Alien Relic Hunter.

Chapter 787 Another Swordsman

Then, there is only one problem left for Akira Asano: How can he find the right direction in the foggy forest and go to the core area?
Akira Asano thought for a moment, then arched his body slightly, held the scabbard with one hand, and held the handle of the knife with the other hand. After a short period of power accumulation, he drew the knife in a 360-degree swing.

Although the blade length of the Nino alloy sword is only about one meter long, the range of the circular "sword energy" that is cut out far exceeds this length, and even the thick gray fog is "cut" in an instant .

The spreading "ring-shaped sword energy" quickly swept across a circular area with a radius of about 20 meters centered on Asano Akira's standing position. After two seconds, all the trunks and pillar roots of the fog perches in this circular area were separated from each other. A broken mark appeared at a height of one meter above the ground, and then the upper tree trunks fell to the outside of the circle along the broken mark, leaving tree stumps with smooth cross-sections like mirrors.

Although Mo Jue said that in the depths of the foggy forest, it is no longer possible to determine the direction by identifying the density of the annual rings, but the reason why she said this is because the equipment carried by the "lumberjacks" does not have such a high detection level. precision.

As for Akira Asano, he doesn’t need to care about the density of the growth rings of the fog perches. He only needs to judge which side of the fog perches is woody by the feedback resistance when the “sword qi” cuts these trunks and prop roots. more closely.

The invisible ring-shaped "sword energy" is also connected to Asano Akira's mind tentacles - since the mind tentacles can't penetrate the thick fog, it just needs to cut the thick fog away.

With the abnormally accurate perception ability of the tentacles of the mind, Akira Asano can feel it even if there is only a one-ten-million difference in the wood firmness of the two fog perches.

Akira Asano quickly locked the direction - the wood of the mist roost at the six o'clock direction is the most compact, while the wood of the mist roost at the opposite twelve o'clock direction is the loosest in this circular area.

Of course, this looseness is only relatively speaking, and the actual difference is extremely small. It is estimated that only those expensive precision instruments in the research institute can measure this error.

As for the vernier-caliper tool used by those "lumberjacks", it is nothing more than a fire stick in this place.

Asano Akira turned around and walked towards the original six o'clock direction.

The wood density of the mist roost there is the highest, so it must be the direction leading to deeper depths.

But Asano Akira hadn't been able to walk fifty steps, a strange feeling flooded his heart again, he stood still, took a deep breath, and drew the knife again——

Another piece of fog perches in a circular area was completely cut off, but Asano Akira, who was standing in the center of the circular area, couldn't help but frowned.

In this position, the root of the densest pillar of Misty Roost is not directly in front of it, but at a direction of about 120 degrees on the right rear side, which is about four o'clock.

He can be sure that what he just walked has been a straight line.

When a person with normal vision walks in an environment such as dense fog or dense forest, it is easy to go around in circles because there is no reliable sight reference.This is because the forces on both sides of most people's limbs are not exactly the same.Generally speaking, the right limb is the dominant side of a person (left-handed people are the left side), and the right limb can be used and exercised more in daily life.Therefore, both the strength of the right arm and the right leg are greater than the strength of the limbs on the left side of the body.

In the process of normal walking, the force exerted by the right leg will be stronger than that of the left leg, which leads to the process of deviating the body towards the left hand side every time one step is taken.In places with obvious reference objects, the human brain will adjust this deviation by itself, but if there is no reference object and you walk blindly with your eyes completely closed, then the final trajectory will most likely be a counterclockwise circle.

But Akira Asano was originally a blind person. When he was unable to release the tentacles of his mind, he was able to walk normally without relying on auxiliary tools because of his strong sense of balance and stability—even without the ability to materialize his mind. Akira Asano's sense of balance is also much stronger than normal people.

The human brain has a certain "functional compensation mechanism": deaf people often have good eyesight, while blind people have sharper sense of hearing and touch. This is certainly related to daily life habits, but when human beings lose certain When the sensory ability is high, the cerebral cortex will "compensate" this "unusable" space to modules belonging to other sensory abilities... This is not a pseudoscience from street stall literature, but has authoritative medical papers as the basis Yes... In a sense, subjects like Akira Asano and the others in the "Human Psychic Power Research Project" are also a "compensatory mechanism" in disguise.

While gaining "superpowers", they will also lose the function of a part of their original body.The more abilities you gain, the more things you lose... and the price of becoming a perfect individual like Marshall is losing your own life.

When Ke Lan and the others met Asano Akira for the first time, his mind power could only be attached to the sword, but he was able to move freely in the ruins even though he was blind, which was already very good. illustrates the point.

But this time, Akira Asano went astray unexpectedly.

He couldn't see the surrounding scene, and he didn't release the tentacles of his thoughts to perceive the surrounding environment. Logically speaking, the thick fog shouldn't pose any hindrance to his perception. He just needs to walk straight ahead according to his usual walking method. Just go.

But he still went astray.

What makes Asano Akira most incomprehensible is that even if ordinary people go around in circles because they lost their way, they have to walk a long distance before the trajectory becomes a circular arc. However, he only walked a full 47 steps, which should have been directly in front of him. The "correct direction" at twelve o'clock has moved to the four o'clock position on the right rear side, which is a full 120 degrees off. If we take a few steps forward, we will probably have to turn a 180-degree turn and start walking back up.

To "draw" a movement trajectory close to a semicircle in such a short distance, the deviation angle of each step of Asano Akira must be very exaggerated.

He took two steps back and put his feet on the footprints he had just stepped on. He took two steps back and stepped on the pair of footprints left a moment earlier.

There is almost no angular deviation between the two pairs of footprints, at least not that can be observed with the naked eye.

Moving forward in this way, it is impossible to turn 47 degrees in just 120 steps.

"It seems...it's not that simple." Akira Asano didn't feel discouraged, and his mentality has always maintained a state of Gujing Wubo, which is the same when facing a strong enemy, and it is also the same when facing death.

But Akira Asano couldn't think of a way to deal with it for a while, so he could only choose a very inefficient and stupid way: every three steps, cut the tree stump and re-orientate.

As one piece after another of thin wood chips were cut from the stump, Akira Asano walked forward step by step.

The food and oxygen generators he was carrying were not too much, they could only last for two days at full load, but at his current speed, two days was enough to cover the last dozen kilometers.

"As long as nothing happens..."

Just when Asano Akira thought so, a strong sense of crisis suddenly hit his heart!
This is not the information captured by the tentacles of consciousness. His tentacles of consciousness can only be released for a short moment when the "sword energy" cuts through the thick fog, and then they will be instantly swallowed by the closed thick fog... The perception of danger comes entirely from the instinct of being a fighter.

Asano Akira squatted backwards, with the sharp blade in his hand out from under his ribs, and slanted towards his back - there was no sound in the dense fog, but he felt that the blade touched something hard and sharp.

It was the edge of another knife.

Moreover, judging from the power fed back from the saber, the style of the weapon used by the attacker, and even the strength and speed of the saber were almost the same as his own.

"The enemy... is also a swordsman?"

A trace of doubt flashed in Akira Asano's heart.

In the exploration team, apart from Asano Akira, Ke Lan and Ze Luo are the only ones who can be considered to have not weak melee combat capabilities, but the melee weapons that the former likes to use are engineering shovels and hunting knives , the latter simply disdains the use of weapons.

As for 33, although his ability is hard to guard against, Asano Akira has had a few point-to-point exchanges with him in private-although those black flying blades are difficult to deal with, but the power attached to a single flying blade is very powerful for Asano Akira. It's not that strong, he only needs to swing the battle lightly, and he can fly the flying blade or short sword that is coming.

33 If he wants to suppress Asano Akira, it is absolutely impossible to rely on head-to-head confrontation. His only chance of success is the number and flexibility of flying blades. flaw.

But it's a pity that the difference in hard power between the two is really big. Even if there are loopholes in Akira Asano's defense, it will be difficult for 33 to catch them.

The two have played a total of eight times, Akira Asano won eight times, and 33 lost eight times.

But the only thing that gave 33 some comfort was that the eighth time he persisted was twice as long as the first time, from six seconds to twelve seconds.

With a strength of 33, even if he sneaks up on the unsuspecting Asano Akira, it will be very difficult to succeed, and it is impossible for Asano Akira to have such a strong sense of crisis.

As for the remaining Ivan, Mo Jue, and Valentina in the exploration team, the fighting power of the first two people is basically negligible in this exploration team, and Valentina is not using the Blasphemer Mecha. Even weaker than Mo Jue.

In other words, the attacker was definitely not someone else in the exploration team.

If it's not them, it's the enemy.

Akira Asano breathed a sigh of relief, the blade jerked outwards, bounced off the opponent's weapon, and at the same time retracted the sword by relying on the counter-shock force.At the same time, with the knee as the center of the circle, a 180-degree turn is completed in a half-kneeling posture.

The retracted saber was swung out again, which was a bottom-up "reverse cassock cut".

If the opponent is also a samurai holding a sword, then when the weapon was shaken away just now, there will be an obvious empty door in the middle and lower part of the body, and Asano Akira's tricky "reverse cassock cut" is running towards this empty door And go.

If it hits, even if it is not fatal, it can still cut open the opponent's abdomen, causing a huge amount of bleeding.

Not to mention that Asano Akira's blade still carries a "sword energy" that can cut through the thick fog.

"clang!!"

Asano Akira seems to have heard the sound of gold and iron clanging along the hilt of the sword, and it seems to be just his hallucination... But no matter whether he heard the collision sound or not, this "reversing cassock cut" was indeed made by the opponent It was blocked, and the two sharp blades collided again.

Not only was the Nino alloy saber blocked, but even the "sword energy" emanating from the blade disappeared without a trace in an instant.

"The opponent's reaction speed is not inferior to mine." Asano Akira judged in his heart, he did not choose to step forward to step into the close-to-body combat distance, but instead drew the knife and jumped back, and then quickly handed out the tip of the knife forward, doing it Made a thrusting motion.

The area of ​​the tip of the sword is much smaller than the blade of the sword. Without a shield in hand, facing the thrusting action, it is impossible to block it with a weapon.The only coping strategies are nothing more than three: smash the top of the thrusting weapon and press it down, or pick it up in another direction... or ignore the thrusting and exchange lives with the opponent.

Thrusting is a sword move that does not have defensive capabilities. Whether it is withdrawing the attack or changing the move, it is more difficult than other sword moves. When two professional swordsmen compete, very few people will use the attack method of thrusting.

There is no other reason, the opponent only needs to press or lift the stabbing sword to launch a counterattack, and when the swordsman who uses the thrust is pressed or lifted, there will be more or less a split second. lost balance.

A momentary loss of balance can take life forever.

But Akira Asano is confident that even if the middle of the saber is hit hard, the tip of his sword will not deviate by half an inch... What's more, with his stabbing speed, when the opponent's dropped weapon has not touched the saber, The tip of the saber had already penetrated the opponent's body.

"Ding!!"

However, the expected force does not come from any place on the blade or the spine, but the tip of the blade with the smallest stress area!
The opponent withstood the tip of the Nino alloy saber!
Moreover, from the tip of the knife, Asano Akira could feel the unparalleled "sword intent" that was about to burst out... The opponent used the tip of the knife, not a shield or something!

This is completely... the tip of the needle!

"What's going on?" Akira Asano's doubts intensified again. He increased his strength a bit, and at the same time tried to stagger the point of the knife... But the sword still didn't move at all, and it was difficult to advance even a little bit.

[PS Thanks to Anthony Bigwood for the 300 starting coins; thanks to Wangchuanhe for the 100 starting coins. 】

(End of this chapter)