Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 123 - 27 Extreme Tactics

Chapter 123: Chapter 27 Extreme Tactics

The Spartans fell silent.

To be fair, Bition hadn’t made any mistakes; his opponent was simply a formidable match.

This woman from the North, undoubtedly, was an explosive Power Warrior. Bition’s tactic of focusing on defense was effectively countered by her.

He should have engaged in an aggressive combat from the start, striving to seize the rhythm of the fight while simultaneously looking for an opportunity to deliver a fatal blow.

No, wait. The bald burly man suddenly recalled something else—Bition’s final pommel smash.

Given his swing speed, it should have struck the target at the same time as her wooden sword.

Yet, in the end, Bition’s smash hit nothing but air, and her wooden sword landed first on his abdomen.

Could it be...

The bald man finally remembered.

This Northern woman, while sprinting and slashing, had noticeably dipped her body right before Bition’s pommel strike.

Was she originally aiming for the chest? But if so, that would have been a mutually destructive move (if they were using real swords).

So, she chose to strike at the lower abdomen instead and lowered her body, thus striking first?

This woman, if she could control the details so delicately amidst such ferocious attacks...

Then even if he had directly engaged her from the start, he probably wouldn’t have had an advantage!

"How about that?" Sigrdrifa, with a triumphant air, asked Aske.

"Not bad," Aske replied, "but what was that last knife throw all about?"

"Eh? That was to lure him into a strike, then I took advantage and slashed!" Sigrdrifa argued.

"If you wanted to coax him into attacking, why didn’t you use ’Lion’s Fang’ with your left hand to force his Attack Block, and then strike with ’Tiger Slash’ with your right hand?" Aske asked.

"With the knife throw easily split by him, and your right sword slash still left him with enough strength to smash with the pommel of his sword. If it was ’Lion’s Fang’, his wooden sword would have had to maintain a Block upwards, leaving him unable to defend against your ’Tiger Slash’ on the other hand, right?"

"Uh..." Sigrdrifa’s face showed some embarrassment. "I didn’t think that much at that moment."

"Think it over when you get back," Aske said. "The situation on the battlefield changes instantly, indeed leaving no time for thought. However, each of your choices must be the optimal choice under the circumstances, which can be refined through reviewing the battle."

"If you don’t know how to review, go ask Eleanor."

"Oh." Sigrdrifa looked dejected.

What are they doing? The bald burly man watched Aske instructing Sigrdrifa, his face showing slight suspicion.

These fellows, they all seemed like no simple characters.

"I’ll take the next round," the bald burly man stepped forward.

"Rudashus? Are you coming personally?" A Spartan handed him a wooden great sword.

"Yes." The Spartan envoy leader, Rudashus, nodded.

"Peggy, how well have you mastered that swordsmanship?" Aske asked.

"Not yet," Peggy shook her head, "but now I can steal others’ thoughts and anticipate their actions in advance."

"That’s good enough, take your turn," Aske said.

Thus, Peggy stepped forward and picked up a wooden short sword.

"You’re not of age yet, are you, little girl?" Rudashus, frowning, asked as he casually dragged the heavy sword on the ground.

"Don’t call me little girl," Peggy said coldly, "you’ll regret it."

"How do you want me to regret it?" Rudashus asked mockingly, "by punching me in the chest?"

Peggy sneered coldly and her figure suddenly burst forward.

"Such speed!" Rudashus immediately turned pale with fright.

He hadn’t expected that such a petite girl could burst out with such extreme speed.

Dragging his great sword, Rudashus swung it horizontally toward the rushing figure.

Peggy, as if anticipating this, sidestepped the slash, lightning-fast, and moved to his back.

Backstabbing.

However, Rudashus agilely turned around and swung his great sword back in a follow-through cut.

Flowing Slash.

Peggy leapt back twice, lightning-fast, perfectly dodging the wooden great sword’s sweep. The moment the blade passed, she rushed back into the attack range,

"The limit methodology?" Eleanor exclaimed in surprise from the sidelines.

"Limit?" Sigrdrifa asked.

"Didn’t Aske teach you last time?" Eleanor explained while focusing on the battle,

"Suppose the enemy’s arm length and sword length add up to an attack range of 3 meters. Then if you want to dodge an attack, you just need to step back more than 3 meters, regardless of whether it’s 4 meters or 5 meters."

"However, the further you retreat, the longer it takes to close in for a counterattack. Thus, the so-called limit methodology is to evade just within the enemy’s attack range."

"If the enemy’s attack range is 3 meters, you retreat exactly 3 meters. After the dodge, you just need to slightly advance to re-enter the counterattack range, which is faster by a fraction of a second than retreating 4-5 meters before counterattacking."

"Sticking to the utmost limit of distance?" Sigrdrifa mused, "Isn’t that..."

"Yes, the limit methodology has a very low margin for error," Eleanor said gravely, "If the enemy deliberately masks the attack distance, then the limit methodology can easily get exploited, leading to getting hit by attacks that could have been dodged."

"However, according to Aske, the opponents we are likely to encounter at this stage don’t have the capability to perfectly hide their attack distances."

"What does ’at this stage’ mean?" Sigrdrifa smiled, "Does it mean that we will meet stronger enemies in the future?"

"Yes." Eleanor nodded slightly.

So fast! For the first time, Rudashus understood what "Bone-attaching Sore" meant.

His opponent’s figure was clinging too closely, moving within just 0.5 meters to 1 meter around him, fully utilizing the close-quarters advantage of the short sword.

This caused his large great sword, due to its less flexible handling at such a close attack distance, to become a disadvantage.

Rudashus held his breath and gritted his teeth, launching the Crescent Moon Slash again, sweeping a 360-degree arc around him, but Peggy precisely stepped back half a step, just enough to stay outside the range of the Crescent Moon Slash.

Now! Rudashus slightly shifted his stance and spun, swinging his sword and stepping left simultaneously, enclosing Peggy’s position within the sword’s arc in an instant.

Cut through! He roared internally.

However, he felt no force on his blade, as Peggy had again, seemingly anticipating it, leapt back, dodging the suddenly enlarged sword arc.

As the great sword swung past, she landed from her leap and lunged forward, thrusting her short sword sharply.

Dodge? No! Rudashus then realized that in his attempt to hide the attack distance and enlarge the sword arc, he was now in a slanted posture.

Retracting the swung great sword to block was impossible. However, to dodge left or right, he needed to stabilize his already tilted body first, but with the opponent’s thrust speed, he was simply too slow to complete these movements.

His heart sank, and he suddenly let go of his weapon, reaching for Peggy’s wooden short sword with both hands.

If it had been a real sword, a slight slash from the opponent could have cut off all his fingers.

But since it was a wooden sword, Rudashus didn’t care about that anymore in his quest for victory.

Barehanded blade grab!

The short sword suddenly drew back and stopped abruptly during the thrust, Rudashus grasped at nothing, and lifting his head in shock, he saw Peggy’s short sword already positioned at the midpoint between his eyebrows.

"You lose," Peggy said indifferently, tossing the wooden short sword aside and leaving on her own.