Chapter 17.2 (1/2)

Chapter 17.2

「What did ye even do back there?」

As they were on break, Douga examined the particulars on the wall as he asked Haruna with a very grave face. The fragment that had surely collided with the wall was nowhere to be seen, and the only record of something actually happening was just the large fissure. As it was but a mere fragment, it had apparently been ground into dust with the impact of the crash.

「All I did was flick some shard with my finger.」

She said, taking out a shard of similar shape and size and showing it to Douga. As to why she had such a thing in the first place, it was because she had picked it up in the inner courtyard in anticipation of actually using magic.

「So that is what brought this on…」

「By the way, this is what it’s like if you flick it like normal.」

She said, flicking it at a different point than the previous. The launched shard let out a dry, light whooshing sound as it hit the wall, rebounding off of it and falling to the floor. She didn’t even put much effort into it, and yet there was still quite the force exerted. It would likely hurt a bit if it were to directly hit the skin. Be as that may, as long as it didn’t directly hit the eyes, it certainly wasn’t enough power to lead to any big injuries.

「So that’s what happens to these things…」

「Yeah, pretty terrifying to think that the speed is 100 times the usual amount. I didn’t even know that she had these in the first place.」

Julius chimed in with an awed tone when Douga groaned.

「It was a lot flashier than I expected, so I was surprised, but thinking about it, they increase in speed by 100, so that would apply to being thrown as well. Pretty simple logic.」

「Leavin’ aside whether it’s simple logic or not, even at 50 times more in the air, the kinetic energy’d be at 2,500 times more. With its power amplified that much, it’d probably sink into the wall.」

Haruna nodded at what Hiroshi said. If all of the conditions besides speed were the same, the kinetic energy would become proportionately raised to the second power. Even with a small stone being flung and increasing things a hundred times in terms of the theory of relativity, it would probably be harmless in terms of pure Newton physics.

With just that amount of speed, if you flicked a stone it would of course significantly impact your fingers, so if she did not strengthen your body prior to the impact, it probably would have crushed Haruna’s fingers into a fine powder. Therefore, it was preposterous to even think of someone raising the speed so high while not lightening the knockback at all on the body.

「Yeah, I think all I got from that was that it isn’t feasible to use this.」

「Mhm. And as expected, it only lasted about 3 seconds in real-time.」

「Of course there’s the body, but if you also aren’t extremely quick-witted or skilled with close-combat weapons, the weapon itself could break as soon as you even hit them once with it.」

Everyone found themselves nodding at Tatsuya’s observation. No one could deny that she was strong, but they also couldn’t deny that it might not even be worth it.

「Well, weapons are generally metallic, so other than the weapons like the rapier that originally had durability issues, I’m pretty sure that a hundred times more wouldn’t be nothin’. They ain’t gonna break that easily as long as nothing more crazy than that happens.」

「So doesn’t that basically mean a side-effect emerges from that fission?」

「Well, yeah, ya got me there…」

Hiroshi found himself groaning in response to Makoto’s comment. The whole thing was just difficult to use in every way.

「Haru, can I ask you something?」

「What?」

「How does it feel when you use it?」

「Everything around me moves so slowly, as if halting all movement, while I can move as per usual. Although it kind of all ends when I move…」

Mio nodded in comprehension at Haruna’s answer. If someone were to have a good idea of how to use it, it would be powerful, but this spell was just so full of hazards.

「I just had a thought, if you want to hear.」

「What might that be?」

「If it were Hiroshi, maybe he could last about ten seconds in real time?」

Layotte’s said something rather scary, but everyone other than Hiroshi was surprisingly agreeable with this statement.

「Now just hold yer horses! We just saw how dangerous this whole thing is now yer just jumpin’ to the next guinea pig?!」

「But hey, if you use that then your issue with inadequate firepower will be resolved just like that!」

「But if I’m gonna go into hypermode like that I need to last at least 3 minutes or else it’s pretty useless!」

Even when he frantically tried to reject this idea, he was outnumbered and shut down by everyone there other than Haruna. In a sense, Haruna may have been even more opposed to the idea than Hiroshi, having experienced it herself, but before she could say anything they had made their verdict and left her unable to really argue against that logic.

「We’ll start out by solidifying the space and changing the color, so use that for the target.」

「Yeah, target. Not vague at all…」

Hiroshi made a puzzled face as he looked at the “target” that Layotte had identified. Suddenly, there was an odd black mass about the size of a human enshrined in the area that Layotte directed him to.

「Flexibility and firmness are just right. I’d say it works well.」

「Yeah, but is that really the issue…?」

Mio had touched the target prepared by Layotte all over, expressing her odd impressions.

「But wait, are ya gonna be okay with your current mana, Haruna-san?」

「It’s been replenished a good amount. Honestly, I don’t even think I needed to heal right now in the first place.」

「Is that right…」

Hiroshi began to quickly clear away obstacles from their objective. Unlike some types of offensive magic, the healing, support, obstacle, and day-to-day magic had rigid magic consumption that matched their skill level. In regards to the magic that she had learned this time, other than the already overall taxing support skill Over Accelerate, the regenerative Return Heal had worse cost performance than Healing of the Goddesses, so it didn’t seem like even a Level 5 mana potion would pose a threat with its amount of regeneration. The reason why the amount of mana that Haruna had was inflating each time she learned new magic was probably because she was still quite good to go.

「Yeah, I really don’t think I want to use that on other people.」

There was also the fact that Hiroshi didn’t want to, and Haruna herself even displayed a reluctance to use such dangerous magic. Like Hiroshi, she was stubborn too, but Hiroshi was more of running to his own safety whereas Haruna was rejecting the idea because she was thinking of other people, so Hiroshi ended up looking a bit lousy as a result.

「But we’ve already come this far.」