Ochs

— the ox

One of Meyer's four primary guards. Hands by the ear, point levelled at the opponent's face like the horn of an ox.

From Vom Tag you wind the hilt down beside your right ear; the point levels at the opponent's face. This is Ochs. The high point threatens a thrust at any moment and turns aside their incoming line. Meyer treats Ochs as a doorway into two derivative cuts: the Sturzhau, where the point plunges downward into Vom Tag or Zornhau, and the Schielhau, the squinter, where the short edge cuts across the line of their own descending blow. Fiore's high guards on this page work to the same logic — the point waits, then falls.