Chapter 92: Instinctive Fear
Thanks to the Commander Scouter, catching up to the fleeing Count Épinay was going well, but the enemy cavalry was charging furiously toward us from the rear. I’d sent Fiel and August to intercept them, but even at a glance, I could see the enemy outnumbered our forces.
If those weren’t routed soldiers but loyal retainer cavalry willing to throw away their lives to save their lord, our unit, which had only suffered light casualties until now, could take heavy losses on this battlefield today. So before they surrounded us, I had to capture Count Épinay.
[Gale Knight III Quest]
[Capture Count Épinay]
[Reward - 5,000 points, 50 silver coins (hazard pay)]
[Family Prestige 500 points]
[Danger Rating ★★★☆☆]
Well, a quest popped up at just the right time.
It hadn’t shown up at all until now, so why appear now?
When I clashed swords with the knight called Hartmann, what I felt was weight. Our swords collided with a sharp clang, and the difference in force became clear. He was a knight with obviously more strength than me. But I’d fought this type of knight before—that French idiot Clodis from Épinay.
Hartmann was more tight-lipped and far more aggressive than Clodis. Even his horse, despite the size difference, fearlessly charged at Mont Blanc. Naturally, Mont Blanc got angry and snorted as he crashed into Hartmann’s horse. Mont Blanc lacked Schatten’s weight, but his temperament was fierce.
The moment Hartmann’s horse staggered, I pressed forward to create separation.
Clang! Clang!
The instant I locked swords in a bind, my blade ran along his and my tip stabbed toward Hartmann’s helmet. The only weakness of a closed helmet is the gap in the visor. However, Hartmann read my winding stance and raised his sword hand high to deflect the thrust.
But my other hand, which had let go of the reins, drew a dagger, and I thrust it at Hartmann’s armpit. He caught the dagger with his gauntlet and blocked it. With both my arms caught and the contest reduced to pure strength, I naturally started getting pushed back.
I’m no pushover when it comes to strength, but Hartmann’s was considerable. So instead, I pulled on his arms to throw him off balance, then struck the back of his forward-leaning helmet repeatedly with the blunt pommel at the bottom of my sword grip.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
"Gah!"
Finally, Hartmann couldn’t withstand the shock and fell from his horse.
When fighting a knight in full plate armor, you have to abandon any thought of cutting with the edge. The only relatively effective attacks are thrusts and strikes. Even with full armor, the insides of the joints are mostly covered with cloth, so several techniques exist to target these areas.
My plate armor also has cloth at the armpits and groin. There’s Halbschwert, a technique where you grip the blade with your gauntlet like holding a spear and thrust precisely with both hands to target these gaps, and Mordhau, where you hold the sword upside down and strike like a blunt weapon.
There are also techniques for quickly stabbing the gaps in helmets and the cloth-covered joints with a dagger.
Of these, I favored Mordhau and dagger fighting the most.
Because hitting with the blunt pommel or the crossguard is more fun than you’d think.
Rather than finishing off Hartmann, I tapped Mont Blanc’s belly, deciding to capture Épinay first. Mont Blanc shot forward like lightning. This was a fight where I had to cut off the head of the snake before taking down the lesser knights.
Count Épinay was fleeing under the protection of two knights, and those knights’ skills were remarkable. I don’t know what reward the count had promised them, but even when my lieutenants and the light cavalry charged, the two knights knocked them off their horses one after another, showing off their prowess. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Had sending Fiel and August to intercept been a mistake?
Those two were fighting hard against far more enemy cavalry. Without them, the enemy cavalry would have broken through, and I would’ve been surrounded instead. In the end, the only thing I could rely on was my own skill. I shouted at the count, who was fleeing with all his might.
"Count Épinay! Is a noble aristocrat running away with his tail between his legs?"
However, rather than Count Épinay, the two knights escorting him reacted.
After confirming there were no other enemy cavalry nearby, they immediately turned their horses and attacked me. I clashed swords with the first charging knight and struck his helmet with a winding blow as we passed, then ducked to dodge the second knight’s sword and rode forward.
"Hyah! Hyah!"
Mont Blanc’s fast legs caught up to Count Épinay’s horse. Originally, Mont Blanc had been the count’s beloved horse, so it was ironic that the thoroughbred he’d been so proud of had become a cursed steed threatening his life. I’d gotten off on the wrong foot with Épinay from the start, and it had led to this.
Personally, I had no ill feelings toward Count Épinay, but I had no choice since he was the vanguard of the invasion. Rumor had it he’d attacked Beren to gain the Duke of Burgundy’s favor, but far from gaining favor, he was about to suffer massive losses. On top of that, he’d had his horse stolen—a complete humiliation.
When he’d first set out on the campaign, he probably never imagined it would turn out like this.
Just as I was about to catch up and strike with my pommel, Count Épinay made a sharp turn.
"Your fleeing technique is an art, my lord Count!"
"Putain Merde! Get this leech off me!"
The count’s knights, whom I’d shaken off, desperately rode back to block me.
Clang!
"Get away from the Count, you German hick!"
"French dogs attacking in a pack!"
"We are the great knights of Burgundy, France!"
Would these proud French bastards come to their senses only after having their heads cracked by a German hick? From what I could tell, it was a French trait, so it seemed unlikely. The moment we clashed swords, one of the knights grabbed his blade with both hands in a Halbschwert stance and thrust the sword tip at the gap in my helmet’s visor.
Targeting the gap in a helmet’s visor is an extremely difficult, high-level technique. It requires intense concentration and steady hands. Yet they target the helmet to put psychological pressure on the opponent, because the instinctive fear is greater than you’d think. However, the thrust was blocked by my crossguard.
In that opening, the other knight targeted my exposed armpit.
I tapped Mont Blanc’s left side to turn left and dodge. The movement was so light and smooth that I neatly avoided the sword and was instead given an opportunity to counterattack. I gripped my cavalry sword upside down and struck down on the knight whose stance had collapsed after his failed thrust.
Thud!
A downward strike with the crossguard is quite powerful—enough to dent the grooves in a helmet. Naturally, it deals indirect damage to the head inside. Since it’s hard to stay conscious when your head takes a blow like that, I raised my sword to strike again.
Clang!
However, the other knight didn’t just stand by watching his comrade get hit, and I had no choice but to pull back my sword to block the attack. I fought the knight in a blunt exchange using the Mordhau technique. Both of us gripped our swords like spears, aiming for gaps simultaneously.
The precise Halbschwert stance involves holding the sword grip with your right hand, grasping the middle of the blade with your left, and extending the sword tip diagonally toward the sky. We were circling on horseback, looking for openings, when the enemy knight struck first. He rushed into my guard without hesitation.
I thought he’d aim for the gap in my armpit or visor and braced to defend, but completely contrary to my expectation, he forcibly wedged the bottom of his sword grip between my two arms—spread apart to maintain the Halbschwert stance—and simply smashed my face with the pommel.
Thud!
"Gah!"
Damn it. I never thought he’d attack like that. If I hadn’t twisted my body to dodge when the other knight rushed in to stab my armpit, I would’ve been done for. Fortunately, the shock itself wasn’t severe, so I recovered quickly. Meanwhile, Count Épinay had already fled far away.
If I wasted any more time, I might lose him.