"Kid, you sleep like the dead!"

Roland had not fully woken when Peyton's low reprimand reached him.

He looked up in a daze and saw Peyton dragging his bloodstained body toward him.

Under the bright moonlight, Peyton was soaked in blood. Dark red clots even hung in his beard.

He wiped at his face, only smearing the blood wider and making himself look even more ferocious.

"Stop staring. Pick up your weapon!"

Roland sprang to his feet, caught the pack Peyton threw him, and drew the iron sword from inside.

"Uncle Peyton, what happened?"

"What else..."

Peyton spat. The iron sword in his hand cut through the air, flinging a vivid streak of blood across the ground.

"Those monsters from Dawnlight Territory came killing their way over. Damned bastards..."

Before he finished speaking, a sharp crack sounded outside the fence.

Three hunched figures climbed over the railing. Their yellow vertical pupils glimmered in the dark.

They were only about half a man's height, with rough brown fur covering their bodies and hideous dog heads above their necks.

"Kobolds!"

Roland's heartbeat kicked hard at the sight of the dog-headed humanoid monsters.

Since transmigrating, he had heard countless rumors about creatures like these. This was the first time he had faced them himself.

"Kid, the one on the right is yours. I'll take the two on the left!"

Peyton shot forward before the sentence ended.

Roland drew a breath, fixed on the Kobold in front of him, and shifted his footing while keeping a safe distance.

The tip of his sword lifted into the standard opening stance of Lion Swordsmanship.

The Kobold hunched its back. Rough claws gripped a rusty hand axe as it tilted its head, staring at the human's strange posture.

Then it roared, lunged, and brought the axe down with a whistle.

Roland sidestepped and blocked cleanly.

The iron sword met the axe blade. A jolt ran through the webbing of his hand, nearly knocking the hilt loose.

"What brute strength!"

Roland retreated half a step, startled.

The Kobold pressed in at once, chopping three times in a row.

Roland fought while giving ground. On the third block, he deliberately yielded some force and used the rebound to spring back.

"This thing..."

He noticed that the Kobold had to adjust its breathing after each axe swing, and that its turns were especially clumsy.

"Plenty of strength, poor agility..."

Once he saw the weakness, Roland changed tactics.

The next axe came down. He no longer met it head-on. Instead, he ducked under the strike and slanted his blade upward, opening a bloody cut between the Kobold's ribs.

Pain drove the Kobold into a wild roar. Its attacks grew fiercer, but also messier.

Roland circled it like a bullfighter. The killing principles of Lion Swordsmanship came alive in his hands. No flourish. No waste. Every strike went for a vital point.

When the Kobold's full-force chop missed again, Roland seized the gap and rushed in. His blade pierced its throat like a snakebite.

Warm blood sprayed across his face, and golden text appeared before his eyes.

[When fighting an enemy, related comprehension has improved. Lion Swordsmanship Experience +3]

"This is... the effect of [Theory and Practice]?"

The thought passed in a flash. Roland immediately looked to the side.

Peyton was being forced back under the assault of two Kobolds, danger appearing again and again.

Roland stepped forward.

One Kobold noticed him and started to turn. Roland's diagonal cut struck its shoulder first.

The Kobold let out an ear-piercing howl. Its companion abandoned Peyton and pounced toward Roland, swinging a spiked club.

With the experience from his first fight, Roland slipped past the heavy club and cut precisely across the Kobold's knee.

It staggered and dropped to one knee. Roland followed with a return slash, opening its throat.

The wounded Kobold still tried to ambush him, but Peyton had caught his breath. He stabbed it through the heart from behind.

"Beautiful counterattack!"

Peyton praised him loudly, but the shock in his eyes was impossible to hide.

The boy before him was only sixteen. Yet he had mastered Lion Swordsmanship in a short time, applied it in real combat, and kept his calm against vicious monsters.

Compared with that, Peyton felt like he had wasted decades.

He gave Roland's upright back a bitter look, then offered advice.

"But with that last move, you could have attacked its armpit. That would have made it lose the ability to move for a moment."

Roland reviewed the exchange and nodded.

After awakening a skill, his traits and buffs could help him grasp the essentials quickly, but they could not give him real combat experience.

He understood the core of Lion Swordsmanship in his head, but in actual battle, his moves still lacked flexibility and improvisation.

Roland stabbed each of the three Kobolds again to make sure they were dead, then stepped closer.

Only under the moonlight did he notice the wound on Peyton's left arm. It was deep enough to show bone, and blood had soaked half his sleeve.

"You're injured?"

"Got scratched by these bastards earlier. It's nothing."

Peyton spat and was about to continue when several dog-like howls sounded in the distance.

His expression changed. He pulled Roland into the house.

Gary had already packed the luggage and stood behind the door with a hunting bow in hand. When the two entered, he barred the door at once, panic on his face.

"The granary to the east is on fire. At least twenty Kobolds are looting the market."

"Far more than that."

Peyton tore strips of cloth and hastily bandaged his wound.

"This pack is organized. There has to be a big one commanding them from behind."

Roland looked through the crack in the window, and his stomach clenched.

The entire village had fallen into a sea of fire. More than a dozen burning spots dyed the night sky red.

On the streets, Kobolds broke into houses in groups of three to five. An old man who fell behind was knocked down by three monsters. His screams soon became the wet crunch of chewing.

Farther away, several young villagers fought desperately with pitchforks. Then a Kobold wielding a rusted iron sword rushed into the crowd. After several dull impacts, the defenders fell one after another into pools of blood.

"Damn it!"

Gary cursed at the scene outside. He suddenly lifted the bed board and dragged an old wooden chest from the hidden compartment beneath it.

He pried open the latch with practiced hands, took out two cold-gleaming hunting knives, and tucked them at his waist.

"The back door is safe for now. What do we do?"

"Go to the village entrance and flee toward the estate!"

Before Peyton could answer, Roland pulled his gaze back from the window and spoke first.

"There must be standing soldiers left at the estate. With the high walls to defend, the Kobolds have no chance of breaking through!"

Roland had studied inside the estate and knew its layout well.

Calling it an estate was almost misleading. It was closer to a small fortress.

Tall stone walls, staggered arrow towers, tight defensive works. Everything about it favored defense.

With the Kobolds' crude weapons and scattered attacks, breaking through a line held by trained standing guards would be a fantasy.

"Do what the kid says!"

Peyton breathed hard and nodded to Gary.

Once the three agreed, they slipped quietly out of the house.

The Kobold corpses in front of the house told Roland where Peyton's arm wound had come from.

Smoke filled the village. Using it for cover, the three kept close to the base of the walls and moved quickly.

Whenever they encountered Kobolds, Roland and Peyton worked together and killed them.

Through repeated real combat, the special effect of [Theory and Practice] began to show.

The Lion Swordsmanship in Roland's hands shed its initial stiffness. His transitions became cleaner, and each strike grew precise and fierce.

After turning two street corners, Roland suddenly grabbed the other two.

At the crossroads ahead lay seven or eight corpses, villagers and Kobolds mixed together.

Not far away, several standing soldiers in chain mail charged with sharp blades toward an unusually tall Kobold.

Under the bright moonlight, Roland could clearly see what made this Kobold different.

Its entire body was covered in blood-colored scales, each one gleaming with an eerie chill beneath the moon.