Practice
“Hahh! Strikee!!”
The sound of wooden swords clashing echoed through the practice grounds. However, the sound was too light.
It’s only natural. Because I am powerless. Now, my Father, who “just happened” to have some free time, was holding a wooden sword to make sure I had the basics down. He was fending off my attacks with his one-handed longsword and I am wielding a short sword.
“Your posture is all wrong. Your swings are too weak as well. As expected, wielding a weapon is too difficult for you, Alicetia.”
I know that. But I don’t want to give up just because of that. I have to use the Stamina Recovery to recover my strength. Otherwise, I will collapse without being able to move for even five minutes at full strength.
“Even though I told you all that I don’t want to train with weapons!! There!!”
Even my strogest thrust was easily reflected by my Father’s wooden sword. There is no way to beat him with swordsmanship.
Father’s main weapon is a hammer. He can only use a sword to swing it around, and when he does so, he dislikes it because it doesn’t have the strength to hold up. But even so, there is no opening. My Father is truly a Hero. And as far as I am concerned, it is impossible for me, who has not received any training, to find a gap. Before anything, there is too much difference in experience.
“You never know what you’re going to get in a fight. You should come at me seriously. Your strength is fighting with magic, isn’t it?”
“Formula decompression, Flame Bullet, Phantom Shadow.”
Instantly, bullets of flame appeared in both of my hands, while a black shadow surrounded my Father. That was my shadow, shaped like me, but without the details. It was only a shadow, after all.
“Illusion… no, it’s not!!”
Father instantly understood what it was and cut through the shadow. But the shadow had no substance. The more he cut it, the more it clung to him, blocking his movement.
Phantom Shadow is a restraint technique that uses shadows. It can be materialized or have the properties of a shadow at my discretion. The only way to eliminate it is to interfere with it with the supply of magic power.
“Loaded… 12 bullet rapid-fire!!”
I instantly launched a total of 12 bullets from both hands towards my Father. I was not worried about a few injuries this time because I have taken all the precautions to prevent them. That’s because I set up a healing spell to automatically activate, so my injuries will immediately disappear. Well, Father is obviously trying to prevent me from getting hurt, so it mainly activates when I happen to hurt myself.
“Too naive!!”
Father intercepted the 12 Flame Bullets by blowing away the shadow the moment they were about to impact.
Impossible. Flame Bullets may be bullets of flame, but their trajectory can be changed in response to my will even after fired. I fired them from all directions at the same time, with careful consideration. Yet he sliced through all of them with his wooden sword.
I immediately flew backwards with a gust of wind. Clearly, my intuition told me that something had changed, and against my better judgment, I ran backward. But it was right. As soon as I dropped back, I saw in my vision that my Father’s wooden sword had pierced the spot where I had been just a moment before.
Unbelievable. If he swung down at that speed, the wooden sword should have broken, unable to withstand the impact of hitting the ground.
“That’s why you are too naive!! That kind of bluffing is useless on the battlefield. If you transform a little bit of magic power into fighting spirit and clothe your body and weapons with it, you will have a fighting power that is several levels higher than that of physical reinforcement.”
Is this the martial art called the “Magic Fighting Style”? I believe it’s a technique that converts magic power into fighting spirit, which is specialized for strengthening the body and weapons, and if you clad yourself and your weapons in it, you can increase your resistance to magic and your physical abilities.
The Magic Power Edge is a spell that improves the sharpness of weapons, but cladding is a super compatible version of it. If you can use it, you are a first-class warrior. By the way, I can’t use it.
“Then, Formula decompression, Aegis Shield.”
I produced a shiny shield in front of me.
“So you are defending yourself… this time!!”
I purged the shield in Father’s direction. The strength of the Aegis Shield is considerable. Naturally, it won’t be that effective against him. As expected, after some time, Father destroyed it with brute force alone, however, it did take a few moments. Sending something like that at high speed should have an effect even on someone like him.
“Damn it.”
Father avoided the shield projectile at close range. However, he couldn’t move his wooden sword out of the way, and it was sliced by the high-speed shield in half. The wooden sword was destroyed, but Father is a man of many weapons. He had more than one wooden sword. He pulled out a spare wooden sword from his waist and approached me at divine speed. As expected, he didn’t make an opening for me even when surprised. But I read that.
“Formula decompression, Short-range Teleportation.”
Father’s wooden sword cut through the air. I shifted to the edge of the practice grounds. However, this did not agitate Father either.
“Dance with the wind, swirl with the flames, scorch with the wind!! Burning Tornado.”
The wind created a tornado and made the flames huge. It was a tornado of flame. As I directed it towards Father, I used Short-range Teleportation again to fly to the edge of the practice grounds in the other direction. This was only enough to stop Father in his tracks anyway. I set up a barrier here.
Intermediate level defensive magic, Wind Field. This is quite weak among my defensive magic spells. In fact, it’s so imperfect that it can’t even defend against a child’s punch. But that is not how I plan to use this magic. It manipulates the air in the space with the will of the magician. Only the substance necessary for combustion was allowed to permeate in the space, but the rest was expelled. The inside of the barrier was then filled with combustible gas, and the tornado of flame, supplied with plenty of oxygen, etc., increased in scale at an accelerated rate. Naturally, there was always a shortage of oxygen within the barrier. The oxygen supplied was constantly being consumed.
“My desire is to be a solitary knight. A fearless warrior, drowned in madness, steeped in power, Weakened Berserk.”
I cast a madness magic on myself. This was a weakened version of the spell, to suppress it from overtaking my ego. Naturally, it is less effective than the original Berserk, but the only thing that is reduced was my physical ability.
“Quick Draw, Collectible 01: Gladius, the Cursed Sword.”
I produced the magic sword I bought in a store before. This training was never about using the wooden swords in the first place. Only Father uses a wooden sword, I was told to use all my powers.
And this cursed sword polluted the mind of the wielder, but in return, the wielder gained the experience of the sword’s past owners. Naturally, that experience grew stronger with each successive owner. And this sword was a living, cursed sword that also excelled at mental attacks. Mental interference magic is my specialty, so its mental pollution doesn’t work on me. And as a result of the sermon called “Modification,” this cursed sword has become attached to me.