Chapter 80 - 80 6 Basis of the Knight_1
Chapter 80 - 80 6 Basis of the Knight_1
?80: Chapter 6 Basis of the Knight_1 80: Chapter 6 Basis of the Knight_1 (263…
084…
458…
book readers’ group; join if you fancy.
PS.
Requesting for saves and recommendations from passers-by; your support is my greatest motivation)
“She randomly kicked me out again.
A woman’s heart is truly beyond understanding by normal people.”
Shortly after the twin sisters made up, Lina sent Pannis away, using the pretext of a private heart-to-heart conversation.
After all, she had to return to the temple to help out after their talk, so there was no use for Pannis to stay.
It was very helpless for Pannis, but after ineffective protests, he reluctantly accepted his fate and strolled back home alone along the street.
“Haven’t been here in decades and it’s still so lively.” Pannis had a bag of grainy fruit in one hand and kept tossing them into his mouth while muttering to himself, “Red pearl fruits are indeed tastier eaten this way, who cares about the image.”
“Hey, pretty little girl.” Bored, Pannis squat down by a random handicraft stall on the street side and asked the owner, who seemed to be only sixteen or seventeen years old, “Are all these things yours?”
The girl rolled her eyes, unwillingly dragging out her reply, “Yes~~~.”
Pannis rummaged around the stall a bit and picked up a thumb-sized wooden carving, “Hey, this eagle is well-carved, your handiwork?”
“Yeah.” The girl didn’t even bother to respond.
“The wood used is pretty rare, what material did you use?” Pannis fondled the statue, trying to make small talk.
“These are just some small pieces of wood I picked up off the road, leftovers from others’ carving.” The girl suddenly looked up, glaring at Pannis, “Are you here to chat or to buy something?”
“To buy, to buy.” Pannis raised the sculpture and asked, “How much is this?”
“Fifty silver coins.” The girl casually responded.
“Crap, why so expensive?” Pannis asked, surprised.
The girl glanced at Pannis out of the corner of her eye, “Mom told me if there is a weird uncle drooling while staring and trying to strike up a conversation, then to quote ten times the price.
Those people are idiots and will definitely buy.”
“He he, he he.” Pannis chuckled dryly, “Your mother is indeed… very wise.”
“So, are you buying or not?” The girl asked impatiently.
“Even though I’m drooling, staring at you, and making small talk,” Pannis pointed to his own nose and asked, “But do I look like an idiot who squanders money recklessly?”
The girl looked up at Pannis, nodded her head vehemently, “Very.”
“Well said.” Pannis gave the girl a thumbs up, “I give up, I’ll take it.”
Popping out two gold coins to the girl at the stall, Pannis stood up from his squat, “By the way, my cute little missy, let me tell you something.”
“Weird uncle, what’s up?”
“This kind of wood is called the Tree of Life, a special product of the Elves.
Although it’s a bit old and only has half the Life Force, but this small piece can still be worth four gold coins.
So, consider those other two gold coins as your tuition.
By the way, having this statue at home can heal illnesses and improve health.” Pannis tossed the statue in his hand and turned to leave.
The girl at the stall was dumbfounded for a moment before suddenly standing up and yelling at Pannis’ retreating figure, “Hey weird uncle, thank you!
Next time you come to buy stuff, I promise not to charge you ten times the price.”
“Even though you lost two gold coins, you’re still saying thank you.” Although Pannis mumbled this, a slight smile crossed his lips, “What a clever child.”
“Next time I’ll charge you one hundred times, weird uncle, hahaha.”
Pannis stumbled over his feet, almost throwing the statue out of his hands, “The people in this city really have unique personalities, even the little girls are like this.”
After wandering aimlessly around the Central Business District and switching out his snacks several times, Pannis finally returned to his estate on Fox Street.
Pushing open the metal gate, the vast space inside was eerily quiet, not a soul in sight.
“Strange, Catherine should be here.” Pannis scratched his head, listened closely, and seemed to hear some faint sounds.
He followed the sounds through the mansion, heading towards the backyard.
Behind the mansion was a large training field.
A square training field, twenty meters in length and width, was lined with rows of weapon racks filled with swords, shields, axes, hammers, flails, and morning stars of various sizes.
Catherine, clad in chainmail, stood in the middle of the training field, shield in her left hand and sword in the right.
“Three-thousand seven-hundred twenty-eight,” raising the shield, “Three-thousand seven-hundred twenty-eight,” slashing, “Three-thousand seven-hundred twenty-nine,” raising the shield, “Three-thousand seven-hundred twenty-nine,” thrusting.
She repeated these basic movements meticulously.
As the autumn sun shined down, sweat dripped down from Catherine’s brow, but she appeared to pay it no heed, continuing with the monotonous routine.
Every move she made was the most basic one: raising the shield, swinging the sword, stripped of all flourish and variation.
Yet Pannis knew that a truly strong knight is built from these basic movements.
Only by enduring the boredom and constantly practicing basic moves, can a knight reach the pinnacle of strength.
Those knights who become complacent after thinking they have practiced enough and start focusing on flashy battle techniques, might achieve victory in the short term with those techniques, but they will never become truly powerful.
“Basic movements.” With a nostalgic look on his face, Pannis stood in the shadows, watching Catherine earnestly deliver each stroke and shield movement, “Knights who focus on basic movements are becoming rarer and rarer.
It is clearly emphasized by every knight’s instructor that to accomplish true feats, one must perfect the basic movements.
Why do people always reject this advice?”
“Are you planning to do it five thousand times a day?
Aren’t you afraid of working yourself to death?” After watching for a while, Pannis saw that Catherine’s count had exceeded four thousand.
He frowned, stepped out from the shadow, and said out loud: “Catherine, you’re still practicing?
How many times are you planning to do?”
“Five thousand times.” Already close to her physical limit, Catherine momentarily propped her shield on the ground, caught her breath while leaning on her sword, and replied, “I have to practice this many times at home every day, otherwise I always feel like something is missing.”
“Why do you practice basic movements every day instead of practicing knight-specific battle techniques?” Pannis casually took a rapier from the weapon rack, lightly flicking it.
“Because it’s useful.” Catherine wiped the sweat from her forehead, “Once I focused on basic movements, I realized that the majority of a knight’s battle skills can actually be broken down into multiple basic movements.
If you master basic movements, you don’t even need to practice those battle skills.”
“Is that so?” Pannis gave a slight smile.
His figure flashed and he suddenly appeared on Catherine’s shield-less right side, mercilessly stabbing at her neck.
Catherine, who hadn’t expected Pannis to attack her suddenly, didn’t react in time.
However, the benefits of her years of basic movement training were clear.
Almost subconsciously, she twisted her waist and turned around, her two legs firmly planted, and she raised her shield in front of her chest.
These three movements flowed naturally into each other without conscious command, precisely blocking Pannis’s attack path.
“Impressive.” Pannis complimented as his hands did not slow down.
His rapier had barely halted in mid-air when he saw his attack path blocked and without making contact with the shield, he stepped back and reappeared on Catherine’s right side.
Catherine, who had already reacted to his move, mimicked his movement, stepping incorrectly and turned around, pushing her shield forward.
These were also basic movements, but executed quickly, both defensively and offensively, without any delay.
“In fact, you’re flawless.” Pannis repeatedly changed positions and stabbed from various tricky angles.
Whether he was stabbing from diagonally above the head or upwards from below the knee, Catherine easily blocked him entirely, providing no opportunity.
“Clap clap clap.” Pannis reappeared beside the weapon rack, clapping lightly, “There’s no way to break through your defense.”
“You scared me.” Catherine dropped her shield and shot Pannis a glare, “Was there any need to stab so suddenly?
Could you at least warn me next time so I can prepare?”
“Alright then, are you ready?
Because here I come again.” Pannis picked up a giant warhammer from another rack.
Swinging it with both hands, using the weight of the hammer itself, he swung it towards Catherine’s head in a frontward arc.
Catherine narrowed her eyes and her expression became serious as she stepped towards Pannis.
She raised her shield in her left hand and collapsed the distance so that her slim Falcon Shield directly slammed into the middle of the hammer shaft, dissolving Pannis’s attack.
Meanwhile, her right hand thrust her sword from behind the shield, without warning.
“Smart combo.” Pannis pulled back the hammer, avoided Catherine’s stab, and spun his body.
The hammer swung in an orbital arc, aiming for Catherine’s side.
Catherine took another two steps forward to block the center of the hammer shaft, but Pannis had prepared and retreated during his swing.
Faced with no time to adjust her position, Catherine had no choice but to activate her Aggression power on her shield, which shimmered as she forcefully repelled the warhammer.
Despite halting Pannis’s attack, Catherine didn’t relax.
Like a spinning top, Pannis used the force from the deflected hammer to rotate in the other direction, and initiated his attack from the other side with faster speed and more force.
After the loud clash when Catherine blocked the heavy hammer, she lunged forward a few steps and used the shield to push Pannis back, “If you keep hitting me like this, I am going to start hitting back.”
Pannis chuckled, stopping his attack, and placed the hammer back on the weapon rack, “I have just noticed a problem with you.”
“What problem?” Catherine realized the work she had done to wipe off the sweat earlier had been wasted, and she asked somewhat annoyed.
Pannis didn’t answer directly but instead looked up at the sky and said softly, “I used to know a knight.
Like you, she was an incredibly good guardian knight.”
“So…
she…
you guys must have been very good friends.
Have you separated?” Catherine ventured.
“She’s dead.” Pannis replied flatly.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Catherine froze and lowered her head.
“That’s not the point.
The point is, her defense was as tight as yours with no gaps, but she rarely used a shield unless it was absolutely necessary.” Pannis pointed to one corner of the training field, “She used that.”
“What?
That’s impossible.” Catherine looked in the direction Pannis pointed to and the first thing she saw was the weapon lying on the ground – a more than four-meter-long lance made of pure metal, knight lance.