Chapter 14 Basic Katana Techniques
"This is a katana?"
"That's right, meow~ I gave myself a nice name, Giant Fang Blade Meow!"
Huo Yuhao stared at the fangs in front of him, which had been fitted with fine iron handles and had been sharpened to sharpen blades. They must have been over two meters long by now!
"Hey! This katana isn't even half my height if it stands upright! Something's not right!"
Huo Yuhao gestured exaggeratedly with his hand towards the katana lying on the ground, then pointed to himself, "Me? Isn't it a bit unrealistic to use such a big weapon?"
"No, no, no~"
With one hand on his hip and the other pointing at the giant fang blade on the ground, Yamakaze said, "The katana is already considered a light weapon among hunter weapons. If you want to deal with monsters, a weapon that's too small will only tickle them, meow!"
Light weapons?
What kind of weirdos are the hunters in the world of Yama-kaze?
"Stop dawdling. Let's stop the training that started today, meow. The next goal is to master this giant tooth blade and make it easy for you to lift heavy objects, meow~ It will also serve as a training exercise."
In the world of Yama-kaze, all hunters possess one weapon: a one-handed sword.
The one-handed sword, with its combination of a sword and a shield, is light and agile, making it a good choice for novice hunters to practice their basic skills. Everyone who wants to become a hunter has learned about one-handed swords to some extent.
However, Yama-kaze is a hunting cat, and it really doesn't know any of the techniques for using a one-handed sword. Its hunter friend in the guild has long since passed the age of hunting with a one-handed sword and now uses a superb katana technique. Out of interest, he has shared a lot of his skills with Yama-kaze.
Huo Yuhao took a deep breath, accepted reality, bent down, gripped the hilt of the sword with both hands, and tried to lift the giant tooth blade with force.
The handle of the fine iron knife was wrapped with non-slip linen, allowing Huo Yuhao to hold it firmly with both hands.
"Hmm~ Uh-huh!"
Apply force slowly and gradually, and don't exert sudden force when lifting heavy objects. This is a principle that Huo Yuhao learned when he was doing heavy work at the Duke's mansion.
As the veins on Huo Yuhao's arms bulged and his muscles became clearly defined, the hilt of the Giant Fang Blade left the ground. Huo Yuhao straightened up with difficulty, gripping the hilt in his hand, the tip of the blade lifted off the ground, pointing diagonally into the distance.
"Mountain Wind, be honest—tell me, how heavy is this knife?"
Shan Feng pointed to his fingers and said, "These fangs are the toughest part of that soul beast, weighing over sixty jin. Adding the fine iron hilt, it weighs about one hundred and twenty jin."
Weighing over 120 pounds, Huo Yuhao was panting heavily; the knife was even heavier than him!
If it weren't for the relentless training I've put in over the past six months, I probably wouldn't even be able to lift this knife.
However, Huo Yuhao had a question: "Shanfeng, I remember carrying these fangs back with me just a few days ago. They couldn't possibly be this heavy!"
"The reason is that these fangs are hollow, meow! Of course, you can't just add a hilt and use it as a weapon. I asked the blacksmith to fill the hollow parts of the fangs with molten iron to ensure its strength, meow!"
Yama-kaze shook his head. "This is already considered light. In our world, a katana made from high-level monster materials would weigh at least a hundred pounds, meow!"
Ignoring what Shan Feng was saying, Huo Yuhao focused all his attention on the katana called Giant Fang Blade in front of him.
Less than a minute after raising the giant fang blade, Huo Yuhao's hands began to tremble, and his bones and muscles were groaning in pain.
He couldn't even wield it properly; just lifting the knife made Huo Yuhao blush, and large beads of sweat streamed down his face, soaking his clothes.
A minute later, Huo Yuhao slowly placed the giant tooth blade on the ground and took a deep breath of cold air to cool down his body.
He had reached his limit. Huo Yuhao could no longer control his arms; they trembled uncontrollably, a sign of exhaustion.
"Clang clang!"
The mountain wind let out a strange cry and dragged out a katana that was exactly the same size as the giant tooth blade from the dense forest. However, Huo Yuhao could see from the patterns on it that it should be carved from wood.
"Let's rest for a while, then learn the techniques with this wooden katana, meow~ Alternate between them, meow. When Yuhao can smoothly wield the giant fang blade and perform the complete katana technique, that will be considered learning the beginner's tutorial, meow!"
It will probably take some time before one can smoothly wield a knife weighing over 80 pounds.
Huo Yuhao believed he would need to wait at least a few more years for his body to develop before he could handle such a heavy weapon. Speaking of which, Shanfeng was truly strong; he had brought this knife from Hunter's Soul Town.
Am I not even as strong as the mountain wind right now?
After resting for a while, Shanfeng led Huo Yuhao to the edge of the dense forest.
"Over here, over here!"
Huo Yuhao looked towards the location of the mountain wind, where a large, bare wooden stake stood.
"From now on, it will be your partner in practicing basic katana techniques, meow!"
Shanfeng pulled out a miniature bone katana from somewhere. Although it looked small to Huo Yuhao, it was a giant weapon for the half-meter-tall Palico.
"Watch closely, meow!"
Yamakaze held the bone katana horizontally in front of him, his expression becoming focused, his heterochromatic eyes converging on the tip of the blade.
"Step-Slash!"
Yamakaze raised his katana high, took a step forward with his left leg, and swung the katana straight down, stopping it steadily just as the tip was about to touch the ground.
"Straight cut!"
Yamakaze, who was in a lunge position, swung his katana from the left side behind him and raised it high, then slashed it vertically at the wooden stake in the same way.
"Thrust!"
Almost without pausing, after stabilizing the katana that had just been slashed down, Yamakaze pulled his arms back, dragging the katana back a short distance as well, before thrusting it out with lightning speed, the tip of the blade deeply embedded in the wooden stake.
"Upward scoop and chop!"
Without retracting the katana that was stuck into the wooden stake, Yamakaze used his arm in the opposite direction, pressing down hard with the hand holding the hilt, rotating the katana half a turn, and raising the blade high, inflicting a huge wound on the wooden stake in front of him.
"Straight slash! Thrust! Upward sweeping slash!"
After executing the three moves in quick succession, Yamakaze withdrew his strength and firmly gripped the katana in his hand.
Huo Yuhao also realized that the straight slash and the upward slash could be perfectly linked together, so the basic techniques of this katana should be these three moves, and the stepping slash in front should just be a variation of the straight slash.
"Next up are some advanced techniques, watch carefully, meow~ Kesa-giri!"
The mountain wind swept across the katana diagonally, the tip of the blade drawing a graceful arc, leaving a curved mark beneath the wooden stake before taking a step back with the wind.
Having completed that strike, Yamakaze didn't stop. He used the same technique again, this time changing the direction slightly. This time, instead of retreating, he left a slash mark on the left side and moved a short distance to the right. Then, Yamakaze reversed the direction, using the Kesa-giri on the right while shifting to the left.
No matter how it uses the kasaya-giri technique, it always faces the direction of the wooden stake.
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[end of the chapter]