although some of the examiners' shields or spears had been damaged, compared to their opponents, this still cannot be said to be a failure.Among the examiners, only two were able to sit unsteadily on the horseback. One of them was ashamed, because at the last moment, he was overwhelmed by the examiner's charging momentum, and actually stopped the charge by reining in the horse's rein!
This is simply a more disgraceful result than being knocked down, because it means that his heart is not strong enough, and he doesn't even have the courage to charge.

Of course such a person is not worthy of being a knight, so the horns sounded continuously, and the timid examiner at the last moment could only hang his head in desperation and leave the arena.

(End of this chapter)