Chapter 39: Ilanian Flash Step
“How is it going?” Asker, returning to the training ground, asked, staring at Mia who was still running at the foot of the hill.
“Not bad.” Rasul replied. “Although she doesn’t seem very smart, and her understanding of the details of the movements is not fast, overall, she’s still above average.”
“What surprised me was her perseverance. Running continuously in a specific posture for six hours, even in an illusory dream, the mental fatigue is very significant. For an underage girl to persevere to this extent is quite remarkable.”
“She was a thief before, and patience is a basic quality of a thief.” Asker recalled. “I remember she mentioned before that in order to steal something, she once followed the target for three days and nights.”
“Patience and perseverance are not the same thing.” Rasul said. “There are plenty of rookies under me who have the patience to listen to me finish explaining the training plan, but less than one-tenth of them have the perseverance to train according to the plan. The rest can only be forced with whips and swords.”
“I originally only intended to give her a head start. But at the current rate, it doesn’t seem impossible to finish teaching her the basics of Flash Step in this dream.”
“As long as her body remembers this way of exerting force, you can handle the subsequent correction of movement details yourself, Asker.”
“Of course.” Asker paused. “Thanks, Rasul.”
“You’re welcome.” Rasul chuckled. “It’s rare to meet someone who knows my identity and isn’t afraid of me. You’re the first one who dared to ask me for a favor.”
Asker smiled but didn’t answer. He couldn’t just say that he knew him from his previous life and that they were quite familiar, could he?
Rasul stared at his expression, feeling a little puzzled.
This guy… interacting with him always gave him a strange feeling of an “old acquaintance.”
But Rasul was certain that he had never met him before.
He looked at Mia, who was still running below in a strange posture, and suddenly leaped down the hill, drawing his sword in mid-air and roaring:
“You’re too slow! Die!”
The blade slammed heavily into the ground, and Mia, like a startled rabbit, instantly darted more than ten meters away.
“You have learned Flash Step.” Rasul sheathed his sword, a satisfied look on his face. “Remember the feeling of exerting force just now, don’t forget it.”
Mia paused and realized that she was now almost twenty meters away from her previous position.
“Let’s go, I’ve had enough here.” Rasul said lightly, turning and walking away.
“Don’t forget to give me your contact information!” Asker reminded him.
With a contact in the Assassin organization, it would be much easier to obtain intelligence in the future. The infiltration abilities of these assassins were simply pervasive.
Rasul didn’t look back, just waved his hand.
“How do you feel?” Asker walked down the hill and saw Mia lying sprawled on the ground.
“Tired.” Mia said weakly.
“That feeling… is very strange.” She looked blankly at the sky of the dream and thought for a moment before adding, “It’s as if the muscles in my lower body were tightened, then suddenly exploded, first the knees, then the thighs, and finally the calves.”
“My whole body was like a spring, shooting forward with all its might. So… have I learned Flash Step?”
“It’s still early.” Asker smiled. “In learning the Assassin’s Flash Step, you can only be considered to have just started, having learned this method of high-speed movement.”
“To truly reach the realm of practical application, you need to be able to use Flash Step at will, accurately use slashes or thrusts to hit the enemy during Flash Step, and even change the direction of Flash Step at will – the so-called Counter-Charge.”
“Hahaha.” Mia let out a dry laugh and couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “I can’t do it. Just the initial stage almost made me collapse.”
“You’re already very impressive.” Asker encouraged her. “It took me a whole week just to get through the initial stage.”
“Oh, really?” Mia snorted. “That means your talent is not as good as mine.”
“Yes, yes, yes.” Asker patiently coaxed her.
The two were silent for a while.
“It’s a little strange.” Mia said, “I feel the strength in my body… seems to be returning?”
“It’s not an illusion.” Asker stood up and looked around. “The dream is over, we are being teleported out.”
A few minutes later, Asker opened his eyes and found himself sitting on a chair next to the arena.
In the center of the arena, countless participants were lying scattered around, now gradually waking up and getting up from the ground.
“How was it?” Rudashius, the leader of the Spartan mercenaries, walked up to him and asked.
“There are a few formidable individuals.” Asker touched his pocket and took out a neatly folded list.
Although the notes were taken in the dream, this special paper could be taken out of the dream, probably made of some magical transcendental material.
“Oh?” Rudashius took the list and looked at it for a while, then said speechlessly, “The so-called formidable individuals you mentioned, are they these guys who lasted more than three minutes against you?”
“These people’s fighting styles are quite unique, and they have high potential for future growth.” Asker replied. “So I deliberately held back.”
Deliberately held back and still only fought for three minutes? Then what would happen if you didn’t hold back? Instantly kill them?
Rudashius was completely speechless.
But he also knew that this Asker was very high-level. Those with lower levels couldn’t even last a round against him, and any slight flaw would be seized and exploited.
It was completely different from the brute force style of the Spartans, who would directly clash with each other and compete in physical strength.
So he could only nod and silently memorize the names on the list.
“Oh, right.” Rudashius patted his head and said.
“News just arrived two hours ago.”
“Thessaloniki has fallen.” He said seriously.
…
Unlike Olympia, which was protected by natural barriers, Thessaloniki, the second largest city in the Eastern Solomon Empire, had very developed land and sea transportation.
In peacetime, this was an advantage for the city to maintain its commercial prosperity; in wartime, however, convenient transportation became a great help to the besiegers.
Under the attack of the Latin Crusaders, whose numbers far exceeded those of the defenders, Thessaloniki had no power to fight back.
After capturing Thessaloniki, Emperor Baldwin of the Latin Empire announced that this second largest city, originally belonging to the Eastern Solomon Empire, would be granted to Boniface, Marquis of Montferrat.
(This guy was one of the Crusader leaders who colluded with the Doge of Venice and led the Frankish knights to attack Constantinople.)
Boniface then declared the establishment of the Kingdom of Thessaloniki, with this city as its capital.
On the day of the founding of the kingdom, about 20,000 citizens of Thessaloniki were brought to the city square and then subjected to inhumane massacres.
Of course, whether they were deliberately deceived by the authorities and then massacred, or whether they gathered to protest against the authorities’ rule and were ruthlessly suppressed as a result, Olympia and the Kingdom of Thessaloniki each had their own version of the story, accusing each other of being responsible for this incident.
The only confirmed fact was the massacre itself.
Olympia declared three days of mourning for this, all entertainment activities were stopped, and even TV programs were uniformly changed to solemn black and white.
Residents spontaneously gathered and erected hundreds of handmade monuments and altars in Olympia, spontaneously offering flowers and lighting candles to mourn the victims of the Thessaloniki massacre.
At the same time, the more than two thousand outstanding mercenary warriors who emerged from the collective competition also began to receive equipment and training from the Spartans.
War was imminent.
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