Chapter 24. Preparation (2)
Klein’s swordsmanship was an unconventional style rooted in instinct.
From the moment he first began wielding a sword, Klein had instinctively understood how to hold it without upsetting his balance and what paths his blade should follow to move most efficiently.
A blessing bestowed by the heavens.
A genius among geniuses, someone for whom those words could not have been more appropriate.
Yet Klein possessed a talent even greater than his gift for swordsmanship.
His Mana Sensitivity.
Klein had been born with an extraordinary talent for wielding Mana, both mentally and physically. Even within the Academy, and indeed beyond it, there were few capable of standing against Klein’s overwhelming Mana.
Because of that, at some point, his swordsmanship had stopped growing.
Instead, it had gradually been reduced to little more than a tool supporting his overwhelming Mana.
Shane had pinpointed precisely that flaw.
Klein’s Mana was unquestionably extraordinary.
But there would always be opponents against whom that power would not work.
Until the day Klein obtained the Holy Sword in the future, Shane intended to develop his swordsmanship further.
-SQUEAK!
The largest Ratman at the front charged first.
Their adult-sized bodies were threatening enough, but their claws, possessing durability comparable to steel, were just as dangerous.
The creature swung its claws at Klein.
Klein stepped back to evade the attack, then pierced the Ratman’s heart with a single thrust.
-SQUEAK?!
Seeing one of the larger members of their group die instantly, the remaining four Ratmen flinched.
But only for a moment.
They attacked together.
Two dropped onto all fours and rushed along the walls and ceiling, while another charged directly from the front.
Klein chose to break through head-on.
He poured strength into his legs, reinforced with the bare minimum of Mana, and burst forward.
However, reinforcement with such a small amount of Mana was not enough to deceive a Ratman’s dynamic vision.
-SQUEAK!
The two Ratmen, briefly startled, slashed their claws at him from above and below.
Klein evaded them by running along the wall, then kicked the Ratman directly ahead of him.
“Wow. Flashy.”
Just as Delilah said, Klein moved with spectacular agility.
He knocked the Ratman down, pierced its heart with his sword, then immediately spun around and continued moving without pause.
The remaining two Ratmen began backing away while glancing at each other after their attacks missed.
But Shane and the others were behind them.
The two Ratmen exchanged a nod before charging Klein together once more.
Again, Klein easily evaded their attack while cutting through the neck of one.
-SQUEEEAK!
Then the Ratman that had been observing from the rear cried out.
The one that had survived Klein’s sword joined its cry and immediately turned to flee without looking back.
Three of their five companions had already fallen.
Rather than allowing the entire group to die here, the Ratmen had chosen to retreat and summon more of their kind.
-SQUEAK?! GACK!
Shane had no intention of standing by and allowing that.
Mana Bullets had already formed in the air.
They struck both Ratmen squarely in the head, and the creatures collapsed to the ground with their eyes rolling back.
“Klein.”
“Yes, Brother.”
“That was pathetic.”
“……!”
The words settled heavily upon Klein’s heart.
—
After nearly half a day of subjugation, the group finally found a usable Safe Zone and established a Forward Camp.
Only after finishing a meal of Combat Rations chosen to produce as little scent as possible did Shane finally speak.
“First, Klein. We will begin with you.”
“……Yes.”
At Shane’s words, the others looked toward the Magic Recording Device he took out.
Once Shane supplied the Magic Tool with Mana, a three-dimensional projection appeared above it, displaying Klein’s battles from their journey thus far.
“Can anyone identify Klein’s problem here?”
“Uh…… I don’t really see one. Didn’t he do well? He killed everything cleanly in a single strike. Sure, a couple nearly got away, but……”
That was Delilah’s assessment.
Just as she said, Klein had killed his enemies with a single stroke and fought without leaving any obvious openings.
That was why she could not understand why Shane had called his performance pathetic earlier.
Klein, meanwhile, remained silent.
Then Aneis spoke.
“It’s gentle.”
“Huh?”
“His sword is gentle.”
Delilah tilted her head at Aneis’s words.
Gentle?
What part of a sword that killed its opponents in a single strike could possibly be called gentle?
“It’s like he refuses to let them suffer because he doesn’t want to see the pain on their faces. He insists on killing them with a single blow every time. If he didn’t, none of those Ratmen would have gotten away.”
Shane nodded at Aneis’s explanation.
Only then did Delilah understand.
“What? That’s what you mean by gentle? What kind of comparison is that……?”
Delilah, who would personally prefer to remain alive even if it meant suffering, found the idea difficult to comprehend.
“Klein. You are not an idiot, so I will not explain this any further than necessary. But you understand how much danger your current behavior could bring to the team, do you not?”
“……I will remember that.”
It was a bad habit born from Klein’s kind nature.
“And that is not the only issue. There is hesitation in your sword. As long as that hesitation remains, no matter how much your body or Mana develops, your swordsmanship will no longer have any room to advance.”
“…….”
“I do not want my younger brother to become a half-baked swordsman.”
Of course, time would eventually solve this problem naturally.
The Klein from Shane’s previous life had shown far less mercy in his strikes than he did now.
He had never become unnecessarily cruel.
But whenever cruelty was necessary, he had not hesitated.
The reason was simple.
He had personally witnessed too many people die because of hesitation.
Shane did not want Klein to wait until he reached that point before finally growing.
“And Aneis. Your problem is just as serious as Klein’s.”
“……Mine?”
The image displayed by the Magic Recording Device changed to show Aneis fighting.
If Klein’s battle could be described as spectacular, Aneis’s was closer to art.
Rather than focusing on killing an opponent in a single blow, Aneis’s sword specialized in creating openings.
Whenever an opening appeared, she did not insist on killing the enemy. Instead, she inflicted an injury severe enough to remove it from combat, then chose the action that would allow her to transition most quickly into her next move.
Because of that, unlike Klein, she had allowed no Ratmen to escape.
But once again, Shane could clearly see the problem in her swordsmanship.
“If Klein’s sword contains sympathy for his opponent, yours contains too much thought.”
“…….”
Aneis tilted her head after roughly understanding what Shane meant.
She understood his criticism.
She simply did not agree with it.
“I don’t think that is a bad thing.”
“Certainly. Because of it, your swordsmanship approaches ‘precognition.’ But I am saying that you take it too far.”
“I don’t agree.”
She was not stubbornly rejecting his criticism simply because she could not accept that her abilities had flaws.
She genuinely did not agree with him.
“……For now, look at this battle.”
The recording Shane showed them depicted Aneis fighting multiple Ratmen, much like Klein had earlier.
Ratmen fought with their bare hands, but they dug their claws into earthen walls and raced across them, attacking from multiple directions.
Aneis quickly grasped their fighting style and battled while constructing numerous possible patterns inside her head.
She swung her sword broadly, disrupting the paths of the Ratmen attacking from the walls and ceiling.
The highly cautious Ratmen slowed merely because her blade had swept across their intended routes.
At the same time, Aneis surged forward, slashed the legs and face of the two Ratmen in front of her, then immediately turned around.
Since she was using an ordinary iron sword without Mana, none of the Ratmen had died in that exchange.
Even so, Aneis continued moving without interruption, inflicting injuries of varying severity upon them.
Most of those injuries were specifically designed to hinder escape.
She cut their legs.
Their ankles.
Their faces, preventing them from seeing properly.
Unlike Klein’s battle, the smell of blood filled the underground tunnel.
The Delilah in the recording grimaced as though feeling sick.
Yet in the end, not a single Ratman escaped Aneis alive.
“Hmm. Even looking at it now, it seems perfectly clean to me.”
“I agree. This is…… swordsmanship I would find difficult to imitate.”
Unlike Klein, who wielded his sword almost entirely through instinct, Aneis displayed an exceptionally precise style.
To both Delilah and Klein, it probably felt as though they were watching another genius.
“Aneis, your sword is precise. Against weaker opponents like the ones we just saw, the probability of you losing approaches zero. But when you face someone around your own level, the probability of your defeat rises. Do you know why? Because you think too much.”
“…….”
“You probably developed this style because you have never experienced such a battle. Whenever you faced someone stronger, you could excuse the result by saying they were simply stronger than you. Against weaker opponents, you never felt any need to correct your technique. That is why you never recognized the need to change.”
“……Ah.”
Just as Shane said—
Aneis had never truly fought an opponent on roughly the same level as herself.
Naturally, every member of the Judgment Knight Order had been far stronger than her.
At the Academy, on the other hand, there had been virtually no one capable of matching Aneis.
She had sparred with Klein several times, but even Aneis had possessed no answer to Klein’s overwhelming Mana.
In that sense, Aneis had never fought an equal.
That had made it difficult for her to recognize the precise limits of her own abilities.
Hearing Shane’s explanation, Aneis nodded as though she had realized something.
“There happens to be a suitable opponent for you inside this dungeon. Fight it, and afterward spar with Klein. Neither of you will use Mana. That should help you considerably.”
“……All right.”
Aneis accepted Shane’s instruction without protest.
Since she had joined the team, it was only proper to listen to its leader.
And even from her perspective, Shane’s judgment did not sound entirely wrong.
“Next, Delilah.”
“Ugh.”
Delilah avoided Shane’s gaze as though something had struck a nerve.
She had offered plenty of comments while watching everyone else’s recordings, but in reality, she was the weakest fighter among them.
Even now, her clothes were covered in dirt from repeatedly rolling across the ground.
“You probably already know your own problems without seeing the recording, but we will watch it anyway.”
“No, there really isn’t any need……”
“Watch it. Seeing yourself is different from merely knowing what happened.”
“Urgh…….”
The Magic Recording Device began showing Delilah.
-FUCK!
“Ahem!”
The recording began with Delilah cursing as she rolled across the ground to evade a Ratman’s attack.
“Emotions naturally become heightened in battle, so I will not criticize you merely for swearing. But taking your eyes off the enemy and rolling like that—especially in a battle against multiple opponents—is suicidal.”
Unlike with Klein and Aneis, Shane had a great deal of tactical advice to give Delilah.
After all, Shane himself was also a Mage.
And fundamentally, Delilah was someone who, like Shane, could produce phenomena similar to magic without using an Activation Word.
“Using that handful of soil to enter the Ratman’s body and tear it apart from within was a good method of attack. But again, it is poorly suited for fighting multiple opponents.”
Just as Shane said, the recording showed the handful of soil Delilah controlled entering a Ratman through its mouth and nose before tearing through its insides.
But because she had focused on that attack, Delilah failed to respond to another Ratman and ended up rolling across the ground.
“Multitasking is important to both warriors and Mages. A warrior must remain aware of outside threats even while fighting, while a Mage must similarly recognize other dangers while preparing a spell. Do you know why warriors can do this while Mages often cannot?”
“Uh, no.”
“Because unlike warriors, Mages have not awakened their Fifth Sense.”
“Fifth Sense?”
“Taste, touch, smell, and hearing. And the Instinctive Perception created when all of those senses come together.”
Everyone had, at least once, used the expression that they could ‘feel someone staring at them.’
Yet a gaze possessed no physical force.
So how could a human recognize another person’s gaze?
Because of the Fifth Sense humans were born with—
Instinctive Perception.
“Warriors on the front lines are constantly exposed to the awareness and intent of others. That is why they become sensitive to Killing Intent.”
However—
“Mages who fire magic from the rear tend to have a duller Instinctive Perception. On a battlefield, that difference separates life from death.”
Shane looked at Delilah with his usual impassive expression.
“So experience Killing Intent for yourself, and remember even a fragment of that sensation.”
“Ah……?”
Immediately afterward, Delilah froze exactly where she stood.
Cold sweat ran down her hands and back.
Her chest felt as though an enormous boulder had been placed upon it, leaving her unable to breathe freely.
She could not even draw a single breath.
And it was not difficult to realize where the sensation was coming from.
Killing Intent was erupting from Shane.
“This is Killing Intent. Engrave the sensation you are experiencing right now into yourself.”
“Ghk.”
‘Engrave it? Are you insane?!’
How could she even describe this?
Even if she had no desire whatsoever to remember it, the sensation felt as though it were carving itself into her body at the cellular level.
Her body stiffened beneath overwhelming fear.
Her brain screamed at her to run, yet her legs refused to obey.
It was the sensation of prey standing before an absolute predator.
Only after another thirty seconds did Shane finally withdraw his Killing Intent.
Delilah immediately collapsed to the ground and clutched her trembling legs.
“F-Fuck…….”
“M-Miss Delilah?”
Klein, who had been discussing swordsmanship with Aneis in the meantime, hurried over in alarm.
Aneis also tilted her head and looked toward Delilah, wondering what had happened.
Only thirty seconds had passed.
Yet Delilah’s bronze skin had turned pale, and sweat poured from her entire body.
“Ugh, fuck! I almost pissed myself!”
“P-Pissed yourself? What do you mean……?”
Klein’s face turned red at her words, but Delilah had no attention to spare for him.
“What you just experienced was much stronger, but warriors on the front lines constantly sense traces of that kind of Instinctive Perception. That is why they can prepare themselves for approaching danger.”
“Ugh…….”
At that, the way Delilah looked at Klein and Aneis changed slightly.
They live while experiencing this?
Of course, Shane had deliberately gone too far just now so that Delilah would unmistakably understand what Killing Intent felt like.
Still, it was true that warriors on the front lines gradually became accustomed to such murderous pressure through repeated life-and-death battles.
But that was one thing.
Her indignation was another.
What grudge did he possibly have against her to do something like this?
The fact that a human could emit Killing Intent of that magnitude was shocking enough.
But Delilah was far angrier that she had nearly pissed herself in front of everyone.
“Damn it. Fine, I understand what you mean, but hey! What about you? Stop just talking and show us something yourself!”
Klein looked toward Shane with an awkward smile.
Aneis openly nodded in agreement with Delilah.
They would follow their leader’s instructions, certainly.
But wouldn’t they trust him more if he demonstrated something himself?
Klein unquestionably respected his brother.
Even so, now that Shane was acting as their team leader, Klein understood that he needed to prove that aspect of himself to the others.
So Klein also looked toward Shane.
“If you’re the leader, show us with actions instead of words!”
At Delilah’s words, Shane calmly nodded.
“Very well. I will demonstrate while we digest our meal. Follow me.”
It was hardly a difficult request.
