Chapter 97: Gord (4)
Chapter 97: Gord (4)
A quarterstaff-type rod was easy to craft, maintain, and wield. Thus, it was a favored implement of self-defense for those who were not warriors but needed a measure of force.
A major advantage was that, not being classified as a formal weapon, it could be carried in cities and the like.
However, being little more than a club in the end, its limitations were clear, as it could be rendered useless by even simple armor.
For that reason, there were quite a few knights who had sneered when Eugene first strode in bearing his iron staff.
-A knight with a staff, really.
-Have you no shame?
No knight rode a donkey simply because he had no horse. Even if it killed them, it was their common sense that they must take up a sword, an axe, or a mace.
They changed their minds the instant they faced Eugene head-on.
"How could such an attack come from that stance?"
The third knight, who had dodged the iron staff by a hair, stared in shock.
All weapons required a preparatory motion, a drawback that grew more pronounced the longer or larger the weapon was. But no such consideration applied to Eugene.
'Left! Ah, no, right...'
THWACK!
The tip of the staff, which had seemed to be thrusting at his left shoulder, wavered and struck his right flank, and the knight toppled over.
The weapon was so long that even a minute variation in Eugene's grip drastically altered its trajectory. To the knight, it looked as though the staff hurtling at him had vanished in an instant.
By the time Eugene had dispatched three opponents, Haind had also managed to knock his opponent's helmet clean off.
At that moment, a knight was stealthily approaching behind Haind.
'Despicable.'
Eugene clicked his tongue.
As this was a group battle, it was not uncommon for two or more to attack one, but targeting the back of an opponent already engaged in a duel was considered shameful.
The exception was when someone attacked an opponent who had just felled his foe and become disengaged from the fight, as in this case.
-Isn't that just as foul either way?
-It can't be helped. If you quibbled over every little thing, it would be too troublesome.
Eugene had heard this before the match from Varda, who had watched countless tournaments.
"Sir! I'll support—"
Perhaps thinking he had tarried too long with one opponent, Haind made to rush over in haste.
Eugene answered not with words, but with an attack. The iron staff came crashing down between Haind and the knight aiming for his back, tearing through the air.
CRACK!
"Ugh!"
The knight recoiled in shock as the staff smashed the ground, then rebounded upward amid flying chips of stone. Haind immediately grasped the situation and counterattacked.
"I appreciate you trying to support me, but always watch your back."
"Apologies! Sir!"
Eugene shifted his gaze to the two knights approaching him.
"He's not one you can face alone!"
The twin brothers split to either side and charged him from both directions.
Their individual skill was ordinary, but they were renowned for their exceptional coordination when attacking together.
"Don't let your guard down."
"He's got no shield, anyway. We'll teach him that this is nothing like a one-on-one duel."
Both of them were rushing in with large shields before them, apparently thinking that if they closed the distance, he would be vulnerable due to the nature of a long weapon.
Eugene shifted his grip from the stance where he stood at an angle, aiming the staff, to standing straight and gripping the staff by its center.
As Eugene's waist rotated, the staff flew toward the upper body of the elder brother, who was attacking from the right.
'What is this strength?'
Even though he blocked with his shield, his wrist was jarred, and he was forced to keep staggering backward.
Using the recoil of the blow, Eugene attacked the younger brother, who had sought an opening on the left. The staff, which had been recoiling back, shot out again in an instant.
"Ghk!"
The younger brother had not expected a second strike so quickly. The blow to his shin broke his stance, and the follow-up strike to his shoulder sent him down.
As the elder brother lunged desperately, Eugene returned to his original thrusting stance and shot the staff forward like a flash of light.
BANG!
'Monstrous bastard! This far surpasses the rumors, doesn't it?'
The knight, roughly shoved back once more and nearly falling out of bounds, cursed inwardly.
No one who heard the rumors about Eugene wholly believed them.
Just as masterworks depicting All-Conquering Knights were filled with embellishment, they assumed Eugene's reputation had been exaggerated as well.
They'd heard he had distinguished himself with a sword in a trial by combat, so the fact that he had come out carrying a staff had seemed suspicious from the start. But after facing him themselves, they thought they understood why.
"Damn it! Fight fair!"
The knight shouted as he stared at the tip of the staff leveled menacingly right in front of him.
That desperate difference in reach meant he could never reach Eugene even if he spat with all his might, let alone with his axe!
It was utterly infuriating. He felt as though he were being aimed at by a crossbow in a tournament.
"You tried to gang up on one man two-on-one, and now you are talking about fighting fair?"
"Grr!"
Stung in a sore spot, the knight was pummeled over his entire body before he collapsed.
"Did you see that?"
"Staff techniques can be that flashy? I thought it was no more than a shepherd swinging a club."
Novelty always delighted people. The crowd erupted in excited cheers.
The other knights also fought, marshaling the full array of martial techniques handed down through their houses.
But the iron staff had overwhelming reach and was black besides. With Eugene constantly changing his grip and swinging it freely, nothing else matched its spectacle.
"It's very different from how my father described it, isn't it?"
Aisha had watched Eugene from the very beginning, and her eyes curved into delighted crescents.
"I heard of Sir Badel's swordsmanship, Volks's strength, and Sir Lipton's shield techniques."
"Indeed. When he first came out carrying that staff, I wondered what he was thinking. But that's far beyond mere proficiency."
THUNK!
Eugene struck each of the twin knights on the head as they struggled painfully to rise, then deftly hooked the younger brother's helmet off with the tip of his staff.
The elder brother was near the edge, so Eugene slipped the staff under his abdomen and rolled him straight out of the arena.
Aisha folded her fan and burst into laughter at such resourceful use of the staff.
Despite Eugene's spectacular performance, the knights on his team were being pushed back badly.
"It would have been better to mix the teams, after all."
The Clear Current faction knights, who mainly used swords, were already at a disadvantage in size, and blunting the weapons only made matters worse. Axes and maces still carried tremendous force from their sheer weight.
"I would have preferred that as well, but the other two counts opposed it."
At her father's words, Aisha covered her face with her fan and narrowed her eyes.
House Andar, which sought harmonious integration, was the exception. Most people of Gord followed the logic of strength.
'What does it matter if they're native nobles?'
'Let's use this chance to stomp those stuck-up prigs flat.'
The two counts had deliberately stacked the teams to destroy the balance.
Count Andar, who would normally have argued fervently, had pulled back to a degree because he had a card he was personally counting on.
Eugene stood watching his surroundings with the iron staff resting on his shoulder.
"..."
"..."
Nearby knights who had just finished their own bouts quietly looked away when their eyes met Eugene's.
'What the hell is with that reach...'
'I'll be hit before I can close in. And even if I do get inside his reach, I don't think it'll help.'
They could see no way to overcome that iron staff. Looking at the five knights who had been battered and sent rolling, they realized it was not a mere stick to be dismissed as something only a monk would use.
With dozens tangled in a sprawling arena, those in other sectors would not yet have seen this. The knights intended to leave the task of facing Eugene to them.
'If only we were mounted.'
Badel lamented to himself.
Had this been a tournament overseen by a king, it would have been a mounted battle, and the current situation would be reversed.
"This is going to be difficult at this rate."
"It's already about seven to three."
Fellow knights spoke to Badel after surveying their surroundings.
Wherever they looked, there were more enemies than allies. Lipton was leading the assault.
"Hurry! We must finish off the remaining ones quickly!"
"Sir Lipton. There is no need to rush like that. We have already won this match."
Even for a group battle with divided sides, a tournament was still a tournament. The custom was to measure individual martial prowess as much as possible.
Yet Lipton, as if in a real war, did not hesitate to rally knights and ambush those engaged with other foes.
In the early chaos of the tournament, with so many tangled together, it was okay to use underhanded tricks.
But now that the numbers had thinned, it was easy to stand out. The free knights seeking to catch a noble's eye and rise in station were starting to feel self-conscious.
"There's an All-Conquering Knight from Bonyard among our opponents, I tell you!"
"For all that, isn't he just one man?"
"No matter how skilled he is, we already outnumber them two to one."
The knights stared at Lipton as though he were talking nonsense.
To think that a knight of Lipton's caliber had started all this ruckus over a single man.
No matter how formidable a fighter was, with everyone on foot and using nonlethal weapons, the contest became more about stamina and strength than technique.
At this point, there was simply no way they could lose.
'Idiots. They spout that nonsense because they've never faced him.'
Lipton was irritated in his own way, but he could no longer push the knights around as he pleased.
With knights from better families than his own mixed in, he had bulled his way this far on skill and reputation alone.
Even Lipton thought that a numerical advantage this large ought to be enough to win.
'This is no time to be taking it easy. Our allies are already dwindling this fast.'
Eugene, who had been watching the battle, came to much the same conclusion and prepared to join the fight.
"Sir. Do you intend to charge in as things stand?"
Haind asked after returning from felling his second knight.
"The Clear Current knights collapsed faster than I expected. If we leave things like this, we'll be surrounded on all sides."
"Both the way this tournament was set up and the hosts' personal feelings seem to have played a large part."
Haind nodded toward the two counts who were laughing with satisfaction in the premium seats.
"They plan to use this chance to flatten the ones who've been an eyesore. Something like that?"
"Yes. If you reverse the match with your martial prowess after the momentum has already swung against us, their resentment may focus on you. They don't strike me as magnanimous men like Count Andar."
Perhaps because he came from a merchant family, Haind—for a knight—always thought politically.
"I appreciate the counsel, but being loved by everyone is impossible."
"That is true."
Besides, the looks Count Andar and his daughter were giving him seemed to say they wanted him to step in.
Eugene decided it was better to make a strong impression on a noble he already knew to be reliable than to worry about nobles he didn't even know.
"And what if I do make a few enemies? Our domain isn't even fixed in place."
The reason nobles lived politically was that their power came from fixed land. They couldn't survive without minding the surrounding circumstances.
But Eugene could carry his domain with him wherever he went, so he could pursue his own aims without constantly watching the moods of those around him.
"Sir! Not our domain—your domain."
Haind bowed his head humbly even as he agreed.
"Damn it! He's coming!"
As Eugene leveled his iron bar and charged with terrifying momentum, a knight in his path screamed.
"I need room to move, so fall back. Go join Sir Badel."
"Understood."
When Eugene moved to fight alone, Haind obeyed without objection.
Eugene leveraged his long reach and lightning speed to concentrate on the knights' lower bodies.
"Aagh!"
"My leg!"
The knights had trained primarily in thrust defense against spears.
Given the nature of wooden spear shafts, their swinging power was miserable, and situations calling for a lateral swing almost never arose in the first place.
So before Eugene's relentless attack—the first of its kind they had ever faced—they paid a harsh price.
WHOOSH!
As the iron bar flew in with force to shatter a knee, a knight hastily dropped his shield.
At that moment, Eugene's grip shifted and the iron staff snapped upward.
It struck the knight across the cheek, sending his helm flying off, and the knight's eyes rolled back as he collapsed unconscious.
"High! Block hi—"
When the shield rose upward, the iron bar, which had been flying in high, abruptly plunged downward.
THWACK!
"You bastard!"
At the sight of their comrade clutching his leg and collapsing while trying to guard his face, the Gord knights raged. They now threw aside all pretense of honor and swarmed in from every direction.
They did not even hesitate to attack from behind, drawing a shower of boos.
"Have you no shame?"
"The name Salt Flow is wasted on you! Turbid Flow suits you perfectly!"
It was less an honorable contest between knights and more the sight of mercenaries mobbing a single knight.
Even the two counts who had engineered this situation found their faces hardening.
"Rescue Sir Eugene!"
"He's in danger!"
Seeing him instantly engulfed by knights, Badel and Haind rushed over.
No matter how great a knight he was, there was little he could do if enemies closed in on him all at once from every direction.
But Eugene chose a counter-charge instead.
"No use running! Close in on that side!"
Thinking Eugene was trying to break through at a single point, Lipton sent more knights in that direction, only for his jaw to drop at what happened next.
The charging Eugene used his iron bar as a pole to vault clean over the enemy knights closing in.
Though it was no springy wooden pole, his monstrous strength allowed him to leap over the encirclement as if taking flight.
"Wh-what the hell was that?!"
"What? Was that magic?"
Spectators seeing a pole vault for the first time in their lives were at a loss for words.
Even as he landed, Eugene swung the bar and struck the back of an enemy knight's head before the man could grasp the situation.
SPLAT.
At the sight of the knight planting his face in the dirt and sprawling spread-eagled, laughter burst from the audience seats.
Even in the midst of that, Eugene kept scanning his surroundings.
He spotted an allied knight who had been fighting well scrambling backward to open distance as his weapon shattered.
"Damn it!"
It just so happened that the only weapons lying nearby were an axe and a spear. For a man who had trained only with a sword, that left him in a bind.
"There! Take this!"
At the thunderous shout, the knight glanced Eugene's way for an instant.
Eugene slid the tip of his bar under a fallen sword like a lever and flipped it into the air.
The sword spun end over end through the air straight toward the knight, who snatched it out of the air.
"Th-thank you!"
Both the ally and the enemy pursuing him stared dumbfounded at the completely unexpected form of assistance.
After that, Eugene joined the allied formation. With rings of enemies constantly forming around him, he decided fighting alone was no longer practical.
Since fighting in formation meant he could no longer use a wide space alone, he adopted a new combat method.
He picked up a large square shield in his left hand and gripped the staff one-third of the way from the end with his right, then began jabbing repeatedly.
The varied swings of the iron bar vanished, replaced by the addition of devastating shield bashes.
BANG!
He swung the man-sized great shield with monstrous strength, and no knight could withstand the blows.
As a knight staggered and his guard collapsed, the iron bar unerringly lanced into his torso.
One bash and one thrust.
Simple, but with no way to counter, the enemy knights fell one by one.
"Sir! Your orders!"
"No, it's Sir Badel who should be giving the orders, not me."
Even though it wasn't a real battle, Eugene was flustered to see Badel trying to hand command straight over to a newcomer like him.
"W-would that be permissible?"
Badel realized in an instant what he had just said and looked embarrassed.
Truth be told, they were already past the stage where command or anything of the sort was needed.
The numbers had already reversed, and whenever Eugene charged with his shield and the staff held like a spear, the enemy ranks miraculously parted on their own.
The Clear Current knights charged into those gaps, and the enemy formation collapsed.
"W-wait!"
"I said stop pushing!"
Enemy knights driven to the edge suffered ring-out losses one after another.
The sight of a knight who had somehow managed to slip out to the side being halted by the long iron bar Eugene extended, then standing there in dismay.
At that spectacle, rarely seen, the applause and laughter from the audience seats did not cease.
When the last man standing, Lipton, was brought down by a combined attack from three knights—just as he himself had done—the match came to an end.