Chapter 45: Chapter 38: Combat Skill·Humiliate People’s Power, Knight Dietlinde’s Offensive

Radiant Calendar, Year 1443. Late spring.

Outside Infinitis City.

A dense rain wove a curtain across the sky, mixing with soot and coal dust before falling onto the muddy ground to form murky black puddles.

A tall, sturdy figure jogged slowly along the muddy road, his steps steady as he carried a rust-mottled, solid steel pillar on his shoulder.

An aura of Power pulsed rhythmically with his breaths, like an invisible wind that blew away the raindrops landing on his body.

In the past six months, Reinhardt’s Physique had grown much stronger than it was during his time with the Steel Knight Order. Perhaps because of his years as a refugee in his youth, his physical development had been slightly slower than his peers.

Now seventeen, Reinhardt’s height was approaching 1.9 meters. His thick chest and broad shoulders were like a sculpture forged from steel.

After joining the Blood Corps last year, he had been staying in the corps’ barracks outside its Infinitis division, training arduously day after day just as he had at the Steel Knight Order’s training camp.

The only difference was that, compared to the training camp, the corps’ food was more delicious, and the portions were generous.

Everyone knew a Knight’s Physique was the result of arduous training, but few realized that nutritional energy intake was just as important.

After Reinhardt joined the corps, his ever-increasing appetite caused his Physique to grow with incredible speed, as if being inflated like a balloon.

Since the corps hadn’t received any missions from headquarters recently, Reinhardt would, in addition to his daily training, deliberately exhaust his stamina once every three days to activate the properties of his Destruction Force Field and learn how to control its power.

He recalled his battle with Death Butcher Dortmund at Frostfire Fortress. Back then, he had no idea how to control the Destruction Force Field, which led to him wasting a massive amount of stamina on needlessly maintaining its deflection property.

This property was generally only useful against ranged arrow fire.

Although his control over the Destruction Force Field wasn’t yet refined enough to develop a charged punching technique, he had already finished developing Humiliate People’s Power.

Reinhardt could now control the Destruction Force Field to increase its coverage over his arms. Relying on Bloodthirsty Madness’s property of enhancing bone and muscle density, he had tested it several times. He found that only when the enhancement reached 70% or more could his bones and muscles withstand the use of this Combat Skill.

When the enhancement was below 40%, not only would the destructive power of Combat Skill·Humiliate People’s Power fall short of expectations, but his arm joints would also suffer damage from being unable to withstand the immense force.

Reinhardt called up his system panel.

His strength had now reached the level of a Four-star Military Rank.

His Steel of the Heart stacks remained at 858. In other words, with the enhancement from Steel of the Heart, his current Physique was nearly double what it was originally.

For a Knight, Physique was the very foundation of their Mighty Power. In other words, in a battle, a Knight’s stamina limit was the length of their health bar.

The moment their stamina was depleted often meant death was at hand.

The Combat Techniques section now showed Humiliate People’s Power, which he had just finished developing.

[Humiliate People’s Power: Temporarily sacrifice other properties of the Destruction Force Field to drastically increase coverage on the arms, gaining double destructive power. Lasts for five seconds or ends after two attacks.]

[Hands itching, desperate for a fight!]

"Reinhardt! The commander wants you back immediately! Your review documents have been approved!"

On a muddy path in the rural outskirts.

Mud and dirty water flew everywhere as horse hooves galloped past.

"Understood."

The Knight reined in her horse to a stop beside him. Her azure eyes fell upon Reinhardt’s sculpted physique, from which wisps of white steam were rising in the damp, fine rain.

"Have you considered my proposal?"

Reinhardt rolled his eyes. Ignoring her gaze, he turned and started walking back, still shouldering the steel pillar. "Knight Dietlinde," he said, exasperated, "don’t you think the age gap between us is a little too big?"

The Knight, Dietlinde, urged her horse into a slow walk beside Reinhardt. Her long golden hair was tied back with a leather cord. Though her skin was fair, a scar across the bridge of her nose completely ruined the heroic beauty of her Valkyrie-like face.

Of course.

Reinhardt didn’t care about scars. They were Knights, the swords and Shield Towers of the Empire! Scars were symbols of glory and courage branded onto their bodies!

Although a Knight’s Physique far surpassed that of a Mortal, causing them to age very slowly, and Knight Dietlinde looked no different from when she was twenty, Reinhardt simply could not accept the fact that this woman was actually thirty-three.

’She could be my aunt!’

Being rejected on the spot yet again, Dietlinde, far from being annoyed, let out a hearty laugh. The fondness in her gaze as she looked at Reinhardt only intensified.

"I just love that untamable spirit of yours. Anyway, you still have a long time to serve in the Blood Corps, so we have plenty of time. The weather is so nice today, so to celebrate your documents being approved, I’ve booked dinner at the Golden Rose Restaurant in Infinitis. If you don’t show up, I’ll just get it to-go and find you in your tent. Mwah~"

For a moment, the killing power of that heavy, blown kiss felt even more vicious than Death Butcher Dortmund’s shuffle side kick! Reinhardt, who hadn’t even panted once while jogging ten kilometers with a hundred-kilogram steel pillar, suddenly felt his legs go weak and his vision darken. He nearly collapsed on the spot!

His encounters with Knight Dietlinde traced back to his second day in the Blood Corps.

On that day, the wind was howling.

On that day, Commander Fei Ning was introducing him, the new recruit, to the other Knights of the corps.

A scorching gaze from the front row, like the immense ’pressure’ of a Sky Knight, was so powerful that after Commander Fei Ning—a man with the strength of an Earth Knight—gave Reinhardt a pat on the back, he was forced to stumble back three steps.

The immense ’pressure’ was so great that even the Knights sitting near its source didn’t dare to breathe too loudly.

Only Reinhardt, reporting for duty for the first time, didn’t quite understand what was happening. He even gave a slight nod to the owner of the gaze as a sign of acknowledgment.

He had even wondered at the time, ’Are the Knights of the Blood Corps all this warm and hospitable?’

The outcome was self-evident.

Reinhardt’s head was throbbing. He had never felt such immense pressure, not even when he was defending the walls of Frostfire Fortress.

’Knight Dietlinde’s offensive is far more ferocious than the Abyss Legion’s beyond the walls!’

Even Reinhardt was finding her difficult to fend off.

When he returned to the Blood Corps encampment on the outskirts of Infinitis, a young Knight just slightly older than him slung an arm around his shoulders. With a wicked grin, he asked knowingly, "So, the review documents were approved. You happy?" 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"What do you think?"

"Hahaha!"

The young Knight’s laughter was like a signal. The other Knights in the encampment instantly burst into a chorus of laughter, hooting and jeering endlessly.

"Reinhardt! Knight Dietlinde said she’s definitely going to get you tonight! You think that little Four-star Military Rank body of yours can handle it?"