Lucas and Arthur continued to go through sword practice every evening while the other two took him out to hunt increasingly harder beasts. Once Arthur was able to comfortably fight against the giant snapping lizards he tackled other challenges.
Arthur focused on adjusting his sword techniques for facing the beasts and integrating their spells and the new plant-based ones into his arsenal. Each time he fought he found it would be quicker to take them down with just spells but keeping himself limited to close quarters forced him to change how he fought.
As he fought a nest of the lizards he was forced to constantly watch his back a stay aware of his enemies' positions so he could swing at them and keep them from overwhelming him. Occasionally he was forced back into the position of pushing them back with pure magical attacks, but it slowly became less and less of an issue.
With this time to practice his sword skills and its related magic spells, he found it easier over time to use the exact spell when needed and not over use his mana. Arthur found it important to begin limiting his use of mana due to its slowly increasing costs with the more powerful spells he was learning.
During Arthur’s practices in the evening, he practiced with Lucas and tested his combat theories during this time. Lucas also helped him set up practice scenarios that helped grow his knowledge of combat. By the final day of their training, they were both using the three sword spells during their spars to improve their skills.
In this time, Lucas grew as a teacher as well and picked up on things Arthur was looking for during their practice time. Lucas was also pushed to his limits while fighting Arthur who was objectively better in several key areas including the speed at which he was now casting his sword spells. Lucas was forced several times to boost his speed with magic in order to avoid attacks or block them.
Arthur continued to have problems avoiding strikes as well when Lucas could get in a hit. His large size was both a benefit and a hindrance during the fights. Arthur usually used his body and more specifically his arms as shields in these cases. The sword would bounce off them harmlessly with a clank of metal on metal leaving Arthur free to continue attacking.
During this time Arthur learned his first healing spell. This became necessary once Arthur had begun successfully cutting Lucas with his blade. The first spell was [Seal Wounds] that did just as described. It wouldn’t be useful to him, but Lucas was very grateful that they didn’t need a healer on staff while they were sparring late into the night anymore.
Arthur’s second sword teacher was a middle-aged elf man who had come along with the caravan as a guard for the cargo in the caravan and to protect the researchers from harm. When the pair first fought it brought an immediate challenge to Arthur. The man was higher in skill than Lucas and all of the advantages from his size dropped. With the elf’s skill, his disadvantages for having a wide chest like a dwarf were more pronounced and left him more open to attacks.
During the day Aria pushed him to fight the stronger beasts and gave him to challenges with the way she manipulated his targets. He had now moved on from the commo beasts and was now fighting the stronger mana beasts that fought against him with both magic and claws. The first time he fought against them he brute-forced his way to victory, but that didn’t work too well.
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It had left him with deep cuts into his insides and scratches along his metal exterior that slowed or stopped performance in certain areas. It took much more time for him to repair the runes as well as mana that could’ve been used for fighting instead.
While fighting with a sword Arthur fought up close with the mana beasts and had to change up his strategy again. Using [Vine Trap] and other area of effect spells he trapped his target and was able to move with more ease around his targets so he could kill them with less injury to himself.
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“Hello, Arthur. I’m here for your check-up,” said Zoe.
“Hello Zoe,” said Arthur.
“What did you fight today?” she said while taking out her tools.
“I fought a roaming acid beetle today?”
“And how did that go?”
“It grabbed my arm and was able to break it off with its pincers and I had to use my [Incinerate] spell before it did any more damage.”
“Which arm was it and how did it feel? Both during the fight and immediately afterwards?”
“It was the right arm.” She adjusted her seat and began going over the runes along the arm joint. “When I lost the arm it was frustrating. I should have been able to stop it from happening or stop the damage from going so far. The break in the flow of mana was disruptive as well. My entire body is supposed to be near perfect, but some stuff is limiting me, and I’ve been trying to adjust it but breaking parts of myself doesn’t help.”
“I have noticed you have modified many of the runes in your arms for better spell casting from what I can tell and some stuff for mobility but what else have you changed?”
“Yeah, I noticed that there are some inefficiencies when transferring the mana from the organic internals and into the metal exterior. Due to its properties, it doesn’t contain mana as well, but it doesn’t matter as much because the main priority is its strength and durability. I have been removing redundant pieces where I can and adapting the runes I have learned to better use them for combat. I have nearly mapped and learned all of the runes within my extremities. I also have recently begun going over the runes for my sensory data in my head to see if I …”
“No,” said Zoe pausing for a moment and taking a deep breath. “You can not continue this process. You are free to make adjustments to your extremities, but I am telling you now. Do not mess with the runes within the internal side of your chest and your head especially.
“Each of them was carefully designed and many of them were planned a century ago by great crafters. If you mess with their functions it may cause irreparable harm to yourself and your soul. If your soul gets damaged in some way during those changes it will be lost forever. I know that you did not choose to be placed in this artificial body after you died in battle, but we need you right now and those parts of you are perfect the way they are now. Do you understand?”
Arthur paused for longer than he previously had with their other conversations.
“Yes, I understand. I will avoid it in the future. I’m sorry for making you angry.”
“Let’s just move on to our next topic okay. I’ve heard back from Lucas and Vern that you have been doing great with the sword practice. Because you have been doing such a good job we have ordered a proper sword for you to use that will be much easier for you to handle than that older sword. Now with the shipment of supplies coming in along with your sword is there anything else you want?”
“I want to try fighting solo against some mana beasts. I have been handheld for long enough.”
“I’m not sure if that would be best. We need to start having you work with the rest of the team on…”
“No. I want to do this. They can find something else to do for the day. I will fight on my own for my next hunt.”
“Are you sure you..”
“Yes. I will be careful, and you can push the team practice back a bit further.”
“Very well then. Tomorrow you can go on a solo hunt, but... I will pick your target nest of mana beasts.”
“Deal.”