Chapter 12 The Face-Off

When the gravelly voice shouted out the words “The Viking,” the three players watching from the rope net immediately focused their attention.

Two seconds later, a bald giant, about one meter ninety in height, burly and broad-shouldered, emerged from the crowd and stepped into the ring.

Minutes ago, while the audience was still placing bets, this "defending champion" had already taken off his shirt, wrapped his boxing gloves, and stood ready.

"Go! Viking!"

"You can win!"

"Viking, we support you!"

And the champion's supporters… or rather, the gamblers who had bet on him… were already eager to cheer him on.

"Gentlemen…" the gravelly voice continued while the iron was hot, pausing for a moment before adding, "Next… let's welcome this week's challenger… also the winner of last week's preliminary match, currently with a record of one win and no losses… 'Mirrorshield'!"

Before the words faded, another strongman, slightly thinner than the Viking but still quite tall, entered the arena.

But when he stepped onto the ring, there was not much support, and instead, some boos arose.

Obviously, this Mirrorshield brother was not favored, and not many people had bet their money on him.

"Gentlemen, take a few steps forward…" Unlike the atmosphere before the first match, the two boxers in the "main event" seemed quite calm, without any provocative behavior; so, the gravelly voice could only take the initiative to call them to the center of the ring, and then proclaim, "You all know the rules…"

That being said, he still repeated the five rules tirelessly; for no other reason… than because they were indeed very important.

After speaking, the gravelly voice continued, "Gentlemen… is there anything you don't understand?"

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

"No." Mirrorshield only returned these two words, and his voice was just like his answer—nothing special.

"Okay…" the gravelly voice continued, "Then… I declare… today's second match…" Saying this, he stepped back and retreated out of the ring, "The championship battle between 'The Viking' and 'Mirrorshield'… begin!"

Squeak (sound of stepping on the deck)——

Almost at the moment the announcement was made, both players moved.

However, they did not move forward; on the contrary… they both took two steps back in unison.

"So that's how it is… these two guys in the second match are on a completely different level compared to the boxers in the first match." Feng Bujue muttered without thinking when he saw this scene.

"Because they are more cautious?" Honghu continued.

"No… this is not caution." At this moment, Snow replied before Brother Jue, "Nor is it any 'expert's intuition,' but simply 'tactics'."

"Yulong… you're still too slow to react." Feng Bujue then said to Honghu, "Didn't you hear just now? That 'Viking' has defended his title dozens of times, which means… he has fought dozens of deck boxing matches in front of everyone; and that 'Mirrorshield'… is the winner of the preliminary match of the last deck boxing match, which means he has publicly fought at least 'one' boxing match."

"Oh~" After being reminded by the other party, Honghu understood, "They both… have seen each other's matches, therefore, they have made the judgment to 'keep their distance' at the beginning based on the information they know."

"Bingo!" Snow snapped his fingers and continued, "This alone is enough to show that their level is far different from the previous two." He paused, "Do you remember… the 'Bottle Opener' and 'Triceratops' just now… the first thing they did after the start was to 'exchange punches'; although this is indeed the most direct way to test each other's strength and punching speed, this action is actually very dangerous if there is not enough information… If the opponent is a master who is much higher than you, then you may be instantly killed when you throw your first punch."

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

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

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

With a height of one meter ninety and that burly body, it was undoubtedly very difficult to make such a movement under the premise of "limited physical ability"...

And his opponent, Mirrorshield, also reacted instantly… immediately leaning his upper body back, tilting his posture to the side, and using his flexible steps to create a certain "relative stillness" during the retreating maneuver, so as to make an effective defense.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh—

Soon, the Viking punched.

The continuous shadows of his fists brought out the sound of breaking wind, but… none of them hit.

Of course, everyone with discerning eyes could see that he didn't use his full strength for these punches.

The Viking's round of assault seemed to be aggressive, but in fact, it was more of an offense with defense, mainly to test the waters; the punches he threw… were all based on the premise of "quickly retracting the punches" and "keeping the posture stable."

However, because his strength was very strong, even this "testing" level of attack was quite lethal.

"Whoa… he is indeed very strong." Feng Bujue watched for a few seconds, and then said, "Only in this kind of boxing match without 'round intervals' and 'referee intervention' can you see such a 'probing' method."

"Then…" Honghu, who knew nothing about boxing, became interested at this time, "What is the 'probing' like in regular boxing matches?"

"Depending on the level, there will be some differences." Feng Bujue replied, "Anyway, the opening probes above the super middleweight level… are generally based on 'mutual touching'."

Hearing those two words, Snow couldn't help but complain again, "Why can you make something quite normal sound a bit perverted…"

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

"Um…" Snow pondered for a second and continued, "Let's put it this way… in regular boxing matches, if two boxers who have never fought each other face each other, the opening probe is generally aimed at 'finding the distance'. To put it more figuratively… it is for both sides to personally test each other's actual punching arm span, striking speed, and 'best killing distance' with their bodies.

"Because for this kind of information… no matter how many videos you watch, or how many sparring partners with similar physical conditions to your opponent you find to measure, you can't get a particularly accurate feeling; only when facing the opponent himself, after mutually 'touching' each other a few times with your fists… can you figure it out."

"Oh…" Honghu seemed to understand, "So… what exactly does the 'distance' you mentioned refer to? Isn't it just the arm span?"

"The arm span is only one of the factors that determine 'distance'." Snow replied, "A person's 'best 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 swinging their fist, and the reaction speed of their muscle explosive force; not to mention anything too complicated, let's take a simplest example… in real life, most people don't even know 'what posture' they should use to hit 'how far away a target' in order to output the most powerful punch." He paused for a second, and then said, "And professional boxers will know this… and even refine it; for example—how far away from the target should they swing their most powerful straight punch, at what distance should they swing an uppercut, and what distance is suitable for a swing punch, etc.… And those top players can not only accurately grasp their own 'distance', but also quickly figure out the opponent's 'distance' during the duel… Lennox Lewis, the last boxing king of the last century, was a 'genius in controlling distance'. Among the players of his time, there were people with more flexible footwork than him, and there were people whose heavy punches completely crushed him. His only obvious advantage might be the 'arm length' item; but… he was still the most dominant boxer of that period, precisely because his judgment of 'distance' was impeccable. As long as he grasped the 'distance', in defense, he could avoid the opponent's 'strongest attack', and in offense, he could rely on a few 'effective heavy blows' to seal the deal."

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

"Uh…" Honghu had good comprehension, and he could digest this long paragraph after listening to it. After thinking for a while, he continued, "Then… isn't the probing method of our current 'Viking' a bit aggressive?" He paused for half a second and added, "By hitting like that, he will only unilaterally expose his own 'distance', right?"

"Um…" At this time, Feng Bujue, who had been listening for a long time, slowly said, "This shows that he has great confidence in his 'face'."

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

Bang——

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

At this moment, Mirrorshield's straight punch happened to hit the Viking's face.

Just now… while the three players were chatting, the Viking's offensive had not stopped; when the strengths of both sides were relatively close, it was impossible for one side to completely dodge all the attacks of the other side… So, Mirrorshield quickly slowed down his steps 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, Mirrorshield naturally had to counterattack a few times. If he defended blindly… then some habits and flaws in the defense would be revealed faster than the opponent's offensive flaws.

So, we saw the blow in front of us—in the Viking's swing punch attack, Mirrorshield dodged to the side and took advantage of the opponent's wide open door to throw a very powerful straight punch, directly hitting the face.

However, the damage caused by this blow was far less than what most of the audience imagined.

Because… at that moment of lightning and flint, the Viking, who judged that he would definitely be punched… immediately rushed his head forward and slammed his face against the fist swung by Mirrorshield.

"Look… he used his face to withstand the opponent's defensive counter-attack." Feng Bujue said, "Next will be…"

What happened in sync with Brother Jue's words was… the Viking took advantage of the fact that Mirrorshield had not yet retracted his right hand, and then punched back, giving Mirrorshield's face a hit in return.

"Hey hey… don't tell me that 'using your face to block punches' is also a tactic…" Honghu adjusted his glasses and shrugged, "No matter what… the ability to resist strikes in this area cannot be trained."

"It's possible…" Unexpectedly, Snow continued at this time, "Of course… to be precise, it's not training the 'face's' ability to resist strikes, but training the 'head's' ability to resist strikes." As he spoke, he touched his neck, "Um… the method is mainly based on very harsh, painful, and even potentially sequelae-inducing neck training."

"Also…" Before Snow finished speaking, Feng Bujue took over and said, "'Using your face to block punches' is indeed a tactic…" He said without turning his head, "Didn't Snow just say that every punch has a 'best killing distance'… When you are sure that you cannot dodge the incoming fist, there is one last way to reduce the damage… that is to quickly shorten this 'distance'; taking this punch taken by the Viking as an example… if he used his face like that, it caused Mirrorshield's straight punch to hit the target and stop before his arm and wrist were straightened. In this way, the power of the punch was naturally greatly reduced. At least… it was reduced to the point where the Viking could grit his teeth and bear it."

"And the punch that Mirrorshield took afterwards, I'm afraid it wasn't so easy to bear…" A second later, Snow followed Brother Jue's words and added half a sentence.

While the two were singing in harmony, the Viking in the ring had already taken advantage of the victory and gave Mirrorshield a set of combination punches.

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

Even though he took a heavy punch and was continuously attacked, Mirrorshield did not panic… He just followed the basic principles, adjusting his posture while being hit and gradually returning to a normal defensive rhythm.

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

So, in the boos of the audience who couldn't see the point, this "second" duel seemed to enter a tug-of-war rhythm.

But Brother Jue and Snow, who were high above, didn't think so. At this moment, the two of them said almost in unison: "Um… it's over…"