Ch13

Atria clapped her hand to grab everyone's attention.

"If everyone could step over to the arena, I'd appreciate it!"

The other three on the other benches stepped up to the arena.

The first of them was a gigantic, towering, fully armored monster of a man. He was taller than two meters, but I couldn't tell by how much.

Next to him was a (potentially Ionian?) woman wearing comically large, enchanted steel gauntlets and heavy spiked boots. Her hair was cut short, and her body looked muscular yet wiry thin. She walked with an intense look, though it didn't seem to be pointed at anyone in particular.

The third was a short, bald old man in a simple robe. Judging by his looks, I'd say he's a local from Kengir. With thick, unkempt facial hair and narrow eyes, it was hard to tell what kind of expression he held.

I waved at Durreg and hopped off the benches to step on to the arena with the twins and the other three.

"Silia, can you be a dear and take over the controls? I'd like us to be put in a gladiator ring." Atria asked her sister.

The girl nodded and stepped off the arena to activate it.

Before long, the black dome covered us, and we found ourselves in the middle of a flat, sandy circle surrounded by rising stands on all sides.

"Alright, everyone! You three, please warm up while I get our newest addition up to speed on the program!"

The others began to stretch while the girl approached me.

"So, Kiara! Let's start at the beginning. In normal conditions, is it better to strike from above or from below? Also, what's your strength at?"

Was that a trick question of some kind? I humored her and answered anyway.

"I have about 900 strength, though I can get more by transforming into another form. Striking from above is almost always better. Not only are the enemy's vitals concentrated in their upper body, but you also get to have the force of gravity push with you against the opponent. If you're standing uphill against them, they will struggle to reach past my legs while I get easy access to their head, heart, chest, and so on. Striking from above is an incredibly powerful advantage."

"Bravo, well put!"

The girl started to clap.

"That's how it goes for the vast majority of fights involving fighters with a strength value significantly below the 750-mark. However, as you'll soon find out, things start to change when you get to that level. For illustrative purposes," she said, pulling her war hammer from her back, "I will use my weapon to block two of your overhead strikes. Hit me with half of your strength once, then try to breakthrough with as powerful a hit as you can manage on your second one!"

She held the weapon's shaft over her head and braced for a strike. I obliged her and swung my staff at her.

She didn't budge.

I then winded up the staff before striking as hard as I could against her guard.

However, instead of crushing her guard, I ended up tossed in the air by nearly two meters! I quickly steadied my fall and landed on my feet, surprised at the outcome.

"Judging by your surprise, I imagine you either don't engage in melee combat all that often or that you do it mid-air. Did I get it right?"

My eyes widened before I nodded.

"I generally attack from midair and at range, and I didn't get too many chances to fight up close since my last evolution."

"Mhm, that makes sense. Now, can you figure out why you were launched in midair when you struck at me? Don't worry, I'll tell you if you get it wrong; I just want to see how well you understand the factors at play."

Hmm...

"If I had to guess, it would be that when I struck at you from above, I ended up pushing against my own weight. With enough strength and a tough enough target, you can end up overwhelming your own weight and launching yourself in the air."

The girl's smile widened, and she clapped really loudly.

"Exactly; a brilliant deduction! You're definitely a smart one!" she said enthusiastically. "I-it's nothing special..." I said, scratching the back of my head and looking away.

"Now, let's do the same thing – but this time, strike from below me." She said, holding her hammer in the same blocking gesture – but instead of holding it overhead, she held it in front of her body.

I nodded and pulled back my staff, with an underhanded swing, I dug into the earth and struck at her outstretched weapon.

Although her posture did not break, she was the one who was sent flying this time.

She flipped backwards and landed upright, bending her knees to absorb the landing. She holstered her weapon and walked back to me.

"Great hit! Now, what was different about this strike compared to the earlier one?" she asked.

"This time, I wasn't fighting against my weight. Instead, I was fighting against the ground in order to keep standing up, like I was lifting a heavy object."

"Oh-ho, are you calling me a heavy object, young lady?! Quite the fighting words, if I've heard any!" she teased.

I rolled my eyes with an exasperated smile, and she started laughing again.

"But you aren't wrong. At higher strength values, things get a lot murkier. While holding the high ground does give you easy access to the enemy's weak points and makes yours harder to reach, you now end up risking not having enough downwards force to keep you anchored to the ground or sending your full power crashing into your opponent. For that reason, we have a class where we can spar and exchange pointers on how to fight with this kind of strength."

Huh. Now I see why Durreg recommended I take this class.

"I see. Thanks for the explanation – it was really easy to understand. But based on what I heard, there should be one loophole around this problem, right?" I asked.

Atria's eyes glinted.

"Oh? What might that be?" she asked.

"If you can find a way to generate enough downwards force yourself, then shouldn't you be able to fight normally without compromising on any advantages?"

"Oh, I was just waiting to surprise you with that one myself! In fact, the only one who doesn't do that is ol' Samum over here!" she said.

"Oh? Is it time for us to start fighting?" The old man, presumably Samum, got up from the floor and dusted his robe.

"Yup. You three spar against each other, but don't land a fatal blow. I don't want to have to restart the arena again!" she said, then turned to me.

"As for the two of us, we'll be doing the same on the other side of the arena. Let's go!" ***

I tuned out the sound of the others fighting as the two of us prepared to spar. Atria picked up a nearby stone.

"I'll toss this stone between us; when it hits the ground, we begin fighting. Sounds good?" she asked.

I nodded, and she threw the stone in the air.

The moment it landed, Atria was quite literally launched at me, as the soles of her feet exploded with each step she took. A manic grin showed over her face for a moment before her whole body was sheathed in searing hot flames. She readied her hammer in a lowered position in preparation for an overhead swing.

I braced my staff in a deflecting position and waited for her approach. Not yet.

She pushed one last time and was almost on top of me.

Not yet.

She swung her hammer overhead and-

Now!

I activated [Law of Exclusive Attraction], [Force Coefficient], and [Herald's Domain] just as her hammer reached its highest point, sending it flying into the sky.

At the same time, instead of swinging like my stance implied, I thrust the staff froststone-first into her chin, ready to use her own momentum against her.

The moment the staff struck her head, it passed through it like it was mere smoke, making the girl's body completely headless. The surprise froze me for an instant, but the other girl hadn't stopped moving.

The flames vanished, and she gave me a bloodthirsty grin as her foot rushed up to my chin, launching me into the air!

I felt my teeth cracking, and I looked down to see the girl turning into flames once again and kicking at the ground, launching herself after me with another explosion.

As I flew in the sky, my mind worked overtime to make sense of what happened.

It seemed that her body could turn into fire at will, but she needs to be physically present in order to land a hit.

Hmm...

I cast [Mirror Space] above me, sending me flying towards Atria as I gave her a crooked smile with what was left of my teeth.

My staff was sent flying, so I only had to rely on my own limbs.

We were about to crash into each other when she swung her fist at me. I let her and swung my own fist at her face from above, though her fist was closer to mine.

Right as her fist was about to crash into me, I activated my gravity skills on myself at maximum strength, massively raising the weight of my own body and pulling me downwards enough to dodge her attack. At the same time, my fist, which was already moving downwards with frightening speed, crashed into the girl's face so hard that my arm shattered.

The girl, meanwhile, was launched into the ground at a blinding speed, creating a titanic cloud of dust.

An instant later, all five of us were standin