Chapter 55: Techniques
With numbness in her arms, Hilda flew back, her eyes wide with shock and surprise as she crashed into a metal pillar — luckily, by then, she had already hardened her body with Vitality.
BANG.
She fell to the ground and onto her rear. She stared down at her arms, her eyes still filled with incredulous belief. She couldn’t believe what she had just heard.
She stared up at Ross with blinding excitement.
"You know how to use {Force}?!"
Ross slowly lowered his arm, his face slightly paler compared to before, a side-effect of using too much Vitality all at once. However, his paleness could also be credited to the intense throbbing pain in his bruises.
"I do. My father, who worked in the Land Reclamation Military, taught me this technique before he retired. Unfortunately, I’m still at the beginner level."
"Haha, retired, huh? How rare and fortunate!" Hilda laughed, clearly overjoyed, "Und who cares about levels?! The fact that you managed to grasp Spiritualism enough to take the first step is already a great achievement!"
Spiritualism was a pathway that all Vitalists strived for: the ability to cast your Vitality into the space around you. And the moment it leaves your body and enters the space around you, it becomes something akin to a repelling force.
One of the three beginner applications a Vitalist needed to learn before progressing onto Spells was {Force}.
Hilda calmly pushed herself up.
’{Force} is a technique focused on ejecting your Vitality outwards at the moment of collision und taking advantage of its repelling properties to drastically improve the force behind your attacks.’
Obviously, to make {Force} practical, you need four things. A strong body. Good control over Vitality. Good timing. And, naturally, a strong Strength of Heart.
Hilda began to hop on the spot.
’I only have four more hits left to knock him unconscious...’
She might as well test how proficient he was with {Force} and see if he really was a beginner like he said he was.
She dashed forward, crossing the 5 metre gap between them in a second.
Ross adjusted his stance and readied himself.
Hilda threw out a sluggish hook, which Ross instantly noticed and took advantage of.
He spun to the side, then used the momentum of his spin to power his blow towards the side of Hilda’s head.
The woman hastily raised her arms to block.
’{Force}.’
BAM!
The blow created a subtle explosion of Vitality — the grey aura lashing out in whips and waves.
Hilda was knocked hard towards the side, her boots skidding against the concrete ground, which produced an awful scraping sound.
"Huuu..."
She let out a soft breath as she shook her arms, visibly impressed at the numbness she felt in them. And also the force behind the blow.
The first time really wasn’t a fluke...
Hilda’s interest soared.
She turned to face Ross, prepared to rush back in, but—
SWOOSH.
—Found that he was already upon her.
He swung his fist and managed to land a hit on Hilda’s forehead.
’{Force}!’
BANG!
The attack caused Hilda to arch backwards, her knees bending slightly under the force of Ross’ blow.
He had landed a direct hit!
Ross, who continued to watch as Hilda arched back further and further down, felt something was off.
He had hit her with a force that would be enough to knock anyone out. On top of {Force}, his attack should’ve left Hilda smashed into the ground!
It didn’t look like Hilda put up any defences to his attack, so why was she still on her feet and not on the ground?!
’What happened?’
Ross ruminated.
Now that he thought about it... he did sense a strange sensation right before impact.
’Could that be something?’
As Ross continued to ponder this, he felt resistance push against his fist, which remained pressed against Hilda’s forehead.
Hilda was getting back up.
"Huuu~..."
In disregard of the fist pushing down on her forehead, Hilda pushed herself back up until her back was fully straight.
"My~ my~! Three times in a row, are you really a beginner?"
Hilda grabbed Ross’ wrist and forcefully pulled it away from her forehead, which was slightly red from the blow.
Ross widened his eyes.
"H-how?"
The woman grinned amusedly.
"{Barrier}."
"B-... But I didn’t even see you use it..." Ross muttered, ignoring the fact that Hilda had grabbed onto him, "{Barriers} are usually seen around the Vitalist in the form of a grey dome or wall... and yet—"
"Incorrect."
Hilda’s grin turned into a smirk.
"While {Barriers} are usually seen as those, that’s not the point of the technique. It just commonly takes on the form of those that you listed."
She then began to explain.
"Unlike {Force}, whose identity focuses on offence, {Barrier} is a technique that focuses on making use of Vitality’s repelling property for defence — it’s a technique you’ll learn after mastering {Force}."
Ross watched as Hilda started tapping the spot he struck her.
"The moment your attack was about to hit, I quickly gathered Vitality towards my forehead und used {Barrier} to neutralise your {Force}, which left you with only the Vitality you imbued into your fist," She then sighed, "But since I did it so sloppily, und took too long to properly react, your fist still managed to bypass my {Barrier}."
Ross was left awestruck at Hilda’s explanation.
"... Incredible..."
’To have the ability to calculate such a response to an attack and be able to act on it in such a short amount of time...’
It was nothing short of extraordinary.
’... As expected of the infamous Devil’s Child...’
Ross soon woke up from his stupor at Hilda’s voice.
"Well, would you look at that, your complexion got better!" She commented before cocking back a fist, "I think you’ve had a long enough breather!"
The man subconsciously widened his eyes before raising his arm in defence.
Hilda revealed a toothy grin when she saw this.
Whilst cocking back her arm, she released Ross’ other arm. Then she spun around, imbuing Vitality into her leg, before roundhousing Ross in the side of the head — the side that wasn’t being protected.
"Sieben!"1
BAM!
Vitality exploded out from the point of contact, waves of grey aura spilling into the air, lashing out like whips.
Hilda had just used {Force}.
Ross felt his consciousness flicker as an intense pain erupted from the side of his head.
He then lost consciousness for a few seconds and found himself on the ground, 20 metres away from where he was previously standing.
With an aching headache, he sat up. Then he was hit with a severe vertigo that caused him to lurch to the side and vomit.
"BLEERGH... Cough! Cough!"
He felt his eyelids become heavy with pain and sickness, the two threatening to sweep him into the land of unconsciousness.
"Boss!" Elias cried out from the sidelines.
"I’m fine, I’m fine!"
Ross waved reassuringly, spitting out a glob of spit before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
’If this had been a real life-and-death fight, my life would’ve ended right there with that kick. She’s definitely still holding back...’ He reflected, caressing the side of his head, specifically, the area he was kicked.
It was uncomfortable to touch, like he was pressing down on the soft part of his skull. And if he didn’t know better, he would’ve thought there was a dent in his skull!
After he composed himself and got up to his feet, stabilising his balance, he looked towards Hilda, who seemed to have been waiting for him to prepare himself.
"All good?" She shouted.
Ross nodded reluctantly and frowned inside.
’Such arrogance...’ He thought before sighing, ’But it’s deserving with her strength...’
He had been around countless arrogant Vitalist soldiers, who thought they were above others, and, besides a few that he had the honour of meeting, Hilda was the only one deserving of her arrogance.
He raised his arms and entered a stance.
’I wonder what her rank is... how many stripes does she have and what colour are they...?’
Before he could get the chance to ponder on this question—
"Are you trying to gauge my strength?"
—Hilda was already upon him.
Through mysterious means, Hilda crossed the 20-metre gap between them with immense speed and threw out a punch.
’She’s going straight for my head!’ Ross widened his eyes and quickly leaned to the side, just barely getting by with a graze to the side of his neck.
When he moved to counterattack, he found that Hilda was no longer in front of him.
Using the same mysterious means, Hilda had slipped around his side and was now positioned behind him.
’My blindspot!’
Predicting an attack, Ross decisively reinforced his body with Vitality, hardening his muscles and skin.
Then he spun around, determined to block the inevitable attack.
Unfortunately, he was just too slow.
"Acht!"1
BAM!
With a devastating blow to the gut and the sign that {Force} was used, Ross was blasted backwards — his body rebounding off the ground several times, like a ragdoll.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
He soon came to a stop.
And when he did, he coughed up blood.
"Cough! Cough! Even after I reinforced my body... Cough! I still took so much damage?" Ross winced, lying on his chest.
The strength that Hilda displayed wasn’t something that Vitalists ranked with a single Stripe would be capable of. There was just no way.
And while he hadn’t seen it, he was sure that Hilda was beyond a simple Red Stripe, who were known to be able to take on multiple Scoundrels at the same time with ease.
’I’m certain she’s been in the LRM for more than a few years, 3 to 4 at best, if I consider that the rumours of the Devil’s Child only appeared 3 years ago... ’ Ross racked his foggy mind, ’So, by taking into account her background, her strength, and her mastery in Spiritualism...’
Her rank had to be two White Stripes — A rank given to Vitalists, who contributed to the defeat of a Soldier-class Predicament while in a squad!
The moment he came to this conclusion, he noticed a shadow fall over him.
"Not looking so good, huh?"
Hilda crouched down in front of Ross, staring down at him with a gentle smile. She then pulled back her arm and threw a punch towards the downed man, who immediately flinched away from it.
Tap.
"Nine."1
The German gently pressed her knuckles against the frightened man’s cheek, her gaze warm and comforting.
"You didn’t do too badly, you know? Honestly, compared to what I’ve faced up until now and the people I’ve come across in this exam, I’ve found you to be the most impressive out of all of them."
She then slowly reached for the back of Ross’ head.
"Your father was the one who trained you, right? I think... if I were him... I would be very proud."
Ross slowly widened his eyes.
Before he could mutter out a response, he felt Hilda grip the back of his head before lifting him up and smashing his face into the ground, immediately knocking the man unconscious.
"Zehn."1
’Unfortunately, you just had to accept my duel...’
7This was intentional ;)108