Chapter 298: Song of Life (k2)

Chapter 296 – Song of Life (7k2)

Three short-handled sword blades flew towards Arthur.

Taking advantage of Arthur’s efforts to dodge and avoid, Bertrand turned defense into offense, his footsteps lifted up to approach instantly, his arm was like an extended tree branch sent forward violently, and the blade of the foil sword that was almost integrated with his arm was already close to Arthur’s throat.

However, just like all Fiore stream swordsmen would do, in the moment of life and death, Arthur almost subconsciously clutched Bertrand’s long and thin foil with his hand, and his white gloves were instantly opened by the blade of the sword, revealing a series of iron chains and buttons lurking underneath the gloves.

Those were the cut-resistant chain armor gloves that he had specially ordered for today’s duel, together with Fioreliu’s unique trembling wrestling technique, this was the best way to deal with the French foil that excelled in stabbing attacks.

Arthur clutched the sword to restrict Bertrand’s movement, and in the blink of an eye, he raised the side of his triangular step, and the blade of the sword, which had changed from a long-tailed posture to a bullish posture, slashed horizontally with the sound of whistling wind with the momentum of a thunderous blow, as if this sword was going to make Bertrand die in a different place.

Bertrand’s reaction was not slow, he drew his left arm from the cloak to protect his side, only to hear a thud, even the mist around the two of them followed the tremor for a moment.

Bertrand let out a wide grin, “Is that all there is to it?”

The audience below the stage exclaimed, “Is Bertrand’s arm made of iron? How did he manage to carry off this blow?”

“No, look at his arm, what is that thing?”

In the audience’s line of sight, what was equipped on Bertrand’s left hand was clearly a shield that was integrated with a plate armor glove, and there was also a long thorn that could be used as a dagger attached to the glove’s end finger.

Even Duke Wellington and Talleyrand, who were always knowledgeable, couldn’t help but raise questions when they looked at Bertrand’s new weapon.

“That shield, it’s so weird looking!”

“I seem to have seen something similar to this shield somewhere, if I remember correctly, it should be the Duke of Somerset’s collection, but that thing originated from the 17th century, so by this projection, this shield in Bertrand’s hand is estimated to have a history.”

William IV rushed to his side and consulted the sword fighting expert Angelo Brothers, “What is this thing?”

Big Angelo smiled and replied back, “Your Majesty, we’ve had a feast for our eyes today. I thought this was just an ordinary duel, but now it seems that more than a duel, Mr. Bertrand and Mr. Hastings are showing off their life’s work. First the Fiore-ryu swordsman pulled out a Richtnall-ryu sword art to take on the enemy, and now the Master of Foils has pulled out a Lantern Shield in response.”

“Lantern Shield?” William IV wondered, “Why is it called a lantern shield? It doesn’t look like a lantern to me!”

Angelo Jr. shook his head slightly with a sullen face and said, “Your Majesty, as you will see as you read on, this is a rather insidious weapon. If Mr. Hastings doesn’t handle it well, victory or defeat will be decided in the next round.”

As soon as Little Angelo’s words fell, he saw Bertrand violently sidestep his left arm and turn his shield towards Arthur, and immediately, a small hole was violently revealed above the shield, and dazzling light radiated out from the small hole, shining directly on Arthur’s face.

The dim environment of the dueling stage suddenly lit up, the sudden increase in brightness illuminated Arthur in a trance, in his line of sight, there was only a bright light, he could not see the stage and the audience, not to mention that he could not find Bertrand’s traces.

However, the duel is only won or lost in a split second, Arthur’s moment of trance is the perfect opportunity for Bertrand to attack, the Parisian Sword Saint without the slightest hesitation to spread the hilt of the foil sword that was held by Arthur, his right hand inserted into his pocket and took out the dagger that had been prepared a long time ago, and in the space of a breath, he was close to the side of Arthur, and he intended to plunge the dagger, which was as sharp as a nail, directly into Arthur’s skull along with his chin.

Bertrand raised one eyebrow and laughed contemptuously, “It’s almost time to finish.”

When the audience on stage saw this, the men cursed angrily, “Insidious! Vile!”

The ladies, on the other hand, each took a handkerchief and covered their eyes for fear of seeing some horrific scene of blood shooting.

However, the scene they expected didn’t happen, perhaps because they heard the audience’s warning, as Bertrand’s mouth rose up and intended to finish the match, he suddenly felt like something kicked him in the lower abdomen.

There was a clang!
The crowd saw Bertrand’s entire body seem to have shot upwards a short distance, his expression, which was still smiling, was suddenly distorted, his face began to turn blue and purple, his mouth half-open but unable to gasp for air, and beads of sweat dripped down his cheeks one by one.

“I …… you ……”

Even in the cacophony of the theater, the sound of Bertrand’s hissing little intake of breath was still very clear.

His hand holding the dagger was as soft as a puddle of mud, his fingertips trembled, and the dagger fell to the ground with a clang.

The seven-foot tall Parisian Sword Saint covered his abdomen and curled up on the ground in pain, as he sucked in his breath while still whispering in a broken voice: “You …… me …… Didn’t we agree… . don’t need to use that much strength?”

And Arthur, who made the crucial interception, wasn’t much better, as he covered the top of his foot and half crouched on the ground, responding slightly apologetically, “I’m sorry, Mr. Bertrand, my reaction may indeed be a bit overreacting. But on the bright side, at the very least the viewers were quite happy to see it.”

The audience erupted into a thunderous roar of cheers and applause, the ladies blushing in shame and the men whistling with bad jokes and urging Bertrand to get up.

William IV and a host of other important guests all turned their heads to look at the Angelo brothers at their side.

However, what people did not expect was that the two master swordsmen, who had fought many battles, were not surprised by this scene.

The younger Angelo smiled and explained, “As you can see, Your Majesty, this is the importance of wearing a gauntlet in a duel.”

Lionel duly probed the two connoisseurs for their opinion saying, “What do your Excellencies think of the quality of this duel?”

Big Angelo clenched his chin and nodded slightly, “I have to say that they fought quite classically, and the duel went on more intensely than I expected. Although I couldn’t see all of their footwork because of the smoke on the stage, just for now, they are recovering some of the daily life of the medieval and renaissance sword saints. The only downside may be that they are fighting a little too intricately.”

On the other side of the box, Dumas laughed and swung violently at the air, “Fuck, I told you Arthur could handle it!”

Disraeli, on the other hand, subconsciously seized his pants, all he could feel was phantom pain in his lower limbs, “That kick was too hard too, I felt like Bertrand’s whole body was going to fly into the sky.”

Dickens, on the other hand, looked at Tennyson beside him with an odd expression: “Alfred, didn’t you just say that you wanted to compose a poem? Where are the words?”

Tennyson, who had just gotten a little bit of a feel for it, was also rendered somewhat speechless by this scene, and as he looked at Bertrand, who seemed to be about to pass out at any moment on the stage, he just shook his head.

On the other hand, Heine on the side rolled her eyes when she saw this, “What’s so hard about it? Watch me.”

He cleared his throat and opened his mouth uninvited to chant, “Ah! O dearest one! Can you tell me? Why are the roses so pale? Why do the brittle violets, wilt among the flowers? Why do the finches in the clouds sing so sadly? Why do the loveliest buds smell of death? Why am I, more and more emaciated? Ah! O my most beloved! Why hast thou departed from me?”

The crowd was so shaken by what they heard that they could not help respecting Heine.

Tennyson, who is also a poet, even froze for half a day before commenting, “This …… this is simply a transformation of corruption into magic.”

Alexandre Dumas even took hold of Heine’s hands: “Heinrich, this poem is you now write, or a long time ago ready?”

Heine shrugged and said, “Written before, it was originally a love poem. But I think it’s quite apt to use in this place, at least it can be used to explain why the heroine left me. Of course, that’s not what I originally wanted to express. I was referring to the fact that I have no problems in that regard, and that Mr. Bertrand is just a special case.”

And while the crowd was commenting, Arthur and Bertrand on the dueling stage slowed down.

The two protagonists got up from the ground, Bertrand glanced at the fancy sword lying on the ground, he was about to pick it up when he saw Arthur holding the hilt of his longsword, and threw it violently in a javelin-throwing position directly at him.

As a Sword Saint level master, Bertrand naturally had long guarded against this hand, all sword fighting masters knew that the Fiore Flow also hid such a hand of killing range of more than ten meters of ‘Heavenly Flying Fairy’.

Bertrand a roll to avoid this enough to run through three adults of England short sword, only to hear the sound of a boom, the short sword is like a bolt of lightning into the mahogany closet behind Bertrand under the stage.

It was then that the audience realized the unassuming cabinet that was placed under the stage.

Before they could guess what the cabinet was doing here, Bertrand had already jumped ahead of them and rolled off the dueling stage, violently pulling open the closet.

Immediately afterward, he was seen to have a flailed meteor hammer in his hand.

Just as he was about to step up to the stage to continue the fight, he realized that Arthur on the west side of the stage had also rummaged through his weapons locker and had two dual-wielded miner’s picks poised aggressively for the stage.

“Huh?!”

Seeing this, the sweating Bertrand hurriedly threw the meteor hammer aside and took out the Talhoffer two-handed giant sword from his weapons locker again.

And when Arthur saw that he had changed his weapon, he also threw the miner’s pickaxe in his hand and flipped out his proudest 70-inch demon trident again.

A sweaty Bertrand hurriedly tossed aside the Talhoffer and chose his axe gun as his final weapon before the crowd booed to express their displeasure at the armaments of the two contestants.

But as he grabbed the axe gun and rushed back to the stage, Bertrand realized that a mist had risen above the stage at some point, and a large amount of liquid carbon dioxide was frantically absorbing the heat in the air, and the entire stage of the Astley Theatre had dropped a few degrees in response.

The gentlemen tightened their shirts, and the ladies re-covered themselves with the shawls they had removed because of the heat.

As for Bertrand on the dueling stage, the sweat that adorned his gloves and clothes had all but solidified into a thin layer of white frost.

Under the light of the torch, his entire body was glittering, looking as if he was wearing a suit of armor embellished with diamond shards.

And Arthur, who had just made his entrance holding a 70-inch trident, was nowhere to be seen, and just as Bertrand turned to retrieve his weapon, he had already hidden his figure into this fog.

Bertrand looked around the stage, not daring to make the slightest move. The axe gun’s huge size helped him gain an advantage in attack distance, but it also limited his movement in the same way. At a time when he could not judge his opponent’s position, taking the initiative to attack was tantamount to exposing his vulnerable parts to his opponent.

Just as Bertrand was caught up in a mental game of ego, at the edge of the stage, a burst of lightning suddenly erupted.

Lightning roared down from the nine iron pillars surrounding the dueling stage, like nine curved and curled vipers striking swiftly.

Blue-violet lightning whizzed by, lighting up the dimly lit dueling stage once again, and Bertrand jerked his head back, reflecting a sword-wielding black shadow in the thick fog, that guy had already closed the extreme distance.

“Mr. Bertrand, what are you looking for?”

Arthur stomped on his toes, the Guy Fawkes mask broke through the fog, and what followed was not the demonic trident that Bertrand expected, it was a Britannian saber with a chilling edge, or more accurately, a Scotland Yard police officer’s commanding saber with an intricately patterned handguard and a Wigginson-style blade. It wasn’t a special weapon, on the contrary, it was Arthur’s most frequently used conventional weapon.

Bertrand had no time to change his stance, so he released his left hand from the axe-gun and clamped it in his right, raising the lantern shield on his left arm to try and carry the blow again, almost at the same time as he did the same trick of opening up the holes in his shield and releasing the light to disrupt the next part of Arthur’s attack.

But this time it was clear that he would not be able to do it again, Arthur’s change of step was equally fast.

Just a simple jump backward step will be staggered from the direction of the light, Arthur stepped on the long handle of the axe gun, just like a year ago when stepping on the springboard between the two ships to kill the Barbary pirates, the two feet swiftly sped along the handle of the rapid progress.

The already heavy weight of the axe-lance combined with the weight of a grown man made it impossible for Bertrand to lift it, and the Parisian swordsman decisively discarded the weapon once more, simply meeting the enemy with the lantern shield in his second hand.

Sword lights interweaved, connecting with the fist spikes on the lantern shield and plate armor gloves. In the span of a breath, they clashed several times with the police officer’s sword, producing a series of ‘bang bang bang’ collision sounds. The audience could even vaguely see sparks flying off the sword blades, falling into the mist that was deep enough to submerge the lower halves of the two men.

A horizontal slash and downward chop from Arthur opened several slits in Bertrand’s right chest leather armor, Bertrand’s fist thrust penetrated, and Arthur’s Guy Fawkes mask instantly ruffled a few cracks.

When the Angelo brothers inside the box saw this, a look of surprise couldn’t help but appear on their faces, and the words that had just reached their mouths that they wanted to spit out were also swallowed back into their stomachs.

The Duke of Wellington lifted his wine glass and nodded slightly, ”I do understand these moves, this is the standard sword technique in the army. Typical Scotland Yard Highland broadsword technique, when the soldiers of the 42nd Regiment played a major role in the Battle of Four Arms Village with this hand of Highland broadsword technique, this group of Scottish fury took on the enemy in close quarters with fearless courage, repelled Ney’s onslaught, and thus consolidated and guarded the flank of Marshal Brueghel of Prussia. Had it not been for them, and for the Prince of Orange, who was responsible for commanding the army outnumbered at the battle of the village of Four Arms, we would never have waited at Waterloo for reinforcements from the Prussians. In this, Mr. Angelo, I have to thank you, you are also one of the heroes of Waterloo.”

Big Angelo was flattered by what he said, and he clinked his wine glass with Wellington and said, “Your Excellency, you are really overstating your case. It is equally an honor to be in charge of directing the training of the Blackguard Regiment, and I’m glad that what I’m doing is really helping Britannia as well as you.”

Hearing this, William IV smiled and asked, “And in your opinion, how many percent of the essence of the Scottish Highland broadsword technique has this Scotland Yard lad acquired?”

Big Angelo looked at Arthur who appeared to be in a bitter battle under the stage, and was not in a good position to state it directly, after all, this lad was fighting using his Highland broadsword technique, saying that he couldn’t was not tantamount to slapping his own face?
The big Angelo who is not good at expressing himself in words pondered for half a day, and finally chose to throw this difficult problem to his brother: ”Just with the highland broadsword technique can never summarize Mr. Hastings’s sword strokes, as you see, he is not only a master of the Fiore stream, but also understands the German Richtnauer stream, and I also saw a few points of the Royal Navy sailor’s sword in the pace of his just now! Rhythm. As you know, my brother is responsible for the standard maneuvers and training textbook for the Royal Navy’s Sailor’s Sword, Exercises in Infantry Swordsmanship, and he is obviously more knowledgeable than I am in this regard.”

In the face of his brother’s behavior of dragging down the Royal Navy Sailor’s Sword that he had created, young Angelo could only curse a nasty word in his heart, but kept a smile on his face.

“Your Majesty, when it comes to duels, I find battle records more persuasive than anything else. Mr. Hastings is a master capable of solving problems directly on the high seas one on one thirteen, and he was able to fight Bertrand, who had won forty-nine consecutive victories in London, to a standstill……. Oh, Your Majesty, in fact, in my personal opinion, it’s a bit disrespectful to take a certain fixed set of rules to describe one such master of swordsmanship and fighting. Masters like Fiore, George Silver, and Richtnall all took the best of a hundred schools of thought and eventually developed a fighting style that best suited them.

And when I was writing the Royal Navy’s swordsmanship textbook, I also took into full consideration the bumpy combat environment of the sailors, which is why I finalized it into the most basic and practical three basic stances. In Mr. Hastings’ swordplay, there are swift sword stances, English short sword sets, German long sword techniques, as well as Highland broadswords and sailor’s swords, in short, this is the most suitable fighting style for himself and for the dueling table, and I couldn’t have found a more suitable one.”

Lionel heard this highly emotional speech from little Angelo, and even for him, who had always prided himself on his expression management, he almost didn’t strain himself to laugh outright.

If he hadn’t paid close attention, he really wouldn’t have heard that little Angelo was euphemistically expressing that Arthur and Bertrand were playing show swordsmanship.

As expected, even a master swordsman like the Angelo brothers can’t be exempted, as long as it’s the one who pulls out the sailor’s sword and the highland broadsword technique, they won’t be willing to point out the true nature of this duel even if they can’t see through their eyes anymore.

When the watching William IV heard this, he couldn’t help but stroke his beard and nodded, “I know that this young man is very strong, but to be able to get the approval of the two of you is still a bit out of my expectation.”

At this very moment, Arthur and Bertrand forcefully fight a sword, fist thrust and police officer knife stalemate with each other, even the iron cage hanging suspended over the dueling stage also began to haunt the flash of electricity arc, it seems that the two sword masters’ will are accumulated in this countless electricity and fire arc.

The iron cage was like another moon in the sky, but compared to the charming moonlight, it was a bit more violent and shiny.

In the sight of everyone, the corners of Bertrand’s mouth twitched, and the frost that had condensed on his body melted a little bit due to the heat that emanated from his body after the intense exercise, and he looked like a monster thawing out from an iceberg.

On Arthur’s side, the ice beads dangling from Guy Fawkes’ mask were also melting a little bit, and a line of droplets dripped down from the corner of the mask’s eyes, except that no one knew for whom these tears were being shed.

Suddenly, a fireball suddenly exploded from the electricity flashing around the iron cage above.

This explosion is like a starting gun, Bertrand moved, he swung his lantern shield to block the officer’s knife, his free right hand wanted to lock Arthur’s joints with the intention of dragging him into the ground, but did not expect to accidentally directly into the air, Arthur’s knee upward slammed directly on his mask.

With just this blow, Bertrand felt like his head was going to be crushed, a large amount of blood gushed out from his mask, and the overflowing stream of blood directly covered his entire face!

“Hastings!!!”

Accompanied by a roar of anger after being injured, and not knowing whether it was out of shame or anger, Bertrand raised his arm and struck Arthur’s shoulder joint with his elbow joint so hard that only a hissing sound could be heard, and Arthur’s dueling suit was directly opened up by a large slit by him.

The two were instantly separated, Bertrand’s blood-stained right hand plunged into his inner pocket and pulled out a flintlock pistol aimed at Arthur who was about to get up, “I didn’t want to go this far! But …… but why did you make me? Hastings, get ready to eat a fucking gun!”

“Whoa! My God!”

“Unbelievable! The Parisian Sword Saint would actually choose to end the battle with such a despicable means!”

“Pulling out a gun! This is simply tarnishing the honor of being a master swordsman!”

The audience erupted in a burst of disgruntled shouts of curses, Bertrand saw this situation, and for a moment his heart was also a little frightened, but he instantly saw the suitcase that had been placed in the corner of the theater, the Parisian Sword Saint’s eyes closed and his heart crossed, and he screamed and cursed at the audience, “Britannian martial arts, nothing more than that!”

Immediately following, Bertrand violently pulled the trigger of the pistol that only had gunpowder but no ammunition, only to hear a bang, black smoke erupted from the barrel of the flintlock pistol.

Arthur’s shoulder slammed back in time with the sound of the gunshot, his right hand covering his left shoulder and snapping open the red dye packet hidden in it in the process, and the Guy Fawkes mask slipped to the ground from the violent movement.

Sticky scarlet liquid flowed out from between his fingers in a thin stream, his entire shoulder was dyed red with large chunks of the chemical agent, and realistic beads of blood flowed down his cuffs to fill the brick cracks on the ground, looking like a babbling brook on a spring day.

Arthur’s body swayed with it, and he wasn’t sure if it was because he was tired of the fight or if he was just putting on an impromptu show.

“Whoa! My God! Look what the Frenchman has done!”

“Why does Scotland Yard have gun control? If it wasn’t, I’d shoot this Frenchie right now!”

Amidst a chorus of wailing and shouting, Arthur swayed and reared up, the dark hair on his forehead stained with beads of crystalline perspiration, and he smiled as he raised his hand, which was a tightly gripped Colt revolver.

Bertrand’s mouth half opened, “You ……”

Arthur’s fingertips gently topped, the revolver muzzle suddenly turned to point to the sky, only to hear bang bang bang bang five consecutive gunshots, hanging in the air of the small colorful flags one after another fell to the ground.

In the midst of a fluttering colorful flags, Arthur dragged his heavy steps, walked to Bertrand’s front and kicked the Parisian Sword Saint, who was already at the end of his strength, over to the ground, the black hole of the gun was aimed at Bertrand’s head, and his low and hoarse voice once again resounded, “Mr. Bertrand, do you, know what kind of pistol this is?”

“I don’t know, how …… what?”

Arthur raised the pistol and aimed it at Bertrand, “It’s a Colt revolver.”

“Ah …… then what ……”

The only sound heard in the silent theater was a gunshot, accompanied by a few lightning bolts, like the sound of final judgment, and the Parisian swordsman fell to the ground in response, “I apologize for introducing you to a new product in this manner.”

On the stage of the theater, a thick fog spread out once again, torches tumbling and lightning thundering, Arthur’s face mirrored the moonlight as he looked up to the sky, his body drenched in blood.

Such a performance looked at the audience under the stage each heartbreaking, although the final result is Arthur won, but such a victory does not make them happy.

“Mr. Hastings ……”

“Where is the doctor? Come and bandage him up quickly!”

“Whoa! God, have mercy on him, he’s too young to lose his arm.”

The doctors, who had been waiting for a long time, saw this, and hastened on to the stage, and part of them surrounded Bertrand, and carried him off the stage, while the other went up to Arthur and pleaded, “Mr. Hastings, you might as well go to the hospital and be treated first. The piano music thing, today ……”

Unexpectedly, Arthur just gently waved his hand, he revealed a charming smile, the white fog dispersed, and a piano had appeared behind him at some point.

“Do you ……”

Arthur just shook his head, he dragged his slow pace and sat on the bench in front of the piano, with a long deep breath, his bloodied white gloves finally touched the keys.

do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si ……

The audition is complete.

Arthur smiled and gently nodded his head, and the theater staff, seeing this, heartily extinguished all the lighting in the venue.

The Astley Theater was plunged into darkness, and for those Hastings fans, they certainly knew what that meant.

This was the playing habit of Mr. Hastings, the piano master, and from his first appearance on stage, he was used to performing in the dark.

According to his own words, this was done so that the audience could feel the music without distraction, and not be distracted by the pandemonium of the outside world.

Today, this darkness has taken on even more significance.

Most of the audience was still in shock from the experience, while a few uninitiated men wanted to ask about the reason for the darkness, but before they could do so, they were given a stern lecture by their female companions.

For a moment, as if by appointment, everyone in the Astley Theater held their breath at the same time, ready to listen to what was perhaps Hastings’ final performance of a piano piece.

The length of the performance, the little life he had left ……

That’s all for now, I’ll take a nap and continue after dinner tonight

(End of chapter)