The rise of the pervert primordial - Chapter 751 - 751: The third day of the development trial (part 4)

Back to the fight, before Agnes’s wood spear could reach Aster’s left knee, he took a really small step to the side, just enough to dodge the “edge” of the spear, which resulted on it landing on the ground.

A loud stomping sound came right away as Aster extended his leg to step onto the shaft of Agnes’s spear, or that would have been the case if the sportsy sun diamond princess, didn’t have immediately retrieved her spear to then take a step backwards, while she also took the interesting decision of stirring up the dust on the ground to cover her retreat.

‘That little girl, really is taking this small harmless spar with a weapon out of her field of expertise way more seriously than even those times, the sword instructors of the family tried to teach her… and she is enjoying it more as well’, thought Valentina as she saw the slight smile on Agnes’s pretty face, which was met with Aster softly laughing.

His aim was to immobilize Agnes’s spear by stepping onto the shaft, to then score a point by following with a stab of his own, letting go of the spear counted as losing her weapon, so that would have also been a point for Aster, there was only one way for her to not take the first step to defeat, she had to retreat.

You could say that Aster was guiding her in that direction, however Agnes had to reach that conclusion and she also had to depict the correct way to react, in order to escape the little trap Aster prepared for her, and that required the fierce sun diamond princess to take the initiative to stand back.

Which is easier said than done, regardless Agnes not only perfectly fulfilled Aster’s expectations, but she went beyond them by resorting to block his view with dust, which might make those that aren’t really close to Agnes, feel surprised, because that’s not a tactic a cultivator would normally use, but the sun diamond princess, thanks to her out of the norm mentality, due to curiosity, didn’t limit herself to only study about cultivator knowledge, when it came to swordsmanship at least.

“Wasn’t it reckless for senior brother to try and step on sister Agnes’s appear, in a real battle it would have been a risky move…”, mumbled one of the girls from the Orange Lotus, though it questioned her admired senior brother’s battle sense, it was a fair question.

“Mmm, senior brother’s teachings are adapted to help us deal with enemies in our current situation so, my guess is that given how “hard” it is to both obtain iron ore and processing it to make weapons, the enemies will in nine out of ten times, have spears with only metal tips”, answered a girl from the Yellow Anvil faction.

“In which case, with a simple step, senior brother could have destroyed the enemy’s weapon, thanks to the diagonal angle which facilitates breaking a wood staff, right?”, concluded a girl from the Black Sword, all the three who spoke were junior disciples, the senior disciples had reached similar answers, especially those three, Brenda Amanda and Violet, but they didn’t mention it out loud.

“Smart girls, sure are fun to teach”, jokingly said Aster as he clapped a couple of times, making the ones who talked to slightly blush, while Agnes pouted to her insides, she didn’t receive a direct praise, though she played her part in teaching those girls, perfectly.

“Ahem, one should set the bar at different heights for different people”, added Aster, which contented the sportsy diamond princess, because that meant he had higher expectations for her.

Anyway, the point here is that the girls were obtaining invaluable insight of mortal level combat skills, and more importantly they were breaking away from a rigid cultivator’s mindset that prompts them to follow the instructions and suggestions written in their manuals, to a much more flexible state of questioning, interpreting and thinking by themselves.

On the other hand, despite Aster instilling what the old men from the cultivation world would call an “unsightly” disrespectful attitude towards their ancestors, the sparkles in those girl’s eyes as they gazed at Aster only increased.

Still, time doesn’t wait for anyone, so after confirming the initial success of what he wanted to transmit to those girls, Aster took the initiative to attack this time, because the first four rounds of sparring, weren’t meant to last long, as they should just showcase the basics of the four types of equipment separately, for him, Agnes was free to react the way she thought was the best, as that was the extra “something” she could offer to the observers.

With a short sprint, Aster reached Agnes’s vicinity and thrusted his spear straight to Agnes’s leading leg, the sun diamond princess is a right-armed person by innate, though she has trained to be able to use both of her hands to wield her sword, she hasn’t gotten to the point where she has completely discarded her stance’s innate preferences, and thus her leading leg is her left one.

“Clack!”, the dull sound of wood clashing against wood reached the ears of the observers, as Agnes smacked Aster’s spear this time, successfully stopping his stab while she drove it towards the ground, however the result was different than when Aster did it.

“Mm?”, the sun diamond princess put on a slightly confused expression, as she saw Aster stepping back alongside his spear before it could reach the ground, he didn’t try to follow up, nor did he use a feint or anything, which didn’t make sense as she had nothing up her sleeves, she wasn’t confident in pulling out that trick to try and immobilize Aster’s spear when he had just done it a moment ago.

So, the only thing that would make Aster step back, which came to mind was that he had scored a point, but she was sure that his spear didn’t reach her.

“That also counts, right?”.

“I… think so”.

The soft voices of the disciples talking between themselves, accompanied by Aster’s teasing smile, made Agnes look downwards, just to see the thin blue line that had appeared on her leg, Aster had used her own spear to “wound” her, thus scoring a point.

“The length of the spear tip will most likely differ, it might not be noticeable at first, but a couple of centimeters of difference can result in you getting injured if you try to extend a deflective move, of course here I “cheated” because to showcase this situation, I changed the height at which I’m holding onto the spear, which increased my reach, but diminished by control, knowing full well that could lead to a fatal mistake on my end”.

“However, the enemies in average won’t even be aware that they are committing such an amateur mistake from a mortal skilled fighter’s point of view, they are used to extend their reach with spirit energy after all, so they will try to imitate it with tricks like that one, your work is to take them into account and turn them against themselves”, concluded Aster which made the observers nod, while Agnes was momentarily lost in her thoughts.

She wasn’t at a loss due to she being “wounded”, by her own spear no less, nope; the sun diamond princess isn’t one to deny an opponent’s strength, but the type to learn from her opponents instead, in other words the stronger the opponents she faces… the stronger she’ll become, the type of person that would be really annoying to have as an enemy, but reassuring to have as an ally.

‘He baited me by aiming to a spot that would indeed reduce my combat capacity, but not as much as a wound to the knee like I did, from the very beginning, his attack wasn’t important to him, it was my reaction what mattered here’, concluded Agnes to then say.

“Spearmanship with defense as the base, right”, her voice was happy but still sharp she was hinting to have seen through Aster’s trick, which was admitted by him the next second.

“I didn’t specify that it was exclusively focused in the user’s own defense”, casually said Aster, using the enemy’s defensive moves against themselves was also “defense based spearmanship” indeed.

“Humph, cheater…”, mumbled Agnes with a pout, which made the girls from the sect giggle, unconsciously the sporty sun diamond princess looked like a jealous maiden in love, a feeling that a few among the disciples of the sect had recently understood by the way, Aster on the other hand felt a few sharp stares pierce him like spears, as well as some curious and amused ones in the mix.

‘You’ll have to content quite a few girls later if you keep flirting with that little diamond girl, darling~’, half-jokingly said Lilia, she was of course referring to Alice and the others, but at the same time she was speaking about herself, after all she didn’t get her cuddles last night, something which made Aster don’t know whether he should laugh or cry.

Tapping the free end of the spear on the ground a couple of times, to put the attention of everyone in the spar, Agnes included, he raised his guard and Agnes followed right away.

This time both took the initiative to attack, after the previous clash Agnes had accepted that she wasn’t going to win this spar, in fact as much as she trusted her battle senses and instincts, she concluded that her chance to get one over Aster would be either at the sword spar round or at the last round, after she has gotten a proper idea of Aster’s capacities in mortal level combat, so she might as well play the role that an enemy would do when facing those girls in the not so far off future, a cornered person whose only chance to win is go all out in offense.

“Clack!”, continuous wood clashing sounds echoed through the area as Agnes chained stab after stab against different areas of Aster’s body, only for them to be deflected each time.

After the twenty something, exchange of movements the sportsy sun diamond princess got a red “slashing” mark on her left side, but in exchange, her own spear missed Aster’s thigh by just a few centimeters, pointless in a spar, but the idea of almost being cut by an enemy one is overwhelming so “easily” could open a path to a comeback in a real fight, which is what mattered here.

Agnes was basically showing those girls that even if they succeeded in their training, they shouldn’t become overconfident, because even their admired senior brother, who was teaching them, took things seriously regardless of who his opponent was.

And since the sun diamond princess was playing the role mentioned before, she who had “wounds” on her leg and side, went for an all-in attack in a try to win, she jumped at Aster while thrusting her spear, naturally the stab was deflected to the side, but Agnes chained the failed stab with a sweep from her spear, not a slash, because she got closer to Aster when she charged, so if her attack landed, it wouldn’t produce a cut wound but a bruise due to the impact of the shaft.

But that didn’t matter, because her aim was to grab onto Aster’s neck, like previously stated, she played the role of a desperate enemy really well, and of course Aster played the role of the one teaching those girls how to react to that, perfectly as well.

“Thud”, with a solid sound, Agnes landed on the ground after Aster dodged her by moving to the side, and the next thing everyone knew, was that the sportsy sun diamond princess who immediately tried to get up, had a red dot appear on the tip of her nose.

Of course, Agnes looked cute with it, as if she was playing around while painting a room and accidentally stained her nose, but that little red dot on the tip of her nose, represented her head being pierced by the spear, meaning that the fight was over, since Aster finished her off before she could make any other move.

“That was amazing!”, exclaimed a few girls whose blood was boiling to train, after seeing such an intense end to the spar, this reaction was most common in the girls of the red and black sword faction of course.

“Thanks sister Agnes~”, others directly thanked Agnes for giving them a peek of what an enemy could try to pull when cornered, because in their minds they weren’t arrogant enough to affirm that even with the level they thought they will reach by the end of the week, they would attain victory without receiving a single scratch, if they faced an enemy that determined.

“Don’t forget this lesson, elder Agnes taught you with her “death”, never underestimate your enemy”, jokingly said Aster as he leaned while taking out a piece of cloth in order to help clean the red colored dot on Agnes’s nose, before she could complain.

“Mm, thanks”, mumbled the sportsy sun diamond princess as she got up from the ground, she remained “stoic” as she dusted off her hands and returned to the original position, since it was time to continue with the explanation of the next equipment, but she was smiling from ear to ear on the inside.

“Two-minute break, you can sit and stabilize your breathing in the meantime”, said Aster to which Agnes nodded, one of the girls from the Black Sword brought her a cup of water, out of which she only took a sip before focusing in regaining her cool, the spar was short but rather intense, specially for Agnes who was having a blast right now.

‘Luckily, myself apart, she probably has the best physical condition when spirit energy is not involved, in the sect, so even after all the rounds of spar she won’t have any problem to fulfill her own activities without spending time to recover’, thought Aster, sure Agnes might not have been able to compete with body path cultivators in terms of strength, but her endurance rivals them, which is amazing for an energy/soul cultivator like her, courtesy of her love for physical training.

And that carried over to this place, she still isn’t as strong as those physically gifted like Alice, the little wyrm, Erick, Sophia or Cayden, but in a contest of endurance, it is unclear who’ll be the last one standing, well, knowing Alice she’ll grow bored midway and leave to laze around or cling to Aster, so we can discard the wild dragon princess in that way.

Speaking of dragon girls, during the two-minute break, the girls from the sect looked with curiosity at a pretty white “snake” which slid her way from the sitting area, all the way next to Aster while holding onto a cup with her tail, that was of course the little wyrm who happily brought some water for Aster.

“Thanks”, said Aster as he received the cup while patting Espi’s head a couple of times, which of course earned him a few happy hisses from that little wyrm.

“Hissss~”, Aster couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of Espi happily making her way back to where Alice and the others were sitting after getting her reward, not without making a short stop at the monolith, she apparently had gotten a mission to deliver something for her companion, namely Aster.

Speaking of cute little girls, Kana was pouting, which means that she wanted to bring water for him, but apparently, Espi won the rock, paper, scissors to go first.

“Ahem!”, Aster cleared his throat to draw the attention of the girls from the sect, from the previous amazing display of intelligence from the little wyrm, back to himself, and once everyone was ready, he continued with the lesson.

“I’m sure some of you have noticed it, during the previous spar it felt as if there was something “missing”, right?”, asked Aster to which some specific girls among the public immediately nodded, leaving aside the obvious people in other words those from Aster’s close group, there were also the new trio from the top ten core disciples, the girl who assisted Aster’s blacksmithing demonstration yesterday, as well as of course the ones leading like Valentina, Mikaela and Layla.

“Something to improve control over the fight”, directly said the oldest of the three sisters, Mina, her talent lies in control after all, though Aster had to admit that it was a bit surprising to hear her actively participate, when she normally limits herself to be an observer, unless Iris or her sisters are directly involved, well, she has started to interact with others a bit more, after the few exchanges she has had with Aster’s group.

“Correct, the spear is a versatile weapon, having a larger range than any other close combat weapon, while also allowing to defend to a certain extent, however it’s also hard to reach a level in which one can exploit its full potential, especially for instances when the enemy gets closer to you, which as you saw earlier, could turn the tables on you if not handled properly”, said Aster referring to Agnes’s last try to land an attack, to then add.

“Amusingly enough, the answer to this predicament is normally interpreted the wrong way, I bet all of you have heard of the “strongest spear and the toughest shield” contradiction”.

“Mm”, basically all the present people nodded in unison, it’s a really well-known story about an indestructible shield being met with a spear that can pierce through anything, however Aster has a different take on the subject, which has been proved in the pairing he did back at the distortion-filled area.

“I wonder, why people like the idea of facing the strongest piercing type spear against the toughest shield, when they could instead make them work together”, said Aster as he stole a gaze to a pair of girls within the public, namely Camila and Alexandra, before continuing.

“So, contrary to what most people believe, the best friend of a spear is not a secondary weapon to be used in case the spear has to be discarded, like a short sword or a dagger even, the best friend of a spear is the shield as it can cover most of the flaws that even someone completely foreign to combat might have, to a certain extent”.

“The reason for the previous is simple, the spear is a versatile maneuver-attack type of equipment with a large range, while the shield is a control-defense type of equipment for close range, they perfectly oppose each other and thus they complement each other”.

Aster didn’t mean it as in shields can’t be used to maneuver around the enemy, because they can, but all their maneuvering is focused in controlling the flow of the fight, unlike the spear which’s maneuvers are focused in finding openings to follow up with an attack.

“In fact, there is a good example of a modification made to balance the aspects I just mentioned among us, and I bet she’ll agree with me, if I say that it is looked down upon, because the “renowned” spear experts are too short-sighted, am I right, Alexandra?”, said Aster to a certain girl with gray-magenta eyes who received the attention of a bunch of curious girls on the spot.

“A lance is like any other type of spear, or more accurately like any other type of weapon, it’s only as good as its user”, said Alexandra, while she gave Aster an accusatory gaze for putting her in the spotlight, normally she would just isolate herself in a sphere of her black heavenly gold, but she can’t do so now.

Luckily for Alexandra, Aster helped her from being overwhelmed by questions from those curious girls, as a way to make it up with her.

“For cultivators, “pure” shield users are rare to begin with, and those that follow up to that path, always end up focusing in defense, which is not a bad idea, after all what comes to mind when holding a shield are its defensive capacities, but I find that wasteful”, said Aster as he leaned to grab one of the training “shields” he brought as he added.

“Sure, we should have people whose purpose is standing at the front, proudly blocking the enemy with their shields, since that’s their strength, but that doesn’t mean we should limit to that, especially when a shield can effectively allow you to make your enemy play in the palm of your hand”.

“Try to imagine, how different could things have ended, if elder Agnes had a shield in her left hand, during that last exchange”.