This reminded him of a saying, he couldn't remember who specifically said it anymore, but he remembered the exact words clearly:
"Even among prospective knights, there are differences."
The reason was that some prospective knights, due to the scarcity of the corresponding advancement magic potions, would stay at this level for a long time, thereby achieving a very high standard in all their skills.
These kinds of prospective knights were the toughest to deal with!
Matteo was about to draw his longsword after putting away his bow, but as his hand just touched the hilt, a strong hand stopped his motion of drawing the sword.
"Matteo, leave this to me! You guys keep up with the carriage." Rein turned his head, his expression calm as he addressed everyone.
"Trust me! However strong he is, could he be stronger than the Mountain Stone Monster?"
Hearing Rein's words, several Night Watchmen who had participated in that battle were spirited.
Matteo looked into Rein's determined eyes, nodded vigorously, and said, "Alright! But be careful, Rein. Even among prospective knights, there are differences! This guy is probably the toughest kind!"
"But I have confidence in you! Show him the might of the Night Watchmen!"
"Okay!" Rein glanced at the swiftly approaching figure of his opponent and then at the attribute panel where his strength, physique, and agility had all reached 12 points, he thought, not the same huh? Maybe.
Waving to Matteo and the others to circle around, Rein dismounted and went straight towards the man with the heavy hammer who was attacking.
Rein's disadvantage lay in the fact that his opponent wielded a two-handed heavy hammer which, although not a spiked armor-breaking hammer, posed a significant threat to knight armor.
And his current weapon, the 'Glimmering Greatsword', though exceptionally sharp after being infused with star iron, wasn't likely to cleave through thick knight armor in one blow.
Kev, seeing an opponent dressed in knight armor but smaller in size than him, approaching alone to intercept him, couldn't help but smirk, releasing a sinister laugh.
"Oh! There's another different black dog!"
From the black leather armor on Rein's arm that was not covered by knight armor, Kev deduced that Rein must also be one of the Night Watchmen.
"I'll finish you off in one move, then turn all those black dogs into dead dogs!"
The distance between the two rapidly closed, and as they were less than five meters apart, Kev swung his two-handed hammer heavily from above towards Rein's helmeted head.
Sparks flew everywhere!
Rein's Glimmering Greatsword solidly blocked the opponent's heavy hammer.
Under the Level 5 Giant Bear Sword Technique, Rein deftly parried the heavy hammer's powerful and forceful blow, ingeniously offsetting the head of the hammer and using the strong blade of his sword to catch the metal shaft just below the hammer head.
With fifty percent 'Strength Burst' reaching a strength level of sixteen or seventeen, one could say that this was the level of force a full-fledged knight would exert.
Therefore, Kev, seeing Rein solidly catch his strike, was extremely astonished.
Although Matteo had already gone ahead to follow the carriage, worrying that Rein might not prevail, he still left behind three elite Night Watchmen for support.
"Mohan, you guys keep up, leave this to me!" Rein said steadily.
"Alright! Reindeer, you must be careful! We have confidence in you!" Mohan looked at Rein, knew they couldn't intervene in Rein's battle with the heavy hammer man, nodded, and immediately signaled the other two elite Night Watchmen to chase the carriage.
Seeing that Rein was ignoring him, fighting him while still talking to someone else, Kev was immediately furious.
This situation usually only happened to him, but this time, it was reversed.
"Good! You have thoroughly angered me! I will turn you into a dead dog!"
"Sweeping Heavy Hammer!"
Suddenly leveraging force from a retreat, Kev then charged at Rein again, his heavy hammer sweeping from left to right in a powerful horizontal strike.
This strike was exceedingly fast; merely the hammerhead stirring the air emitted a buzzing roar.
Clearly, Rein had realized that this must be some secret technique of the opponent's hammer skills.
If it struck any part of the body, even with his thick knight armor, just the shockwave alone could severely injure the corresponding body part.
Facing such intense shock attacks, the armor wouldn't offer much protection!
"You know why I had them all leave?"
"That's because I didn't want to hide anymore!"
A deep voice rose from beneath Rein's knight helmet.
In an instant, Kev had a bad premonition!
Next, he saw the short figure across from him swell up as if inflated, and what was once slightly loose knight armor now looked absurd, as if a brawny man was wearing children's clothes.
But Kev was in no mood to laugh at this time!
With full "Strength Burst" activated, Rein, possessing 24 points of strength, steadied the opponent's secret technique "Sweeping Heavy Hammer" with the end of his greatsword!
The force of the backlash was so great it directly shattered Kev's armored gloves!
"How is this possible!"
"Even as a formal knight, you shouldn't be this strong!!" Kev's eyes bulged, his mouth agape, a look of horror on his face!
He had sparred with formal knights before, dammit, even if the opponent was a formal knight, they couldn't have blocked his strike so easily!!
You must know, that strike was a secret technique!
And it was blocked by the opponent's ordinary defensive sword move, not to mention it had shattered his armored gloves!
Seizing the moment of his opponent's distraction, Rein didn't hesitate to deliver a fully powered "Smooth Cleaving Slash," chopping down sharply from a 45-degree angle above, instantly creating a beautiful silver arc in the air!
Thrillingly exhilarating!
Kev desperately raised his heavy hammer to block!
Sparks flew everywhere!
Accompanied by a very sharp metal scraping noise.
Both parties suddenly stood still!
Beneath the evening sunset, a breeze blew by.
The heavy hammer fell to the ground, now split in two from the middle of the iron handle, its broken surface smooth and clean.
Dazzling fresh blood gushed out like a fountain from the ghastly sword wound on Kev that ran from his left shoulder to his right hip on his upper body!
Then, two sounds of "thump!"
The two halves of Kev, clad in heavy knight armor, fell to the ground consecutively!
It turned out that at that moment, any notion of blocking with the heavy hammer or the thumb-thick knight armor had been completely split apart by Rein's Glimmering Greatsword, by the enormous strength from Rein's 24 points of power!
At that moment, Rein shook his greatsword in his hand, looking at Kev's still convulsing corpse, and softly said, "Dead dog? Yes, indeed a dead dog."