31 Icepick Grip

Xin has already removed his hoodie and had it kept on a bench nearby. From a first look, anybody could guess that Xin was an army cadet or a trainee, for sure. And the thing that was making this obvious was his perfectly shaped six-packs and his bulging out biceps.

"Are you ready? Should we start the match?" Sarena asked in excitement and took out her daggers, pointing them towards Xin.

Looking at the way she was holding her daggers, Xin remembered the time when Sarena used to teach him about dagger fighting and close combat tactics.

After observing that Xin was not making any movements and was acting dazed like the previous time, Sarena became more cautious and started to give him an intense glare. Because the last time he was acting dazed, they had their guards off and Xin took that chance to strike back and took them by surprise.

"Hey newbie, don't get distracted in the middle of a fight!! If you lose your focus then we will lose!!"

"Yes, yes. Don't lose focus and come to your senses."

Hearing the loud voices of the people, Xin was dragged back from his contemplation and started to focus on the current matters. All these times he was lost in the past and reminiscing about the memories that he had spent in the special army camp with Sarena.

Now that the gods have given him a second chance to live and do as he wishes, he made another oath of protecting Sarena from any danger and to be her guardian and mentor this time.

He wanted to return her favor and kindness in terms of knowledge and guidance. Though Sarena was revered as the Dagger Queen in her past life, her strength was pretty much average in front of the people who were involved in the Project 5th GOH.

After remaining quiet for some minutes Xin looked towards Sarena and replied her with a smile, "Haha, I would have been ready to fight with you if I had a dagger on me, but the thing is I don't have any, right now."

Sarena frowned and pondered was the newbie trying to escape the fight or plotting something else against her. Before she reached a conclusion, Xin spoke again and asked her to give him the spare pair of daggers that she used to keep in her bag.

Sarena was taken dumbfounded when Xin mentioned the spare pair of daggers in her bag because as far as she remembered never in her life she had told or mentioned anyone about the spare pairs in her bag.

Before she asked Xin how he found out about this Pwwwwwwwt!!

The referee blew the whistle again and asked them to provide Xin with a dagger. Sarena went near the edge of the fighting platform and asked one of her friends to bring her backpack.

She opened it and took out a dagger from a secret space inside her bag. Everyone else was surprised when they saw the dagger coming out of her bag and started to ponder about the newbie's identity.

Aisen and some other boys were thinking Xin must be an ultra pro stalker to know about such a secret of the campus belle. On the other hand, Sarena's friends were thinking that the newbie must be her cousin or childhood friend who knows Sarena and her secrets by heart.

Sarena herself was not sure how in the world a boy, and that too a newbie, found out her secret that she had never told anyone in her life. It would have made some sense if a girl or one of her friends in girls had found out about her secret, but a boy….

She wasn't sure anymore and dismissed the thoughts in her mind.

She threw one dagger towards Xin and asked him to catch it. Xin grabbed the dagger in mid-air and started to swing and play with it, to check out its weight and compatibility with him.

Sarena closed the chain of her bag and was returning it to her friend when Xin intervened again and asked her for the second pair.

Now Sarena was really pissed about it, not only the unknown newbie knew about her spare pair secret, but he also knew how many she had hidden inside as spares. Seeing the annoyed face of Sarena, the girls were thinking that she will tell the newbie something or refuse his request.

But the outcome was somewhat different. Sarena exhaled out to calm down her brain and threw a second dagger towards Xin. Now both of them had two daggers each and were ready for the fight.

The rule was simple, they will have the fight without their scabbard, and they have to stop the dagger before touching their opponent's vital organs. The one who touches the vital organs of his/her opponents more than thrice will win the match.

Once again Sarena pointed her dagger towards Xin while holding her knife in icepick grip (reverse grip). Seeing she was ready for the fight, everyone's eyes shifted towards Xin. Everyone present there had seen Sarena and her fighting styles, even then they were unable to defeat her.

What they were more curious about was to see the style that the newbie was gonna use to fight Sarena. And to their surprise, Xin was also holding his both daggers in icepick grip. They thought it must be a coincidence since most of the dagger users used to grab their daggers in icepick grip rather than forward knife grip because like an ice pick, the tremendous force can be brought to bear on the point, not only when oriented downward, but when an enemy is behind or beside.

One more advantage of this holding technique is that when the fist moves as in a cross punch, the blade and cutting edge can be raked across the enemy in a slashing motion. This grip technique also allows the knife to be oriented with cutting edge of an enemy, even when guarding with the forearm.