Mitchell wordlessly pulled down his visor and raised the shield that matched his armor, covering his front. The shield, too, was light for its thickness, so it seemed to be made of dragon bone.
“All preparations are complete.”
“Then shall I have a look at the skill of an Arcadian knight?”
Having spoken, Helbertron drew his sword. The keen edge radiating from the Rehert Saber sharply stung Mitchell’s eyes. Tensed to the limit, Mitchell gripped the longsword he had newly acquired.
“I shall attack first. Haaah!”
Mitchell’s longsword mercilessly split the air as it thrust toward Helbertron’s neck. It was a strike that fully displayed the swordsmanship he had trained in under his father since childhood. A thrust delivered while placing every direction his opponent could dodge into range. Unless it was blocked, there was no way to avoid it. But as if proving that he had once been Truvenia’s greatest swordsman, Helbertron evaded Mitchell’s blow with a simple movement of his body.
“A fairly useful attack. But your forms are too monotonous.”
“Do not underestimate me. I have not yet shown the bottom of my purse.”
Mitchell’s attacks continued. From the basic strikes of cutting and thrusting to irregular attacks of sweeping and driving blows, countless sword strikes poured down upon Helbertron. He was pouring out every technique he had learned from his father.
As though gauging Mitchell’s ability, Helbertron focused solely on defense without counterattacking. With the most restrained movements, he lightly slipped past the incoming attacks, occasionally blocking Mitchell’s sword strikes with the edge of his shield. His evasions were as natural as flowing water, and the way he avoided attacks with the bare minimum of motion seemed to show why Helbertron had once been called the absolute ruler of Truvenia. Whether his opponent dodged or not, Mitchell kept attacking. Ceaselessly, until he tired.
“Huff, huff.”
When Mitchell’s breathing, absorbed as he was in attacking, abruptly grew ragged, Helbertron lightly stepped back.
“Let us stop here for a moment.”
As if by agreement, the two halted their exchange. Even as he gasped for breath, Mitchell looked at Helbertron with expectant eyes. It was no different from the gaze of a trainee knight seeking to have his skill judged by a capable knight.
“H-how was it?”
Helbertron silently nodded.
“It was a rather decent attack. As Saramis said, Arcadian swordsmanship has changed to become ornate yet sufficiently powerful. Seeing how many irregular attacks there are, and how many sword paths not found in Truvenia’s sword manuals have been added, tremendous progress must have taken place over these five hundred years. In a word, in terms of forms, your swordsmanship can be considered a cut above Truvenian swordsmanship.”
“I-is that so?”
A flash of triumph crossed Mitchell’s face. But Helbertron’s next words tore his pride down by the roots.
“What is regrettable is that your proficiency falls far behind. No matter how excellent the forms, if your proficiency is lacking, it is difficult to bring out their true power. Moreover, your real combat experience is far too meager. Because of that, the power of your swordsmanship was not brought out even to a quarter of what it should be.”
“……”
“A contest of swordsmanship is not decided by forms alone. Proficiency and real combat experience are, rather, even more important. No matter how diverse the variations and the sword paths derived from them may be, the fundamentals never change. Even if one uses forms with relatively inferior power, high proficiency can easily overcome that weakness.”
“……”
“How shall I put it? Arcadian swordsmanship has something of a light quality to it. Of course, perhaps that is because there are more people capable of manifesting Aura Blade. In any case, you have yet to escape the category of a greenhorn.”
At Helbertron’s continued harsh criticism, irritation quietly welled up in Mitchell. Perceiving it, Helbertron adjusted his stance.
“From now on, I shall attempt an attack. Try blocking it.”
Having recovered his strength thanks to the brief rest, Mitchell tensed and pulled his shield in close. Once Mitchell took his stance, Helbertron charged in without mercy.
Papapapat.
The Rehert Saber split the air as it carved toward Mitchell’s body. The wind pressure was enough to make his body tremble. Of course, since it was a spar, Aura Blade was not imbued in the strike, but if he allowed it through, he would undoubtedly suffer a fatal wound. Putting all his strength into it, Mitchell brought his shield into the path of the incoming sword. At an angle that would effectively disperse the force carried by his opponent’s blade. However—
Bang.
“Urgh.”
Before a concentration of force that could only be called irresistible, Mitchell ended up losing his shield. For some reason, he had been unable to divert the force carried by the sword at all. Startled, Mitchell hurriedly tried to raise his sword upright and take a defensive posture. But his opponent’s longsword was already aimed at the point where Mitchell’s helm and breastplate joined. Mitchell had not even noticed any sign of the sword coming at him.
“H-how can this be?”
Into Mitchell’s ears, unable to believe such an empty defeat, came Helbertron’s cold voice.
“Your intention to use the sloped face of the shield to disperse the force was good. But remember that the enemy’s sword does not always attack in the direction you expect. In the midst of my attack, I changed my sword path to the weakest point of your defense.”
“B-but in such a brief instant, how…”
“That is why proficiency and real combat experience are precious. This can never be learned from a sword manual, and must be thoroughly ingrained in the body through real combat. I am speaking of seeing through an opponent’s openings.”
“I-I understand.”
Watching Mitchell accept it, Helbertron quietly withdrew his sword.
“Your second weakness is that you cannot make use of your shield at all. Strictly speaking, a shield can be considered a kind of means of attack. In other words, it is an excellent weapon that can defend and counterattack at the same time. But you think of a shield merely as a defensive tool.”
“……”
Helbertron silently took his stance.
“To prove that, I shall attack. Pick up your shield. I hope you gain many things from this spar with me.”
Mitchell hurriedly ran over and picked up his shield.
“I am ready.”
The moment he finished speaking, Helbertron’s body shot forward like a beam of light. Mitchell employed every technique he had learned so far and took a defensive stance. Having assumed the most perfect defensive posture possible to block his opponent’s attack, Mitchell sharpened all his senses in preparation for Helbertron’s assault.
Fukang.
At Helbertron’s attack, which struck across in a cross shape, Mitchell’s shield vibrated violently. Fortunately, he did not drop the shield, but the vibration made his hand go numb. Hastily regaining his balance, Mitchell counterattacked with all his might. Of course, rather than a proper counterattack, it turned into a blind strike at his opponent’s shield.
Clang.
Helbertron lightly blocked Mitchell’s attack using the upper edge of his shield. In that position, he swept the shield down and twisted it powerfully. Then the edge of the pentagonal shield struck squarely across the lower part of Mitchell’s sword hilt as it passed. Because of that, Mitchell’s sword stance collapsed completely, and immediately afterward, a dull impact and a groan burst out at the same time.
Thud.
“Urgh.”
Since a heavy shield had struck the sword hilt, the shock was no ordinary thing, and the moment Mitchell raised his arm to regain his stance, the shield’s edge drove straight into his armpit. Of course, that was a part his armor could not protect. The pain was far from ordinary, and Mitchell had to curl up, groaning. Looking down at Mitchell with expressionless eyes, Helbertron silently sheathed his sword.
“Today’s spar ends here. You must have realized how effective shield attacks can be. Until our next spar, I want you to think deeply about shield utilization and the fundamentals. If I do not see improvement, I shall pretend this sparring arrangement with you never existed…”
Mitchell respectfully bowed his head. He looked as though he had been genuinely impressed.
“I-I understand.”
Helbertron silently turned his steps toward Increcia. Walking up to Damon, Helbertron murmured in a low voice. Of course, it was a voice only Damon could hear.
“He is quite a useful fellow. There is enough potential in him to make him worth teaching.”
Damon curled his lip.
“You must be pleased to have a human disciple as a Death Knight. Someone might see, so get in quickly.”
“I shall.”
After Helbertron entered, Damon even shoved Winslet into Increcia.
“Useless fellow. Hurry up and get in.”
Having closed Increcia, Damon approached Mitchell, whose face was still twisted in pain.
“I let you fight a Death Knight as you wished, so you’ll keep your promise without fail, won’t you?”
As if there was nothing to think about, Mitchell nodded. His grumbling tone had now completely changed.
“Do not worry. I will personally instruct each person in swordsmanship for one hour every day. I will teach with all sincerity, so in exchange, please summon the Death Knight whenever I request it.”
“Do not worry. There are four fellows for you to fight, so you will not be bored.”
Feeling truly grateful, Mitchell respectfully bowed his head.
“Thank you very much for giving me the armor and sword.”
Perhaps embarrassed by Mitchell’s changed attitude, Damon snorted.
“Hmph! That fellow has one bright spot, at least—his manners. It doesn’t suit you in the slightest, so act the way you usually do.”
In the end, the mercenaries, including Mitchell, could only smile bitterly.
A little while later, the mercenaries who had finished their meal sat in a circle together. It was to receive swordsmanship instruction from Mitchell.
The mercenaries, including Kasim, were professional soldiers who had rolled about on battlefields. As such, there was no way they could be ignorant of swordsmanship.
Kasim in particular was a swordsman who possessed practical martial skill nearly on par with Mitchell. But right now, Kasim had forgotten all of that completely and was looking at Mitchell with shining eyes, like a student learning swordsmanship for the first time. That was because he, too, keenly felt the necessity of fundamentals.
Due to the nature of the mercenary profession, the swordsmanship Kasim had learned was extremely well suited to melees and group battles. It was swordsmanship that focused more on irregular attacks or tenaciously clinging to an opponent’s mistakes than on head-on confrontation. That was precisely why he used a sword breaker, a type of irregular sword.
Because his basic swordsmanship skill was lacking, his intention was to gain even a slight advantage by using an unusual weapon his opponent was not familiar with.
However, that sort of practical martial art had a tremendous flaw. It was characteristic of practical martial arts that they displayed considerable effectiveness against lesser swordsmen or those of similar ability, and even against masters whose skill was somewhat superior, they generally did not fall behind. That was because the sword paths themselves were unconventional and not clearly standardized. The problem, however, arose when one encountered an outstanding expert.
Assuming he faced a knight with solid fundamentals, the practical martial arts Kasim had learned would reveal enormous openings. Put simply, he would run into the inherent limits of practical martial arts. Practical martial arts had the weakness of being almost useless against masters above a certain level.
Kasim had already experienced such cases several times. Over more than ten years as a mercenary, Kasim had met countless capable mercenaries who had established swordsmanship of their own. And he had also been forced to witness them lose in battle so vainly it seemed absurd. Their opponents were nine times out of ten knights, and the mercenaries met their end without even being able to exchange swords a few times.
Among mercenaries, it had become accepted wisdom that if one wanted to live long on the battlefield, one should not run into a knight. Because of that, mercenary companies had even developed a tendency to pay expensive salaries to recruit knights who had been driven out of knightly orders.
But if the opponent was a knight, the story changed. A knight with solid fundamentals would not easily kneel even when facing a fairly strong opponent. Unlike a mercenary who had learned practical martial arts, that meant he could hold out to a certain degree. That was precisely the power possessed by fundamentals.
Put simply, it meant he could at least put up proper resistance. Because he knew the importance of that, Kasim wished to learn about the fundamentals from Mitchell.