Ch.371Training with Them

It was a more fulfilling time than I had expected.

“I am Bertrand, the ninth sword of Landenburg. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“Call me Klaus, the fourth sword. It’s an unparalleled honor to cross blades with the Empire’s First Sword.”

“Fifth sword, Karim. I look forward to this.”

During the day, I honed my skills through duels with the masters Ludwig had brought from Landenburg.

I would fight them one-on-one, pointing out weaknesses I noticed, then the next day we would hold group battles.

“Well, pleased to meet you. I assume you know who I am, so let’s begin right away.”

The 9th sword, Bertrand, was a man in his late twenties with brown hair and blue eyes.

Unusually for knights these days, he used a one-handed sword and shield, employing orthodox and solid techniques like a paladin, but…

“Your core strength is lacking. What’s the point of having a shield if you get pushed back anyway?”

Bertrand took my two-handed slash and was sent flying shield and all, crashing into the wall.

He might fare well against opponents of equal strength, but against someone stronger, his defensive capabilities were insufficient, making him likely to be overwhelmed.

This guy seems weaker than Nigel.

Perhaps they rank their swords by order of joining rather than actual skill.

“Next.”

—-

Karim appeared to be around forty, though he said he was actually thirty-nine.

Apparently, he was the third oldest knight among Landenburg’s swords. He was a large man who wielded a heavy two-handed hammer with remarkable dexterity.

Since a middle-aged man who had lived as a knight for over a decade probably didn’t need my advice, instead of offering guidance, I relentlessly targeted his weak points throughout our battle. Rather than matching him in strength, I fought purely with the techniques of Karma of Murder.

“This is… magnificent! Truly versatile indeed!”

Karim let out a joy-filled laugh, impressed by the power of Karma of Murder that whipped like a lash, wrapped like chains, and sometimes pierced like an awl.

I tested all my Karma of Murder techniques against him.

Except for the techniques with excessively murderous intent, like blade nets.

“Now, how will you handle this!”

Six sharply honed red tentacles.

Against this attack targeting arms, legs, head, and torso simultaneously, Karim swung his hammer wide.

Two tentacles shattered to dust, and three of the remaining ones bounced off Karim’s armor, leaving only scratches.

The last one precisely targeted an unarmored area, but because he rolled to avoid it, it only grazed him without inflicting a serious wound.

“This is more like a monster’s attack than a human’s…!”

Karim scattered light blood as he dodged, struck down, and blocked the successive tentacle attacks.

Indeed, an experienced knight could handle it adequately. After all, it’s not much different from the attacks of a many-legged monster.

Red tentacle blades.

In Hersella’s terminology, this would be something like “Crimson Whips.”

This technique of using Karma of Murder blades like multiple arms was effective for targeting blind spots, but lacked power.

Perhaps because they were ultimately just collections of insubstantial energy, they could pierce human flesh but weren’t enough to penetrate and split steel.

Moreover, beyond power, there was a more fundamental problem.

When I focused on wielding the tentacles, my body movements became sluggish, and when I concentrated on my movements, the tentacles’ trajectories became monotonous.

Humans struggle to freely use even two arms, so having eight arms was naturally problematic.

If I left the control to Hersella, it wouldn’t be a major issue, but it wasn’t a technique suitable for me to use directly.

“I’m continuing!”

A dark red shadow spread rapidly from my toes.

A wave of Karma of Murder traveling along the ground toward the enemy. From its edges, sharp stakes suddenly shot upward.

“Huh?!”

Even Karim, who had been wary of the blackish-red shadow extending toward him, reacted a beat too late, not expecting stakes to emerge from it.

He smashed the stakes by striking downward with his hammer, but one that he failed to destroy pierced through the sole of his foot.

“Kugh…!”

This one seems quite useful.

Since this was just a duel, I hadn’t aimed for vital points, but in a real battle, I would have pierced between the armor-less groin.

Then he would have been instantly killed, impaled in a straight line from groin to mouth.

Hersella named this technique “Extreme Shadow.”

Shadow thorns. Like her, the name was intuitive yet had a strong sense of stylishness.

“…An attack that rises through the ground… in that case…”

Karim, wincing at the pain in his instep, retreated to create distance.

Once the distance widened, Extreme Shadow was no longer an effective attack.

Since it was a technique extending from my body, as the distance increased, its power weakened, the stakes shortened, and even the speed slowed, rendering it practically useless.

It might work as a surprise attack at close to medium range, but it wasn’t suitable for attacking an opponent who was prepared from a distance.

It would need some improvements to be properly effective.

Now, what technique should I try next…

Contemplating my next move, I intensified my Karma of Murder toward Karim.

—-

The battle with Karim was a valuable experience in many ways.

I was able to clearly understand the limitations and strengths of techniques I had been casually wielding while leaving control to Hersella.

“Good work.”

“…It was an impressive experience. As expected of the Empire’s First Sword. To think you could do this much without even using a sword…”

Karim, kneeling and slumped, smiled with difficulty.

Though I hadn’t inflicted serious injuries, his entire body was slashed like rags and bleeding, making it dangerous to continue the duel.

After asking Lena to treat Karim, I crossed swords with my final opponent, Klaus.

“I look forward to the swordsmanship of the Empire’s First Sword.”

Klaus was a handsome man in his early thirties who, unlike the other two, used an imperial longsword, making him a typical knight type.

“Your swordsmanship itself is probably better than mine.”

If he had reached mastery by focusing solely on the longsword, his technical skill would likely surpass mine even if his strength and speed were inferior.

I’m the type who fights using all sorts of miscellaneous methods.

– Clang!

The two longswords crossed in a dazzling exchange.

This time, unlike when fighting Karim, I focused on swordsmanship, using Karma of Murder only for physical enhancement.

At first, I used only master-level strength as before, then gradually increased my power as I became accustomed.

“Haah!”

A slash aimed at the neck slides off Klaus’s blade as he blocks.

With the sword caught at the base, I twisted my wrist and pulled, striking upward at his chin with the hilt.

“Not enough!”

Klaus jerked his head to avoid the hilt and kicked at my abdomen.

Simultaneously, he aimed his longsword at my neck.

Two types of noise sounded at once.

The heavy impact and the clash of steel.

I tensed my abdominal muscles to withstand the heavy impact while, like Klaus, I tilted my blade to catch his, supporting the middle of my sword with my left arm.

“You withstood that with your bare body…?!”

Klaus was shocked to see me endure the impact of steel boots with just my abdominal muscles.

It did hurt a bit, but it was nothing compared to Rurik.

Back then I really thought my stomach would burst.

And that was while wearing thick armor, unlike now.

“A human’s kick won’t work on me, unless you were a werebeast!”

I swung my gripped longsword widely, shaking off his entangled blade.

Overpowered, Klaus was pushed far back, leaving long furrows in the ground.

“Haaaah!”

A thrust followed as I pursued.

My blade, wrapped in red energy, shot toward his heart.

“Kuk…!”

Klaus, hastily regaining his posture, deflected my longsword by drawing a circle with his blade.

A fluid, natural sword movement. A flawless defense.

—-

Befitting a knight who had reached mastery with just a longsword, Klaus’s swordsmanship was the second best I had ever encountered.

That is, second only to the Ghost Sword.

No. In terms of technical skill, he might even surpass the Ghost Sword.

He seemed to have mastered every technique possible with a longsword.

He would grip the sword in reverse to swing it like a hammer, or grasp the middle of the blade with his left hand to use it like a spear in close combat, attacking in various ways with just one sword.

I had learned similar techniques from Nigel, but… I hadn’t delved too deeply into them.

From my perspective, it would be more efficient to just punch someone than fight like that.

‘This is tougher than I expected?’

[Of course it is. You’re fighting while completely abandoning your strengths.]

Of course, in the current situation where I had suppressed my strength and speed by more than half, his attacks were sufficiently threatening.

But that wasn’t all.

Not only was he skilled in utilizing the structure of the longsword, but his technical mastery of swordsmanship itself had reached an excellent level.

Like the Ghost Sword had shown, he perfectly twisted the direction of force to make opponents fall back on their own, combined with thrusts that confused the point of impact by wavering the sword tip.

Additionally, he demonstrated a technique where, at the moment of extending the sword, he slid his right hand from near the base to the end of the hilt, surprisingly increasing his reach.

It was like the blade’s length suddenly increased by more than 20cm.

While blocking it head-on wouldn’t be a major problem, if one tried to slightly dodge and counter, they could easily be cut down.

“Wow, impressive. I can’t win with pure swordsmanship alone.”

I uttered words of praise while glancing at my shoulder that had been grazed and cut by his sword tip.