In the early swordsmanship lectures in the world of Rigar, the part related to "timing" of a sword fight was classified into "three kinds of time".
These three are "body time", "shoulder time", and "hand time".
The so-called body time refers to mobilizing the whole body, lowering the center of gravity, and performing powerful slashes and other large-scale attacks while taking steps; while shoulder time refers to using the shoulder as the pivot point of the arm as the benchmark. Without moving the waist and lower limbs - that is, it refers to an attack where you stand still and only swing with your arms.
The last hand time, and so on, naturally refers to not even moving the shoulders, and only using the smallest range of the wrist to move the sword in the hand.
These three types of time are sorted from large to small - the fewer parts that need to be mobilized, the faster the natural movement will be and the less time it will take. Therefore, the technique taught in this handout is naturally to "use shoulder time to respond to the opponent's body time, and use hand time to respond to the opponent's shoulder time."
——How to judge whether the opponent is a trained swordsman or a wild man, this kind of details is the basis.
After a confrontation and testing, both sides distanced themselves.
The goal of the swordsman in the hat is to prevent Henry from attacking his fallen companion, while the goal of the sage is to protect his companion.
This is not a situation where they can fight one on one to their heart's content, because there are more people around and there are quite a few issues to worry about.
This kind of tacit understanding between experienced combat professionals makes it obvious that opponents often look like partners to others.
"Huh--" The Kazuto katana in the hand of the swordsman wearing a bamboo hat is not a common fighting sword today, but a rather classical tachi from the top of the sword. This kind of knife with a larger blade curvature was first used for horse fighting. The blade is curved and the handle is also curved in the opposite direction, so that it can be stable and not let go when cutting downwards while riding a horse.
After foot combat swordsmanship received more and more attention, the handle of the tachi began to lengthen and tend to become straight. The final evolved form is today's katana. The sword in this man's hand cannot be told whether it is a custom-made samurai who prefers to be retro or whether it is a transitional form from hundreds of years ago. In short, it is longer than an ordinary sword, and with the height and arms of a swordsman in a hat, it can be used in head-to-head combat. Not that he would be at a disadvantage in front of Kramer.
His question was a bit strange, because there were a lot of people beaten down by Henry lying on the ground, and anyone could see at a glance that the person who attacked his companion was indeed a sage, but he still consulted.
Several people who were faster at the tutorial quickly came over and helped up the rogue bandits who were lying on the ground. At the same time, more and more people were surrounding them. In addition to the guy slowly walking out of the woods, there was also a group of people on the road, many of whom were riding horses.
This group of people is obviously very different from the previous bandits. Even if about 70% of the group of more than 150 people are wearing armor, it is enough to judge from the details of their physique and clothing that they are the companions of Narumi and others - —Samurai and Ashigaru configurations.
"It's Ronin." Although Narumi saw his colleagues, he was not happy. The other party does not have any family crest or symbol indicating that he serves the Chinese clan. Although he has a horse and is ready to go, a samurai who does not serve his master is the most dangerous existence in today's Japanese society.
In particular, they were lined with spears, each man had a sword, and they were hauling supplies and baggage.
"It's a hornet's nest." Lao Qiao looked worried. The opponent's number was more than ten times theirs, and the advantages they had in personnel quality and equipment quality when facing hungry bandits were gone. These people are also warriors and have good equipment. They may even have more practical combat experience than them.
"Leave it to Lord Chigui." The person who seemed to be the leader gave the order. They didn't seem to intend to swarm up and annihilate everyone here. This kind of luxury from top to bottom is like charity. If the full-blooded A Yong was not lying down due to diarrhea at this moment, he would definitely draw his sword and step forward with anger.
In the world of samurai, honor is everything. The opponent had the advantage in strength but did not swarm them. Instead, it was left to the swordsman in the hat to fight the sage one on one. No one knows what kind of intention this is, so it cannot be taken lightly.
"Master Shura, come on!"
The morale of the newcomers seemed to be much higher than that of Henry and his party, who had some minor frictions internally. Many ronin were cheering for the swordsman in a hat from behind, and it seemed that they had considerable confidence in this person.
The swordsman in the hat moved his head slightly, probably because he heard the voice behind him. He did not speak, nor did he turn around - which further proved that this man's level was really not low.
What is the most likely situation that will occur when a person with swordsmanship but no actual combat experience goes to the battlefield?
Being timid and unable to perform is actually only a minority. Like Yajiro before, most of the reasons are actually nervousness caused by nervousness.
The grass and trees are all soldiers, and they are overly nervous. He was unable to reasonably judge the degree of danger of the situation and kept tensing his muscles before taking action. On the contrary, when he wanted to swing the sword, he became tired and numb due to long-term nerve tension and could not keep up with the rhythm.
In this case, turning your head subconsciously when hearing a sound is also a very common mistake.
Therefore, it is easy to judge the aura of veterans on the battlefield - like the two people on the field, they will not assume a tense posture before the fight starts, but will be relaxed and natural but at the same time listen and see all directions. attitude. He conserves his physical strength, but always ensures that he faces the enemy head-on.
It seems to be full of flaws, but in reality there are no flaws.
Henry understood it deeply, and so did a few others in the group present.
This relaxed and unprepared posture is a hunter's trap, an illusion of entrapment, because in this level of duel, every ounce of physical strength can be converted into a small advantage for victory.
This is the reason why novice swordsmen often lose against experienced swordsmen. They rush to attack, their breathing is disrupted, and they think they have the upper hand, but in fact their physical energy is consumed. The sword in his hand became slower and heavier, and in the end he was easily defeated by the opponent without consuming much physical energy.
"Huh--" Henry took the first action and disappeared in one stride. He had no choice. The opponent had an overwhelming advantage in numbers. This kind of margin could only be shown when there was sufficient threat. He could only choose to attack first.
"Wha—" The 1.5-meter-long sword made a sharp sound of breaking through the air and fell with a very standard slash. The sage did not get too close to the opponent's space but launched an attack at the maximum attack distance.
The opponent clearly judged this, because he stepped back with his heels and opened up the distance, without retreating too far in one breath - he had obviously realized the power of Kramer in the previous confrontation, so he did not There was no direct block, but Henry's attack was not ended in one go. Halfway through the Kasaya's slash, the sage twisted his wrist and changed it to a horizontal slash, which forced the opponent to retreat to a wider range and crouch down to dodge.
"Wonderful." Although they were surrounded by people, Narumi and others still couldn't take their eyes off this battle that seemed ordinary to outsiders.
"This person's actual combat experience is not inferior to that of sir." The great master nodded: "His sword skills and timing judgment, and he has a perfect grasp of the opponent's sword length and attack distance. But the most important thing is his control of his own physical strength."
"At first, he used an unsuspecting induction posture to make the opponent attack, and then the dodge was carried out within the smallest range based on his rich experience."
"In this way, you don't withdraw too much to ensure that your opponent is always within your attack range and can counterattack at any time. Secondly, you can conserve your physical strength."
"If it were us, we would probably be out of breath as we dodge and block at will like teasing a newbie. In the end, when our physical strength is reduced by half and the sword is getting heavier and slower, we will lose easily." Lao Qiao He shook his head, his tone somewhat unwilling.
"Is this the difference between actual combat and martial arts competition..." Yajiro sighed. He had watched Henry's battle and his own experience along the way, and now he was watching the duel between the two swordsmen. , he finally realized this.
There can be an intermission in the duel. To devote all your energy to fighting in a duel is a virtue that warriors have always sung, and it is also a sign of respect for their opponents.
But actual combat is different.
In a real battlefield, the winner takes all, and no one will tell you the details of the rules. Bows and arrows will be consumed, and swords will chip, curl, break, bend, or become dull. After an enemy is knocked down, you may immediately face another enemy. If you don't know how to save your physical strength to protect your equipment, win with the minimum cost, and invest everything in the first enemy in one go, you will soon follow him. Footsteps turned into corpses.
This is not a skill that can be learned by swinging a sword in the air in the practice range or knocking down an opponent in a polite one-on-one duel in the combat ring. This is a skill that can only be acquired by experienced swordsmen who have been on the battlefield.
A fighter's calculation.
——Henry directly saw through the other party's plan. It was the right decision to preserve physical strength and just dodge to consume one's physical energy. It must have been based on judgment of Kramer's size and weight that he decided to dodge more than fight. The larger the weapon, the more destructive it is, but the greater the consumption of use. When facing this kind of opponent, if you don't have the confidence to fight head-on, consuming its physical energy is also a way to weaken it.
——In that case.
Then just dodge enough.
The sword was raised, resting on the shoulder.
"It's an iron butterfly." It was a standard starting move, but when the Luoan girl said this word, the swordsman in the bamboo hat opposite seemed to move, but before he could have any other reaction, the sage dropped the sword in his hand.
Being able to practice all eighty-four sword skills from beginning to end is the minimum standard for a Suomir great swordsman.
Choosing the right combination of techniques from the eighty-four moves to deal with different situations is a level that can only be achieved by a master.
It started with a slash, but was followed by more horizontal and oblique slashes.
Mira could see Henry's plan at a glance - because both sides were standing, Kramer's slash could be regarded as a line attack. If it was a vertical slash, she only needed to dodge slightly to the side. It can be avoided to the smallest extent, but horizontal slashing is different. Unless you squat down or directly withdraw from the attack range, you can't avoid it perfectly.
And since squatting will affect subsequent movements, all the opponent can do is to take long steps back.
In a very short moment of less than a second, the sage judged the opponent's intention, and adapted Iron Butterfly's combo to use his tricks to make the opponent dodge.
The battle fell into his rhythm, with efficient and concise slashes followed by forcing the opponent to make huge jumps and dodges that were very energy-consuming. And because of Iron Butterfly's attack speed, he didn't even have room to think about other actions.
"Dang——Clang!!" So of course, in order to break the deadlock, the swordsman in the hat had to raise his sword to forcefully block Henry's slash.
"Buzz--" The high-quality Kazuto long sword whined under Claymer's sword strike, and the opponent immediately began a fierce counterattack after blocking the sage's attack. He did not adopt the common practice of retreating to distance himself from others and then rushing to attack, because he knew that it would be easier to use distance with a weapon like a sword.
The swordsman in the bamboo hat used the skill of biting the sword and wiped the long knife in his hand against Claymore like Henry. The sage did not retreat but advanced. While stepping forward, he raised his big arm and clamped it under his armpit. The opponent's long knife.
The opponent who realized that the weapon was restricted immediately twisted the sword in his hand with the intention of using the blade to carve out the flesh to cause damage. However, Henry's action was to release one hand and the other hand to immediately hold Kramer's back and use the inverted V-shaped guard from top to bottom. It jammed the opponent's knife like a fork.
"Chang——!" The swordsman in the bamboo hat immediately drew out his long sword, sparks flew everywhere, and the two separated again.
"Okay!" Earth-shaking cheers erupted from the Ronin group. Although it lasted for a very short time, such a high-level sword fight was rare for them to see in their lives.
The leader looked around silently, and the swordsman, who had not taken off his hat during the fierce battle, also remained silent for a long time.
He stood motionless, but the sage did not take advantage of the victory to pursue him, but just watched leisurely.
"Your weapons are not like those from the Moon Country." He said.
"Your swordsmanship is not Japanese." Henry shrugged.
"I know a guy who uses a sword similar to yours."
"I also know a person who has bad eyesight and is very fast with his sword."
"Pa." The Luoan girl suddenly slapped her forehead.
Henry shrugged and let Kramer hang down.
The swordsman in the bamboo hat untied the cotton rope from his chin and took off the bamboo hat on his head.
"No wonder he's called Chi Gui, he really has red hair -" Old Qiao made a sound of sudden realization.
"Southern barbarians." Yajiro stared blankly, and only managed to squeeze out these few words for a long time.
The sage looked at this old friend and spoke softly.
"Long time no see. It seems you went to a very far place along the sea."
"Joshua."
