The Essential Truth of Spear Techniques
Whoosh!
The sound of the wind slicing through echoed across the students’ ears.
Unlike the training ground reserved for Class A, Rigel was loosening up his body on the common training field used for Halbert’s Combat Techniques class at the Knight Academy.
Long spear. The weapon Rigel had always loved and excelled with most.
There was no obstruction in the way Rigel swung his black spear, and he moved it as freely as if it were part of his own body.
Agile yet lightning-fast, his movements were thorough and flawless.
Any student watching from the sidelines would have believed he was the top student of the Knight Academy based on this alone.
But Rigel was only loosening his body right now.
The flashy circular paths and dramatic trajectories of spear arts weren’t the true essence of spear techniques.
The true essence of spear arts, or indeed of any weapon, lay in the smoothness of movement.
Swift and quick.
Yet the movements had to plunge in like a dagger in one breath.
Rigel adopted the waiting stance he had taken during the entrance exam.
Copying the posture exactly as he had seen it, it fit his body so naturally.
And with a sharp thrust of the spear’s tip.
The true essence of spear arts was the thrust.
A concentrated strike using overwhelming reach to focus everything at a single point.
He mimicked the posture and movement that had pierced the golem’s head, along with the flow of mana.
Legs pulled back, then thrust forward, waist twisting at the same time as he rotated his shoulders slightly and delivered the spear.
Whoosh!
Swish!
At the same time, Rigel’s bangs whipped in the wind.
And after thrusting a few times at a brisk pace, he returned to the waiting stance and exhaled heavily.
“⋯Haa, hah.”
It still wasn’t enough.
Although he copied the movements exactly, his muscles and bones resisted for a split second.
Even though he needed a flawless thrust without a single hitch, he hadn’t reached that level yet.
How should he adjust?
Maybe he should angle his shoulder axis a little differently?
Or shorten his grip on the spear a bit?
While Rigel stood with his eyes closed and resting against the spear, a voice spoke from up ahead.
“Following me?”
Rigel startled and looked over with surprise.
In front of him sat a girl with silver hair that fell in soft blue light, squatting and staring at him.
“You’re asking if I’m following you.
It’s like the spear arts I saw during the test, right?”
“That’s right.
I think it suits my body better.”
“Hmm.”
Rigel made a V shape with his index and thumb on his right hand, rested his chin on it, and stroked his cheek with his index finger.
“Wait a second, stand up straight properly.”
“Why?”
“Don’t say anything stupid.
”
He gently straightened Rigel into a standing posture, then scanned him from head to toe like checking for flaws.
After muttering something inaudible, he spoke.
“That spear stance is originally for someone a bit taller than you.
Try narrowing your stance a little and lowering the angle at which you pull back your arm.”
“Ugh, ughuu.”
“No, pull your arm back a bit more.”
Annoyed, Rigel soon stood up from his squat, grabbed his elbow, and pulled it slightly downward.
A slightly fuller, straighter feeling in his muscles made it a little awkward.
“Good, thrust it out just like that.”
Whoosh!
Again, the sound of the wind slicing through, and Rigel’s bangs flew back.
But the thrust seemed a little faster than before.
His body was pulled back, but he felt more upright, and the movements felt smoother.
“Doesn’t it feel uncomfortable?”
“You’ll feel more flexible soon.
Stretch a bit and loosen your muscles.”
“T-thank you.
But how did you know so well?
Spear arts done by someone bigger than you should obviously not suit me.”
Oof.
When he asked that, Rigel’s expression froze for a moment.
“The person who taught me that spear arts was taller than you.
I didn’t know back then, but it’s already become a part of my body.”
Is that so?
Who on earth could it be?
Some hidden master somewhere?
Or maybe he thought to joke that it was the Hero’s father.
Either way, the person had to be extraordinary.
It was cleaner and more natural than the spear arts passed down in his family.
At that moment, the sound of a door opening came from the far end.
It was Professor Halbert.
“Welcome.
I’ll head back to my seat then.
Rigel.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Rigel let out a yawn, stretched his arms wide, and cracked his back.
After slumping his body again, he walked back to his seat and muttered.
“I’m not in a position to teach anyone, but still⋯.”
***
“Up until last class, we mostly covered theoretical parts, and this class is individual guidance.”
Halbert’s face was slightly flushed red.
But no students seemed to notice.
The previous two classes had been a simple introduction, followed by reviewing the basic combat techniques of the Knight Academy.
If this were a knight order, everyone would use the same standard and the same martial arts⋯.
But here, the goal wasn’t to mass-produce uniform soldiers.
Halbert saw it as a place where the light of the battlefield was being nurtured, not the light that illuminated all of humanity as the Hero did.
So, to let each person maximize their own abilities like the Hero, he intended to guide them according to their individual talents.
“Today, we’ll have a simple sparring session to get to know each other better.”
Halbert pulled out a small bead from his pocket.
He rolled the bead along the ground and stopped it just a few meters away.
Light shone on the wall, and the students’ names appeared in a long list.
The students’ names were paired two by two, and it was easy to find his own name among them.
“I’m paired with Altro.”
“I see.”
Except for Class A’s fifth place, Phrasion, the rest of Class A were paired with other Class A students.
Since he was paired with Altro, of course Rigel and Serpin were paired with each other.
“We’ll spar as if in a real match.
Don’t get injured, and we’ll slowly observe and correct each student one by one.”
The vast common training field had numerous rectangular sections marked off by lines.
Probably around ten in total.
Except for Phrasion, the Class A students could use one section in rotation.
Serpin and Rigel’s partner, Daelrek, came over first and asked for opinions.
“What do you want to do?
Should we go first?
Or should we go second?”
“You go first.
The kids are expecting you guys.”
Order didn’t really matter, and Altro seemed to have the same thought.
But all the other students were fixated on watching the spar between Daelrek and Serpin, probably wanting to see the match of the top two first.
Especially since those two stood out among the other Class A students.
“Ahahaha, too many eyes on us.
Looking at it might be a little embarrassing⋯.”
“You seem pretty used to that.
Don’t look too tense?”
After trading that banter, they stood at the two ends of the rectangular section.
Daelrek held his main weapon, the long spear, while Serpin gripped a slightly longer rapier.
“Who do you think will win?”
Altro, who was sitting on the floor a bit away from them, let out a deep groan and asked for his opinion.
“⋯Hmm.
Probably Daelrek, unless something unexpected happens.”
“I see.”
He had seen Serpin draw his rapier and train with it only once.
But it wasn’t really sparring; it was just a warm-up.
Moreover, real sparring was completely different from training.
He couldn’t be fully sure.
But he still thought Daelrek would have the advantage.
Not only the students waiting their turn on the floor, but also the ones sparring themselves kept glancing at the two with tension.
The start of the match came from his own mouth.
“Match start.”
Pfiat!
At that moment, the one who struck first was Serpin.
He charged toward Daelrek at a speed so fast that he looked like nothing but a blurry figure to the ordinary students.
The tip of his rapier came within a hand’s width of Daelrek’s shoulder.
Daelrek hurriedly swept it away with the spear’s shaft, but the one-sided suppression wasn’t completed in a single exchange.
Normally, after a failed attack, it would have been Daelrek’s turn.
But Serpin’s speed was faster than anyone expected.
Every time Daelrek swung his spear, he moved into the gap in the trajectory and tried to find opportunities to pierce two or three times.
Seeing it with his own eyes, Rigel was secretly in awe.
His speed was equal to, or even faster than, Daelrek’s current speed.
“⋯I came to the Knight Academy for a reason.”
“That seems likely.
That speed can probably only be handled by you or Daelrek.”
The title of second place in the Knight Academy.
Of course, the title proved his skill, but it was buried under the even more impressive title of “Daughter of the Amanecer Tower.”
He had wondered if he relied too much on magic, or if the way he cut off the golem’s mana through a weapon as a medium was suspicious.
But in this first spar, Serpin had completely dispelled those doubts in just a few seconds.
Fast.
Of course, because the trajectory was bound to be large when intercepting an attack.
He moved quickly into the gap of that large trajectory and launched consecutive attacks.
If Daelrek retreated, he would chase him even faster and swing the rapier with a sharp thrust.
The sharp sound of the rapier slicing through the air and the long spear cutting through the void shook the air in the training hall.
After ten minutes had passed, Daelrek was on the defensive, while Serpin didn’t loosen the reins of his offense.
The students who had expected Daelrek’s advantage were naturally confused.
The students were chatting among themselves.
“If it’s like this, Serpin must be number one.”
“Daelrek is only defending.
Serpin is dominating.”
Even though they said that, Rigel couldn’t be so certain.
“Hmm⋯ it’s taking too long⋯.”
“Serpin’s face looks a bit worse off.”
Overall, the spar looked like that, but considering invisible factors, it wasn’t true.
The reason was simple.
Even though he still held the initiative, Serpin hadn’t landed a valid strike on Daelrek.
Moreover, it seemed to be costing him more stamina.
Unlike Daelrek, who could simply intercept attacks within his reach, Serpin was darting around and attacking from wide positions.
Soon, Serpin, growing impatient, would try to end it with a decisive move.
At that thought, Rigel saw a strong force at Serpin’s toe and saw him leap toward Daelrek like a spring.
At that instant, it looked as if a powerful beam of light was shooting toward Daelrek.
“A trap.”
Clang!
With that sound, Daelrek swept the rapier’s blade away as if lifting the spear from below him.
Just as the true essence of spear arts was proven to be the thrust, he slightly rotated the spear on his shoulder and thrust it down toward Serpin.
The two bodies stopped.
Serpin’s rapier was piercing empty air just above Daelrek’s shoulder, and Daelrek’s spear tip was right in front of Serpin’s eyes.
“⋯I lost.”
A moment of silence.
And Serpin sat down on the floor and acknowledged his defeat.