Blue Sword

"Nice to meet you," Theodora said gracefully, "Captain Asker, your mercenary team is very special... It seems that the majority of the members are female?"

"Yes." Ask said, "But this is not the result of my deliberate selection, but because the suitable candidates I met happened to be women."

Whether you believe it or not, I believe it anyway... He added in his heart.

"They also happen to be beautiful women at the same time?" Theodora said humorously, with a hint of playfulness in her tone.

When the girls heard the comment of "beautiful girl", they immediately beamed.

"Yes, it's just a coincidence." Ask replied, "You can also see that although most of my team members are women, they have no other common factors except gender."

"They come from different nationalities, have different appearance characteristics, and even have different personalities and habits, which is enough to prove that I am not selecting teammates based on personal preferences."

Maybe it's just because your hunting recipes are complicated... Theodora thought vigilantly and heard Asik say:

"Let's not mention this anymore. Let's continue to introduce the team's strength. It just so happens that my teaching plan has already reached the second class. If you are interested, you can also observe it."

"Okay." Theodora nodded.

"Girls!" Asik cleared his throat and said to the girls, "In the last class, we talked about the eight tactics, and everyone should have practiced them. In this class we talk about defense and dodge."

"Paige, get out of the queue!"

Peggy walked out with a cold face and pulled out the dagger tied to the outside of her thigh.

"Attack me head-on once," Ask said.

Paige didn't answer, she just disappeared in an instant. The next second, she had already flashed in front of Asik, and her dagger stabbed straight into his chest - but was blocked by Asik's long sword.

"So fast!" Theodora opened her eyes slightly and her pupils shrank suddenly. There is no doubt that this person named Peggy must be an extraordinary person, and she is the kind whose physical strength focuses on explosive power and control.

If she were the one facing the attack, she would have been stabbed through the heart by a sword... How could Achilles be able to withstand such a high-speed attack? His strength is probably much stronger than I thought before.

"Blocking is the most basic defensive action." Asik maintained his posture and demonstrated, "It should be noted that when the enemy's attack is successfully blocked by you, the enemy's body will appear in an abnormal state called 'stiffness'. In the catalepsy state, the muscles of the enemy's arms are temporarily paralyzed due to violent vibrations, making him unable to move."

"The normal freezing time may not even be 0.1 seconds. However, the heavier the enemy's attack, the longer it will remain frozen after being successfully blocked."

"If the time is long enough, you can seize this opportunity to counterattack. The enemy who is frozen will not be able to deal with it." Asik said this and ordered Peggy, "attack again."

Paige nodded and swung her dagger again. Asker blocked with his sword, and at the moment when metal and iron collided, his right knee was lifted up hard and hit Paige in the lower abdomen. The latter flew backwards, fell to the ground and rolled several times.

"It's so cruel." Nora and Mia whispered, "Is it because Paige has the ability to recover quickly from Flesh I that Aske attacked her so hard? It makes my whole body hurt."

"Usually, the freezing time caused by blocking is not enough for you to launch a counterattack." Asker continued, "At this time, we need the second defensive action: counterattack, which is to attack and parry. Use your Attacking to deflect the opponent's attack can make the enemy freeze for longer."

"Hidliba, come out!" He waved, "Give me an axe."

Upon hearing the sound, Sidrifa immediately came out of the queue excitedly, took off the battle ax from her waist and threw it to him.

"Come on, attack me." Asik caught the battle axe.

"Okay!" Hidrifa roared angrily, raised her tomahawk with both hands and chopped it down, but it was the advanced version of "Lion's Fang" that Aske taught last time, "Mountain Collapse Strike".

The ax blade swung down, and another silver light came up. Asker's battle ax was slashed upwards with his right hand, and with a clang, he forced the mountain-collapse strike to deflect. At the same time, he punched out with his left hand, hitting Hidliba hard in the lower abdomen.

The latter screamed, clutching his abdomen and fell to his knees. His face was twisted in pain, and two lines of tears could not help but flow out.

"I take back what I just said." Nora and Mia murmured, "He is ruthless to anyone... Fortunately, we are not a combat profession."

"If blocking is a passive defense, it is better to be steady, but the chance of counterattack is smaller." Askew summarized the defense course, "Anti-blade is an active counterattack, although it can cause a longer period of stiffness. But the risk is also greater - once you fail to counterattack, the enemy's knife will hit you. Do you remember this?"

"We remember it!" Looking at Paige and Hilda who got up miserably from the ground, the remaining girls hurriedly said in unison, for fear that he would find someone to demonstrate again.

"Okay, let's talk about dodge." Asker nodded, "There are four forms of dodge: side step, small jump, roll and sliding shovel. Eleanor, get out of the queue!"

Eleanor walked out with a solemn expression, mentally prepared to be abused.

"Take it." Asik threw his long sword to her, "Use the long sword to attack me continuously."

"Okay." Eleanor caught the sword, then took a stance and chopped off the right lion's tooth with one strike.

Ask took a half-step to the right, dodged the long sword slash, and said, "Side step, the fastest dodge movement, the distance moved is half a step to one step."

Eleanor continued to pursue and slash, while he used side steps to dodge one after another. Each time, he dodged with the smallest precision at the moment when the blade was about to approach, which made the girls extremely worried.

Theodora was also sitting there, her eyes above the veil sparkling with color.

This guy named Ask is so strong!

Although she didn't understand martial arts, she could tell that Eleanor's attack was with all her strength and she didn't hold back at all.

Ask's ability to easily dodge all her attacks only shows that the two are no longer on the same level in terms of consciousness and skills.

"Sometimes, the enemy's weapon is longer or the attack range is larger, so you need to use other dodge methods." Asik said, jumping back slightly to avoid Eleanor's eagle slash. " Small jumps, each time the distance moved is one to two steps.”

"Roll, each time the distance is more than two steps." He suddenly leaned to the left, rolled out a short distance, and got up. Eleanor looked at him speechlessly and stopped what she was doing.

Ask stood up and said: "Small jumping and rolling have their own pros and cons. Small jumping is faster, but there is floating during the jumping process. When you are attacked in the floating state, you cannot dodge."

"Rolling requires curling up and standing up, and is slower to start, but rolling will lower your body and reduce the area you are attacked."

"The last thing is the sliding shovel." Asik said this, he took a few steps forward and made a sliding shovel close to the ground. He came to Eleanor's feet and bounced up. "The sliding shovel lowers the body, even lower than rolling. So it’s less likely to be hit.”

"The problem is that sliding tackles require forward movements, that is, you must be moving before you can slide tackles. At the same time, you need to bounce up after sliding tackles, which involves the strength of the waist and abdominal muscles and requires corresponding movement exercises."

"That's it for the basic course." Asik finally said, "Next..."

"Practice each movement a thousand times." the girls said in unison.

"Yes, it seems that everyone is quite conscious." Asik waved his hand with satisfaction, "Go!"

The girls went off to practice with tears streaming down their faces.

Arriving in front of Theodora, Ask asked with a smile:

"How's it going, what do you think of our team?"

"Your teaching methods and content..." Theodora thought for a while and said slowly, "It's really refreshing to me."

"Really?" Ask shook his head, "But those are all publicly recorded in Tactics, and they are not secrets that no one can see."

Theodora was silent for a moment, feeling puzzled in her heart.

Emperor Leo III, the author of "Tactics", was nicknamed "The Wise Man" in history. The reason is that although he claimed to be knowledgeable about war, all the battles he personally commanded were defeated. Therefore, the citizens of Constantinople deliberately called him "the wise man". The bitter irony in this is self-evident. .

His book "Tactics" is also known as "The Art of War for Nerds" in the empire.

For example, regarding the lion's fang recorded in "Tactics", Leo III claimed that "the ultimate performance of the lion's fang is that even if the enemy uses the upper section to block or counterattack, the lion's fang can still cut off the opponent's weapon forcefully and cleanly." Kill and split the top."

"To cut off a weapon, you must hit the center of gravity of the blocking weapon."

"Take the opposite edge of a long sword as an example. The blade of a long sword is divided into two areas. The section close to the hilt is the 'strong end', and the section close to the tip is the 'weak end'."

"If your lion's tooth hits the 'weak end', that's the part of the sword where it's easiest to unload force; if it hits the 'strong end', it's the thickest part of the sword's spine that's difficult to break."

"Only by hitting the connection between the 'strong end' and the 'weak end' can you have a chance to cut off the weapon, because that is the most vulnerable point of the entire long sword."

When readers read this, they may still feel that the writing in the book makes some sense, at least it seems to have no flaws.

It wasn't until the actual drill that I realized - Damn it, the enemy's sword's center of gravity was not marked for you. How could you have time to identify the position of the weapon's center of gravity at the critical moment?

You were stunned for a moment, and the enemy's long sword had already struck back at you!

Like most people, Theodora felt that Leo III's "Tactics" was too unrealistic.

Some theories can still be learned, such as there are four vital points in a person's body.

As for those overly detailed and even numerical conclusions, such as "Perform a straight chop at a 35-degree angle" and "Chop at the midpoint of the scapula and triceps", they are simply words on paper...

However, according to Asker, those fantasy-like theories written in "Tactics" seem to be achievable?

Theodora secretly noticed it and decided to find time to study it later.

"Then that's it for today." The two chatted politely for a few more words, and Asik said with a smile, "Please let me take you out."

"What, Mr. Asker wants to drive me away?" Theodora joked.

"Of course not. If you want to stay here, we will naturally welcome you more." Asik said this, taking out an employment contract common in the mercenary world and handing it to Theodora, "If you are here, Whenever you make up your mind, just come to me with the contract."

As he spoke, he used his spirituality to trigger the "Absurd Dream". The surrounding scene suddenly changed, and the two of them returned to the tavern.

The surrounding tables and chairs were in a mess, and Michael and two bodyguard officers were searching everywhere, their anxiety and fear palpable.

"Sir Michael." Theodora called softly.

Mihail was startled, and quickly turned around, and saw Her Majesty the Queen standing behind him, alone - Asker's figure had long disappeared.