Gladius (Timeless)

The Gladius is an rare weapon from the Roman Empire. It is an versatile and efficient sword that can be used with a shield, and can also be used to slash a zombie's kneecaps and stun him briefly

Appearance and origins
It is a 85 centimeters long sword, made out of iron with a bronze/ivory/wooden handle. Its blade is similar to the one of a knightsword, but wider It is based on the eponymous weapon that was carried by roman legionnaries, that was fairly polyvalent and was able to inflict deadly wounds. A fairly common technique was to slash a shielded enemy's kneecaps to weaken him

Attack patterns
The Gladius does powerful attacks, often slowed a bit because of its weight. You can press [?], making your character get a bit lower and slash the zombie's knees

Strategies
When it comes to statistics and uses, this weapon is mostly close to a Horn Sword, with higher basic stats but less damage in case of headshots. It can be used too with a shield, and is mostly powerful with thrusting attacks. What makes it very interesting is its ability : you can press a certain command to slash a zombie's kneecaps, forcing him to kneel down for a few seconds and leaving it vulnerable to headshots with other weapons, or even slashes of your sword. This ability synergizes very well with a Dagger, as it allows you to instantly vanquish the zombie kneeling down. It can also be used to stunned very strong targets, but it can be useless on targets that are simply too big or that can hit you before you can strike.

Trivia

 * It is the first weapon that can stun its targets via its ability