Chapter 228 Sigismund
As long as it is not a non-human, the lord is still not at all inferior, and he even deliberately shortened the distance between the two sides.
But in fact, the arenas in northern countries such as Sarleon, Ravenstern and Fierdsvain are clearly different from the slave arenas of the Bacchus Empire.
The highlight of the Northern Arena is the athletic competition. Most of the participants are knights or children of nobles, who are at least qualified to use swallowtail flags, just like Leon was when he first arrived in the Mist City. He had to be a knight's child.
People who made a name for themselves in tournaments would usually be recruited by the higher-ranking nobles, so tournaments in the north were often a stepping stone for the children of the nobility to advance.
If they were ordinary free men or slave warriors kept in the arena, no matter how good their skills were, they could only participate in real sword fighting competitions at most and could not take part in the competition conference.
But the arena of Bacchus was just the opposite. No nobles would participate in the arena. The fighters were either slaves or ferocious beasts like lions, tigers, and crocodiles...
Occasionally, there would be half-slaves and half-free people, who basically came to gladiatorial combat to atone their sins after committing crimes.
This was a special law of Bacchus. When a person committed a crime that was not too serious and did not reach the level of a felony that warranted hanging or slavery, he would be imprisoned or sent to do hard labor.
If you don't want to go to jail, you can apply to go to the Colosseum to entertain the audience and atone for your sins.
Winning the required competition will earn you your freedom and you will be recorded as a reservist.
This can also be considered as encouraging the martial spirit and enabling Bucks to continue to have reserve combat forces ready to be recruited.
But everything has its pros and cons. Judging from Bacchus' current situation, most of the reserve forces may have been involved in rebellion and uprising, and as a result, the scale of the rebels and uprisings is ridiculously large...
Especially this kind of uprising led by gladiators.
Since the gladiators of the Bacchus Empire came from many sources, including slaves, prisoners of war, criminals... there were all kinds of people, and the gladiator competitions had already formed a multi-level league system with layers of selection, therefore, the gladiators from Siyuan City were indeed very powerful.
Of course, there are no weak players among the players who can participate in the Champions League.
Although Castro is dead, even the runner-up in this rebel army does not seem to be easy to deal with.
"Count Leon? I've heard of you... You want us to obey you? But we have to know first, since you are the enemy of the Bacchus Empire, why do you want to rescue Boshi City? If you hadn't attacked us, we would have captured Boshi City by now!"
A tall gladiator stood up. He was a middle-aged man in black armor and looked a bit like a Vanskerry pirate. He seemed to have heard of Leon's reputation, but the gladiator did not directly mention the word "devil".
This guy doesn't seem to be a brainless reckless man.
"Capture the city of Boshi? Yes, you can indeed capture this city, but what will happen after that? Do you know how to deal with the Red Death? If you capture the city of Boshi, the only consequence is that many of you will be infected with the Red Death, and then this terrible plague will be brought to every corner of the continent..."
Li Ang looked at the wooden scaffolding on the city wall and shook his head. "I am not here to save Boshi City, nor to save you. I am here to save all the civilians in the north! To prevent the people of Pendor from being devoured by the Snake Cult! For a peaceful life!"
"A peaceful life? I hope so... We didn't want to attack the city, but the army of Boshi City attacked us, and we have no food... We also know how terrible the Red Death is. In fact, this time we just want to seize the food in the nobles' warehouses..."
I don’t know if it was the words of saving the civilians in the north that worked, but the gladiator’s attitude became much gentler and his words no longer sounded extreme.
"Once you break into the city, the chaotic Boshi City will not be able to control the nobles who are infected with the Red Death and are planning to flee..."
Alina interjected.
"When people are starving, who cares about what disease they get?"
The gladiator did not quibble, but instead spoke a truth.
"That's right. When you're starving, you won't care about anything... So, I brought a lot of food! Enough to feed all of you for two months! But you have to bring your troops and pledge allegiance to me!"
The Lord pointed at the carriages and said, "You will become civilian knights under my command. There will be no slaves in my territory!"
There were more than 600 carriages, each loaded with food.
"Commoner knight... I haven't heard anyone say this in years... But do you really intend to win the respect of warriors by using the gladiator's way, Lord Leon?"
The gladiator nodded, took off his helmet and put it on the ground, then bowed to the lord.
There was a big sword on the ground in front of him. That should be his original weapon, but he did not reach out to take it.
Putting down the helmet is a habit of the warriors of the Raven Stern Highlands during friendly sparring, which means that the time has come.
"Of course, this is the easiest way, isn't it? I will respect your way of following the strong... But you don't look like a slave. Are you a Ravenstern or a Firdsaway? A gladiator? What's your name?"
The lord saw the two-handed sword, then looked at the gladiator - this guy looked like a descendant of Vanskerry pirates, but behaved like a Ravenstern Highlander.
"I am not a slave, nor a gladiator, but I agree with the way gladiators follow the strong... My name is Sigismund Sinclair, a wanderer without a home. Come on, Lord Leon, defeat me, and I will make them your loyal warriors!"
The middle-aged man who called himself Sigismund bowed his head to Leon and pointed to the greatsword on the ground with his hand: "Since it is you who initiated the challenge, I will choose to use weapons... You don't mind letting me use a two-handed sword, right?"
When one party challenges the other, the other party has the right to choose whether to fight with bare hands or weapons. This is a common practice in gladiator competitions.
"Sigismund? The name means 'to guard with victory', right? ... It's quite appropriate. I'd like to know why you are in Bacchus instead of Ravenstern... But let's talk about it after the battle!"
Leon laughed, dismounted, and handed the Sword of the Orator back to his recovered right hand.
Sigismund picked up the greatsword on the ground, tapped his breastplate with the sword's spine, then tilted the sword at his shoulder and nodded to the lord.
It is indeed the style of the warriors in the Stern Crow Highlands.
It was a fair fight, with both sides using only swords.
However, Sigismund used a two-handed greatsword, which actually gave him a slight advantage.
At this moment, Sigismund was taking advantage of the length of his sword to launch an attack.
This is a very strong warrior, and if compared with others who also use greatswords, he is roughly on the same level as Frederick of Mettenheim.
But unlike the bold and aggressive people of Mettenheim, Sigismund's swordsmanship does not look fancy at all, and most of his moves do not seem very reasonable. It is obvious that he has not received formal instruction and is probably self-taught.
Not only was his posture unreasonable, but he seemed to be completely non-defensive and was always attacking.
But Sigismund's strange swordsmanship was difficult to deal with, much more difficult than the people of Mettenheim.
Because his sword is fast, very fast.
When the sword is drawn quickly enough, there is really no need for defense...
Le Ang had never seen a fighting style that could use a two-handed greatsword faster than a one-handed rapier.
At this moment, Sigismund was leaning sideways, constantly striking with the sword at a distance of about two meters. The amplitude of each sword movement was small, which made it impossible for Leon to get close to him at all.
Li Ang's sword was much shorter, so he couldn't close the distance and could only defend passively.
Since he was holding the Sword of the Orator, which was not as easy to use as the Griffin Sword, Leon had no intention of forcibly chopping the opponent's sword to close the distance.
In fact, it is not easy to cut now. Sigismund did not swing the sword. He mostly used the greatsword to make very special stabbing attacks.
He did not hold the hilt of the sword with both hands. Instead, he held the hilt with his right hand and used his left hand as a support, allowing the blade to be pushed out from the back of his left hand.
He had a black metal arm armor on his left arm, the surface of which had been rubbed to a shine, and it seemed that he often used this special move.
This kind of action is difficult to block because the greatsword is being used as a spear, and it is more concealed than a spear. The hilt is completely covered by the back hand, making it difficult to distinguish between the real and the fake.
This action seems to sacrifice some flexibility and shorten the attack distance, but the greatsword he used may be about 1.7 meters long. Even if the distance is shortened, it is still larger than Leon's attack range.
Due to the shielding and support of the left arm armor, this action makes it difficult for the opponent to distinguish the direction of the sword - his left hand can turn the sword halfway through at any time.
If he blocked rashly and intended to deflect the sword, Sigismund would most likely grab the hilt of the sword with his left hand after stabbing it, and then use the force of the blocking to swing in the opposite direction.
The initiative was in the opponent's hands, which forced Li Ang to dodge carefully, and even actively keep a distance, constantly circling around looking for opportunities.
But every time the lord took a step to the side, Sigismund would immediately follow half a step and continue to hold his position. It was obvious that his control of pace and sense of position was better than all the opponents Leon had encountered.
Seeing that Sigismund had not revealed any flaws, Leon frowned, and then suddenly laughed.
He suddenly wondered if he had stayed with the Noldor elves for too long, as if his brain had been infected and become a little rigid. Why did he have to compete with them in sword skills?
I'm not a martial arts fanatic, nor do I plan to become the best swordsman in the world, I just want to win...
To achieve victory, there is no need to rely on swordsmanship, right?
So the lord took two steps back and closed his eyes.
Then he turned sideways and inserted the sword into the scabbard, took off the scabbard and put it at his waist, put his hand on the hilt, and acted like a blind swordsman who was locating the position by sound - and that action was the starting gesture of the sword-drawing technique.
It is estimated that no one in the continent of Pendor has ever seen the sword-drawing technique, but this kind of behavior of closing the eyes and pretending to be a master is indeed quite intimidating. Sigismund was stunned, and Wendy next to him also opened her eyes wide with an expression of disbelief.
Only Amy remained calm, she just raised her eyebrows and a smile appeared on her face.
Now Sigismund obviously had no idea of the lord's condition, so he stabbed out with his sword tentatively.
This sword was a pure feint, and it was retracted just halfway through, probably to test Li Ang's reaction.
In the end, the Lord did not move at all - Leon was very sure that Sigismund would not dare to attack with all his strength at this time. The more experienced the master was, the less likely he would attack easily when the situation was unclear...
So Sigismund became a little panicked.
He felt that Li Ang had his eyes closed, but was able to distinguish his fake moves and did not even dodge. It seemed that he was indeed a master he had never seen in his life, so he cautiously did not draw his sword again.
The two men faced each other for three seconds, and neither of them moved.
Leon tilted his head slightly with his ears tilted, and Sigismund took a small step back, but found that the lord did not move...
Sigismund was sweating profusely.
At this moment, the lord suddenly opened his eyes and turned his head. Sigismund was startled and subconsciously raised the sword in front of him.
The time is now!
This was Sigismund's instinctive reaction, but this defensive reaction should not have occurred at this time.
Li Ang suddenly rushed towards his opponent, drew his sword and started to kill him.
This action does look like the sword-drawing technique during a charge, but Li Ang doesn't know how to do it at all...
So what the lord did was something else - he swung the scabbard towards Sigismund in the gesture of drawing a sword, and at the same time pounced forward.
As soon as Sigismund raised his sword in front of him, he caught a glimpse of a black thing flying towards his forehead and quickly blocked it with the arm armor on his left hand.
The arm armor successfully blocked the scabbard, making a crisp sound.
But at the same time, this also blocked his own eyes.
Afterwards, he was grabbed by Leon's waist and thrown to the ground, and the left arm armor that was blocking in front of him was also caught by the lord.
When two people were fighting on the ground, the sword was of no use at all...
Moreover, Sigismund obviously didn't know any ground strangulation techniques. After his left hand was twisted, he wanted to knock Leon away, but Leon rolled over and passed him by - now his twisted left hand was in a reverse triangle strangle position...
"Are you giving up?"
"Give up..."
Sigismund did not hesitate. If he did not admit defeat, his hand would be crippled. The joint technique could not be defended by the arm armor.
Amy curled her lips and complained in a voice that only she could hear: "Sure enough, deception is much more useful than swordsmanship..."
"Then go and gather your troops, Sigismund. I will wait here for you to bring the troops over. I hope you will not let me down."
The lord loosened his hand, pulled Sigismund up from the ground, and then shouted to the other gladiators watching the fight: "Anyone else is dissatisfied?"
No one was dissatisfied, and the gladiators all stroked their chests and bowed their heads to the lord.
Although this victory does not seem to be based on pure force, the arena is not based on pure force either. The gladiators only care about victory.
In the arena, only the winner has the right to survive.
"Since no one is dissatisfied, go and gather your troops again! Tell them that if they follow me, they will not only have food to eat, but will also never be slaves!"
Leon waved his hand, and the Noldor guards put away their weapons and dispersed, leaving the gladiators unattended.
