Flaws in the Armor
"It's a tactic used far more often than people realize in fights between Awakeners."
"I suppose I should assume the opponent can also deceive me about their mana."
"I'm glad you caught on so quickly."
Flushed by his praise, Mina found herself fielding another question.
"Then how do you think one should go about reading an opponent's mana?"
She pondered for a moment but came up empty. After all, Seong-gyu had charged straight at Seok-jun without bothering to hide his mana in the first place. Seeing her puzzled expression, he smiled and rested a hand on her head.
"Huh?"
"Focusing on me is fine, but if you want to learn anything useful, shouldn't you also watch how the opponent moves?"
His words made her freeze for a second before she snapped back to her senses.
"Th-that's not what this is! Seok-jun said he had something to show me, so of course I'd pay attention to him!"
Since Seok-jun had explicitly offered to demonstrate something, focusing on him wasn't strange at all. Mina rambled on before realizing she'd been led into another trap. She planted her hands on her hips and glared up at him, pouting.
"You haven't considered anything about that man's mana?"
"Ugh, seriously."
He spoke as if nothing had happened. Mina shot Seok-jun a sideways glare, but the only image that came to mind was Seong-gyu turning his body as hard as iron.
"It's simple, but as far as tank roles go, it's not bad, right?"
Even among hunters, mana types determined a wide range of roles, and Hanshin was no exception. Those with defensive mana became tanks, while those with high firepower served as artillery from the rear. In that sense, Seong-gyu's Iron Muscle suited the classic tank position perfectly.
"What do you think would happen if you faced him as an enemy?"
"An enemy..."
Mina pictured Seong-gyu hardening his entire body before rushing Seok-jun. An Awakener with defensive mana was difficult to injure with attacks from hunters of similar level.
"Hmm, it would be troublesome."
Mina's Sword Artist was a manufacturing-type mana. It earned praise for its versatility and balance, yet it was also criticized for being too average. In gate subjugations, she usually played a supporting role—guarding the rear or striking at openings. If she fought him with mana, it would likely turn into a game of chicken where whoever ran out of mana first lost. Especially against a hunter with resistance and defense specialization, even landing a single wound would be difficult.
Her duel with Seok-jun had been a complete mismatch no matter how she looked at it. Against him, mana had been meaningless.
"If you target his weakness, you could defeat him easily, Mina."
"How?"
No matter how much she increased her mana output, he could simply match it.
"His weakness lies in the very act of hardening his body."
"That's supposed to be a weakness?"
It was clearly the greatest strength of that mana. How could it become a flaw?
"Strengths can become weaknesses just as easily. Do you remember how he first used his mana to attack me?"
"He only hardened one arm, if I recall."
Seok-jun had dodged it effortlessly, but the fence his fist had struck remained heavily dented even now.
"What about his next attack?"
"He raised both arms and... huh?"
Mina realized something felt off. At first glance, spreading his hardened hands seemed like an attempt to widen his attack range, but charging forward in that posture still struck her as strange. Even if he trusted his mana, exposing his head while rushing in was reckless. With mana that could harden his body, it would have been far better to keep his vital points protected and swing his fists or legs instead. No matter how resistant his mana made him, it didn't mean he took zero damage.
"Why would he charge in with that stance?"
Even if he was going to rush, there were better postures—leading with his shoulder or holding his reinforced arms in front of his head.
"He couldn't move the joints where he applied his mana."
"Ah! So that's it!"
The more he hardened his body with mana, the stiffer his joints became. That was why his first attack on Seok-jun had been a wide, arcing swing rather than a straight punch.
"I was certain when I saw he didn't apply mana to his legs even while charging."
"Wow, you can figure out a weakness just from that?"
"If you observe your opponent without losing sight of them, you'll always find their weakness and know how to respond."
Mina nodded along in admiration before her energy suddenly flagged.
"Why haven't I realized any of this until now?"
She had trained her mana to its limits and graduated from a prestigious university's hunter department, yet when it came to this field, she was practically an outsider.
"Don't be too hard on yourself. Most hunters who focus on gate subjugation wouldn't know these things either."
Seok-jun's remark—that teaching hunters how to fight people in a department meant for fighting monsters would be problematic—made sense to her.
"And the reason you didn't notice is also because of the gap between A-grade and B-grade hunters."
B-grade hunters, limited in mana, fought by maximizing the unique properties of their mana. A-grade hunters, unless their mana was particularly unusual, tended to rely primarily on their overwhelming mana reserves while using their mana's properties as a secondary tool.
Listening to him, Mina realized she was the same. Since her mana only produced swords, she had simply treated it as a way to save on weapon costs. In the end, her fighting style wasn't much different from other sword-wielding hunters. Just as she had felt during her fight with Kang-wang, the slashes she created with her swords were actually weaker than those of hunters using the same amount of mana.
Recalling that fact, Mina felt the need to change her combat approach.
"Seok-jun's mana is also closer to the manufacturing type, isn't it?"
"You can just think of it as included in that category."
She remembered the spheres he had created from rope. To an outsider, they would have looked like ordinary balls.
"Do you have any special know-how when it comes to making ropes with your mana?"
The more she thought about his mana, the more peculiar it seemed. It was supposed to be a nullification type with no special abilities, yet it could produce ropes like a manufacturing type—and anything the ropes touched lost its mana. Moreover, even compared to other manufacturing types, his ropes were operated in a highly unique way. They could emerge freely from the floor, walls, or ceiling. When she compared that to her own ability to only create swords near her hands or body, the difference became even more striking.
"There is a bit of a difference, but there's nothing I can't teach you."
"Oh, then right now—!"
"That won't be possible."
"What?"
Mina looked at him curiously as he cut her off. He glanced around before speaking.
"There are simply too many eyes watching."
Following his gaze, she saw that the gym was still filled with people. If anything, their numbers seemed to have increased while she wasn't paying attention.
"Let's continue this conversation somewhere else."
Following Seok-jun, Mina climbed into his car.
"Is this know-how really something you have to keep secret?"
She asked after watching people trickle out of the gym one by one once they got in.
"It's because of the original purpose of the Awakener-only gym."
"Its original purpose?"
"Yes. As you know, most users of that gym are students aiming to become hunters."
That was why, if an active hunter happened to use the facility, it became a valuable opportunity for the students to observe and improve. However, there was a problem.
"In the process, our fighting methods could be exposed far too much."
"Like those posts on the community board?"
"Exactly."
While the intent might be good, if students didn't keep the information among themselves and instead uploaded it to community sites, there was a risk of it leaking endlessly.
"Some people deliberately upload training videos or performances to gain popularity, but from our position, it's not exactly welcome."
"I suppose not."
After all, the agency Mina had joined dealt with people as part of its work.
"Until now, it was only self-defense techniques, so it didn't matter. But information about mana usage would be far too damaging if it spread."
"S-self-defense techniques."
Three active hunters lost to that "self-defense"! Even if the first hunter who picked a fight had been B-grade, both Mina and Seong-gyu—who lost in the sparring match—were A-grade. Still, calling it self-defense felt odd until she remembered he normally used a gun loaded with high-mana bullets. In that context, it made sense.
"So the kindness we can show the students ends there. I'll teach you the rest somewhere with fewer people around."
Mina had no objections. After hearing Seok-jun's explanation, she had come to understand just how important mana properties truly were.
"Does that mean we won't be coming back to the gym anymore?"
"I can't say for certain, but at least for the time being, we won't."
She had been feeling disappointed that they would have to head back early today.
"And as it happens, a suitable place for you to train your mana has just appeared."
"What?"
Just as Mina was about to question his cryptic words—
—Aaaeeeeeeng!!!
A siren began blaring across the city.
Recognizing what the sound meant, she turned to him in shock.
"This is... a gate?!"
The siren was a warning that a gate had opened somewhere in the city. No wonder the route had felt different from usual.
[A D-grade gate has manifested at Sangchul Hospital in the western district of Unhae. Citizens, please evacuate immediately...]
"Seok-jun, don't tell me... you knew a gate was going to open?"
After all, the place they had arrived at was none other than the parking lot of Sangchul Hospital.
At her question, Seok-jun replied,
"Trade secret."