Chương 56: Interlude 8 – With her out in the training yard
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Meanwhile, Elze was led out to the back of the mansion, past the sculpted garden, and into a barracks area with a sandy drill yard. The soldiers they passed by only looked quizically at the white-haired girl walking behind their chief of the house guards, until the recognized who that might be. They bowed in respect as they passed.
"Here we are," said Captain Hanse. "Now, Miss Elze, if I understand correctly, you are largely self-trained in pugilism? There are some little tricks you may have missed, and a little sparring will help with that."
"That's it? You're not going to give me any hassle about being girl that beat what your guys had trouble with? I was really expecting someone to do that, I wouldn't have believed it either."
The old guardsman scoffed, "What do we look like, some petty little noble's show guards? We're the Ortlinde Ducal Guards! What, are we supposed to think our Young Lady would be lying about the people who saved her life? Maldon wouldn't be lying about the death of his own younger brother either."
"Oh. Well… sorry about that. I don't mean to sound arrogant and all."
Captain Hanse nodded. "That you're a girl doesn't matter. But you are still a kid, so I'll forgive that too."
"Oy, oy, oy… you're crossing a line there old man!" Elze replied with a reckless grin.
The chief of the guards tugged at his own large well-groomed mustache and grinned back. "Then what are you going to do about it?"
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"Before we begin, show me what you can do. Go run around this field as fast as you can until I say 'Stop'." The captain pointed to the four corners of the training yard.
"Sure, sure!" Elze saluted and went to it.
The first lap kicked up too much dust and sand. Elze began to figure how how fast she could move without her feet digging too deep into the loose soil. She ran perfectly following the lines and sharply turning at the corners, obviously using her power and with [Boost] active her head would start hurting before her body started to feel tired.
After several minutes, she heard the Captain order "Stop."
She walked over to meet him at the center of the yard, not even breathing heavily.
"You used your power."
"You didn't say not to..."
Captain Hanse smirked. "Now why would I do a silly little thing like stop you from using your most effective weapon? If you have to fight, fight with all you have."
Elze beamed. Yup. This old dude was cool.
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"Now, what I heard is that you have something called [Boost] that makes you move faster, hit harder. I actually have something similar, it's called [Imperturbable]. So don't hesitate, hit me as hard and as fast as you can."
Elze stared up at the beefy mountain of a house guard. She had on her gauntlets and greaves. Similarly, the Captain had decided to shuck off his chest plate, leaving him only with the padded jack underneath and his arms and leg armor.
He looked like a bruiser, devastating and slow.
Elze dug the tip of her boot into the ground and kicked up, flinging sand up towards the Captain's eyes ahead of her kick which was actually aimed towards the midsection.
The Captain merely leaned aside and intercepted her kick with the back of a steel-clad fist. "Good! That's the way to do it!"
"So it's okay to cheat?" Elze asked impishly as she stepped back. "What about giving someone a fair fight?"
"That is correct. Young, old, man, woman, it doesn't matter. In a fight, use what weapons you have available!" said the Captain.
"That's really weird to hear from noble guards."
"We're not knights. We don't need that chivalry nonsense, we're not examples to anybody. We're guards – so the important thing, the only thing, is for the people we protect to survive. Cheat! Lie! Kill! Do whatever it takes, only fools and dead men try to fight fair when your enemy won't give you any of that anyway!"
Elze nodded. Very good words to live by. Then she kicked off the ground and attacked again.
She slid forward, then suddenly juked to the side to deliver a punch to the ribs. The Captain met it with his elbow. A loud brassy sound rang through the field.
Elze barely had time to reach to an overhead knife palm blow to her neck. She blocked it with her own [Boosted] forearm, and another brassy sound rang.
Elze sniffed and skipped back. "I see. Imperturbable."
The Captain of the Ortlinde Guards could make his limbs imperturbable, surpassing human limits. Not to the multiples that her [Boost] could provide, but being immune to damage was just as perfectly good. It meant he couldn't tear his muscles no matter how hard he forced that limb.
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They traded blows for a while, and seeing a slim young teen apparently able to meet their powerful Captain strength for strength was enough to draw everyone that was off duty for the day.
"You like going for the legs. Why is that? Most people I know would be jumping to add more force to their blows by now."
"Footing is everything!" Elze replied. "Also, fight a master of wind magic in mid-air? That's dumber than bricks!"
Hanse laughed. "Good enough! I may be no master of wind magic, but if you had tried that, I'd have picked you up and thrown you. Never give up leverage, girl."
As Elze darted around, avoiding Captain Hanse's return blows, she asked "What else am I going to use leverage for? It's not like I can throw you. And why throw when you can punch? Throwing the enemy away means I'd have to chase after them again."
"Ah, but sometimes there will be enemies that you can't punch to death. And so being able to take them out of the fight for a while is just as good."
The guard captain stopped and held up his arm, palm out.
"You know what your problem is, right?"
"Range?"
"No. Reach. As long as you are fighting in melee, there are also a lot of things that could be used to disrupt your ability to punch. You are a striker, and you've neglected the other part of bare-hand combat entirely. Grappling is your weakness. You just don't have the weight or reach for that.
"But unfortunately you're too little for me to demonstrate grappling throws and falls. Edgar, come here."
"Hey!" Elze protested vainly as a tall young guardman stepped up to the sands and saluted.
Captain Hanse kicked the young man's feet together, and as he topped, tossed him over his shoulder. The young soldier hung limp and spread out his arms to land flat on his back, spreading out the force of impact.
Elze pursed her lips. "These… look familiar somehow. I think… ah! I've seen Yae throw people like this before! She's from Eashen, this is Eashen martial arts! Did you learn this from Yae's father… Mister Kokonoe?"
"That's right. Twenty years ago, I was actually a sparring partner for the now Viscount Sordrick."
And so Captain Hanse began to demonstrate on the hapless guardsman, tossing him to the ground again and again.
"It's not enough to disrupt your enemy's center of balance. It doesn't matter how bigger than you or how heavier than you – if just use his center of gravity against him then you can throw down anyone. Someone flat on the ground is much easier to deal with, if not by you then any of your companion's weapons or magics."
Hip throws, back throws, knee throws, reaps, wheels, and sacrifice throws, Edgar suffered them all silently.
"Now, you try," the captain said to Elze.
"May I ask for mercy?" Edgar whimpered. "Please, be gentle."
Elze just grinned up at him.
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Klong. Klong. Klong.
Klong.
Elze could put all force and speed into her blows, blows that could kill anyone, but against the Captain's [Imperturbable] limbs it wouldn't even make him budge. But since his arms and legs didn't get any heavier, he could still counter-attack just as fast and Elze had to learn how to stop over-committing to a strike.
"There is like a law," said Captain Hanse, "that as hard as you hit something, you also feel that force going back up your arm. That's why you can see many people who augment their strength attack from above or make jumping strikes. Lets your weight pull you down to the ground overcoming that force."
"Every action carries a complete and opposite reaction… I heard about this too." That was how Playa managed to fly over when his air jets shouldn't be able to push off the ground anymore.
"So, you hit, bounce back, hit again. If you are hit, you use that force given to you by your enemy not only to move your own limbs but to deflect where their limbs will be."
Captain Hanse relaxed his [Imperturbable] to demonstrate. He blocked another kick by Elze, and pushed down to shift her center of balance. Elze used that to whip around using her hip as the fulcrum to kick again with her other leg towards his face. The Captain blocked with his other forearm, then drove forward with two outstretched fingers towards Elze's exposed torso.
"Ugh!" Elze crossed her arms over her ribs to receive the blow.
But the Captain changed his hand to an open palm and grabbed Elze's bracer. He moved one step forward and then drove her down to the ground, slamming her back onto the sand and driving all breath from her.
Because for those brief moments, Elze forgot that she was not in contact with the ground. Mid-air was the most dangerous place to be.
"Don't try to be too clever, trying to force openings to appear. What you could have done is to kick down towards the knee as soon as the high kick failed, then if the knee hit is avoided, flick your body forward with the spent force to punch. Recoil back, and then kick. Hit, and recoil with the opposite arm. Remember, your whole body is a lever moving around your center of gravity."
Elze got up, dusted herself off and nodded. Kick, punch, block. Kick, punch, block. As often as possible, as fast as possible, use the energy bled off from each to fuel the next one.
So next time Elze caught a straight punch on her bracers that would have usually driven her back several paces she didn't hold her arm as stiff as before, but let it absorb the blow. As soon as her fist touched her chest, she pushed down on herself to angle her body to the side and her elbow back towards the enemy's open chest.
She circled about, now inside the enemy's guard, slapping the arm down with her defending arm jack-knifing out and the other arm in a blade hand position towards the enemy's throat. The captain grabbed her outstretched hand to defend.
But now both his hands were similarly engaged, so Elze pulled on her captured limb to bring her closer to the enemy and kicked him in the balls.
[Klongg]
Imperturbable.
"Better!" said the Captain. "But now I can do this."
And so he trapped her in a bear hug.
The watching guardsmen hollered about 'how unfair' and 'that's too much taking advantage!' and 'I should have thought to do that earlier too, dammit!' until the Captain arched his spin backwards and drove Elze's head into the ground in a suplex.
But gently, because she was so much smaller that the Captain's head actually touched the ground first.
"Ugh, grappling," Elze complained, spitting sand. "How annoying. Is this why people started to like using swords instead?"
"Hahahaha. No."
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Elze sparred with every soldier there, so that everyone could get used to burst combat. It was very clear that the guards were more used to weapons, and when the sparring shifted to using their weapons they were just as lost dealing with someone who could snap their spears like twigs and push their swords back to stab themselves.
It was fun.
Very little of what she was learning was applicable to the goal of beating Playa's face in, because he was a cheating cheater who cheats who CAN FRIGGING FLY, but it was useful to shore up her own deficiencies in defense.
As the Captain explained, while [Boost] and [Imperturbable] could strengthen limbs, it did very little to protect their own midsections. It boosted muscle strength where available, so if Elze wanted to protect her very vulnerable organs she had better learn how to get some very impressive abs.
Elze blanched.
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"I still need to do something about range..." Elze mused as they all took a break to cool down after sparring.
"You could just throw things," one of the young guards said the obvious.
Elze shook her head. Playa's [Spinning Air Shield] worked against that. Linze had [Ice Wall]. Reach was a very serious problem. She could maybe get something heavier and sharper… maybe a throwing axe?
She picked up a loose stone and flicked it, applying [Boost] to her fingers. The stone shot forth and cracked open the sand-filled head of a target dummy. It was a [Stone Bullet], but really nothing special enough to called a technique. [Air Shield] worked really well against that.
The young soldier gulped, and reconsidered how he planned to chat her up.
Elze frowned and practiced the flicking motion with her gauntleted hand. There were few weapons she could think of that wouldn't be made just redundant with how her arm armor was its own weapon.
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When she asked the Captain about it later, he remarked "So your young man is abusing the advantage of range, you say? With his sword-spear, and his flight, and his bombardment options… I can see how that would be very annoying."
"I can still beat him when I can punch through his [Air Shield]. But… more and more he's getting faster and can fly higher, so at some point that's not going to work anymore."
"Have you considered bigger rocks?"
"It's not like I can just carry around bigger rocks!" Elze objected with a pout. "I've done trees. But I'm going to run out of trees if I keep doing that."
The Captain chortled. "What a frightening young lady you are. Way I see it, you have two options. The first is to get a weapon that feels right to you, one that improves your reach. The other is for you to simply be able to [Jump Higher]."
"But the more I ramp [Boost] the quicker I'll get tired."
"Which leads back to the weapon for attack and defense while conserving energy. That is indeed the reason why they remain the most significant force in the army even through centuries of magic. Hmm." Captain Hanse rubbed at his long pointed chin hair for some time. "Have you considered that ancient reliable tool of persuasion, the sling?"
Slings, little more than a pouch between two lengths of rope, spun to throw a blunt projectile like a smoothened rock (the root of the word 'bullet', 'small ball') had long been made obsolete in war by the bow and metal armor. They were still used by shepherds to drive off wild animals though, a weapon any peasant was allowed to because they were so little a threat to noble power.
Elze looked at her metal-clad fingers. Well at least carrying a sling around wouldn't be a bother. She could just wrap it around her wrist like a bracelet.
"But it's still less than useful against armor. Even padded mail."
"Heavy lead bullets."
Huh. Well. That would work.
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It was lunchtime when the party could get all back together again.
"Oh, hey everyone! Did you have fun?" she asked her sister and her friends. She had fun. Sweaty, hot, but fun.
They looked far too somber. There was a cold, ambivalent feeling in the air. Zah Playa looked skittish and Linze refused to look at him.
It was also the first time Elze was introduced to the court magician, Charlotte, and she also had to acknowledge how the woman looked exactly like Playa's type. Since unlike Linze, Playa and her were actually very comfortable just chatting with each other (either alone or while sparring) she actually had a good idea of what he was looking for a woman – intelligent, decisive, and a little older and more worldly. Monika fit all of those perfectly – if only she had a body.
The court magician was also bashfully not looking at Playa and Monika.
Well. It looks like Playa must have done something to offend Linze somehow. Elze smirked, cracked her knuckles, and made a mental note to hassle him about this later.
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(AN:)
The difference between Elze and Linze is thus:
Linze> Someday I will be able to stand by with him as an equal.
Elze> Now how do I keep on being able to beat his face in?
Also:
Playa> Magicmagicmagic!
Elze> Heavier rock.
Klongg!
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
Bluepencil
Bluepencil Elze and Playa are super best friends. He expects her to hassle him about little shit but will have his back when it really counts.
It's kinda like how Kazuma and Darkness are such terrible people that deserve each other but Megumin and Kazuma look just so comfy together. (ref: Konosuba, a much much better Isekai than even the source material for this fic)
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