Volume 15 Gray Fog Forest Chapter 778 Another Swordsman
Then, there was only one question left for Asano Akira: How could he find the right direction in the Gray Mist Forest and head to the core area?
Asano Akira thought for a moment, then bent his body slightly, held the scabbard with one hand, and gripped the handle with the other hand. After a short period of accumulation of strength, he made a 360-degree spin and slash.
Although the blade of the Nino alloy sword was only about one meter long, the range of the circular "sword energy" it slashed out far exceeded this length, and even the thick gray fog was "cut" away in an instant.
The spreading "circular sword energy" quickly swept across a circular area with a radius of about twenty meters with Asano Akira standing at the center. Two seconds later, a break appeared on the main trunks and supporting roots of all the mist trees in the circular area one meter above the ground, as if the picture was dislocated. Then, the upper trunks fell to the outside of the circle along the break, leaving behind tree stumps with mirror-like smooth cross-sections.
Although Mo Jue said that in the depths of the Gray Mist Forest, it was no longer possible to determine the direction by identifying the density of tree rings, she said so only because the equipment carried by the "lumberjacks" did not have such high detection accuracy.
For Asano Akira, he didn't need to care about the density of the annual rings of the Kiriwa wood. He only needed to judge which side of the Kiriwa wood was denser by the resistance feedback when he used "sword energy" to cut through the main trunk and supporting roots.
The invisible ring-shaped "sword energy" was also connected to Asano Akira's mental tentacles - since the mental tentacles could not penetrate the thick fog, all he had to do was cut through the fog.
With the abnormally accurate perception ability of the mind tentacles, Asano Akira could feel it even if the wood density of the two mist trees differed by only one ten-millionth.
Asano Akira quickly locked on the direction - the wood of the Kirisu tree at the six o'clock direction was the densest, while the wood of the Kirisu tree at the opposite twelve o'clock direction was the loosest in this circular area.
Of course, this looseness is only relative, and the actual difference is very small. It is estimated that only the expensive precision instruments in the research institute can measure this error.
As for the vernier caliper-like tools used by those "lumberjacks", they are at best just firewood sticks in this place.
Asano Akira turned around and walked towards the original six o'clock direction.
The density of the fog trees there is the highest, so it must be the direction leading to deeper depths.
But before Asano Akira could take fifty steps, a strange feeling surged into his heart again. He stopped, took a deep breath, and drew his sword again -
All the mist trees in another circular area were cut off, but Asano Akira, who was standing in the center of the circular area, couldn't help but frown.
At this position, the supporting root of the Mist Tree with the densest wood is not directly in front, but about 120 degrees to the right rear side, which is almost at the four o'clock position.
He was sure that he had been walking in a straight line.
When people with normal vision walk in dense fog or dense forests, they can easily go in circles because they have no reliable visual reference. This is because the strength of the two sides of the limbs of most people is not completely consistent. Generally speaking, the right limb is the dominant side of a person (the left side for left-handed people), and the right limb can be used and exercised more in daily life. Therefore, the strength of both the right arm and the right leg is greater than that of the left limb of the body.
In the normal walking process, the right leg will exert more force than the left leg, which causes the body to deviate to the left hand side with each step. In places with obvious reference points, the human brain will adjust this deviation automatically, but if there is no reference point and you walk blindly with your eyes closed, the final trajectory will most likely be a counterclockwise circle.
But Asano Akira was originally blind. When he was unable to release his mental tentacles out of his body, he was able to walk normally without relying on any auxiliary tools entirely relying on his strong sense of balance and stability - even without the ability to materialize his thoughts, Asano Akira's sense of balance was much stronger than that of normal people.
The human brain has a certain "functional compensation mechanism": the deaf often have good eyesight, while the blind have keener hearing and touch. This is certainly related to daily living habits, but when humans lose a certain sensory ability for a long time, the cerebral cortex will "compensate" this "unused" space with modules belonging to other sensory abilities... This is not some pseudoscience from street literature, but is based on authoritative medical papers... In a sense, experimental subjects like Akira Asano and others in the "Human Telekinesis Research Project" are also a disguised "compensation mechanism."
When they gain "superpowers", they will also lose the functions of a part of their body. The more abilities they gain, the more they lose... and the price of becoming a perfect individual like Marshall is to lose their own life.
When Ke Lan and his friends first met Asano Akira, his mental power could only be attached to his sword, but the fact that he could still move freely in the ruins even though he was blind was a good illustration of this point.
But this time, Asano Akira unexpectedly went astray.
He couldn't see the surrounding scenery, nor did he release his mind tentacles to sense the surrounding environment. Logically, the thick fog should not pose any obstacle to his perception. He just needed to keep walking forward as he usually did.
But he still went astray.
What Asano Akira could not understand the most was that, for ordinary people, even if they went around in circles because they were lost, they would have to walk a long distance before their trajectory would take on an arc shape. However, he had only walked forty-seven steps, and the "correct direction" that should have been at twelve o'clock directly in front of him had moved to the four o'clock position on the right rear side, a full 120 degrees deviation. If he walked a few more steps forward, he would probably have to turn a 180-degree turn and start walking back.
In order to "draw" a moving trajectory that is close to a semicircle in such a short distance, the deviation angle of each step of Asano Akira must be extremely exaggerated.
He took two steps back and aligned his feet with the footprints he had just made. He took two more 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 one that can be observed with the naked eye.
Going forward in this way, it would be impossible to turn 120 degrees in just 47 steps.
"It seems... it's not that simple." Asano Akira was not discouraged. His mentality has always been calm. This was the case when facing a strong enemy and also when facing death.
But Asano Akira couldn't think of a solution for a while, so he could only choose a very inefficient and stupid method: every three steps, he would cut the tree stump and redefine the direction.
As thin pieces of wood were shaved off the stump one by one, Asano Akira walked forward step by step.
He didn't carry much food and oxygen generators with him, only enough to last for two days at most. However, at his current speed, two days would be enough to cover the last ten kilometers.
"As long as nothing unexpected happens..."
Just as Asano Akira was thinking this, a strong sense of crisis suddenly came over him!
This was not information captured by the tentacles of consciousness. His tentacles of consciousness could only be released for a short moment when the "sword energy" cut through the thick fog, and then they would be instantly swallowed up by the gathering fog... and this perception of danger came entirely from the instinct of being a warrior.
Asano Akira squatted on the spot, and thrust the sharp blade in his hand out from under his ribs, slashing it diagonally behind him - no sound was heard in the thick fog, but he felt that the blade touched something hard and sharp.
That was the blade of another knife.
And judging from the force fed back from the sword, the style of weapon used by the attacker, and even the strength and speed of the sword, were almost the same as his own.
"The enemy... is also a swordsman?"
A hint of doubt flashed through Asano Akira's mind.
In the exploration team, apart from Asano Akira, the only ones who can be considered to have strong close combat capabilities are Ke Lan and Ze Luo. However, the former's favorite melee weapons are engineer shovels and hunting knives, while the latter simply disdains to use such things.
As for Sanshisan, although his abilities were hard to guard against, Asano Akira had had a few private sparring matches with him. Although those black flying blades were difficult to deal with, the power attached to a single flying blade was not too strong for Asano Akira. He only needed to lightly swing his sword to knock away the incoming flying blades or daggers.
Sanshisan wanted to suppress Asano Akira, but a head-on confrontation would never work. His only chance of winning was to rely on the number and flexibility of his flying blades. He would attack Asano Akira from multiple directions and angles at the same time, looking for opportunities to find flaws in Asano Akira's defense.
But unfortunately, the gap in hard power between the two is too big. Even if there is a flaw in Asano Akira's defense, it will be difficult for Sansan to catch it.
The two sparred eight times in total, Asano Akira won eight times and Sanshisan lost eight times.
However, the only thing that made Sanshisan feel a little comforted was that the eighth time he lasted twice as long as the first time, from six seconds to twelve seconds.
With Sanshisan's strength, even if he launched a sneak attack on the unprepared Asano Akira, it would be difficult to succeed, and it would be impossible for him to make Asano Akira feel such a strong sense of crisis.
As for the remaining Ivan, Mo Jue and Valentina in the exploration team, the combat effectiveness of the first two can be basically ignored in this exploration team, and Valentina is even weaker than Mo Jue when not using the Blasphemer mecha.
In other words, the attackers were definitely not the other members of the exploration team.
If it's not them, then it's the enemy.
Asano Akira breathed a sigh of relief, and the blade suddenly shook outward, knocking the opponent's weapon away, and at the same time, he used the recoil force to retract the sword. At the same time, with his knees as the center of the circle, he completed a .
The retracted sword was swung out again, a "reverse cassock slash" from bottom to top.
If the opponent is also a sword-wielding warrior, then when the weapon was just shaken away, there would be an obvious opening in the middle and lower part of the body, and Asano Akira's "Reverse Kasaya Slash" with a tricky angle was aimed at this opening.
If it hits, even if it is not fatal, it can cut open the opponent's abdomen and cause a lot of bleeding.
Not to mention that Asano Akira's blade was carrying "sword energy" that was strong enough to cut through the thick fog.
"clang!!"
Asano Akira seemed to hear the sound of metal clashing coming from the hilt of the sword, but it also seemed to be just an illusion... But regardless of whether he heard the collision sound or not, this "Reverse Kasaya Slash" was indeed blocked by the opponent, and the two sharp blades collided again.
Not only was Nino's alloy sword blocked, but even the "sword energy" emanating from the blade disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.
"The opponent's reaction speed is not inferior to mine." Asano Akira judged in his heart. He did not choose to take a step forward and enter the distance of close combat. Instead, he drew his sword and jumped back, then quickly extended the tip of the sword forward and made a stabbing motion.
The tip of a sword is much smaller than the blade. Without a shield, you cannot block a thrust with your weapon. There are only three strategies: hit the top of the thrust weapon to push it down, or change direction and thrust upwards... or ignore the thrust and fight with the opponent.
The thrust is a sword move that has no defensive capabilities. It is more difficult to retract the attack or change the move than other sword moves. When two professional swordsmen compete, few will use the thrust as a means of attack.
The reason is simple. The opponent only needs to press down or deflect the sword to launch a counterattack. The swordsman who uses the thrusting method will more or less lose balance for a moment when the weapon in his hand is pressed down or deflected.
A moment's loss of balance can cost a person his life forever.
But Asano Akira was confident that even if the middle of his sword was hit hard, the tip of his sword would not deviate half an inch... What's more, with his thrusting speed, the tip of the sword would have pierced through the opponent's body before the opponent's weapon could even touch the sword.
"bite!!"
However, the expected force did not come from any place on the blade or the spine of the blade, but from the tip of the blade with the smallest force-bearing area!
The opponent held the tip of Nino's alloy sword!
Moreover, from the tip of the knife, Asano Akira could feel the unparalleled sharpness of the "sword intent" that was almost about to burst out... The opponent was also using the tip of the knife, not a shield or something like that!
This is totally... a tit-for-tat confrontation!
"What's going on?" Asano Akira's doubts grew again. He increased his strength and tried to move the tip of the sword... but the sword remained motionless and could not move forward even a little bit.
