"It will be an exchange of friendship."
Soshyan said while looking at the two warriors on the ring. Standing above them were the third company commander Farzad and the first company commander Mark.
There were still more than a hundred soldiers standing around the platform.
Although the Astral Knights and Soul Drinkers merged for some time, Soshiyang realized that it was not easy for the warriors of the two systems to merge, so he formulated a rule and held regular ring battles so that the warriors could become more familiar with each other. .
In fact, this tradition also existed among the Astral Knights in the past. If we go back further, it started in the legion era. At that time, there was a sword competition within the Imperial Fists, and the warriors compared and sharpened themselves in the competition. Skills, after the second founding of the army, this competition became an opportunity for the Imperial Fist clan to bond.
Soshiyan drew on this competition, and today's first set of opponents are Farzad and Mark.
"First company commander, Mark."
Mark walked towards Farzad and drew his sword.
This is a two-handed sword, elegant yet powerful, with a long, striped handle extending downward from the blade.
Farzad stared at the weapon, assessing its weight.
After catching the other party studying the weapon, Mark smiled and performed a sword trick.
“It’s an antique and the long handle allows me to change my grip.”
He demonstrated, switching effortlessly to two hands and one hand.
Farzad nodded, drew his weapons, two broad-bladed battle axes, the same silver-gray color as his armor, and struck each other with the two battle axes.
"Third company commander, Farzad."
Mark bowed slightly with a sense of ritual, and then began to circle around Farzad in a wary posture. At the same time, he kept pulling his sword, and his eyes switched between Farzad's upper body and legs.
Farzad adjusted his breathing and began to move along his own trajectory.
He was surprised to find that the other party never took a wrong step, never stepped within a palm's distance of his attack range, and never let the swords pass and relax between them. It was always a distant gesture that attracted him to swing forward. Out comes the battle axe.
The other party was an experienced swordsman, and Thor had taught him how to deal with such a swordsman.
Farzad stopped, defending with one hand and turning the ax with the other, holding still.
He fell into an unprecedented state of patience.
This is what Thor told him. When encountering the swordsman's provocation, you must not attack forcefully. You must first exhaust the opponent's patience.
Ten more heartbeats passed.
Even the besieging warriors began to tire of this confrontation, and their earlier cheers were replaced by cold and boring silence.
After feeling Farzad's patience, Mark's eyes narrowed.
"I originally wanted you to attack first to give you a fighting chance, but..."
He stopped, a confident smile slowly appeared on his face,
"Then I won't be polite."
Before he finished speaking, Mark's sword struck first.
In Ustad's eyes, the sword transformation was nothing more than a moving flash of light, and Mark's figure was only slightly clearer than a traceless ghost.
But the attack is real.
"good!"
He roared loudly, but Ustad's hasty movements only deflected the opponent's thrust, and defended his exposed facial flesh from Mark's sword tip.
Mark then changed his attack and hit Ustad's armor several times.
The warriors erupted into a whoop of approval at each new confrontation and stamped their boots into the ground in a rhythmic stomp.
Ustad responded calmly, gave up his passive defense, and attacked with both axes from left to right, forcing Mark to retreat from the battle circle.
"I'm glad to find out that you still have a few moments left. I heard that you haven't served for a long time. It's rare to be able to develop such skills in such a short period of time."
"Your compliments make me happy."
Ustad put aside his distractions and focused on his breathing, carefully keeping his breathing rapid and short, as if he needed this time to rest and adjust.
Noticing this detail, Mark took the bait.
He stepped up to attack Farzad's front legs, but his attack was too obvious. Farzad ignored the feint, deflected the opponent's sword blade that was stabbing his face, and then attacked back, holding his hands tightly. Hold the battle ax and slash at the opponent's abdomen.
At this time, there was no room for Mark to parry. The veteran twisted his steps calmly and turned to deal with the blow, trying to block Farzad's momentum with his shoulders and getting ready for the impact.
Farhad's ax blade trembled when it came into contact with the opponent's shoulder armor, and then cut all the way down the shoulder armor.
This blow obviously did not have the expected effect. Farzad twisted the ax blade and changed his holding position so that he could swing it to the side.
But it immediately came to nothing.
He wasn't fast enough and Mark was already out of attack range.
"Great move."
Mark said this, but his eyes narrowed even more.
“There’s even better!”
The battle had aroused Farzad's blood, and he rushed forward, his battle ax raised above his head.
Mark blocked his downward slash, deflected another reverse attack, and took a few steps back when Farzad launched his kick, out of the attack range.
Farzad continued to approach, swinging a flat sweep parallel to the ground, followed by flipping the ax blade again.
This sudden outburst caught Mark off guard. Although he defended well, it still allowed Farzad to cut into his inner circle.
Farzad, who came from a savage world, was taller and stronger than him, and this was his chance.
Farzad threw the tomahawk, and when the opponent blocked it, he grabbed Mark's sword hilt with both hands, pulled the veteran toward him, and launched a headbutt.
But Mark lowered his head tactfully.
"Well--"
When Farzad's forehead hit Mark's thick skull, he frowned in pain.
The reckless move cost Farzad, and Mark dropped his sword, grabbed his wrist, turned around, and threw him across the ring.
"It's not over yet!"
Farzad's eyes burned with fighting spirit as he jumped back to his feet.
"Did you forget something? Second company commander."
At this time, Mark smiled toothily and pointed the tip of his sword at Farzad's gauntlet.
He looked down at his empty hands and immediately cursed the damn impulse - he had just thrown the weapon.
This made Farzad himself forget the ways of a warrior taught by Risol, including calmness, restraint and thinking. Obviously, maintaining these in battle was more difficult than he thought, and the lessons were profound.
"This competition is over."
Soshyan stepped forward with a smile.
"Captain Mark is indeed a warrior who has experienced hundreds of battles. Your calmness and heaviness will be our most valuable asset."
Mark put away his sword and bowed respectfully to Soshyan, and the soldiers cheered for him.
"Captain Farzad, your tactics and skills have made great progress, but you still need to sharpen your will. I hope to see a braver and calmer you in the future."
Farzad bowed to Soshiyang with some shame, and the soldiers also cheered for him.
"Okay, next is-"
Just when Soshyan was about to announce the next group of opponents, Armin hurried over.
"Chapter Commander, a guest is here."
