Heretic Knights Chapter 25: Combat Training

Chapter Twenty-Five: Combat Training
The battle begins. Rose Corti
, a knight of the Eleventh Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church, commonly known as the "Fanatic Hunter of Evil." Her figure seemed to transform into a black lightning bolt, swiftly stabbing towards her opponent. Leaning forward to the maximum extent, her hands had already drawn two silver longswords from her waist. The instant she brought her opponent into attack range, Rose's twin swords slashed out two intertwined afterimages like crescent moons. 　　However, the attack was ineffective, which was to be expected. Rose took a step forward with her left foot, her lightning- movement instantly stabilizing. The next second, she transformed into a swift tornado, her body spinning lightly around her left foot as an axis. The hem of her long black trench coat fluttered, and the twin swords in her hands became part of the hurricane, slashing out with sharp wind pressure. The continuous two-round sword dance, the gymnastic-like moves, actually originated from an ancient fighting technique known as "martial arts." 　　The woman, however, was like a leaf in the wind, merely moving with the breeze without being shredded. Her first retreat avoided Rose's initial twin-blade attack. Then, she lightly touched the ground with her toes, slightly tilting her body to the side, thus dodging the first whirling sword dance. She then took another step back, letting Rose's continuous sword dance pass before her eyes. This was Xelena Vivre 　　, the librarian of the Vivre Library and the Grand Master of the Vivre Library Knights, directly under the Central Hall of the Inquisition of Heretics of the Roman Catholic Church. While dodging Rose's attack, she also launched a counterattack. Having caught the rhythm of the sword dance, after dodging the blade's swirling attack, Xelena stepped forward , placing herself in the center of Rose's offensive range, and then raised her arm, delivering a simple hand-blade strike. The movement was so precise it was like toasting with a bullet, completed in 　　a fleeting, almost blinding instant . Just as Xelena's chop was about to strike Rose's neck, Rose shifted to defense. Using the momentum of her body rotation, she relaxed her legs, letting her body fall naturally. But her right hand rose, her fingers deftly twisting the hilt of her sword. The blade instantly replaced Rose's neck, meeting Xelena's hand. 　　Then Xelena turned her hand to the side, not directly touching the blade but gripping the blade with her fingers. This is a technique similar to "no-sword takedown," a style of sword-disarming found in Japanese kendo. However, this time Xelena wasn't actually disarming Rose, because the instant her fingers touched the blade, Rose had already released her grip on the hilt. 　　Abandoning her weapon, Rose braced herself on the floor with both hands. Her long, beautiful legs were already comparable to weapons, especially when she swung them in an arc, aiming her heels at a human's head. For Xelena, whose entire body was completely within Rose's attack range, there was no room to evade; she was like a scorpion . 　　So, instead of dodging, Xelena raised the weapon she had just grabbed, aiming it at Rose 's ankle, and smoothly slashed out with a silver blade. Just as the blade was about to strike Rose's ankle, Rose's long leg, which had been descending suddenly recoiled as if pulled by a spring. 　　Rose wasn't an ordinary scorpion; she was a two-tailed scorpion with two venomous pincers. 　　As Rose's leg retreated, Xelena sensed the chilling aura and abruptly raised her head. In that instant, Rose's toes swept past Xelena's eyes, the gust of wind even ruffling Xelena's hair. 　　When the retreating Xelena regained her footing, Rose had already straightened up, but hadn't had time to turn around. Naturally, Xelena gripped the hilt of her knife and brought it down on Rose's back. It was a strike without any fancy moves, only sheer force. 　　Rose was now the one who had dodged. However, even with her back to her opponent, Rose already sensed that Hilena would attack from behind. So Rose didn't even need to turn around; she had already raised her blade, blocking . A crisp metallic clang rang out, and at that moment, Rose swiftly turned, taking a step towards Hilena, her right elbow aimed at Hilena's chest . 　　Hilena, unfazed by the punching stance, directly met Rose's elbow strike with her left fist. 　　At that moment, the air seemed to freeze; both Rose and Hilena remained frozen in their attacking stances. With only a hair's breadth between Hilena's fist and Rose's elbow, they stopped a stop that could only be achieved with an exceptional level of control over power and technique. 　　"Is that enough of the warm-up, Hilena-senpai?" 　　Rose's breathing remained steady, and a relaxed smile played on her lips. 　　"..." Hilena raised an eyebrow, a bored expression on her face, then sighed , "What a hassle..." The once-renowned genius, righteous and earnest knight now spoke with the voice of a lazy old man. 　　That was all in the past. The once-promising star of the Inquisition, the genius girl active on the front lines of the fight against demon cultists, was gone. Although her strength hadn't diminished, and was even greater than before, the current Hilena? Vivre was no longer the Hilena? Vivre of the past. 　　Only the Inquisition, the strongest in the modern era, remained unchanged. 　　Rose stopped talking and instead turned her words into actions. The two women's stances shifted instantly. Rose abandoned her weapon and leaped back two steps, but the instant she stopped, she had already turned her arm, the hem of her black trench coat billowing high. Hanging from the waist of this martial knight were not just the initial two swords; out of a total of thirty, twenty-eight silver longswords engraved . 　　Rose's first attack was a right-handed Iaijutsu (a type of swordsmanship technique). 　　While not as overwhelmingly powerful as the maid's swordsmanship, Rose's strike was still completely driven by the obsession with "killing." Its speed, power, and precision were comparable to the finest swordsmen . Compared to her earlier, harmless warm-up attack, Rose now showed no mercy.

Of course, Rose had no reason to show mercy; more accurately, she had no room for mercy. The moment

Rose's fingers touched the hilt, Xelena had already begun her attack. Her

experience honed through countless battles, coupled with her excessively keen observation, meant that not even the slightest muscle movement of Rose's body escaped

Xelena 's notice. Then, like a television special effects shot,

the trajectory of her attack naturally followed those muscle movements.
Next, Xelena tossed aside the knife she had just acquired and clenched her fist, swinging it downwards.
With a dull thud, the Gospel Blade, which had already slain hundreds of demon cultists, shattered. But

the attack didn't stop. As her fingers released the hilt, Rose's left hand had already gripped another knife

, swiftly launching a follow-up attack. Without hesitation, she drew her blade and slashed upwards. Another
dull thud echoed, and in response, Xelena's right hand delivered a side-slash with her right hand, destroying

the weapon .
This time, the broken blade seemed to be something Rose had anticipated. She had already

turned from her diving, iaido stance to a standing position, then drew her sword with her right hand and thrust it back at Hilena behind her.

The third sound of shattering blades rang out. Hilena didn't even take a step back; her hand, which had just severed the blade, swiftly brought down,

severing the third weapon in the middle.
Rose, using the force that had cut the blade, deftly turned around.
Now, she drew her sword with her left hand, a flash of silver light swiftly appearing from her waist. Simultaneously,

her right hand, having released the broken blade, gripped the fifth sword and drew it upwards with an equally cold

flash. Not a crisscrossing, distorted cross, but an inverted, reversed "V," blooming in Rose's hand.
This time, the sounds of shattering blades perfectly overlapped. Hilena's hands spread out, precisely and unmistakably

destroying both weapons simultaneously. Because of this stance, Hilena's chest was left undefended. For Rose,

who was known as the foremost fighter in the Inquisition, this was also within her expectations,

as she had already abandoned the two swords the instant Hilena broke her own weapons.
The sixth and seventh swords were drawn from their sheaths simultaneously, but not in a normal grip. Instead,

Rose held them like forks, rotating her fingers to make the blades spin

and thrust them into the exposed opening in Hilena's chest.
As a result, Hilena, who hadn't moved an inch since the beginning, remained still. She

simply stood on her tiptoes, leaning back slightly, creating enough space for her to retract her

outstretched hands—a technique often used in judo—breaking the

two swords .
Before Rose could draw her sword again, Xelena straightened her hands, fingertips pointing in

the direction of Rose's thrusting blade, and retaliated. No real sword was needed; her hands were the sword, hence the term "hand-blade." The Xelena of the

past who needed to carry a weapon, was no more

. Although her title as the strongest in the modern era remained unchanged, this strength surpassed even that of the past.
The swift, thrusting hand-blade even pulled Xelena's previously backward body forward. Now, it

was Rose who needed to dodge. In fact, Rose

hadn't considered dodging at all during her previous attacks, and she wasn't considering dodging Xelena's attack now either.
Her hand still gripped the hilt of the sword, so just like before, Rose twisted her fingers to

grip the now-bladeless hilt, then stepped into a lunge stance to steady herself, using the metal hilt

to strike the hand-blade that swept across her arm.
If it were an enemy determined to kill Rose, they would have responded in a completely different way

. However, Xelena, who had little interest in the fight, wasn't so proactive; she simply

calmly withdrew her hand. For Rose, a martial arts expert, although she hadn't consciously calculated it,

Xelena's mindset was unconsciously incorporated into her attack strategy.
The hilt attack was just the beginning; the subsequent knee strike was the key. Rose had already raised her

long, beautiful leg, her knee slamming down on Xelena's body like a heavy hammer.

Xelena finally moved, sidestepping Rose's knee strike, but simultaneously, Rose's knee strike had transformed into

a kick; her antelope-like calf lashed out at Xelena's throat like a switchblade.
At that moment, Xelena vanished from Rose's sight.
She had bent her legs, crouching down abruptly, and as she dodged Rose's fierce kick, she slipped

between Rose's legs. Rose's kick was too high,

making it impossible for her to defend while maintaining her balance . The situation was far worse than when Xelena's defenses were wide open.
Rose made a snap decision: abandon her balance. Even in her unbalanced state, the attack

itself remained unchanged. Sensing Xelena crouching, Rose's other leg

shot upwards with lightning speed. Although Rose immediately lost her balance and fell, her

legs, like the jaws of a snake biting its prey, lashed out at Xelena's head like scissors.
Xelena could only lean back, dodging Rose's snake-like legs in a very difficult position

. Then, Xelena braced herself on the floor with her hands, inverting her body like a tree

to support herself . Her legs, no less powerful than Rose's, spun like a whirlwind, aiming to

strike the now unbalanced Rose.
Rose, her body tilted to the side, had no other choice. She braced herself with her hands,

spinning around to dodge Hillena's attack, relying on the difference in rhythm. However, for Rose, who hadn't

considered evasion, this de facto avoidance was already a disadvantage compared to the composed Hillena.
When both of them readjusted their positions and stood up, Rose's forehead felt slightly hot.
Hillena, however, remained uninterested; for her, this was merely

a continuation of warm-up exercises. Simply using "skill-level" fighting techniques was absolutely insufficient to make this

woman take things seriously. Rose? Cody confirmed this again, and wholeheartedly agreed.
Through training, anyone can achieve considerable results, much like

forging into a sharp, renowned sword. However, even among renowned swords, some exist in themselves that can supersede

the concept of a "renowned sword."
Examples include Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, the Sword in the Stone, and Muramasa.
These are not swords that can be obtained simply by forging materials; they contain far deeper power,

flesh blood, destiny, curses, and souls—these terms can be arbitrarily chosen depending on the perspective, but

the fact that they contain something that cannot be obtained through mere forging remains unchanged.
Rose Cody, as a martial arts expert, possesses something in her body and soul that

cannot . The decisive

factor that connects Rose to the concept of "martial arts" is generally called "talent."
Not a martial arts talent specific to humans.
A talent perfectly suited to the name of the Inquisition.
"Now we'll take it a step further. Senior Shireina, it could be

dangerous ." Rose unzipped her black trench coat, and the long coat slid off her body. The outer garment

's restraint on her body was easily broken.
Like a clone technique, after a few light leaps, Rose's figure split into two,

rushing towards Shireina from the left and right respectively. This could be called an "afterimage" or an "illusion."

It wasn't simply an effect produced by movement speed exceeding the limits of human vision; more importantly, it relied on a movement method incomprehensible to

humans to deceive the eye.
Rose was still just one person, but it appeared as if she was attacking from two different directions. The real attack

might come from one direction, but it was more likely to suddenly erupt from

another . If it were just an ordinary human, even the winners of fighting competitions would

be helpless against Rose's clone attack.
Shireina was no ordinary person. She leaped up, her body bouncing lightly through

the air as if on a trampoline. Neither her left nor right clone touched Xelena's body.

The twin swords held by Rose's clone crossed at a single point, and Xelena had already landed from the air, her toes landing

precisely on the point where the blades crossed.
Normally, she should have used the force of her landing to propel herself backward, or

maintained a delicate balance on that point, standing on Rose's crossed swords, or, as she had done earlier

, stomped on both swords. If Rose's skill was limited to deceiving the eye with her clone attacks,

then these three scenarios would be the most reasonable.
But in fact, Xelena did feel a sensation from her toes for a fleeting moment. There was indeed a real Rose within

the clone , but only for that instant. The uncertain

sensation vanished, and Xelena hadn't broken either sword, yet her feet had

naturally landed on the ground.
What prompted Xelena's immediate reaction wasn't combat experience, but pure instinct. The moment her feet

touched the ground , she crouched down. Behind Xelena,

in a place where no one could be seen with the naked eye, the relentless slashing blades merely grazed her hair. When the clone vanished,

Rose had become "invisible."
Always outside of sight, she was unseen.
Even unseen, Rose still created clones, right in Xelena's blind spot.

Upon closer inspection, they were like realistic, illusory avatars. This wasn't a fighting technique designed for humans,

but for non-humans. Monsters, demon cultists, or even

true would be virtually

harmless in ordinary combat, like a still image.
Rose? Koti, a self-styled fighter, uses Visual Seal, a non-human counter-fighting technique.
As a human, no matter how much Rose trained, her body remained purely human, and

the power she could wield was also purely human. Therefore, in order to surpass the limits of humanity, it is necessary to change

the way power is used, to master the fighting techniques of various schools, to discard their essential spirit and simply extract

the essence of "technique.
" This mastery of "technical essence" is Rose? Cody's "

talent .
Unseen attacks came relentlessly.
Front, left, right, above, below, behind. Direction couldn't restrain Rose's

attacks ; unlike rain or a waterfall that simply cascaded down, it was more like a raging torrent,

the flow of attacks engulfing Hilena's body.
Slashes, thrusts, palm strikes, punches, kicks, sweeps. Because she couldn't see, she only sensed

being attacked, but couldn't even determine the type of attack.

In , sight didn't disappear, but became meaningless.
An overwhelming attack erupted.
Yet it was all defended.
In the instant of being attacked, or more precisely, the instant before being attacked, one perceives the attack through senses

other , such as hearing or touch,

grasps its direction and form, and then dodges. This ideal fighting style exists for martial artists, but

typically reaching this level requires extensive training—at least in combat sports open to the general public

, such a level of skill is unheard of.
Shireina's fighting technique certainly doesn't reach this level.
She relies solely on "talent
," not "instinct." While there are indeed knights in the Inquisition

who , Shireina is fundamentally different. Undeveloped, primal

instincts are absent in this "genius." This isn't "talent," something everyone possesses;

rather, "genius" transcends it.
It's "innate" talent.
The ability to break through the visual seal allowed Xilena to calmly evade and defend against attacks Rose

couldn't see .
For non-humans, this was nothing out of the ordinary.
This is why the visual seal was only "one" of the reasons.
In this world, there are

pale creatures that live in darkness forever and whose eyes have even completely degenerated. Even among common creatures, there are typical examples like bats that can easily

catch . Therefore, it's

reasonable that "visual seal" is one of the most basic elements in combat techniques targeting non-humans.
"...Eh?"
Xilena lightly bent her legs and jumped, tilting her head at the same time. Two attacks that came from below and behind her head were

dodged. Although she couldn't see them, she could still dodge them. But the moment Xilena tilted her head, she

felt a wave of dizziness, a dizziness that drilled from her ears into her brain.
Without needing to adopt a special stance, Xilena could maintain her body's stability. In battle, she could

enter . Whether attacking, defending, or dodging, it was all

done as naturally as flowing water. This level of skill, which ordinary fighters achieve only through arduous training,

was nothing out of the ordinary for Xelena.
However, the dizziness disrupted this natural order.
When Xelena landed again after her leaps and dodges, her balance was subtly off.
Rose wouldn't let such an opportunity pass; her invisible attack finally bore fruit for the first time

. A strand of hair hanging near Xelena's ear was severed, and the line of attack extended all the way to

Xelena's cheek, leaving a two-centimeter-long bloodstain.
If Xelena hadn't noticed the attack and had adjusted her posture slightly, that scar

would have been etched onto her neck. But this wasn't a cause for celebration, because as the dizziness intensified,

Xelena also heard a buzzing sound in her ears.
She could no longer judge Rose's attack by hearing.
Moreover, her balance was disrupted; Xelena was now like someone standing on a tossed ship,

tormented by tinnitus and dizziness.
Inhuman Countermeasure Martial Arts Technique Two: Hearing Seal.
The third non-human combat technique: Balance Obstacle.
Utilizing special footwork and power generation techniques, it creates low-frequency resonant sounds while moving. This is

a technique even more refined and complex than an invisible attack. If it weren't for Rose's "

talent" in mastering the "essence of technique," no ordinary human could master this level of power, no matter how much they trained.
Unable to see or hear the opponent, unable to even maintain a stable balance.
Let alone ordinary humans, even the most skilled werewolves among the Night Clan would likely be immediately

overwhelmed . However, Rose herself knew that this level of combat technique alone

was insufficient to suppress Hilena, who possessed the Dragon's Light—this woman's

strength couldn't be judged by the standards of a mere werewolf or vampire.
Just imagine fighting on the deck of a ship shrouded in thick fog at night.
The darkness concealed the enemy's figure, the fog swallowed the sound of attacks, and the waves interfered with the body's

sense of balance . As for Rose's unpredictable and inexplicable attacks, simply treat them as

attacks from multiple enemies simultaneously. In the past, when everyone expected her to be a rising star in the Inquisition of Heretics, Xelena

Vivre had even fought against more powerful enemies under more unfavorable circumstances.
Except for that brief moment when her balance was disrupted, Xelena hadn't shown any weakness.
It was as if the situation had returned to before; Rose's sword was destroyed again. With each crisp metallic

sound , the previously invisible attacks crumbled, and the broken blades reappeared in their original form,

falling to the ground. From the eighth to the twenty-eighth, the storm of attacks resulted only in

unusable broken blades.
Rose Corti had anticipated this.
As a combat expert, she wasn't simply a fighting idiot, the kind who couldn't accurately assess an enemy's strength and only

knew how to attack recklessly. Rose was quite skilled in combat; she clearly knew what she was doing.

These seemingly futile attacks were all for the final moment.
Just as the twenty-ninth silver dagger, engraved with the Gospel, was severed by Xelena's finger...
Rose? Koti, the Self-Style School, the fourth and final technique of inhuman combat, Mind-Body Shock.
This was Rose's last trump card in her battles against those true monsters.
Shirena's body was completely immobilized; the moment she destroyed Rose's twenty-ninth sword, her

body became paralyzed. Not from exhaustion—the feeling of all strength drained from the body;

not from burden—the feeling of being trapped, dragged, and bound in quagmire; not

from numbness—the feeling of losing all sensation and awareness, unable to move any part of the body.
It was a combination of all three!
Physical fatigue, physical burden, and physical numbness erupted simultaneously, as if

something inside her was stirring, controlling Shirena's body. This power to deprive her of movement, though

merely at the level of "technique," was already comparable to "spellcasting."
Rose's relentless, futile attacks further lulled the already unsuspecting Shirena into a false sense of security.

Then, with only one of her initial thirty swords remaining and her body at its lightest,

Rose unleashed a series of low-frequency, resonant foot strikes at Shirena's closest point.
The impact of these vibrations on Shirena's body, from the outside to the inside, was

the reason she was unable to move.
Shirena realized what Rose had done, but only after she was already immobilized.
Then, right before Shirena's eyes, Rose? The figure of Corti finally appeared; the visual seal had

been broken. But Rose's actions didn't stop; she charged at Shirena again in a sword-drawing stance.

Her footsteps weren't particularly fast compared to an invisible attack, at least not beyond the range of the naked eye, but

this attack contained a pressure unlike any she had before.
With her last knife, she launched her final attack.
Concentrating all her strength in her right hand as she drew the sword, she slashed from the lower left to the upper right.
Only a bright red streak remained visible in the air;

the heat was enough to make the blade scorch. Even if Xelena could still move, she wouldn't easily touch such

a dangerous weapon, and now Xelena had no way to avoid this

attack, which Rose had poured all her strength into.
Blood splattered.
Xelena's nose bled, and tears welled in her eyes, but her body moved. She forcibly held her breath,

altering her blood pressure to make the bare minimum of movement, just enough to dodge the blade's strike. Then,

she bit down on the blade that had slanted towards her. With
just her teeth, she snapped the scorching blade in two.
The vibration transmitted from the broken blade to her teeth was enough to reach her brain, though not completely,

it still alleviated some of the psychological shock. Realizing she could move again, Shireina

threw a right hook without hesitation, striking Rose squarely in the unsuspecting air.
With a cracking sound of bones breaking, more blood gushed from Rose's mouth, and her

body, like a toy kicked away by a child, was sent flying by Shireina's punch, crashing to the ground.
The battle was over.
Rose, the Inquisition's premier fighter, was defeated.
"Ah… as expected of Shireina-senpai, ah…" A smile appeared on Rose's face despite the blood streaming from her mouth

. "Even if I used the Holy Armor weapon, the result is still the same, isn't it?" As she said this, Rose

struggled to her feet.
Shireina, however, frowned slightly, seemingly disagreeing with Rose's words.
"...It's not that I'm so great." Hilena yawned. "You're too weak, Rose.

You're just too weak compared to us." For the first time, Hilena's expression

turned serious as she said this. "You certainly have the qualifications to challenge us, but Rose, remember, you

have no chance of victory. You only have the qualification to run away. If one day you face

an opponent of equal or greater strength than me, don't think about anything else, just run!" "Run away... ugh..." Rose groaned softly,
whether from the pain or from hearing Hilena's merciless words. "If it were a Holy Armor weapon..." 　　"It's all the same. Whether you use a Holy Armor weapon or not is irrelevant. What matters is whether you cross that line." 　　"The line between man and god..." 　　The serious expression on Hilena's face vanished, replaced by a lazy, listless look, seemingly tinged with annoyance. 　　"Honestly, why do I waste my precious time on exercise?" Muttering to herself, Xelena strolled past Rose. Suddenly, as if remembering something, she stopped, tilting her head slightly. "Speaking of which, your disciple can actually cross that line." 　　With that, Xelena ignored Rose's surprised expression, humming a theme song from some anime, and left the arena, long unused. 　　Perhaps at that moment, Xelena foresaw her fate? 　　Later, when facing her greatest enemy, Rose would recall her battle with Xelena . 　　But now, Rose thought of her thin, timid disciple. 　　As for that boy who always followed her with trepidation, what was Rose's fate? Koti remained completely unaware.

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Heretic Knights Chapter 25: Combat Training

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