Blue Sword

Coliseum of Constantinople.

"The first one to appear is the blue team! The leader is Scolabo 'Polar Bear'! In the battle last month, he tore the enemy's head alive from his neck with only a pair of fleshy palms!" Through the loudspeaker, the host explained in a spitting manner, skillfully inciting the atmosphere of the scene.

"Any opponent who weighs less than 140cm and encounters a polar bear should carefully consider whether his neck is made of iron!"

The crowd in the auditorium also shouted wildly.

In the Eastern Solomon Empire, since it was culturally assimilated by Siris, the upper class nobility has turned to art, literature and movies, scorning this bloody and barbaric sport.

The citizens still have a soft spot for the classical gladiatorial culture, and the poorer the lower class are, the more they like to watch people fight, bleed and die in the gladiatorial arena.

Of course, the gambling industry, which is closely integrated with gladiatorial combat, is also an important reason why gladiatorial culture can prevail at the bottom.

"Then the red team appears! The leader is the Thracian Brown Bear!" The host continued to roar, and he could even be heard jumping excitedly from the loudspeaker. "The muscles of the brown bear may not be as developed as those of the polar bear, but he is flexible enough. cunning!"

"This is a duel of strength and skill. Two bears compete. In the end, only one can survive. Our arena does not recognize draws! Whoever can stand to the end will be able to lift his body weight on the enemy's corpse. of gold!”

Asker carried a giant sword and filed into the arena with the red team members. Then, the two teams wearing red and blue burqas shook hands and greeted each other. Theotis looked at the team leader opposite, stretched out his knife and made a scratch on his neck, and quickly glanced at Aske on the far right.

This action of cutting the neck is done for yourself. Of course Ask knew what he meant, but the other person didn't seem to understand, and just laughed ferociously.

The starting gun sounded and the battle began instantly. The crowd in the audience stood up almost immediately, waving their fists at the gladiators below, shouting to encourage the gladiator team they supported to fight bravely, or cursing the tragic death of the opposite team.

The red team's formation on the field shrank in an instant, and everyone squeezed to the left wing (leaving only Asker on the far right), fighting with the blue team's right wing.

This was obviously beyond the blue team's expectations, but of course they wouldn't let this opportunity go. First, the team's strength was correspondingly reduced to the right wing, and then two people were separated and rushed towards Aske on the left wing. Naturally, the purpose was to let the opponent reduce one member first.

"Oh my God! What did you do, Theotis? You abandoned a poor teammate on the far right!" The host tried his best to pretend to cry exaggeratedly, but then turned into a plausible analysis, "Is this a bait?"

"Sure enough! The blue team chose to send out two people to eat this bait, so the original main battle line immediately became eight against seven! Abandoning local strength in exchange for a frontal numerical advantage, is this your purpose? Cunning brown bear?"

"This damn host clown! I will tear out his intestines and strangle him to death!" Theotis, who was fighting, was so annoyed by what he heard that he even lost consciousness because of it, and was hit on the helmet by someone from the opposite side. One stab made his ears ring.

He took two steps back and entered the covering distance of his teammates. He once again glanced at Aske on the far right, watching the two gladiators in blue begin to attack him expertly, a vicious smile appeared on his lips.

The two senior gladiators from the blue team approached Asik at lightning speed.

One person raised his sword with both hands and slashed hard, while the other person walked diagonally to the right, and stabbed left with the broad sword in his hand like a poisonous snake, hitting Asik's left rib.

Immediately afterwards, the two people's hearts clicked in unison. Faced with their joint attack, Asik simply jumped back and dodged all the attacks from the two of them.

At the same time, his giant sword left his shoulder, and he dragged the sword blade with both hands and swung it violently.

Cleanly slit the neck of the man on the left.

"F*ck! Torogiri!" In the arena's auditorium, in the uppermost box, someone looked down and suddenly his body trembled, and he didn't even realize that the wine in his glass had spilled out.

"Tiger? What tiger?" The people next to you laughed, "Mihaier, are you crazy about practicing martial arts?"

The Emperor's Guards Corps is an elite guard force composed of young officers who are proficient in combat and directly affiliated with the Emperor of the Solomon Empire. During His Majesty's expedition, Constantine took away about two-thirds of the Guards, and the remaining one-third stayed in the imperial capital, responsible for protecting the two Princesses in Purple.

After learning about the defeat of Manzikert, these young officers were not only worried about the unpredictable fate of His Majesty the Supreme Emperor, but also feared that they would receive bad news about the sacrifices of their comrades who had been with them in the past. They could not wait for specific news from afar for a long time. , can only go to the box in the large arena to watch the gladiatorial fight to calm down the anxious mood.

Of course, for these senior officers who are already extraordinary and skilled in martial arts, there is actually nothing interesting about ordinary human gladiatorial battles. It is just more boring to stay in the military camp.

This was what the captain of the guard, Michael, originally thought, but he never expected to see such superb swordsmanship in the arena.

"Stop making noise!" He raised his palms and immediately silenced his laughing teammates, "Let me see if it's a coincidence."

The teammates looked at each other and could only follow his gaze and look seriously at the arena below.

The neck of the gladiator in blue on the left was cut with a heavy sword, and the entire flesh around the wound rolled up. He fell to the ground and twitched without making a sound. The man on the right shivered and realized that the reason why the other party chose the giant sword was not just relying on brute force.

Before he could respond, Asik had already jumped up and slashed down quickly with his giant sword. It was too late to dodge, and the man could only block with his sword raised upwards.

There was only a clean "clang" sound, and the giant sword directly cut off his sword, and then cut open his helmet with a powerful force, carving out fatal cracks in his head.

"Kill and split the top!" Now several guards saw it clearly and jumped up from their seats in shock, "How is it possible! Who is this guy? The master of palace swordsmanship? Why haven't we seen him before?"

"It's the lion's tooth." Mihail's face was serious, and he slowly rotated the wine glass in his hand, "Do you remember the eight tactics?"

"Tactics" is a military manual written by Emperor Leo VI more than a hundred years ago. It records how extraordinary warriors should use powerful physical strength to transform into efficient killing techniques on the battlefield. It is also the emperor's bodyguard. The soldiers must study the advanced military martial arts manual, so almost everyone knows it by heart.

Mihai gave a brief reminder, and his teammates reacted almost immediately. Someone recited quickly:

"...His Majesty once said that there are four fatal points in the human body, namely the temples, throat, chest, and lower abdomen. The main attack is on the key points, mainly killing and maiming. There are eight tactics, namely lion's tooth, left lion's tooth, right Lion's fang, eagle's cut, tiger's cut, dragon's cut, fluttering of wings, swift thrust."

"Lion's fang. Cut straight to the head, split the top."

"Left and right lion fangs. Cut off the left and right shoulders and destroy both arms."

"Eagle cut. Cut his eyes with a flat cut, frighten his mind."

"Tiger cut. Cut the neck with a flat chop and cut off the throat."

"Dragon cut. Cut the waist with a flat cut and break its abdominal organs."

"Flutter your wings. Make a sneak attack and lift him up, cutting his perineum."

"Sudden. Stab straight into the abdomen to release the blood and energy."

"Pfft." Someone next to him laughed, "Why are you so serious about this? It's just a direct blow to the head. It may not be the advanced lion's tooth technique recorded in "Tactics". Maybe it's an attack he used at will? "

"Could it be possible to break the block and split the top with one strike at will?" Mihail sneered and said, "When he struck down, he must have hit the center of gravity of the sword, otherwise he would not have been able to break the weapon so cleanly. Open the helmet. Not only does this man have superb martial arts skills, but he must also be an extraordinary person. Just take a look and you will see."

Two gladiators in blue were killed, instantly overturning the stalemate situation on the field. There were no casualties on the main front yet. Theotis and his red-coated team members fought hard against the opponent, always cleverly taking advantage of the extra man.

"Eight vs. seven! The red brown bear still maintains the advantage! No, it's nine vs. seven!" the host exclaimed, and saw Asik carrying a big sword and heroically breaking into the blue team from behind, swinging the big sword in his hand like a whirlwind. Come out, Full Moon Slash!

"The fighting skills of the Franks." Michael commented in the box, "Violent, but heavy and not difficult to dodge."

Sure enough, the gladiators in blue all around were frightened and dodged around. Asker's Full Moon Slash was in vain, but it successfully disrupted the blue team's line, so that the red gladiators immediately seized this opportunity to isolate the scattered blue gladiators.

This guy! Theotis was angry and frightened. He didn't expect that this newcomer could counterattack unscathed in a one-on-one attack. He also made a surprise attack from behind to disrupt the blue team's line, which was equivalent to taking away all the limelight from the entire team.

When he was shocked and angry, he saw the blue team leader "Polar Bear" suddenly took a side step and intercepted Aske who was trying to continue to disrupt the formation.

This guy used a two-handed war hammer, a blunt instrument that was stronger than a two-handed giant sword. He could hit it on the head with just one swing.

Asker stepped sideways to avoid it, holding the sword in both hands and thrusting forward. "Polar Bear" crossed the handle of the warhammer to block. With a "ding" sound, the giant sword slipped from his handle and stabbed directly into his eyes.

The "Polar Bear" quickly retreated. Asik had already put away his sword and raised it high. He made a small jump forward and then slashed with the sword in both hands.

"Lion's Fang Leap Slash?" Mihail looked solemnly, "No, it's the Mountain Collapse Strike! The Shinra Swordsmanship Mountain Collapse Strike!"

The giant sword hit the handle of the war hammer, and the 'Polar Bear' felt the force on it was so powerful that it almost crushed his spine.

He tried his best to raise his arms to block, but the force on the hammer's handle suddenly sank again, almost tearing his jaw open.

With another sinking, the entire warhammer handle snapped into two pieces, and the giant sword had broken his right clavicle and wasted his entire right arm.

The next second, a cold feeling slipped from his neck, his vision was turned upside down, and his consciousness quickly fell into darkness.

Beheading.

"This..." The guard officers in the box were silent. After a long time, someone finally spoke:

"It's the Collapsing Mountain Triple Strike... Is this guy good at the swordsmanship of our Solomons or the swordsmanship of the Franks?"

"For two-handed giant swords, the sword skills of the Franks are indeed more suitable." Michael said lightly, standing up, "There is no need to watch anymore, this gladiatorial fight is over."

The "Polar Bear"'s head rolled several times on the ground, and an expression of incredible pain could still be seen on its face covered in blood and dust.

The leader of the blue team was singled out and beheaded, which immediately ignited the passion in the audience. For a while, even the citizens who had bet on the victory of the blue team stood up enthusiastically, slapped the chairs in front of them like crazy, and shouted hoarsely for Ask, the gladiator hero, shouted.

Taking advantage of the fact that the blue team was separated and at a disadvantage, the red gladiators cooperated with each other to kill two people. The remaining four gladiators in blue could only quickly drop their weapons and kneel on the ground, expressing submission and defeat.

"The winner of this gladiatorial battle is!" the host roared with all his strength, "Red team! Victory belongs to this new gladiator in red! Our new god of war Hercules! Well, I miss him Soon there will be an even louder nickname. Rejoice at this wonderful victory, citizens of Constantinople!"