Alien Relic Hunter

Then, there is only one question left before Asano Akira: How can he find the right direction in the gray fog forest and head to the core area?

Akira Asano thought for a moment, then slightly arched his body, held the scabbard with one hand, and held the handle of the knife with the other hand. After a short period of energy accumulation, he executed a 360-degree swing with the sword.

Although the blade of the Nino alloy sword is only about one meter long, the range of the circular sword energy it cuts out far exceeds this length, and even the thick gray fog is cut in an instant. .

The spreading ring sword energy quickly swept across a circular area with a radius of about twenty meters with Asano Akira's standing position as the center. Two seconds later, all the main trunks and pillar roots of the fog perches in this circular area were A broken mark appeared one meter above the ground, as if the picture was out of place. Then, the upper tree trunks fell to the outside of the circle along this broken mark, leaving tree stumps with smooth mirror-like cross-sections.

Although Mo Jue said that in the depths of the gray fog forest, it is no longer possible to determine the direction by identifying the density of annual rings, but the reason why she said this is only because the equipment carried by the loggers does not have such high detection capabilities. Accuracy.

For Asano Akira, he does not need to care about the density of the annual rings of the fog perch. He only needs to judge the wood on which side of the fog perch by the resistance feedback when the sword energy cuts through these trunks and pillar roots. Closer.

The invisible ring-shaped sword energy is also connected to Asano Akira's mental tentacles - since the mental tentacles cannot penetrate the thick fog, it only needs to cut the thick fog open.

With the abnormally precise perception ability of his mind tentacles, Asano Akira can feel even if the tightness of the wood of the two fog perches is only one ten millionth of a percent off.

Asano Akira quickly locked the direction - the wood of the fog tree located at six o'clock is the densest, while the wood of the fog tree located at the opposite twelve o'clock direction is the loosest in this circular area.

Of course, this looseness is only considerable, and the actual difference is very small. It is estimated that only the valuable precision instruments in the research institute can measure this error.

As for the vernier caliper-like tool used by those lumberjacks, it is nothing more than a fire stick in this place.

Akira Asano turned around and walked towards the original six o'clock direction.

The wood density of the mist perches there is the highest, so it must be the direction leading to deeper depths.

But before Asano Akira could walk fifty steps, a strange feeling came over him again. He stood still, took a deep breath, and drew his sword again——

Once again, all the fog perches in a circular area were cut off, but Asano Akira, who was standing in the center of the circular area, couldn't help but frown.

At this position, the root of the pillar with the densest wood of the fog perch is not directly in front, but about 120 degrees to the back and right, which is almost the four o'clock position.

He was sure that what he had just walked had been a straight line.

When people with normal vision walk in environments such as dense fog and dense forests, they can easily walk in circles because they have no reliable line of sight reference. This is because the strength on both sides of most people's limbs is not exactly the same. Generally speaking, the right limb is the dominant side of a person (left-handers are the left side), and the right limb can get more use and exercise in daily life. Therefore, the strength of both the right arm and the right leg is greater than that of the left side of the body.

During normal walking, the force exerted by the right leg is stronger than that of the left leg, which causes the body to deviate toward the left hand side every time a step is taken. In places with obvious reference objects, the human brain will adjust this deviation on its own. However, if there is no reference object and you walk blindly with your eyes completely closed, the final trajectory will most likely be a counterclockwise circle.

But Asano Akira was originally blind. When he was unable to release the tentacles of his thoughts outside his body, he was able to walk normally without relying on assistive tools entirely because of his strong sense of balance and stability - even without the ability to materialize his thoughts. Akira Asano's sense of balance is also much stronger than that of normal people.

The human brain has a certain functional compensation mechanism: deaf people often have good vision, while blind people have sharper hearing and touch. This is certainly related to daily life habits, but when humans lose some kind of function for a long time, When the sensory abilities are enhanced, the cerebral cortex will compensate this unused space to modules belonging to other sensory abilities... This is not some pseudoscience from street stall literature, but is based on authoritative medical papers. In a sense, the experimental subjects of the Human Psychodynamic Research Project like Asano Akira and others are also a disguised compensatory mechanism.

While gaining superpowers, they will also lose part of their original body functions. The more abilities you gain, the more you lose...and the price of becoming a perfect individual like Marshall is to lose your own life.

When Ke Lan and the others met Asano Akira for the first time, his power of mind could only be attached to the sword, but he could still move freely in the ruins even though he was blind, which was already very good. illustrates this point.

But this time, Asano Akira unexpectedly went astray.

He couldn't see the surrounding scene, and he didn't release the tentacles of his mind to sense the surrounding environment. Logically speaking, the thick fog should not pose any obstacle to his perception. He only needed to keep moving forward according to his usual walking method. Just go.

But he still went astray.

What Asano Akira couldn't understand the most was that even if ordinary people were walking in circles because they were disoriented, they would have to walk a long distance before the trajectory would appear in an arc shape. However, he only took a full forty-seven steps, and he was supposed to be at The correct direction of twelve o'clock directly in front has moved to the four o'clock position on the back right side, which is a full 120 degrees. If you take a few steps forward, you will probably have to turn 180 degrees. After a ten-degree turn, I started walking back.

To draw a movement trajectory close to a semicircle in such a short distance, Asano Akira's deviation angle at each step must be extremely exaggerated.

He took two steps back and placed his feet over the footprints he had just made. He took another two steps back and stepped on the pair of footprints left a moment earlier.

There is almost no angular deviation between the two pairs of footprints, at least not one that can be observed with the naked eye.

Moving forward in this way, it is impossible to turn one hundred and twenty degrees in just forty-seven steps.

It seems... it's not that simple. Asano Akira did not feel discouraged. His mentality had always remained Gujing Mubo's state. This was the same when facing strong enemies and the same when facing death.

But for a while, Asano Akira couldn't think of a way to deal with it. In the end, he could only choose an extremely inefficient and stupid method: cut the tree stump every three steps to re-determine the direction.

As thin pieces of wood were cut off from the tree stump one after another, Asano Akira walked forward step by step.

The food and oxygen concentrators he carried were not much, and they were only enough to last for two days. However, at his current speed, two days was enough to cover the last ten kilometers.

As long as nothing happens...

Just when Asano Akira was thinking this, a strong sense of crisis suddenly hit his heart!

This is not information captured by the tentacles of consciousness. His tentacles of consciousness can only be released for a short moment when the sword energy cuts through the thick fog, and then they will be swallowed up by the closing fog in an instant... And this for The perception of danger comes entirely from the instinct of a warrior.

Asano Akira squatted on the spot, took out the sharp blade in his hand from under his ribs, and tilted it behind him - no sound came from the thick fog, but he felt that the blade touched something hard and sharp.

It was the blade of another knife.

And judging from the power fed back from the sword, the style of the weapon used by the attacker, and even the force and speed of the sword, were almost the same as his own.

The enemy...is also a swordsman?

A trace of doubt flashed in Asano Akira's heart.

In the exploration team, apart from Akira Asano, the only remaining members who can be considered to have strong close combat abilities are Ke Lan and Ze Luo, but the former's favorite melee weapons are engineer shovels and hunting knives. , the latter simply disdains the use of weapons.

As for Thirty-Three, although his abilities are somewhat difficult to guard against, Akira Asano has had several point-to-point sparring sessions with him in private - although those black flying blades are difficult to fight, the power attached to a single flying blade is very powerful. Asano Akira is not that strong. He only needs to wave lightly to fight, and he can fly away the flying blades or daggers that are coming at him.

If Thirty-Three wants to suppress Asano Akira, head-on confrontation will never work. His only chance of winning depends on the number and flexibility of the flying blades. He attacks Asano Akira from multiple directions and angles at the same time, waiting for opportunities to find Asano Akira. A breach in defense.

But unfortunately, the gap in hard power between the two is really big. Even if there is a flaw in Asano Akira's defense, it will be difficult for Sansan San to catch it.

The two competed eight times in total, Asano Akira won eight times and Sansan lost eight times.

But the only thing that gave Thirty-three some comfort was that the eighth time he persisted was twice as long as the first time, from six seconds to twelve seconds.

With Thirty-Three's strength, even if he were to sneak attack Asano Akira who was unprepared, it would be difficult to succeed, and it would be impossible for Asano Akira to have such a strong sense of crisis.

As for the remaining Ivan, Mo Jue and Valentina in the exploration team, the combat effectiveness of the first two people in this exploration team is basically negligible, while Valentina does not use the Blasphemer mecha. Even a little weaker than Mo Jue.

In other words, the attacker was definitely not someone else from the exploration team.

If it’s not them, it’s the enemy.

Asano Akira breathed a sigh of relief, and the blade suddenly shook outward, deflecting the opponent's weapon. At the same time, he also relied on the force of the rebound to retract the sword. At the same time, with his knees as the center of the circle, he completed a 180-degree turn in a half-kneeling posture.

The retracted sword was swung out again, a reverse cassock slash from the bottom up.

If the opponent is also a sword-wielding samurai, then when the weapon was blown away, there will be an obvious empty door in the middle and lower part of the body, and Asano Akira's Reverse Kasaya Slash with a tricky angle is aimed at this empty door. And go.

If it hits, even if it is not fatal, it can cut open the opponent's abdomen and cause a huge amount of bleeding.

Not to mention that Asano Akira's blade still has sword energy that is enough to cut through thick fog.

clang!!

Asano Akira seemed to hear the sound of gold and iron clashing along the hilt of the sword, and it seemed to be just his imagination... But regardless of whether he heard the collision or not, this reverse cassock slash was indeed struck by the opponent. After being blocked, the two sharp blades collided together again.

Not only was the Nino alloy sword blocked, but even the sword energy emanating from the blade disappeared without a trace in an instant.

The opponent's reaction speed is not inferior to mine. Akira Asano judged in his heart. He did not choose to step forward to get into close combat distance. Instead, he drew the knife and jumped back, then quickly extended the tip of the knife forward and did Made a thrusting movement.

The area of ​​the sword tip is much smaller than the blade. Without a shield, it is impossible to block the thrust with a weapon. There are only three strategies to deal with it: hit the top of the thrust weapon to push it down, or pick it up in another direction...or just ignore the thrust and trade lives with the opponent.

Lunging is a sword move that has no defensive capabilities. Whether it is retracting the attack or changing the move, it is more difficult than other sword moves. When two professional swordsmen compete, few people will use the thrusting attack method.

There is no other reason for this. The opponent only needs to press down or push away the thrusting sword to launch a counterattack. However, the swordsman who uses thrusting will have a more or less moment when the weapon in his hand is pressed down or pushed away. lost balance.

A momentary loss of balance can result in permanent loss of life.

But Asano Akira is confident that even if the middle part of the sword is hit hard, the tip of his sword will not move half an inch... What's more, with his thrusting speed, before the opponent's weapon hits the sword, The tip of the sword had already penetrated the opponent's body.

Ding!!

However, the expected power does not come from anywhere on the blade or spine, but from the tip with the smallest force-bearing area!

The opponent withstood the tip of the Nino alloy sword!

Moreover, from the tip of the knife, Asano Akira could feel the unparalleled, almost vigorous sword intent... The opponent actually used the tip of the knife, not a shield or something like that!

This is completely... a sharp contrast!

What's going on? Asano Akira's inner doubts aggravated again. He increased his strength a bit and tried to move the tip of the knife away...but the sword still remained motionless and it was difficult to advance even a little bit.

[P.S. Thanks to Anthony Bigwood for the 300 starting coins; thanks to Wangchuanhe for the 100 starting coins. 】