I Said Make My Abilities Average! 10

10 Martial Arts Training

 

Adel was flustered that Kelvin had suddenly chosen her. She had only just barely committed his name and face to her memory, yet now he was suddenly staring at her.

“Did he fall for me?” she thought at first, but his behavior didn’t match that thought.

He glared at her as if he was looking at a rival.

Someone with more talent would surely be suited better as a rival than the normal, absolutely average Adel, she thought. Although she also admitted that a rivalry like in a sports Anime would be nice too. But she would have never dreamed that such a developement would happen to her.

 

「Please go easy on me…」

 

While saying so, Adel had readied her wooden sword while Kelvin only silently assumed his fighting stance.

 

(Uaa, he seems serious….。 Even though it is only a wooden sword, with just this leather armor it’s bound to hurt if he properly hits me…)

 

Adel’s course of action was decided.

Fighting in her “normal-girl” mode, at the level before her awakening, she would lose instantly. But if she did that, she’d always have to hold back in lessons from now on, which would make them useless as training. And that would be a problem.

Even though she had raw power and speed, there was a need for Adel, who lacked any technique, to earnestly train.

For that, it would be necessary to pull out a little bit of her strength to fight mock-battles against the somewhat strong boys and receive appropriate instructions from their teacher.

Not to mention, getting hit would really hurt.

 

Anyway, not getting hit, either dodging or catching the blows on her sword, was what she’d aim for.

After showcasing that she was somewhat capable she’d let it end by getting her sword knocked away at an opportune moment or letting an attack hit her that wouldn’t hurt much.

With that plan in mind, Adel faced the duell.

 

「Begin!」

 

With Burgess’ signal, Kelvin rushed towards Adel. There was no concept in his movement like the specialized footwork in Japanese Kendo. [1]

Probably because the main focus of combat in this world was fighting against multiple enemies while you ran through a battlefield.

Kelvin closed the distance in the blink of an eye and slashed downwards. As aiming for a girl’s head, especially her face wouldn’t do, he aimed for the armored shoulder in what would be called a Kesa-Giri in Kendo.

 

(I won!)

 

The moment Kelvin thought so,

 

Hyun!

 

「Eh……」

His confidence-filled strike was easily dodged, rattling Kelvin for an instant. But he wasn’t inexperienced enough to show an opening from something like this.

Pulling his sword upwards immediately, he aimed his next strike at the torso of Adel who had evaded to the left.

 

Gatsun!

 

His blow was caught on her sword.

An attack to her vulnerable left side right after she was off balance from dodging his downward cut.

Yet she easily caught it.

 

Kelvin continued chaining cut after cut and Adel continued blocking them.

(Damn! Why? Why is she so fast even though her stance and movements are amateurish! How can she divert all my attacks!)

 

As impatience built up inside of Kelvin, Adel also got nervous.

(Hiii! His blows just keep on getting stronger! I can’t find the timing to lose painlessly~!)

 

Finally, Kelvin was worked up enough that wanted to put an end to the match.

(If she’s going to catch it with her sword anyways, I just need to rip it out of her hands with brute force!)

 

A cut aimed slightly above the hilt of Adel’s sword.

Kelvin would hit with the point exuding the most force, about a third of the sword’s length short of the tip. And it would impact right at the base of Adel’s blade.

(It will get blown away!)

Adel unconsciously put strength into her grip.

 

Gatsu!

 

A wooden sword, leaving a pair of numbed hands, tumbled on the ground.

 

「Eh………」

Kelvin stared at his empty hands.

 

（Ahh………）

Even though Adel regretted it, it was already too late.

Adel’s strength, in the same manner as her magic, be it due to a difference in perception, a mistake, intentionally or something entirely different, had turned into something dreadful because of god’s actions.

In her normal daily-life, a safety-mechanism worked and unconsciously toned down her strength to her pre-awakened levels of “in the realms of a normal girl”. Due to this, Adel hadn’t noticed her abnormal strength in the few days since her awakening.

But when she, consciously or not, wants to pull out her strength, that mechanism turns off.

Like an automatic car shifting gears on its own…

In this case there was no fear of insufficient torque because of her underlying absurd strength. For what happens to someone hitting a wooden sword held in place by such an inhuman power…

 

Normally, when to swords clash they will bounce off, dispersing the force. But here, a blow with all of his strength collided with a target that won’t budge even a millimeter, reflecting all the energy back into his hands.

Like hitting a slab of iron, the hand shock would make it extremely likely to lose your grip. Like what had just happened.

 

「That’s enough!」

「Wa-Wait, my hand just slipped!」

Kelvin argued against Burgess’ declaration of the duel’s conclusion.

But Burgess only replied exasperatedly.

「Huh, so will you say that when you lose your sword on the battlefield too? Will you ask the enemy soldiers to nicely wait for you to pick up your sword because your hand slipped?」

「Urgh………」

 

(This is bad! This has turned out really bad!)

Even though Adel lacked subtlety, she understood that the situation was unfavorable.

She had, right from the start, won against a boy who should be quite strong judging from his self-confidence. Even though she posed as a total beginner to sword fighting…

This wasn’t good. As a normal, average girl this wasn’t good.

 

「E-Excuse me！　Continuing would be fine with me……」

「Huh？」

 

Amusement was blatantly visible on Burgess’ face.

 

「What will you do？」

 

At the words Burgess directed at him Kelvin simply silently picked up his sword.

 

(What should I do? Letting go of my sword would seem like it’s on purpose, so it seems like there is no other way than to bear the pain and take a hit… Having firmed her resolve, Adel once again faced battle.

The exchange of sword strikes began anew. And after the duel had proceeded like that for a short while…

(Now!)

Kelvin’s slash was aiming for spot where her armor was especially thick. Making it seem like she was late in defending and letting hit her there. Thinking like that, Adel slowed down the movement of her sword and closed her eyes while bracing for the pain of the impact.

 

（………Huh?）

 

When the impact she had prepared for didn’t come after a while, Adel opened her eyes. What she saw there was Kelvin, shaking with a bright red head, and Burgess with an expression on his face that made it obvious she screwed up.

 

「Don’t fuck with me!」

 

Shouting that, Kelvin threw his wooden sword to the ground. Adel’s face showed that she didn’t understand what was happening.

 

「You……。You should think a little bit about the boy’s pride……」

 

Her classmates could only nod in response to Burgess’ words.

 

(Eh? Did I do anything bad?)

 

「Well, it would be stranger for Kelvin not to get angry, so I’ll excuse him for skipping this lesson. The rest of you, pair up and try lightly hitting each other.」

 

Since the number of students had become odd without Kelvin, there was no partner for Adel. Even Marcella dodged her so as not to meet her eyes.

 

「Why did it turn out like this………」