Guild Boss's Ambition

Teacher Caesar didn't pay any special attention to me, a freshman. After giving her opening remarks, she began to arrange each part of the exam in a compact manner. After a random group draw, I, a freshman, also drew my exam opponent. It was the rabbit boy named Huabi who sat in front of me. He was holding an ordinary long sword and looked very confident.

"I will do my best to defeat you, please give me your guidance!"

"..."

I don’t know if I offended him or if he was just more competitive. After seeing the result of the draw, Huabi walked up to me with a grim face and loudly challenged me in front of the whole class. Then, without waiting for my response, he turned around and walked to the other end of the crowd. I really don’t know what he was acting out.

"Wow, she's been targeted by Huabi. Whether she wins or loses, it will be troublesome──"

"Luckily I wasn't the one who got picked. I heard that Marin was almost driven crazy by Huabi last time..."

"Hey, he has such a nice face, why is his personality so childish?"

At the same time, some comments about the rabbit boy Huabi appeared all around. Although these negative rumors helped to relieve my mood as I was suddenly treated rudely, the person involved was not far away. You are only forty miles away and speaking ill of him. Is that really okay?

As a rabbit man, Huabi should be able to hear such bad words clearly, right?

When I was silently wondering about my classmates' socializing style, Tracy kindly reminded me, "The boy just now is called Huabi. His father is the great swordsman of the dojo. Perhaps because of this reason, Huabi cares a lot about the outcome of this actual battle. As long as an opponent beats him, he will continue to challenge the enemy who defeated him after class until he wins back."

It turns out that Huabi is really a very competitive type──

Doesn't that mean that as long as I can successfully defeat him in this duel, he will take the initiative to approach me and make friends in the future? If things go well, we may even have a chance to become good friends, and then I can bring him home to show Sister Xiaolan and the others, proving that I can also manage interpersonal relationships on my own!

hum!

I will do my best in this game!

……

……

9. Magical Girl Makes Friends with Fists (Huabi)

(Huabi-Cottontail)

"The sword is the key to justice."

"Only by continuing to swing the sword can we gain wisdom."

My father's kendo is not a martial art, but more like a philosophy. I don't fully understand this skill yet, but as long as I keep swinging the sword, I will always be able to learn more. My enemies and companions are my best teachers. I must swing the sword more to recognize this chaotic world, and I must swing the sword firmly to find the meaning of my existence.

I don’t know about other people, but this is how we, the Cottontail Tribe, got through.

A few weeks ago, my father was defeated in the Windmill Arena, but he lost very willingly.

After he returned home, he specially wrote two lines of words and hung them on the wall of the temple.

"We must pass through the narrow gate, and for this we must seek the key of the Lord."

My father and our family are believers of the Dragon God religion. We believe in independence and strong will. Compared with the believers of the other two major religions, the number of staunch Dragon God believers is much smaller, only less than one percent of the other two. However, we are always full of strength, and in every turbulent era, those heroes are often our believers.

Or in the eyes of other ordinary people, we Dragon God followers are all a bunch of weirdos.

Therefore, even if everyone in the class said bad things about me in private, I didn't care too much. If there was anything worth worrying about, it would be the various inconveniences that might come with the bad reputation. If I were identified as a bad person who disturbed the peace, I would be afraid that nothing I could do in the future would go smoothly.

My midterm exam opponent this time was a new mute girl. She didn't seem to adapt to the school environment, but was oddly close to another transfer student from last time. And since I was a complete stranger to her, I was not able to make any advance preparations against her fighting style at this moment.

Or maybe this situation is exactly what my father said.

"Anyone who appears beside us today may become our enemy tomorrow."

Since anyone has the opportunity to come into conflict with ourselves, we should not be indifferent and complacent. We should take the initiative to get to know strangers and understand unfamiliar things. Over a long period of time, those seemingly insignificant knowledge may play a decisive role at some inadvertent moment.

but……

If I had not taken care of my weapon during the break, but had taken the initiative to approach this new student, would the current situation really be better? No, I am not a prophet, how can I be sure of the future development of things? Thinking from another perspective, or maintaining the good condition of the long sword is the key to my victory in this game?

Ok……

It’s very complicated and I can’t figure it out.

Before I could figure it out, it was time for me to compete with my opponent.

Lan Nong, who was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and long pants, did not prepare any protective gear, nor did she take out any weapons. She held a writing board and a quill pen in her hands. Just when I was dissatisfied with her equipment, she raised her eyes from her writing with great energy and turned the other side of the writing board to my eyes.

"If I win, you will be my friend."

"Well, yes."

Although it was a strange request, it was not something that was worth hesitating about.

As long as she has the ability to defeat me, even if she doesn't ask, I will naturally want to understand her fighting style and establish a friendship. If we are open and honest with each other, it will be helpful to exchange knowledge with each other, so that I can find her flaws as soon as possible, challenge her again, and then knock her down.

The so-called battle maniac probably refers to people like me, right?

After getting my promise, Lan Nong finally put away the troublesome writing board and officially stepped into the competition venue.

Lan Nong on the battlefield was not as ignorant as she looked. She took a horse stance with great poise. Although she was still unarmed, her eyes were as wild as a black bear in the mountains. Just based on this look, I considered her a qualified opponent. I had no idea how strong she was in actual combat.

when! ! !

The class monitor who was assisting Mr. Caesar in recording the scores struck the gong.

The sound of the gong marks the beginning of the duel.

Unlike the formal and standard arena outside, the training ground of our school is relatively small, a circular field with a radius of 25 meters. At the moment when the gong sounded, I drew out the long sword according to the rhythm of daily practice. This sword-drawing action is basic and very important. If I am a step slower, I will be killed instantly by those fast-attack opponents...

We also have a fast attacker of that type in our class.

At this time, classmate Lan Nong who was standing in front of me still had an unmoved posture. She just stood there waiting for me to take the initiative to approach her. In view of the fact that I am a swordsman who mainly fights in close combat, therefore, in fact, unless I use sword energy to attack from a long distance, I really have to take the initiative to close the distance and get close to launch an attack.

"Do you want to use sword energy?"

"No, I have to save my trump card for last."

Although my sword energy has always had a high hit rate, Lan Nong's combat effectiveness is unknown. And judging from her lightly dressed appearance, she is very likely to be a fighter or someone who is good at dodging. Instead of using a long-range skill with a low success rate here, it is better to try to gain a distance that is beneficial to her combat.

The total length of my sword blade is 135 cm, and my arm length is 68 cm. When I don't use special skills, the effective attack range is 60 to 203 cm. One point more or one point less is not good.

Taking gladiators as an example, boxing has an advantage over swordsmanship within 60 meters, and the range of three meters is the general range of qigong bullets. Compared with qigong bullets, the power of sword energy is relatively small and consumes more energy. When facing gladiators, swordsmen will grasp the distance between the two sides. As long as the steps are right, the final victory is not far away.

Three meters...

Two and a half meters...

Two meters exactly!

I tentatively stepped into this distance, and the moment the toes of my front feet touched the ground, I slashed down with my overhand longsword.

The tip of the sword promptly passed over the tip of Lan Nong's nose. She dodged my confident attack perfectly, but in the next moment, she saw that I was swinging the sword stiffly and quickly attacked forward, launching a right hook with a power that could not be ignored.

Zheng!

At the critical moment, I lowered my body and hid my head behind the sword.

As a result, Lan Nong's right hook, which was originally chasing my cheek, reached the tip of the long sword. Just before her fist was about to hit the blade, Lan Nong became alert. She retracted her fist, leaned forward with the momentum, and used two consecutive whip kicks to make up for the mistake of the previous punch, forcing me to the attack distance of 2.20 meters.

It was also at this time that I decided not to hide my strength anymore, and a sword energy swept out with a thought.

Facing my sword energy, Lan Nong's eyes widened in surprise.

"Is it impossible to dodge it?"

Experience tells me that this sword will hit.

And this sword did hit Lan Nong's writing board.

I didn't know what material the writing board was made of. After passing through the writing board that was temporarily mobilized by the space ring, my sword energy only cut a small hole in the abdomen of Lan Nong's shirt. It can be said that I returned in vain.

"Woo..."

Just as I was secretly admiring the improvisation in front of me, classmate Lan Nong was staring at the broken writing board on the ground with a sad face. It might be something she cherished very much, but her dazed performance on the battlefield also made me very impatient - I hope that every one of my opponents can go all out.

"If that's the case, then let me bring out your strength..."

I adjusted my slightly slipped sword grip with my five fingers, concentrated my attention and took a big step forward, then stabbed the gray-haired girl's heart with my sword. Driven by inertia, the three-meter distance was not very far. In just half a breath, the tip of the sword reached seven inches in front of the girl's left chest, and it was about to successfully pierce her flesh.

"Sure enough, it's fast..."

Without a doubt, my sword attack, which was not launched with full strength, was easily dodged by Lan Nong. She gave me the feeling of being as agile as a mongoose. The only thing that made me feel that I had the upper hand was that her fists did not have the power to seriously injure the enemy. If I exchanged one sword for one of her punches, I was confident that I could gain an advantage in the exchange.

After a series of attempts, I have already formulated a preliminary battle strategy.

I also took the initiative. I lightened the sword, made a feint attack in the middle, then pushed hard with my right leg and chopped down from the overhand position, aiming at the left side of Lan Nong's neck.

The initial feint attack was very successful and successfully disrupted Lan Nong's steps at that moment.

The following chop was just as I had expected. Lan Nong reacted quickly and immediately leaned forward, getting her body as close to the inside of my left arm as possible. That position was not suitable for chopping. However, her movement was a little too slow, and she was not able to reach the blind spot that the sword could not reach before the chop.

She still has one last chance, which is her punching power.

Her fist is faster than my sword. If her fist has enough power to affect the path of my sword, then she will win this exchange of attacks. However, I will never let this happen easily. I have gritted my teeth and prepared to take her punch. I am quite confident in my defense!

Boom──

The girl's fist hit my face with a force that was inconsistent with my impression. Under that instant of impact, I felt as if my soul was leaving my body and I saw the scene of my cheeks deforming and dancing. However, compared with the astonishing destructive power of the fist, the most terrifying thing was the touch from my hands - it was a feeling of emptiness as if I had suddenly lost my entire heart!

My sword is gone.

A swordsman is very familiar with his sword. Even though I was beaten so hard that I saw stars, I was very sure that my sword had disappeared from my hand. If there hadn't been this sudden change...

"On the battlefield, there are no ifs..."

I didn't want to make excuses for myself, so I took two steps back in embarrassment. After I had distanced myself from him, I was so frustrated that I found my sword in his hand.

"You win."

I lost my sword, so I, a swordsman, can only lower my proud head.

……

……

10. Lan Nong (Huabi)

(Huabi-Cottontail)

There is no shame in failure.

After being defeated, I kept my promise and went up to shake hands with Lan Nong.

"You defeated me. From now on, we are friends."

Even I felt strange when I said this, but Lan Nong seemed to smile happily because of this straightforward and explicit statement. She may have very few friends, and it is indeed not easy to make friends in our class. Speaking of marginalized people, I am actually half a marginalized person.

My approach has always been to act on things that interest me. As for things that I don't care about, I generally choose to ignore them. This approach always makes people think that I am snobbish. In fact, I also think that I am snobbish, but I am just too lazy to hang out with those idle people all day and waste time playing cheap friend games.

But what exactly are friends?

Putting my right hand, which still had the residual warmth of a young girl, into my trouser pocket, I took back my sword and turned to walk off the stage. Many classmates were still surprised by my defeat. Teacher Caesar gave me a mid-term score of 70, while the winner, Lan Nong, scored 65. This made people question her grading criteria.

However, I don't care much about the scores.

A real man must fulfill his promises.

However, even though I am a rough person who is not very tactful in dealing with things, I also know that making friends is not just about formally establishing a relationship by simply saying "I am your friend". Everything must be in line with the name, and as a friend, you must take corresponding actions.

Regarding the topic of "friends", I frowned and walked to Taimi. She was one of my few friends. To be precise, I myself was not sure whether I was her friend, but I remembered that Taimi once said to me - what, because we are friends - and then she took ten coppers from my wallet.

"Taimi, do you know how to make friends with others?" I asked Taimi directly.

Taimi is an untidy girl with messy long flaxen hair. If my sister looked like this, my mother would definitely start nagging her for an hour. But although Taimi is so rude, she is actually a very shrewd and wise person at heart. Living alone, she budgets carefully every day and can survive on only thirty copper coins.

I remember that she seemed to have no family. She would secretly sleep in our dojo on weekday nights and go to work after class.

Hearing my question, Taimi yawned and said, "Didn't you do a good job just now? It's almost jaw-dropping. If you try harder, people will think you're not just trying to make friends."

"I really just want to make friends with Lan Nong."

I also want to learn from her and then knock her down.

"Ohhhh..." Taimi showed a surprised expression and said with a mischievous smile, "So you are this kind of person!"

I'm not stupid, so I naturally understood what she was teasing me about. I immediately rolled my eyes out of boredom and said seriously, "Please don't treat me as one of those low-class hooligans. The reason I want to get close to Lan Nong is just to ask her for martial arts advice. I have absolutely no evil intentions. I am willing to swear to the heavens on my last name."

"Okay, okay, I get it. Stop being so serious, okay? You have no sense of humor at all."

"A real man shouldn't be so slick."

"There's a difference between being glib and having a sense of humor, right? No! Did you say that on purpose? Oh, this is an unexpectedly funny joke! Maybe Huabi is also a very talented comedian──"

Even though I was confused, I seemed to have received Taimi's praise. If our conversation continued at this pace, we might not be able to get back to the main topic until the end of the get out of class. So I interrupted her speech and asked my question again.

"Taimi, please tell me, what do I need to do as a friend?"