"What condition?" Rein couldn't help but show a hint of confusion as he asked.
"Um... Rein, if you can defeat me, I'll teach you shield technique," Lagaray's face rarely showed a blush, as she remembered something her father had once told her.
"Huh?" Rein was first taken aback, then overjoyed, and nodded vigorously without delay.
In that case, there was no need to hold back excessively anymore.
Aside from other considerations, judging from the exchange just now, Rein was confident that he could overcome Lagaray with 'Strength Burst'!
"Lagaray, then you need to be careful."
Thirty percent Strength Burst!
Rein charged at Lagaray once again, delivering a powerful forty-five-degree diagonal slash at the barbarian girl Lagaray with even greater force; his ironwood greatsword tearing the air, producing a piercing whistle.
This made Lagaray's expression turn solemn, as she tightly watched the angle of Rein's blade and quickly maneuvered her shield at a forty-five-degree angle to meet the greatsword.
The dull sound of sword colliding with shield echoed once more.
But this time, Rein did not retreat; with his Strength Burst at thirty percent, his power already slightly exceeded Lagaray's.
However, Lagaray only stepped back half a pace, stabilizing her frame naturally with her robust thighs, without any sign of clumsiness.
This caused Rein to once again raise his evaluation of the shield techniques that Lagaray possessed.
Half a minute passed, and despite Rein wielding the ironwood greatsword in a barraging onslaught with attacks like 'Furious Slash', 'Smooth Cleaving Slash', and 'Leap Slash', Lagaray solidly caught each one.
Although Rein constantly had the upper hand, pressing Lagaray, the barbarian girl remained very stable, even in retreat.
Facing Rein's powerful 'Leap Slash', she responded with a spinning retreat step, easily neutralizing the attack.
After another exchange of sword against shield, Rein voluntarily stepped back, wiping the sweat from his forehead and looking seriously at the barbarian girl, "Lagaray, if you can take my last strike, then consider it my loss."
"Huh? Rein, do you have a trump card?" Lagaray, equally drenched in sweat, kept her beautiful eyes locked on Rein.
She was truly surprised. Anna had told her Rein's age, two years younger than herself, but given Rein's recent display of strength, he was already on par with her, soon-to-be a ferociously-transformed barbarian warrior.
What surprised her even more was that this younger boy before her still had an ace up his sleeve!
She had believed that Rein had already shown all his abilities just now.
Rein watched Lagaray's eyes, nodded to signal his oncoming attack.
The next second, his 'Strength Burst' instantly increased to sixty percent. Rein's veins bulged, muscles swelled, and immediately after, he delivered a powerful 'Leap Slash' at Lagaray!
However, as he was not fully bursting with power, this swelling of the muscles remained within reasonable limits and did not reach the extremely exaggerated extent of a full burst.
But Lagaray was instantly struck dumb, her mouth forming a perfect "o", thinking to herself whether Rein was really the barbarian or if she was.
As Rein's thunderous strike descended, Lagaray hurriedly lifted her shield to block, her right hand gripping the axe in reverse, both hands joining forces to raise the shield. But under the crushing force,
with a loud "bang," Lagaray was sent flying seven or eight meters and crashed to the ground.
Seeing this, Rein thought to himself that this was bad, preoccupied with learning combat skills, he had accidentally injured his 'teacher'.
So, he quickly went to offer assistance.
Luckily, Lagaray's shield technique was indeed extraordinary; even under such a heavy blow from Rein, she was uninjured, feeling only a soreness in her left wrist.
As Rein was helping Lagaray up, a familiar guard suddenly burst in, speaking with a tone of urgency, "Rein, Lord Hamilton is looking for you, there's an urgent mission!"
This caused both Rein and Lagaray to be taken aback, but Rein quickly responded, "Alright, I'm on my way."
At the same time, he couldn't help but turn to Lagaray with a look of regret, "It's really too bad, Lagaray. Perhaps you should head back first, I can only ask for your guidance in shield technique another time."
"Also, could you please let my family know that I might not make it back in time for dinner."
"Sure!" Lagaray's eyes twinkled as she nodded with a smile.
As Rein hurriedly entered Hamilton's office, he saw his familiar acquaintance, the short figure of Matteo, also there, panting heavily, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
Additionally, Rein was surprised to find that Hamilton had changed his attire; the noble's hunting gear had been replaced with a suit of light silver knightly plate armor.
At that moment, Hamilton was putting on the last of his plate armor gloves and, upon seeing Rein enter, gestured for Matteo to explain the situation once again to Rein.
Matteo quickly said, "Rein, we've found a suspected cultist hideout at the Stewart Farm north of Flashgold Town. Captain Weilun has already taken people over there."
"The enemy is strong; as soon as we engaged, we discovered that at least two of them are third-level knight Attendants guarding the hideout. We urgently need reinforcements!"
"Cultists?" Rein was also startled to hear this.
But Rein also had a question because in his memory, Captain Weilun had always been a cautious and prudent person.
So why would Weilun lead a small team of Night Watchmen to the site without first reporting back to Lord Hamilton, given the unclear enemy situation?