Weapon Arts

Mateo couldn’t help but be amazed by the amount of progress he and his classmates had made over the past week. The physical training he had undergone most likely had already pushed him beyond the bounds of what a human should be capable of.

A week’s worth of archery practice had already made him an expert. Everything he would set his mind to, he could achieve with a minimal amount of training. This wasn’t just him either.

He looked around the training grounds after having just emptied his quiver from firing at moving targets, at a distance that for him from a week ago would have trouble even seeing. Even the few vision training he had taken from Instructor Belle had such drastic results.

What he saw around the training grounds were his classmates, wielding their chosen weapons with a level of expertise that proved them to be masters. Apparently, their rapid progress in learning how to wield weapons was due to their nature as heroes.

The physical enhancements were due to mana saturating their bodies while they train, and again the speed that this happened was further escalated by once again their heroic nature.

At one sparring ring he could see two of his classmates clashing weapons, having already had over a hundred exchanges in under a minute. While those who ran around the training ground would do so with a few hundred pounds strapped to them.

Before he could reach for his next quiver he heard a shout from Instructor Corrin.

“Attention! All trainees gather immediately.”

Quickly the cadets lined up in order in front of the full roster of Instructors. Mateo couldn’t help but be interested, it wasn’t often that the lot of them were gathered, especially by all of the instructors.

“It has come to our attention that you have all fully adapted to your weapons, so it’s now an appropriate time for you to learn your first Art. First I will explain to you how an Art works, then you will be separated based on your Instructors and be taught a Weapon Art by them.”

Mateo’s eyes dilated and his fists clenched, everyone had anticipated this moment since they had first witnessed the might of an Art as displayed by Instructor Corrin.

“As you were told before, both a Knight and a Wizard wield Mana, be it either for a Knight’s Weapon Art or a Wizard’s Spell. The fundamental difference between the two is the source of the Mana. For a Knight, they draw the mana from their very own body. A mage on the other hand uses the mana within them to direct the mana in nature to do their will.”

Mateo couldn’t help but remember that day. When Arwyn cast his spell, he could feel something in the air being guided towards the Archwizard. There had been no such feeling when it came to Corrin using his Weapon Art.

“Since all of you now have mana flowing throughout your body, you should now have a better feel for it and be able to better sense it. I will now use the exact same Weapon Art I had used on the day of your summoning. I want you not only to observe with your eyes, but try to get a feeling for the mana that is being manipulated by me.”

Instructor Corrin took a familiar stance and one again fired off the slash of mana. While nothing appeared to be different, Mateo was able to feel how the mana in the Knight Captain’s body flowed from the base of his feet, through his body, and from his hands to the sword he wielded before being slashed out.

Mateo couldn’t help but ruminate on what he had just observed. He had always thought that using a Weapon Art was like drawing from some type of core and using it as fuel. Instead, it was something that flowed through the body.

Using the Weapon Art also gave him the feeling that it was just attaching mana to the movement of energy when attacking. Mateo knew that a well structured attack with a sword uses the chain of the body, starting with the feet and ending in the hands. It was the exact same movement he felt the mana had taken.

Corrin, seeing the thoughtful looks of his trainees, smiled and loudly clapped his hands.

“All of you follow your Instructors as they teach you a basic Weapon Art. Swordsman, follow me.”

Mateo and Two others stood before Instructor Belle, the Knight Captain who was a master of the Bow.

“Mateo, Kelsey, Olivia, all of you have shown remarkable progress when learning how to wield the bow. It is now time for me to teach you your very first Archery Weapon Art, Power Shot. While Power Shot might be the most simplest of Weapon Arts, it is also the most powerful basic Archery Weapon Art when it comes to single target attacks. Observe.

The three watched on as Belle drew back her bow and aimed her arrow down the target practice range. Rather than the mana flowing from the feet to the hands, the build up mana started in the back. As she drew back the string more mana would build up until finally her bow was fully drawn back.

The moment she released the string all of the mana immediately snapped forward and into the arrow. Mateo felt a shockwave as the arrow was loosed. He noticed that the arrow wasn’t flying towards any target he had been firing at before.

The arrow had actually flown past the longest distant target he had stricken so far and did so in a flash. The arrow had already flown twice as far as his and would have gone on even further if it hadn’t hit the target.

The moment the target was hit a loud bang resounded and a cloud was struck up from where the arrow had hit. After the target was hit Instructor Belle started to walk forward, on the practice range. The three of them only followed after she gave a signal for them to do so.

After a couple minutes of walking the group was finally able to see the damage the arrow had wrought. No amount of discipline was capable of keeping the three of them in order at the sight. What was before them was a metal target completely ripped to shreds along with a crater in the ground behind it.

“After a certain distance the targets are no longer the wooden ones you have been aiming at previously. These targets are made out of the same metal that a knight’s armor is forged out of. As you have seen Power Shot is pretty much what its name outlines it to be, a very powerful arrow. No fancy tricks, just raw power. It's also been given the nickname armor piercer.”

The three were led back, picked up their bow and nocked an arrow, and looked down the target range at their chosen target.

“Normally we would have normal trainees undergo training in gaining control over the mana in their body before teaching you how to use a Weapon Art. However, there are two reasons we aren't doing that. The first off is because it's just plain slow. As for the second, you’re not normal. You all are heroes so you will be trained as such. Even the progress you have shown so far would take months for normal trainees to achieve, maybe even a year.”

Once again they were reminded about their identity as heroes. It always felt weird being called that. Apparently it made them all outstanding, but the only people they could compare themselves to were their fellow classmates, other heroes. Sure, in their own world their results would be inhuman, but this wasn’t their world.

Mateo threw these thoughts aside and let out a breath before focusing his mind on his back. This was where both the strength of drawing the bow back and the mana for the Archery Weapon Art originated.

The first few shots felt no different than normal. Then he felt some movement from the mana in his body. It wasn’t so much the mana being drawn from his back and into the arrow, but rather the mana in his body was starting to gather around his back. It was further saturating the muscles that were associated with archery rather than filling his whole body.

Once all the mana was gathered he drew the string back again. This time he felt as if he was pulling on something else in addition to the string. Sadly, whatever it was slipped from his grasp. A couple shots later he felt it again. It was like he was pulling back a second string overlaying the first.

The difficulty of drawing back the bow had increased tremendously, his back straining under the newfound weight. The further he drew the strings the more active the mana in his body became.

When his bow was fully drawn, he felt the mana roaring to be released. So he did just that. The moment he released the string of the bow, he felt the other metaphysical string that had been drawn also be released. Before the arrow could even begin to fly, the mana that had been rampaging in his back muscles snapped forward first, straight into the arrow.

Mateo felt the shockwave before he could register what he had just achieved. He watched as the arrow; no, the Power Shot flew down the range.