Chapter 57 I Apply for the Challenge
Edith didn't bring a sword. After all, she had no other weapon except the rusty sword she had snatched from Charles's manor. It would be better for her to borrow one from someone else when she arrived at the venue.
Sure enough, Lynch stood at the practice field on time with three wooden swords, and the others also arrived early. Tuttle had already said that he refused to use a sword when he was invited, but for some reason he still leaned against a tree nearby.
Mullin and Bell came here just to see the world - when they really got to the competition, the results of two days of temporary training would not play a decisive role at all.
The only ones who were really excited were Lynch and Amy.
"What are you so happy about?" Amy had never practiced sword systematically. She came here today mainly for experience. It was normal for her to be excited, but Lynch came here to teach today - is it so happy to be a teacher to others?
"...Do I look excited?" Lynch subconsciously touched his face and pulled the corners of his mouth down, "Sorry."
The last time I asked Edith for help with training, I only gave her verbal instructions. This time, I can finally see her use a sword again, so it’s inevitable that I’m a little over-expecting.
He controlled his emotions, picked up a wooden sword, and handed it to Edith, who took it generously, and it seemed that she was not going to just stand aside and watch.
Lynch's tense muscles relaxed.
"Teach Edith first? Then I'll step back." Amy took a step back with some boredom, grabbed the remaining knife and started studying it.
Hiss, why does it look different from Edith's?
"Just watch first. You are so inexperienced that you get chopped down right away. What's the point of me watching?" Tuttle put down the book in his hand and looked at the field. "The knowledge points are always shared."
That's true.
Amy put down her sword, straightened her attitude and looked towards the practice field. She had just finished her exam today, and most people were in the dormitory catching up on sleep after staying up late to review. The practice field was empty, with only a few people in the distance.
At first glance, the visual focus naturally fell on the two people holding swords facing each other.
"...Why doesn't it look like you want to give any instructions?" He frowned and looked towards the center. Edith lowered her head and stroked the hilt of the sword, while Lynch stood straight, his eyes fixed on the ground, looking a little nervous.
Why is Lynch the one who is nervous?
"Thank you." Edie said without any warning, looking in the direction of Lynch with some surprise, "Okay, come on."
Her habit of holding the sword is a bit peculiar. The position of her fingers does not fit the guards of most swords on the market, so she has to modify the swords herself after buying them.
Unexpectedly, Lynch still remembered that the sword he handed to her had already been polished and could be used without any modification.
Lynch pursed his lips, feeling a little excited.
He took a deep breath, spread his legs, bent his knees slightly, lowered his body's center of gravity, and held the sword across his chest with both hands.
Tuttle narrowed his eyes.
Although he had no combat experience, he could recognize that this was an obvious defensive posture.
Edith, on the other hand, stood quite relaxed, one foot even just lightly touching the ground, looking like she could fall with a push. She even held the sword in one hand, pointing backwards, not suitable for quick attacks.
...Is it because of inexperience or overconfidence?
"I'll yell start and end!" Hedda showed more excitement than usual. She rushed to the front, clasped her hands together, and made a snapping sound, "Begin!"
Lynch took a step forward and swung his sword vigorously in a clockwise direction, intending to control Edith's first attack with a large-scale sweep.
Edith is so good at delivering a fatal blow. As long as she blocks the first blow and leaves even a second of reaction time—
"Oh!" Amy exclaimed, followed by the subconscious inhalation of others. Lynch was distracted for a moment, and then he focused again, and the person had disappeared.
"Your sword habits are too obvious." A voice suddenly came from the left rear. Lin Qi trembled and subconsciously drew back the sword, swinging the sword that was already tilted to the right side of his body counterclockwise behind him. But at this time, the voice appeared on the right side, "Your feet are too firm, not flexible enough, and too slow."
One hand pressed hard on the sword that was sent to his right shoulder, and pressed down. Lynch suddenly felt a sharp pain in his wrist. He gritted his teeth and groaned, refusing to let go, tilting the sword to pull it out. Edith suddenly let go, and Lynch was immediately knocked to the ground by the force of his own pulling.
"Don't use unfamiliar moves to defeat the enemy just for the sake of convenience."
The test is over.
The entire match lasted less than 20 seconds, and most of that time was spent on teaching. Edith roughly understood Lynch's current problem, moved her wrist, switched the sword to her left hand, and reached out to pull him up: "What you need most now is to relax. Your strength and movements are in place, but your muscles are too stiff and your flexibility is not enough. If the enemy changes position slightly, it will be easy for you to be entangled."
The reaction of swinging the sword backwards was very fast, but the price was that the holding posture of both hands was extremely unnatural, so it hurt when she pressed it.
"But it's not bad. This time I finally remembered not to let go even if I die."
Lynch's face turned pale and he nodded silently.
Although I learned a lot, it did hurt my self-esteem.
The surroundings were silent at the moment, but Edith's attention was focused on the fight just now, and she didn't pay attention to the reactions of outsiders. She shook her legs, rotating them at various angles, showing the flexibility of her muscles: "Practicing epee requires a lot of stability, but you are practicing the ordinary sword form, so you don't need to step too hard on your feet - leave one foot free like me, so that you can run more easily."
That's why she was able to run behind the other person at the beginning.
"Yeah." Lynch rubbed his aching wrist, his eyes fixed on Edith, appearing very focused.
The audience outside the venue finally processed the information at this time.
Mullin stood up silently, and Bell also changed from sitting to standing. Tuttle's hands were still firmly on both sides of the book, but the page remained at the beginning.
Tuttle: "..."
What just happened.
He seemed to see Edith running fast, and also seemed to see Lynch waving a wooden sword and heard some tinkling sounds. When the picture froze again, Lynch had fallen to the ground.
What process did he skip?
There were no fancy and complicated sword dance moves, nor any back-and-forth pulling. Lynch was like a novice who knew nothing. Even though he tried his best, he was still easily pinned down by Edith.
It looked like a prop for Edith's performance.
He turned to look at Amy: "...What's going on?"
Didn’t the other party inform him that today was a teaching session? How did it suddenly turn into a crushing competition?
Amy's eyes were empty: "I don't know."
But compared to the silent and broken crowd, he chose to shout and call back the attention of the two people in the center: "Isn't Lin Qi's swordsmanship teaching session today!"
Edith: "? When did you say it was Lynch who taught it?"
"Lynch contacted me and said he wanted to train me in swordsmanship - hell, he didn't even say he would teach me himself!"
Amy slapped her head, "So..."
Edith raised her chin and said, "So, I'll give you special training."
Lynch shrank his neck silently.
......
"I can't take it anymore." Amy lay on the ground and skillfully grabbed Edith's sword with both hands. Seeing that the thing was still showing signs of moving further down, she opened her mouth and bit it.
Edith: "...loose mouth."
So disgusting.
She relented and the man immediately spat out the food and rolled over into the bushes. Tuttle moved away in disgust, watching Amy tumble all the way and finally hit the tree trunk hard.
Everyone looked up and down, their heads turning everywhere, but they didn't dare look in Amy's direction for fear of losing control of their laughter.
"You're good enough. Swordsmanship is not something you can learn overnight. Just learn how to cheat and control the enemy." Edith threw the dirty wooden sword aside and replaced it with a new one. "Your shameless spirit is good, but don't bite the iron sword next time you encounter it."
It might be useful against an enemy with mysophobia.
When Amy heard that she was let go, she immediately turned over and sat up, nodding hurriedly: "Who's next!"
After being ridiculed for so long, it is finally his turn to watch the game!
Edith glanced at the rest of the people, and everyone subconsciously stiffened. Although they knew that practicing this would be very helpful for the competition, it was still inevitable that they would hesitate to be beaten in public. Bell pinched himself, gritted his teeth and stepped forward: "I'll do it."
Edith nodded and moved aside to make room.
"Hey, one after another, are you planning to occupy this place for the whole afternoon?"
A strange voice came from behind, sounding malicious. Edith frowned and turned to look in the direction of the voice.
A familiar-looking girl was striding towards them. She had well-developed muscles but fair skin, which made her look strangely familiar.
The girl looked unfriendly and looked at Edith with a provocative look in her eyes: "It's time to give up your seat."
Edith frowned, feeling that she meant something else.
"The venue is basically empty, why do we have to take our place?" Tuttle put down the book in his hand, walked to Edith, and stood sideways in front of her.
"What does this have to do with you?" The girl glanced at Tuttle holding the hand of the History of Magic, and then looked up and down at his figure, with even more contempt in her eyes. "Get lost, go to other places."
This was a bit insulting. Bell lost control of his temper and came over, raised his wand and pressed it against the man's chin, "Say it again?"
The girl seemed to have not expected that these first-year students would be so bold, and her expression changed: "You dare to do this in the academy?"
The situation was at a standstill for a while, and Edith pondered for a long time, and finally found the answer at this time. She patted her head and asked: "Are you one of the teams with zero points in the promotion competition?"
Such a strange combination of body shape and skin color is not common.
No one can bear it in this situation.
For a moment, everyone burst into laughter.
The girl's face turned red and white, she didn't expect that her impulsiveness would cause such a big problem. She was about to say a few soft words to solve the problem, but the chaos here was suddenly noticed by others. Several seniors rushed over here with angry faces: "Are you bullying?"
Edith frowned: "Bell!"
But it was too late. The leading boy seemed to have a good relationship with the girl. When he saw that she was being held hostage by Bell, he immediately stepped forward and grabbed her collar: "Just bully her because she's alone!"
Edith pulled out her wand in an instant, and a gust of wind blew through the gap between the two of them, steadily freeing Bell from the clamped state. At the same time, it also blew through the tree behind them, shaking the leaves and making a noticeable sound.
“What are you doing!” The sleepy supervising teacher finally noticed something was wrong and rushed over from the side. “Fighting, right? Spells are not allowed in the sword practice field!”
Edith retracted her hand and quickly put her wand back into her pocket. She put her arm around the girl and said with a socially acceptable smile, "There's no teacher. We're just joking."
"That's right, it's just a normal conversation." The girl understood and quickly explained, pinching the angry boy, "We didn't fight or use magic."
The teacher didn't want to cause any more trouble, so seeing that the two groups had no objections, he gave a few indifferent instructions. Just as he was about to leave, he caught a glimpse of the sword on the man's back, and his face darkened.
"Only wooden swords can be used in the sword training field. Metal swords can only be used after applying for the arena and recording the names of the two opponents. Put them back!"
The boy was already upset because he had to help cover up after being hit by Edith's spell, and his temper immediately got aroused after being scolded like that.
"I'll apply for a place in the ring." He stretched his muscles and stepped on Edith's wooden sword, crushing it to pieces. "So I can use the iron sword now, right?"
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