Dusack, Chapter 11: The Straight Parry, or the Slice

[1] The Simple Brace or the Slice

Chapter 11

Position yourself into this Simple Brace like this: stand with your right foot forward and hold your dusack in front with an extended arm so that the long edge is toward your opponent and the front end is upward (as the large portrait on the right hand indicates in the next printed Figure [F]). I praise this stance for the best of them all because you can wait for your enemy in this stance more safely than in any other.

[2] An example and a sequence, how you should work from below at the opening

When you arrive into the Simple Brace in front of your opponent, take note: if they want to cut from in front at your face, turn the long edge toward their cut and catch them in the air toward their right. In addition, step with your left foot behind your right and toward them during this and follow quickly with your right foot afterwards and toward their left. As soon as their strike beats on your dusack: turn your long edge away from their dusack and draw the long edge toward your right through their muzzle. Pull quickly and Indesly back around and cut a Middle Cut with a good counterposture toward their left at their face, so that (if they were to cut a second [cut]) you would hold off or rebuff their cut with this Middle Cut. After this Middle Cut, pull quickly back around your head and flick a cut from outside at their right arm. Immediately cut Cross Strikes long in front of yourself. You should complete the Slice and the step backward simultaneously with one another. The sequence proceeds well [when this happens].

[3] Furthermore, if they cut from in front at your face: turn the long edge toward their cut as before. As soon as the dusacks beat together, pull your dusack back up again (around in front of your face) and cut outwardly at their right arm. Afterwards, cut the second quickly from in front and through their face.

[4] Another

Item, counteract their High Cut with the long edge (as before). In that moment in which the dusacks beat together, yank your hilt upward toward your left so that you arrive completely in the left Bull. From there, cut a Low Cut or Middle Cut (or even cut slantwise) away from you, powerfully and long, over their right arm and toward their right, through their face. Immediately cut additional Cross Strikes long and through their face.

[5] Item, counteract their strike with the long edge (as before) and in that moment in which it touches, pull your dusack back toward your right around your head. Step and thrust from outside over their right arm at their face. Pull back quickly and cut at their face from in front again.

[6] Item, if you stand in the oft-mentioned Simple Brace and your counterfencer cuts outwardly at you to the right: counteract their cut with the long edge. Quickly cut a Low or Middle Cut from your right toward their left through their face. Perform this cut so strongly that your dusack moves above your head in this Twisting [Cut], once on each side. You will confuse them with this moving around so that they are misled. Immediately cut a Cross Strike.

[7] How you should set off their cuts, hang inward, and pull upward through their face

Item, if you stand in front of your opponent in the Simple Brace and they cut outwardly toward your right: in that moment in which they cut in, step with your left foot quickly toward their right and out away from their strike and turn the long edge toward their cut (while doing this). Simultaneously (and while in the Simple Brace) raise your hilt and shove your point on their dusack over their right arm from outside into their face. Hastily hang your dusack from outside over their right arm and inwardly in front of their chest. Step farther to their right side simultaneously with this inward hang. Draw your long edge back upward toward your left through their face. Immediately cut the Cross [Cut] long in front of yourself.

[8] A good sequence, how you should set off from the Simple Brace, step out, and cut through their face

Or, if you stand in the abovementioned counterposture and they cut or flick at you outwardly (at your right arm): step well toward their right while they strike. Turn their cut well away from you and toward your right with your long edge as you step backward. From there, draw the long edge above their arm and back toward your left, through their face and up into the Middle Guard. From there, continue to fence (as you will subsequently be taught in the Middle Guard). If they cut at you so quickly from both sides that you are completely unable to fence with them as quickly in the first cuts, turn away some cuts with the long edge toward both sides and observe: whenever they offer an opening with their cuts, you should hastily cut in toward the same.

[9] Item, if your opponent cuts a Wrath Cut from their right side toward your left, and if they guide the cut high: don’t respond to the cut with a counteraction. Instead let your front end sink downward and move through under their right arm with a wide step outward to your opponent’s right side (as you were taught previously in the Overwhelming Cut). Cut simultaneously with them from outside and over their right arm, straight to the side or opening from which they had cut. You should use this against those who cut too high and cut more at the dusack than at the body.

If an opponent doesn’t want to cut at you (because you stand in this counterposture), take note of how they guard themselves against you. If they position themselves into a stance on one side (whether above or below): thrust at their face with an extended arm with your Longpoint straight in front of you. They must defend against that. Therefore, take note from which side they strike your thrust outward or ward off your thrust. Let [your dusack] move around and cut in at precisely that same side from which they warded off or counteracted your thrust. You can perform this cut in response from above, across, or from below. Then cut quickly afterwards with Cross Cuts.

[10] Or, if you take note that they want to counteract your thrust (including the cut): thrust straight at their face (as taught above). In that moment in which they move the thrust aside: act as if you wanted to cut at the side which they counteracted you from. Don’t let the cut hit or touch, but instead pull it back up around your head and cut at the other side. As often as you perceive that they want to counteract your cut, don’t let your cut hit but instead pull it back up to the other side. If they move to a counterposture in response: pull up again and do this until you trust that you can hit an opening.

[11] Rule

If an opponent cuts at you to the right or left, counteract them with the long edge, and as soon as it glances off, pull back upward and cut straight from above and back at the closest opening while stepping outward.

[12] Item, if they bind on you or if they stand in a counterposture in front of you, take diligent note of their rising upward. As soon as they rise up to a strike: cut through across at their forearm bone.

[13] A swift, misleading sequence for fencing in this Simple Brace

Take note: when you find your counterfencer in the Simple Brace, position yourself into the abovementioned Wrath Guard or Bull. Use serious body language to guide a High Strike from your right shoulder toward their face. Don’t let it hit, but instead, in that moment in which the cut should touch above, move your dusack toward their left, around and below their dusack through the Rose and completely around in a circle, so that you arrive with your dusack upward in the air toward your left (having moved under their right arm). Let it quickly drop down twice in the air—once toward their left, the second toward their right. Cut a Middle Cut through from your right and in front toward their face.

You should step forward twice for all of these moves. The one at the first Wrath Cut, with which you shouldn’t hit but instead miss and move around. The other during the two drops downward (and including the Middle Cut). In that moment in which you bring your dusack into the air to drop down, you should simultaneously lift your right foot, and thus execute the two drops downward so quickly that you only bring your foot down when you hit with the Middle Cut.

[14] This is a free-flying and fast sequence and moves well if you have previously learned to execute it well. As soon as the Crossing Cut has hit, cut again across from below at their right arm with a good counteraction. In that moment in which you hit with this cut, take note as to whether they are high or low with their arms. If they are high: turn your point under their arm with a thrust at the chest or hip. If they are low: turn the point over their arm at their face with your palm upward (so that your long edge faces upward in this thrust).

Whichever of these two thrusts appears most proper to you (palm up or down), follow the same thrust quickly and powerfully with these cuts in response: namely, [follow] the High thrust with a Low Cut through their right. [Follow] the Low thrust with a High Cut through their left.

[15] Item, if you find an opponent in a Simple Brace: cut quickly from your right and across toward their hilt with a step forward. In that moment in which the weapons touch together, step and twist your hilt through below and use this to move outward over their right hand. Rip downward toward yourself, drawing the dusacks through their face.

You will find more information about how you should counter this Simple Brace in the Middle Guard.

[16] Finally, when you stand in this Simple Brace, take note (as also mentioned previously): if an opponent cuts at you to the right or to the left, turn the long edge toward their cut and push the point forward at their face (in addition to this counterposture). You thus force them so that they must rise to counteract, and this provides you with space at their openings. If they don’t cut: attack with any other sequences that you feel are properly the best (as you will find sufficiently here).