Demon's Virtue

Chapter 433 - Bravery

Eiro took a deep breath as he placed one of the books that he was reading on the table in front of him. None of them were really making sense in the way that Eiro figured he was supposed to learn to use Arcana. Of course, none of them were written speaking about Arcana in particular, but were simply theories about how non-elemental magic could potentially be used.

The Demon crossed his arms as he started thinking intensely. Maybe he could make some sense of these theories or figure out if there was some common denominator in them. Of course, that didn't mean that these books weren't useful to Eiro at all. It was just that they didn't mention anything about the Ancient Language, so it was clear that their theoretical methods for using non-elemental magic were simply false, at least to some extent.

However, they did all discuss some rather interesting things. For one, the ways that non-elemental magic could be used. First, there was the factor of having magic that simply wasn't weak against anything in particular, in return for not being particularly strong against any other magic either. It was commonly agreed to be a 'stable' sort of magic, if it was possible to use it.

Then, there were of course other aspects to it. Some theoretical spells could only be used without any element in play, since there was simply nothing that could end up interfering with the actual effect in any ways that would make it harder to control. For example, precision-based spells. And that didn't mean things at the level of precisely being able to hit a far-away target, but rather spells that were meant to finely affect specific, tiny spots.

That would then end up being useful for medicine. For example, whenever a soldier or adventurer ends up with a wound that's too large to heal, or if there is something preventing the healing, it is important to be able to precisely operate on them. Eiro knew that especially that kind of thing was incredibly useful. While he was studying under Jura, he had to amputate limbs from certain animals or sometimes even monsters. Since he had to do it with as much precision as possible to prevent unnecessary bleeding or pain, it was really quite hard for him to do back then, and that was with specific tools.

Now, if someone had access to this sort of non-elemental magic, which due to its properties theoretically wouldn't require any particular affinity, meaning that anyone could potentially learn it, it would be possible to do precise surgery out in the middle of an adventure or on a battlefield, even. It was really quite interesting.

Of course, Eiro didn't ignore the possibilities this kind of spell had for combat. Whenever he wanted to use a spell without any particular element for whatever reason, he would mostly end up using air magic. There was basically an unlimited amount wherever he went, and it didn't really leave any traces. But there were of course some issues with that as well, caused by the air element itself. Using a non-elemental spell would allow for quite a bit more fine-control in general, which excited him.

And now that Eiro thought about it, it was most likely that the barrier erected around the academy was one constructed by somehow making use of Arcana. At least, whenever Eiro took a look at it with his mana-sight when fused with one of the spirits, he never saw any particular element. He thought that it had been infused with intent somehow, but now that he knew more about Arcana and non-elemental magic, it would make a lot more sense if that barrier was created through pure mana somehow.

That meant that once Eiro figured out how to use Arcane magic using pure mana, he should be able to create full-on barriers like that as well. And they would be perfectly inconspicuous, since pure mana couldn't just be seen by any particular person, so it was perfect for passive protection that Eiro could use on the children somehow.

Either way, for now, Eiro had done enough reading. He had to head to his first class of the day now. It was another practical physical combat class, actually one of Eiro's favorite to teach. It always felt good to move his body around somehow.

And so, the Demon swiftly made his way to that class, entering the training-field that had been reserved for his today. And luckily, today the class was going to cover something rather interesting as well.

"Sparring!" Eiro exclaimed as he approached his students, "One of the most important aspects of learning how to fight. If you never have an opponent, you can never truly know how to practically move your body, no matter how much you know of the theory. So, today we're going to have some proper duels!"

The students looked at each other confused, before one of them raised their hand, "But haven't we been doing that a lot already? Sparring with each other?"

"Eh, kind of, but not really. What you have been doing is basically 'test out' certain movements on your sparring partner in a safe way. I always gave you certain move-restrictions to make sure nobody would really get hurt. But today, we're doing something different." Eiro pointed out. He snapped his finger, and raised a bit of a square platform out of the ground, "I have been observing you closely this whole time. At this point, you are all perfectly able to hold your own in a fight against your classmates. Sure, there certainly are those that are a bit stronger or more experienced than others, but I will definitely take that into account for the scoring of the matches."

Immediately, the students became quite nervous, "Wait, is this gonna be graded?" One of them asked immediately, and Eiro raised his brows as he shook his head, "No, no, not graded. Sorry, I should have explained this first. I have been working on a bit of a system for you to understand your overall weaknesses a bit more easily, so that you know what to practice on your own time or during free-practice a bit more. The categories are 'Technique', 'Stamina', 'Wits', 'Creativity', and at last 'Bravery'." Eiro started, and then quickly continued to explain what each meant.

"Technique will obviously be determined by how precise your techniques are, and Stamina will be chosen depending on how long you can fight until your movements become sloppy or slow down. Now, the rest are a bit more ambiguous, but trust me, I will judge them fairly. Depending on how well you can react to your opponent's movements, you will get a higher or lower score. Again, I will put multiple things into account especially when it comes to this score. As for creativity... I don't want you to just use the movements you have been taught in exactly the ways that you have read about them. Switch things up, combine certain things creatively depending on the situation. The more creative you are with your fighting, the less predictable you will be in a fight." Eiro said, walking up to two students standing next to each other. Rico and Arc. He pulled both of them to the front.

"And now, we'll get to the last one. Rico, attack me. Hit me as hard as you can." Eiro said bluntly, surprising not only Rico, but the rest of the students as well.

"H-Huh? B-But..." Rico stuttered, and Eiro smiled in response, "Don't worry, I can take it. Just hit me with all the power you have, right into the middle of my face."

Rico swallowed nervously, and with shaking hands stepped in front of Eiro, who stood there with a soft smile. And so, Rico formed fists and stepped in front of Eiro. And after a few more confirmations from Eiro himself, Rico simply swung his fist at Eiro's face. But even so, he still slowed down before hitting Eiro's cheek.

"Now, did any of you spot that? Rico was afraid of hitting me. He was afraid of hurting me. Of course, you might think that this is just because I'm your teacher, and it certainly plays a role, but many of you are still afraid of injuring other people in general. That ends up making your attacks weaker, while you are opening yourself up to stronger counter-attacks." Eiro explained to them, before turning toward Arc, "And to show that this really wasn't just caused because you know me... Arc, please swing your wooden sword at my face as hard as you-"

"Gotcha." Before Arc even heard Eiro finish the sentence, he swung the wooden sword at Eiro's face with absolute dedication and precision. As it hit the Demon's forehead, the wooden sword shattered into pieces, "Ah, shit... You got a new one for me?" Arc asked as he looked at half the wooden sword that he was holding.

Eiro smiled a bit as he ran his hand through his rainbow-colored hair to get rid of the wooden splinters stuck inside of it right now, "As you can see, my own son hit my face with absolutely no hesitation. To be fair, he might have been a bit too enthusiastic for my tastes, but that's beside the point." Eiro pointed out as Arc smiled awkwardly.

"That is exactly the way that you need to attack any of your opponents. If you start, you need to pull through with everything you have.. That is the fifth point I will be scoring you on, Bravery. Now, I will be splitting you up into pairs of two, so let's get started, shall we?"