Krafft's Notes on Anomalies

Skipping verbal communication, information is conveyed in a simple glance.

【Being followed】

It's not the group of mourners. They should turn around and leave after placing the body. There is no need to stay here; even if they are new, there is no reason to go deep into the passage filled with bones.

Unless they were other boring tourists, it would be too much of a coincidence to meet them on the same day.

The follower never seemed to think that he would be discovered, and still kept a deliberately light pace, following from a distance. The winding passages and surrounding stone chambers concealed the lighting, and the sound was sucked into the bone wall.

For people who have extensive experience in operating in dark environments, hearing is sometimes even more important than vision. This kind of tracking with inconsistent pace is as obvious as the torches on the street at midnight.

This was not a bad thing. Kraft took the lantern from Coop, pretended not to notice the follower at all, walked out normally, stopped in a fairly spacious stone room, and hung the lantern on a protruding fibula.

The confusing light prompted someone to stop here. Kraft unsheathed his sword and stood on the other side with Coop against the wall, waiting silently.

The opponent's reaction was not slow, and he was quite eager. After noticing that the tracking object's voice disappeared, he quickly slowed down his steps, but his pace became faster, and he quickly closed the distance to avoid losing track.

Kraft speculated on his psychological changes: he suspected that the target had discovered that he was being followed, or that he had walked into some narrow and narrow path, disappearing like an insect into an unreachable slit, becoming a memory stain that made people toss and turn. He had no choice but to take steps and chase towards the final location where the sound disappeared.

The repressed and rapid steps avoided the gravel and bone fragments, and suddenly slowed down and became lighter when passing the nearest corner; the tracker was pleasantly surprised to find that the worry was unfounded, and artificial light was shining from a stone room.

With the slightest sound of metal blades closing, the weak light from another lamp in the corridor disappeared.

Kraft turned his wrist to adjust the blade, preparing to take action when the opponent looked at the light and entered.

Regardless of whether this was the place Professor Kalman was hinting at, at least he wouldn’t come back empty-handed this time.

As the distance increases, the footsteps inevitably become clearer, and what can be distinguished is at least one light and one heavy.

It's a bit complicated. It's hard to decide whether to take action decisively when the first one enters, or let two people enter together. That will create considerable instability factors for the originally sure sneak attack and give the opponent time to react.

But it's not impossible.

Kraft shrank and leaned closer to the wall. Countless wrists and elbows pressed against his back, giving people the illusion that the walls full of dead people would tilt their broken bodies and fall down.

The stalker paused at the door for a moment, but his confidence prevented him from hesitating. A figure jumped into the stone room with a sword, adjusted his momentum during the movement, and pointed directly at the light.

The second person followed closely behind, with a streamlined armor bulging under his robes. He followed with steady steps and took up the position at the door, looking behind the former.

This person is not an amateur, and is more difficult to deal with than some guys who think they are not afraid of swords because they have some special abilities. Kraft secretly thought of trouble, gave up the idea of ​​keeping his hand as much as possible, and straightened his sword to stab the armor's neck.

Sure enough, when he saw the old oil lamp hanging on the bone, the visitor immediately realized what kind of simple but effective scam he had encountered. He turned away angrily, but did not defend himself with a horizontal sword, but decisively The ground slashed downwards in a desperate gesture.

The window of opportunity was much shorter than imagined, but the time Kraft needed was even shorter. The armor-wearer who sensed the abnormality had no time to dodge and only had time to tilt his head and neck, and the sword edge had already penetrated the fabric.

As expected, it was so powerful that it was not blocked by the bones or drilled into the seams of the bones. The sword blade rubbed against a piece of movable series metal. It broke several sections with force and lightly slid open on the surface of the skin.

It's a piece of chainmail. The labor-consuming and time-consuming protective gear is expensive, and the maintenance is even more cumbersome. It mostly lines the gaps in the neck where the armor's protection is weak, which confirms the speculation about its professionalism.

At the same time, Kupu was swept back by the long sword due to the disadvantage of the length of his weapon.

The time advantage brought by small tricks failed to translate into sufficient tactical advantage. Taking advantage of the slight delay in the opponent's movements, Kraft sheathed his sword and kicked hard at the crook of the leg, leaving the staggering and unbalanced armored enemy to Coop to deal with. one.

This man's swordsmanship was no less than his ability to react on the spot. After gaining space, he reversed his previous posture, immediately retreated to create distance, and fended off the insidious prodding from the bottom lane. Then he fought hard with Kraft and retreated with a slight disadvantage in strength.

Within a few seconds of going back and forth, the two of them got to know each other a lot through the exchange of moves without even seeing each other's faces - they were both people who couldn't be easily defeated.

The opponent noticed a gap in physical fitness, and Kraft was worried that Kupp might not be able to resist the opponent with elite equipment for too long.

【A surprising move】

Pretending to attack again, Kraft moved closer to the wall, and the two swords briefly exchanged blows. He realized that the opponent was not using all his strength, and seemed to be holding back to prepare some small moves.

This was exactly what he wanted, the sword blade retreated at the first touch and swept towards the lantern on the wall. No matter what you do, it will be greatly compromised after losing your vision, but some people are exceptions.

The opponent also drew his sword and thrust it in an unexpected direction.

【Lantern】

The lamp was attacked from two sides and its supporting bones were broken. The structure that had withstood many years of use encountered a load that it should not bear. It fell to pieces on the spot and the flames were stamped out.

The environment was completely plunged into darkness, and the swordsman stepped forward, stabbing with the impression left by the last moment of light.

Skill and wisdom are the only things that are better than brute force. Those who are diligent in practice and talented are all proud of it and regard it as the key to reversing the situation. It is obvious that he believes that darkness is a weapon that amplifies the advantage of skills.

Kraft changed his position to dodge, but was surprised to find that the opponent could actually recognize the steps and movements through hearing in the chaotic situation, and turned his stabbing into a chop to pursue.

Excellent sensory-motor coordination ability, coupled with the courage to abandon visual combat, are indeed extraordinary combat skills.

After being parried, the snake-like sword re-judged its position along the direction of the attack, and the swordsman adjusted its direction and thrust his backhand toward Kraft's side. It's hard to imagine what kind of mentality would lead people to delve into such lightless combat techniques.

As long as you don't have special training and just rely on imagination to deal with it, I'm afraid it will be difficult for even the most experienced person to survive the continuous offensive in the darkness.

Unfortunately, Kraft's reasons for extinguishing the flames were completely different from his own. Some people can see better when they are blind, and some people can see more clearly after going blind.

After a series of consecutive attacks, the swordsman's judgment of the position was finally completely blurred, and he stood quietly in the darkness, guarding against attacks that would come from an unknown direction. And his companions, like Coop, did not have the skills to rely on extra-visual senses for precise positioning.

Kraft finally had time to examine the first normal opponent he encountered. What his mental senses could see was far more than what he could get from a quick glance under poor lighting.

For example, the decoration of the sword is very distinctive. The hilt of the sword is in a circle, and the wings spread out on both sides become the hand guards.

The other person's face looked a little familiar after seeing it clearly. After rummaging through his memory, he successfully found the correspondence from the day he first arrived in Dunling. The two met once in the courtyard of the medical school, and they didn't even exchange names. They didn't expect to meet again in this kind of place.

"Inquisition? Why are you following me?"