Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 263 - 61: Disarming with Bare Hands

Chapter 263: Chapter 61: Disarming with Bare Hands

"Who exactly is this fellow named Aske?"

In the embassy’s room, Viscount Heinrich poured a glass of wine and, raising his glass, said.

"I’m not sure," Meyer sneered, "When I left the Richartnal Knights, there was no such person in the group. However, considering that Nuremberg still represents the position of Chief Swordsman in the Knights, Aske’s position as Chief must be very shaky. Since when did the group have two chiefs? Can that even be called a chief?"

"What I mean is," Heinrich narrowed his eyes, "you shouldn’t underestimate him too much. The necessary probing still needs to be done. Of course, I don’t mean you should go down into the arena and challenge him directly. Isn’t he from The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps? You could send your men to taunt his subordinates..."

"...beat his subordinates into severe injuries," Meyer suggested thoughtfully. "Then, just wait for him to lose his cool and jump out."

"Then we can see just how watered down this Chief Aske really is," Heinrich said calmly, interlacing his fingers and resting them on his knees.

----------------------

Weisbach Palace training ground.

Knight Captain John was sparring with Sigrdrifa and felt increasingly shocked by her prowess. This young girl named Nora didn’t have a muscular physique, yet it seemed like she harbored an endless power within her body (partly derived from the Bloodline of the Giant I Magic Potion), so that every time he blocked her attacks, he felt an increasing numbness in his palms.

More importantly, the girl’s fighting style was not as straightforward and brute-force as her strength would imply, but rather she persistently targeted the fingers and wrists he used for holding his sword, giving Knight Captain John a kind of illusion that "could it be she’s intent on crippling my hands?"

Oh, miss, this companion of yours, she really is a monster! John’s peripheral vision glanced towards Eleanor, who was practicing the Sword And Shield Flow nearby when he suddenly heard the sound of a weapon falling to the ground in front of him.

Did I knock her weapon away? No, that’s not right! Knight Captain John was in shock when Sigrdrifa, now with both hands free, had already captured his sword-handing right hand and fiercely clasped her palms together, twisting his wrist!

Ahhhh! The searing pain of a nearly dislocated joint forced Knight Captain John to kneel on one knee uncontrollably, and he bit down hard on his teeth to keep from dropping his Longsword.

"Eh? Why didn’t you let go of your weapon?" Sigrdrifa pressed onto his wrist, and, while exerting force, she spoke in surprise, "Oh, you’re wearing Arm Armor on your wrist..."

Knight Captain John was tear-stricken; since last time he was struck in the stomach by this girl, he made sure to wear armor every time he entered the training ground, and indeed, this had proven to be the right choice.

"Sigrdrifa, what are you doing?" Eleanor, seeing the two maintaining a joint-locking posture, couldn’t help but stop her training and asked.

"This is the Wrist Lock, a form of unarmed blade capture taught to me by Aske—impressive, isn’t it?" Sigrdrifa released a sweating John, beaming with pride, "But you’re quite cunning, wearing Arm Armor, aren’t you?! How am I supposed to pinch your vital points then?"

John was dazed, so now I’m at fault for wearing Arm Armor? It was Eleanor who spoke up,

"That’s not right though, if the enemy wears armor on the battlefield, can’t you use ’unarmed blade capture’ anymore?"

"That’s also true," Sigrdrifa muttered, "I’ll go ask Aske."

She ran over to Nora, who was in charge of the Ancient Book that day, greeted her, and then Teleported to Fire Island.

Today on Fire Island, a large open space had been marked with countless grids of various sizes drawn with white lime. Peggy was swiftly moving through the grids, at times darting, at times walking fast, at times turning sharply, and at times moving straight—all while her movements changed unpredictably every second, dazzling onlookers.

According to what Aske had said, this was teaching her the basics of "Punic Tactics" — the footwork of non-fixed-directional, variable-speed positioning. Of course, Sigrdrifa didn’t understand it at all; she only rapidly scanned her surroundings and quickly locked on to Aske’s location.

Aske, wielding two Short Swords, was teaching Mia the essence of the Dual-Handed Assassination Technique.

"Watch closely," Aske twirled the swords in his hands, "This is the Right-Handed Sword."

"And this is the Reverse Sword."

"This is the dual-handed sword technique, divided into ’left-right’ and ’right-left’."

"The method of holding the sword can be divided into these four types, and the method of swinging the sword, based on different frequencies, can be divided into two types."

"Attacking completely in sync with both hands is the ’synchronized sword’."

"Attacking with the left and right hands out of sync is the ’wrong-frequency sword’."

"So which sword technique is the most powerful?" Mia asked, propping her chin up.

"The power isn’t in the technique, but in ensuring the enemy doesn’t know which you’ll use," Aske said. "The essence of the dual-handed assassination technique lies in the ultra-high frequency of rapid changes."

"Switch from right to left and back, alternating between synchronous and asynchronous cuts, totaling eight attack patterns. Before the enemy can adapt to your current attack pattern, switch quickly to the next one, relentlessly changing and probing." Aske demonstrated with his dual swords, the blades dancing swiftly through his fingers, now held in the standard grip, now in reverse, leaving Mia dazzled and almost feeling dizzy.

"And then, when your enemy’s rhythm is in disarray, you strike your killing blow." The short sword stopped in front of Mia’s neck; she came to her senses and excitedly grabbed Aske’s arm, exclaiming,

"That’s amazing! I want to learn!"

"Good, then first you’ll practice switching grips from standard to reverse," Aske said. "Once you can switch three times in one second, I’ll teach you the next move."

So Mia went off to play with her dagger, and Sigrdrifa hurriedly rushed to Aske’s side, imitating Mia, she began shaking his arm, shouting,

"Squad Leader, that technique for disarming an opponent bare-handed, the wrist lock, it didn’t work!"

"How come it didn’t work?" Aske frowned, sensing the issue was not so simple.

"I was sparring with Ellie’s Uncle John, and I used the ’wrist lock’ on him," Sigrdrifa said. "But he wore arm armor!"

"If he’s wearing arm armor, then don’t try to pinch his wrist!" Aske said, half laughing, half exasperated. "Just twist his hand outwards forcefully, either he’ll loosen his grip or his joint will misalign, see how simple?"

"Ah, that does make sense." Sigrdrifa pondered for a moment and nodded.

"Besides pure combat skills, you could also try combining them with your own extraordinary abilities," Aske suggested. "For example, the power of frost can freeze an enemy’s fingers gripping their weapon, or the power of thunder, conducting electricity through metal, could paralyze their upper limb."

Thus, Sigrdrifa teleported back to reality, pondering Aske’s words while walking slowly to the training area only to find that it was now deserted—Ellie and Knight Captain John were nowhere to be seen.

"How did they leave so quickly?" Sigrdrifa felt discontent—now who am I going to practice with?

"Hey, are you one of the Azure Longsword mercenaries, woman?" A taunting voice sounded from behind her.

Sigrdrifa turned and saw a strange young man leaning against the wall, enveloped in smoke, resting one hand on a slicing and piercing sword.

"Want to spar with me?" Sigrdrifa’s thought process was simple—coming to the training ground was for practicing combat; with Ellie and the others gone, naturally I’ll ask you to be my partner.

The man leisurely put out his cigarette, flicking the butt onto the ground and crushing it with the heel of his boot:

"Alright."

He was a direct disciple of Meyer, originally planning to provoke this woman with words, lure her into a duel, and then chop her into a serious injury.

But the woman came to him willingly; he wouldn’t be overly polite now, with his right hand casually lifting the longsword onto his shoulder and his left hand gesturing with a hooked index finger, displaying a cocky smile.