Chapter 2 The Second Match Begins

When the raspy voice shouted out the words "The Viking," the three players watching on the rope net immediately focused their attention.

Two seconds later, a bald giant, about 1.9 meters tall, burly, and with a broad back and thick waist, walked out of the crowd and into the ring.

Minutes before, while the audience was still betting, this "defending champion" had already taken off his shirt, strapped on his gloves, and was waiting in battle readiness.

"Go! Viking!"

"You can definitely win!"

"Viking, we support you!"

And the champion's supporters… or rather, the gamblers who had placed bets on him… were already impatiently cheering him on.

"Gentlemen…" The raspy voice seized the opportunity and continued after a moment's pause, "Next… let's welcome this week's challenger… also last week's warm-up match winner, currently with one win and zero losses… 'Mirror Shield'!"

Before the words had faded, another strong man, slightly smaller than the Viking but still quite tall, entered the arena.

But when this man stepped into the ring, there wasn't much cheering; on the contrary, some boos erupted.

Clearly, this Mirror Shield brother wasn't favored, and not many people had bet their money on him.

"Gentlemen, take a few steps forward…" Unlike the atmosphere before the first match, these two fighters in the "main event" seemed quite calm, with no mutual taunting; therefore, the raspy voice could only actively call them to the middle of the ring and declare, "You all know the rules, right…"

Even though he said that, he still repeated the five rules tirelessly; not for any other reason… just because they were indeed very important.

After speaking, the raspy voice continued: "You two… is there anything you don't understand?"

"Heh… I've heard this forty-five times already, what do you think?" The Viking's voice matched his image perfectly, sounding deep and powerful.

"No," Mirror Shield replied with just these two words, and his voice was as unremarkable as his answer.

"Okay…" The raspy voice continued, "Then… I announce… today's second match…" Saying this, he stepped back and retreated out of the ring, "The championship battle between 'The Viking' and 'Mirror Shield'… begins now!"

Squeak (sound of stepping on the deck)

Almost at the instant the announcement was made, both fighters moved.

However, neither of them moved forward; on the contrary… they both retreated two steps at the same time.

"I see… these two guys in the second match are on a completely different level compared to the fighters in the first match." Feng Bujue muttered without hesitation when he saw this scene.

"Because they're both more cautious?" Honghu replied.

"No… it's not caution." At this moment, Snow interjected before Brother Jue could speak, "It's not some kind of 'expert's intuition' either, but simply 'tactics'."

"Yulong… your reaction is still slow." Feng Bujue then said to Honghu, "Didn't you hear just now? That 'Viking' has defended his title dozens of times, which means… he's fought dozens of deck boxing matches in front of everyone; and that 'Mirror Shield'… was the winner of the warm-up match at the last deck boxing event, which means he's also publicly fought at least 'one' match."

"Oh~" After being reminded by the other party, Honghu understood, "Both of them… have already watched each other's matches; therefore, they made the judgment to 'maintain distance' at the start based on the information they know."

"Bingo!" Snow snapped his fingers and continued, "Just from this point, you can see that their level is far greater than the previous two." He paused and said, "Do you remember… the 'Bottle Opener' and 'Triceratops' from before… the first thing they did after the start was 'trade punches'; although this is indeed the most direct way to test each other's strength and punching speed, this action is actually very dangerous when you lack information… If your opponent is a master who is much higher level than you, you could be instantly killed the moment you throw your first punch."

"Hey! Watch out, the Viking is going to attack." At this moment, Feng Bujue reminded his two teammates in a very quick voice.

Snow and Honghu had also not taken their eyes off the ring while they were talking, and they had also noticed the changes on the field.

They saw that after a brief stalemate, the Viking suddenly leaned forward and charged forward like a wild horse.

With a height of 1.9 meters and that burly body, it was undoubtedly very difficult to make such a move under the premise of "limited physical abilities"...

And his opponent, Mirror Shield, also reacted instantly… immediately leaning his upper body back and tilting his posture, using his agile footwork to create a certain amount of "relative stillness" in the process of retreating and maneuvering, in order to make an effective defense.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh—

Soon, the Viking threw a punch.

The shadows of the punches brought out bursts of air-splitting sounds, but… none of them hit.

Of course, anyone with a discerning eye could see that he didn't use his full strength in these punches.

The Viking's round of assault seemed to be fierce, but it was actually more of an attack with defense in mind, mainly for testing; the punches he threw… were all premised on "quick retraction of the fist" and "stable posture."

However, because his strength was very strong, even this "testing" level of attack had considerable lethality.

"Whoa… he's really good." Feng Bujue watched for a few seconds and then spoke, "Only in this kind of fistfight without 'round intervals' and 'referee intervention' can you see this kind of 'testing' method."

"Then…" Honghu, who basically knew nothing about boxing, became interested at this moment, "What kind of 'testing' is usually done in regular boxing matches?"

"It varies depending on the level." Feng Bujue replied, "Anyway, the opening test for super middleweight and above… generally focuses on 'touching each other'."

Hearing those two words, Snow couldn't help but complain, "Why can you make a pretty normal thing sound a bit dirty…"

"Hehe…" Honghu also chuckled twice, then turned to Snow and said, "Brother Snow, why don't you tell me about it."

"Hmm…" Snow pondered for a second and then said, "Let me put it this way… in a regular boxing match, if two boxers who have never fought each other face off, the opening test is generally aimed at 'finding the distance'. To put it more figuratively… it's when both sides use their bodies to personally test the opponent's actual punching reach, striking speed, and 'optimal killing distance', and other information."

"Because this kind of information… no matter how many recordings you watch, or how many sparring partners with similar physical conditions to your opponent you find to test, you can't get a particularly accurate feel; only when you face your opponent in person, and 'touch' each other a few times with your fists… can you figure it out."

"Oh…" Honghu listened as if he understood, "So… what exactly is that 'distance' you're talking about? Isn't it just arm span?"

"Arm span is only one of the factors that determines 'distance'." Snow replied, "A person's 'optimal killing distance' when punching is related to many factors such as the subtle differences in their shoulder width, arm span, bones and muscles, the posture of the punch, and the reaction speed of muscle explosiveness; not to mention anything too complicated, let me give you a simplest example… in real life, most people don't even know what posture they should use to hit a target at what distance in order to deliver the most powerful punch." He paused for a second and then said, "And professional boxers know this… and can even refine it; for example… how far away from the target you need to be to throw your most powerful straight punch, what distance you should throw an uppercut at, what distance a swing punch is suitable for, and so on… And those top players can not only accurately grasp their own 'distance', but also quickly figure out their opponent's 'distance' during a match… Lennox Lewis, the last king of the last century, was a 'genius at controlling distance'. Among the players of his time, there were people with more flexible footwork than him, and there were people who could completely outclass him in terms of heavy punch damage. His only obvious advantage may have been 'arm length'; but… he was still the most dominant boxer of that era, simply because his judgment of 'distance' was impeccable. As long as he grasped the 'distance', he could avoid his opponent's 'strongest kill' in defense, and in attack, he could rely on a few 'effective heavy blows' to deliver the final blow."

Once Snow started talking about boxing, he became talkative. It seemed… he was really an old driver; not only did he have a lot of knowledge in this area, but he also had a lot of very unique insights.

"Uh…" Honghu had good comprehension, and he was able to digest this long passage. After thinking for a while, he then replied, "Then… isn't the 'Viking's' testing method a bit rash?" He paused for half a second and added, "Wouldn't he just be unilaterally exposing his own 'distance' by doing that?"

"Hmm…" At this time, Feng Bujue, who had been listening for a long time, slowly muttered, "That means he has a lot of confidence in his 'face'."

"Huh?" Honghu didn't understand this sentence, "What do you mean?"

Bang—

Before Brother Jue could reply, the two in the ring used their actions to answer Honghu's doubts.

At this instant, Mirror Shield's straight punch hit the Viking's face squarely.

Just now… while the three players were chatting, the Viking's offensive had not stopped; when the strength of both sides was relatively close, it was impossible for one side to completely dodge all of the other side's attacks… therefore, Mirror Shield quickly slowed down his footwork and used slapping and blocking defensive movements.

But the Viking was relentless, constantly seeking a breakthrough point with the same "walking and hitting" rhythm.

Under such pressure, Mirror Shield naturally had to counterattack a few times; if he defended blindly… then some of the habits and flaws in his defense would be revealed faster than the opponent's offensive flaws.

Thus, we saw the scene before us—in one of the Viking's swing punch attacks, Mirror Shield dodged to the side, and took advantage of the other's wide-open door to launch a rather powerful straight punch, heading straight for his face.

However, the damage caused by this strike was not as great as most of the audience imagined.

Because… at that lightning-fast moment, the Viking, judging that he was bound to be hit… immediately thrust his head forward, and slammed his own face into the fist that Mirror Shield swung over.

"Look… he used his face to hold off the opponent's counter-attack interception." Feng Bujue said, "What will happen next is…"

What happened simultaneously with Brother Jue's words was… the Viking took advantage of the fact that Mirror Shield had not yet retracted his right hand, and threw another punch, hitting Mirror Shield's face in return.

"Hey, hey… don't tell me that 'using your face to block a fist' is also a tactic…" Honghu adjusted his glasses and shrugged, "No matter what… the ability to withstand blows in this area can't be trained, right?"

"It is possible…" Unexpectedly, Snow replied at this time, "Of course… to be precise, it's not training the 'face's' ability to withstand blows, but training the 'head's' ability to withstand blows." As he spoke, he touched his neck, "Hmm… the method mainly involves very harsh, painful, and potentially leaving sequelae in the neck."

"And…" Before Snow could finish speaking, Feng Bujue took over, " 'Using your face to block a fist' is indeed a tactic…" He said without turning his head, "Didn't Snow just say that every punch has an 'optimal killing distance'… when you've determined that you can't dodge an incoming fist, there's one last way to reduce the damage… which is to quickly shorten that 'distance'; taking this punch that the Viking took as an example… by slamming his face like that, Mirror Shield's straight punch hit the target and stopped before his arm and wrist were fully extended, thus greatly reducing the power of the punch. At least… it was reduced to a level that the Viking could grit his teeth and endure."

"And the punch that Mirror Shield ate afterward probably wasn't so pleasant…" A second later, Snow followed Brother Jue's words with half a sentence.

While the two were singing in harmony, the Viking in the ring had already pressed his attack, giving Mirror Shield a combination of punches.

From the nicknames used by the fighters, it could be seen that Mirror Shield was very confident in his defensive skills, and the actual situation… was indeed the case.

Even though he had taken a heavy punch and was being continuously pursued, Mirror Shield didn't panic… he just followed the basic principles, adjusting his posture while taking punches, and gradually returning to a normal defensive rhythm.

Seeing this, the Viking snorted coldly and then slowed down the frequency of his attacks…

Thus, amid the boos of the audience who couldn't see what was going on, this "second match" seemed to have entered a tug-of-war rhythm.

But Brother Jue and Snow, who were high above, didn't think so; at this moment, they almost said in unison: "Hmm… it's over…"