Chapter 161: -158- The power of brute force
If there were puppeteers or even magus from the previous world here to witness Rozen's actions, they would surely be greatly astonished, right?
Applying "Magic Resilience" and "Magic Defence" on the target not only enhances their attack power but also increases their defense.
That part is fine; many puppeteers and magus can achieve that.
However, using "Rigid Body" on the another target is an entirely different matter, and very few can accomplish it.
The reason is simple – it's a matter of difficulty.
Unlike conventional magic used to strengthen the body, the reason "Rigid Body" can enhance the user's physical capabilities lies in its interference with the body's magical circulation.
Magic power is derived from life force, and excessive consumption can negatively impact the body – causing weakness, exhaustion, and even unconsciousness. Similarly, excessive transformation of life force can also be detrimental. For instance, Rozen's own constitution had become fragile due to excessive life force being converted into magic power. All this indicates the inseparable connection between magic and life force.
If using magic excessively, exhausting it, or transforming it burdens the body, wouldn't ensuring its flow becomes smoother, more efficient, and easier also lead to a positive enhancement of the body's attributes?
By manipulating the magical circulation within the body to make it more rational, it can stimulate a temporary enhancement of life activity. In this way, it's possible to strengthen the body's capabilities, right?
That's the principle behind "Rigid Body."
But in reality, it's incredibly challenging.
For example, if you want to control the flow of blood in the body, you need to understand how many blood vessels there are, how the blood flows in each one, the volume of blood flow, and so on – a complex balance.
So, how could that be easy?
The human body is like a labyrinth.
Using power via "Miracles," you could even consider the human body as a world.
In such cases, while influencing magical circulation might be feasible, truly enhancing magical flow sufficiently to accurately improve physical capabilities without causing adverse effects requires correct anatomical knowledge, keen senses, and refined manipulation skills.
These things are within the grasp of most magus, but manipulating another person's magical circulation is an extremely challenging endeavor.
After all, it requires having a substantial amount of magic power to intrude into someone's body and a precise understanding of the intricacies of their body's labyrinth to interfere.
The difficulty is such that only very few magus can achieve it.
Even prodigies like Akabane Tenzen can only invade others' bodies using "Crimson Wing Formation," which provides ten times the magic power, to perform malicious interference and destruction – causing effects like paralysis, suffocation, or annihilation. To achieve beneficial results in return is equally impossible.
The reason Rozen can achieve this is that he is more skilled than Akabane Tenzen, plus his extensive knowledge of the human body is the result of systematic learning. Furthermore, as Mash is his Servant, she doesn't resist his magical interference, and he doesn't need to use the likes of "Crimson Wing Formation" to consume vast amounts of magic power for intrusion.
Precisely because of this, Mash's enhancement through "Rigid Body" was astonishing.
After all, unlike conventional magic, the degree of enhancement isn't fixed.
"Rigid Body" depends on interfering with others' magical circulation, essentially impacting their life activity. The more vigorous their life activity, the greater the enhancement; conversely, the weaker it is, the more limited the improvement.
As such, in the world of automaton, magus seldom employ this technique because it's not usable on others and the enhancement is quite limited. Rozen fares even worse due to the relationship between life force and magic power, resulting in a constitution with inherently reduced life activity.
Using "Rigid Body" can only make him comparable to an ordinary person. In contrast, someone like Hibari who specializes in martial arts sees considerable improvement using this technique, although it still doesn't match specialized body-enhancing magic.
However, this doesn't apply to Servants.
Though a Servant's essence is spiritual, their physical bodies are formed from magic, enabling their manifestation, and most of them were legendary martial artists during life, so it's evident how vigorous their life activity was.
Although Mash isn't a proper Servant and is only a Pseudo-Servant due to her past experimentation with Heroic Spirit fusion, her ordinary life activity isn't very vigorous. But once she uses her Servant powers, her constitution still undergoes a rapid transformation, and following the interference from "Rigid Body," she naturally progresses by leaps and bounds, just like a proper Servant.
This is why Rozen greatly praises the eight-tiered ranking of magus, even at the cost of delaying the upgrade of his "Summoning" skill. It's due to the applicability and potential of these techniques.
These techniques might not be inherently profound, and in countless worlds, there could be many higher-level techniques, but for people like Rozen who need to control familiars for combat, these techniques are more practical and have more potential than even higher-level abilities.
Now, Rozen has applied almost all of these techniques to Mash, and he's utilizing his own "Spirit Vision" and "Heaven's Eye" skills while simultaneously using "Telekinesis" to manipulate weapons and restrain the movements of the "Dragon Witch." Meanwhile, he scans the surroundings and identifies the optimal path for escape.
"Sweep five meters ahead!"
Rozen gave Mash this command.
And then...
"Yaaaaahhhhhhh!"
Mash disregarded everything and raised her shield, delivering a sweeping blow five meters ahead with her full force.
This sweep caused the "Magic Resilience" attached to Mash's shield to surge, transforming into a massive aura blade. This turned her bludgeon into a sharp weapon that cut through the air, as well as the iron stakes and instruments of torture spread around that area.
"Clang—!"
With the resonating cry of a weapon, all the iron stakes and instruments of torture within a five-meter radius in front of Mash were cleanly sliced apart. Together with the air currents cut by the same motion, they swirled like a whirlwind and dispersed in all directions.
"Ugh...!?"
"What...!?"
Both the lancer manipulating the iron stakes and the assassin controlling the instruments of torture were equally surprised.
But it wasn't over yet.
"Follow that path and break through!"
Rozen commanded, creating a foothold of "Magic Defence" under Mash's feet.
"Boom!"
Mash immediately shattered the mana shield beneath her feet, raising her shield. She propelled herself forward like a cannonball, bursting out.
As she charged forward, shockwaves erupted in all directions from her path, expanding like explosions.
"Clang---!"
All the obstructing iron stakes and instruments of torture were sent flying and shattered.
"Boom...!"
All the obstructing wyverns and even buildings were forcefully pushed aside, producing a series of booming sounds.
In this manner, Mash plowed ahead, carving a path straight out of Orleans.
Seeing this, Gilles understood.
"Break through!"
Gilles shouted loudly, leading the remaining French forces. Following the path Mash had created, they charged out of Orleans.
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