The last large-scale battle on the Crescent Continent was already in the dusty history of who knows how long ago.
Even small-scale conflicts are basically concentrated in some border areas. Small wars like city-state versus city-state, lord versus lord, which happen almost every year or two, as the people of Rigar are used to, cannot be seen in most areas of this country.
What does peace mean?
At a broader level, it means steady population growth. Without war, the largest population-consuming sport invented by mankind, only natural disasters and food shortages caused by population explosion will remain, which will once again control the growth of the population.
From a narrower perspective that is closely related to our current environment - the long years of peace have obviously had a very significant impact on the warrior class of the Moon Kingdom.
The two sides fighting were a senior Kazuto samurai with a beard and high braids, and the young master Yajiro.
Henry and others came over from their camp, and some young Yi people who were interested in martial arts and fighting also came over, but most of them were still busy with their own affairs.
They surrounded the forest on one side, while the samurai and ashigaru gathered on the other side. The open space in the middle was the venue for the fight between the two.
Yajiro obviously likes this kind of martial arts competition. He holds the wooden sword skillfully and his stance is also very good.
The same was true for the other samurai. Both of them were lightly dressed, holding the tip of the wooden sword pointed at the opponent, vigilantly, but neither party took action immediately.
"It's a bit weird." The young master's posture is still very correct, but for some reason compared to when he fought against the sage that day, Mira always feels that the two of them look weird today.
"..." Henry glanced at her, but before she could tell, the two of them launched attacks separately.
"Pa!" He closed the distance, and then used small steps to control the distance. Yajiro launched the attack first but was immediately blocked by the opponent. He took a moment to glance here during the battle, and then he did not retreat in the Moon Kingdom's usual way and launched his attack again. Instead of retreating, he advanced forward according to Rigal's method. He deflected the samurai sword on the opposite side and struck at the same time. into his armpits.
"Baby! The young master wins." A samurai holding a long stick shouted loudly on the other side. He obviously existed as a referee or something like that.
"Ugh..." The warrior who was hit in the chest took a few steps back, rubbed his left armpit, then lowered his head and said, "I lose." Then he retreated to the rear.
"good!"
"As expected of the young master!"
A series of cheers erupted from the samurai behind him. He was defeated in just a moment because his opponent gave in. Yajiro reacted very quickly and used the foreign sword skills he learned from previous fights with sages. Facing an unfamiliar situation If someone is too slow, it is natural to lose.
The samurai seemed very proud. Even the defeated samurai with a beard looked at Yajiro with a look of relief and nodded repeatedly.
After only playing against Henry once, he quickly understood the key points of Rigal's blocking and applied it in actual confrontations, which proved that he is indeed talented and intelligent, and he is obviously a person who is willing to put in effort to study further.
It's just that this young man's character is still easy to understand. He glanced at Henry for a moment before taking action, and then looked over again arrogantly after using this technique to defeat the opponent's samurai. Yajiro was already close to using the weapon. It's written on his face.
"Next!" He turned around and called again, and another knight on horseback came out. This man had probably just become a knight on horseback, and his face looked very young, only a few years older than Yajiro.
"Please teach me, young master." The young man, who was slightly taller than Yajiro and about 1.7 meters tall, bowed, and then also assumed the posture of holding the sword. It's just that it's different from the middle position that Yajiro likes to use. He holds the sword in a higher position, obviously intending to take advantage of his relative height to attack from above.
The knowledgeable people present all judged this at a glance, and so did Yajiro, but he did not change his attitude. Firstly, the mid-position starting position is very balanced in both offense and defense. Secondly, even if he uses a high position starting position, because of the height difference, he will use his own shortcomings to defeat the enemy's strengths, which will lead to him being at a disadvantage.
——He understands where his own shortcomings are. At least when his opponent also uses the martial arts of the Moon Country, Yajiro knows how to deal with it.
When facing Henry before, the sage used a move that he had never seen before and didn't know how to deal with it. That situation was probably an isolated case. But although the martial arts skills of the foreign countries of the Southern Barbarians are indeed different, everyone is ambidextrous, and there is still not much difference in some basic routines.
Therefore, Yajiro's failure at that time was not entirely due to the gap in technical strength, but to the psychological level.
What he should do is to remain unchanged in the face of all changes. First wait for the sage to take action, and after confirming the attack distance and approximate moves, you can then find corresponding restraint techniques from the martial arts you have learned.
Of course, knowing this, whether our Mr. Sage will expose his attack distance and sword skills is also a question. But all in all, what Yajiro should never do is rush in blindly just to get rid of the uneasiness he felt because he had no idea about Henry's starting posture at that time. Without knowing how the opponent will use weapons, closing the distance is tantamount to ruining any chance of counterattack you may have.
He is still a young man and lacks the composure and calmness that an older swordsman should have. He controls the sword based on his own temperament rather than skill. Therefore, he might have been able to fight for another two or three rounds with normal performance, but due to impulsiveness And was easily knocked down.
But this situation obviously won't last forever.
Yajiro is a reflective person, he is not the classic incompetent young man who is blindly rebellious. He will think, learn, and change.
There is an old saying in the Kingdom of the Moon: "Those who have not seen each other for three days should be treated with admiration." Translated into the popular language of Rigar, it generally means that talented people will make great progress even if they have not seen each other for a while. Always holding on to the other person’s past mistakes and shortcomings.
Yajiro is obviously someone who fits this sentence.
Or maybe it was because the opponent he was fighting was a samurai he was very familiar with. After he realized that the young samurai opposite him had restrained himself, he did not attack directly like in the first round. He tentatively advanced and retreated a few times, always taking small steps in conjunction with his breathing, obviously still conserving his strength.
The two of them were swinging from side to side like a scale that was rising and falling together, and they closed the distance several times. However, Yajiro did not get close enough to launch an attack. He just tried to test it, and kept getting closer and ready to attack. But he didn't really attack.
——Compared to the previous battle with Henry, he has become much calmer.
This approach obviously worked after several times. The young samurai on the opposite side took the initiative to attack Yajiro by virtue of his larger physique. He also took small steps to close the distance. When he reached the attack distance, he extended his hands to the longest range with a large upward slash, and attacked Yajiro with the tip of the wooden sword.
The young master of the Qingtian family could only retreat because he was shorter and his arms were not as long as the opponent. If he had to fight for the attack distance, he would be hit before the weapon could reach the opponent.
But he didn't take a big step back immediately. Instead, he used small steps to avoid the attack at the extreme distance, and then closed the distance again from the side.
——This is a tactic developed to take advantage of the shortcomings of the upper attack. Although the upper attack is powerful and heavy, the movement of raising your hands above your head is obvious and large, which means you can be prepared to dodge in advance and seize the time. Close the distance before the opponent's sword is withdrawn——
But with such a flaw, the Kazuto samurai naturally had a way to solve it. Before the young katana struck the sword to the end, he immediately turned his wrist and turned it into a diagonal thrust, and then struck again at the young master who was planning to charge from the side.
"It's a flash!"
"Okay, Ayong, your swordsmanship has improved a lot!" There was another burst of admiration among the onlookers, and Yajiro turned around and blocked the young samurai Yong with a click of the wooden sword in his hand. of combos.
"Crack-" The wooden swords with smooth surfaces slid apart after they touched each other. Yajiro once again used small steps to distance himself, and then used a very small step to attack Yong's head while the wooden sword was still in the middle position. department.
"Drink——!" The young samurai raised his weapon and rushed back to defend. However, due to this action, the foot on Yajiro's side lost its defense. The young master did not use the wooden sword swung with great force to hit him. He turned around and immediately pulled back and hit his calf, and then struck Yong on the chest with another knife while he was off balance.
"Hey! The young master wins." The samurai in charge of the referee shouted again.
"oh!"
"As expected, the young master is still stronger!"
These successive attacks looked so fierce that even the barbarians, the doctor, the oiran, the missionary, and the young man named Galeva who were standing here to watch were all stunned.
"I lose." The young warrior rubbed his sore calves and stood up. And Yajiro turned back to glance at Henry again, with a face full of provocation.
"...It's so weird." Our little Luoan girl frowned. Although this scene looked really entertaining, she always felt an indescribable sense of disobedience in it.
The swords are dazzling, the movements are smart, and the attack distance between the two parties is also just right.
The strengths and weaknesses of Yajiro and Isamu are very clear, but——
It just looks like something is wrong.
The sage noticed Mira's thoughtful expression, so he calmly said:
"Imagine replacing the weapons in their hands with real swords."
"Ah?" The Luoan girl tilted her head and looked confused.
"Ah——!" followed by a sudden realization.
"No wonder it looks so strange." The white-haired girl said this, and because the two of them did not avoid suspicion and used Avenella in their discussion, the warriors who stopped for the time being and did not continue the contest all looked at her. Submitted.
"What kind of southern barbarian are you talking about? If you have any opinions, just say it." Although the bearded warrior who looked relatively rough could not understand Avenela, it could be seen from his expression that the two of them were not the same. While admiring Yajiro's skills, he was very unhappy, frowned and spoke to this side.
"If you switch to a real sword, the beautiful technique just now won't work." The sage switched to the language of the Moon Country, shrugged and said this.
"Ah?!" "What are you talking about, you southern barbarian?" "Are you looking for trouble?" "Don't, don't, don't argue, he is the one who defeated the young master -" Miscellaneous discussions sounded one after another, But Yajiro unexpectedly did not get angry. He raised his hand to stop the samurai, and then for the first time in a long time since he was beaten for provocation yesterday, he actively spoke to the sage and said:
"Can you tell me more specifically?" The young master's tone was still a little arrogant and stiff, but it could be seen that his ambition to improve his sword skills exceeded his arrogant self-esteem.
"You guys are on a scoring system, right." The sage raised a finger, and Yajiro nodded. Others who could understand the language of the Moon Country also looked at Henry.
"I have been here before, so I probably know your fighting style." Henry continued.
"Because of the years of peace, warriors need to keep their skills in using weapons from being wasted. But they can't always use real swords in every fight, because that will lead to bloodshed and casualties, which will lead to hatred."
"A large number of people died in a competition on a peaceful day. Normal people would think that such an activity is problematic." The sage gradually began to convince the public, including samurai and foot soldiers, with his understanding of all this in his narrative. Everyone inside and outside nodded in agreement and listened quietly.
"But how do you choose a winner without killing someone, or even better, without injuring someone?" He continued: "That is to draw up a series of hits based on the vital parts of the human body and the like. Even if it’s a fatal score. Am I right?”
"Yes, it is forbidden to attack the head because it is too easy to kill someone. The limbs and torso are used as scoring points, with the torso being the most important." Yajiro nodded and replied.
"So this is the problem." Henry's eyes narrowed: "You may not have noticed this problem yourself, but my lovely disciple has never been exposed to this kind of competition, so she noticed it."
"What will happen when the purpose of wielding a weapon changes from 'killing the opponent' to 'touching and scoring'?" The sage shrugged: "It originally required a long stride to use the strength of the calf and waist to slash. The attack has become a more flexible use of small steps. The swinging movement has also become very light in order to increase the reaction speed."
"In other words, because the purpose is just to score, and scoring only requires hits. Unknowingly, in order to win, you forgot." He said word by word:
"How to kill with a real sword."
"Because you can win by scoring as long as you touch your opponent, it has become a race of speed. In order to pursue speed, wooden instruments that are only half the weight of real swords have been lightweighted; in order to pursue speed, they cannot even hold the sword properly. , without mobilizing the strength of the waist, calves, shoulders and arms, or even just using a little strength on the wrist, because as long as you touch it, you will score. Unlike a real sword, unlike the swordsmanship of killing the enemy, you need to consider whether your attack will cause damage. If there are enough wounds, will it be enough to knock down the opponent?"
"Everything is just for the pursuit of flexibility and speed. If you can touch the designated position and score, you will win. Therefore, the swordsmanship has also changed its shape unconsciously."
"No matter how nice it sounds, no matter how gorgeous it looks." Henry shrugged: "This kind of thing is just a sport."
"...."
"..." The warriors fell silent.
It's like mocking someone directly in his face. Of course, it's not that our Mr. Sage has a bad character. Although the Luoan girl who understood all this couldn't help but rolled her eyes and said silently "Mr. Sage is such a terrible adult", but what he said sounded so unpleasant precisely because it hit the nail on the head. The ground hit home.
There was nothing they could do about it. After all, they needed to determine who would win in some way without actually killing anyone.
If the two parties fighting with wooden swords hit too hard, the opponent will be broken or disabled, and there will inevitably be resentment. In the case of samurai families who are intertwined with each other, an injury to one person may lead to the death of two big families or two. There was a feud between the territories.
Swordsmanship is a killing skill, but you want this skill to not become rusty and lost, and you don't want anyone to die or be seriously injured in the confrontation.
No matter how you put it, it doesn't make sense.
"You southern barbarian!" "What nonsense are you talking about!"
But even if the truth is right, the samurai obviously cannot accept it in terms of self-esteem.
"Here we go again." Mira sighed, and the passionate warriors rushed towards the sage.
