Brand certainly wouldn't admit to having dealt with these Cross Assassins before. What troubled him was that these assassins were not cultists, but a special force produced by a duchy near Erune. That duchy was a vassal state of Kruz, and if anyone present could mobilize these assassins, the Flame Temple would be the most suspicious.
But as he thought this, his hands didn't slow down at all. He simultaneously parried the opponent's weapon with both hands and then made a straightforward downward slash—this technique was vastly different from typical swordsmanship. The man was evidently caught off guard by Brand's swordsmanship, which lacked any aesthetic, and in his surprise, he didn't even have time to raise his sword, being cleaved in half in his shock.
