With a few steps, I used my swords as footholds and launched myself up in the air.
There is an ironclad rule that fighters naturally understand.
And that is, if you were to attack, you must aim for the enemy’s vital point: Its head.
Thus, I intently ran up into the sky to get a full view of the Jabberwock, a view that I was unable to see no matter how much I tried to look up at it.
And when I was about a dozen meters off the ground:
“Pfft— Haha…”
With my eyes squinted and my thin lips contorted, I laughed.
…More accurately, I couldn’t help but laugh.
Running up into the air aligned our gazes at the same level ever so briefly.
This became the catalyst for the Jabberwock’s overwhelming sense of intimidation, which intensified all the more, making my sweat glands burst out in a flash.
The laugh I let out to disguise the tension that shrouded my entirety was the strangest laugh I could’ve ever possibly made.
And without the need to look at a mirror, I figured that much.
“Wh-What are you doing, Julius?!”
A scream came out of nowhere.
And to my surprise, it belonged to Fiole.
Perhaps she was caught off guard, given the recklessness that I did running up into the air as if I was begging the Jabberwock to come at me.
I felt sorry, but I decided to ignore that very voice.
…Thump. My heart beat much louder than usual.
All the deafening noise, I ignored it.
Don’t let the distractions get to you.
Concentrate, concentrate.
Picture it. Imitate it. Focus all of your consciousness on your sword.
I shut myself out from the sound, and didn’t pay heed to the wind that caressed my skin:
“—Ha—”
As the oxygen circulating in my body became scarce, I finally understood that I had been concentrating so hard that I had forgotten to even breathe.
I hurriedly took air into my lungs and raised my sword high into the sky.
There was only one thing left to do.
And that was it to run my sword through the sky like a fierce gust of wind.
However, the swordsman in my memories was too far out of the ordinary, he had sublimated such a simple act of magic to greater heights, and just by swinging his sword, he was able to recreate a “night filled with shooting stars” in his own way.
He was a person who couldn’t handle magic but ultimately honed his skills and magic to an unbelievable level through only his own efforts, sense, and natural talent.
The more I became experienced with the ways of the sword, the more I realized that his techniques weren’t fruits of human skills.
How was it even possible to unleash an attack capable of such slashing prowess by just merely swinging a sword in the first place?
I’d been wielding my sword for several years now, but there was never a time I had any premonition of any of this happening.
“——!!!”
Was that some kind of scream?
The air shook so much that even the hand holding my sword trembled because of it.
“…I still have a lot to improve on, so I guess… I’m going to have to cheat just a little bit.”
I convinced myself as I said so to make excuses.
***
Reaper Scans
***
“I finally figured out why your arm gets destroyed every time you deliver that『 Shooting Star 』technique of yours.”
It was a year ago now.
One of the adventurers— Lilea, a female swordsman —was curious about my way of training, and one day suddenly said something like this to me:
“I’m guessing that… you’re terrifyingly good at using ‘magic,’ but you’re also terrifyingly bad at it.”
“…What do you mean?”
It was such a contradictory statement that shook my eardrums.
“As you probably already knew, it’s not possible for a swordsman to hurt himself to the point of breaking his arm just by swinging a sword. It could happen if you were swinging your sword against an incredibly solid target, but in your case, you were swinging into thin air, and yet your arm still snapped.”
…It was just as she said.
But even though I had my own doubts, I was already convinced on my own that it was a reasonable price to pay for the power of the “Shooting Star.”
However, Lilea wasn’t so convinced.
And it seemed like she was searching for the cause of the problem.
“I know this is sudden, but just how much do you know about ‘magic’?”
“…Well, I know that magic is something that is very important, and that every human being has it. That’s all…”
“You’re definitely not wrong, but you were missing a few things here and there. Magical power is an entity that is transformed into ‘magic’ when it’s released outside the body in some form. It could be something like ‘creation magic,’ just like you have, or ‘casting magic’ like other magicians have. But your technique, ‘Shooting Star,’ is almost just magic… No, it’s definitely just pure magic.”
…I could probably use it too if I wanted to, but I would never come to the point where I actually would want to use it, Lilea added in a whisper with a bitter look on her face.
“I would venture to say that it’s a magic solely dedicated to slaying purposes. Magic power should be evenly distributed in your body as one would release it, but when you do a『 Shooting Star, 』the magic is only concentrated in your hand. Magic is the aggregation of magical power. What I meant is that in your case, you are strengthening your arm to the limit in exchange for an enormous amount of strain. So, inevitably, while you produce an incredibly powerful blow, your arm breaks because it can’t stand the strain.”
For that reason, whether I was consciously or unconsciously skillful in handling magic power, no matter how we looked at it, it was impossible to store excessive magic power in one’s arm.
In spite of knowing this, I myself also admitted that I wasn’t very good at handling it, seeing as how I broke my arm every time.
“I’ve been meaning to ask, but who taught you that technique?”
“…Why do you want to know?”
“Because the way you do it isn’t refined at all… You’ve been training like this for all this time, right? It looks to me like you’re trying to close the gap between yours and the ideal technique you’ve been meaning to achieve.”
“…”
She was so right on the mark that it made me speechless.
“I’m a swordsman myself, too, so I know firsthand what it’s like to want to reach out for that longing.”
She laughed as she said so.
…Nevertheless, according to Lilea, I’m a person capable of storing “magical power,” but in reality, I thought otherwise.
Whenever I tried to intentionally focus my magical power in a single specific area of my body, I always failed.
The only time I succeeded in doing so was when I tried to unleash『Shooting Star.』
“…Haha.”
Lilea called it a talent.
Perhaps it was because I had already seen a man who succeeded in performing this technique with such remarkable power without relying on magic and magical power, but only his sheer strength, that I could no longer think of it as anything other than cheating.
But even so, I had to train and get one step closer to that higher level.
An ordinary person like me could only get into this world by being unfair.
Thus, I had not the slightest hesitation in using it.
“HEY—!!! Have you seen a night filled with shooting stars before?!”
The corners of my mouth lifted almost unbearably.
Just turn around and face me, Jabberwock.
With such a thought in my mind, I let out my voice from the depths of my stomach with all my might.
The Jabberwock’s focus, which had been directed at Fiole’s『 Corpse Puppet: Parade 』was now on me.
The tension that was coming toward me was definitely different.
But I didn’t have the luxury of worrying about it, which was why I was already in the motion of swinging down my sword.
I only had one chance.
Whether I succeeded or not, this was probably the only time my arm would function properly.
“If you haven’t seen one already, make sure to pay close attention to this…!!! You lump of absurdity—!!!”
The reason why the Star-Slayer had derived all of his techniques from the stars was that he recognized their existence as a mass of absurdity.
Therefore, the most effective way to counter that mass of absurdity was to become one yourself.
By concluding so, I—!!!
“SHOOT HIM DOWN—!!!”
Come on, dodge it if you can.
Each and every light that’d fall from here on out is a meteor shower of deadly blades that will rip into your entirety.
There is no escape from the raging torrent of descending stars.
“—『 Night of the Shooting Stars: Naglufar 』!!!”
——
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