Mia

Her balance had long since reached the levels of what a professional athlete could achieve, practice and Dietrich’s training regimen, boosted by [Knowledge Sponge], had made sure of that. Especially after their duels on that damn log.

Then, she’d figured out how to use [Preternatural Periocognition] to watch where she was putting her feet, bringing her footwork to an entirely supernatural level. She wasn’t just trained at staying upright come hell or high water, if there was a safe and stable place to plant her feet within reach, she knew where it was.

But the moment Dietrich had realized that regular footwork drills were absolutely witzlos by now, he’d come up with something else.

A fairly steep, that wasn’t too sheer, cliff face that only mountain goats and crazy people walked, was the site of their latest duel. And she was getting her ass handed to her.

Because apparently, Dietrich didn’t just have experience, he had a damn [Skill] that let him jump around like one of the aforementioned mountain goats, he’d just never used in an obvious way.

[Master of Wilderness] let him move in all environments, and ignore basically all damage from such environments, even if that damage came in the form of falling off a mountain and landing on his face.

And yet, after landing in the lake below for the tenth time, all Mia could think about how satisfying it would be to finally land a solid blow. Eventually. It would take a while. [Combat Analysis] had been churning away in the back of her mind, and it always gave the same answer as to why she was losing always amounted to “stop picking fights with people twice your level, dumbass.”

As for the upgrade gained by boosting it, where it actually gave her ways to win and allowed her to swiftly adapt, that was only working so-so for a very obvious reason. Even though she always fought the same person, Dietrich, the various exercises they did had him using vastly different fighting styles, ergo, the analysis from one fight didn’t help much for the next.

Their swords clashed once, twice, then Dietrich lunged at her. She was able to deflect the sword, but not his empty left hand. It wasn’t even a hard push, just a soft “tap” on her shoulder, a slight shove, and suddenly she had to drop Balmung and start waving her hands in a vain attempt to steady herself. She failed.

Obviously, Dietrich didn’t keep his balance after that maneuver either, but he’d barely fallen a single meter before arresting his momentum by thrusting his sword into the rockface and planting his feet on a small ledge below. Mia, on the other hand, splashed into the water three meters below.

With how precarious both their situations had been, a “suicide” attack was near guaranteed to work, simply lunging at the other person while giving no thoughts as to how you’d stay up the clifface yourself was pretty effective.

But Dietrich could do that and stay up. She couldn’t.

The whole situation reminded her of an old Bruce Lee quote. She didn’t remember the exact wording, but it basically boiled down to “if there’s a man willing to die to bite off my nose, it doesn’t matter how good I am, that man is going to get my nose.”

Before, in the beginning, landing any hits, even if they left her utterly open, was an achievement. But it wasn’t enough now. Not for him, and definitely not for her. She wanted to reach the point where she could land a clean attack. At least one.

Mia surfaced, spluttering, grabbed the nearest rock and started pulling herself back up while channeling [Warmth] to dry herself off somewhat. Utility spells were a lot more useful than she’d have expected.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

But the thing that threatened to crack her facade of “utter concentration” was the fact that, apparently, ending up in the water counted as enough of a lull in combat for her to gain a Level.

[Monsterbane Knight Lv. 28 -> Monsterbane Knight Lv. 29]

[Skill gained: Unnatural Ballance]

Mia grinned. Now, that was exactly what she needed. Her third Class was almost exclusively focused on fighting monsters for some reason, clearly counting her training as a valid way for getting Levels while dismissing it as an “ingredient” for her new Class.

But it really was an amazing Class, giving her Skills like [Bane], which let her ignore various “only so-and-so can harm me” attributes monsters might have, and after a couple of boosts, it even enchanted her sword with an element that exploited weaknesses. That was easily her favorite Skill from her new Class, though [The Harder They Fall] was a close second. Basically, if she managed to unbalance a larger or stronger enemy in any way, be it tripping them up or removing limbs, they’d further be unbalanced to the point where only an honest-to-God miracle could have prevented them from hitting the proverbial mat.

Up until now, at least. [Unnatural Ballance] was a strong contender for her new favorite, though that might just have been how much it would change things in the current duel.

As she climbed, she skim-read the description. It did exactly what it said on the tin, let her keep her balance by forcefully recentering her into a, well, balanced stance, up to a certain limit. Nothing insurmountable, but as long as she put in at least some effort into staying on her feet and wasn’t hit, she’d stay standing.

It was likely meant to allow her to climb larger monsters like the Nation Boss she’d “fought” near the end of the second challenge, but it worked plenty well for other applications.

After half a minute or so, Mia was dry and standing on the largest outcropping available, ready for the next bout.

“Ready?” Dietrich asked.

She nodded, and both of them tiptoed into battle, carefully stepping from outcropping to outcropping, always as cautious of the drop as they were of each other. Their sword clashed several times before she managed to deflect Mimung into the cliff and closed the distance, stepping onto a closer rock and resumed her sword into her left hand.

Dietrich could have still blocked an attack aimed at his body, in all likelihood, but she was aiming at the stone under his feet. He couldn’t, not in time.

Balmung smashed into the stone with all the force Mia could muster, an effort that would have cost her her balance entirely even a single minute ago, but not anymore. It carved into it, then sent cracks spiraling across his foothold, and it exploded under his weight in an instant.

Sure, he could have still caught himself, but she managed to kick him. Not hard, and she almost fell herself, but enough that he couldn’t stabilize his fall before he’d already wound up in the water.

Quite possibly the cleanest win she’d ever managed against him, and the System seemed to agree.

[Monsterbane Knight Lv. 29 -> Monsterbane Knight Lv. 30]

[Physical Overhaul gained]

… And her limbs promptly locked up, causing her to pitch backward. She could feel [Unnatural Balance] try to catch her, and if she’d been able to move, she could have stayed standing, but the upgrade process was … not obliging. By the time it ended, a bare couple of seconds later, she was already well past the point where she could return to her original perch.

What she could do was jump to a lower “ledge,” a tiny stone she barely could set one of her big toes on. Enough, with her Skills … if it hadn’t broken clean out of the cliff when she accidentally kicked it as she put her foot on it, with just a little too much force.

“Good plan, solid execution, but we should work on the finish,” Dietrich told her dryly the moment she’d gotten her head back above the water. Then, he cracked a grin. “All jokes aside, that was very well done. If the Physical Boost were without side effects, this would have been a proper victory. Congratulations for hitting Level 30.”

He paused for a long moment before darkly adding, “Now the real training can begin.”

Mia just laughed. She knew Dietrich well enough by now to know that was nonsense. Sure, he was taking it progressively less easy on her, tapping into an ever-growing part of his actual strength and speed during their spars, but constantly fighting against a superior enemy was doing plenty for her growth. Anything more would likely be actual torture, and Dietrich didn’t do that sort of thing.

And it wasn’t quite his sense of humor to boot.

“Let me guess, Tristan told you to say that?”

Dietrich snorted, shrugged, and beckoned her to follow him in the direction of the Untersberg’s main gate.

“Come on, let’s dry off, then we’ll see how well you fare against Ogier now.”

Mia winced. The gap between her and the ancients was rapidly closing, but it was still miles wide. Yet if she didn’t come out of that duel with another Level or two, she’d eat a broom.