“So I came up with a way to repel attacks from close by with the smallest shield I could together with Sara. Like this.” Kuntz held out his hand and materialized a small brown shield in front of it. “It’s a small shield, but it uses up my mana really fast if I keep it up forever. But if it’s just for a second...”
This time, Kuntz moved his hand this way and that, flashing a shield in front of it each time. Over and over again.
“If you just use it for a second, like this, it doesn’t use much mana at all. Your mana will recover enough on its own after one hunt to cover it.”
That was the best part about Kuntz’s shield. And what was different about it from traditional shield magic was that, like Sara’s barrier, it repelled all attacks and magic.
“Just like Sara’s barrier, it’ll repel anything that comes at it. Does someone want to attack my shield?”
“I’ll do it,” another veteran Hunter volunteered. “I’m not gonna hold back, okay?”
“Weaker would be better,” Kuntz said with a wry grin, and the veteran Hunter’s fist flew at him.
A brown shield appeared in an instant before his fist, and the Hunter was forced to stagger backward when his fist hit it.
“That’s a surprise. How about this, then?”
Why did Hunters all have to get so worked up? Sara wondered to herself. She watched with an exasperated look on her face and, just as she expected, the Hunter eventually retreated, holding his trembling fist.
The Hunter drank a potion and exhaled heavily. “The shield’s impressive enough, but your eyes and reaction time are just as good. What’s most impressive is that you’re able to block the attacks of a Hunter who uses physical strengthening when you’re just a caster.”
“Well, it was Allen who helped me practice.”
Kuntz must have put himself through some really harsh training.
“The hero, huh? It’s no wonder, then.”
A caster raised his hand after that, but they all knew what would happen, so Kuntz declined his request.
“What you need to do for this spell is picture reflecting all damage instead of merely taking a hit like a traditional shield spell would. Sara and Haruto can help you if you have trouble picturing that.”
Haruto, who hadn’t had much of a chance to shine so far, stepped forward enthusiastically.
“Sara and I will put up barriers, so throw some attacks at us and get a feel for how it works. Whatever you throw at us will come right back to you, though, so be careful, not just for yourself but for everyone else too.”
Haruto could use a barrier too, and he used it to hunt sometimes, so he might actually understand how it works better than Sara.
Lots of the Hunters knew Haruto. He used a lot of flashy magic, so they were a bit confused to see him standing next to Sara and using the very non-flashy barrier spell. Casters who really wanted to use shield magic went to Sara, and physical strengthening Hunters who just wanted to play around with a toy that would reflect their attacks back at them went to Haruto.
“This is a bit scary, so we’ll make our barriers a little bigger,” Sara announced. It wasn’t just that it was scary but also that it meant there would be a bigger surface for reflecting attacks. Sara and Haruto grinned at each other from inside their barriers, watching the Hunters struggle against them.
Sara didn’t really get it, but apparently shield magic was really hard. Not many casters could do it on their first try, but some of the ones who had heard about Kuntz before and tried it out themselves were able to get the hang of it quickly. They would probably be able to make use of it with a little more practice.
The final three days were for Haruto’s lightning magic.
“This is lightning magic.” Haruto held his hand up and summoned a small spark of lightning above it, which the Hunters watched with great interest.
“Lightning, like in the sky?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Lightning was only something seen distantly in the sky in this world.
“I’ve seen a tree that was struck by lightning. It was split in half and charred black. It’s got that kind of destructive power, huh?”
“Exactly. You use it to fish, right, Sara?”
Sara panicked a little when Haruto suddenly called her name. She’d thought her turn was over, so she was taken completely by surprise.
“Y-Yeah. Lightning goes through water, so if you hit the water, it’ll go all the way to the bottom and knock the fish out, and they’ll float to the top. But you could shock any animals or people nearby too, so I don’t really recommend that.”
Electricity in water was really dangerous.
“Vince in Rosa could use lightning magic. If you cover your hands in it, then when you touch a monster, they’ll be shocked still for a second. He pictured a stronger static electricity to use it.”
“Static electricity... Those shocks you get in winter, huh? Yeah, when it’s dark, you can see light when it happens, can’t you?”
They had dry winters with static electricity here too.
“I’ll make it really weak, so shake my hand.”
Experiencing it yourself was always best. Watching the Hunters lose to their curiosity and line up to shake hands with Haruto, yelping with the shock each time, Sara found a single phrase coming to mind.
“It’s like a handshake event...”
“Pfft!”
“Gwah!”
“Ack! Sorry!”
Haruto cracked up and accidentally shocked someone a little stronger than he meant to, quickly apologizing after.
“Stop it, Sara. If you say stuff like that, I’ll make you do this too.”
The Hunters almost started lining up in front of Sara too as if to say they’d prefer to shake hands with her, so she hurriedly shook her head.
“I’ve never practiced a small shock before! It’d be too dangerous!”
It was the truth. Sara hadn’t practiced much magic. Just like Kuntz excelled at earth and wind magic, different Hunters had different strengths and weaknesses.
Up through the tenth day, people gathered in the underground training room at the Hunter’s Guild whenever they had time and passionately practiced Haruto’s lightning magic or Kuntz’s shield magic. The rookies didn’t have the skill for that yet, so they practiced Sara’s curving magic or sparred with veterans. It was a good training period.
Sara watched the Hunters train happily once they had finished her gathering class for the day. When Kuntz’s brother Rod had asked them to teach ten rookie Hunters, she hadn’t been sure what to do about the difference in enthusiasm between Rod and his friends, but they’d gotten more motivated when the veteran Hunters joined in and had started working much harder. The two Sara was teaching were very satisfied now that they had a way to make money right away too. They didn’t have much mana, but Sara hoped they might take an interest in becoming apothecaries.
“Sara! Haruto! Kuntz! Allen!”
Ann flew down the stairs, shouting their names.
“Look! This! Look!”
Shining in her raised right hand was a completely ordinary, yet extremely valuable to her, Hunter’s license.
“Congratulations!”
Ann jumped on Sara and hugged her before she even finished the word. She even lifted Sara up for some reason and spun her around.
“Uhh, wait, I’m not—”
As the room spun around Sara, Allen plucked her from Ann’s arms and set her down on the floor. She was kind of embarrassed to have his hands around her waist.
Haruto took the moment to pick Ann up instead.
“Haruto!”
“Congratulations!”
“Thanks!”
Kuntz spun her around next, then Elm.
“Congratulations!”
“Thanks! Wait, Elm?”
For some reason, Ann got passed around to other Hunters, spinning all the way around the training room until reaching a grinning Elm.
“I knew you’d be fine, but I’m still glad you made it to the end.”