After the silent meal, Syldis returned to work while Therese, Leona and Hiro sat at a secluded table with a drink in their hands. From here, it was onto business. After an explanation, Hiro summed it up as follows.
Therese was defeated and essentially exiled by someone who fought using a living metal sword. They had been traveling while also training, in order to find someone in possession of, or capable of making such a weapon to fight back with. Having seen Viktor with one in passing, they learned that they could get one from him.
Previously, Hiro had told Viktor not to reveal who he had gotten the weapons from, but after seeing the two in front of him now, he could understand somewhat why he had let it slip.
Well, it didn’t matter too much. There was a persona that he had made specifically to create things. Trinkets, buildings, weapons, armor, whatever needed to be done. Of course, using magic, and using all the available knowledge he had. For the blanks in his information and bits he didn’t know how to do, it was up to that persona to figure all of it out with trial and error.
Now to figure out how to offload the troublesome things to that persona somehow. But as he looked at the two of them, it didn’t seem like they would let him get away easily. He could see it in Therese’s eyes, that she wouldn’t let him escape her watch.
Breathing a sigh, he spoke up.
“I understand what you want. But you’ll have to wait a while before I can put you into contact with 「The Architect」.” (Hiro)
“Architect?” (Therese)
“Correct. Designer and purveyor of crafts. As for the payment…” (Hiro)
“We’ll pay whatever is necessary.” (Therese)
“Escort. The payment will be escorting The Architect to the Northern Kingdom. The materials he needs are there, where he has someone meant to supply him with the ingots he needs. Sound like a deal?” (Hiro)
“Understood. Then, we will stay with you. I have a feeling you would disappear, otherwise.” (Therese)
“... Suit yourself. I’ll be meditating and training in my room for the most part.” (Hiro)
Like that, they finished their drinks while discussing minor details. Leona didn’t talk much, and seemed to avoid looking at Hiro at all. As they stood up to do their respective things, Leona was suddenly left with Hiro, as Therese wanted to go and greet the royalty. And in order to not lose their lead, Leona was to stay with Hiro.
“... As long as you don’t annoy me, you’re free to do as you wish.” (Hiro)
Saying that, Hiro went back to his room with Leona silently tailing behind him. Therese watched them until they disappeared up the stairs, her thoughts dwelling on the vision she had seen.
At his room, Hiro laid down on the floor. The room had a table and desk, as well as the bed, so he left Leona to find her own place to sit. On the floor, he got into a comfortable position and closed his eyes as his mind started to turn once again. He needed to hurry and finish the creation of his doppels.
Leona wordlessly sat down with crossed legs on the floor, seeming to think it disrespectful to sit elsewhere while the room’s owner was on the floor. Placing her weapons down beside her, she silently watched the youth who had already drifted off to his own mindscape. But despite looking at his defenseless body, she could feel no openings from him at all.
It was a feeling as if no matter how he looked, he had an aura emitting from him that was hidden away, like a weapon ready to strike at an unsuspecting predator. Having seen the beast that represents him, she felt this was understandable. But what was that other being inside that she had seen…?
Hiro delved into his consciousness and started constructing the spell. The spell would be finished by the end of the week at the latest, maybe the end of the night if he had a spark of insight. While dedicating the majority of his processing power to this, he left some space to think about random things. Wasn’t good if his mind burned out and got tired of doing the same thing.
The reason he had decided on 14 persona’s was to match up with the amount of rings he had in his body. When he thought of making even one more, his mind seemed to lose connection, so this was probably his upper limit on creating a persona, and possibly the amount of doppels he could create.
It hadn’t been long since he discovered his rings and cores were solidifying, but it seemed as if it had progressed faster once he was aware of it. After playing around, he found that it also advanced quicker when the seals were undone, allowing power to run through them. Despite this, he could still feel that, if he so chose, he could unravel it all now and return it to normal. But he didn’t really have anything to lose, so he let it continue as is.
His mana pool no longer felt like the ocean, and it instead felt like a dense liquid mana core inside of his rings, and then a high humidity in the air, the mana in the air itself becoming thick. The same applied to his aura core. The rings themselves had basically been finished, and were just shells for now. Incomplete, but ready to be filled at any time to be completed, similar to filling a steel wireframe with concrete mix.
A little before dinner time, it seemed that Therese wasn’t coming back. Probably, she was made to be included in a feast at the castle. A little uncomfortable having someone around him after all his years being alone to his thoughts, Hiro let out a sigh as he sat up, looking at Leona. She was still sitting in the same position. A bit restless underneath, but maintaining a passive expression as best as she could.
“Let’s spar.” (Hiro)
“... Okay.” (Leona)
With nothing better to do, Hiro figure he may as well adapt himself to battle and get some exercise, as well as learn the level of combat of what he figured would be skilled beastmen. Leona seemed hesitant to respond, but agreed in the end. Inside, she didn’t know why the youth had wanted to spar, and didn’t know if he would even be that strong. However, having seen the strength laying inside, she knew that she shouldn’t judge by his appearance. Not only that, Beastmen followed the strong. It wasn’t her place to deny him, even if he wasn’t her Master.
Grabbing his sheathed katana, he made sure his cloak was firmly on and then tied the scabbard to his waist. Looking over at Leona who had finished strapping her sword to her back and was waiting for him to go first, he gave a slight nod and left the room.
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From the brief stance he had seen from Leona earlier, he figured that the two of them would need a large space to spar. Larger than the space at the back of the tavern. His destination was the forest outside of town, where there would be a good clearing away from prying eyes. When it came to the gate and gatekeeper, and the requirement of an ID, he used a Merchant ID. He originally wanted to be a merchant, after all.
While Leona looked a little concerned with the distance they were taking, she eventually spoke up as they walked through a meadow, approaching the forest.
“... Why are we going so far?” (Leona)
“I don’t like prying eyes. I’d rather avoid troublesome things such as being well known and stuff like that. Besides, I have a feeling that we’ll need the space when we spar.” (Hiro)
With nothing more to say, Leona nodded and followed behind. Eventually, they came to a clearing in the forest which had plenty of space. Walking to one side of the clearing, Hiro took off his cloak, revealing his unique clothing and hair.
Leona found herself intrigued by the look, but because it was a foreign thing, she couldn’t really find much of an appeal to it. Though it may not have been a conscious decision, Hiro didn’t want to part with his clothes. The last remnants of his origins. Not that he wanted to return, but still. It was a lingering thought.
“Come at me first. Hold nothing back. You seem to have judged my strength already, as well as Therese. No point in me pretending to be weak.” (Hiro)
Leona seemed cautious at first, but eventually determined to go at full strength. Taking a stance with her two handed sword in both hands, she had her feet spread and knees bent, her posture lowered with her blade firm and pointed vertically. As she looked at Hiro, he hadn’t even drawn his blade yet, and wasn’t taking any stance. But despite that, she felt pressure from him, similar to when she was fighting her Master, Therese.
Keeping a tight grip on her weapon, she dashed forward at a fast speed, closing the distance fast while keeping her defenses up. Arriving in front of Hiro, with her kinetic vision - naturally better due to her wolf origins - she saw no attempt to defend from the youth. Swing horizontally, she expected the youth to dodge backwards. His sword looked too thin to block her bigger sword.
However, unexpectedly, her blade came to a halt just a hair’s breadth from Hiro’s outstretched palm. With eyes widened, she saw a weirdly shaped barrier. A flat, six-sided shape (hexagon), transparent with a slight purple tint to it, the same as the youth’s eyes. She didn’t feel a recoil, but it was as if the blade had just stopped when it touched the barrier.
“Hmm… Peak Expert, or maybe beginner Master?” (Hiro)
Hearing that mutter, Leona was once again left dumbfounded as he had accurately gauged her strength. As she took a few steps back and fixed her stance, she felt Hiro’s presence, that inviolable aura, weaken. Hiro had initialized his restraints to put him at Grandmaster level. He figured this would be most beneficial for the both of them. With a nod, he lowered his posture with legs bent, and hand on his blade.
He could see that there was mana coursing through Leona’s body, strengthening her to low tier Master at most, and allowing her to easily cross the threshold between ranks.
“Again. Put in your all. I expect you to be covered in sweat and unable to move by the time we finish sparring.” (Hiro)
Saying such a thing with double meaning, he smirked slightly in his mind, but for Leona, she could only be fearful of what she was about to experience. Not waiting, she immediately charged in, step by step, using fluid movements and attacks as she slashed and stabbed al she could.
Hiro obliged and, while at a more manageable level of Grandmaster, fought at a strength just above her. Unlike most combat he had observed where people focus on their sturdy blades to block and counter, he had his own methods. Taking the hits at certain angles with his blade, he parried by letting them slide off the edge of his blade.
By receiving the blows at suitable angles, he optimizes the redirection of force while reducing the risk of damaging his blade. At the same time, because he’s applying a repulsing force, it looks as if he is striking back, when he is really only causing the attacks to miss him. He would also use his body to avoid and dodge attacks by a hair’s breadth.
But in the end, he found this world’s combat to be boring. Happening on only one axis, either moving forward or back, and halting.
As Leona started getting frustrated at not landing a single hit, Hiro’s words brought clarity to her mind, albeit only a little.
“Focus. Use all your strength, but don’t forget to learn. Why are your attacks not working? How am I stopping them? What does it feel like when I stop them? How do I dodge so closely? Where are your eyes and mine directed during a clash? What do you feel from your sword as it cries out? I’ll be countering now.” (Hiro)
And just like that, with her very next attack, a diagonal swing from above, Hiro’s blade came to meet it. But instead of sliding her blade just past him, instead, his blade creeped up her blade at the moment of contact, and as if pushing off from her, came aiming directly at her. Moving back in surprise, she managed to avoid losing her stance, but she did have to open quite some space as she calmed her labored breathing.
He didn’t know where he heard it or if it was true, but Hiro remembered something about it taking twice the energy to swing and miss, than to successfully deliver a hit.
From here, Hiro spent some time countering, until Leona seemed to struggle too much and lose focus. After that, he made some space, and let her rest a couple of minutes. By now, with all the dodging which pushed her to her limits and broke her stance half the time, she was having a tough time breathing and keeping up.
While she was a beastwoman, as relatively strong at that, she had a stamina to match it. But this spar, this was something else entirely. The high intensity of it, the amount of mental fatigue she felt as she seemed pressured the entire time, both by concentration and his presence overall, she was struggling. The tenseness in her body wasn’t strong, as she had trained a long time to respond instinctively, but even her nerves were being hammered down by Hiro.
But she didn’t have time to delve deeper into thoughts about how this youth was so strong. She felt the pressure coming from him increase.
“This time, you’ll be on the defensive. I’ll warn you now. My combat style is vastly different to what you know.” (Hiro)
With a nod, Leona righted her breathing and took up a defensive stance. Watching Hiro, he had his blade drawn, one hand on the scabbard, the other holding his blade. Running towards her, she kept her eyes wide and vision open. But even with that, his movements were too erratic to keep up with.
Maintaining a constant speed, he would duck up and down diagonally, move sideways slightly, and overall just make it difficult to predict anything he would do. His constant movement was making her weary and slightly dizzy as her mind tried to comprehend and understand what he would do, as it constantly changed.
Just as he came up close to her, she thought he would slash. But instead, with his sword drawn back with his arm across his body, he suddenly dipped low diagonally, his feet crossing before sliding behind her to the side. With this, he rapidly came up to her side from below, his blade ready to cut her apart as he passed by her. Not only that, by moving so deep into her range, she couldn’t help but stumble backwards to open enough space to swing.
Giving her just enough time to barely put up a defense, Hiro made his slash just as Leona managed to bring her two handed sword in front of her. With that strike, he just glanced her enough so that she would feel as if he had struck, before he quickly back-stepped, followed by a rapid backflip, rotating in mid air.
Just as his head was below his feet and he was facing Leona who was desperately trying to make a counter with a diagonal upwards slash, he reached the midway of his flip, and was in a posture with his blade near his waist. His aura suddenly clad his blade in a pale light as he spoke.
“【Kusanagi-No-Tsurugi】” (Hiro)
With a flash, his blade lashed out, meeting Leona’s counter. And like that, a blunt force struck the two handed sword. Unable to hold onto it, the blade left her hands and went flying several meters behind her. Collapsing to her knees from the shock and exhaustion, Hiro relentlessly stood before her.
“Stand up. We still have another ten minutes or so. Grab your weapon, we’re continuing.” (Hiro)
Needless to say, Leona looked like she was ready to cry again, but for a different reason. Hiro’s “sparring” was far too different and harsh in comparison to what she had experienced so far, even under the tutelage of Therese.