(Friday, November 8, 2013; Cypress High School, California)

At 2:40 p.m., the bell rang on time for the end of school. The cold air of the morning has been dispelled by the warm sun, and the lawn has become more green due to the morning irrigation, and it seems to be covered in a thin golden sweater in the sunlight.

Today there is a confrontation in the MartialArt Club. As the president, Du Mu packed up his things and went to the lawn next to the gymnasium to meet with others after class.

There are 983 students enrolled in Cypress High School, but cold weapon fighting is a niche field after all, so there are only 12 people in the martial arts club, and only four members of the club have systematically practiced Chinese martial arts - Du Mu three, plus a white brother from an overseas Wing Chun faction. The other members practice HEMA (ancient European martial arts), some practice Japanese ancient swordsmanship, and some practice Filipino short sticks, in short, it is a hodgepodge. In contrast, the kendo club is a little more professional, but there are also many itchy hands who will come to play more open-minded martial arts and engage in xeno-weapon fighting with students who practice other martial arts. Outside the school, when Du Mu went to the military circle to communicate with ticket holders, he also met the generals of the kendo club several times.

“Hey！hat’supbro?”

As soon as Du Mu arrived, a tall black student stepped forward to greet him warmly. This person's name is Jeffrey, a member of the martial arts club, majoring in German two-handed swordsmanship, and also joined the fighting club, and the level of boxing is good. Du Mu fought with him a few times, and according to the rules of boxing, at most four or six open, and those with open legs and wrestling can be suppressed, so he later supplemented the skills of leg and wrestling.

“Great! Hoareyoudoing?”

Du Mu smiled and waved his right arm, staggered with the palm and back of his hand to the other party, and then prepared to make a fist touch.

“Good，good——”

Jeffrey deliberately dragged out the last note, a wicked smile appeared on his swarthy face, and his left leg took a big step forward, the muscles of his right arm tattooed, and punched him hard. Du Mu's perception is quite sensitive, and this is not the first time he has joked, he stabilized his body as early as when the opponent's shoulders shook, his toes were tightly buckled, and his dantian drummed and slammed his stride, and he met it with a cannon fist that was not light or heavy.

The so-called "dantian drumming" is not like the internal force and true element of the operation, but a kind of core muscle group force technique, involving the psoas muscle, oblique abdominis, rectus abdominis muscle and other peri-abdominal muscle groups, and then with the breathing to urge the diaphragm and intercostal muscles and shoulder and arm muscles to exert force together, its transmission chain starts from the foot, through the calf gastrocnemius muscle, thigh quadriceps, etc., through the lumbar core muscles, through the shoulder trapezius, deltoid muscle and other muscle groups to the arm triceps, brachioradialis muscle, etc., and finally reaches the fist.

When Du Mu was practicing and rectifying his strength, the elders tested his strength inch by inch on him during the assessment, and finally confirmed that the technique of strength was in place. The elders of Lu Qingyi's family, who do neuroscience research, are optimistic that in the foreseeable future, it will not be difficult to activate the corresponding nerves through implanted devices to quickly master the strength technique. Sora Akiyama, who is far away across the ocean, agrees.

The two men's right fists collided, making a muffled "bang" sound, and then they separated. Du Mu's body shook slightly, unloading his strength, and then moving his wrist joints at will, while Jeffrey shook his hand fiercely.

"Your bones are as hard as ever!"

"Hehe!" Du Mu looked at his flat fist metacarpal bones and grinned, revealing white teeth as fine as snow. He practiced both light and dark, both internal and external practitioners, and his Xingyi kung fu has become a bit easy for bones and marrow, the bone density and strength are gradually improving, and the fist bones have also become smooth and solid after hard training.

“Ho’sitgoing?”

“Fine.”

While waiting, Du Mu greeted his classmates from time to time. The members of the club went to the gymnasium one by one, and then entered the indoor field in twos and threes.

"What about Xu Mingshan?"

"Well, I said I was going to get the camera equipment ready. ”

Xu Mingshan participated in the math club, and their group of tech nerds seem to be playing with the combination of computer vision and finite element analysis recently, often setting up cameras to collect data and perform 3D motion capture in confrontation exercises, but they don't know what the results are.

"Well, let's go in first. ”

The gymnasium is quite open for them to practice. The warehouse where the equipment is stored is in the museum, and in a short time, the members of the club are already armed with weapons and ready to go to war at any time. For safety and convenience, the weapons used in the confrontation are foam-wrapped, while the exercises are performed with blunt weapons that are not bladed.

"Sorry, I'm late. ”

Xu Mingshan and several other members of the math club arrived late, each carrying a tripod and a video camera. The computer vision-based smart camera does not require complicated manual adjustments, and it will be installed in a short time.

"That's it, let's get started. ”

Du Mu nodded, pulled his sword flower, and looked at Bernard, the general of the Kendo Club: "Let's come up and practice?"

"Come as you wish!"

The other party grinned and walked into the circle with a practice knife that simulated the weight of a real knife. Du Mu held the sword in his right hand, and the sword body stood diagonally in front of him, protecting his body, not daring to be careless at all. This is not the first time they have tried swordsmanship, and he will never despise this guy because of something like "kendo is a competition, not a real battle".

When Bernard first came into contact with actual swordsmanship last year, he was still constrained by the constraints of kendo rules and the inadaptability of the weight of weapons. After many times of actual combat with weapons that are close to the weight of real knives, his kendo skills are fully exerted, and he is also a good hand in the nearby combat circle.

Bernard adopts the most basic and common mid-section of the sword, stepping forward with his right foot naturally, holding the sword in both hands and standing diagonally, the hilt is located directly in front of the navel, and the tip of the sword is pointed at Du Mu's face.

Du Mu looked at the other party's face covered by a helmet and a transparent mask, and couldn't help but sigh at the gap between reality and the martial arts competition scene. But he quickly put aside the distractions in his mind and focused on the fierce opponent in front of him.

"Let's go!"

Du Mu stepped up first to approach his opponent and unleashed a tentative stab. The weapons of the two sides are similar in length, and he is holding a sword in one hand, so the attack range is actually superior. In contrast, kendo sword holding emphasizes the front hand to control the direction of the strike, and the back hand to control the power and speed of the strike, which is slightly better in terms of the flexibility of the sword change.

Bernard is worthy of being the general of the kendo club, and his mood and reaction are quite good, he avoids his stab as soon as his feet slip, and then rushes forward while his arm is extended, and the Japanese sword in his hand is aimed at his forearm and slashes down like lightning.

This is one of the disadvantages of one-handed swords. Since he was holding a sword in one hand, it was difficult to change direction temporarily once the attack was fully launched. However, Du Mu's boxing skills make up for this very well, and he has adjusted his center of gravity between the activities of his waist and hip spine, shrinking back lightly, and using his sword body instead of his arm to catch the opponent's attack.

Although Du Mu's dodge dodged a blow aimed at his forearm, Bernard's slash was not something that his unused sword body could resist. After suppressing Du Mu's sword, Bernard followed and took another step forward, the blade of the knife was slightly raised, his arms reached out, and he cut obliquely towards Du Mu's arm.

Du Mu didn't have time to think about it in his heart, his left foot took a big step diagonally, his center of gravity crossed an arc, and at the same time, the right hand holding the sword flipped his wrist, the tip of the sword slanted down, and the sword body lightly rested on the opponent's sword, and then took a step back, twisted his wrist, and returned to the posture of the tip of the sword pointing obliquely at the opponent.

Du Mu's set of actions is smooth and smooth, in one go, and there is no chaos between the steps falling, and the inner family's hard work is really played. He adjusted his breathing, keeping his eyes on Bernard opposite.

The opponent did not mean to force the pursuit, but adjusted his body like him, and returned to the mid-stage momentum at the beginning.

"This guy...... Although my skills are not as good as mine, this well-honed sword skill is indeed excellent. ”

Human energy is limited. Du Mu's training time will not be much more than that of the other party, even if he can be called talented, in the case of focusing on boxing and spearmanship, it is impossible to surpass Bernard who specializes in sword training in the field of swordsmanship.

In this round, Bernard launched the first attack, tentatively stepping forward to slash. Du Mu was not afraid to wave his sword to meet him, and the two weapons wrapped in foam collided with each other, and a deep voice continued to sound.

Unlike the imagination of the layman, there is no opportunity to wrestle in mid-to-long-distance encounters, and one-handed and two-handed swords are slashing and stabbing each other, and only close encounters can make it possible to fight for strength.

To Du Mu's surprise, when he launched the stabbing attack, Bernard didn't know what to do, and his sword body was dragged to the side as if it was being pulled by a hook, and then the tip of the opponent's sword hit his chest.

"Eh, how did you do that? The surface of our practice sword is smooth, right?"

According to Du Mu's consistent experience, with the angle at which the two weapons touched just now, it was impossible for a Japanese sword with a curved arc to be dragged diagonally.

When the onlookers heard this, they came over curiously.

"Haha, I recently studied the ancient Japanese swordsmanship, and learned a move that uses the curvature of the back of the sword to counter the stabbing move...... Although you can't use a straight bamboo sword like kendo. ”

"I think I saw you turn the blade of the knife and stab it up at the last time, right?"

"Well, turn the hilt of the sword when it touches, and use the arc of the back of the sword to pull back to the left—" Bernard said, gesturing with his weapon, "In that case, my attack will be pulled out of my left hand, and then I can launch a lunge." ”

After the flipping Japanese sword, its arc extends downward, so that the diagonal stroke can indeed have the effect of a hook. Du Mu had to admit that this was a very useful technique, if it was a hard fight and wanted to swing his sword at a medium and long distance, Bernard would basically be useless in terms of the skills of both sides.

"By the way, Du Mu, do you want to try the spear?" the technologist named Brian pushed the frame of his glasses, "We have installed sensors on the head and barrel of the gun. ”

"Yes, yes, but using a spear to shoot a short weapon is a complete bully. ”

Bernard nodded again and again when he heard this: "Yes, this is completely bullying." ”

The only one in the martial arts club who can fight him with a big gun is Lu Qingyi, Xu Mingshan's half-level is not enough, and Charles of the overseas Wing Chun faction has not learned six and a half sticks at all. Unfortunately, Lu Qingyi was not suitable for fierce weapon confrontation because of his menstrual period, and he had already gone home at this time.

Brian thought for a while and pushed Xu Mingshan out: "In this case, how about letting Xu Mingshan and Bernard fight two to one?"

"Are you serious?"

"I think the proposal is very constructive. Without waiting for Brian to reply, Bernard smiled evilly and said loudly, "Do you want to see Du Mu pick two?"

"Oh!

Bernard coaxed together, and the other students who practiced and observed paused one after another, and they all came over to watch the excitement, including many young and beautiful girls. Du Mu glanced at Xu Mingshan's side, only to see the other party shrug innocently, turned around and went to the storage room to pick up two modified big guns.

"Okay! If you want to fight, you will fight!"

Du Mu took the weapon from Xu Mingshan's hand. The other members of the martial arts club motioned for the audience to step away so as not to be accidentally injured by the three-meter-and-a-half spear – even a soft tip that hurts to be drawn on an unsuspecting person.

Xu Mingshan and Bernard glanced at each other, tied up a decent four-level step, and pointed a big gun at Du Mu, while Bernard stood on the other side slyly, forming a triangle with him and Xu Mingshan, obviously intending to flank him.

"Looks like we have to solve one first. ”

Du Mu knew very well the consequences of being pinched and close to the body, such a long gun barrel would not have an advantage in close combat. As for who to solve first, of course the persimmon has to be pinched softly, even if it is a weapon of comparable length, Xu Mingshan is still much easier to deal with than Bernard.

"Let's go!"

As soon as the words of the beginning fell, Du Mu rushed towards Xu Mingshan like a tiger, his forehand was slightly raised, the barrel of the gun was obliquely upward, and the head of the gun was level with the top of his head. As he expected, Xu Mingshan planned to use a spear to contain him, while Bernard went around and raided.

"Containment? Thinking too much! Eat me a slap shot!"

Du Mu's body fell together like a feline, his front hand pressed suddenly, and all the strength of his body was transmitted to the gun, and the thick wood gun suddenly bent, and then snapped into the blocking gun prompted by Xu Mingshancang, and directly knocked the latter's big gun out of his hand.

Xingyi's splitting gun is not like the stick technique "Golden Monkey Rising a Thousand Jun Sticks" to raise and smash, but with the help of an elastic gun barrel, the body strength and weight are transmitted to the front end of the gun body, which is powerful and has few flaws.

Du Mu succeeded in a blow, and did not stop, but stabilized his center of gravity, toe a little, and retreated lightly in the direction of the empty and uninhabited, dragging the tip of the gun on the ground to avoid being attacked by Bernard at close range. Although Bernard's body style is good, he can't compare to sprinting with a sword, and he didn't expect Du Mu's tiger to pounce at first, and now Du Mu was thrown back to the attack distance of the big gun.

Du Mu's counterattack began after getting out of the danger of being close to him. He turned around and stretched his shoulders, pressed the barrel of the gun down, and then bounced violently, stabbing straight into the heart of the other man. Bernard had never seen him use this rifle before, and he didn't know that there was a trick in it, so he could only hurriedly swing his knife to the side to block.

The head of the gun was opened, Du Mu turned the handle of the gun with his back hand, and the barrel of the gun crossed the arc clockwise, and at the same time, the wrist was twisted, and the barrel of the gun was tense, and the head of the gun rotated and drilled up, between Bernard's chest and abdomen.

"Whew...... Whoop......"

Du Mu gasped for breath. The whole battle was only ten or twenty seconds, but he could be said to have done his best, and he was a bit lucky. If Xu Mingshan could hold on for a while, Bernard would cut him to the ground.

"Double-kill!" I don't know who shouted, and the atmosphere at the scene suddenly boiled, and cheers rang out all around. The boys yelled, a few girls screamed, and all kinds of sounds mixed together and reached Du Mu's ears.

"Your guy's marksmanship is not human! That slashing gun is too fierce!" Xu Mingshan walked over with a gun and patted him on the shoulder, "I'll go and see the records of the high-speed camera, it's not okay for this thick wooden pole to be shaken like this by you." ”

……