Blue Sword

"Real war treats everyone equally." Asik looked around with his sword and said sternly to the girls, "It doesn't matter whether you are a princess, a noble, a commoner, a woman or child with no strength, or a sword. Warrior, Gunner or Mage."

"When we really face a war, when we meet on a narrow road, only the strong will survive. If we are not strong enough, we will be killed. It's that simple."

"Medea and Nora, your two duties in the team are not close combat, but enemies in close combat will not stop looking for you because of this, so you must also receive training."

"I don't require you to master proficient swordsmanship, knife skills, spear skills or the use of shields, but you must know how to counterattack, defend or dodge when faced with various attacks, and remember them in your bones."

"Do you understand everything? Do you have any objections?" Finally, he asked loudly.

"No more." The girls responded sparsely.

"Okay." Asik clapped his hands, and Peggy brought a bundle of iron swords and threw them on the ground in the center for everyone to pick up.

"There are many kinds of weapons in this world. Taking close-quarters cold weapons as an example, common ones include swords, knives, spears, battle axes, maces, daggers, etc. Among them, knives, battle axes, and maces are good for chopping, and spears and daggers are good for smashing. Straight thrust.”

"Only the long sword can both stab and chop. It can be regarded as an all-purpose weapon, so let's start by getting familiar with the long sword."

Ask picked up a long sword, and the knowledge from Sharp Weapon I immediately flooded into his mind.

He waved it a few times and commented: "This is a spatha that was popular in the early Fourth Age. The shape is quite primitive. There is no jaw, no health groove, and no weight ball to adjust the center of gravity. , but it’s enough to kill people. I will use it to explain and demonstrate next.”

"The first is attack. Taking the long sword as an example, there are sword skills, sword moves and sword styles. What is the difference between the three? The difference is that sword skills consist of a large number of sword moves, while sword moves consist of two or three It is composed of sword postures, which are the smallest part of the attack action and cannot be divided into any other parts.”

"Different countries on the continent today have developed different swordsmanship systems."

"Generally speaking, the swordsmanship of the Solomons is the most sophisticated and complicated, advocating to solve the opponent without injury; the swordsmanship of the Franks emphasizes simplicity and practicality, and ending the battle as quickly as possible. As for the swordsmanship of the Northlanders, there is nothing It can be said that it basically relies on recklessness, hard work and confrontation."

"Hey!" Hidrifa shouted dissatisfied.

"Although the current military strength of the Solomon Empire has been reduced to the bottom, I still want to start teaching you the swordsmanship of Solomon. The reason is very simple. The swordsmanship of the Franks and the Northlanders depends more or less on physical fitness. This This kind of tactical thinking is very unprofessional."

"Remember, there are always enemies who are physically stronger than you. We must not only learn how to use the strong to bully the weak, but also how to use the weak to defeat the strong. This is the original intention of swordsmanship being invented."

So Hildelife also closed her mouth. The long experience of being in the arena forced her to admit that Asik was right.

The swordsmanship of the Northlanders was actually quite poor. As long as their physical strength and agility were better than their opponents, they could basically win a single duel. On the contrary, Solomon's gladiators seemed weak and thin, but they could make strange comebacks from time to time.

"More than 100 years ago, Emperor Solomon Leo VI was a war scholar. He had been studying fighting techniques popular among ordinary people and extraordinary people for many years, and summarized 8 basic sword styles, which are called the Eight Tactical Styles. , respectively, are lion tooth, left lion tooth, right lion tooth, eagle cut, tiger cut, dragon cut, fluttering wings and rapid thrust."

After Asik said this, he paused and said, "I need a sparring assistant now. Who is willing to sign up?"

"Me, me, me!" Eleanor and Hildelifera quickly raised their hands. The former is for learning, the latter is for fighting.

"Eleanor, come here." Asker effortlessly saw through the latter's bad intentions and called Eleanor forward, "Now I will show you the attack, and you will be responsible for blocking."

"Okay." Eleanor said this, holding the sword in front of her with both hands, in a blocking posture.

"The first move, lion's tooth." Asik held the sword in both hands, raised it above his head, and then quickly slashed it towards Eleanor's head.

There was a clang, and Eleanor blocked the blow. Ask's long sword pressed against her long sword and explained at the same time:

"The lion's teeth are cut from top to bottom. Because the human skull is relatively hard, it is easy to cut in but not pull it out. Therefore, the lion's teeth are generally not used for killing, but are used to force the enemy to move and dodge."

"If you are facing the enemy's lion fang, I usually recommend you to dodge instead of blocking, because the lion fang's sword path is from top to bottom, and the weight of the weapon itself has an additional bonus to the force of the direct slash, so it will be stronger than normal. The attack is more difficult to block."

"For example, the Franks evolved the Shinra's military swordsmanship - Mountain Collapse Strike based on the lion's teeth. The weapon used a heavier two-handed giant sword, and at the same time, it used the strength of the waist and abdomen when chopping. Everyone, watch my moves.”

Asik said this, he raised the sword with both hands again, stretched his back, straightened his waist, and then slashed the sword hard, and the whole upper body of the person leaned forward suddenly.

The long sword struck Eleanor's sword hard, and the huge force caused her to stagger back a few steps before she could barely stabilize her body.

"Facing a mountain collapse attack, blocking is a very dangerous approach, because the force of the slash is very strong. It is very likely that you made a blocking action, but the weapon was directly cut off, and you died tragically due to the splitting of the top. "Ask said seriously.

"Based on the Mountain Collapsing Strike, the Northlanders invented the jumping sword technique, which involves jumping into the air and using the Mountain Collapsing Strike during the fall. In this way, the slashing force is increased by the weight of the whole body, and it has almost reached the lethality. limit."

"I emphasize once again that you are not sure when facing this type of attack, so do not block it."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." The girls nodded one after another, thinking of the generally strong physique of the Northerners, and couldn't help but feel faintly afraid.

"The second and third postures are the left lion's tooth and the right lion's tooth respectively. They are more commonly used than the lion's tooth." Askew symbolically slashed several times at Eleanor's block with his long sword.

"The difference from the lion's tooth is that the lion's tooth cuts the head straight, while the left lion's tooth cuts diagonally from the upper left to the lower right towards the enemy's right shoulder. Similarly, the right lion's tooth cuts diagonally towards the enemy's left shoulder."

"The purpose of cutting off the shoulder is to cripple the enemy's arm. If the enemy has no armor, then you can cut all the way from the shoulder to the waist, leaving a huge wound on the enemy's upper body."

"Asker." Eleanor, who maintained her blocking posture, asked, "Is there any tactical difference between the left lion's tooth and the right lion's tooth? I mean except for the different directions."

"That's a good question." Ask said, "The difference between left and right involves the issue of handedness. For example, if the enemy is right-handed, then the long sword is usually hung on the left waist or carried on the right shoulder. If you attack If you use the right lion's tooth, then the opponent can easily block it when he draws the sword, but if you use the left lion's tooth, it will not be so easy to block."

The girls held the long swords and gestured to each other, and found that this was indeed the case.

"The fourth, fifth, and sixth styles are the eagle cut, the tiger cut, and the dragon cut respectively." Aska demonstrated the horizontal slash with his sword, while Eleanor calmly blocked with the vertical sword. "The difference is that the eagle cut The ones that are cut are the eyes, the tiger cut is from the neck to the chest, and the dragon cut is from the waist and abdomen."

"In terms of lethality, the tiger cut is greater than the dragon cut, and even greater than the eagle cut. The throat is the most lethal part, and as long as it is cut open, it will be seriously injured. Because of this, the enemy often focuses on defending the height of the neck, such as wearing a steel neck guard or something of."

"The height of the dragon cut is low, and it will cut open the abdomen and even leak out the internal organs, but it will not cause sudden death from suffocation in a short period of time once the trachea is cut like the tiger cut."

"The eagle cuts the eye, and its deterrence is greater than its lethality. Its usual function is to confuse the enemy's sight and judgment. Of course, if it can really hit the target, the enemy will be blind, and he will be as dead as if he were on the battlefield."

Nora raised her hand and curiously asked a question that had nothing to do with swordsmanship: "Eagle cut, tiger cut, and dragon cut. These three sword styles are named after three animals respectively. Is there any special allusion in them?"

"There is no allusion." Ask replied, "The eagle's talons are small, so it can only catch people's eyes. Tigers are usually used to biting the necks of their prey. The dragon's mouth is the largest, so it can only bite people in half, that's what it means."

"Seventh posture, fluttering wings, raising the long sword." Asik lowered his arm and pointed the long sword directly at the ground, but did not launch an attack. He just said, "Contrary to the sword path of Lion Tooth, the lethality of fluttering wings is not great. .”

"Its main function is a sneak attack - since the tip of your sword is pointed directly at the ground, the opponent doesn't know whether you will attack. Wing fluttering is generally used as a sneak attack to attack the enemy's lower body that is difficult to defend, such as fluttering wings and then attacking. Remember to stab the enemy in the ankle or calf."

"Will the bottom plate be more difficult to defend?" Paige asked thoughtfully.

"Of course, the further away from your eyes, the harder it is for you to see clearly the details and intentions of the enemy's attack." Asik replied, "And the attack aimed at your lower body is naturally the farthest from your eyes."

"The last eighth move, Swift Charge, is actually a straight thrust." Asker put away his sword, "This needs to be explained in detail. If the opponent is an enemy with light armor or no armor, then the lethality of Swift Strike is eight moves The largest among them is much more powerful than a lion's tooth."

"The reason is that, first, the sword path of the thrust is very short, and the short sword path means that the attack is quick; second, the wound it causes is very deep."

"Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Heavily armored enemies are almost immune to thrusts and can only be hit with armor-breaking weapons such as battle axes or maces. There is one weapon that is an exception, and that is the spear."

"Lances rarely have horizontal slashing actions. The only killing action is stabbing. Whether it is straight or diagonal, it takes the fastest and straightest path. In conjunction with the knight's high-speed charge, the armor-breaking effect of the spear is also great. Quite scary." Asik turned to look at Eleanor, nodded and said, "As for marksmanship, I will give you separate training in the future."

"Okay." Eleanor nodded.

"Then I've finished explaining the eight tactical moves." Asik finally said, showing his fangs as the "leader", "Now, everyone will practice the eight tactical moves for me a thousand times. Any movements that are not standard Yes, I will feed her the tricks myself."

"No!" the girls screamed.