Chapter 40: A Warrior’s Tragedy

But what I realised after watching hundreds of knights striking one another was that, in fact, most decisions are based on how much danger they perceive from a blow, whilst styles may vary.

Of course, first and foremost, the fundamental basics that any fighter learns at the start of their career were taken into account, such as changes, timing, differences between weapons, the range of the attack,

Stability, the opponent’s build and skills and their psychological tendencies (whether they are deceitful or straightforward), etc.

All of these factors influence the decision as to which defensive stance to adopt at any given moment in any situation; however, generally speaking, the core focus of defence in their style was as follows:

If a strike is critical, they will somehow realise that they are unable to parry or counter-attack, so they will immediately transition to the absolute defence stance;

if the strike is lethal or incapacitating, they will evade it;

and if the strike is ordinary, they will transition to a counter-attack stance or a parry to counter-attack

and if the strike was heavy, they would resort to one of three stances depending on their situation: -parry to break the attacker’s stance; -parry to bypass the attacker; or turning the attack against the attacker.

Well, this is the reaction I observed among the trainee knights and the new knights

As for the seasoned knights and the Requiem knights, their techniques were far more creative and varied, and I didn’t understand most of them even when they explained them to me, simply because it just didn’t make sense to me. So Uncle Radmir summed it up for me in two words – experience and talent –

I remember asking one of the Requiem Knights at one point how they could possibly be sure whether an opponent was delivering a normal strike or a heavy strike? (As the simplest example of attack types.)

You have to understand that standing on the battlefield is not the same as watching the battle from the outside;

as a spectator, you have a perfectly clear view of the attacker’s shifting centre of gravity and their entire body movements; but when you’re on the receiving end, you don’t get the same comprehensive view of your opponent as an outside observer,

and you certainly won’t be able to monitor their subtle movements either, because if you did, you’d simply miss the right moment to make the appropriate decision on how to respond,

At that point, the knight told me that it is simply a matter of instinct, honed through experience and practice,

but I also decided to categorise it as – a sense of danger

So I concluded that, essentially, every reaction they made stemmed from their understanding of the level of danger posed by the blow, and the intensity and kill intent behind each strike; and when they failed to assess the danger, they simply took the blow – or failed to capitalise on the opportunity to strike the attacker

Uncle Radmir actually agreed with my analysis at the time, then directed his fist straight towards my face and stopped right in front of my nose; his fist exuded a terrifying aura. But the problem was that, despite the situation being sudden, my body did not make the slightest instinctive movement in response to his surprise attack, and I did not react at all unconsciously.

Uncle Radmir believed at the time that this was precisely my problem: that I did not respond to danger. It seems my alarm system is malfunctioning for some reason!

Naturally, this is not an advantage but a real tragedy for someone who dreams of becoming a warrior

because the essence of combat essentially relies on defence and attack

but defence and attack are not separate concepts, as a beginner might imagine

if you fail at one, you will automatically fail at the other

In fact, to help me understand the concept of attack, Uncle Radmir had me hold a shield and focus on absolute defence whilst numerous knights took turns attacking me, so that I could understand what is the best way to break the attacker’s stance, put pressure on them and disrupt their balance, and spot the weaknesses in attacking stances and how the failure of even a single attack affects the rhythm of the entire fight... To deepen my understanding of attack methods and how to keep my battles going according to my will.

Generally speaking, unless I improve my defensive reflexes, all I’ll be doing is taking a beating without any real chance of landing a critical or lethal blow.

As for why I didn’t use a long-range weapon, as that bastard said... Quite simply, I literally forget about it; for some reason, once the fight starts, all I can think about are close-range attacks.

Never mind, I’ve told them time and again to give me a real combat experience, but I’ve never had one, even to this day.

When he saw that I wasn’t listening to any of the rubbish he was spouting over my head, as if I didn’t know what my problem was, he simply sighed.

’Hah, you’re not without talent. Perhaps if you were to take a genuine interest in your own life, you’d be able to break through this barrier.’

What on earth does that even mean?

He didn’t say anything else after he’d finished instructing me. He stood up and left the training ground.

Bloody bastard...

Tsk.

I waited until he’d strut off, even though it annoyed me like hell, but my consolation was that I’d actually beaten him up yesterday... Oh, maybe this wretch was getting his own back for that! What a pathetic bastard for a commander of the Capital Guard knight– can’t he even respect his own title?

Then my loyal servant, Vilen, came over with a wet towel to help me up and wipe away the dirt and sweat.

"Did you enjoy watching your master get beaten up?"

I glared at him, having lost the object of my anger.

"I wouldn’t dare, young master," he said, bowing to me.

Forget about him... ah, I’m exhausted.

My body feels completely shattered, and he didn’t seem in the mood to play with me either. Perhaps he’s angry with me too, and was punished because of me, after all.