Based on the first impression based solely on appearance, outsiders always tend to think that the long swords used by Kazuto samurai are very boring. The same rolled handles, the same tangs, the same sizes and shapes.
To a certain extent, there is nothing wrong with this view - as a country that has been unified for more than four thousand years, the knives commonly used in the Moon Kingdom do have a high degree of consistency. Compared with the east coast of Rigar, the west coast has simple guard designs, and the sizes range from slender stabbing swords to broad-bladed slashing swords, from one-handed swords to half-handed swords to long swords and even large swords. Generally speaking, Watanabe swords, which are generally about one meter in length and used with both hands, do lack personality.
Kazuto is not without other weapons, ranging from a large bow to a half bow, a naginata, a wild sword, a large spear for foot combat, blunt weapons, and a golden rod. But when it comes to sidearms, this country with a highly unified culture, including the military, is indeed difficult to compare with the unity of many small countries with different customs in the Rigal continent.
But this conclusion is still not completely correct.
Just like anything else that seems very simple and brainless at first glance, in fact, it is precisely because of the sophisticated calculations and rich experience accumulation behind it that it can present this kind of result that looks the same at first glance but has different results upon closer inspection.
The same length and hilt means you can seamlessly switch to a found weapon using the same technique. A Rigal adventurer who is accustomed to using long swords will definitely be in a hurry if he picks up a one-handed sword, but if the Kazuto samurai's sword is damaged during the battle, he only needs to pick up someone else's sword and continue to use it. This is a weapons distribution system implemented with "country" and "army" as the standard units. Although because of the long-term peace, even Kazuto himself no longer remembers the original reason, they just continue to do this according to inertia.
Depending on the target, the blade of the Japanese long knife can also be different.
——Just like the latest one our Luoan girl got.
Mira actually doesn't like fighting with others.
Rigar's standard half-hand sword or long sword is basically about 110-130 centimeters in length. And Kazuto's waist sword is always shorter than them, which makes Rigar's swordsman background have to adapt to a shorter attack distance. Moreover, the blade of the sword can only passively block the opponent's attack on the hand. When using the "simultaneity" technique of Rigar's advanced sword skills - which means using the hand guard to jam the opponent's weapon and thrust forward while defending - Sometimes, because the gauntlet is too small, there is always the risk that the opponent's weapon will escape from the jam and hit you.
But the most important thing is that the Kazuto Nagato is generally lacking in the ability to pierce harder targets due to the way it is made.
The shape that is best at piercing is the spear type. With a ridge in the middle and bevels on both sides, the tip of this weapon is minimally hindered when it penetrates the target. Therefore, it is suitable for light armor such as leather that cannot cause effective damage when slashing. A thrust with the appropriate weapon can cause effective damage.
Double-edged Rigal swords generally have this characteristic, while the thick back of single-edged knives brings stronger cutting ability but often at the expense of thrusting ability.
In the hands of Rigal swordsmen who make extensive use of stabbing skills, the Japanese long sword that focuses more on cutting can only be said to be barely suitable.
But not all knives are meant to be this way.
The blade, as bright as water, was carefully polished to be almost like a mirror. She held it with one hand close to the blade, while her left hand pressed the palm of her hand against the end of the handle.
The wind blew through the swamp, and the reeds were pressed low. Next to it, there was another relatively short grass with white flowers and slender green leaves with pointed ends, like long swords.
This flower is called calamus.
This type of long knife, which is good at piercing, is named after the shape of its leaves.
Made of calamus.
"Huh-" "Bah-tap!" While exhaling, he turned the heel of his left foot, stepped out with his right foot, pressed his whole body forward, and then moved his hands straight with the impact of the step to touch the green leaves. Very similar blades are sent out.
"Puff--" The hard horny shell was pierced and pierced by the extremely destructive tip of the knife. Then Mira forcefully pulled the tip of the knife back while continuing to push the subsequent blade forward to use it. The gaping hole amplified the injury.
Dark red blood mixed with black liquid began to flow.
"Galaiva!" she shouted, and the stupid green man on the side rushed over from the side with a big shield and slammed the severely injured monster to the ground.
"Drink!" The tall Suomir descendant was comparable to the ghost clan when it came to using heavy weapons. He directly smashed the head of the fallen monster, but before he could take a breath, Mira pulled him aside. .
"Bang!" Another shriveled monster fell down. Its twisted finger bones swelled and stretched out, and the skin on the fingertips transformed into bone claws. Just now, it swooped and tried to scratch Galeva with it. Leng Tou Qing was not wearing armor, not to mention that this thing might be poisonous.
"Pah - pah -" Henry slashed the monster's head with one hand without looking at it. The withered body instantly collapsed to the ground like a puppet that had lost control, and was among the crowd together with several other attacking monsters. lost the ability to move under simultaneous attacks.
The few that strayed here have been dealt with, and the group can temporarily relax and observe the situation, but they still maintain a tight formation to prevent these agile things from attacking from other directions.
The monster's ribs and spine are in the form of an emaciated human being, both protruding from the gray-green skin. Its pure black pupils cannot be distinguished from the whites of the eyes, but for some reason, one can feel endless hatred for the living. All of this, including the black bodily fluid, struck some people in the team as very familiar, perhaps with just one difference.
"Too weak." Yajiro next to him said. These monsters, which looked like ghouls, were almost incomparable to the one they encountered originally, except for their slightly stronger vitality. For Mira, this is also very different from those she encountered in Rigal in the past. Although it was a long time ago, and our Luoan girl has made great progress in combat, she is still afraid of those ghouls who were stabbed by several spears and could still rush over and attack humans. deep impression.
But in addition to having the same disgusting stench of body odor and relatively tenacious bodies and vitality, the difference between these things and those ghouls is as big as the difference between catching an ordinary swordsman and Henry.
——Can’t stand the overwhelming number.
"Monsters, monsters!" The ronin under Ryunosuke's command were obviously in a panic. Some of the Buddha-eaters even recited scriptures in an attempt to rely on the power of faith to make them retreat. Although the armor they wore was enough to withstand these weak attacks, the underworld creatures that seemed to climb out of the Santu River greatly frightened the hearts of the warriors. In addition, several of them had their heads chopped off but were still showing their teeth and claws. Even though there were more people, their results could not be compared with Henry's side.
Ghouls, whose number was roughly equal to that of the Ronin, surrounded the Ronin troops like a pack of wolves, constantly moving forward to test and attack from time to time, while the Ronin defended themselves in a tight circular formation.
The dilapidated camp and several large lifeless sailing ships floating next to it all told that this was undoubtedly the location of Saburo's base camp. After successive attacks on the backbone troops, Henry judged that the time had come, so they launched a general attack, but they ran into it. What they saw was not the chaotic bandits as expected, but a group of monsters hiding in the reeds and watching eagerly.
These new types of ghouls, who are hunched over like skinny old men, retain more human shapes than those encountered in the past. They also have no sense of pain and are extremely fierce. Their strong physical abilities and crazy offensive instincts like wild animals make these things It can be used against well-trained warriors one-on-one without falling behind - although this is much weaker than the kind encountered in the Padrosi Empire in the past that required a long-pole infantry squad to deal with, considering the densely packed However, the number still made it impossible for the group to escape within a short period of time.
The wind and rain were coming, causing the white hair of the Luoan girl to flutter along with her robe. Henry stood on the other side. The ghost seemed to be afraid of Kramer and did not dare to step forward, but he did not venture forward alone.
"Change the formation, back up the sailboat, and spread out in a fan shape!" The circular formation is suitable for defense, but its consumption is very detrimental to one's own morale. Ryunosuke quickly ordered a change of formation, allowing the team to rely on the sailboat on the waterside to concentrate their combat power in the front. .
"The Lancers come forward, don't be afraid, anything that bleeds can be killed. Archers, fire slowly and freely, save your energy and arrows!" Although this is the first enemy he has seen, Ryunosuke said Still calmly commanding his team. After he judged that these things resembled wolves, he let the archers shoot freely instead of cluster projection-the latter was more useful when dealing with humans marching in dense formations, but was less effective against scattered enemies.
"Prepare to charge and flank them." After seeing Ryunosuke change their formation, Narumi and Henry also made a decision. Although they did not have war horses, the small high ground occupied by the group could charge even on foot. It's a big help.
The heavily armored Ronin troops and Henry's group of Rangers were at a 90-degree angle - this was the formation set up according to the initial battle plan: Henry and the others would attack the camp first, causing chaos and diverting attention, and then Ryunosuke's heavy armor The ronin swarmed forward in an attempt to destroy morale in one fell swoop.
But after arriving, they found that the enemy had changed and their tactics became conservative. However, they were now cooperating with Ryunosuke's offensive and defensive fan formation, and after the main ronin force attracted the attention of a large number of ghouls, they also quickly Take a chance.
"Cone formation." Henry said, and the warrior leader nodded.
"Kaleva, come here." The sage was just a few centimeters shorter than him, and he carried the 9-kilogram shield like a chicken.
"The forwards are me, Joshua and Galeva. Arrange the flanks and tail." The tapered formation requires attention to the peripheral combat capabilities, so personnel who are good at close combat are placed on the periphery, but in the final analysis, their team Currently, the only ones who are not good at close combat are Lulu who followed and Narumi who had an injured hand.
The relatively loose formation used Henry as the forward and Galeva and Joshua on both sides behind him to expand the victory. After they established their goal, Narumi took out the bamboo whistle hanging on his waist: "Beep--Beep-Beep." ——Beep——” One long, two short and one long, Ryunosuke, who was surrounded by heavily armored ronin, immediately looked over. After seeing their formation, the former county magistrate realized their purpose.
"Friendly troops are approaching from the west, be careful not to accidentally injure them with arrows!" He immediately informed his subordinate Ronin: "The archers will attack both sides, and the three spearmen will cooperate with the friendly troops in the charge!"
"Ha!" The Ronins responded to Ryunosuke's instructions. Although these demons made them panic at first, as a warrior who has fought many battles, he can regain his status in the battle as long as he acts quickly.
One soldier is raging, and the general is raging in a nest. The most feared thing when facing an unknown situation is that the commander panics and fails to give instructions, and everyone does not know what to do. If caught in this situation, it is only a matter of time before the morale of the entire unit collapses.
"Tap-ta-" The distance of tens of meters has the advantage of a slope, and the charging speed on foot is very fast.
"Huh——" The big sword lowered, and then he made a diagonal move along with his steps.
"Ouch——!" The ghoul whose attention was originally focused on Ronin turned around and roared but stopped abruptly. Half of the upper body was cut open, but Henry's second sword had already cut it out before it hit the ground.
When he swung diagonally to the middle, he held the sword in both hands and changed the angle, and then used a huge horizontal slash to kill three ghouls at the same time.
"Ha, haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. The chop also killed two heads.
"Spread to both sides!" Narumi gave the order loudly. After they dug in in a cone-shaped formation, they did not penetrate. Instead, they spread to both sides to further disperse the ghouls who were besieging Ronin from behind. .
"Third team, charge!" The former county magistrate also immediately issued the order. The heavily armed ronsons holding spears on the west side cooperated with the charge of Henry and his party and also stepped forward to attack, directly massacring the ghouls between the two parties. After that, they immediately spread to both sides.
"Team 1 and 2, follow up!" After beating the ghouls, Ryunosuke immediately put in the remaining troops.
"Archers, draw your sword!"
"Ha!" The archer, whose bow and arrows were slightly worn out, also quickly put the bow behind his back and drew out his sword under his command.
"Come forward!" The big spear stabbed and the long knife slashed. Blood mixed with black liquid and the monster's limbs flew everywhere. Although many of the tenacious ghouls were still flexing their teeth and claws even after half of their bodies were gone, the ronin who had grasped the key point of the head and neck also cooperated with each other and used their heavy armor to Taking the advantage, he stomped on the chest and while the opponent scratched desperately, he used his waist knife to kill these monsters at close range.
The battle came to an end quickly. The panting Ronin and Henry and his party checked the ghouls that were still active and quickly performed the last hit. Many of the Ronin happily celebrated their victory loudly. This atmosphere affected A Yong and others and made them smile.
But Henry, Narumi, and Ryunosuke, the actual planners, all frowned in unison.
"How many followers do Saburo have?" Narumi suddenly said.
"The specific situation cannot be determined, but based on previous intelligence and estimates made during the operation, if everything goes well, there will be at least five hundred people." Henry answered this way. Ronin and ninja are not only Saburo's confidants, but also responsible for his subordinates. Sit down and control the existence of these rogue bandits. Preserve the strength and focus on killing the key members, so that the undisciplined bandits can burst out and loot the treasure after losing control. It is precisely because they have a deep understanding of the psychology of these low-level gangsters that they formulated this operation.
Although if these people are dispersed within Pingshan County, the subsequent processing will be more troublesome, but no matter what, the scattered small bandits are less threatening than the unified force.
There are many other things they can do. Maybe they should ask for help from Pingshan County. If there are thousands of rogues, the samurai will send regular troops. However, due to the distrust of the low operating efficiency of the bureaucracy and the delicate atmosphere between the Ryunosuke Ronin Group and the regular Chinese people, the result may not necessarily be better if they really choose to do this.
The information was obtained after interrogating the captured ninjas. Before entering here, the enemies they expected were at most two to three hundred rogue bandits with low combat effectiveness. Judging from the current encounter, choosing to attack as soon as possible may be the right decision.
"There are about one hundred and fifty...monsters here. Sir, do you think--" Narumi hesitated. The outline of a human could be clearly seen on the body of the ghoul, and there were also hangings on part of the body. Wearing tattered clothes, some of them can even distinguish the characteristics of men and women - although most of them are men.
"You two are saying that these are converted by humans?" Ryunosuke looked a little flustered. He touched the pipe on his body, then remembered that the tobacco was soaked due to the previous wading, and he shook his hand a little irritably. Give up.
"It's possible, but on this scale." Henry took out the magic stone from his pocket, looked around after firing it, and finally threw it in the direction of the sailboat.
"Bangcha——" The magic stone made by the druid is composed of pure magic power. Just like a person with magic power in the body will have a stress reaction when faced with a high concentration of magic power in the periphery - often manifested as illness and fever - the magic stone There will also be a counteracting reaction due to external magic.
Magic stones that match the user's wavelength can create a more stable environment in a harmful magic environment at the expense of consuming its own stored magic power. And when faced with these harmful magic stones, magic stones that are fired will——
"Bang -" A dazzling blue light flashed, followed by a dense and creepy sound of footsteps inside the sailboat.
It was like there were countless people running around the cabin at the same time.
"Get your people back quickly." Henry immediately said to Ryunosuke.
"Everyone, retreat!" Even though the former county magistrate didn't know what happened, he listened to him and acted quickly.
"Prepare rockets and torches to burn those ships."
"It's just a half-baked thing, but I didn't expect it."
The sage spoke word by word.
"He really opened the door."
