"You're back? I'm just glad you're unharmed, ja." After looking Nymera and Isis up and down several times and confirming they weren't injured, a satisfied look came over the Princess's face.
"By the way, what was that Monster called? Its colors were quite pretty, and it could spray water. I'll have someone capture it as a pet later, ja."
"Ahem." The Head Maid standing in attendance behind the Princess coughed lightly.
The Princess pouted in a way wholly unbecoming of her status, but didn't press the topic further.
Nymera also took this opportunity to explain that they would need to make preparations for the Hunt and would be unable to continue accompanying the Princess on her outings.
The Princess seemed to have expected this. She propped her chin on one hand, waved the other with a look of boredom, and said, "I know, you Hunters are always like this, suddenly getting busy.
"At least you came to say something instead of just vanishing without a trace.
"Go on, go on. I'm not so unreasonable that I need you hovering around me constantly."
Isis and the others exchanged glances, then bowed in farewell in turn and left the Princess's small cottage.
Stepping outside, Altaïr couldn't help but remark, "Her Highness really is a reasonable person, nothing like the willful, reckless figure the rumors made her out to be."
"Yes, yes, she was also quite amiable when she was with us earlier," Isis beside him nodded repeatedly in agreement. "So, are rumors truly just rumors after all?"
Only Nymera wore a more conflicted expression. Her adoptive parents were well-acquainted with Her Highness the Princess, and she had heard about some of Her Highness's "glorious exploits."
Had time mellowed the Princess?
But I feel like I've forgotten something. What was it? As Nymera was pondering, she suddenly heard a plaintive howl from behind them.
"Woof-woo..."
Nymera's smile stiffened slightly. She had almost forgotten about him.
Bowing his head to squeeze through the door of Her Highness the Princess's abode, Hibiki trotted pitifully to his master's side, lowered his large head, and nudged it against her thigh.
Nymera had felt a twinge of guilt, but she still raised a hand and slapped Hibiki right on top of his head.
From the way Hibiki was acting, she knew the Princess had sent him after her. He must have realized there probably wouldn't be any more meals at Her Highness's cottage, which was why he was acting so ingratiatingly.
Pinching Hibiki's noticeably rounder cheeks, Nymera looked up and said to Altaïr and Jara, "You two can focus solely on your special training. Leave the intelligence-gathering and scouting to me and Isis."
With Nymera taking that on, Altaïr had no further concerns. He dragged Jara, who wanted to slack off a bit longer, back to the training waters.
The exercises of the past few days had mainly focused on basic underwater movement. The real combat training had only just begun.
Once they realized Az's "wild style" of teaching was more suitable for Altaïr and Jara, Ursula was happy to step back as instructor.
Unlike Ursula, Az didn't go into detailed explanations or thoughtfully arrange a phased training plan.
The first thing he did after Altaïr and Jara returned to the training area was raise one large foot and kick them both into the sea.
After several days of training, the two of them, whose swimming abilities had improved dramatically, paddled to keep their heads above water and stared up at him, speechless.
Az propped one foot on the gunwale of the small sampan, bared his white teeth in a grin, and bent over to look at them. "Honestly, I don't know how to use the Long Sword, and I don't know how to use the Insect Glaive, so I can't teach you things like how to swing your weapon with the least resistance.
"My training method is more direct. Honestly, I should just throw you straight into a fight with a Sharq, but Ursula kept saying that pace was way too fast.
"So we'll save the Sharq fight for tomorrow. Today, you're going to take your weapons and go chop some fish. Whatever you chop, that's what you eat tonight. Chop nothing, and you get no dinner! Crabs, shrimp, stuff like that don't count. Don't think about taking shortcuts!"
"Instructor!" Jara raised his hand high. "I've got a question I've been wanting to ask for a long time!"
"Spit it out."
"For an Insect Glaive user like me, how am I supposed to use my Kinsect underwater?"
"That's a good question." Az nodded slowly. "Using Kinsect extract to enhance yourself is the core of the Insect Glaive. Its outstanding three-dimensional mobility, as well as the ability to direct the Kinsect to harry a target, are both very difficult to make effective underwater."
"Right?!" Jara nodded vigorously. "I ran into exactly those problems before while hunting a Gobul underwater with a friend. You got any solutions?"
"Nope." Az shook his head with a bright, cheerful expression. "Why don't you ask a Lagiacrus?"
Jara: "..."
Ursula, who looked hot-tempered but was actually even softer at heart, couldn't bear to watch anymore and called out, "Don't waste your energy on problems with no solution.
"Let me give you a tip: forget complex moves. A simple, direct Thrust is the most effective."
This hint was crucial. Altaïr and Jara exchanged a glance, then split up and got to work.
Altaïr didn't immediately go looking for fish. Instead, he dove down to a depth of about four or five meters, drew the Khanga Rebellion, and began trying to execute various sword techniques.
He had certainly taken Ursula's advice to heart, but that didn't stop him from making a few more attempts.
The first technique he tried was naturally the most basic of basics: the Descending Slash, also known as the Step Slash.
But before he could even begin the motion, his movements came to a halt.
The key point of the Step Slash was to generate power starting from the legs, merging the force of the step into the action to launch a swift cutting strike. So... how exactly was one supposed to step underwater?
Altaïr tried to take a step forward with one foot, then swung his sword.
The movement, normally as simple as breathing and ingrained into muscle memory, now felt incredibly clumsy; the descending Long Sword strike had no power whatsoever.
It felt as if countless hands were gripping his limbs, making it difficult to generate any force.
Altaïr sheathed his Long Sword and then tried out several other sword techniques in succession.
In the end, the Step Slash motion was actually still feasible. Basic sword techniques like the Descending Slash, Rising Slash, and Fade Slash, though their movements were sluggish and their power severely compromised, could at least still be executed.
Slightly more complex sword techniques, like the Iai Slash, were difficult to even draw from the scabbard in one motion.
Moves like the Foresight Slash were completely impossible. After all, fighting underwater was different from fighting on land; you couldn't plant your feet and generate power from the soles. No matter how he tried, all he managed was to spin around clumsily in the water.
The sole exception was the Thrust.
The Thrust wasn't a particularly common move in Long Sword techniques, and even when used, it usually served as a transition into other techniques.
But this one move was almost entirely unaffected underwater, because every other attack form of the Long Sword followed a line of motion, while only the Thrust concentrated everything on a single point.
Suddenly, he understood why people said the Lance was the weapon most suited for underwater combat. A weapon whose primary mode of attack was thrusting and stabbing would naturally be the least affected by movement underwater.
Altaïr sheathed his Long Sword, swam back to the surface, and pulled off his breathing mask, taking several deep breaths.
On a small skiff not far from him, Ursula watched with a chuckle. "Youngsters just won't accept it until they try it themselves. So, aside from the Thrust, can you pull off any other moves?"
"It really isn't easy to use. The main issue is having no footing to generate power."
"Right, though I'm no Blademaster, even I know that much."
"But I've had some new thoughts. Beyond the Thrust, there might be some special techniques I can still use. And the Thrust itself doesn't have to be just an ordinary Thrust." Altaïr wiped the seawater from his face, adjusting his breathing.
Ursula nearly choked. "... Kid, you're that good?"
"Let me try again." Once he'd caught his breath, Altaïr put the breathing mask back on and dove underwater.
The difficulty of using sword techniques underwater came from two main factors: resistance, and the lack of footing to generate force.
Resistance was unavoidable. All he could do was minimize it, but there seemed to be another way to compensate for the lack of footing.
Altaïr stirred his blood and qi, activating Demon Mode.
He raised his hand and immediately executed Crimson Blade Slash I.
As expected, this move was also affected. The two strokes, one rising and one falling, took him less than a second on land, but stretched to two or three times that duration underwater.
The Rising Slash in particular suffered from the same problem as all basic sword techniques: no footing to draw force from.
But the second stroke was different. The Descending Slash's attack direction was opposite to the first stroke's, so he could use the inertia of the first stroke as a counterforce, greatly increasing the speed and power of the second stroke.
While it still couldn't match his performance on land, it was at least far better than basic techniques where he had no force to borrow.
Realization dawning, Altaïr excitedly swam back to the surface and looked up to find Az and Ursula staring straight at him.
"Did you just activate Demon Mode?" Ursula's brows shot up.
The seawater was clear, and though the waves made it somewhat indistinct, that blood-red flash of demonic aura was still strikingly visible.
"That's not the point!" Altaïr said excitedly. "The key is to first generate force in the opposite direction before launching the real attack, so the next attack can borrow that force, right? It's like throwing a punch. Normally, you generate force from your feet, and even a short windup can produce a heavy punch.
"But underwater, if you can't drive from your feet and you want to throw a heavy punch, you need to pull your arm back hard first!
"Thrusting attacks work the same way, don't they?"
Az's expression grew peculiar.
This was one of the core principles of underwater combat. He had meant to let them struggle a bit before telling them.
How had he figured it out on his own...?
(Translated by yourtl.app)