Finding Weaknesses (2)

Why had I become so fixated on finding Adelaide's weakness?

The reason was simple. So that the moment she became an obstacle, I could remove her.

I'd be doing the same to every Valkyrie who got in my way from here on out.

This wasn't about treating her as anything special.

I'm not particularly clever, and I'm easily frightened, and I worry far too much.

I was the kind of person who simply couldn't feel at ease unless I did things like this.

*So this is a good opportunity. A perfect chance to learn Adelaide's weakness.*

In other words, now that I'd ended up sparring with Adelaide —

I should have been happier than I'd ever been.

I hadn't even been the one to suggest it, so there was no reason for suspicion.

And once I found her weakness, all that pent-up anxiety would wash right away.

I should have been standing here in a perfectly cheerful mood.

*So why am I so… irritated?*

For some reason, my chest felt tight.

I couldn't even understand myself.

Where on earth had this frustration come from?

I wanted to turn my insides out and dump every last emotion onto the floor.

I quietly looked up at the ceiling.

The sky visible through the window was bathed in the dim, hazy light of dusk.

Adelaide had asked me to spar around noon, but —

I had Adjutant duties to attend to. I'd had no choice but to push it back.

"…."

When I leveled my gaze forward, I saw a blank-faced beauty staring back at me.

She held a spear in one hand — nearly as tall as she was — and watched me with an appraising look.

Her posture was so natural it seemed as though the spear had no weight at all.

Like her, I held my Nail Gun in one hand.

My own weapon, one I could now aim with my eyes closed.

Just holding it made me feel like I could beat anyone.

"We both have work tomorrow, so let's not push ourselves too hard. If it's obvious to either of us that the match is decided, we stop on our own."

"Okay."

"You're wearing your shield, right?"

"I am."

This was a private training room inside the Training Area.

There was no audience watching our spar.

In that stark white space, it was only the two of us.

No one needed to say anything to begin.

Without any signal to start, we moved at the same time.

Adelaide forward, me backward.

Her physical capabilities were superior.

I was a long-range shooter who relied on her unique ability, after all.

The distance between Adelaide and me closed rapidly.

Thunk! Thunk!

I retreated, taking aim with the Nail Gun.

The electromagnetic force behind it was enough to punch through thick plywood.

Sharp nails flew toward her vital points.

"Hah!"

Clang!

But Adelaide swept her spear in a wide arc and deflected the nails.

The absurd technique of knocking bullets aside with a spear.

Witnessing it up close left me momentarily speechless.

Even Arishia couldn't deflect them — she just used her axe like a shield and charged straight in.

How on earth did someone manage to bat these away with a spear?

It was as if she had some invisible barrier draped over her.

Yet in the brief instant of each deflection —

perhaps because she needed to plant her foot to put force behind the swing —

the distance between us stayed where I wanted it.

*No, too soon to relax. She's getting faster.*

There was a problem, though.

The sequence of Adelaide pausing to deflect each nail —

those movements were growing more compact and quicker by the moment.

And then, in the gap when I'd exhausted my magazine and had to reload —

Adelaide glided forward and closed the distance in one smooth rush.

I fired off another round of nails to check her advance and let out a hollow laugh.

*Unbelievable. What even is this person….*

Arishia, who was probably working at headquarters right now —

this felt exactly like the helplessness I'd felt sparring with her.

Of course, Arishia's approach was nothing like deflecting nails with a spear.

She'd just plant her axe like a shield and come barreling in like a freight train.

But the feeling of my attacks doing absolutely nothing was roughly the same.

And so, inevitably, Adelaide kept closing the gap.

Then she thrust her spear at me once I was within range.

If I retreated clumsily here, I'd lose the initiative entirely.

That was my read — so instead, I gritted my teeth and stepped forward.

"Hm?"

Clang-clang! Thwack!

I deflected the spear with the hard side panel of the Nail Gun.

She must not have expected me to actually absorb the attack here.

Adelaide's expression flickered with surprise for just a moment.

But she recovered her composure almost instantly —

she pulled the spear back and tried to slash me with the blade.

So I fired the Nail Gun straight at her in response.

*If we both take hits here, I come out ahead.*

Thunk-thunk!

The sharp rounds flew toward her unguarded body.

She must have realized that trading blows would put her at a disadvantage.

Adelaide released her spear and rolled across the floor.

I had no intention of letting this opening go to waste.

I trained the Nail Gun on her now-unarmed form —

and Adelaide came at me on all fours.

"What the —"

Too close to fire the Nail Gun at leisure.

I gripped it like a tonfa and swung it at Adelaide.

She planted her foot on the swinging Nail Gun and backflipped off it —

then retrieved her spear as she landed, returning to her starting position.

All that ground I'd gained, reset to zero.

Adelaide blinked at me with wide eyes, as if genuinely surprised.

"That was unexpected."

"Why? Did I move better than you thought?"

"Yes. I assumed closing the distance would end it."

"I train hard every day, you know. Only up to self-defense level, of course."

I was bluffing.

That brief exchange had already left my arm throbbing.

In close quarters, I'd lose a hundred times out of a hundred.

I figured I could catch her off guard maybe twice at most.

But I hadn't been planning to fight in close range anyway.

Neither of us had used our unique abilities just now — that had been deliberate.

Now that we'd each gotten a rough read on the other, the real match was about to begin.

"Understood. Then — I'll go all out now."

"Yes. No holding back for either of us?"

Adelaide gripped her spear and settled into her stance.

I placed my hand at my throat and drew up my focus.

Trance One Drop — just enough to trigger the effect without any side effects.

My body snapped into peak condition, sharp and alive —

Tap. She struck the floor with the blade of her spear, and something shifted around her.

*Here it comes.*

Drip.

Something rose from the floor of the Training Area.

Water droplets, lifting into the air as if defying gravity.

They swirled around Adelaide like countless soap bubbles.

Her unique ability: Wave Surge.

Not the color blue —

but the crashing waves of the open sea.

Adelaide gathered the flow of water at the tip of her spear —

then swept it sideways with full force.

"Surge!"

Rumble…!

The launched current of water undulated up and down like a living thing.

And then, as if this place had become the ocean itself —

a wave born from empty air crashed down on me, taller than I was.

If it swept me away, I'd be slammed straight into the wall.

Still, the wave was tall but not especially wide.

I rolled across the now-slick floor and broke out of its range.

But the towering wave had been a screen, hadn't it.

The moment I cleared the range, Adelaide was already closing in.

"Cascade!"

"Ugh…!"

Whoosh!

Adelaide swung her spear, the water coiling around it.

The spear carved a wide arc aimed at shearing through my shoulder —

but with my reaction speed heightened, I managed to twist my body just barely in time.

I was about to breathe a sigh of relief at having dodged in time —

when the coiled water snapped out like a whip, delayed.

*Oh, that's just unfair.*

Was this some kind of two-hit technique?

I hadn't been watching for it, so my reaction was inevitably late —

and the lashing water struck my shoulder hard.

Crack.

My uniform was sturdy enough to keep me from bleeding —

but the impact rocked my whole body like a hammer blow to the shoulder.

"Ugh, ngh…!"

"Haaah!"

And it didn't stop at once.

Every swing of the spear sent a blade of water snaking out like a serpent.

All I could do was grit through the pain and focus on dodging.

If I kept taking hits like this one-sidedly, I'd be completely overwhelmed.

I deployed Thunder Armor — the ability that discharges electricity at anything that gets close.

"Drift."

What followed was a startling sight.

The moment she saw the flash, Adelaide flung one hand out to the side.

A current of water materialized and rippled through the air —

swallowing the electricity whole and redirecting it harmlessly elsewhere.

Had she learned about my unique ability in advance and prepared a countermeasure?

I registered that she had a defensive technique.

"Offense and defense both covered… what a well-rounded ability!"

"Hft!"

There was no way out from within her range.

Which meant the match would be decided in just a few more exchanges —

and if I was going to do anything, I had to do it right now.

Adelaide seemed to have noticed the same thing.

She reversed her grip on the spear.

An unnecessary motion no one would make under normal circumstances.

I recognized it as the preparatory movement for a major technique.

Then this was my chance to end the match.

I'd seen enough. There was no need to drag the fight out any further.

I looked at Adelaide — certain of her victory — and spoke.

"Blue Thunder."

The signature technique of Leila's arsenal, firing a bolt of blue lightning —

a brute-force skill that poured every ounce of her unique ability's power into raw destructive force.

Lightning erupted from my palm and tore through the air like a flash of light.

The distance between us was roughly two meters.

Aimed precisely at that range —

there was absolutely no possibility of a miss.

I was certain it would connect.

But to my astonishment, Adelaide moved.

In that razor-thin instant when the current was still gathering at my palm —

she dropped into a deep crouch and slipped out of the path.

*She reacted to that?*

Honestly, I was dumbfounded.

This wasn't something you could react to by sight.

It was only possible through precise prediction — anticipating that I was about to fire.

She might be more talented than I'd given her credit for.

That thought crystallized into conviction in that moment.

The lightning flew harmlessly past her as she rolled across the floor.

I'd wasted my unique ability on nothing, leaving myself wide open —

and just as Adelaide was planting herself to rise back into her stance —

the blue lightning struck the soaking wet floor.

"Hgyagyagyagyak!"

Crackle-crackle-crackle!

Adelaide screamed as she was trying to get up.

It was the loudest sound I'd ever heard from her.

She collapsed onto the floor as if her body had locked up.

She trembled and let out a pained moan, like someone in the grip of paralysis.

Well — this outcome was inevitable, really.

*As I thought. This is seawater. I did notice a faint briny smell.*

Unique abilities are heavily influenced by the mental image behind them.

Waves are a phenomenon that only occurs in the ocean —

so the water she'd scattered around us was very likely seawater.

And seawater has far higher salinity than ordinary water.

Which makes it an exceptionally good conductor of electricity.

Especially now, with it splashed in every direction — there was nowhere to escape.

For the record, I only felt a mild tingle.

I have excellent electrical resistance. No risk of electrocution for me.

I walked over to Adelaide, who was lying on the floor with a miserable expression.

Then I looked down at her and said, feeling thoroughly satisfied:

"I win. It seems you and I have a clear elemental disadvantage at play here. Water can't beat lightning, after all. Indeed."

"Why… is Leila… fine…?"

"Because… I don't get electrocuted by my own electricity?"

"Oh."

Adelaide stared up at me with an expression of pure disbelief.

Had she scattered the water thinking we'd both get electrocuted together?

No — if you didn't have electrical resistance, you couldn't fire electricity from your body in the first place.

You'd electrocute yourself the moment you tried. Wasn't that obvious?

But apparently it wasn't obvious to her.

Adelaide pursed her lips slightly in protest.

"That's cheap…. Cheating…."

"Hmph. I still won, didn't I?"

"…Muu."

I felt genuinely refreshed.

It wasn't simply the satisfaction of beating Adelaide.

It was the knowledge that even in the worst-case scenario, I could subdue her with ease.

The weakness I'd been searching for was now in my hands — and that made me very happy.

And if I used what I'd just learned about Adelaide's personality to my advantage….

I was still running through the ways I could handle her when —

she looked up at me and spoke out of nowhere.

"Leila."

"Yes? What is it?"

"I can see your underwear."

"…."

"Really scandalous underwear. And your sleepwear too. Are you perhaps into that sort of thing…."

"I'm not."

I sat down beside Adelaide without any particular fuss.

Right — standing over her at that angle, of course she could see.

Honestly, I'd only just realized that now.

Well. I'd have to be more careful going forward.

The image I was cultivating was one of pure, refined elegance.

I nodded to myself and reached over to pinch Adelaide's nose.

She squirmed and tried to apologize despite the lingering paralysis —

but I wasn't actually angry, so I didn't pay it much mind.

As if I'd feel embarrassed about something like that. What did she take me for?

I'd have her mop the Training Area floor later.

I surveyed the training room — now a complete mess of water — and let out a sigh.