Knights and Magic Wand
Chapter 630 - 630 296 Winter Departs and Spring Arrives

630: Chapter 296: Winter Departs and Spring Arrives 630: Chapter 296: Winter Departs and Spring Arrives The wedding conclusion does not signify the end of the celebration.

Guests from various places did not hurry to leave.

Three days later, Leon officially hosted a small knight tournament at the Avalon Knight Order Fortress Arena.

This was not a spur-of-the-moment decision; after a noble wedding, hosting a knight tournament in the domain is a deeply traditional practice among the wealthier lords.

Leon had been preparing for this for over half a month.

In reality, months ago, when the notice of the knight tournament hosted by the King reached the Baron Domain, many new knights within the knight order were eager to participate.

Leon did not want to discourage his knights from competing in Oran, dampening their enthusiasm and fighting spirit.

However, within Avalon Castle, aside from Mr.

Brian Sr.

and Ranger Knight Larian, who had past experience in knight tournaments, the other new knights were formerly civilians who had either only observed from the sidelines or never seen a tournament, having only heard tales from the countryside.

Even the two knights from the Thorny Flower Family who survived the Battle of Rolandena, Sir Filippo and Sir Corinth, had only watched the tournament organized by Lord Eriv in Farolis City, as they were merely Eriv’s knight attendants back then and not eligible to compete.

Despite the Avalon veterans who survived the Undead War having gone through real trials by blood and fire.

But after all, a knight tournament is not real fighting; duelling has detailed rules and etiquette.

Competing without experience could lead to significant disadvantages.

Especially the newly minted Avalon knights who have only practiced with the riding spear for a year and a half, clearly at a natural disadvantage compared to noble-born knights, who have trained with the riding spear since childhood as attendants.

Fortunately, even though knight tournament rules vary across the continent, within the Orland Kingdom, even if a knight falls off their horse during a jousting duel, as long as they don’t surrender and can get up within five breaths, without bloodying their underarmor, they can choose to continue with short weapons for a foot combat duel.

So, knights lacking in horseback and mounted combat skills still have a chance to win.

Of course, the point disadvantage from being knocked off the horse by a riding spear cannot be avoided.

If one cannot directly defeat or subdue the opponent within the few minute limit, trying to recover the point deficit from a fall by scoring with hits becomes very difficult unless the foot combat skill gap is vast or the opponent is overly confident or careless — which is seldom the case.

Falling often means the duel is lost at that moment.

Naturally, Leon did not want his knights to perform poorly at the tournament and become discouraged; moreover, with Ines’s suggestion, he decided to compete in the knight tournament held at Oran after spring.

This small knight tournament in Avalon serves not only as a post-wedding celebration for himself and Olivia.

It is also a prelude to the knight celebration organized by the King.

Leon didn’t make it too grand, but with his father-in-law, Mr.

Brian Sr., this former Royal Knight as an adviser, and having Lady Adelina, who once helped Lord Eriv organize a knight festival, to consult, the event ran smoothly.

There are many rules in the competition.

Firstly, the knight tournament prohibits any ranged projectile weapons.

To ensure fair competition, the tournament also forbids the use of magic and any magic items, including enchanted armor, enchanted weapons, and any alchemy potion other than healing ones.

Contestants may only use specially crafted heavy tournament plate armor and blunted weapons.

There are two types of events: the individual competition, which is the most straightforward, the jousting duel, and martial arts matches.

The basic rule is that both contestants charge at each other three times using a brittle shafted, blunt-tipped wooden lance.

Hitting the opponent’s face mask or helmet scores three points, hitting the center of the opponent’s heraldic shield scores two points, hitting the opponent’s chest armor or shoulder and arm armor scores one point, unhorsing the opponent scores five points.

At no point may the contestant attack the opponent’s warhorse; violators are immediately disqualified, suspended, and required to compensate.

Once the foot combat phase begins, the scoring changes: hitting to create a dent in the opponent’s chest armor scores three points, striking the shoulder joint and helmet scores two points, and hitting limbs scores one point.

Regardless of the score, severely injured or surrendering contestants are directly considered defeated.

There are many additional detailed rules, such as the “Glorious Break” and “Shameful Break” of the lance…

deducting two points for pursuing after disarming the opponent’s weapon, versus gaining one for refraining…

deducting two points for turning one’s back to the opponent for more than ten breaths…

deducting one point for verbally insulting the opponent during the match…

deducting three points for attacking the opponent’s lower body…

and so on.

The other type of event is the team competition, where both sides have an equal number of participants, ranging from seven to about a hundred, engaging in a simulated offense-defense mixed melee.

Compared to the individual competition, the team battle rules are more complex, dangerous, and intense, but it relaxes many of the injury-related rules, making it resemble actual combat greatly, where severe injuries and fatalities are common.

Truth be told, upon learning about the point system for knocking down enemy knights and commanders, and capturing or seizing battle flags in the team melee from Brian, Leon couldn’t help but feel a…

déjà vu reminiscent of some video games from his past life…

Once the tournament’s rules were set in reference to Orland Kingdom tradition, alongside substantial prizes and honorary titles, the knight tournament held at Avalon Castle not only attracted Avalon knights but also drew several Illaril Knights from the Holy Hall to register.