The group was in no hurry to find the last of the four bosses of the bandit fortress; their steps were calm and gradual.
"Fight more with your mind, don't use too much emotion in battle. Emotions can give you strength, but they can also make your attacks predictable"
Cecile was giving some advice to the knights under her command; the hunters also listened to a thing or two with some interest.
"Don't just think about the next blow, think about the next 10 blows"
"Have a plan A, B, and C for every action taken; your opponent will suffer if you follow this"
It was the bronze-rank veteran adventurer's turn to speak; his advice had subtle differences from the knight of equivalent rank. One focused on surviving, the other on how to fight.
"What are your thoughts in a fight to the death?"
Gregory asked this with many doubts in his mind, wanting to know what kinds of things he should think about when his life was at risk.
"I think of various ways to kill someone, the applicable methods in that situation, and I formulate my plan like that"
The comment came from that man who belonged to an old inhabitant of a world where magic did not exist. His calm and coldness shocked the rookie knights.
"I think about ways to survive, my heart beats faster, my mind boils"
"I feel like I'm on fire, to be exact".
Fay didn't help much with his explanation about battles, the feeling of fighting for his life. One was very cold in his reactions when fighting, the other was too excited.
"I got very nervous when facing death, my body trembled a lot, and I thought about how I should escape from there".
"My judgments were sometimes right, sometimes wrong"
Louis was the next to speak about the sensation of fighting to the death, the feeling he experienced in the fight against one of the bandit captains.
"I don't have much to say, I haven't had a fight of this level of danger until now"
"My life has not yet been at risk for me to think about fighting for it"
Arya didn't think she had ever felt the feeling of fighting for her own life; the most she felt was pressure to save someone or help a companion.
The conversation took the expected amount of time to reach the place where the last of the four bosses was, who was a man of one meter and sixty centimeters.
The bandit had a huge axe on his back, an animal leather coat, pants made of cloth, metal boots, and wore a helmet with horns. His face was not handsome; he had black hair, fierce eyes, and a large beard.
"Take your designated positions".
Gregory Blackwood went forward at the same instant as his other companion, Jaime Ashwort. The two drew their weapons while swallowing hard to face that fearsome opponent.
"Don't look at me like that, you're not looking at a monster"
The bandit was laughing as he saw the look of fear on those two boys' faces; his thoughts were not clouded or blinded by the fear of dying.
"I'll kill one, the other will serve as a hostage to escape".
His huge axe attacked swiftly; the wind seemed to be cut at the moment that lethal and sharp weapon was swung.
The greatsword knight used his own large weapon, the greatsword, to counter his opponent's weapon.
"His strength is greater, I don't have the strength to fight him on equal terms".
The user of two small axes did not let his companion suffer the pressure alone; he was at his enemy's side in an instant and his weapons swung to cut his ribs.
"Try again when you're older, if you survive today"
The attack was prevented with a precise and swift dodge from the thief; the weapon stuck in the ground was recovered and lifted in just an instant.
"His reflexes are also fast; the heavy weapon means nothing if he brandishes it with such speed".
The pair was just trying to stay alive while fighting the fierce enemy; the two-handed axe was fast and strong, the adversary was astute and cruel. Each exchange of blows generated more and more sparks of iron clashing at high speed and power; fatigue seemed to be accumulating only for the rookie knights.
The foot of that large man was used with great force on the ground; the ground broke apart to hinder the challengers' movement.
His movement did not end with just a stomp; it continued as he used part of his axe like a bat to throw the stones launched upwards like high-speed projectiles. Jon's observation of the movement was strange as he remembered his old world; it was like using the axe as a bat, the stones as balls, and these balls looked like meteors.
"This guy is very creative, too much danger for the two of them".
The pair had to use their weapons to defend themselves at high speed; the defense of both only managed to protect their vital points and nothing more.
The wounds on their bodies were of various bleedings or bruised parts.
"Let's go all out now. Synchronize with me"
The redhead was nervous about his wounds, his failure in combat now, and everyone watching his performance.
"We can't prolong this fight; these wounds have affected our combat performance"
That comment was not needed for both to know the urgency of ending the fight quickly; the pain was great, and the failure to move some parts of their bodies was also something to consider.
The position was changed so that one attacked from the South, the other from the North. The intention was to press like a pincer, an unavoidable attack from all directions.
Gregory had heavy attacks as he brandished his large blade with great force, which was dodged and not confronted with the bandit's weapon. Jaime was the opposite of his friend; his two axes were confronted with the larger and stronger axe, the pressure making his hands tremble.
"A little more and I'll kill this brat".
The look on the black-haired young man's face changed in an instant; his position was like someone attacking while making another move. The red-haired young man had also done the same thing by changing his position, the attack delivered at the one in front of him.
"What the hell are they doing?".
The outlaw couldn't understand anything at the moment they threw their weapons into each other's hands; they delivered an attack at the same time and this made his judgment fail.
The greatsword confronted that large axe with even more force after a fatal miscalculation on the part of the last of the four captains. One of the small axes was thrown at his back, making him howl in pain as his flesh was cut so painfully.
The large blade did not miss this chance to end the fight; it pierced his opponent's chest at the same moment the pain reached his heart.
The remaining axe was used in a brutal movement to cut off the bandit's head; the remaining strength of the other knight was used on the greatsword to split that body into two pieces.
"The weapon-swapping strategy was brilliant"
Fay was smiling as he saw the strategy of swapping weapons in the middle of combat and in an organic way.
"It could have all gone wrong, but they trusted each other to make it happen"
Jon was serious as he saw a strategy judged to be too dependent on luck in his opinion.
"The key point of this move was the positioning when swapping weapons; they were more than prepared to attack upon grabbing the new weapon".
Louis smiled as he saw his companions succeed in this deadly combat.
"You can't forget the precision; the weapon a little further or closer would have been impossible to use for a blow with such force and lethality"
Arya had an opinion that the weapons were thrown into positions to fit perfectly in their hands, which took the axe-wielding bandit by surprise.
"How do you feel?"
The question this time was asked by the most experienced knight in the group, the supervisor sent by the order itself.
"I was too nervous while fighting; there were more ways to resolve this fight"
Gregory was ashamed as he thought about the ways to fight; the advice of his friends seemed to have fallen on deaf ears when he reviewed his fighting style.
"And you?"
Jaime was thinking deeply about his opponent's fighting style and his own
" Fighting using my emotions was wrong. I should have used my brain too. Not combining the best of both is stupid."
The chances of victory in his mind were small; his own inexperience did not know how to deal with fighting properly against a thinking being like another strong human.
"Fighting against humans and thinking creatures is important because of this; strength is not always what prevails".
Cecile was calm as she discussed this topic where strength was not enough; one had to think about more things besides brute force or power.
"Look at the bandit chief, the person behind everything"
Egil arrived with a smile on his face, bringing a corpse of someone very thin; such a person was not capable of lifting a sword properly at all.
"I didn't bother to learn about this man, but I can praise his glibness and charisma for attracting those four powerful men"
The bronze-rank swordsman found that very normal, the smarter people being able to command the stronger ones, a symbiotic relationship.
"Failure will not be allowed anymore; I will evolve to erase the dishonor"
Gregory had a resolute look as he thought about evolving himself more as a knight, as well as a warrior.
"Weakness is a word that will not exist in my dictionary."
Louis made his promise as he watched his companion take the first step; his honor as a knight told him to do so.
"I will think more with my mind, even with my heart. As a knight should be."
The knight user of two small axes was smiling as he spoke alongside his two companions; Jaime would honor his words.
"You can count on my support for everything; I won't be the one to let you down".
The archer was smiling as she saw her companions making oaths; she was excited to participate in this event too.
"And yo...". Cecile looked at the trio of adventurers with sacks in their hands trying to loot the bandit fort; they looked more like bandits than the bandits themselves.
"Are you vultures, to be robbing from the dead?".
Jon was the first to defend himself upon noticing the disdainful looks from the knights.
"A thief who robs a thief has a thousand years of forgiveness!".
He didn't stop putting things inside while speaking such words to defend himself; his credibility was going down.
"I thought I wouldn't despise hunters, but even the best of you is a disgrace. There is no honor in you"
"Honor is for rich people; I don't have money for such a thing".
Egil was smiling as he continued with the manual labor of putting various things in his sack.
"And you?"
The hand was pointed at Fay this time, who just laughed while thinking of his answer.
"A hunter's life is too risky; an extra coin will always help us survive".
A verbal fight was starting at that moment and lasted for several hours; it only ended when they separated to go their own ways.
"These guys are vultures without honor".
"Do they think everyone is rich like them? The world doesn't work that way".