Allen's Strength, Come On, Thunderstorm Cumulonimbus!

[Favorability with Rudeus and Sylphy has further increased. Childhood participation has increased.]

[Current stage: Childhood. Cumulative participation score: 54 points.]

[Evaluation: Gaining favorability through showing off—I didn't expect that.]

Allen frowned, looking at the system panel floating before him.

"Seriously? How was I showing off? And where did this favorability come from?"

He turned to look at Sylphy on the hillside, who was staring blankly in his and Rudy's direction.

He then turned to look at Rudy, who was also spaced out.

".How odd."

"Hey, Rudy, stop spacing out. Pump more mana into it, let's go again. Look, Sylphy's already mesmerized by you."

Rudy blinked, snapping out of his cognitive dissonance, then glanced at Sylphy on the hilltop, his mouth twitching.

"Ah, the dense protagonist has appeared. Damn it, this is the path I chose for myself."

"But… Allen's strength… is even greater than I imagined. He definitely didn't just stare at the water column until it split open. I didn't even see him swing his sword. No wonder he said to keep our distance. If this were a real fight, my head would probably be on the ground by now. No, he'd probably have his sword at my neck, casually saying something elegant like 'you still have a long way to go.'"

"No, I need to get serious. If I keep this up, when I see Lokkishi later, who knows whose attention she'll be focused on…"

Rudy, filled with a sense of urgency, took a deep breath and extended his hand toward Allen.

"Alright! Take this!"

Allen's pupils contracted. In his vision, water rapidly converged in front of Rudy, instantly forming a turbulent mass even larger than the Terminator Boar's head. This time, it even soaked the blades of grass beneath Rudy's feet.

With a bang, a surging water column shot directly towards Allen's face!

"Twenty Slashes."

Following Allen's almost imperceptible murmur, the water column that had filled his entire vision split apart in front of him once more. However, this time, unlike what was expected, it wasn't Rudy's face behind the water column.

It was a rough stone.

"Water Cannon! Rock Bullet!"

Their movements were too fast. It wasn't until Allen had cleaved the water column that Rudy's voice echoed from below the hill!

The Rock Bullet broke through the splash, heading straight for Allen's face!

Because it was hidden by the Water Cannon, this subsequent Rock Bullet was only about the size of Rudy's face. Even so, in that brief instant, Allen's dynamically enhanced vision perfectly captured the stone's rough edges, and the surrounding environment seemed to slow down:

The ambient sounds suddenly vanished.

Wind pressure swelled against Allen's chest, bringing a damp chill and the scent of earth. The Rock Bullet rotated 'slowly' clockwise, reflected in Allen's deep grey pupils.

Allen slowly narrowed his eyes. His last breath still provided ample oxygen to his lungs. A warm current surged at his waist, and Dragon Saint Battle Qi seeped from the nascent core in his abdomen, dyeing the ceaseless primal Fighting Spirit.

".Interesting, are you holding back a Rock Bullet this time? Using Twenty Slashes again would dull my blade. In that case…"

"Water God Style—Profound Skill."

"Pluck."

Allen suddenly snapped out of the slow-motion sensation. He slightly shifted the blade, which he had been preparing to sheath, away from the scabbard. The tip of the blade brushed against the scabbard and swept towards the ground. At the same time, Allen released the hilt, bending a finger wrapped in Fighting Spirit to flick the hilt, pushing it upwards.

In the flick of a finger.

The hilt suddenly shot up from his waist! It clinked against the bottom of the Rock Bullet in front of him.

A soft, flowing Fighting Spirit changed the Rock Bullet's trajectory. It tilted upwards, whooshing past Allen's cheek, blowing his bangs back.

The blade, in turn, clinked off the Rock Bullet and landed in front of Allen's feet, vibrating.

Allen reached down, pulled out his sword, gracefully twirled it in the air, and sheathed it.

Then, he began to applaud Rudy, who was striking a comical pose as if imparting a secret technique to him.

"Not bad, not bad. While preparing the Water Cannon with one hand, the other hand was already preparing the subsequent Rock Bullet the moment the Water Cannon obscured my vision. It's not combination magic, but it's even more unexpected than combination magic."

"Everything can be North God Style. Even though you haven't learned North God Style from the old man, it seems you grasp its essence very well."

Rudy looked at the messy ground beside Allen, which the Water Cannon had plowed open again, feeling quite frustrated.

Although he had anticipated that Allen would be able to neutralize this two-hit magic attack without injury, seeing Allen do it with such ease still disheartened him.

"Is the gap between us really that big? You just stood there and let me attack."

Allen blinked.

"Just luck, just luck~ Keep up the good work, next time…"

"Rock Bullet!"

Allen lifted his leg and 'plucked' away the Rock Bullet Rudy had suddenly raised his hand to launch. The Rock Bullet was kicked to his side, deeply embedding itself in the mud.

He continued speaking, smiling, finishing the words he hadn't yet said.

"…you'll definitely get it. But this time, it didn't feel as fast as the last one. Were you not focused?"

Rudy lowered his hand again, gritting his teeth in frustration.

"That's the fastest I can launch it suddenly right now. Any longer and you'd definitely dodge it."

"One more time, this is fun."

"No!"

"Oh, come on, just one more time~"

"No, Sylphy already saw it, why do we need to do it again? Besides, our duel is in two months!"

"But in two months, I'll be moving around, this time you can do whatever you want~ If you don't take another shot now, maybe you won't hit the bullseye then?"

"Heh heh. You'll definitely dodge it anyway. Ice Blade!"

Allen intercepted the approaching basic magic, Ice Blade, and examined it curiously.

This time, he didn't dodge. Because the ice blade was shaped like a knife, and as someone who practices with knives, Allen had excellent control over sharp objects like this, so he easily caught it.

Seeing this, Rudeus immediately pulled a face, turned around, and ran towards the top of the hill, wailing mournfully as he ran.

"No more, no more!! You can kill me, I'm not doing it again!"

Allen casually tossed the ice blade to the ground, and with a snap, it shattered. He then turned and walked towards the hillside.

"Wait for me~ Just one more time~"

"No!"

However, things still went beyond Allen's expectations. He stared dumbfounded at Sylphy, who was seriously clasping her hands over her chest, her eyes sparkling, as the request she had just made echoed in his ears.

"I want to learn Swordsmanship! The one where you catch ice with your bare hands!"

"Ah, that requires a higher level of Fighting Spirit and Swordsmanship... I'm afraid..."

Rudeus, seeing the bad situation, tiptoed and tried to sneak away, but Allen, who was speaking, grabbed him back.

He looked at Allen with a resentful expression.

"I've already demonstrated it! If Sylphy doesn't want to learn, there's nothing I can do! Why don't you teach her Swordsmanship instead!"

To his surprise, Allen suddenly turned to him and said seriously, "She's really not suited for Swordsmanship. However, I think the little skirmish just now was too small-scale. You need to give her something more impactful."

"Huh?"

The two then stared at each other in silence for a moment. Rudeus blinked and deliberated.

"Could it be..."

Allen glanced at Sylphy, who was standing obediently with her hands behind her back, and nodded with a somewhat excited expression.

"Yes, it's the Saint-level magic you learned from Lokkishi—Thunderstorm Cumulonimbus!"

Here it comes, the beginning of the dream! If I haven't seen this magic, what's the point of this Jobless transmigration?!

Mushoku Tensei focused too little on sword skills, especially the Water God Style, so there will be many extended fan creations for Swordsmanship later, but I'll try to keep them consistent with the original.