Chapter 567: Chapter 372 National Sword Dao Competition (2)_2
Moreover... if even the captain can’t tackle this opponent, can one hope for victory by sending someone slightly weaker?
In the past, he never imagined being overwhelmed by a kid more than ten years younger than him.
Hongo Taikou and Uesugi Sakura were constantly entangled in a fierce battle, their swords clashing repeatedly, sometimes with sword bodies pressing against each other, sometimes crossing paths in error.
Then suddenly,
Uesugi Sakura’s overhead strike came swiftly and unexpectedly.
It was a feint.
The vigilant Hongo Taikou noticed his footwork, not fully concentrating on defending his face, but instead focusing on parts of his torso.
Just as expected.
Uesugi Sakura’s stance swiftly shifted from an upper position to a mid-position, slicing down, then pulling up sharply in retaliation.
This movement, the look in his eyes behind the mask, was quite enchanting with the Sword Dao allure.
Hongo Taikou had to admit.
So precise!
This young man!
Meanwhile, sweat was trickling down his forehead inside the mask, Uesugi Sakura’s sword skills had a sense of purpose, with everything executed perfectly and seamlessly.
In his initial few offensive moves, he felt that if he exerted even more strength, he could break through the opponent’s defense.
With this mindset, he deliberately increased the intensity in the recent exchanges, but it was still met with a perfectly timed defense.
And now, it gave him the same sense,
If only his strength were a bit more, just a bit more.
This thought persisted from the start of the second round, announced by the referee, all the way to now.
His strength was indeed gradually increasing, but in terms of the feedback from attacking Uesugi Sakura’s bamboo sword.
It felt as if his strength hadn’t increased at all.
This sensation was as if the opponent was controlling the force of his sword!
Climbing over a high wall, only to see an even bigger wall ahead.
And that wall was just slightly higher than the previous one.
Standing below, looking upwards, the imposing solid wall invokes a sense of powerlessness, slackness, and loss of the will to climb further.
Outsiders, spectators, swordsmen, none of them could experience what he was feeling.
Couldn’t understand.
Couldn’t understand at all.
Hongo Taikou defended the next strike and stepped back.
Barefoot on the competition floor, the hard Dragon Bone Wood flooring resounded repeatedly.
Uesugi Sakura assumed an upper stance, stepping forward aggressively.
His black armor and robe gave a sense of profoundness.
Here it comes again...
Hongo Taikou’s brows furrowed tightly, clutching the bamboo sword with both hands, his years of experience allowing him to stabilize his lower stance at once.
In the first round, it was a fault in his own rhythm, the subsequent tempo was too fast, allowing the opponent to seize the opportunity.
Now in the second round.
He just needed to maintain the rhythm.
Although unable to break through his defense, he could still use the advantage of physical endurance to weaken the opponent’s strength.
He could see that inside Uesugi Sakura’s mask, his forehead was also covered in sweat.
The absurdity of this young man was still within bounds.
He would also tire, only dazzling in Sword Skills, making him hard to contend against.
Uesugi Sakura held the sword with both hands, raised it dramatically from bottom to top, then stepped forward with his right foot, thrusting his body forward.
Hongo Taikou’s steadfast face saw it inside the mask!
This round, there’s hope!
This strike of the opponent.
Was still a feint.
Hongo Taikou saw through it, Uesugi Sakura’s move was the exact same technique as the earlier feint.
Next, it might shift from "Body Attack" to "Attack Hand," or possibly "from fake to real," directly "Attack Face."
So, Hongo Taikou had to guard against Uesugi Sakura’s Upper Section Lower Slash by considering defense on three points simultaneously.
A person can’t fight with both hands equally, let alone guard against three points simultaneously.
Hongo Taikou could only use experience, the angle, force, and steps of his opponent’s strike, to judge the true intent of his attack.
This is the advantage of being on the offensive, letting the rhythm be completely in one’s own hands.
However,
when Uesugi Sakura swung down with both hands, Hongo Taikou judged that he was about to directly attack the face, started raising his sword from waist level for defense.
Uesugi Sakura’s bamboo sword suddenly... extended, the speed slightly faster.
In an instant, the tip of the bamboo sword seemingly enlarged within his mask’s pupils.
Kogan Style Ultimate Technique!!
Hongo Taikou was instantly shocked.
How could he forget this move, the one recently most favored by young people.
By the time he reacted and tried to move his body through neural reflexes, it was already too late.
The bamboo sword landed on his mask.
The vibration passed through the framework to his head, then with his head, spread throughout his entire body.
What followed was Uesugi Sakura’s powerful shout:
"Men!"
Uesugi Sakura drew back his sword, stepping lightly as if floating on the floor, maintaining Residual Heart in that instant.
The three judges with graying hair simultaneously raised red flags, indicating Uesugi Sakura’s score was valid.
The audience was still in a daze, while Miyata Kazuhiko already had the camera ready, aligning his eyes and lens with the competition venue, capturing this scene.
He found that following this young man around for photos was simply full of surprises.
During the last Kantou Region event, he earned himself quite a raise, as several articles he wrote were adopted by the editor-in-chief, leading to increased sales.
When ordinary people saw the Kyudo champion challenging the National Kendo Championship, the topic immediately attracted heightened attention.
Lost again!!
In the Ehime Prefecture police team, Shibata Yumi wasn’t angry, but rather silently marveled at the young man’s control over rhythm, each step in the offense seeming calculated.
It was like a series of sword moves designed for making the captain careless.
His offensive rhythm all pointed towards the final Kogan Style Ultimate Technique.
Had he also learned the Two-Sword Style?
The Kogan Style Ultimate Technique was a discipline within the Two-Sword style of Sword Dao.
The name came from the manga "Sword Master Showdown," and was indeed a technique that could be applied in actual combat, which young people considered cool, thus bringing it into real battle.
But in fact, such a skill had long been known in Two-Sword Sword Skills.
Kogan Style Ultimate Technique.
Was a special term used by young people for such a move.
To put it simply, the hand holding the sword grip slides downward during the attacking swing.
The hand moves from the upper part to the lower part of the sword grip, naturally extending the attacking length of the bamboo sword.
Even though the name is from a manga, appearing excessively flamboyant, it’s a genuinely practical technique in Sword Dao.
The current National Kendo Federation Association has yet to place restrictions on this technique.
Which means, applying such a technique in official matches is allowed for scoring.
In the Martial Arts Hall venue, the president and several evaluators wearing white clothes, with "National Kendo Federation Association" printed on their martial attire, began discussing whether this technique should count as a score or not.
The evaluators in their fifties and sixties deemed it as trickery, an underhand tactic, unfit for official competition, hence shouldn’t qualify as a score.
The older evaluators, however, were less rigid, believing that skills were also part of the competition rules, as long as they didn’t violate basic regulations, such techniques could be used in tournaments.
They were all evaluators of the National Kendo Federation Association,
The number of evaluators in the National Kendo Federation Association ranged between forty to sixty, all current Masters of various schools, highly esteemed.
Besides conducting director and supervisor selections, they decide on document approvals, constitutional provisions, and other matters.
The term of the evaluators is 4 years, with no compensation.
Additionally, under the National Kendo Federation Association is a specialized committee responsible for monthly publications.
The name of the publication is "Sword Chronicle."
It aims to succinctly summarize fresh information from the Kendo World, issued monthly.
Famous figures would make it to the pages of "Sword Chronicle."
Its prestige isn’t comparable to ordinary tabloid news.
Sitting among the evaluators and directors was the current president of the National Kendo Federation, Yanagiizumi Nobuyuki.
The discussion at the presidents’ table—a feedback to the referees—was that in this instance, it counts as a score, while determining its use in future official matches is still under discussion.
Ordinary spectators obviously couldn’t clearly see the details on the competition field, but the crucial scores were replayed several times on the big screen inside Tokyo Martial Arts Hall. After two or three replays, some noticed that at the last strike of Uesugi Sakura, the bamboo sword suddenly lengthened a bit.
This was only discernible in slow motion.