Ch.919Use Your Brains for Once, You Fools.

The duel ended more anticlimactically than expected.

Even without using overly lethal techniques like Spatial Cutting, Sky Slash, or Karma Flame, and without employing the art of Murder Karma or Defying Fate.

In other words, if I had used those, the fight wouldn’t have even been established in the first place.

The skill gap was literally close to a complete domination. I was at a loss about where to even begin fixing their problems.

“Haah…”

After subduing all four of them one by one and gathering them in one place, I looked down at them with a deep sigh.

“Ugh… uugh…”

“Kuk…”

“My body… won’t move…”

The four of them were writhing like insects with all their limbs completely shattered.

Since this was just a duel, I gave them clean breaks instead of comminuted fractures, and Lena was clinging to them providing treatment, so the injuries themselves would heal within two days, but…

“You… this is an international, international diplomatic issue…!”

Seeing Frider sweating and talking nonsense, it seemed like it really hurt like hell.

“Stop exaggerating. It’s just broken bones.”

When fighting Werebeasts, she fought just fine regardless of broken bones, but now look at her.

Perhaps it’s because this is a duel and there’s a lack of urgency or desperation?

I’m not her enemy, and losing to me doesn’t mean death, so it seems she couldn’t summon the willpower to forget the pain.

Well… she’ll probably get better with more practice.

“Listen up, everyone. It’s time for Professor Haschal’s evaluation.”

“Professor my ass… you quit your professor position.”

“I may have abandoned my professorship, but the professorship never abandoned me.”

I picked up a rock fragment lying around, jammed it into the ground as a makeshift chair, sat down, and put a cigarette in my mouth.

“What nonsense is that…?”

“The nonsense was what you were shouting earlier.”

I mimicked the battle cry she had let out earlier, silencing her, then straightened my crumpled collar while exhaling a long stream of smoke.

Today’s combat training ends here. There’s no point in continuing, so it’s time to start the theoretical education.

“First, Nigel.”

“Kugh…! Yes, you called…”

“Ah, don’t bother trying to get up, just listen while lying down.”

I stopped Nigel who was trying to get up with gritted teeth. With all limbs shattered, trying to stand up—I wonder who she takes after to be so stubborn.

“Nigel, your Tale of Heros… what was it called, Steel Waltz? What exactly is its effect?”

“It’s… just as you saw. Floating swords and spears in the air…”

“No, that’s not the effect. That’s just the phenomenon and result of you using that power.”

I shook my head, interrupting her.

Nigel’s answer was like responding to a question about Defying Fate’s effect by saying it makes the sword reach faster.

That’s merely the result; the effect of Defying Fate itself is compressing time to the extreme and moving within a separate time axis.

“What I’m asking is, what is the fundamental principle that makes such a phenomenon possible?”

“That’s…”

Nigel rolled her eyes upward and trailed off.

“You don’t know, right? Never even thought about it?”

“…Yes, that’s correct.”

Well, I expected as much.

Since it’s a technique she only recently awakened, she probably hasn’t had time to deeply explore its core principles yet.

“Make sure to think hard about that part. Just understanding the essence of your ability will greatly expand your range of applications.”

I advised her to dig deeper into that aspect.

I couldn’t teach her myself.

Floating and launching swords is merely her way of manifesting her power in the easiest way.

That alone wasn’t enough for me to definitively state what the essence of her awakened power was.

Telekinetic manipulation of the concept of ‘weapons.’

Invisible force tentacles.

A form of magnetic force manipulation.

The ability to imbue will into metal.

There were more than four possibilities that came to mind, so how could I teach her without knowing which was correct?

If I chose the wrong answer, she might wander astray holding onto incorrect information, completely halting her growth.

“And… something I noticed while fighting you earlier, whether it’s because your preferred weapon is a spear or not, the trajectory of your flying weapons is too linear.”

My second piece of advice.

Apart from exploring the essence of her ability, I pointed out that even her method of using the ability was excessively crude.

She finally gained the ability to float and launch swords, but all she does with this great ability is shoot them in straight lines like arrows.

At this rate, she’s just wasting a treasure.

“You used to teach me Imperial swordsmanship, right? Is a sword only capable of thrusting?”

Don’t just execute sword or spear techniques with your body; control the trajectories of your floating weapons to move in complex and intricate patterns as well.

“And what was it… you used to bounce around with daggers before, right? Try applying that too. If you can float swords in the air, you could use them as platforms to jump through the air, right?”

Finally, I advised her to naturally integrate her Tale of Heros ability with her own physical techniques, practicing until she perfectly mastered body techniques enhanced by her Tale of Heros.

Those three pieces of advice were all I could offer Nigel for now.

Issues like lack of power or proficiency would ultimately have to be addressed through activities like monster subjugation.

—-

“As for you, Millia…”

Turning my gaze from Nigel, who seemed deep in thought considering my advice, I offered various suggestions to Millia, who was lying spread-eagled and groaning.

Being fundamentally a swordsman rather than an archer, there were limits to the advice I could give.

I’d like to suggest trying to shoot arrows that curve in S-patterns or U-turns that come back around, but…

‘Is that even possible?’

I wasn’t sure if such techniques were actually feasible.

Fairies might use wind spirits to change arrow trajectories, but Millia wasn’t a fairy and couldn’t use spirits.

Therefore, like with Nigel, my advice focused only on how to utilize her Tale of Heros.

“About your Tale of Heros, do you have to release the compression right before impact?”

“Huh…?”

Millia tilted her head, asking what I meant. I tapped my cigarette ash onto the ground and continued with a detailed explanation.

“I mean, sure, if an arrow transforms into a pillar right in front of someone, it becomes harder to dodge and the power increases.”

Millia’s Tale of Heros, “Eternal Rain,” not only reduces the size of the object she uses as an arrow but also reduces its weight to that of an arrow.

In other words, she can shoot objects dozens of times heavier than normal arrows with the same acceleration as regular arrows.

By releasing the compression right before the arrow hits, the speed remains the same while the mass returns to normal—a technique that increases power dozens of times by simple calculation.

“But I showed you earlier, right? Against opponents who can shatter the pillar itself, the target just gets bigger and easier to break. That’s meaningless.”

“Um… isn’t that unavoidable…?”

Millia blinked, asking back. Judging by her expression, she didn’t understand my point at all.

“If it’s unavoidable, you need to think of another method, right? That’s why I asked if you need to release the compression right before the arrow hits.”

Despite Professor Haschal explaining so kindly, Millia seemed far from graduate student material.

…Which is probably a good thing?

Anyway.

“Change your approach. Instead of releasing the compression right before impact to increase power, maintain the compressed state a little longer. Keep the arrow created by ‘Eternal Rain’ in arrow form until it’s embedded in the enemy’s body.”

“Ah…!”

Perhaps now understanding my meaning, Millia nodded with amazement like Archimedes, the legendary exhibitionist who ran naked through the streets.

“And then release the compression… BOOM!”

I snapped my fingers, bursting the air, and grinned.

“—and the enemy’s entire body would explode. It’s like planting a bomb inside them.”

That’s right.

If you embed an arrow created by Eternal Rain into an enemy while keeping it compressed, the arrow’s power itself wouldn’t be much different from a normal arrow at first.

But if you release the compression right after the arrow is embedded, the opponent would have no time to respond as a pillar erupts from inside their body, inevitably killing them.

If the arrow can’t penetrate the enemy’s skin, this would be meaningless armchair theory…

But well, you could just get a better bow and build strength to increase the arrow’s power.

At the very least, this method could dramatically improve lethality.

Especially against those who don’t know about Millia’s ability, it would literally be a killing technique.

Many hero-class opponents think they can just take an arrow and endure it. They figure it’s just a small penetrating wound.

So if you shoot a compressed arrow at such opponents, they’re likely to deliberately expose themselves without thinking.

Never imagining they’d die from that one shot.

—-

I had no special advice for Jahan. He needed to overcome his wall first.

If I had to squeeze out some advice to give him…

“You usually fight well… but when facing me, your momentum tends to falter at the end. It’s like your fighting spirit suddenly dies. Were you aware of that?”

Jahan couldn’t properly swing his sword at me. Probably because this body’s original owner was his lord and like a blood-unrelated sibling to him.

Despite looking like a bandit leader who would chew people alive, he’s surprisingly weak to sentiment.

Even though he clearly knows I wouldn’t get hurt if he struck me, he unconsciously pulls back his strength significantly.

At this rate, combat training with me was meaningless.

And as for Frider…

“Frider, you…”

I silently looked down at the silver-haired friend lying beneath my feet for a moment, then turned my gaze away with a deep sigh.

“Haah… never mind.”

With a face suggesting I had much to say but was specially sparing her.

“What do you mean never mind?! Say it! Don’t turn your face away!”

Frider exploded in anger.

I turned my head to the side, barely suppressing the laughter that threatened to burst out.

Yes, that’s the reaction I wanted to see. That’s why I deliberately played this prank.

Really, how amusingly she reacts every time I provoke her. She was a woman I never tired of watching.