Another day passed, just like the first, leaving Kesshō completely drained by the end. Thanks to Mei presenting her a shorter staff, she easily learnt how to spin it around herself, and even position it between herself and an enemy. Hori also helped her understand the fundamentals of Taijutsu, showing her how easy it is to divert attacks which have too much power behind them.
For landing a hard attack, people will overcommit themselves to it and put their entire weight behind it. This allows them to lose their balance and leave openings if the attack misses, or worse, for their attack to easily used against them, mostly with grapple and throw techniques, or locks, both which Taijutsu possesses plenty of.
Due to her near negligible strength however, simply those won't work. She would need to combine those techniques along with pressure points, many ideas of doing which were presented to her by Hori. Such as, dodging a punch and striking a nerve in the arm, or several, to either cause high amounts of pain or completely disable the arm. Kicking someone's knee to bend it in the wrong direction if their legs are too tense, which he also taught her how to notice. Striking nerves and arteries in the neck for instant knockouts or kills, not easy to do for her due to being out of reach in most cases.
These were simply ideas however, she could build off of them after memorizing the easy to strike nerves and arteries in the body, along with knowing which one is an artery and which is a vein. He also informed her of the somewhat pinnacle of these nerve striking techniques, known as 'Death Touch techniques'.
There are many of them, known by a rare few. According to him, they are also the pinnacle of striking speed, precision, the foolishness of the victim to leave such a major opening, and the cowardice of the user to use such a technique. The last two due to his personal hatred for the people wearing all black suits known as ninjas.
"I would've killed them all if we weren't a victim of the same oppressor." Hori sighed as he grabbed the head of a wooden training dummy. "I still hate hybrids more than anything." He grunted as he crushed the dummy's head, flinching back slightly as the splinters poked his palm.
"Still going on about that?" Yuki questioned, walking over to the two, a white glass orb in her hand.
"Why are you carrying a fragile object like that?" Hori inquired.
"As a mage, I wanted to test her magical affinity and amount of mana. Also, till at least thirty seconds after I am holding it the orb is anything but fragile." Yuki shrugged, tossing the orb slightly upwards, allowing it to fall to the ground.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
The orb crashed on the path, forming an indent in it from the sheer weight of the orb. It remained unscathed, only ending up being dirtied by the ground.
"You mages always find new ways to surprise us common folk," Hori mumbled.
"That's what magic is all about after all, things common people could only ever dream of," Yuki smiled. "Now, let's see how strong your dreams are." She lifted the orb from the ground and glanced at Kesshō.
"If it is that heavy how can you lift it so easily?" Hori questioned.
"As long as there is a constant flow of mana in the orb it functions as a normal crystal orb. Once that flow of mana is closed, the mana remaining in the orb becomes stagnant and gains weight." Yuki explained as she crouched down in front of Kesshō. "The weight tells the concentration of mana in a person's body, and the color tells their affinities. Only skilled mages can draw mana from the orb, and so only they are allowed to have such crystal orbs, otherwise it could result in accidents." After draining the orb of mana she handed it to Kesshō, the color of the orb having turned completely transparent.
"How long does it take for the color to change?" Hori inquired after what seemed like a minute.
"Five seconds at most," Yuki sighed.
"It hasn't changed to any color yet, it's still transparent," Hori observed.
"Yes, she has no affinity or mana it looks like," Yuki sighed as she gently grabbed the orb. "I really wanted to teach someone about this world of magic," she mumbled as Kesshō removed her hands from the orb.
The orb slipped out of Yuki's hands and crashed on the ground, embedding itself more than halfway in the earth. Yuki stared at in shock as Hori's look turned to confusion. "What is that supposed to mean?" Hori questioned.
"She doesn't has any affinities, but has more mana than me, five times as much minimum." Yuki mumbled as she poked the orb.
"So she can learn magic?" Hori inquired.
"No, there are people who have mana but no magical affinities, they can never learn magic, but they can use spells recorded in scrolls and staffs with terrifying power," Yuki explained. "Those capable of learning actual magic master their control first and foremost, those with mana but no affinities can never do such. Due to this using a scroll or staff for them is the equivalent of using their entire mana in one attack. As such, even someone with a tenth of my mana could demolish a fortress if they have an offensive spell, or create a truly unbreakable but momentary defense."
"So, do you plan to teach her?" Hori questioned.
"No, mages are ranked according to how much mana they possess, my rank would be lower than her so I am not very able to teach her. She doesn't has any affinities as I said, so it wouldn't matter regardless." Yuki sighed as she glanced at Kesshō, whose eyes were still staring at the crystal orb. "It is still terrifying to realise her mana would be nearly twice as much of the strongest mage, an offensive attack from could level and entire nation even with limiters."
Hori looked at Kesshō as he begun to realise the potential she possessed, somewhat relieved to know she would never be able to utilise it. Even then, Kesshō did not pay any mind to the two, her mind having remained stuck at their first words, she failed to understand why they said the orb remained colourless, when it very clearly shone in all sorts of bright colors, flowing into each other with new colors visible every moment.