Oath Of Iron And Fire

Chapter 1: The Last Swordfight

Imperial Year 557 [26 years after Richard IV's withdrawal]

United Provinces Republic

Guitu Castle

It was a midsummer afternoon, with no clouds in the sky. The scorching sun turned the entire city into a steamer, and all living things lost their vitality, even the annoying cicadas stopped chirping.

"Just hold on a little longer and we'll win," Winters, a third-year officer at the Army Academy, told himself as he bit his lip, trying hard to suppress his instinct to breathe through his mouth.

[Winters Montagne]

He tried his best to maintain abdominal breathing, actively controlling the rhythm, making each breath as long as possible. The air with body temperature was exhaled from the nasal cavity, hitting the inner wall of the fully wrapped helmet, and returning with a bit of smelly sweat.

At this temperature, it should be time to take a bath and cool off under the tree. But in this hot weather where you will sweat all over just sitting still, Winters is wrapped up tightly.

He wore a full set of cotton armor next to his body, and a set of training armor on the outside of the armor. The training armor he used was the cavalry armor stripped from the corpses of nobles during the Sovereignty War more than 30 years ago.

Because the Army Department wanted to save teaching funds as much as possible, the students had to use these second-hand goods.

Of course, Winters was not using the armor of high-ranking nobles. Those luxurious and ornate armors were taken home by the generals as decorations. The students were using the armor of the knights who actually fought on the front lines.

These lower-class nobles sold their ancestral property in exchange for war horses and armor, and followed their feudal lords to Forthland [Forthland Foothills, today's United Provinces] to make a fortune. They thought their enemies were just a group of merchants, farmers and craftsmen.

But it was the merchants, farmers and craftsmen who had the last laugh, while the knights could only be buried in foreign lands. No one remembered who they were, and only the armor with bullet holes and scratches was passed down to prove that they once existed.

These armors were plain in appearance and had no decorations. But they were made of solid materials because they were related to the life and property of the users. The people of the Army Ordnance Department took away all the accessories below the skirt armor of these armors and re-issued them to the cavalry as new leg armor.

A batch of left shoulder armors were removed from other captured armors and replaced with the original right shoulder armors of these armors - because the right shoulder parts of these armors have a gap under the armpit for the convenience of holding lances, and the Ordnance Bureau did not want to go to the trouble of making a batch of right shoulder armors separately. "Anyway, the shoulder armors are the same in front and back!"

The Ordnance Department then registered this batch of second-hand assembled goods as "new high-quality three-quarter armor" and sent it to the Army Officer Academy for use by cadets. Many of the gaps in the armor caused by muskets were not repaired.

However, a few bullet holes were not a big problem, after all, the cadets would not wear these armors to the battlefield. What tortured the cadets was not the bullet holes on these armors, nor the weight of these armors, but the excellent heat conduction performance of iron armors.

In winter, it will quickly take away your body temperature, and in summer, it will efficiently transfer the outside heat to the inside of the armor.

Winters was now soaked as if he had just taken a shower. The cotton armor under the armor had soaked up the sweat and stuck to his back. Sweat ran down his forehead and occasionally flowed into his eyes, stinging them. He couldn't rub his eyes because he was wearing a helmet, so he could only endure it.

Every time Winters put on these training armors that were older than himself in the summer, he would thank the Ordnance Department from the bottom of his heart for not patching up the holes in the armor. After all, these gaps would provide better ventilation.

In fact, during sword fighting classes, the training armor with many holes was in great demand among the students. The officer who was in charge of handling this batch of armor 20 years ago probably would not have thought that his laziness would lead to a good thing.

These armors have been used since the founding of the Army Officer Academy until today, for more than 20 years, and will continue to torment Winters's juniors in the foreseeable future.

But now, Winters didn't have the extra thoughts to feel sorry for his junior classmates. He just wanted to take off this burden and sit on the stone bench at the sidelines to drink some cold water.

After more than thirty rounds of fighting, he felt that the muscles in his shoulders were as hot as red-hot iron and as stiff as door hinges that had not been oiled for decades.

Winters' upper arm muscles were unconsciously causing his entire arm to tremble, and his two hands could hardly hold the hilt of the sword - yes, the sword in his hand was the reason why he had to wear armor in the hot summer.

Both originated from gray wolves and are biologically classified as subspecies of domestic dogs. The morphological differences between dogs are so great that you would wonder, "Do they really have no reproductive isolation?" The same is true for swords.

Over the past thousand years, with the changes in tactics and metal processing technology, the sword category has spawned hundreds of different subspecies. Compared with those old predecessors, the sword in Winters's hand is a youngster written on the back pages of the family tree.

The sword is 1.3 meters long, which can be described in another way: for an adult human male with a height of 1.8 meters, when he puts the tip of the sword to the ground, the position of the weight ball at the end of the sword is four fingers below his armpit.

The blade of the sword is 95 cm long and has no hilt. In addition to its length, another feature of this sword is the stick-shaped guard that is perpendicular to the blade. The size of this guard is much larger than that of an ordinary sword, and its length is close to that of an adult male's forearm. This large guard is the soul of this weapon, and many techniques cannot be performed without it.

Compared to the length of the sword, it is surprisingly light. The sword Winters is using weighs only 1.4 kilograms, which is the weight of a few potatoes.

Praise the advancement of metalworking technology, which allows swordsmiths to create such lightweight yet strong sword blades.

The hilt of this sword is very long, and it needs to be held with both hands to exert its best power. However, because the category of "two-handed sword" has been registered by predecessors, it is generally not called a two-handed sword. Although it can be used with one hand, it is obviously not worthy of being adopted by a "hand-and-a-half sword" family.

In most cases, the cadets simply called it a "sword". If other types of swords came up in the conversation and caused confusion, the cadets would call it "our practice sword"; or simply because it was longer than an ordinary sword, they would call it a "long sword".

Don't underestimate this 1.4 kg. Even if it is only 1.4 kg, it is enough to easily smash the skull or disembowel the enemy without armor if swung vigorously. This is why Winters has to wear half a set of cavalry armor for training in the hot summer, risking heat stroke.

Winters and his opponents all had real unsharpened swords in their hands.

Winters was now almost cooked by his own sweat. He just wanted to win the match as soon as possible and defeat the opponent he had not defeated in six years. Now was the closest he had ever been to victory.

Through the grid observation window on the helmet, Winters glanced at the scoreboard on the sidelines. He had 17 points and his opponent had 12 points. He had never led the opponent by more than 5 points.

The rules of the fencing class at the Army Officer Academy are whoever gets 20 points first wins, and Winters is now on match point. He keeps telling himself: "Calm down, calm down, just three points."

His brain was thinking rapidly: "I have the match point. If he wants to catch up, he must take the initiative to attack. I can wait for a flaw." Having made up his mind, Winters entered the competition venue from the waiting area.

He extended his right foot half a step forward, and stood firmly in a T-shaped stance, with his back straight. He held the hilt of the sword with his right hand in front and his left hand behind, and his hands sank to the height of his navel, with the tip of the sword pointing upwards towards the opponent's throat.

The swordplay Winters and his classmates learned in fencing class originated from the founding marshal Ned Smith. One of the important contents of this swordplay is the "stance". The stance Winters is using now is called the "plow stance", which is both offensive and defensive. And he prefers to keep his strong hand and strong leg in front at the same time.

He knew that his strength had run out, and his stiff posture must look ridiculous to the students watching. However, he didn't care about the embarrassment, and consoled himself: "This is a game of comparing the worst, and the other party is also very tired, so it's fine as long as I can win."

Time always passes faster in the mind. A lot of things are going on in the mind, but in the real world, only a few seconds have passed. Winters' opponent is approaching Winters in a similar posture. As Winters expected, he has the match point, and his opponent decided to play more aggressively and proactively, otherwise Winters could end the game with a sneak attack.

Winters' opponent also kept the tip of his sword pointing at Winters' head, but he strode to Winters' right side and tried to occupy Winters' side position. Winters naturally would not let him do that, so he adjusted his steps as well.

The two men circled a few steps, and the distance between them was getting closer and closer, and the tips of their swords began to collide. Winters didn't even dare to blink now. When the tips of the swords of the two people using the plow style began to collide, it meant that they had entered the attack range of each other at the same time.

Winters' opponent confidently controlled his sword and collided with Winters's sword, as if in provocation. The swords made a crisp collision sound, and this small collision did not create an advantage, but it was an effective psychological tactic, using this aggressive posture to put psychological pressure on the opponent.

Winters himself didn't realize that when he decided to play a defensive counterattack, his momentum had already weakened. He thought that his decision was stable and reasonable, but it was actually an external manifestation of his lack of confidence.

Winters knew clearly that his opponent was stronger than him, and he couldn't understand how he could lead by 5 points, so he wanted to play it safe. If his opponent was leading by 5 points now, he would have attacked him.

Seeing that Winters was strictly guarding the center line, his opponent began to adjust the direction of his attack. His opponent used the weight ball as the axis to rotate the sword, turning the tip of the sword that was originally pointing to Winters' right side to the left side.

Winters immediately realized that his opponent was about to attack. His opponent was a "power king" who could often rely on his extraordinary physical strength to knock the opponent's sword away from the center line.

Then his opponent would quickly step forward, catch the enemy's sword with the guard of his sword, and thrust a high stab straight into the chest from top to bottom. This was his opponent's specialty.

Winters reacted subconsciously, and when he saw his opponent's sword turned to his right, he changed his posture and swung to the right in advance. This would be a head-on collision, and whoever could gain an advantage in the subsequent sword entanglement would score.

But the opponent's sword tip drew a circle in the air and returned to its original position. This turned out to be a fake move. Winters felt a chill in his heart and had only one thought in his mind: "Not good!"

There has never been any "battle of three hundred rounds".

In the armorless swordplay, victory or defeat can be determined in just one move.

If you fall for the fake move, then everything is over.

Although Winters' brain stopped working, his sword instinct was still there. Instinct took over his thinking and he changed his swing from right to left, trying to adjust his posture.

But it was too late. The opponent launched an attack from Winters' left side. He did not go straight for Winters' torso, but first used his strong sword to knock Winters' weak sword, knocking Winters' long sword out of position. At the same time, his left leg, like a spring, burst out with a strong thrust, and his right foot took a big step forward.

The long sword in his hand quickly circled back to the top position, and launched a fierce s***h from top to bottom. The sword drew an arc in the air, and the speed was so fast that it made a sound of wind. This time his long sword was aimed at Winters' neck.

Without any mercy, the sword hit Winters' collarbone firmly on the neck armor. A whistle sounded! Winters' opponent was not careless at all. He quickly drew back his sword and blocked Winters' possible counterattack direction with a horizontal sword posture, not giving Winters any chance to "fight back".

The back attack is a situation of mutual destruction recognized by the military academy. Once this happens, it is considered a mutual destruction, and neither side will score. Winters' opponents will never leave Winters with such an opportunity.

However, Winters' opponent was actually overthinking it. After being hit by such a full-strength "bolt from the blue", Winters had no chance of fighting back. He was almost suffocating from the pain.

Although his cervical fascia and chest armor distributed the force across his torso, the spot on his collarbone where he was hit still hurt like a toe being squeezed hard by a door.

The intense pain paralyzed Winters' entire body, and he could hardly move for a moment. His central nervous system responded to this intense stimulation, rapidly releasing a large amount of adrenaline and endorphins in his body.

So after a short period of intense pain, Winters felt that he had recovered a little. He endured the pain and pointed to his left cervical fascia, indicating that he was hit there. The referee gave a "3 points" without hesitation, and the scorer changed the score to 17:15.

There was applause in the training room. This applause was not an insult to Winters. It was a tradition of the military academy. Everyone would applaud for a beautiful battle.

In fact, even Winters wanted to applaud the opponent's attack. It was really beautiful: simple and effective feints, clean chops, and flawless replays. The whole set of moves was simply unbelievably handsome.

Although this round was described in nine hundred words, in fact, it took less than two seconds from the time the two swords collided to Winters being hit.

The winner was decided in a breath. Many students watching on the sidelines didn't see clearly what happened. They just saw Winters get hit so hard that the person who was hit couldn't stand.

In addition to the pain, Winters was more frustrated, and his face was burning because he was hit by a fake move.

Marshal Ned's swordsmanship theory emphasizes taking the initiative, encourages simple and direct attacks, praises the ability to suppress the opponent's attack, opposes flashy sword moves, and criticizes all unnecessary feints.

Because this set of swordsmanship theory believes that a qualified swordsman will never be easily deceived by a fake move. When facing a skilled swordsman, using fake moves indiscriminately is equivalent to giving the opponent a chance to attack for nothing. Winters felt that being fooled by a fake move was more embarrassing than standing still and getting beaten.

"Are you okay? Let's take a break before we fight again?" Winters' opponent did not return to the waiting area in the corner of the competition venue. Seeing that Winters was not feeling well, he said to Winters with concern. His voice came out of the helmet and into another helmet, sounding muffled.

Winters, now past the worst of the pain, tentatively moved his shoulder a few times to make sure the bone was alright.

So the young man's passionate and aggressive nature overcame the pain. Although he wanted to sit on the sidelines and rest for a while, he really couldn't give up the self-esteem of an adult male animal. He moved his shoulders, gritted his teeth and said, "It's okay, continue."

"Why don't we let them fight first and we fight later." His opponent was still worried.

It was even more impossible for Winters to agree to him, so he repeated: "It's okay, go on." After that, Winters walked back to the waiting area.

His opponent sighed and walked back to his waiting area.

The whistle sounded again, and a new round began. The two walked to the center of the court again. Winters was now holding back his anger. He just wanted to slap himself in the face for thirty seconds ago. His defense would be passive, and he would be fooled by fake moves. It would be embarrassing to be hit by a fake move. He must attack! Attack! Attack! Just a stab to the head would win.

So in this round, as soon as the two sides exchanged swords, Winters launched a sneak attack. He came up with a big step and stabbed directly at the opponent's face. The principle of this thrust was to raise the sword after the exchange of swords, use the sword guard to block the enemy's attack route, and threaten the opponent's head at the same time.

It's true that this slow-moving thrust really scared Winters' opponent, who was confused for a moment: "Why did this guy, who was so steady in the last round, suddenly become so reckless?"

But the top swordsman's instinctive reaction overwhelmed the panic caused by the stab. When Winters stepped forward, he also took a step back swiftly, and then when the blades crossed, he transferred his strong sword to the tip of Winters' sword, and pressed down Winters' sword with force. He twisted the long sword and used the sword to block Winters' possible slashing route towards him, keeping the tip of the sword pointing at Winters' abdomen. The next moment, Winters himself collided with him.

The whistle blew! It was another wonderful performance. This round lasted less than two seconds. Winters' opponent easily hit Winters' torso and scored two points. The training room once again rang with scattered applause.

Winters pointed to the spot on his training pad where he was poked, and ran back to the waiting area impatiently. The score was now 17:17, and the referee and Winters' opponent looked at each other. The referee shook his head helplessly, and they all saw that Winters' mentality had collapsed.

But the game had to go on. When the two returned to their starting positions, Winters' opponent began to seriously consider a question: "Should I just let him win this time?"

It was another round, and this time Winters entered the ring in the "Rage Stance". The Rage Stance is a posture of accumulating energy, where the swordsman will pull the hilt back to the shoulder. Just as pulling back the fist can make a more powerful strike, the same is true for swordsmanship. The Rage Stance has amazing power and a long swing range, but the disadvantage is that the intention and direction of the attack are too obvious.

At this moment, Winters' mind was occupied by one thought: "I am indeed not as good as him in the competition of hard power, but I still have a match point. The chance to win is to rely on offensive and unexpectedly get three points." This was the reason that Winters, with a broken mentality, used to convince himself, and it did make some sense.

When everyone thinks someone has lost his mind, he actually has his own twisted ideas to convince himself, and they may be very convincing.

There was nothing wrong with the idea of a sneak attack, but the problem that Winters didn't realize was that his intention to attack was so obvious that no one could pretend not to see it. There was no possibility of grabbing three points by surprise, so the so-called scoring tactics were naturally just deceiving himself.

But the next second, Winters saw that the other party also assumed the same angry stance as himself, and he saw what the other party was thinking at a glance: the angry stance was the stance they had practiced when they first met at the Officer Preparatory School, and in the six years of fencing classes, they would always practice a few routines of the angry stance first.

He could choose to get three points with a flat thrust, because a straight thrust is always faster than a strong swing. His opponent and friend now obviously wanted him to win once. But Winters didn't want to win now. He was not angry, he realized that his attitude just now was like a person who couldn't stand losing.

This was the last time the two of them competed in sword fighting class, and it might even be the last time they competed. Because graduation means that the partners who have been together day and night realize that they may never see each other again. Winning or losing doesn't matter, and he has let it go.

So neither of them did anything fancy in this round. This time, Winters' opponent used his greater strength to force open the center line and made a straight stab, hitting the target.

This was an expected result. Winters consoled himself silently: "He's taller and stronger than you, and has practiced more than you. How can it be fair that we don't win? Isn't it normal to lose? 17 points is enough to brag."

After being hit, Winters walked towards his opponent with a sword in hand. When the whistle sounded, Winters suddenly realized that something was wrong. It turned out that the score was 2 points. The opponent did not attack the head, but hit the chest. The current score was 17:19. The opponent had to get one more point to end the game.

Winters felt blood well up in his throat because he had wanted to end the fight gracefully with a warm hug, but now he found himself fighting another round, and his embarrassment was comparable to crying at a funeral next door.

Fortunately, he hadn't hugged her yet, otherwise he would have been embarrassed. He felt that he had wasted all the emotions he had just had. His emotions were just right, but after another round of preparation, he didn't have that feeling anymore.

So Winters walked back to the waiting area with his sword on his shoulder, cursing in his helmet at a volume only he could hear. It was another new round, and he started with anger again.

The opponent slashed diagonally, and Winters blocked it with the blade of his sword;

The opponent drew his sword and switched sides, and Winters also switched directions to block;

The opponent drew his sword again and changed sides, and he subconsciously continued to block with the sword.

About a second passed, and this round still seemed to be a lightning-fast fight. Although Winters was fighting with the sword based on instinct, he had already vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

So when Winters realized that the distance between him and the opponent was shortening rapidly, he was in great panic. He understood everything at once, and he cursed anxiously: "[vicious curse words]! You want... [more vicious curse words]..."

But it was too late, his personal attack did not reach his opponent at all. All the opponent could hear was the inaudible wailing coming from his helmet.

Winters' opponent changed to holding the sword with one hand to control Winters' sword, and grabbed Winters' shoulder with the other hand, tripped him, and with a simple leg throw and a Taishan crush, he knocked poor Winters down heavily with his armor and pressed him under him. Thunderous applause rang out in the training room.

Yes, since it is a swordsmanship contest, then of course boxing will not score points, and wrestling will not score points. But if you knock the opponent down and control him, then use the sword to hurt the target, it works! You get one point.

Wrestling is also a part of swordsmanship, don’t play it if you don’t like it.

The whistle blew and the referee announced loudly: "The winner is Axel from Orange!"

As Winters lay on the ground, he had only one thought in his mind: "What a [expletive] I am for not stabbing him with that sword just now.