So ultimately, in exchange for overlooking Claire’s failure, I asked Enma to increase the intensity of my Necromancy lessons. And in meeting my request, we got right to work with a practical lesson on the construction of bone horses. That proved to be pretty worthwhile. Seeing Enma’s work firsthand was a huge help in producing a combat-ready body.
And now, the two silver Swordmasters were training as if they were on the battlefield. Since they were able to perceive their surroundings using magic, we had removed all of their physical features. No eyes, no mouths, no noses—leaving them with flat, featureless faces. It was like they were masked swordsmen. They had remarkable strength and durability plus magical resistance beyond comparison. But their greatest strength was still...
Barbara lunged forward, moving with unbelievable speed. Her rapier left a trail of steam behind as it sought out Hessel. On the other hand, Hessel swung a dwarven-made greatsword that was the same size he was with ease, deflecting the stab with such ferocity that we could feel the gust of wind his movement generated.
“Unbelievable. Pretty sure that would shred me in an instant.” I whistled.
“The professor would faint if she saw you made undead Swordmasters after all of her failures,” Claire agreed, somehow both aghast and in admiration of what she was seeing.
“Come on, Hessel! What’s wrong?! Don’t got the hang of your body yet?!”
“It feels way too different to Anthromorphy! Yah!”
Barbara was leveraging her remarkable mobility to repeatedly strike and retreat, toying with Hessel and his inability to keep up. Hessel’s trump card, Linebreaker, would be a more than perfect response to her games, but it had the distinct drawback of being too powerful to be used during training. In other words, while they trained, Hessel’s greatest strength was sitting on the shelf.
“Gaaaah!”
“Hey, Hessel. How about we spar? Seems like Barbara has you outmatched,” I said, drawing Adamas as Barbara knocked Hessel flat on his back.
“If you’re looking to train, we could spar.” Barbara laughed, tapping her rapier on her shoulder.
“Well, uh...let me warm up with Hessel first.”
“Oh, so I’m just a warm-up, huh? That’s it, I’m gonna knock that pretty boy smile right off your face!” Hessel jumped back to his feet with a roar.
We were obviously joking. While it was true Barbara was a bad matchup for me, there was no way I could treat a match against Hessel as something as simple as a warm-up.
I charged at Hessel with everything I had, a bright and cheerful smile on my face.
†††
Liliana stared at the two fighting, half in disappointment, half in resignation. Sparks filled the air of the underground chamber as Alex and Hessel exchanged blows.
“Swordsmanship is Taboo!”
“Oh, you rat!”
A wave of magic erupted from Hessel as he batted away the incoming swordspear with his left hand. With a leathery snap, the curse on him broke, enabling Hessel to once again wield his greatsword with ease. A sound like glass shattering resounded as the greatsword punched through Alex’s defensive wards. Hessel roared as he continued the assault, following up the slash with a kick that sent Alex flying.
“There! Try fighting with your ribs reduced to powder!”
“W-Wait a second...!”
“No mercy!”
As Alex struggled to keep mobile, Hessel followed up with another artful strike.
“Ha ha! Don’t think you’ll be able to get the best of me with just that swordspear!”
“Wasn’t planning on it! Swordsmanship is Taboo!” Alex unleashed his curse once more. As Hessel tried to shake it off, another wave of magic erupted from Alex, neutralizing Hessel’s.
“What the...! Oh, that devil god girl?! Come on, two against one isn’t fair!”
“No mercy!”
Naturally, the twofold Taboo was too much for Hessel to throw off, granting Alex the opportunity to launch an assault of his own. With Hessel unable to use his sword, it would be a one-sided slaughter—or so it first appeared. But Hessel simply dropped his weapon, lunging forward with lightning-fast speed to deliver a devastating elbow. Alex let out a grunt. His defensive wards were enough to dull the pain but not enough to keep him standing. In short order, Hessel had reclaimed his sword and held it to Alex’s neck.
“Okay, you got me. Since when did you learn to accelerate? I don’t remember you being able to do that.”
“Heh. Well, once I got this fancy, lighter body, I put it together. Barbara still has me beat in that area though,” Hessel declared proudly, rubbing a finger against where his nose would have been. Liliana barked as she trotted over to Alex, licking at him. Even with the absence of the usual taste of blood, his internal injuries were brutal. Warmth flowed from Liliana into him as he started to heal.
“Thanks, Liliana. Okay, I’m not taking this one lying down. Rematch!”
“That’s the spirit!”
“And after that, it will be you and me versus Barbara!”
“Okay, hold on. I’m good, but I can’t take the two of you at once!” Barbara protested.
Liliana shook her head with a disgusted woof as she watched the three banter. Not that she could understand what they were saying. After all, she was just a dog. All she could offer was to lick Alex’s face and hope it made him feel better. The way he laughed when she did it, the way he stroked her hair, felt so nice.
And so she continued to be a spectator to their training, watching as Alex got badly hurt yet didn’t hesitate to jump right back into the fight. Occasionally his wounds became too much, so she would run over to lick him all better.
“Okay, I’m starting to get tired. Can we take a short break? I need a drink.”
“By all means,” Barbara replied.
“I think we need a break too. Not that we get tired...” Hessel’s body slumped down to the floor as his soul slipped out before taking on a physical form of its own. “There. Man, it’s tough to get a grip on the difference between these bodies...” he complained, rolling his now much more slender shoulders.
“Should we have made the new bodies to match your current ones after all?” Alex asked.
“Nah. A bigger body is way better for wielding a greatsword. It’s quite the pickle.”
“And if you make the body too slender, we can’t put as many magic stones in it.” Alex nodded.
“Now that you mention it, that means my body will run out of magic sooner since it’s so much smaller, right?” Barbara said, having already slipped out of her combat body and materialized herself.
“Well, your body needs more mobility, so the balance would be all out of whack if we just threw in more magic stones. Maybe we could get you a backpack or something to carry them outside your body?”
“That’s not a bad idea.”
As they talked, Alex invited them all upstairs—Liliana included—for a break. Up on Fort Aurora’s balcony, steaming hot tea was waiting for them. For a short time, they sat around the table and enjoyed some tea and snacks Alex had brought from the castle.
“It’s so delicious...” Claire all but moaned as she sipped the tea, holding her cup using both hands. Liliana didn’t know how, but Claire seemingly had figured out a way to use magic to go from her spiritual body to a physical one like Barbara and Hessel.