Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 243 - 41 Shattering Moon Penetrating Cloud

Chapter 243: Chapter 41 Shattering Moon Penetrating Cloud

In the arena, the two were so engrossed in practicing offense and defense that they were completely unaware of any spectators.

"Having variations hidden within moves is good," Aske side-stepped to evade, "but sometimes the enemy doesn’t even want to receive a regular attack, which renders the following variations meaningless."

"You need to create an environment where the enemy is willing to encounter regular attacks before considering deceptive variations in offense." He took advantage of a small and brief misstep to instantly close in on Eleanor.

"What kind of environment?" Eleanor sank her body and swung her shield, trying to repel his close approach.

"Figure it out yourself." Aske performed a Block with his Longsword, being knocked back a distance by the Shield.

"Enticing them into attacking?" Eleanor bent her knees and lunged forward, the Cloud Piercing stabbing out like a Dragon’s roar, "Deliberately making an attack with obvious flaws to lure them into defending and counterattacking, then changing the move to bypass their defense?"

"That’s one scenario," Aske sidestepped to dodge, his empty left hand catching her Long Spear, "but the enemy may not choose to defend and counterattack; perhaps they’ll Evade."

"So you mean, we also need to force the enemy to choose to defend?" Eleanor twisted her wrist fiercely, and as she employed the Spiral Charge, the spear vibrated violently, forcibly dislodging Aske’s grip.

"I understand now; use high-frequency and rapid attacks to force the enemy to opt for defense on their own."

Her wrist shook as she wielded the spear, executing the Shattering Moon Penetrating Cloud Aske had taught her earlier in the day.

Shattering Moon Penetrating Cloud involved a "Vibration-style" special power-generating technique from the arms, enabling her to rapidly execute Multiple Cloud Piercing thrusts, meeting the "high-frequency" and "rapid attack" requirements. It was a major move that tested one’s technical skills.

"Yes," Aske casually swung his sword, parrying and splitting Eleanor’s spear thrust once more, "because Evading consumes more energy than Blocking."

"Once your attacks are rapid and frequent, the enemy, after several Evades, will tend to shift to defense and counterattack, not just to conserve energy, but also to reverse the situation where they are being suppressed rhythmically."

"At the moment your opponent shifts, that’s when you launch your enticing feint. Use a simple, regular attack to make the adversary think they can counter, then suddenly change the move and strike."

"How you follow up with combinations to maximize the damage you cause is another matter altogether."

Eleanor was Silence, but the continuous thrusts of her hand became faster and faster, as did the dense whooshing sounds as they sliced through the air.

The two Knight Followers watching were somewhat stunned, thinking... this attack speed was a bit exaggerated, wasn’t it? Had she reached the pace of four thrusts per second?!

Moreover, the spear in her hand was real! A heavy Long Spear, made entirely of metal—not just some blunted wooden stick! Just the speed of her thrusts alone indicated that Miss Eleanor’s arm strength was at least on par with any adult Knight!

"At tonight’s family dinner, Henry has confirmed he will come back to see his sister," Ludwig watched the two in combat and continued, "I plan to introduce Squad Leader Aske to him as well."

"While he may not be as strong as Henry, Squad Leader Aske has, after all, honed his skills in genuine life-and-death struggles. He must possess some combat techniques that Henry can’t learn in the academy. If the two of them could exchange views, it would probably benefit Henry’s growth."

Give me a break! The two Knight Followers silently sweated in their minds. Never mind that man, just Miss Eleanor’s attack rate of four thrusts per second would throw any seasoned Knight into disarray. Your brother Henry isn’t even a match for her!

And that man faced her with complete ease throughout, clearly a cut above her in martial skill, and even Duke himself standing here would probably have to take a second look at him with respect!

Ludwig kept commenting on the battle, completely oblivious to the fact that this revealed his ignorance of the matter. The two Knight Followers dared not contradict nor agree too much, but could only nod along on the sidelines.

Ludwig quickly sensed something was amiss, fell silent, and then he saw Eleanor suddenly spin and thrust her spear with the speed at its limit, Iron Cutting!

"God!" Witnessing the Iron Cutting strike, Ludwig was terrified. Although he was not versed in combat skills, he was quite familiar with this move of the family spear technique, often watching his father practice it during morning exercises.

At this moment, the Iron Cutting Eleanor executed was so swift that the spear almost turned into a continuous blur, accompanied by a short and low whistling sound—that was the noise of the spear tearing through the air at high speed.

Even in his father’s hands, Ludwig had never seen an Iron Cutting spear technique executed with such extreme speed and violence.

The sound of metal clashing rang out explosively, like thunder detonating in the training ground, leaving their ears buzzing. Ludwig stood there, dumbstruck, unable to believe what he saw in his sister’s eyes, as if he was looking at a monster.

This Iron Cutting strike was too sudden, perfectly timing Aske’s forward charge. He couldn’t evade in time and had no choice but to draw his sword to block.

The fine golden long spear crashed down on the longsword, bending the blade entirely, even pressing against Aske’s chest, sending him flying through the air.

In the instant he was sent flying, Eleanor had already dropped her shield, lunged forward with a sinking body, moving even faster than his flying speed. The shield hit the ground, her spear lunged like a dragon, directly stabbing at Aske in mid-air.

Dragon Spear!

Aske tried to block mid-air with a horizontal sword, but the opponent’s Dragon Spear was too fast, outpacing his block attempt, and stabbing him first.

This series of movements, as quick as a rabbit jumping and a hawk falling, was so perilous and frightening that even Ludwig, who was not versed in battle, intuitively felt its danger. That man... was going to die!

Sure enough, the long spear pierced Aske’s body, and with a forceful shout, Eleanor swung the spear, spinning and slamming him on the ground.

Ludwig’s pupils constricted, as if he could already see Aske’s body split into parts upon hitting the ground, blood and flesh flying... He was already considering how to deal with the corpse, commanding the attendants in the palace to keep this a secret.

Such thoughts lasted less than half a second in his mind before he was shocked to see the situation on the field turn around again.

Aske landed steadily with the long spear, taking a half step forward, already positioning his longsword at Eleanor’s neck.

"How could this be?" Eleanor dropped the long spear, puzzled, "You can still execute a Receiving Body after being struck by the Dragon Spear?"

"If I were really struck, of course not," Aske said, extending his left hand, "Take a look."

Upon closer observation, Eleanor noticed his palm was red due to severe friction and exclaimed,

"You... you didn’t evade the Dragon Spear, but you weren’t struck either... did you catch the tip of the spear in mid-air with your hand?"

"Deception is not solely for offense; sometimes it can be used for defense as well," Aske candidly spoke, "Catching the spear tip, tucking it under the armpit, pretending to be hit by the Dragon Spear to make you drop your guard. In reality, if you had enough experience, even if you didn’t see the moment of impact, you should at least have noticed that the force on the spear was subtly off."

"I indeed didn’t notice," said Eleanor with a bitter smile, "I thought I had finally managed to hit you for once."

"Keep it up," Aske patted her shoulder, smiling, "You’re just a little short of truly hitting me. Just a bit more effort and you’ll get there."

"Hey, what just happened?" Outside the field, Ludwig seemed to have just caught on, surprised, "Did my sister lose?"

Being held at sword-point at her throat, could that be anything but defeat? Two Knight Followers murmured to themselves without answering.