14 Zweih?nder

During the past five years, Ragnar hunted and trained to improve his battle skills in his free time.

As when he was on Earth, he was just a scientist and did not attempt many physical activities.

He hunted daily, and looked for all the Goblin Knights individually for duels to sharpen himself.

During one of his trips to the other Goblin villages nearby, he picked up on an interesting weapon called Zweihänder. It was a large two-handed sword, at least 1.4m (4ft 7inch) long and with a mass of over 2 kg (4.4 lb) and looked incredibly intimidating.

Ragnar was hooked, as these Zweihänder's had a ricasso for gripping the sword further along it's length, while one hand still gripped the handle.

Ragnar believed given their length, and the use of a ricasso, some polearm-like techniques could be used with Zweihänder as well.

With the help of his AI Chip, he trained with this particular weapon for two years, before he got the hang of this weapon and mixed polearm techniques in it's use.

Ragnar abducted a few Master and Senior Blacksmiths, and had them work in his Lord's Manor to design Zweihänder, to be more of a combination weapon i.e. part-polearm and part-sword.

In a sword vs. sword situation, Ragnar could employ polearm-like techniques with his new Zweihänder to decimate all his opponents.

He then made his Blacksmiths create 10 more of these new Zweihänders, and decided to train his Goblin Knights in it's use, so that they have an edge over all other Goblins in the battlefield.

***

1994, Lodbrok Lord's Manor

The ten Goblin Knights who were taking part in Ragnar's training session were here before him for another day's training with this new weapon their Jarl called Zweihänder.

These Goblins who were dreaming of becoming the greatest Goblin Knights were all venomous Goblins. If they weren't, they would not have been able to lead their own battalion of 100 Goblins with ease in this plane, where there was only one rule, might is right.

Lodbrok Clan's clown with a bright but serious and honest personality, Rollo finally broke the silence.

"This is the first time that I have sore muscles throughout my body."

"Me too, I'm about to die. I question whether you can even slash your enemies with such a heavy and long sword. If it wasn't our Jarl's command, I would definitely throw this weapon away."

As Lagertha responded to Rollo, the silent veteran Goblin Bjorn spoke.

"If you have complaints, leave. Don't kill other Goblin's morale with you."

"What?!"

As Lagertha got angry, Bjorn glared at her and said.

"Did you not see how our Jarl swings his Zweihänder around? If he can do it, so can I. But with you both yapping on next to me, I'm more annoyed by you than Aslaug's beating."

"Are you trying to start a fight with me?"

"I'm just telling you to shut your constant yapping."

Lagertha jumped up from lying down at Bjorn's words to fight him.

Rollo held her back as he replied.

"Sit. If you have the energy to fight, sit and relax your muscles. This is only the end of the morning warmup. All of us are tired so our minds are at the edge. Why are you being like this?"

"That punk is taunting me."

Bjorn also sat up at Lagertha's words.

"Did I say something wrong? If you question our Jarl's process, then you can leave by yourself.

I've already decided to believe and follow his footsteps to conquer all the Goblin tribes of this forest. Since I have made my determination, hearing you say what you said makes me angry."

Aslaug, the Goblin most trusted by Jarl Ragnar, tried to stop them.

Aslaug was very thoughtful and responsible; because of this, she was accepted as the leader of all of the ten Goblin Knights.

"Everybody sit. What will you do if our lord sees this? His ambitions are huge, have you both forgotten your oaths to him when you swore fealty? No matter where he goes and whatever he does, we just have to follow his footsteps!"

Hearing Aslaug's words, both Lagertha and Bjorn stared at each other before falling back down to the ground. Lagertha spoke after a while.

"I was in the wrong, Bjorn."

Bjorn immediately replied apologetically.

"I'm sorry I showed a negative response to the words you were just throwing around, Lagertha."

As Bjorn also apologized, smiles appeared on the faces of all the Goblin Knights.

However that was only temporary. Once morning break time ended, Ragnar showed up at the training ground of his manor. The smiles on the faces of the Goblin Knights all disappeared.

Ragnar's training was harsh.

If Aslaug beat them up in the morning to warm-up, then Ragnar used insults to teach them.

"Your movement is so slow after just that much of training?"

"If I knew it would be like this, it would have been a smarter idea to teach the young Newborn Goblins who have not even matured yet."

"Just give up and leave right now. You guys are not qualified to be my Knights!"

If they showed even a hint of being tired, Ragnar threw out his insults.

There were no Goblins whose pride would let them just sit still while being insulted like that.

They clenched their teeth and channeled all their energy to finish Ragnar's training everyday.

Ragnar did not have an easy time either. He felt it every time their venous gazes were directed to him. However, if he did not push them at least this much, they would not be able to survive in his coming Goblin tribe conquest in a short amount of time.

He also believed that there was no limit Goblins could not overcome, so he continued to throw insults to rally his Goblin Knights.

His Goblin Knight's did not disappoint Ragnar's expectations.

They all focused on the training and learned the basic use of Zweihänder.

1995, Lodbrok Lord's Manor

Just like that exactly a year passed by.

Lagertha suddenly laughed.

"Gigigigi."

Bjorn turned to look at Lagertha.

After fighting the last time, the two of them had gotten closer.

As Bjorn looked at her with an expression of why are you laughing, Lagertha answered.

"Isn't it funny?"

"What?"

"If you think about it, I wonder if all of us were brainwashed. Just over a year ago, we had so much trouble just lifting these swords."

As Lagertha opened her mouth while swinging her Zweihänder barely like Ragnar did.

Bjorn answered, giving her a look of shame.

"You can barely copy Jarl Ragnar and you are laughing?"

"It's not funny?"

"Not at all."

"What a boring friend."

As Lagertha muttered that while turning her head.

Rollo, who was next to her took Bjorn's side.

"If you laugh at the obvious, then you must always live in laughter."

Lagertha immediately countered.

"Are you saying freely moving this much weight is obvious? I thought I would lose my bones. I'm almost sorry whenever I see the Goblin Ladies of Aslaug's Council. We bothered them so much."

Rollo whispered to Lagertha.

"Who hasn't done that? Did you know Aslaug scolded our Jarl Borg? Jarl Ragnar was asked to reduce the training, saying we are using up all of the tribe's medical herbs."

All of the Goblin Knight's ears turned to this new story.

All of them had been bothering those Lady Goblins for treatment with screaming muscles and bones.

Lagertha asked as the representative of all the other Goblins.

"So then what happened?"

"Jarl Ragnar said that it's natural for Goblin warriors to get injured while training. No matter what happens, make sure that there are enough medicinal herbs. He said that while saying that we will be using couple times the amount we have been using until now."

A short duration of shock.

Rollo cautiously asked, as the other Goblin Knights started to feel like they were walking on eggshells.

"That...is probably for us right?"

All of them were already using a significant amount of herbs from The Nandini Forest for their muscle aches and to strengthen their bones. But to use more than two times the current amount, they could not determine what kind of training their Jarl was planning to make them do.

Suddenly, Aslaug commented from the side.

"I'm sure he'll start to teach us how to use the Zweihänder with his secret art. Since all of us have gotten used to the weapon by now."

As Lagertha heard Aslaug, she looked at her Zweihänder before speaking.

"How to use it huh? Then sooner or later, we will start sparring with them too right?"

Rollo responded.

"I suppose so."

As Rollo responded, Lagertha started to mumble.

"I'm sure it'll hurt…"

"It'll probably hurt a lot…"

The pitiful Goblin Knights started to once again feel like they were walking on eggshells.

Their arduous path had just begun.