Chapter 43: Victory of Skill

Pfft!

The Longsword lightly brushed past the opponent’s neck, and Blood immediately sprayed out. However, this time, Dean did not cover the opponent’s mouth, but let the scream ring out.

Then, two bandits who came following the sound from not far away received the same treatment.

After doing all this, Dean stood with his sword withdrawn, quietly waiting for the appearance of his true opponent—in fact, based on the report from Theron, the Militia Captain, Dean had already determined who the opponent he was about to face was.

‘Wild Bull’ Sibul!

This half-Barbarian bandit leader had quite a reputation near the Tier Territory, though it was all ill fame.

However, possessing such notoriety also illustrated the opponent’s power from the side—being able to wrestle a bull to the ground with bare hands was definitely not something an ordinary person could do.

Therefore, facing such an opponent, Dean was naturally extremely cautious.

Thus, at the first opportunity, he changed his original plan—discarding all the set ambush points and focusing solely on attacking the opponent’s stronghold.

After all, according to his memory, the opponent was not a bandit leader who would send out patrols.

What the opponent was famous for was his Strength, not his intelligence.

In fact, most people in the Tier Territory thought Sibul had no intelligence at all; otherwise, why would he be called ‘Wild Bull’?

This statement was even very popular among the bandits.

As for Sibul’s Barbarian Bloodline?

This only served as further proof that he lacked intelligence, for in the eyes of most people, Barbarians were an uncivilized group.

Although Dean knew this wasn’t true—Barbarians had their own system of civilization—he didn’t need to explain this to his subordinates.

He just needed to inform them of his plan.

Facing the plan proposed by Dean, neither Theron nor Ike objected. As rookies on the Battlefield for the first time, the two Militia Captains clearly couldn’t maximize their advantages, so Dean had to arrange everything. Fortunately, Dean’s arrangements were very good.

When they arrived at the bandits’ stronghold again and found no patrol around, their admiration for their Regiment Commander grew even stronger.

Watching their Regiment Commander deftly eliminate the few bandits on duty, this admiration became even more intense.

Although they couldn’t confirm what skill this was, the sight of him lurking like a Snow Leopard and striking like a Fierce Tiger made these young hunters understand their Regiment Commander’s power. After all, whether it was a Snow Leopard or a Fierce Tiger, both were extremely difficult for hunters to deal with.

Even, when encountering these fierce and ruthless animals, who was the hunter and who was the prey was still uncertain!

So, facing Dean’s orders, these Militia members did not hesitate. They immediately approached the fence, used it as cover, and took out their bows and arrows.

When Dean kicked over several nearby fire basins, the surroundings were immediately plunged into Darkness.

After confirming that these young subordinates would not be discovered, Dean performed the ‘luring the enemy’ act described above. In the next moment, Dean saw his true enemy—a stature a full head taller than a normal adult, and those broad, strong shoulders all reminded Dean how powerful the opponent’s Strength was.

In fact, as a half-Barbarian, possessing such Talent was even better than an ordinary Barbarian.

This near Knight-rank power, if it appeared in a true Barbarian, would definitely make him a warrior of that Barbarian tribe. However, it was a pity that Sibul was a half-Barbarian, possessing both ordinary human and Barbarian Bloodline, which destined him to be unwelcome by both sides.

In Dean’s memory, the opponent eventually submitted to City and became a pawn for City’s invasion of Emerald. Relying on his brute Strength and familiarity with the Tier Territory, he caused them a lot of trouble, until he was finally slain by the Grand Duchess with a single sword strike.

Undoubtedly, Dean didn’t mind moving this timeline forward a bit.

However, seeing the opponent wearing Potts’s full body Armor as Half-Body Armor, Dean subconsciously frowned. Clearly, the opponent was consciously protecting the vital point of his heart, which was definitely not good news for him.

Of course, there was good news too.

The Longsword in the opponent’s hand was clearly not his most handy weapon. Judging by the opponent’s Strength, a Wolf Tooth Club or a Warhammer would be the best choices. And once a Longsword-type weapon was chosen, it should be a Greatsword that could fully exert his Strength.

Yet now, he held a single-handed Knight sword.

This undoubtedly limited the opponent’s attack power and range. For a person with great Strength but lacking Agility, if he couldn’t keep the opponent outside an effective range, it was definitely not a good thing.

“Half good, half bad!”

Dean pursed his lips and thought silently.

While Dean was sizing up Sibul, Sibul naturally sized up Dean too.

However, this bandit leader with Barbarian Bloodline merely glanced casually at the young man standing in front of him before fixing his gaze on the Blood on Dean’s Longsword and the several Corpses not far behind him. Instantly, the bandit leader flew into a rage—

“Damned fellow!”

Sibul roared while swinging the Longsword in his hand, immediately delivering a sweeping blow filled with the sound of wind.

Whoosh!

Facing this sweeping attack full of momentum and Strength, Dean lightly jumped backward to the side, dodging the opponent’s attack. Then, immediately following up with a rapid charge, after closing the distance between them once more, the Longsword in Dean’s hand, under the rotation of his wrist, left a deep bloody groove on the opponent’s right chest to shoulder—an area not covered by the steel Armor.

Having succeeded with one strike, Dean did not pursue, but quickly moved his feet again, circling to the opponent’s side and rear. Just after Dean moved, Sibul’s Longsword attacked again, just as powerful and imposing as the first strike, and the result was the same: it still didn’t touch Dean.

On the contrary, Dean gave him another strike on his back.

“Bastard, kill him!”

The bandit leader, whose two attacks had failed and who had been injured instead, immediately roared.

Suddenly, the subordinates of this bandit leader with Barbarian Bloodline gathered around. As for whether relying on numerical superiority to win was immoral?

Did bandits need to talk about morals?

Clearly, they did not!

Looking at Sibul, who had taken two swords but was still full of life, Dean secretly felt a pity in his heart. If it weren’t for the many subordinates around, he would definitely have applied poison to his sword. With poison that could paralyze even a Snow Bear, Sibul clearly wouldn’t be able to resist it.

However, to maintain his ‘Knight identity’ and ‘Noble honor’, Dean could only give up such a method.

Seeing the many bandits surrounding him, Dean did not hesitate and immediately activated the Skill [Military Swordsmanship Lv2 (Emerald)].

[Agility: 1.9]

Having obtained the judgment that Agility +0.2 could be added when attacked, Dean instantly brought his [Agility] infinitely close to that of a true Knight.

In fact, purely in terms of speed and Agility, he was far stronger than Knights who excelled in [Strength], [Constitution], [Perception], and [Will].

Dean had once speculated based on the data of the five attributes on his character panel that all attributes for a normal adult were: 1. To succeed in the ‘Knight’s Baptism’, one needed any one of the five attributes—[Strength], [Agility], [Constitution], [Perception], or [Will]—to approach or reach 2.

That is to say, the closer to the data of 2, the higher the probability of success in the ‘Knight’s Baptism’.

And once it reached 2, the ‘Knight’s Baptism’ would be inevitable.

As for exceeding 2?

Then there would be a chance to obtain a special Knight Talent.

Similarly, the higher the value, the better the Knight Talent obtained.

However, for ordinary people, this was almost impossible. Success in the ‘Knight’s Baptism’ was already the greatest blessing, let alone anything else.

But among Grand Nobles and the Royal Family, this was a must.

Without a sufficiently excellent and powerful Talent, in these Grand Noble families and the Royal Family, it was simply a joke. Both the Family’s right of inheritance and the inheritance of the title needed to be determined by Talent.

Therefore, a Knight who possessed a truly good Talent was welcomed by everyone.

Whether it was local Nobles or the Royal Family, they would all extend an olive branch.

After all, that represented an excellent next generation. The Bloodline theory was very popular everywhere, although it often produced some ‘miraculous’ errors.

Of course, even without a truly good Talent, Knights were still respected!

Because they possessed power that ordinary people did not, just like right now—

Five of Sibul’s confidants, under their leader’s roar, immediately charged ferociously at Dean. In their view, Dean indeed possessed decent skills, but under the premise of their superior numbers, once they surrounded him and reduced his space to dodge, with each man striking down with a sword, Dean would be dismembered.

As for why they had such confidence?

Naturally, it was because this wasn’t the first time they had done this!

However, in the very next instant, they knew they were wrong this time, and ridiculously wrong!

Whoosh!

The Longsword, in rapid motion, brought with it a sound like a crossbow bolt being fired. Under the bright moonlight, it raised layers of cold gleams, drawing standard semi-circles, stirring up the accumulated snow on the ground.

Dean flicked the Longsword in his hand, and immediately, a scarlet Mark appeared on the snow.

The five bandits clutched their throats and fell to the ground. Before dying, their eyes were filled with disbelief; clearly, they had never witnessed such fast swordplay.