Hearing Makino's words, Ogata realized that the sword hall, including the master Sakakihara Hanbei, was looking at him with puzzled eyes.

And in the center of the sword hall, there was already a senior brother who was also looking at Ogata with a puzzled gaze.

Just now, Ogata had been concentrating on the system, so when it was his turn to compete with the sword, he didn't hear Master Sakakibara Hanbei calling him at all.

After an embarrassed dry laugh, Ogata immediately got up and walked quickly to the sword stand not far away, picked a wooden sword at random, and then walked quickly to the front of his opponent this time.

His opponent this time is Ogata's senior brother.

Although he is not very familiar with this senior brother, according to the memory in his mind, this senior brother of his, his skills are much better than Makino.

Because he was not very familiar with Ogata, his senior brother did not exchange any greetings with Ogata, and directly received the wooden sword to his left waist and half-squatted down.

Ogata did the same, bringing the wooden sword to his left waist and half-crouching.

Seeing that the two of them were ready to compete with swords, Sakakihara Hanbei directly yelled "start".

……

……

Both Ogata and his brother are in a mid-range stance.

The so-called mid-section stance is a type of sword-holding stance in Japanese kendo.

There are three main types of knife holding postures: the upper section, the middle section, and the lower section.

In addition to these three main knife holding postures, there are other types of less popular knife holding postures such as eight phases and dragging knives.

Different knife postures have different attack characteristics.

The mid-stage stance, in which the tip of the sword is pointed at the enemy's face, is the most common sword-holding posture used by samurai.

The mid-section stance is a more versatile knife-wielding stance, which can be used both for attack and defense.

The upper stance is to raise the sword above the head and focus on attacking, but because of the sword held high above the head, the body portal is wide open, which is considered a sword-holding posture with weak defense.

In the lower stance, the sword is lowered and the tip of the sword is aimed near the enemy's knee, which is a defensive stance that is strong in defense and short in attack.

According to different combat needs, switching different postures can be regarded as the basic skills of those great swordsmen.

Ogata is clear – it can't be done yet.

At present, he is only good at the two postures of the upper and middle sections.

For other stances other than the upper and middle sections, Ogata can really be said to be picky.

and the senior brother each hold a mid-section posture and confront each other.

No one was the first to attack.

Whoever moves first often means who has a flaw first.

Therefore, no one will move lightly until the moment when they are confident that they can finish the enemy with one blow. Unless you're a fool.

After confronting the senior brother for a long time, the first person who couldn't hold his breath was the senior brother.

The senior brother stepped close and rushed into Ogata's attack range - and at the same time allowed Ogata to enter his own attack range.

After stepping into the range of Ogata's thrust, the senior brother directly used Sakakihara's stabbing technique, the bird thorn, and stabbed Ogata in the chest.

Although the senior brother's movements are fast, Ogata's eyes can still catch them.

Syllable!

A loud crash of wood rang out.

Ogata took a sword to block his brother's stab and quickly took a few steps back, distancing himself from him.

The first round of attack and defense between the two ended in a draw.

- What a senior brother......

Ogata adjusted his breathing as he whispered to himself.

- The speed just now was really unusual...... In terms of strength, this senior brother should be on par with me......

Sakakiwara Ichiswordryu is a kind of one-sword-ryu swordsmanship that was born not long after it was born in the world.

The founder of Sakakiwara Ichito-ryu is the elder brother of Sakakihara Hanbei, the master of Ogata and others, Sakakihara Denichiro.

Denichiro is a great swordsman who knows quite a few schools of swordsmanship.

When he was approaching middle age, Denichiro took the strengths of each school and developed a new kind of one-sword-ryu swordsmanship-Sakakiwara Ichito-ryu.

Sakakiwara One Knife Ryu is a very simple swordsmanship, because it only has a total of 4 moves - bird stab, water fall, climbing the stairs, and dragon tail.

Bird Thorn: Spike.

Water Fall: Lower Chop.

Ascend the stairs: Pick up the trick.

Dragontail: Slashing technique.

There are no bells and whistles, and there are only 4 sword skills with different attack styles that are extremely practical from beginning to end.

After Denichiro researched Sakakiwara Ichito-ryu, he passed it on to his younger brother, Hanbei.

Not long after passing the Sakakiwara sword to the Hanbei, Denichiro unfortunately passed away.

In order to carry forward this swordsmanship, which took his brother almost a lifetime to invent, Hanbei established this "Sakakibara Sword Museum".

Trying to carry forward this set of young swordsmanship of Sakakiwara Ichigo-swords.

After that, he was extremely fortunate to be one of the first disciples to worship under the Hanbei Sect.

- This senior brother is really strong......

- If you don't want to have some strategy, I'm afraid it will be difficult to defeat this senior brother......

Ogata pondered for a moment.

Then he adjusted his sword-holding stance.

Raise the sword in your hand above your head and adjust the mid-stance to the upper-stance.

After Ogata changed the sword-holding stance to the upper stance, it caused a burst of exclamation in the sword hall.

Makino, who was kneeling on the sidelines and watching the battle, whispered in a voice that only he could hear:

"Is the senior going to use the 'water fall' that he is best at......"

Ogata's best sword technique is the slashing technique "Mizurachi", which is no secret in the Sakakibara Sword Museum.

After all, everyone is always learning from each other, and everyone has long been clear who is good at which sword skills.

After Ogata changed his sword-wielding stance to an upper stance, many people in the hall were like Makino - thinking that Ogata was going to defeat his opponent with his best sword technique, "Mizuraku".

And Ogata's opponent, his senior brother, thinks so too.

Ogata's senior brother swallowed his saliva and silently prepared to defend against the "water fall".

Ogata moved his feet, slowly closing the distance between himself and his brother.

And the senior brother didn't deliberately avoid it, letting Ogata get closer, and letting the distance between the two slowly close.

The next moment when the distance between the two was so close that their swords could touch each other—

Ogata jumped slightly, making the appearance of a powerful downward slash.

And the senior brother, who had been prepared for defense early, raised the sword in his hand at great speed, ready to catch the sword that Ogata had chopped down.

Looking at the senior brother who raised his sword, a faint smile appeared on Ogata's face.

- I won.

After saying this secretly in his heart in a very firm tone, Ogata's waist and abdomen slammed into force, causing himself to quickly "sink" back to the ground after jumping into the air.

And the senior brother who was deceived by Ogata's feint just now still looks like he is raising his sword to defend.

Senior brother's current appearance can be said to be an empty door.

And the state of the empty door is the easiest state to "die" in the sword competition.

Aiming at his brother's chest, Ogata directly performed the only thrust technique in Sakakiwara's Ichi-ryu - "Bird Thorn".

"Hmm!"

The senior brother who was stabbed in the chest by the tip of the wooden sword directly took a few steps back, and then fell to the ground.

【Ding! Use Sakakiwara Ichirachi Bird Thorn to defeat the enemy]

[Gain 30 personal experience points, 40 experience points for swordsmanship "Sakakiwara Ichitori"

【Ding! When the experience is full, the personal level is upgraded by 1 level, and 1 skill point is obtained.

[Current Remaining Skill Points: 1 point]

[Current personal level: LV8 (0/700)]

[Sakakiwara Ichito-ryu Level: 3rd stage (460/500)]