Tetra’s POV:
‘Boring and shallow’
It was all I could think of while watching Mark’s use of the staff and sword repeatedly.
“It’s dull and unmotivated…”
I mumbled, Rose looked at me through the corner of her eye as I continued.
“His sword swings, they are bad in almost every way.”
It was annoying, compared to his skills with knuckles, his swordsmanship was pitiful. This was the 5th match between Lance and Mark, the prior 4 all resulted in Mark's defeat, but when he used the knuckles, he performed much better.
“Gak!”
Mark grunted as Lance landed an uppercut in his stomach. Rose went over to heal Mark again as I followed and took the sword giving him the knuckles. As Rose healed him Lance spoke
“The sword doesn’t suit you, just like the staff…”
All four of us knew this face but we were silent as we thought of anything else to add, but we couldn’t, he was just shit with the sword and staff. I gave him the knuckles and the wrist-length metal gloves that had sharp edges for the knuckles. These were normally a model used for weapon augmentations to rip and tear an enemy apart, but Mark used them as they were lighter than the blunt body augmented version. As he fit them back into his hands he got up again and we all got back into position, from here, my excitement grew once more.
‘Right, left, left, right, uppercut, side step, low hook’
I followed his movements as they were all meant to aim for weak spots but even if the lace was guarding the spot he was aiming for, he struck anyway. It was a weakness as it just wasted his stamina. I tried to figure out some way to help him improve but soon, Rose spoke
“His movements are fine, if he just gets into shape, and could deal damage… 4th level? 5th level technique?”
Rose looked at me as I shook my head
“4th level, his range is lacking, he is determined but lacks stamina.”
Rose nodded at my words, Rose could analyze, I could fight, and Lance could talk. That was our team, but as of now, it was hard to see where Mark would fit in. We continued the sparing for a few more hours, Mark lost every time, breaking bone after bone, but getting up again and again. Sometimes while he still had broken bones, His determination and intelligence were admirable, but at the end of the day, he was a mage that couldn’t use magic.
Mark’s POV:
As we walked back to… we’ll, their home. The three of them were speaking the whole way back
“I understand you are pacing your breath, but it’s detrimental to you as of now because you aren’t fit enough to pace yourself to that level.”
“Your movements are clean but don’t aim at pointless spots like where someone is guarding.
“As far as fighting styles go, yours is unique in how well balanced it is from offense and defense, along with how well you use it the only downside is you are not strong enough to harm anyone.”
Although the criticism was warranted, it wasn’t stuff I already didn’t know.
“A spear and rapier won’t work.”
I started
“Boxing is a jabbing-based martial art that requires two hands and a forward stance, knuckles, although better than nothing, don’t help me.”
I took a second to think about my faults and were to advance from here and decided
“Wrist blades are good, but are slashing weapons, it will take too long to learn or adapt to a new weapon. Another problem is a range, I can’t deal with a range more than 15 yards as it will take too long for me to clear that distance before taking a hit…”
The three were silent as I asked
“I’m guessing bows and arrows aren’t able to be used against body augmentors?”
“That’s right.”
Lance said as I sighed
“I suck with a bow, I should have just… brought my Glock with me to school… wait no… that would have caused problems.”
I continued to ramble and speak aloud which caused the other three concern, I sighed as I asked
“Is it possible to artificially use mana?”
At this, the three were silent before Rose spoke
“Yes, magic items can use an external power source called mana crystals to infuse mana into an item and use magic. Depending on run engravings, the mana crystal, the materials used, and other such things, you can recreate almost any spell as long as you have enough mon…”
Rose trailed off, her distant gaze shifted to me, as I knew I was smirking
“I think we just fixed our main problem.”
“DOING THAT IS STUPID!”
Rose argued with me
“IT COSTS A LOT OF MONEY AND NO ONE HAS LOOKED INTO STABLE-“
She stopped herself again as she saw me smirking
“Sounds to me like a problem of having an external power source. What if I were able to use an external power source on a modified subar to maximize my strength? Artificially make myself a body augmentor?”
The three of them shook their heads, the first to speak was Lance
“You’d destroy yourself, it’s been done, but it will break bones, tear muscles, you won’t be able to stand after using something like that…”
I sighed
“Well, shit.”
We were silent again but Tetra soon spoke
“But if you were able to do this… technically you would be able to fix the stated problems… but… you would need to revolutionize how mana circlets work.”
I nodded, I had an idea, and I had a starting point, but I had no clue how this would work. I grit my teeth as I thought of a solution.
“What if we cut the training time down?”
They looked at me confused again
“I can read books, learn more, maybe figure out an idea that mixes my past world knowledge with this world?”
They looked at me but Rose spoke
“We need to get you into shape, that will take lots of time-“
I stuck my arms out and smirked
“Cut these off and heal me, it will hurt like a bitch but-“
“Didn’t you say you didn’t want to lose an arm without a fight?”
I shook my head
“I didn’t want to lose it for a pointless reason, if we do this, then I can figure out how to overcome my shortcomings, I can solve my problems of lacking capabilities, I might stand a chance…”
The three of them were silent when Lance sighed
“You have enough mana to heal an arm? This could be beneficial to all of us.”
I raised an eyebrow at his remark as I asked
“How would taking several days to work on a possibly dead-end project help you three?”
Rose spoke
“Yes Lance, I do. But Mark, we still need to train, we still have to get permission from the queen to act as mercenaries and other such small things.”
I raised an eyebrow as I looked behind me and spoke
“Explain as we go back to the training grounds, it’d be a shame if my blood stained the streets.”
I chuckled at my grim joke but we began to walk back to the training ground
“We want to be classified as mercenaries so that we can go on small adventures without having to go to war, we still need a bit to prepare a bit before we try and take on the enemy.”
I nodded at Rose’s words when Tetra spoke
“Mercenaries are similar to adventurers, but adventurers… adventurer while mercenaries deal with monsters. If you need to kill some monsters in an area, you ask mercenaries. If you need an area explored, adventures.”
I nodded
“However,”
Lance's low baritone rang out as he continued
“The division between the two is whether you want to fight or explore. Not that adventures can’t fight and mercenaries can’t explore but rather what the group would prefer to do.”
I added this new information to everything else I had learned as we made it back to this dirt area once more. I chuckled to myself, thinking I had gone mad for this stupid thought.
“So, who wants to do the honors?”
I asked with a smirk as I felt my stomach churning at the impending pain. The three of them looked at each other when Lance stepped forward, the black band on his right wrist shone as a massive sword appeared, I looked at it in dumbfound meaning as he smirked
“Sometimes an ax and shield isn’t good enough, so a sword that can double as a shield works better.”
He wasn’t wrong, it was a 7-foot-long blade that was 3 feet wide. I laughed at its absurd size as did he.
“I know, it’s far too large and all that other junk, but it has its uses, like cutting off limbs.”
He spoke with a smirk. I stuck my arm out to my side as I began to regret the choices that had brought me here. As Lance raised the hunk of metal above his head, I saw Rose holding the sides of her eyes as she shook her head I felt a stinging pain at my shoulder that radiates throughout my whole body.
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