Too Much Greed Will Be Your Undoing
KA-AANG!!
The ringing resonance of steel against steel. Each time the shadow-drenched white dagger came sweeping down, Roms's body was rocked to its core. Every single blow was a crisis for him — but the important thing was that he managed to block them anyway.
I'm not exactly going easy on him.
It wasn't my absolute best, but as Rafina, I was taking Roms reasonably seriously. He wanted me to fight him in earnest, and I was obliging. That was all.
Except —
Ka, Aaah─ Pshwick!
"Ugh!"
"...Tsk."
Again.
Again.
He'd avoided the fatal blow, but he'd taken another shallow cut from the same exact movement, like a lingering afterimage. Why is his footwork planted like that? If you can handle mana, you should be putting more power into your shoulders when you move. Is your mana just for decoration or what...
"......Ngh."
I bit back the words. Rafina doesn't know spear technique. All she has is dagger work and some rudimentary hand-to-hand combat. Granted, with her superhuman physicality and senses, she can handle most weapons above average — but her opponent is a knight commander who wields a spear. At the very least, his mastery of the spear is far beyond what 'Rafina' could ever manage.
"Hoo... hoo... Why did you stop?"
"Your spearwork is just so beautiful, Commander."
Honestly speaking, Roms's spear technique was impressive. Judged purely against other knights, it was top-tier. But if you widened that pool to include more than just humans, he sat firmly below the line rather than above it.
Roms spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Naturally. The Silver Lance of the Silver Knights is a technique even the Empire keeps a wary eye on. Bandits wouldn't dare so much as lay a hand on it."
"......"
Pshushush!
Blood fountained from Roms's shoulder.
"Kuh! What—!"
"Can't you block it with your ultimate technique?"
"Do not mock me!"
White mana shimmered along Roms's silver spear, weaving a blade far larger than the original spearhead. It was quite the unusual color of mana — normally, power that gleamed white didn't exist outside of angels, radiant dragons, and a handful of Concept Races. Well, to be precise, it was less pure white than a faint shade of silver.
"That is the Silver Knights' ultimate art...! Body-and-Spear-as-One!"
"......"
The player Mashimasitta said something or other about Roms's spear, but he paid it no mind whatsoever, burning with fighting spirit alone. When this was over, I'd have to bag that one too. I held no particular grudge against him, but unlike the residents of this place, players revive even when they die. As Rafina, I had no intention of killing someone who wasn't a bandit — but I couldn't just let someone walk free after coming to crush my guild, either.
"HRAAAH!!"
At last, the silver spearblade, now fully formed, came howling for my throat. The momentum had transformed him; the thrusts hammered down with wild ferocity.
Whuum! Whuuung!
Ducking and weaving around each strike, I studied him. His overall skill had risen — but what stood out most was that his physical abilities had risen right along with it. He'd channeled mana into his spearblade, so why would his body get stronger too? The reason was simple.
"Fight me properly, bandit!"
He's synchronized himself with the spear.
Earlier, the player Mashimasitta had called the Silver Knights' spearwork "Body-and-Spear-as-One" — the spear becomes the person, the person becomes the spear. It's the mark of a transcendent realm in the art of the spear. It's more often said of the sword, which is why the phrase "body-and-sword-as-one" gets thrown around so much.
But that's a martial-arts way of framing it, and Roms hadn't arrived at this state through any profound enlightenment of the blade.
Mana unification.
Normally, this is something done mainly with spirits, summons, or blood kin — aligning the mana arrangement of the spear with the mana arrangement of the body to establish a mana link. Once the link is forged, a single consciousness inhabits both spear and body, and if you can wield it freely, the spear's movements grow uncannily nimble while the body grows stronger. After all, once a mana link is connected, you share traits and power with the entity on the other end.
In other words, Roms's Body-and-Spear-as-One wasn't a warrior's technique at all. It was closer to a mage's spell.
"I'll have to revise my assessment."
The spear technique was never the problem. His real talent lay somewhere else entirely.
Shazazazak!!
The spearwork grew faster and faster. The force riding each thrust swelled, and his technique hardened to the point that I — untouched until now — was being forced into near-miss dodges. There was a reason he hadn't used this technique from the start. Forging a mana link with an inanimate object, something that isn't even a living being, takes considerable time and concentration, and because mana has to be continuously poured in, it can't be maintained for long. Get ambushed in the middle of that, and there'd never be a window to invoke such a technique. If I hadn't waited patiently for him to finish casting it, Roms would never have been able to use it until the fight was already over.
As I kept evading, lost in thought, I noticed that at some point his spear had begun piercing through specific points in a regular pattern. Something struck me as odd, and when I looked at him properly, he was steadying his spear with a resolute expression.
"You who drown in arrogance! Die!"
Where his spear had stabbed, he nudged — just barely — the currents of mana that had been coursing roughly through those points, and the mana roiled violently. The flows were sucked toward a single point, and the spear, already one with his body, greedily devoured the mana as if resonating with it. At last, the mana-stuffed spear kicked up a small tempest.
This was...
Spear's Roar?
KWAAAAAANG!!!
The silver roar swallowed me whole.
Roms had been raised in a noble house from childhood, and his talent for mana was exceptional. Seeing that gift, his family resolved to raise him as a mage — but he wanted to be a knight. When that clashed with his family, he swung his spear day after day to earn their acknowledgment. Spear practice the moment magic lessons ended. Spear practice again the moment magic lessons ended. The schedule was punishingly brutal, but in the end he became a knight, and riding his outstanding talent all the way to the commander's seat, he won everyone's recognition.
Magic and the spear. A genius knight commander who commanded both. He was the kingdom's guardian, and his art — attainable by him alone, the technique of becoming one with the spear — was so immense and magnificent that it drew awe from all who saw it.
That man...
"...What in the world."
...had witnessed an overwhelming authority.
"How is this possible?"
"At the very least, it was no lie."
"...A technique like this exists."
The war with the Empire. The Kudas Kingdom had been dragged into it as well, but that war had been restored to its original state by a single outsider. The one behind it all was a woman named Lily Elbrit. Her power and destructive force showed aspects that outstripped even the Eight Swords of the Empire — but what left Roms aghast was her spearwork.
Overwhelming.
Nothing he had honed over decades came close to her spear technique. Whether he became one with his spear or whipped it through the air at blistering speed, no matter what he did, he could never surpass it. Her spearwork was that beautiful, that miraculous.
If I had that...
He might reach the same realm as the 'Eight Swords' — a summit he'd always dismissed as an empty dream. From that day on, Roms poured himself into mastering the technique Lily had shown: Spear's Roar. He practiced dozens of times a day, cut back on sleep, desperately tried to replicate it — all to take even a single step into that miraculous spearplay.
But failure followed upon failure. When he finally judged it utterly impossible, he changed his thinking.
Let me do it my own way.
What he excelled at was becoming one with his spear — not thrashing about with a spear alone. If he became one with it, he could read the flow of mana the spear moved through, and in doing so, glimpse the depth of that miraculous technique as well.
And so, he succeeded. Not the true Spear's Roar — but an imitation of it, in his own way.
Kugugugung...
And now, in the present. Roms retracted his spear and gazed at the path the roar had carved. The ground lay devastated as though a storm had swept across it, savagely torn-up trees strewn in a chaotic tangle. Overwhelming destruction; a craft so miraculous it defied belief. No, it wasn't on the level of that woman Lily — but it was power incomparable to what he'd once been.
Far more overwhelming than my last attempt.
Had he grown once more, from his battles with the bandits? Roms couldn't hide his elation at his own achievement.
"Heh... heheh..."
"?!"
Through the rising dust, she stood up smiling. Her robe hung in ribbons, her hair splayed wild — she looked for all the world like a madwoman. And yet Roms swallowed hard and gripped his spear again.
She took no critical wound.
All she'd suffered were a few shallow scratches. If anything, her condition seemed to have improved; she was regarding him with naked admiration.
...Admiration?
Clap, clap, clap.
"That was magnificent. To think you could even wield a technique like that."
"...You know this technique?"
"Why wouldn't I? It's that famous Lily's technique."
Mm-hm. The woman called Rafina nodded. And though the mood had turned strangely light, Roms's spirits only sank further.
...She's dangerous.
The killing intent that had bled from her daggers alone now streamed from her entire body. He wanted to respond, but having just unleashed a grand technique, moving rashly was difficult. Lily's technique carried that much collateral force.
"I watched for a moment, wondering what you'd pull out... and you were incredible. I've never seen it in person, so I can't say for sure — but if Lily had been standing here, wouldn't she have been impressed?"
"...I'll take that graciously."
"However."
Shreek!
Rafina vanished in an instant. Flustered, Roms squared his spear for an immediate counterattack — but her dagger had long since brushed, ever so lightly, against his spear. She whispered.
"Too much greed will be your undoing."
"...?!"
PUWAAAAK!!
Roms's spear — and the right arm that had driven it home — erupted into shreds.