Dinglinglingling...!
The bell rang for the end of class. Vice Admiral Tsuru ended the class on time, picked up his textbook, and turned to leave the classroom without any thought of keeping the students behind.
Sephiroth gently nudged Smoker, who was snoring soundly beside him.
"Uh!? Is school over? Let's go eat!"
Smoker woke up groggily, took out two cigars, lit them, and put them in his mouth.
Sephiroth covered his face with his hand and said helplessly,
"The next class is swordsmanship. We need to change classrooms. Come on, stop dawdling!"
Smoker scratched his head, recalled the class schedule, and muttered,
"Oh! It seems so..."
As Sephiroth walked out of the classroom, he complained to the old smoker beside him,
"Hey, aren't you going to take the class seriously?
Military theory is a skill that every senior officer needs to master, right?"
Hearing this, Smoker curled his lips, stared wide - eyed, and retorted,
"I dropped out of primary school. Do you think I can understand that stuff?"
"..."
Before long, thirty cadets arrived at a spacious swordsmanship dojo.
At this time, a tall man with a fierce face, long hair, wearing a silver - gray suit and a helmet on his head had already stood in the dojo with Zephyr, waiting for them. The two seemed to be chatting and laughing.
Seeing that all thirty students had arrived and lined up, Zephyr introduced them,
"This is Commodore Onigumo. He's also your senior. He has remarkable proficiency in Six Powers and swordsmanship, so I specifically invited him to be your swordsmanship instructor."
Onigumo took out a pack of cigarettes from his suit pocket, took out one, lit it, and put it in his mouth. Then he said slowly,
"The key points of swordsmanship are actually very simple: speed, strength, and timing.
No matter how gorgeous the moves are, if they can't cause harm to the enemy and kill the enemy, it's all in vain.
On the contrary, even if the moves are plain and clumsy, as long as you can seize the right timing to attack and kill the enemy, that's the best result.
The purpose of your learning swordsmanship is to kill the enemy more efficiently. So sometimes it's also a good choice to use weapons like guns for auxiliary attacks..."
"Cough! ... Onigumo, this is a swordsmanship class. Please don't mix in too many other strange things."
Zephyr coughed lightly, indicating that the other party shouldn't deviate too much from the topic.
Hearing this, Onigumo didn't say anything. He took out a bamboo sword from the basket beside him.
"Alright! I'll show you some common attack and defense techniques..."
As he spoke, Onigumo showed the students a very standard set of attack and defense techniques one by one and briefly explained how the moves were connected.
"Mere demonstration and explanation are neither interesting nor of much value for teaching."
Those young cadets have already practiced basic swordsmanship before coming to the military academy. Learning a few more sword moves won't do much good...
Devil Spider told me to see how much your swordsmanship has improved and teach those kids some practical fighting skills on the side..."
"I see... It's been a long time since I left the military academy and last fought against you, Teacher Zefa..."
Hearing this, a glint of excitement flashed in Devil Spider's eyes.
He walked back to the basket. The long hair on his back wriggled rapidly and split into six hair - formed hands. He took out six more bamboo swords from the basket. Together with the two he was already holding... That's eight in total!
"Perfect. I want Teacher Zefa to give me some guidance on the Eight - Blade Style swordsmanship I developed on my own..."
Wow!
When the thirty military cadets saw Devil Spider holding six swords with his hair, they all let out an involuntary exclamation.
"Devil Spider, you need to understand that having more weapons doesn't necessarily give you an advantage..."
Although Zefa said this, he also picked up a bamboo sword in each of his hands.
As a top - tier warrior with rich combat experience, Zefa had encountered many sword - wielding experts. He also received systematic swordsmanship training in his youth. After retiring to train Navy talents, he resumed swordsmanship practice.
Therefore, even though he was better at hand - to - hand combat, with his ability to draw inferences from one another, he could hold his own when fighting against ordinary sword masters with a sword or a blade.
After assuming a starting stance of the Two - Sword Style, Zefa said with a smile on his face:
"Come on! Let me test your Eight - Blade Style!"
Swish!
Devil Spider didn't waste any words. With a flash, he rushed in front of his teacher and brandished the eight swords like a violent storm. The rapid and powerful sword strikes shocked the military cadets to the core.
Crack! Crack! Crack! ...
The bamboo swords of both sides clashed at an extremely high speed, leaving streaks of afterimages in the air.
"Your attacks are very intense, and the strength is also quite good, but..."
While parrying with the two bamboo swords in his hands and dodging, Zefa looked very relaxed.
"You've overlooked one thing. No matter how many weapons you can control, your attention is limited..."
Amidst Devil Spider's dizzying sword attacks, Zefa's two swords crossed and danced quickly. They deflected the six bamboo swords held by Devil Spider's hair one by one. His opponent watched in surprise as he made the hair entangle into a tangled mess, knotted all over.
Taking advantage of Oni Gumo's distraction, Ze Fa seized an opening and thrust his katana at the latter's throat. But he stopped just a hair - breadth away and then finished his words:
"Therefore, it means that the more weapons you can control, the more openings there will be in the details..."
"Thanks for the advice, Teacher Ze Fa! I'll definitely work out a full set of attack moves when I get back..."
Oni Gumo nodded, looking like he had learned a lot. He slowly controlled his hair to untie the knots.
"Alright! I've taught you what I can. Now, it's time for actual combat training... All hands on deck!"
"Yes!" x30
"Now, pair up in twos and practice swordsmanship against each other!"
"Yes!" x30
Everyone walked over to the baskets and each picked up a bamboo sword.
At this time, Kaji walked quickly towards Gion with a lecherous smile on his face:
"Gion, I..."
Unexpectedly, before he could finish his sentence, Gion turned around with a smile and said to the silver - haired boy Safiros beside her:
"Little Safiros, I've noticed that you always carry a katana around. Your swordsmanship should be quite good, right?
How about having a spar with me?
You're not afraid, are you?
Well, even if you're afraid to fight me, it's quite understandable!
After all, I've already reached the level of a Kengo (Sword - master)..."
"..."
Gion's provocation was so obvious. Clearly, she was using him as a shield to fend off Kaji. Safiros originally didn't want to pay her any attention.
However, a Kengo...?
In this world, the title of Kengo carried a lot of weight.
Of course, there was a huge gap between the upper and lower limits.
The top - tier Kengos can split mountains and cleave the sea, while the bottom - tier ones can only cut through iron.
In fact, using the ability to cut through iron as a standard to measure whether a swordsman was a Kengo wasn't very accurate.
A swordsman with a good weapon, like a Great - Grade Katana or an Ultimate Great - Grade Katana, will find it much easier to cut through iron.
Therefore, on top of being able to cut through iron, one also needs to be able to release a flying sword slash to be considered a qualified Kengo.
Currently, Safiros was just a swordsman who could use a katana. There was still a long way to go before he could become a Kengo.
Some time ago, Bogart, who had given him swordsmanship guidance, could only cut through steel at most and was still unable to release a flying sword slash. So, he couldn't be considered a Kengo...