Chapter 37: Battling Beowulf
“Master Achilles!” Cedric said helplessly. “You were using the two-handed greatsword so well in the first match, why did you switch to a one-handed straight sword in the second match? Now we have to give you a new arena nickname. How about ‘Nightblade’?”
“Sure.” Asker said.
“Strange. Others are very picky about nicknames, for fear that they won’t sound imposing enough. But you don’t care at all, you treat fame like nothing.” Cedric shook his head in puzzlement, sighed, and left. Sidlipha, who was sharpening her axe next to him, looked up and smiled:
“Great. Every time I hear you called ‘Viking,’ I get goosebumps all over.”
“Want this nickname?” Asker said.
“I’d rather be called ‘Barbarian.’ Don’t you think this nickname is more aesthetically pleasing than Viking?” Sidlipha said, “But it doesn’t matter. The arena audience is fickle. When you’ve been here for a long time, unless you can perform one-versus-many feats every time, you won’t even have the chance to be mentioned by the announcer.”
“The next match is against the green team, right?” Asker asked.
“Yes. The day before yesterday, yesterday, and today, they have already won the Gladiatorial Gold Cup for three consecutive days.” Sidlipha said, “Do you know why the blue team this morning was so weak? Because all the veterans of the original blue team were killed by the green team, only the leader, Polar Bear, survived by surrendering. Hehe, timely surrender is still very important.”
“By the way, the green team members are all northerners who were eliminated from the Varangian Guard.” Sidlipha finished sharpening her axe and gently stroked the blade with her finger. “Don’t underestimate them just because they were eliminated.”
“In that case, let’s change our tactics after the next gladiatorial fight starts.” Asker pondered for a moment and said.
“What tactics?” Sidlipha asked curiously.
“Teamwork.” Asker said.
Soon, the final gladiatorial horn sounded. On the other side of the training ground, Theotis and the red team members were also ready to go. They didn’t look at Asker with malice like the previous two times, but just had cold expressions.
It seemed that the green team they were going to face in the end also brought them a lot of pressure.
Everyone filed out of the underground passage and came to the arena. The members of the opposing green team were also assembled, and as expected, they were all tall and strong northern Norman men, holding two-handed greatswords or giant axes, their arms alone as thick as Asker’s calves.
“I understand why you suggested teamwork.” Sidlipha said with a sigh. “Any one of these guys could knock me down in a one-on-one fight.”
Asker chuckled. Of course, his suggestion was not because he couldn’t win in a one-on-one fight, but because he wanted to see how Sidlipha’s teamwork awareness was.
“Ladies and gentlemen! The final gladiatorial fight of the day has begun!” The announcer’s commentary style seemed to be more restrained and serious, no longer as vulgar and nonsensical as the previous two matches. “The ones in green cloaks are our defending champions, the Geat barbarians from distant northern Scandinavia! Their bravery and barbarity need no further description, I’ll just say one word, and that is ‘Beowulf.’”
“Beowulf,” the famous epic film trilogy, whose protagonist Beowulf was the legendary lord of the northern Geat tribe, was widely known for his heroic battle against monsters.
So the audience shouted excitedly, throwing coins into the arena, hoping to provoke the anger of the yellow team gladiators and make the upcoming battle more intense.
“The challengers are our red team! Led by the cunning Thracian ‘Brown Bear,’ and our rookie king ‘Nightblade,’ as well as his inseparable partner ‘Big Guy’!”
“Damn it!” Sidlipha almost jumped in anger. “My nickname is ‘Barbarian’! ‘Barbarian’!”
Asker slandered in his heart. Was the nickname “Barbarian” any better than “Big Guy”?
“So, are the Solomons of the south more skilled, or are the Geats of the north more invincible? Let’s raise the curtain of war!” As the announcer ended his passionate speech, the starting pistol also fired.
The battle began, and Asker and Sidlipha instantly charged out. To their surprise, the red team gladiators didn’t contract their formation and cut them off, but rushed out at almost the same speed, clashing with the fierce and wild barbarian warriors on the other side.
A Geat barbarian warrior charged towards Asker, his bearded face overflowing with crimson blood mist. Asker was using a Holy Roman military cut-and-thrust sword this time, a Tiger Cut swinging horizontally towards the opponent’s neck.
The barbarian suddenly held his two-handed greatsword horizontally, steadily blocking this Tiger Cut.
Something’s wrong, Asker realized that the opponent’s strength exceeded the normal human level, his physical strength was at least level 4 or above!
The barbarian warrior quickly leveled his two-handed greatsword and then abruptly thrust forward. Asker blocked with his sword horizontally, and the opponent immediately pushed his sword forward, the blade of the greatsword pressing against the guard of the cut-and-thrust sword, making a creaking sound.
“This is bad.” The Kingsguard officers in the box discussed. “This opponent seems to be a Transcendental, and his physical strength completely surpasses his – Achilles is in danger.”
“Michael, should we ask the arena to pause?” A Kingsguard officer asked. “It’s a pity for someone with his talent to die here.”
“If he dies, then he’s simply not skilled enough, what’s there to pity?” Michael said coldly.
The Kingsguard officer was speechless.
“That chatterbox announcer, he actually got it right this time.” Michael was silent for a moment and continued, “This gladiatorial fight is a duel between the exquisite swordsmanship of Solomon and the strong physique of the northerners. If we use our power to save him, what will the audience outside think? They will think that we Solomons are no match for the northerners in a head-on confrontation and can only resort to underhanded tricks outside the battlefield!”
He spoke sharply, and the surrounding Kingsguard officers all lowered their heads and remained silent.
Many clever officers even thought of a deeper level, which was that the Emperor’s Kingsguard and the Varangian Guard had recently chosen to pledge allegiance to different Purple-clad Princesses.
Michael had chosen Princess Theodora, while the Varangian Guard, composed of northerners, had chosen Princess Zoe.
Perhaps the relationship between the two Princesses was not as harmonious and united as it appeared on the surface? Or perhaps the princesses had no intention of competing, but the imperial scepter could not be held by two hands at the same time, and the people who had chosen sides had already begun to fight each other?
In the arena, Asker took half a step back. The barbarian warrior was about to take advantage of the situation and push his sword forward when he suddenly heard the sound of wind behind him.
He hurriedly ducked his head, and Sidlipha’s battle axe slashed past his head.
“Good.” Asker said approvingly. Besieging Wei to rescue Zhao was the most basic tactical awareness that a professional player should have.
Although Sidlipha was a silly girl, she still had basic tactical literacy. She twisted her wrist slightly, flicked her sword, and attacked the barbarian warrior, saying at the same time:
“Want to try a pincer attack?”
Sidlipha immediately understood, her two battle axes swung up like whirlwinds, chopping from another direction.
The barbarian warrior swung his greatsword horizontally with force, deflecting Sidlipha’s battle axe. Asker had already seized the gap after he swung his sword, his cut-and-thrust sword thrusting swiftly from his right side, reminding him:
“Jump Slash!”
The thrust of the cut-and-thrust sword was too fast, the barbarian warrior had no time to retract his sword to block, and could only step back to avoid it. Sidlipha on the right had already jumped high, her whole body tensed like a bow in the air, her two battle axes raised high above her head, slashing down fiercely with the help of her whole body weight!
With a loud bang, it almost deafened people. The barbarian warrior hurriedly blocked with his sword horizontally, catching Sidlipha’s Jump Slash, and was instantly pushed back staggering by the huge force. He saw a flash of cold light out of the corner of his eye, but it was too late to dodge, Asker’s sword tip had already slashed across his throat.
“Beautiful.” Asker shook the blood off his sword and said to Sidlipha, “Next one?”
“Come on!” Sidlipha savored the battle just now, feeling that her cooperation with Asker was simply seamless, and couldn’t help but feel confident and excited. “Quick, quick, quick! Kill another one!”
The two didn’t stop, quickly locking onto the next target. That barbarian warrior had just killed a red gladiator and pulled his battle axe out of the corpse when he saw these two people charging towards him murderously.
One against two, the barbarian warrior was fearless. He held his axe with both hands, aimed at the two’s charge, and swung out a Moon Slash horizontally. Asker suddenly slid to the ground during the charge, lowered his body to avoid the Moon Slash, and smoothly slid to the barbarian warrior’s feet.
Sidlipha, on the other hand, blocked with her axe horizontally, but was staggered by the Moon Slash. The barbarian warrior was about to step forward to pursue, when Asker, who was close to the ground, bounced up with his sword, the tip of the sword stabbing straight at his lower jaw.
The barbarian warrior tilted his head to avoid it and twisted his body, his battle axe slashing down diagonally.
Asker jumped back to dodge, and Sidlipha had already stabilized her body, fiercely swinging her battle axe and charging over.
The barbarian warrior hurriedly blocked her battle axe. Asker kicked off the ground behind him and approached like lightning, the tip of his sword pressing against the opponent’s chainmail. He pressed his left hand on the hilt and pushed hard. The cut-and-thrust sword immediately tore through the iron rings, deeply piercing into the opponent’s back.
“What about your sword?” After the barbarian warrior’s corpse fell to the ground, Sidlipha put away her battle axe and asked. The sword that had pierced through the chainmail was stuck by the broken iron rings, and it seemed difficult to pull it out.
“Just in time to change weapons.” Asker released the hilt and picked up the giant axe on the ground.
The battle in the arena was fierce, blood and flesh flying, making the audience excited and throwing the coins in their bags onto the field like rain.
The view from the top box was even clearer. Overall, the red team was at a disadvantage, the battle damage was basically two for one, but Asker and Sidlipha, these two killing gods, specifically picked out lone yellow-clad barbarian warriors to hunt, and they actually managed to maintain a balance in numbers between the two sides.
“Who is that ‘Big Guy’?” Michael suddenly asked. “The one fighting alongside Achilles.”
“Sidlipha of Helsing.” A Kingsguard officer next to him brought the arena list. “Northerner.”
“A northerner from Varangia? Have they already contacted him in advance?” A Kingsguard officer’s expression slightly changed, and he said suspiciously, “Perhaps it was Princess Zoe’s instruction.”
“Unlikely.” Michael said disapprovingly. “Sidlipha is a northern female name, and the Varangian Guard never recruits women.”
“So she’s a woman? She seems to be quite good at fighting.” A Kingsguard officer looked down and said, “She’s also very strong, 1.9 meters tall, like a polar bear.”
Suddenly, cheerful laughter rang out in the box.
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