The fighting ideas of unarmed combatants are different from those of swordsmen.
Because when both sides fight with fists, you can close the distance and deliver a fatal blow based on the premise of "dodge or withstand the attack."
Pure dodge in sword fighting is almost as undesirable as jumping, because whether you retreat or move to the side to distance yourself, your opponent will have the opportunity to pursue you. Even in Kazuto's arena, this act of voluntarily giving up attack is still extremely deadly, and it is even more obvious in a life-and-death fight.
Therefore, swordsmen with a professional background, whether from New Moon Continent or Rigal, after learning the basic starting techniques, fight with fellow disciples or their own masters to practice their judgment of positioning and timing.
The first thing to learn.
It’s about identifying and eliminating threats.
Even the soldiers at the lowest level know that the most basic skills in fighting with swords are blocking and counterattacking, but they often cannot give detailed reasons why they should block first and then counterattack.
People who fight on the street can take a punch and a kick, and rely on their physical strength to close the distance and fight back based on the attack.
But sword fighting is not possible.
The powerful destructive ability of sharp weapons to physical tissue means that if a mortal underestimates the threat of the edge, he will easily end up dead.
Therefore, skilled swordsmen often do not have particularly flashy and eye-catching skills. Instead, they can think calmly and carefully observe the opponent's equipment and posture to determine which movements are the most threatening, and then use the most reliable basic skills that have been honed over time to eliminate the threat. .
But precisely because of this, when the enemy's martial arts style or equipment exceeds their inherent knowledge and they still maintain a certain arrogance and think that they can conquer the world with one move, they will look like those Japanese swordsmen before. Our Luoan girl also died in defeat with an expression of disbelief.
Only by knowing yourself and the enemy can you be victorious in every battle.
——The coming one resembles a tauren, or as Henry calls the druids: "horned beasts, horned ones."
This kind of humanoid creature of unknown origin is widely distributed in the deep mountains and old forests of Rigar and Crescent Continent. There are very ancient legends and records about them in various countries. They have many differences in body shape and shape, some have deer-like antlers, and some have sheep-like antlers. What they all have in common is that they all have hooves and some form of horns. The tauren that Henry and his party had encountered in the past were considered to be the larger species. These upright beasts were even larger than the ghosts, powerful and terrifying.
However, the horned beasts encountered after straying into the inner world again were not as terrifying as their close relatives. The largest among them was about the same height as the sage - but these things must not be underestimated just because of the shrinkage in size.
Because their reduced size brings a more ferocious and proactive personality, their aggressiveness and tenacious vitality are the same as those of ghouls, making them much more dangerous.
Aya, who carefully observed Mira's body while she was in coma, came to the conclusion that "this is definitely not a creature that would exist in our world."
The hands of these horned beings look similar to humans at first glance, but the muscle outlines of the large and small arm bones are very different. The palm is a weird six-fingered palm with a pair of thumbs separated in the middle so that it can be held opposite each other.
Their heads have a pair of twisted and bifurcated horns that grow forward to protect their necks and faces. Two pairs of eyes chasing the light of the blood moon are arranged in parallel, providing a wider field of vision than humans. The thick hooves with sharp claws on the edges firmly grip the mud without slipping on the ground.
In the previous battles, these horned ones were even more difficult to deal with than the crude, unspecialized ghouls, because under the thick hair that exuded the smell of beasts, there was a layer of skin that was as thick as leather armor. Crusty.
A lighter sword would even have to cut twice at the same place to damage the underlying muscles. The bow in Lulu's hand would have to be close and aimed at softer skin such as the neck to penetrate.
Although any non-metallic defense was still ineffective under Claymer's sharp edge, they still caused a lot of trouble when Mira was unconscious and absent, and there were only 4 combatants including Lulu.
Fortunately, the armor they purchased in Xinjing had an excellent defensive effect, and neither the ghouls nor the minions of these horned men could cause substantial damage.
——But that’s not necessarily the case this time.
When these new horned beings came out of the woods and gradually entered the group's field of vision, the first word that everyone thought of to describe them was "well-equipped."
The torsos of a total of 7 horned beasts are covered with weathered bronze armor with strange runes, which indicates that they should have at least some city-state level of civilization, and the halberd or long-handled sword in their hands is even by human standards. The review also said it was well made.
They moved in unison, slowly approaching in a formation of three on each side and one in front, like well-trained heavy-armed walking knights.
Although the horned beasts that the group of people had killed mixed with the ghouls at the entrance of the cave were similar in appearance to them, they were not fully clothed and had no ability to use weapons, so they were obviously different from them.
The group of people occupied the high slope and stood ready. Looking at these aliens coming out of the woods, even Henry hesitated for a moment.
"They also entered by mistake?" Mira's words were also the first instinct of most other people.
Such high-level equipment and formations that cooperate with each other during the operation are more like beings who accidentally stumbled into this place as a member of an outside civilization with a similar stance to them.
But if this is the case, what happened to the horned ones we encountered before? They seem to be like ghouls, completely unaffected by the pollution of the residue here and can move freely.
If you don't be blinded by the superficial conflict and sort out the known clues from the past and present, you will actually have a reasonable answer.
"Druids have speculated that there were very different alien civilizations in the era before the five races. They are not more or less similar to the five races today, but are completely different from us."
"It was brilliant for a while but eventually perished. After a long time of baptism, it failed to leave any traces for future generations."
The seven-headed beast slowly but firmly moved towards them. Henry whispered this, while Ling next to him thought about it:
"And time barely flows here?"
"Yes, if you ignore all the negative characteristics, this is almost an excellent haven where survivors can live forever and enemies are difficult to attack."
"They may be the last descendants of the old civilization, and regard this cursed space as their last refuge. Some of the exiled individuals have degenerated into beasts, and these are still wearing armor from tens of thousands of years ago." Henry said slowly Slowly, he pulled out Kramer.
"It has also been assimilated to the curse. Even if it still retains its fighting instinct, it may be difficult to communicate with it."
This is the last thought before the battle begins.
When the seven horned beasts, all holding long weapons, entered a distance of about twenty meters, Lulu opened her bow and tentatively attacked them at Henry's signal.
The bow made of animal sinews, horns, bamboo pieces and other composite materials pushed the arrows out in an arc under the specious air and the eternal blood-colored moonlight. Her target was the opponent's head, even though it had long hair. The horns, but the horned beast's head, which has little significance in blocking piercing attacks, are a very suitable target.
But even though Lulu used her best method of shooting and they had the advantage of high ground, the heavier air inside greatly reduced the accuracy of arrow delivery weapons.
So it began to fall prematurely, aiming for the head but landing on the chest.
And it was at the moment when the iron broad-blade arrow was about to come into contact with the roughly bronze breastplate that no one could recognize the runes on it.
They lit up one after another.
The arrow bounced away.
To be precise, it was shaken away. Some unknown force shook the arrow away with the light generated by the runes before it actually touched the surface of the armor.
The collared iron arrowhead bent under the impact, and the rope around the arrow shaft and the wood itself cracked and broke into several pieces that fell to the ground.
"Magic Armor?!" The Luoan girl screamed, and the sage's eyes and body surface lit up for a moment. He held Claymore with both hands and ducked in front of Lulu to protect him.
"Dang!!!!" The horned beast that was just 20 meters away rushed in front of them in an instant with glowing armor. The two tail gases like meteors slowly disappeared in the air while also exuding a cold brilliance. The halberd collided with Claymore's, and for the first time in his life, the indestructible sword was evenly matched with another weapon.
Drenched in cold sweat.
Almost no one except Henry reacted, even the red-haired swordsman who was known for his speed.
Mira stared blankly as her teacher continued to wrestle with the horned beast whose physique was comparable to his own. The two-meter-long halberd in the hand of the foreigner with four eyes and six fingers was covered with strange patterns. The sage used Claymore to press against the guard at the end of its handle, but even Claymore, which could cut holes in fine steel made by dwarves, found it difficult to leave any mark on the halberd's handle, which looked extremely weathered. .
And it was only when she looked closer that she noticed.
This halberd has no visible blade.
Its triangular-shaped blade is composed of a rich, almost solid light. It looks like some kind of metal from a distance, but after being blocked by Henry, at a close distance, you can see that its edge exudes something like winter breath. Twisting Mist.
All the people around who fought for a living instantly understood why Henry did not choose to block the blade.
The stalemate like a wrestling match only lasted for a moment. Henry immediately turned the edge of the sword. The blade rubbed the halberd shaft and sparks flew forward. He used the Claymer gauntlet to jam the pole and pushed the halberd towards the outside while stabbing at the same time. The Horned One's throat, it let go of its left hand and instinctively stepped back, but that was exactly what Henry needed. The sage grabbed the halberd shaft with one free hand, pressed its extremely threatening light blade to the ground, and at the same time withdrew his sword and slashed forward along the halberd shaft with one hand.
The horned man retracted his body and grabbed him while using his right hand to try to take back the halberd. The sage stopped cutting forward and hit it hard on the chest with Claymer's weighted ball.
"Boom!!" A transparent light film appeared, and the attack failed to cause any damage under the effect of the armor. But the movement of the horned one was halted for a moment, and the big sword was aimed at its right wrist holding the halberd, and it cut down hard.
The brilliance that had appeared when he was attacked by arrows flashed again, but it shattered instantly like a layer of bubbles. Then Henry cut off the entire wrist with six fingers aligned, and he kicked it again.
The horned beast, which failed in the attack but had its wrist cut off, fell backwards without saying a word with the black liquid gushing out from the wound. After rolling several times, it stopped near its slow-moving companion.
After the wrist was disconnected, the light blade of the halberd immediately dimmed.
The weapon threat was eliminated, but the sage still stood in front of the others and made no move.
Galeva raised his big shield and wanted to move forward, but Mira stopped him. With this unknown weapon and the ability to cross 20 meters in an instant, he didn't know how much protection he could provide.
From Lulu shooting an arrow to test it, to the horned one rushing in front of it, to then kicking it back with its severed hand, the fight only lasted a moment, but if it had been anyone else who tried to stop it, they would have died several times.
As long as there is a slight hesitation in the movement, a slight lack of strength, the extremely threatening light blade and the ability to instantly close the distance can make the outcome of the battle very different.
There was a "sizzling" sound near the wound cut off by Kramer, like meat being fried at high temperature, and then the weird six-fingered palm withered as quickly as if it had lost its moisture.
"..." The sage looked at this somewhat familiar reaction and remained silent.
"Put it away." He broke off his palm and threw it away, then threw the halberd to Galeva next to him, while the others watched with subtle expressions as the horned beast slowly climbed up, and for some reason did not rush over again. , but rejoined the team of the other six horned beasts.
And at this moment, the seven horned beasts that were marching slowly in their direction suddenly turned around in a very neat formation, and made a sharp turn about ten meters away from the group of people. Go in the other direction.
The injured one regained a marching posture holding a halberd in both hands, even though his left hand was actually free and his right hand had been cut off at the wrist.
"It doesn't know that its hand is gone?" The white-haired girl was stunned for a moment.
"Because they have been dead for a long time." The sage who judged a certain similarity from the reaction of cutting off the palm said: "Those who look more like beasts may be considered alive, at least they are bleeding. There are impurities but it’s definitely blood.”
"They are more like beasts... they are 'creatures' that have adapted to the environment. And these are more like beings that have been completely devoured and are not even living creatures." Aya spread her thoughts, Based on her knowledge, she seems to have captured some inspiration, but she has not yet formed a complete theory at this stage.
"A wanderer without self and purpose."
"It repeats actions that it doesn't know the meaning of. It avoids attacks just as a matter of inertia, not because it is aware of the threat." Henry's tone was calm, but Mira felt a trace of sadness for some reason.
"Perhaps they were once great warriors." The red-haired swordsman said as he listened to the retreating footsteps of the horned ones.
"It should be the act of magic detection that attracts them. Be careful later." Henry did not continue the previous topic. He turned back to what he should really pay attention to at the moment.
"Explore it every once in a while. Wait a moment before you go too far. Do you still remember the direction where the most frequent inductions occurred before?" He asked. Mira thought for a while and nodded.
Xiaoshuting app
"Continue to stay here and have long nights and dreams. Take your time and leave as soon as possible."
"I don't want to know at all what it is that exudes stronger magic power than us to lure them away." He said calmly, word by word.
