Chapter 90: Lily and Ion´s special training
Chapter 90: Lily and Ion´s special training
After the conversation with Ruin-san, the smell of fish sauce disappeared after a while. Lily and the others are back alive. I warned them first that they had a terrible eye. It's not my fault.
"Are you sure you want to use this?"
Ion asks. I'm sure she doesn't feel like eating it after having tasted such an unpleasant smell. But my answer was obvious.
"Of course I'm going to use it. What do you think I made it for?"
"Yes, of course...but"
"I don't think it's very tasty"
When Setia said that, everyone nodded. Hohou. Don't forget that word, okay? People who insult fermented products will cry over them! I'd say it myself, but it doesn't make sense.
I went to see Hephaestus and of course he was angry. Yeah. I'm honestly sorry about this. It's my fault for not telling him.
When he forgave me, Hephaestus gave me a beautiful sword. It was a sword made of glass.
Glass Sword: Rarity 3 One-handed Sword Quality E+
Weight: 10 Durability: 35 Attack Power: 20
Additional Effect: Durability reduction (small) when parrying
A sword made of glass. It is more valuable as a work of art than in battle. It is light and specializes in cutting. The durability is low, so be careful when handling it.
"Oh...you made it!?"
"Yes! I managed to finish one of them"
Ion looked at the sword and praised it.
"It's a beautiful sword"
"Thank you very much. I'm very proud of it"
He has the face of a man who has done a good job. Now that I have a new sword, I have to try it out.
"I'm going to train with Lily and the others now, do you want to come and watch? Wouldn't you like to see how the new sword works?"
"That's right...I'll bother you"
And so we all joined Lily and the others to begin the training. The first one is Lily.
Duel
Opponents: Takuto, Lily
Victory condition: Incapable of fighting, time up
Referee: Ion
There is a time limit this time. We can do a maximum of 30 minutes, but it's too long, so we'll do 5 minutes.
"Then, do you want to start?"
"Yes! Takuto, can I go all out?"
"No pseudo-dragonification. You can use anything you want"
"Don't regret those words"
I really want you to regret it. I pull out the glass sword. Normally, I would use a wooden sword, but I decided to use the glass sword for this test. When I pulled it out, I realized that it was indeed light. It's no wonder they specialize in cutting rather than slashing.
"Are you ready?"
Ion asks me.
"I'm ready!"
"I'm ready too"
"Let's begin!"
Lily rushes in. And the usual development.
"Heavy Slash!"
Lily uses the Heavy Slash. Like that, Lily is defenseless, so I poke her on the forehead. Since the attack hit, the skill is canceled. Then, as she stiffens, I give her another poke on the forehead. Lily is damaged by the poke and is in tears.
"It hurts...Takuto"
I don't care if you say so. I was almost cut by a big sword, but that's not the point, I have to keep my mind on this.
"If I had used my sword, the game would be over. Don't hesitate. Come on"
"!!?"
Lily's eyes widened and the next moment, there was a fighting spirit in her eyes. That's fine.
The battle resumes. Lily swings her large sword, but I repel all of them. Just like Arthur did with his shield, when a weapon is flicked, it becomes stiff and immobile. Therefore, every time I flick Lily's large sword, I hit her in the head with the bladeless flat surface of my glass sword. If I use my skills, I can do it twice. Every time I hit her, she says.
"Ugh! It's on my head! Fighting spirit!"
She used her fighting spirit and swung her sword at me, but I blocked all of them and gave her a punishing chop. The time was up and I had done enough damage to win.
When the duel was over, Lily sat down on the spot.
"W, Why~"
She said in a pathetic voice. The flow of the battle itself was much the same as when I fought Ion. The decisive difference was that I hadn't moved an inch since the start of the battle. Lily would have no idea what I was talking about.
"It's amazing"
"I've never seen you fight with a sword before, Takuto-sama, but you're exceptionally strong"
Ion and Setia seemed shocked. But there was one girl who reacted differently. It's Koihi.
"Amazing! Takuto-oniichan! Your posture and use of the sword was so beautiful! I'm impressed!"
Is Koihi's personality changing when it comes to swords? She's talking very passionately about it. But being able to say that means she understands what I've done.
"Did Koihi know what I did?"
"Yes! You were playing with the sword!"
"Yes. Correct"
Koihi's eyes narrowed as I stroked her. The three girls are not happy. I don't want to do too much, so let's get down to business.
"The first thing I want to say is that Lily relies too much on her big moves. You know when you use a big move because I hit you twice, right?"
"...So that's what you meant..."
Of course. And here's the thing.
"Do you know that when I flicked Lily's sword, you were defenseless?"
"Yes. I couldn't move"
"So. That means that after you flip the sword, the big move will always hit you"
"Eh!?"
Lily's eyes widened. She must be very attracted to those words.
"So I'm going to teach you how to repel the sword. If you can do this, you'll be on the same level as Arthur for now. Will you do it?"
"Of course! Then, Immediately"
"I'm glad you're willing to do this, but you'll have to change with Ion"
"Eh..."
"What do you mean with...eh? It's natural to replace it!"
While saying that, Ion pulls out her daggers and takes steps. Shes ready for battle, it seems. But before we fight, I'll have Hephaestus repair the glass sword. The low durability of this weapon is still a problem. Hephaestus is aware of this and he's going to see if there's anything he can do. Let's wait and see.
The glass sword has been repaired and is ready. Now then, let's start the training for Ion.
Duel
Opponents: Takuto, Ion
Victory condition: Incapable of fighting, time up
Referee: Koihi
Why isn't Lily the referee? Because I'm not sure if she can do it. Then I asked Koihi, who knows about swords, to be the referee.
"Then, please begin!"
Koihi gave the signal to begin. I held my glass sword in the middle position and didn't move. Ion was running around me, waiting for the right moment to attack. And just as Ion is about to attack, I unleash a thrust.
Ion barely dodges, but is unable to connect with the attack. She attacked again to see what would happen. She attacked from the right, back, diagonal right, front and left, but my thrusts were accurate each time and interfered with Ion's attacks.
And then Ion tried to repel my sword. Yes, it's good that she's so quick to copy me.
But I went above and beyond. I retracted the sword that Ion tried to repel with and struck out at Ion's sword flick. Then I unleash another thrust. Ion barely guards it with her daggers.
Then she moves away and comes back to attack. This time, Ion tries to counter my thrust, but each time I retract my sword and the second thrust hits Ion.
The second thrust struck Ion, but she started to respond to it, so I decided to move. Ion is alarmed by my move. Unfortunately, she's too cautious.
As a result of trying to keep a certain distance from me, Ion was forced into a corner of the dueling field. Ion has nowhere to run and I attack her when she can't move.
Ion, who desperately tried to deal with it but stopped, had no chance.
"W, Why..."
After the match, Ion said the same thing as Lily. Now, it's time to reflect.
"Ion is very smart. I like the way you tried to repel the sword I showed you"
"Thank you very much. But what went wrong?"
"The thing that stood out to me about Ion was your lack of tactics. When you're going around in circles, you think about where you're going to attack before you come, right?"
"Yes. Is that not good enough?"
"No, it's not a problem. It's an advantage. But the problem is that that's all you think about"
"!!?"
Ion's eyes widen at my point. It's as if she knew I was right.
"The reason why you couldn't handle my unexpected thrust at first is because you didn't expect it. And you didn't expect me to move, did you?"
"...Yes. but at the end, when did I go to the corner?"
"Think about it. I'm moving forward, remember? What do you think will happen if you keep moving in circles at the same distance as I do?"
"E...ah. You'd end up in the corner"
Yes. She noticed it well.
"Yes. You were so wary of me that you couldn't see what was going on around you. That's a point deduction"
"Uh...then, what should I do?"
"It's easy. If you want to keep your distance, just stop at a certain distance"
"That's true, but..."
Ion looked unconvinced. That should be it. There is a proper cause.
"Ion, you are actually not good at close combat, right?"
"!!?"
I pointed out a perfect mark. To tell the truth, Ion has been slashing at the counter and passing each other, but she has never tried to stop and attack continuously. The only time I've ever seen her do that was when she was using her martial arts or skills.
"Th, That's not..."
"If you don't, it's okay. In the future, you will be training with me in close combat. I'll teach you how to repel a sword with Lily"
"Y, Yes..."
Ion probably remembers the last close battle with me. However, what is lacking in the clever Ion is the intuition of battle. There is no choice but to polish this in actual battle.
On the other hand, Lily is the type of person who has good combat instincts and doesn't use her head. This is what I felt during the second Wolfman fight. Lily was completely matching her attacks against Wolfman's attacks. Moreover, she was challenging him knowing that she could win by force. I think this was a result of Lily's intuition in battle.
That's why I decided to teach Lily the technique for now. Even if I didn't force her to learn tactics, I was sure that her instincts would tell her what to do.
This is how I decided on the training policy for the two of them, and once again I realized that they are really opposite types.
-----------------------------------------
Author note:
I'll write about the level-up in tomorrow's update.