"What a friendly girl." I praised the friendliness of the girl. She was meticulous at her customer service. Many times when I visit a store, the shopkeepers get too stiff so it feels a bit awkward.
But nor did this girl turn stiff or was she too friendly, she was an expert in dealing with customers.
As I got out of the bakery after buying a lot of bread, here we started to continue our sightseeing around the city.
"Hmph!"
"Don't get jealous, you are lovely too." I may have praised the girl at the wrong time.
"Stop saying shameless things on the street!" Even though she was protesting, Rose was holding my hand and was showing me around the town. After that, we visited a monument in the town.
"This is the first lord of this domain's one and only Statue, he was called the First Sword saint. I heard that he was the first man to be able to kill a dragon with the sword too…" Rose said so with respect.
His statue was life sized and it looked very well made. The man had long hair and a slender body. Over the years, the statue seemed to grow old but still people must be taking good care of the statue. It looks great. the details of his face was still quite noticeable
"Lord Rin is a direct descendant of the first sword saint too." That was good information to hear. which would probably make Rose a descendent too... I see... she feels that she is not adequate as a night, such a stubborn girl...
After moving around the town some more, Rose was getting quite the attention, it wasn't bad attention though, since many knew her in the town, they looked happy seeing Rose holding hands with me. She did get flustered but I didn't let go. It was fun seeing her cute and flustered like that. I even got her close to me.
"Ahhh! It was so embarrassing!"
"Come on, cheer up, it was a great time, I had fun.."
"I see that but you seem to be too familiar with this."
"Well I do have a lot of partners." not to brag but I did....
"And besides that you work like those skilled guys who handle women."
"Hmm… I wonder why I can manage that too.." It wasn't like I was skilled in dating….. It must be one of my powers from the love goddesses blessing..
As we walked some more around town, we finally went back to Lord Rin's place. As the town had a rather cozy feel to it, I had quite fun going around with Rose. really Lord Rins domain was very well behaved, not a single man came to disturb us. My barrier wasn't needed for the first time in this world.
....
After we returned...
"Sir, pardon my intrusion but Lord Rin asks of you." Carla came to get me when I was having a chat with Rose. It seems time for training was here.
As I followed Carla to the training field, I saw hundreds of knights. They bowed to me slightly. It was a knightly way. I wonder why they respect me so much.
"Here, Rekka…" Rin called me to come over to the center of the ground. There were many male knights but the females were a lot too. Maybe not equal but there were a lot of lady knights then I had expected.
Everyone looked sharp dressed in shiny armor.
"We will be having a constant battle. After the battle starts, Rekka will continuously fight. Once a unit has been taken down, the unit after that will attack. Everyone, we will continue until no one can stand up anymore. There will be no magic healing. Rekka has said that he won't give you serious wounds. But every 3 minutes he will perform a lethal attack to incapacitate you, so be careful! If anyone gets too injured to fight before 30 mins are up, then you will all be punished to stay on the Edge of the world for a month."
Rin explained this in a very clear voice. She sounded regal but her contents were very frightening. Not only that, she was even giving threats….
The soldiers looked pale too but they gradually composed themselves….
My Image had gotten a dark twist after all. What I had done in the empire wasn't just normal cruelty. The corpses without their limbs and their faces that looked horrifying… man… even I don't know how I had gone through with the plans.
[those souls are probably so deformed, they probably are waste even for harvesting.] Amanori who had no mercy at all, still dissed those guys... well, they were human waste, I don't have any mercy for them too.
Thus it was normal for the soldiers to look scared.
"Rekka, I want you to hold your ground and not move from the place when we start fighting. If you move with your speed, no one can hit you, so the training will be a loss." Rin said.
"Alright, I did the same with the empire so that shouldn't be a problem." in the fight with the empire, I only stood at place while the soldiers had attacked me. At Least until they had started running.
"That's what I like to hear. Now! Everyone, if while sparring if you can move Rekka from this point even a single inch, it will be our win! Do you get that?!" After Rin said so, everyone let out a 'yes ma'am!'
As I stood at the center of the field, I saw 30 knights each forming a group. They had swordsmen at the front and then spearmen at the back. I saw that no one was holding a shield… they could use magic that defended them, so they pushed themselves with such a offensive strategy.
It looked like they were going to do a coordinated attack. There were at least 10 units. 2 of those Units were Elite knights known to be among the strongest. The other 8 units were also strong. Every one of them can be compared to a B rank adventurer. Since they work well in groups, they can easily form an A rank attack force, Able to take down a behemoth. their average strenght was very high compared to any other army I had seen until now, even the empire was strong just like these guys... but...
What lies in their strength is their team work. Although each of them has good mastery in swords, teamwork made them nearly flawless. Although it was all information I only heard until now, seeing them come at me… yeah.. These guys are team work masters. the empire's soldiers were worthless in this aspect. just what more can you expect with barbarians like them.
"Now everyone! Let the fight.. Begin!" At Rin's command, the first Unit came straight for me. They very quickly circled all around me. it didn't even take a minute for them to position themselves around me, with with a circle around me and another circle around the first circle. I wondered why they did a double circle?
And they started to slash with much precision. Even though they were attacking a single enemy, all together, no one was getting in anyone's way. Their coordination was perfect.
I quickly twisted my body to avoid unnecessary damage but since I was unable to move from the spot, my perception and reflexes were used to the max, thanks for my body being slim and flexible, I was able to move nimbly even while I just stood there. I dodged the slashes very narrowly, even feints were hard to predict since nearly 10 of them attacked at the same time...
I guess I have to attack, since dodging is not an easy option that can be used for a long while, if I concentrate this much, my mental fatigue will grow more.
Since Amanori will not do it in spar, I was actually bare handed, but this was more my style, the body moved on it's own to avoid attacks and while I wanted, I could easily throw in punches to get the knights off my back.
They were like flies, even normal punches were enough to blow them away… My body has grown a lot. Even in my normal state where I don't use spirit energy, my strength is at a point where I can manage these knights.
A 100 times of gravity was nothing to scoff at it seemed. In the future I was planning to increase it 50 times more. Although my body strengthening has reached a point that it isn't increasing as fast as before… going through life should get me the ability to break through it. I just need more stimulation to grow my power.
BOOOM!!!
"How can he just blow these knights away? They are holding their ground very firmly." the commander of the unit. Who was far in the back looked bewildered. The punch pushed the knights who were not defending well. And they fell on the ground looking lifeless. Sorry man, even if we are in a rush. I will throw precise punches at the weak spots. in this case the ones who were getting careless since I still wasn't attacking much, only focusing in attacking can be deadly, as the opponent can strike you in a critical spot that could instantly kill you.
It wasn't even a minute since I started attacking but it looks like the unit is already falling apart. They thought that this was my full strength but sadly, it was me being normal as I can. I had grown a lot too, my punch although not a full powered one could still create air blasts to blast the opponent away.
More than power or speed… one needs precision in attacking. As for me… yeah, I excelled overwhelmingly at that.
"Everyone! Backup! unit 2 is on it's way to attack." with the commander's word, the 2nd unit moved in. The gap was very negligible, so I couldn't attack the 1st unit since it was retreating. A very good and agile way to attack and defend. just like before unit 2 also formed a double circle around me. by now I understood why there was a double circle, they switched between attacking, it made the gap between attacks shorter.
The first unit retreated even before 3 minutes were up. Man… was I really overwhelming them? Although only half the units in the unit were blown away.
"It looks Like Miss Rin has trained you guys well." Since it had been Three minutes, I threw in a strong punch. I Intentionally made a bigger wave so that even the soldiers in the back got blown away.
WHOOOOOS!!!!
KHAAA!GHA!!
The attack was successful. Before me no more knights were seen. All of them were blown away to the other side of the field. I just twisted my body in a half circle and it blasted the opponents with strong winds, as if they were all hit by a truck, nobody even got up anymore.
As They couldn't block the impact of strong attack, so it was real damage. Even after wearing armor, it would be futile against my straight punches. Silence was issued after my big attack. If I had told them I could throw thousands of punches at that force, they might have just quit the duel… of course I am not gonna say that.. There is no need to brag. well this just proves why my strength also over whelmed a dragon, even while I was not using spirit energy enhancement, my strength was already this great...
"What are you Standing still for!! Unit 3 Attack?!!!!" Rin, who broke the silence, shouted in a loud voice. And unit 3 started to attack after breaking out of a trance.
As the spar continued like this for close to 3 hours, 10 units of knights were already down to only 3 units… boy they tried, but they couldn't help it, my punches were precise the damage piled up over time, nobody can even defend too many, their hands just broke. My punches had evolved after the fight with the dragon, now they released concentrated destructive force in a single point, if I wanted.
I call these defense break punches.
After the first hour, most of the knights were unable to fight anymore. And after the 2nd hour only the Elites were left. I could now handle attacking and defending very easily. I was already able to see their attacking pattern.
So when they are getting exhausted and slow, I could say, I was adapting well to their strategy. Still the Elite knights were not for show. They always blocked my attack, and bounced back even after getting hit every 3 minutes.
Their moves were very sharp and they didn't waste any moves. But after the 3 hour mark, every 3 minutes, I could see knights were falling out. I was wounded too.
But my regeneration was way better than normal people. Even if I don't use healing magic, my blood would stop flowing from the wounds in a minute following that, the wound would start to heal and within half an hour… let's just say I would look healed as new.
As they were getting beaten one after another. even blocking the punches they took damage.
"This is a complete massacre…." Rin looked amazed at the fighting. Since the Elites were now the only one standing, they attacked in 2, One after the other, the window was very short…
I am still getting used to handling mobs. I was doing well too. By now even the commanders were on the field, everyone attacked without any orders but they were still coordinating well, these were really the cream of the batch.
"Oh?" as I punched one of them, I saw that not only had he guarded but he used his sword to fend off my punch, it obviously didn't reach his body and the result was he went out without taking a punch.
Man… they are growing too…
As this continued for 3 more hours, I saw that the sun was slightly tilting toward the south. I think we were fighting from the morning hours so now is probably nearing the afternoon. It was a very long spar, but the knights in front of me looked like they still had their fighting spirits high.
Many had stopped my punches or countered them with their swords…. But every technique has a flaw.
CRACK!!
That's right, their swords started breaking.
"How!"
"That's easy, any stick would break if you bent it the wrong way." As I said, I smashed the guy with a straight punch. Now this is what I call OP. Everyone looked flabbergasted as I broke the sword with a single punch. I wasn't even wearing a gauntlet, finally I could see them getting dejected... just as I thought. their will power is stuck with their equipment, their swords and spears. that's not good, you can mourn for your weapon for sure, but not while the fight still going on, I was a bit disappointed, they did so well until now, but this is a rather big flaw... I looked at Rin for what to do.. I can take advantage and just finish them off right now.... she shook her head... I see...
As our spar reached their climax the knights that remained got sharper, fiercer and their concentration reached a master like state, they only hoped to land an attack. Their sword counter was fended off and as I already broke all of their swords and spears… let's just say they stopped attacking serious for a while, it took them quite some time to adapt again to punches and body blows.
anyway after they became moralized again, their attacking pattern, Each had their own place to target, some targeted the head, some hands, some legs and some the face. Strictly speaking, I rarely missed a guarding opportunity so no long lasting damage had happened till now. And I dodged with my honed reflexes, so now that I was getting in the zone, I was getting back the feelings I had in the edge of the world.
Although now I also have Miasma coming out… sorry I can't help it. But not getting afraid, this only made them come at me even strongly!
"The plan is working! He is letting loose!" that's what they thought…. Well it was because my control was wavering… but it's not like my senses were getting dull.
[Miasma follows the body when it's excited and is enjoying the fight, it's not what they think at all.]
A good fight like this was very fun. I was enjoying it …. That was why Miasma was coming out mainly. Once you enjoy fighting violent feelings come out after all.
Still all good things must come to an end. Let's clean up.