Chapter 436: Shield Training—Methods and Techniques of Shield Defense

Jier then patted his own waist and said: "What comes after shield defense is the waist. The human waist is flexible and powerful. A robust Warrior must have a strong waist; being as thick as a bear's is best, as it allows the waist to cushion and reduce some of the force transmitted to the body when receiving a frontal impact. Of course, it is not always convenient in battle; keeping the waist straight and coordinating with the defense of armor is also acceptable."

However, the Warriors in front of him had no armor; they basically wore Leather Clothing looted from Bandits, which had some protective value, but not much. Aoni, standing to the side, was wearing a second-hand leather armor set looted from a Bandit leader, and at this moment, he proudly puffed out his chest and looked at the others with pride.

Jier noticed this, so he said to Aoni: "You can return to the melee group; I will call you over when you are needed."

"Hahaha, look at you getting cocky!" The members of the Shield Squad burst into laughter all at once, making faces at Aoni as he slunk away. Aoni waved his fist and tapped his armor twice with a *bang-bang* sound, the meaning of which was self-evident.

Laugh all you want, you still don't have armor to wear.

Jier clapped his hands to focus everyone's attention and continued: "Finally, we come to the most important part: the legs and footwork."

He had the people in the Shield Squad pat their own thighs and calves, explaining: "A human's thighs and calves combined basically account for half of the body's length, and their structure is also very suitable for cushioning and storing power, so when we use a Shield to block an enemy's offensive, we must pay attention to utilizing them."

Jier signaled for the original owner of the Shield he was holding to push him, while Jier maintained a standard shield defense posture.

"Come on, push me!" Jier commanded.

This Warrior did not hesitate; knowing that he would not hurt the Knight under any circumstances, he used his full strength.

He took a long stride and, upon reaching Jier, opened his arms and slammed into the Shield.

But Jier staggered his feet, setting them in a bow stance, and with the adjustment of his arm, the Shield caught the opponent's hands squarely.

Bang!

His left forearm extended forward first, and after receiving the impact, it retreated; at the same time, Jier kept his waist straight, allowing the force to be transmitted directly to his staggered legs. Jier slightly bent his knees, absorbing a portion of the force.

Finally, the pushing force was transmitted to Jier's soles, but because Jier stood with his feet staggered, the force was sent down into the ground. Jier himself did not even sway, nor did he retreat even a centimeter.

"How is it? Did you see? When the opponent pushed, my left arm reached forward a small distance; this prevents the opponent's force from being fully exerted, while also leaving me enough distance for my forearm to cushion and retreat."

Jier patted his waist with his empty right hand: "And I kept my waist straight, letting the force transmit from my arm to my back and waist, and then further cushion and dissipate the force in my legs."

Finally, he pointed to his feet: "Lastly, my legs and feet were also staggered front and back, like the body of a bow standing on the ground when it is being pressed. My feet were positioned with the left foot forward and the right foot across, separated by a certain distance, and at a wide angle to each other, so it is not easy to lose balance."

"Just like an Iron Nail driven into the ground, it won't move even a tiny bit."

Jier left his spot, and a pair of his footprints were barely visible on the ground; this was proof of him dissipating the force through his soles. Because when the others were pushed just now, only obvious sliding marks from retreating would be left on the ground, not footprints.

Jier returned the Shield in his hand to that Warrior and then said to the others: "Give me your Shields one by one, and then push me hard from the front. The rest of you stand to the side and watch clearly how I defend, what my posture is, and how I cushion and dissipate the force!"

So, one Shield Warrior after another handed their Shield to the Knight and personally pushed hard against Knight Jier, while the others stood to the side, watching Jier's movements with full concentration and imitating them exactly.

The clever Warriors quickly grasped the essentials, while the slow-witted ones needed much training to implement these movements into every future shield block they performed.

After everyone had tried it once, Jier called a halt to their movements and began to talk about something new.

"Methods of shield defense."

Jier said: "Different opponents use different weapons and equipment, so when we use the same Shield, the way we defend against them is also different. Some weapons are flexible and fast, so our defense must also respond quickly; wherever it comes from, that is where we must block it."

"I won't talk about how to predict the opponent's attack direction in advance by identifying their footwork and shoulders; that is too difficult, we'll talk about it later. Let's talk about something simple."

When he said this, Jier suddenly shouted to Xueya Site, who was watching the fun in front of the campfire: "Siter, help me get a set of Wooden Training Sword and Shield from the box inside my carriage."

"Alright, Jier." Xueya Site replied and quickly retrieved from Jier's carriage a set of Wooden Training Sword and Shield that Jier had used back in Kendall City.

Jier thanked him, and after checking it, he discovered that the training wooden sword and shield in his hand were actually better than some of the Shields looted by the Warriors.

He was speechless. Anyway, he hadn't used this stuff for a long time, so he directly asked the Warrior in the Shield Squad with the worst-quality shield to give him the Small Triangular Wooden Shield that was the size of a forearm, and Jier gave the better-quality training Mudu to him.

"It's yours, take it and use it from now on. Aoni, come here, catch."

Subsequently, Jier used this crude Small Triangular Wooden Shield for the demonstration, and threw the Training Wooden Sword in his hand to Aoni, who had run over.

"When the opponent uses a Long Sword, we must see where they are swinging from. Aoni, swing your sword at me."

Jier said while directing Aoni, who was standing opposite him with a sword, but Aoni hesitated: "Knight Jier, how should I swing the sword?"

Rolling his eyes, Jier said casually: "Swing it however you want. Do you think you could actually hurt me? Swing the sword."

Hearing Jier say this, Aoni let go. He gripped the sword with both hands, took a step forward, and delivered a Heavy Cleave toward his head.

Jier curled his lip, knowing that at this distance, someone with Aoni's personality would likely choose such a flashy move. He should have used the Shield to block, but Aoni used too much strength when swinging; of course, he couldn't hurt Jier, but this crude Small Triangular Wooden Shield in Jier's hand might not necessarily withstand several impacts of this force.

So Jier shifted his feet, and when Aoni delivered the Heavy Cleave, he saw that the opponent could no longer change his move, so he lightly stepped to the side and dodged the descending Wooden Sword.

"Eh? Isn't this a shield blocking drill?" Aoni was still confused as to why his heavy sword swing had missed.

When he looked up, he saw Knight Jier had dodged his offensive. Then Jier's reprimand came: "This is training, why are you using so much strength? Just swing a few times casually. Do you really think this is a real fight?"

Aoni scratched his nose and gave an awkward smile. The Shield Squad Warriors watching from the side let out a chorus of mockery: "Haha, this is just a drill, you used too much strength, Aoni!"

"I know, I know, stop talking. Knight Jier, watch the sword—"

Aoni waved his hand at the Shield Squad Warriors, then suddenly swung a fast Horizontal Slash toward Jier.

Pang!

But Jier was faster; he raised his hand and blocked Aoni's sneak attack. He didn't say anything, just beckoned to Aoni with his empty right hand.

Aoni rushed toward Knight Jier quickly. Because he wasn't worried about counterattacks, he let go and swung his sword at Jier from various angles. But no matter how he swung, Jier just raised his hand, pressed down, moved left, and shifted right, simply waving his left arm to block Aoni's series of offensives, only letting Aoni's Wooden Training Sword hit the Shield in his hand.

Jier even stood with his feet planted, not moving at all.

It wasn't just the Shield Squad Warriors; everyone in the Yingdi was watching this series of fast attacks and defenses. There was nothing to say about the offense; it was just the way and speed of an ordinary person swinging a sword. But the defending Knight Jier was just using the rapid movement of his forearm to change the orientation and angle of the Shield to block attack after attack.

Everyone watched without blinking, simultaneously weighing in their hearts: if the attacker were them, they wondered if they could make Knight Jier move his feet?

Swordsman Weier felt he could do it, but Aoni had enough strength, yet Knight Jier had requested beforehand not to use two-handed Heavy Cleave moves, so in the fast-paced offense and defense, Aoni's speed and flexibility were far from enough.

Not to mention using a Shield to block, Weier felt he could even use a Long Sword to deflect and block, achieving the same effect.

It was just that Knight Jier stood so steadily and had such excellent eyesight. In this kind of fast-paced offense and defense, the defending side was at a great disadvantage. Weier admitted he couldn't do what Jier did—not getting hit by a single sword strike so far, and not even moving his feet.

"Alright, stop!" Jier called a halt to the series of attacks and defenses. He was calm and composed, while the attacking Aoni was panting heavily from exhaustion.

Jier ignored the sighs of regret from the crowd watching not far away and said to the Shield Squad Warriors: "How is it? Although most people might not be able to do it, in fact, as long as you undergo reasonable training, everyone can reach fifty percent of my level in the defense just now—no, thirty percent. With long-term practice, reaching seventy percent of what I just did is no problem."

Jier hadn't been hit by a single sword just now; if the others could block seventy percent of fast incoming attacks after training, that would be enough. Because for the other thirty percent the Shield didn't block, the armor on their bodies could help the Warriors compensate.

Of course, the Warriors didn't have armor now, but that didn't mean they wouldn't in the future. This time they were going to deal with a group of defeated troops, and the equipment on those people would become their future equipment.

"The key lies in reasonably distributing the movement space and distance of the left hand holding the Shield in a short period of time!"

Jier explained: "You see, because of the weight and volume of the Shield held in the hand, its movement space and the arm strength spent on each movement are different and limited."

He commanded Aoni, who was panting and recovering his strength in front of him: "Give me a sword strike, slowly."

Aoni was somewhat puzzled; what did it mean to deliver a sword strike slowly? But he still raised his right arm at the slowest speed he could manage and swung his sword toward Knight Jier.

The speed was indeed slow enough that Jier even had time to explain to the Warriors: "Look, Aoni is swinging his sword at me. His angle is good; it is a diagonal slash from top to bottom. At this moment, we lift the Shield in front of our chest to the left side. Watch the angle; this angle requires you to judge based on experience."

Jier's movement was equally slow, even slower than Aoni's sword swing, but like a performance rehearsed countless times, just as Aoni's sword fell three-quarters of the way, Jier's Shield arrived exactly in front of the blade. Even better, there was a small angle between the angle of Aoni's sword swing and Jier's Shield block.

"Everyone, look!" Jier's explanation continued. He pointed with his right finger to the spot where the Shield and Long Sword collided and said: "See clearly, an important aspect of a Shield block is that, if not necessary, do not let the opponent's full force be exerted onto the Shield. Like this, aim carefully—it doesn't matter if you aren't precise—use your experience to sense the opponent's general sword direction and angle, and then let your incoming blocking Shield form an impact angle with the opponent's Long Sword."

"This way, you can deflect a large amount of the opponent's force and also use the Shield to push aside the opponent's weapon, creating an opportunity for your own counterattack."

Both sides withdrew their Long Swords and Shields, and Jier signaled to continue.

Aoni then continued to slowly change his angle and thrust straight toward Knight Jier.

"Very good, a Long Sword should be used for a Thrust; this is its most powerful form of attack. You can exert all your strength, and at the same time, the enemy must expend more energy to defend against this kind of rapid offensive."

Of course, the sword strike Aoni was currently thrusting had neither speed nor force; it was purely for practice.

After speaking, Jier extended the Shield in front of his chest a bit further and tilted it slightly. To ensure the Warriors could see clearly, he even repeatedly demonstrated how he adjusted the angle of his Shield Parry.

"When facing an opponent's Long Sword thrust or a sharp object like an Armor-Piercing Awl, you must never let the Shield meet the enemy head-on; you must tilt it at a slight angle. Of course, if you are confident in your martial arts, you can also adjust this angle. The larger the angle, the less impact force the Shield receives. But at the same time, the frontal range of the Shield's defense will also decrease because of the angle of the Shield."

Jier cautioned: "Therefore, this trade-off must be considered comprehensively based on the combat situation at the time, the enemy's skill level, and your own physical strength, energy, and focus. If the enemy is weaker, you can be bolder; if you are far stronger than the enemy, you can save more physical strength during defense, causing the defender's physical consumption to be far less than the attacking enemy in the two sides' battle."

"However, if the opponent's level is similar to your own, then honestly use a slightly smaller deflection angle. At this time, do not try to save physical strength, but ensure that every one of your moves can be maintained at a certain level of response. Beware of the opponent defeating you!"

The Warriors nodded one after another, and some even watched the slow offense and defense between Jier and Aoni, appearing thoughtful.

After practicing a few simple moves, Jier had Aoni switch to a different fighting style. Both he and Aoni began to move, motion against motion; compared to before, it was more like a duel between two Warriors.

"Now I will demonstrate a situation with fewer people, which is a situation you will often encounter: one-on-one combat. When the number of people on both sides of a battle is small, Warriors will mostly choose to pick an enemy to fight one-on-one. This is very common; the tight battle formations and combat squads seen in large-scale battles are actually rare."

Jier said: "At this time, Shield defense is not just defense; it can be defense, it can assist an offensive, or even be the main body of an attack, which is an offensive defense."

He had Aoni circle around him to launch attacks, and Jier also moved his feet to circle and respond to Aoni's offensive.

"First, purely defensive," Jier said.

Aoni launched an attack and swung his sword. Jier's defense this time was different; although he still used the Shield in his hand to defend, his footwork—relying solely on the movement of his feet—caused many of Aoni's attacks to miss.

Jier made another change. Before Aoni launched an attack, he used movement and the threat of the Shield to force Aoni into a position where it was difficult to strike, causing Aoni to give up on attacking several times and forcing him to adjust his position before launching a new attack.

Weier's eyes shone as he watched. This was exactly what he wanted to learn: this kind of combat footwork control could not only adjust one's own combat position but even be combined with the Shield to 'adjust' and 'control' the opponent's position and offensive.

(End of chapter)