--His katana had somehow ended up in Fu Hua's hand.
"Dis... disarming?!"
She cried out in surprise.
In Shenzhou terms, it was a technique akin to disarming an opponent.
"Your swordsmanship is quite good, but... your use of Honkai energy is still rather unpracticed. Forcing yourself to use it only makes it harder for you to adapt."
Fu Hua smiled and returned the weapon to Mei.
That was only natural. Before entering St. Freya Academy, Mei had never seriously come into contact with Honkai energy—Raiden Ryoma had protected her in every possible way.
That was precisely why Theresa had brought a Herrscher into the academy: to teach her how to master the power within her and keep herself under control.
"Thank you for your guidance."
Mei accepted the katana, politely thanked her, and returned to her seat.
--Mei had been soundly defeated.
The third challenger stepped onto the training ground without needing Fu Hua to say a word.
"...Bronya."
After her brief introduction, the silver-haired girl lowered her body and shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, engaging Fu Hua in close combat.
Fu Hua's gaze grew serious as well.
--Not because the girl's techniques posed much of a threat to her, but because of where those techniques had come from.
Everything Bronya used was meant to kill.
If Kiana's combat skills were half-baked and lacked real power, while Mei's swordsmanship was merely intended to render an opponent unable to fight as quickly as possible, then the smallest girl before her, Bronya, wielded the most dangerous kind of techniques—every move and stance existed to take an opponent's life.
There were no unnecessary movements and no superfluous purposes. Every strike was meant to claim a life, and every attack targeted the most vulnerable parts of the human body.
This child's background... was probably not a pleasant one.
Fu Hua thought quietly to herself.
There were almost no places that would teach young children such killing arts, aside from the military.
Considering that she came from Siberia... the answer was obvious.
This child was a victim of the Second Honkai Eruption fourteen years ago, wasn't she?
As a Valkyrie who had personally lived through that battle, Fu Hua let out a soft sigh.
Then, as expected, Fu Hua interrupted Bronya's offensive with a single palm strike and sent her flying.
Yet, at the instant Bronya was knocked away, a massive mech appeared out of thin air, its mechanical fist slamming down almost simultaneously.
"...Oh?"
The floor beneath her feet cracked. Fu Hua caught Project Bunny's heavy punch with one hand and looked at the enormous mech before her with some surprise.
This thing looked like a product of the Previous Era... or rather, it had at least made use of Previous Era technology.
Had the close-range exchange merely been meant to create an opening for its ambush?
Unfortunately, it was still just a little lacking.
"...The ambush has failed. Bronya concedes."
The silver-haired girl climbed to her feet and obediently admitted defeat.
She could plainly feel the enormous gap between herself and Fu Hua.
--Bronya had been soundly defeated.
"All three of you are very talented, but at your current stage, a B-Rank Valkyrie evaluation is indeed the most I can give you."
Fu Hua looked at the three girls and spoke with a faint smile.
She then turned toward the last person—the boy sitting obediently on the bench.
"Alright, then you're next... Ming Yu."
Coach Fu Hua, I Want to Learn Boxing!
There was a reason Fu Hua had saved Ming Yu for last.
"I saw it then. In Changkong City, you defeated quite a few of Anti-Entropy's tactical mechs by yourself."
Facing Ming Yu as he entered the training ground, Fu Hua spoke with great interest.
That dazzling Railgun had indeed been quite powerful, but unfortunately...
--That move consumed far too much stamina. After using it, he would have nothing left.
The corner of Ming Yu's mouth twitched slightly.
A move that was practically suicidal could only be considered in a true crisis.
For a proper fight, he still needed a more energy-efficient approach, just as he had considered yesterday.
Taking a deep breath, Ming Yu employed the combat technique he had only figured out the night before.
Strands of electricity coiled around his body, making even his hair rise slightly.
In theory, if an ordinary person touched him in this state, the current would paralyze them and send them collapsing to the ground.
Of course, for someone on Fu Hua's level, this much current probably would not pose any interference at all.
Having prepared himself, Ming Yu gripped his katana and charged at Fu Hua at tremendous speed.
Because Yae Sakura had once possessed him, and because he had sparred with the Herrscher of Thunder, he had naturally chosen a katana as his weapon as well.
His swordsmanship was far inferior to Mei's, but his speed surpassed hers... overall, he should have been roughly evenly matched with Mei.
After a brief exchange, Fu Hua reached her judgment.
Just as she was about to send Ming Yu flying with a light palm strike, as she had done to the three girls before him, her attack hit nothing but air.
"...Hmm?"
Ming Yu's body abruptly revolved around his katana as its center, completing an inhuman motion and forcibly evading her finishing blow.
Fu Hua froze for a moment, then saw through Ming Yu's maneuver.
He had used electromagnetic attraction to perform a movement impossible under normal conditions?
...More importantly, why could this boy command lightning as well?
Fu Hua could not make sense of it.
Unfortunately, she was not a scientific researcher and had no way to investigate his true nature.
Because the move had caught her off guard, she had no choice but to use a little more force to knock Ming Yu away. At the same time, she easily knocked the sword from his hand, just as she had disarmed Mei.
However, the sword that had been sent flying did not land in her hand as expected. Instead, it flew into the air and returned to Ming Yu's grasp from a bizarre angle.
"I see... You used electromagnetic force to draw the disarmed weapon back to yourself."
Fu Hua nodded approvingly.
His ability to adapt to changing circumstances in battle was quite outstanding.
"...And there's this move!"
Ming Yu leaped back a short distance, steadied himself, and unleashed the power within him.
In an instant, all the equipment on the weapon rack some distance away was drawn toward him.
For a moment, dozens of weapons of all kinds floated around Ming Yu.
Using the weapons filling the air as cover, he charged toward Fu Hua once more.
The gray-haired woman planted her feet, her gaze sharpening as she drove both fists forward with the wind.
Inch Punch: Thunderclap!
As though a tornado had risen from flat ground, every weapon approaching her was thrown off its original trajectory and blown aside.
Ming Yu, who had used the swarm of weapons as cover to close in again, was naturally sent flying to the ground along with them.
"Hah... I lost, I lost."
--He had already tried countless times through rewind. Reaching this point was the best result he could achieve in a spar against Fu Hua.
Although he could use the experience of being beaten to evade certain killing moves in advance and prolong the match a little, once Fu Hua became somewhat serious and used the Cunxin Fist, all attempts became meaningless.
This was probably what people called being stuck at a roadblock. No matter how he tried, at his current level, let alone defeating Fu Hua, he had no chance of even injuring her.
Naturally, knowing Fu Hua's true identity, he would not say he wanted to defeat her the way Kiana had.
He knew that the gray-haired woman before him was a pioneer from the Previous Era who possessed more than fifty thousand years of life experience.
Though the passage of time and all manner of events had greatly diminished her strength, Fu Hua was still clearly far beyond what the title of a mere A-Rank Valkyrie could encompass.
That identity was merely a fabrication Otto had arranged to make it easier for her to operate within St. Freya Academy.
In truth, even the current weakened Fu Hua had only Durandal and the still-slumbering Li Sushang as equals throughout all of Schicksal.
The reason he had kept trying was for...
"You're quite good. You have the makings of a warrior."
Fu Hua smiled as she came before him and extended a hand slightly, intending to pull him up.
"By the way, Senior Fu Hua, I have an unreasonable request..."
Ming Yu, who had been knocked to the ground, suddenly raised his head. His eyes sparkled as he looked at her.
"The fist technique you used just now looked incredibly profound. I'm very interested in it. Would you be willing to teach me how to train in it?"
--Alright, that had been his true purpose.
The technique Fu Hua used was based on combat arts from the Previous Era, refined by her and supplemented with the Tai Xu Sword Qi of the Divine Key, as well as the accompanying Cunxin Fist.
The famed Inch Punch: Heaven Splitter was one of its forms.
Since he wanted to become stronger, he naturally could not let any possibility slip away.
However, Fu Hua had easily dealt with The Three Families without seriously using the Cunxin Fist. If he wanted to raise the matter, he had to force her to reveal her fist technique himself.
Yes, that was why he had repeatedly tried.
"...If you can first master the basic combat arts of a Valkyrie, I can teach you. That won't be a problem."
Fu Hua paused slightly before replying.
Worthy of the Red Raven Immortal and a pioneer of old, she was not stingy about teaching her techniques to others.
Of course, learning this fist technique from her was itself extremely difficult. After all, the essence of the Cunxin Fist was the Open Sword form within the Tai Xu Sword Qi.
--Five hundred years ago, only seven people across all of Shenzhou had been qualified to cultivate the Tai Xu Sword Qi.
Although Fu Hua no longer remembered that period of her life, she still knew one unchanging truth: if one wished to train, one first had to build a solid foundation.
"I understand. Even a towering building starts from the ground up... right?"
Ming Yu nodded.
What he could do now, and what he most needed to do, was indeed lay a solid foundation.
Even though rewind allowed him to face danger countless times in search of the optimal solution, and feedback allowed him to gain extraordinary abilities... without the foundational strength to wield them, he could not bring out their full power.
Likewise, if his strength was insufficient, then when facing overwhelming danger, he might not be able to find a way out at all—just like the outcome of his fight with Fu Hua.
Fu Hua nodded faintly and said with a soft laugh:
"However... if you truly mean it, you may come to the forest east of the academy at six every morning. I train there at dawn, and I can guide you while I'm at it."
A Girl in Love
After the practice battle ended, Ming Yu and The Three Families were all evaluated as B-Rank without any surprise.
Before you continue