Chapter 32: Kraken (4)

Aura and mana were the same substance.

Until now, I had thought Weaving was something entirely separate. But it wasn't. As I had said myself before, Weaving was magic that consumed mana.

Yet Weaving required no spell formula. So long as a weapon was stored in the Workshop, I could use it immediately.

... Magic that needed no spell formula.

["You seem to be getting somewhere."]

Pascal moved his lips as he studied my expression.

I took my stance. I discarded the blade made from Black River and gripped the real short sword in both hands. For now, wielding two swords would only interfere with my concentration.

'Whew.'

What I was about to do was essentially a matter of recognizing something anew.

I hadn't been using Weaving by feel. It had been no different from pressing a skill button in a game. I used it because I could, without knowing how my mana became Weaving.

Now I had to learn that.

Just as mages did more than press a button to cast magic, I had to circulate the energy within my body and physically grasp the sensation of turning it into Weaving.

["I'm glad you've realized that. However, Frondier."]

["Yes?"]

WHOOSH!

CRASH!

I hurriedly blocked Pascal's sudden charge.

["Since we're trying to fool Kraken, I can't simply wait forever."]

["Right... of course...!"]

["Figure it out as you fight. No one is going to wait for your enlightenment."]

What absurdly brutal training.

But Pascal was right. There was no knowing how long Kraken would wait, or whether they would catch on. They already looked to be getting bored.

'... Fine.'

Then, as you wish.

I swung my sword, drawing up the mana inside me at the same time.

As my blade clashed with Pascal's and rebounded, I called to mind the way I used Weaving.

My body already knew. My body could already perform Weaving. It wasn't my body that was lagging behind. It was my consciousness, my soul, that couldn't keep up.

Think. This is my skill.

SWISH!

I needed more than simply to learn the feel of Weaving. If I could perform magic without a spell formula, I should also be able to imbue a weapon with my energy.

I swung. Blocked Pascal's sword. Raised the blade I had drawn back and brought it down as though tearing through the air.

Wind gradually began to follow each swing.

["...!"]

I saw a spark of interest in Pascal's eyes. I could feel it too. The energy coursing throughout my body was circulating at tremendous speed. Then, little by little, it began to settle into my sword.

Pascal slashed diagonally down at me. To my eyes, the trajectory seemed frozen.

I planted my right foot firmly. With it as my support, my waist, shoulder, and arm extended in one continuous motion. All that momentum flowed into my sword.

Atzier's Basic Spearmanship

Frondier's Swordsmanship Variation

Diagonal Slash

["... Excellent."]

Watching Pascal's lips, almost as though I could hear his voice,

CRASH!

I knocked his aura-infused sword aside.

My Neil Jacques’s Short Sword was now cloaked in colorless aura, extending beyond the blade to make up for the length it had lacked.

* * *

Kraken, who had been watching Frondier and Pascal's fight with boredom, rose.

'... Colorless?'

Frondier, who hadn't been able to use aura at all until moments ago, had suddenly manifested it.

That alone was astonishing, but it was the colorlessness of his aura that made Kraken narrow their eyes.

'What is that? Does that even count as aura?'

Frondier's aura was so transparent, so utterly devoid of color, that even a swordsman with keen energy perception would struggle to see it.

Ordinary people couldn't see aura to begin with, but Kraken had never seen aura that was itself transparent.

Meanwhile, even Frondier was frowning at his aura-covered sword. Clearly, he hadn't expected colorless aura to emerge either.

Soon, he took his stance again. Now that he had manifested aura, would the course of the fight change?

TAP!

As though he had regained his confidence, Frondier charged at Pascal first this time.

Manifesting aura had dramatically increased his speed. Perhaps finding that momentum threatening, Pascal dodged to the side.

"... I thought so. Somehow, I knew it."

Without slowing, Frondier charged straight at Kraken.

Pascal had merely cleared the way. He had been in his right mind from the start.

Frondier approached with speed almost like the wind, but Kraken snorted.

With a hiss, Kraken transformed the fingers of their right hand into tentacles and shot them toward him.

Earlier, Frondier hadn't even reacted to this simple attack. Had his claim that he hadn't needed to react been a bluff? Now was the chance to find out.

'Huh?'

But Frondier abruptly stopped. Kraken had been certain he would swing his sword, yet he suddenly halted his charge and lowered his stance, bending his knees and waist and ducking his head.

From behind him, concealed by his body, a crescent of aura came flying.

"No...!"

SLICE!

The aura severed every tentacle Kraken had launched.

Pascal had fired aura all the way from that distance. That man was no ordinary knight. At least when it came to aura, he was phenomenally skilled.

He was also completely insane.

'If he'd ducked even a moment later, Frondier would've been the one cut in half!'

Whoever had devised this plan, both the man firing aura from behind a shield and the man acting as that shield were clearly out of their minds.

This time, Frondier truly swung his sword. Pascal extended his left hand. The severed tentacles would take time to regenerate. But for the likes of Frondier, one left hand would be more than enou—

"Come out."

Frondier spoke. Come out? What? Me?

"I know."

But something really did emerge. From thin air. Right in front of Kraken. Some girl in a maid's uniform, dropping into view.

"...?"

Their left hand dropped off. It hadn't even been cut off; it simply fell away, like a toy being disassembled. Several needles protruded from the fallen hand.

Needles? My hand fell off because needles struck it? Why? Weapons can't injure my tentacles—

"Die, you octopus bastard."

SLICE!

Before that thought could finish, colorless aura sent Kraken's head flying.

* * *

Kraken's head rolled across the floor before coming to a stop.

Perhaps they really were an octopus. There wasn't even any blood.

'... It doesn't feel like I cut anything.'

Maybe it was because this was my first time using aura, but it didn't feel as though I had killed them.

Still, there was something I needed to check first.

I approached Gregory, who lay on the floor.

"Gregory, are you all right?"

He didn't answer. Judging by the gentle rise and fall of his shoulders, he seemed to be unconscious.

I was relieved for the moment, but that posed a problem. I needed to wake him to stop the students.

I looked at Selena beside me.

"Good work."

"Yes. I considered coming out sooner, but that would not have ended well."

"Right. You did well."

I placed a hand on Selena's head.

The gesture surprised even me. It had been completely unconscious, without any particular intention.

Selena seemed a little flustered too, lifting only her eyes to look up at me.

"... Ah, um."

That was when it happened.

"Did you think I was dead?"

That repulsive voice fouled my ears again.

The headless Kraken stood up on their own. Then a writhing mass rose from their chest to the top of their neck. It twisted this way and that, and soon Kraken's head was whole again.

"Are you actually immortal?"

"Nooo. I'm rather hard to kill, but I'm not immortal."

Selena, Pascal, and I readied ourselves again.

Pascal shook his head.

"What a shame. This wasn't my real head. I merely made one of my legs look like a human face. The same goes for this one."

What we had thought was Kraken's head had actually been a leg. Apparently, that octopus could reshape their body to a truly bizarre degree.

"... Indus still goes out of its way to do the filthiest things."

Selena spoke in an even lower voice.

Kraken looked at her. They were still smiling, but surprisingly, deep loathing seeped into their eyes.

"And you're from the 'Ten Thousand Capes,' aren't you? That teleportation technique gives you away. The continent's exiles, its failures. The dregs who lost their standing as humans and ran away."

Selena gave a fearless laugh.

"A leech sucks human blood and imagines it can speak like a human. When all it does is keep coughing up blood."

... Apparently, Indus and the Ten Thousand Capes didn't get along. At all. In the game, their main events had happened in sequence, making them seem unrelated.

"Well, anyway, I'll be leaving now. It was rather entertaining. I picked up some useful information too."

"You think we'll let you leave?"

"Of course."

As soon as Kraken answered, something like an oval doorway opened behind them.

Its rim was filled with violet, rippling waves that seemed to be sucked inward, bringing a portal to mind. That was almost certainly what it was.

At the center, however, I could see the scenery beyond. Dim surroundings, a gray space, and what looked like flowing water. Probably a sewer somewhere.

"Don't forget, Lord Frondier. The business cards and the recorder. Indus holds your life in its hands."

Kraken pulled the business cards from inside their clothes and waved them.

Ha.

I'd hated everything about this creature from the moment they appeared, but that had just snapped the last of my patience.

Fabrication, Black River.

Grade - Divine

Chryselakatos, Iocheira.

"Oh my, what a serious face. I'd better run."

But by the time I finished Weaving and aimed, Kraken had already fled through the portal.

"... They're gone."

Selena muttered in distaste.

"At any rate, the incident has been settled for now... Lord Frondier?"

She looked at me in puzzlement.

Naturally.

I still had the bowstring drawn.

"What are you planning to do...?"

Without a word, I stared at the empty space where Kraken and the portal had vanished.

Then I unleashed my aura again.

Aura draws out a weapon's inherent power.

Just as every person chooses their weapons, every weapon chooses its master.

Until now, I had merely been swinging weapons far beyond my abilities.

Now, imbued with aura, the Divine-grade bow slowly opened its eyes.

"Lord... Frondier...?"

"Frondier, they've already escaped. What are you thinking...?"

My aura was colorless.

Yet the Divine-grade bow I poured it into shone with a light unlike before.

Aura didn't add a new ability to the weapon.

It merely...

- Unerring Shot: Always hits the enemy the user aims at.

In my mind, before my eyes, I still held the image of Kraken just before their escape, and the scene beyond that portal.

Now that I held Chryselakatos, that scene appeared vividly before me, clearer even than the actual auditorium around me.

"... Kraken."

You haven't escaped me yet.

WHIZ!

I released the bowstring.

The arrow vanished.

It must have flown, but even with aura enhancing my eyes, I couldn't see it.