That's Not How You Use It
I, with the blood of a Celestial running through my veins, can wield any weapon with ease. Every bonus effect applies when I use a weapon, and when it comes to spears in particular, I receive transcendent buffs. And yet the weapon I've handled the most in my life was the hammer. An enormous attack area, and a heavy, crushing blow in a single strike. A powerful swing that sweeps away everything in front of me — it suited me perfectly. And He had always looked on my hammer-wielding with distaste. "There's nothing to be done. That bloodline of yours is fated to swing hammers." Bloodline, he says. No. The reason I use a hammer has nothing to do with blood. Whoosh!'I use it because I want to, that's all.' There's no reason needed to swing a hammer.
Crunch. The Copycat stepped across the wreckage, closing the distance. Her two eyes gleamed frost-cold, and the red hammer in her hand rose high overhead. Lily raised her hammer as well. The Crab Hammer, with Karabus's soul sealed inside it. She whipped the hammer into a violent spin. The crimson arc surged forward as if to devour everything in its path. A red storm bearing the name of "hammer" swept across the field. "…!" BOOOOM! Storm collided with hammer. The violent aftermath blew away everything for yards around. Mana churned wildly, and at its heart, two Lilies locked in a struggle of strength. One Lily with a rigid, frozen expression — and one Lily whose lips, somehow, kept curling upward at the corners. Lily's hand moved. At the same instant, the Copycat's hand moved. As if they had matched each other's rhythm, the two hammers rebounded off one another and flew apart. Both of us were thrown backward. A brown aura seeped into the hammer's head. "Let's test just how good this thing really is." Whoosh—! She brought the hammer smashing down. At that wildly off-target swing, the Copycat tilted her head in apparent confusion. But it hadn't missed at all. 'Blunt technique — Earth Dragon.'Rumble… "…What?!" KRAKOBOOOOM! A dragon's shape erupted out of the ground and crashed into the Copycat. Dozens of wounds opened across her body from the completely unforeseen attack. When she had read Lily's memories, there had been no technique like this. There had been a few spear arts and spells, at best, but the hammer had nothing deserving of the name "technique" — just swinging it around and spinning it like a windmill. Flustered though she was, the Copycat immediately smashed her own hammer down in a clumsy imitation of the move. The Earth Dragon scrambled swiftly along the ground, preparing to erupt upward— CRUNCH! "That's not how you use it." Lily, still twirling her hammer, smashed its head to pieces before the Earth Dragon could even crawl back up. The Earth Dragon went right back to sleep.
"…You!" "Keep your eyes up." While the Copycat was still reeling in confusion, Lily had already claimed her flank, and the hammer moved once more. This time, a huge swing. 'Blunt technique — Cloud Dragon.' The flow of mana warped, and a gray aura, converted and shaped, spread across the field as a massive cloud. Vision vanished in an instant. Granted, a master of Lily's caliber could track her opponent blindfolded — but this cloud sealed off and hid every sense, all of them at once. That cloud was born from techniques Lily had learned from the ancient Cloud Dragon, Crished. The Copycat swung her hammer wildly. When she had verified Lily's memories, power, and physical abilities, the weapon that had performed best was the hammer. No matter how she swung a spear, it came up short of the hammer, and a technique like the Spear of Annihilation — the sure kill — was difficult even for the Copycat to replicate. With a little more time, perhaps she could have managed it. Crackle. Time, however, was not on the Copycat's side. Crackle. Crackle. Still, her body was so extraordinary that even blind, wild swings were slowly sweeping the crackling, sparking cloud away. Keep this up, and she'd have her location soon enough. 'But there's been electricity in the air for a while now…' "Got you." Lily appeared in the Copycat's line of sight. Yellow aura wrapped around Lily's body — the kind that looked like it would shock you just from looking at it. CRROOOOWL…! "This might sting a little." Lily's hammer moved like a bolt of lightning. 'Blunt technique — Thunder Dragon.' Piercing through the black clouds, the judgment of lightning descended.
They say great strength needs no technique. It's not wrong, but it isn't always right either. Technique matters. If you truly possessed overwhelming power and your opponent was weak, it would be pointless — but demons are creatures of power. So what do you do, then? When you meet an enemy who is your equal — or stronger than you? "Whatever it… takes." Crackle. The lightning-filled field slowly settled. The blunt techniques — arts I had received from the Dragon Lords of a past age, whom I saved, and then reshaped in my own way. The ancient dragons wielded power comparable to the ancient demons, but next to the Celestials and the demonkin, the potency of their techniques was remarkably weak. Even so, I sparred directly against polymorphed dragons and learned their techniques, one by one. The reason was simple. 'I never learned the blunt techniques of the Celestials.'He had taught me only the spear arts. Never the hammer's. He was a man who had lived his whole life by the spear, and he never spared the hammer so much as a glance. I picked up the basics well enough to handle the weapon, sure, but nothing that could properly be called a technique. 'The spear is greater than the hammer. The Celestials are a clan of the spear, so it's only right to devote yourself a little more to the spear.' …A devout spear zealot, that one. Thinking back on it, an utterly insufferable man.
Uuurrrgh… As the cloud cleared, the Copycat — sparks exploding across her entire body — was glaring daggers at me. To any observer, further combat looked impossible. She didn't even seem to have the strength to lift a finger. But I, Lily, knew better. 'Now it really begins.' I swung the hammer. I blocked with the hammer. CRRRRUUUNNCH…! The Copycat's foot slid back. The back foot kept giving ground, again and again. Backed into a corner, the Copycat thought. 'What could possibly beat this woman?' She herself was strong. This woman was strong too, and she had grown even stronger by imitating that strong existence. But a single difference was deciding the outcome of this battle. 'Experience.' The Copycat had wandered from place to place, copying whatever species she happened across — but Lily's combat experience was on a level that dwarfed hers beyond comparison. She could respond to any situation, move and act in ways no human ever could. 'Like a creature born for nothing but war.' The Copycat realized it. Defending alone would never win her this fight. Her will to survive collided with her will to win. The survival instinct was the Copycat's very essence. To betray it was an act no more forgivable than declaring herself a fake. But if she couldn't win anyway, she would die. And above all— 'You're a fake.'Craaack. "…!" She delved into the deepest reaches of the human called Lily's memories. Snow-white flame. Karmic fire that burns away everything. The price of drawing power beyond one's limits was— 'Yourself.'BOOOM-CRRAAACK!!! Lily's Crab Hammer exploded to pieces.
Lily's eyes went wide. But the hammer's shattering didn't stop there — it lashed back and hammered Lily's own body as well. She was flung through the air and slammed down somewhere over there, once more. She barely managed to summon her spear and absorb the impact, but the arm gripping the shaft trembled uncontrollably. At this rate, the spear's going to shatter too. "Haha…" Uuurgh… Grabbing the spear's shaft, I forced myself upright. In the far distance, the Copycat came into view, wreathed in fluttering pink flame. It really is me — but from the receiving end, there's no other word for it than monster. "…Ridiculous." The Copycat — the Copycat, who treasured her own life above all else — had used Sacred Fire. A helpless laugh escaped me. Sacred Fire. The art of using your own body as fuel to drag out your limits and push them past their very edge. 'Not that there's much technique to it.' Sacred Fire was not a noble art demanding refined mastery. It was nothing more than a final, desperate gamble — a vow to drag your enemy down with you even in mutual destruction. Best case, you die together with your opponent. If you survive in some form or another, even better. It is a Celestial technique, but even the Celestials never used it unless their very souls faced annihilation. I looked down at the shattered hammer. Broken into tiny fragments, everything but the handle. Karabus hadn't been destroyed, of course, but the weapon was useless for now. 'If I don't go all out, I'm the one who gets devoured.' I leveled the spear. 'Just like the old days.' Slowly, I steadied my breathing. I felt the mana flowing through my body. I raised the spear upright. I remembered the past. The days when I had faced a stronger foe at every turn. The days when I was cornered so badly that victory seemed a distant hope. I — moved the spear.