Chapter 54: Siege Training
“How did you know it was me?” Rasul asked curiously.
“Mia wouldn’t come up with this kind of prank on her own because she’s afraid of being beaten up by me.” Asker chuckled. “You must have taught her this trick and then instigated her to ambush me at the door, saying something like ‘You can scare your captain and make him look at you differently,’ right?”
“No, no, no!” Mia hurriedly jumped out and said, “It has nothing to do with Master, I wanted to try this new move myself!”
“Master?” Asker asked.
“This little girl has a natural talent for understanding Flash Step.” Rasul said with a smile. “I’ve already accepted her as an official Ilanian assassin and my personal disciple. Under my careful guidance, she will become the second most powerful White-Clad Assassin in history – second only to me, of course.”
“Thank you, Master Rasul, for your recognition of her.” Asker said, “But she signed a labor contract with our Azure Longsword first. Becoming an assassin can wait.”
“Haha, with the opportunity to become a White-Clad Assassin, who would choose to be an ordinary mercenary?” Rasul said proudly. “Besides, even according to the Eastern Solomon Empire’s laws, labor contracts signed with minors are invalid.”
“Then let the person involved choose.” Asker said lightly. “Mia, do you want to stay with our Azure Longsword mercenary group, or do you want to follow this guy back to the Iranian Plateau?”
“Of course I’ll stay!” Mia said without hesitation.
“Wait a minute, Mia, that’s not what you said just now!” Rasul’s expression changed, and he immediately exclaimed.
“You just asked if I wanted to become an assassin.” Mia turned to look at him helplessly. “You didn’t say you were going to take me away from everyone!”
“But if you become an assassin, you have to go to our assassin base.” Rasul still wanted to try to persuade her. “Our training conditions there are excellent, we have abundant transcendental materials, and all kinds of supernatural items and equipment. As my personal disciple, you can have any of these precious resources you want.”
“Look at you, you’re still using an ordinary iron sword, it’s easy to break when you encounter an enemy with heavy weapons, right? Do you want to try our assassin’s hidden blades and wrist crossbows? We also have very cool assassin uniforms.”
Mia hesitated upon hearing this. Asker immediately added:
“He’s a pervert, he likes burly older women. His house is full of older women.”
So a strange image immediately appeared in Mia’s mind: A group of burly older women hugging her and rubbing her head, saying affectionately:
“Come on, little Mia, call us Mistress.”
Shivering violently, Mia turned her head stiffly, forcing an awkward but polite smile:
“Master, I still want to be a mercenary…”
Rasul was speechless. What does this have to do with my sexual orientation?! Wait, how did he know about my preferences…
So Rasul fell into deep thought, while Asker patted Mia’s head and said:
“There are still many problems with your fighting style, I’ll teach you one by one when we get back.”
“Okay.” Mia replied obediently.
“Let’s go find Peggy.” Asker said.
Leaving Rasul’s training ground, the group came to the door of a meditation room.
Peggy was meditating on a cushion. Hearing the sound of the door opening behind her, she turned around.
“Asker!” Peggy rushed to him with a tearful expression. “I’ve tried all kinds of methods, but I still can’t multitask!”
“It’s okay, I didn’t expect you to learn it in a few days.” Asker comforted her. “Take your time.”
“Multitasking? I have an idea.” Rasul’s voice came from behind.
Why is this guy following us again… Asker paused and said, “Are you talking about that?”
“Exactly.” Rasul said, “Siege training.”
Siege training was the final trial for assassins to advance from the Black-Clad rank to the White-Clad rank, which meant facing the siege of eight enemies simultaneously without faltering.
What was the concept of facing eight enemies? Imagine enemies standing in front of you, front left, front right, left, right, rear left, rear right, and directly behind you, all swinging their swords at you at the same time.
Of course, if you were really surrounded, you would lose for sure. Even if you kept moving, you would inevitably encounter situations where you were attacked by two or three enemies at the same time, so quick reactions and multitasking skills were very important.
Considering that Peggy could steal thoughts, this siege training could undoubtedly cultivate her ability to divide her attention and do other things while activating her stealing ability.
Hmm, it seemed worth a try? Asker pondered.
…
Hippocrates University, training ground.
“Can this really work?” Peggy said, on the verge of tears.
“Don’t worry, we won’t start with the highest difficulty.” Asker comforted her. “Let’s start by fighting two people at the same time.”
Peggy was speechless. Easy difficulty is facing you and this guy at the same time? And according to Mia, this guy’s strength is no less than yours?
What kind of hell mode easy difficulty was this!
“Come on, first try if you can activate your thought stealing normally.” Asker said.
Peggy activated her ability and said, “You’re thinking of using Dragon Cut as your opening move.”
“That’s right, what about him?” Asker continued to ask.
“He wants to test my strength.” Peggy said.
“Is this the ability of the ‘Steal’ Sequence?” Rasul looked quite interested. “Its versatility in the early stages is quite good. But I remember that this sequence undergoes a significant qualitative change after reaching the Law Rank, right?”
“Things after level 10 are still far off for her.” Asker drew his sword. “Let’s begin.”
Peggy held her breath slightly, picking up two short swords.
Asker would attack first…
She quickly raised her left short sword, parrying Asker’s downward Lion’s Fang.
Then the right side!
Peggy was about to react when Rasul’s sword spine hit her shoulder first, making her bones ache.
“Too slow.” Rasul said with a smile. “Since you have the recovery ability of the Flesh Sequence, I won’t hold back next time.”
“Again!” Peggy gritted her teeth.
“Watch our attack intentions!” Asker shouted sternly, his sword thrusting towards her lower body.
Peggy jumped back to dodge, her gaze quickly shifting to Rasul. The latter’s sword was about to slash at her head. She quickly ducked her head in mid-air, dodging his horizontal swing.
“Not bad, learned to think outside the box?” Rasul said with a smile. “Then, how about increasing the difficulty?”
He flicked his arm, and his sword suddenly multiplied, flashing in the air, making Peggy’s pupils constrict.
Phantom Sword? No! It wasn’t Phantom Sword, but a series of intentional pauses during his high-speed sword swings, too fast for the naked eye to see, using visual persistence to create deceptive afterimages!
“Did you notice?” Rasul swung his sword rapidly, creating several afterimages around him, as if he suddenly had three heads and six arms.
“In Ilanian, this is called ‘Haba Hong,’ which translates to ‘Sword of Illusion,’ ‘Sword of Phantoms.’ If you only rely on your vision to judge, it’s very easy to be deceived!”
“Don’t be fooled by your eyes! Use your stealing ability! Steal our thoughts!” Asker said quickly, attacking from behind her at the same time.
“Easy for you to say!” Peggy shouted, jumping back repeatedly to dodge his slashes. “I have to activate my ability, think about how to respond, and my body has to keep up with my mind! And I have to deal with two people at the same time! How can a normal person do so many things at once?!”
“If you can’t do it now, then practice hard!” Asker responded, his sword swiftly performing three consecutive thrusts. “You still have time to complain, it seems the pressure isn’t enough for you!”
“In our place, talkative assassins get stabbed!” Rasul said, also attacking fiercely.
Peggy struggled with her two swords, quickly unable to cope. Wounds appeared on her left arm and right leg.
“Give her some time to recover.” Asker said, signaling Rasul to stop attacking.
“It’s definitely too late to think about every move.” Rasul instructed her. “All you have to do is steal thoughts. After perceiving the enemy’s intentions, your body must quickly follow your subconscious to counterattack. Your mind shouldn’t be distracted by directing your body, but should continue to activate your ability, to steal the enemy’s next intention, understand?”
Peggy was panting slightly, leaning on the ground. The flesh around her wounds began to wriggle, repairing the damaged areas.
“Using my subconscious to respond?” Peggy smiled wryly. “I’ll try my best, let’s do it again.”
So the three of them clashed weapons again.
A moment later, Peggy, covered in wounds and bathed in blood, was teetering on the verge of collapse.
“Again!” She struggled to heal her wounds with her ability and straightened her chest again.
Such tenacious and unyielding spirit moved even Rasul.
“Can your spirituality still hold on?” Asker asked gravely.
“No problem.” Peggy said with difficulty, blood and sweat mixing on her face.
She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand and forced a smile:
“After all, this kind of training is not new to me.”
Asker paused and immediately understood that she was referring to the time when she was trained by him in the underground training ground of the Constantinople hotel for revenge.
As a frail girl who had never received military training, she sparred with him in the underground training ground for four whole days, relying on countless pains and injuries to force herself to remember how to swing a sword, how to dodge, and… how to fight.
But Peggy, at that time, you were learning to fight with the attitude of risking your life for the blood feud of your parents’ murder.
Now, what are you fighting for?
Asker pondered for a moment and nodded gravely.
“Alright.” He decided to respect Peggy’s choice. “I’m coming.”
“Watch closely.”
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