Knight Angelo

Chapter 15 - Knight Angelo

Before departing, Dorian unwillingly accepted Arthur's request. It was pretty simple actually: sparring with Knight Angelo.

As expected, challenging himself had confirmed one of his suspicions. Up until now, Arthur had been living in a zone of comfort. Since the ring did not detect any major threat to his life, it never bothered offering him missions.

However, by proposing a duel, Arthur would risk his life and that of Knight Angelo.

[Knight Duel - Common Mission

You have challenged Knight Angelo, a skilled beginner knight in a duel without the use of magic.

Task - Emerge victorious by submitting Angelo

Rewards - 5 Proficiency Points in [Basic Swordsmanship], 80 EXP, Increased Reputation with Dorian Sylvester, [Respect] Relationship status with Knight Angelo, Inreased Reputation with Elizabeth Falister, Karl Yale, William Wolf, John Bellford

Option - Cripple Knight Angelo

Optional Rewards - 200 EXP, [Cruelty] Skill, Reputation loss with Dorian Sylvester and Knight Angelo]

A duel between knights could not be done with wooden weapons. The weight, feeling and movements would be too different and fail to reproduce a battle from the battlefield. Hence, the stupid tradition of sparring with real cold weapons emerged.

Many knights lost their lives in duels.

However, those who survived often emerged with a better understanding of their fighting style. Some would even enter an enlightenment state. It seemed like the mission was trying to reproduce this kind of enlightenment by giving him proficiency points, although the intensity seemed small in comparison to the state described in knighthood books.

Of course, duelling with Knight Angelo served two purposes: One was training. The other was to assert his leadership in the team he had created.

Though William was loyal to him to some extent, as a friend, Karl Yale was an old acolyte who only accepted the mission due to Dorian's suggestion. Arthur was pretty sure that Karl looked down on him because of his young age.

Elizabeth was more interested in marrying him than completing the mission, but at least her loyalty was set in stone. As for John, Arthur considered him a close friend but the man did not talk a lot. Plus, John respected strength more than anything.

Thus, in order to assert his dominance in the team, he had to make sure that he was the strongest, or else the first encounter with danger would result in mishaps. Beating down a knight was the best way to do so. And beating down Knight Angelo, a man who was respected as a skilled knight and possessed a famous name, filled the criteria necessary for Arthur's plan.

Armoured from head to toes, both Arthur and Angelo were looking at each other with eyes filled with killing intent.

[Killing intent skill activated...]

[Name – Arthur Landragon

Class – Level 5 [Beginner Rank] Acolyte (0 / 1 200 EXP)

HP – 50 / 50 | Mana: 50 / 50

→ Experience Stored: 895

Attributes:

Strength – 7 | Agility – 3 | Vitality – 5 | Magic Power – 5

Skills: Basic Swordsmanship (43), Magical Knowledge (30), Ice Magical Knowledge (25), Spell Reading (18), Scroll Copying (15), Cartography (16), Archery (16), Eloquence (12), Deceiving (10), Trading (8), Acting (6), Information gathering (6)

Knight Technique: Heavy Vertical Strike (13), Killing Intent (4)

Spell: Freezing Touch [Low Grade – Rank 0] (16)]

Arthur was the first to move, charging with full speed and surprising his opponent. Unfortunately, Knight Angelo's style relied on balance between high defence and overwhelming power. His strength, weight and skills were so high that a single blow from his warhammer would surely break Arthur's bones, even if he possessed an armour.

Armours were very efficient in blocking cuts and thrusts. However, blunt weapons such as war hammers could not be fully absorbed, and impacts would lead to internal injuries and broken bones.

However, Arthur had one advantage besides his speed: it was the fact that Celeste, his newly acquired enchanted sword, was sharp and sturdy enough to deal significant damage without requiring Arthur to commit fully to his attacks.

Breathing in and out, Arthur's charge stopped abruptly, making Knight Angelo miss his blow, exposing his back as his heavy weapon's momentum caused his body to turn. Arthur rotated his body with full speed and slashed Angelo's back.

*SPLASH*

As if his heavy armour was not of any help, Arthur's sword cut through it, dealing a tremendous wound to knight Angelo

[You have dealt 12 points of damage to Knight Angelo]

[Bleeding Status (heavy) inflicted. Knight Angelo's physical attributes have decreased by 8%. He will lose one HP every twenty seconds for two minutes]

Arthur smiled as his sword's started to shine in a blue colour, revealing a rune.

Dorian exclaimed in admiration: "An active rune! No wonder he was confident in winning against Knight Angelo! How did he manage to get enough magic crystals to purchase such a magnificent weapon?"

Angelo merely grunted in response. Angry at his state, he dismissed his instincts and charged towards Arthur. In his eyes, Arthur was too young and inexperienced.

At first, as Dorian's right hand, Knight Angelo would often dismiss praises about the young Arthur due to his age and lack of proper training. After all, Knight Angelo had graduated from the Dalian Royal Knight Academy, and had received guidance from Intermediate Knights. Only then did he reach the knight realm and started to accumulate achievements in battlefields.

In comparison, Arthur had no teacher and never fought against another human. It was only natural to be scornful at first.

However, he didn't know Arthur. Nobody knew how crazy he had become.

Arthur did not train like a regular human would train. Actually, no one could train like he trained. He would push his body to its very limits, disregarding the pain and fatigue. It was not an easy task. Training too much would have negative effects, and training too lightly would result in little gains. But Arthur would always find the optimum point thanks to his magical ring giving him updates on his status.

In addition to this maddening training regime, Arthur would often study his swordsmanship with a critical point of view. Unlike other knights who valued traditions, Arthur never hesitated to change the forms slightly, adjusting his thrusts and slashes using physics theory rather than empirism. Every single one of his move in his arsenal reflected the extent of his body's potential. Those moves, practiced tens of thousands of times, if not hundreds of thousands of times, had been engraved in his muscle memory, the synoptic connections conditioned to be faster.

As a result, Arthur's body was like a masterpiece, forged to practice a swordsmanship that was unique and optimized. 43 points of proficiency in [Basic Swordsmanship] might not seem like a lot, but the higher the proficiency in a skill was, the more difficult it was to raise it. Actually, most soldiers would find it hard to surpass 20 points of proficiency after a lifetime of training. Knights would usually possess 30 points of proficiency in Basic Swordsmanship, especially those who graduated from knight academy. However, it was not rare to find knights with less proficiency.

Few would reach the level of [Intermediate Swordsmanship], set at 50 points of proficiency. And Arthur was incredibly close to reach it.

Breathing in and out, Arthur skillfully resisted Angelo's charge by using a rotating motion with his waist. Obviously, Angelo, who had been stronger than his opponents all his life, never suspected Arthur, a young man, to match his strength. Even his weight advantage did not make a difference, for Arthur's rotating motion granted him momentum.

Taken by surprise, Angelo lost his balance and fell on the ground, to which Arthur responded by disarming him. His war hammer flying in the air. Armed with nothing but a shield, Knight Angelo cursed: "A boy...A boy so strong...This is not human. I trained so much more"

However, Arthur diregarded the knight's words as he moved forward, thrusting his blade through Angelo's shield. People expected Arthur's blade to be reflected, but instead, it pierced the iron from the shield, all the way through Angelo's shoulder.

[You have created a new skill...]

[Skill evaluation]

[The knight killing technique [Power Thrust] has been created]

[You have dealt 25 points of damage]

[Bleeding status of [Knight Angelo] worsened from [Intermediate] to [High]. His physical attributes dropped by 58% until treatment. He will lose...]

Angelo could not believe his eyes. The shield had protected him for years, even against terrifying species of monsters like red-eyed ravens and giant dire wolves. Yet today, a mere human, not even half his age, had pierced it with ease.

Losing consciousness, Knight Angelo stared at Arthur with disbelief and respect. He could not even bring himself to hate the boy. He was just too...monstrous.

The members of the law enforcement faction were shocked as well. All of them knew Arthur quite well. Although he was not particularly famous, Arthur had built a solid reputation as a reliable acolytes who completed more patrolling missions than anyone else in the tower. Sometimes, words of him returning with low-grade magical beast corpses like Swamp Wolf would spread, but they were merely rumours.

Dorian spoke highly of him, but most dismissed it as praises to a fellow Dalian noble.

Only after Arthur started selling pieces of information did people realize how smart he was. There were dozens of individuals who had explored the land around the Ivory Tower with great scrutiny, but none had thought of selling the knowledge for magic crystals. In fact, there had been no need for it. And during the time of crisis, people were more concerned about their own survival rather than making a fortune out of people's misery. But Arthur did, and earn more wealth than people could imagine.

However, though people became aware of his high survival skills, they could not have thought him to be significantly stronger than Knight Angelo, who had earned the title of 'Bone Crusher' in the Dalian Civil War, decades ago.

But the shock of the acolytes present could not compare to the shock Dorian received.

Knight Angelo was loyal to the Sylvester Family, and he had been his mentor for years. Though Dorian was no body refinement acolyte, he was on par with preparatory knights and his swordsmanship was fine thanks to the training he received in his childhood.

He knew how unskilled Arthur was when he gave him his first patrolling mission out of generosity. He knew Arthur's talent as well, which only amounted to grade 2 in magic and most likely nothing in swordsmanship. After all, in spite of coming from a knight family, his hands showed no signs of a trained warriors.

But now...

Knight Angelo's standards of strength could not be achieved in a matter of three years. It was not possible, even with the help of body strengthening potions. It required more than bodily strength. After all, Knight Angelo was someone who had killed over four beginner knights during the Dalian Civil War.

It required skills.

And Arthur...basically unleashed a knight killing technique in front of them, one that was never seen before. Because knight killing techniques were unique to noble families, they could not be stolen either since it was considered an enormous crime.

There was only one possibility remaining: Arthur had created it himself.