As though moved by some sudden resonance of souls, Ted and Isis reached out at the same time. Their palms met with a resounding smack, and they clasped hands tightly.
"Persevere!" Ted roared.
"Persevere!" Isis echoed just as loudly.
"Let those damn geniuses know they can't leave you behind! It doesn't matter if they pull ahead for a while! Maybe tomorrow, maybe even in the next second, you'll come from behind and steamroll right past them!"
"Raaagh!"
Watching the two of them blaze with fighting spirit, Altaïr thought they had lost their minds.
What was all this about showing "those damn geniuses"?
Was it possible they had failed to notice that no one their age was more gifted than Isis?!
Altaïr's growth lay mainly in his understanding of swordsmanship and mastery of technique, while Isis's lay in her physical abilities.
She was practically a Monster. Through nothing more than daily training and hunts, her strength, stamina, and every other physical attribute continued to improve at a visibly rapid pace.
How many powerful Hunters had Altaïr sought out for guidance? He had done everything possible to make their experience and skills his own, studying their sword techniques, combining them, and developing new applications suited to him. He had reached his current level only because countless predecessors had helped lift him there.
And Isis? Aside from the defensive techniques she had learned from Instructor Altman a few years ago, and the Surge Slash Combo Altaïr had learned from Teacher Haifa and taught her to help polish her fundamentals, she had figured out everything else on her own.
Did that not make it obvious who the real prodigy was?
When they first met, what Isis lacked most was confidence. Over the years, however, she had gradually learned to recognize her own strength and cast off the inferiority complex born from living in the towering shadows of her parents.
Now, the formidable Ted had somehow brought that "inferiority complex" roaring back...
Her face all but declared, "I may not be a prodigy, but I'll grit my teeth, persevere, work hard in silence, and surpass everyone one step at a time!"
Wake up! There was no one ahead of you in the first place!
The inn's thin door was no match for their booming voices. Before long, an irate guest from the next room came knocking to find out what was going on.
When Malika opened the door, the noise-addled guest glared at her. Then he noticed Altaïr standing beside her, well over 190 centimeters tall, and some of the anger drained from his face. When he saw Ted and Isis still shouting at the top of their lungs, his expression stiffened, and he began seriously considering whether he should find another inn...
Malika apologized profusely. Once the guest, who had every right to be angry, had gone, she stormed over and kicked Ted and Isis twice each.
"Both of you, shut up! Stop making a scene in here. And you, Ted, what good is a pep talk on its own? If you have anything useful to teach Isis, get on with it!
"There's a major battle coming soon. She may still have time to put it to use!"
Ted was an impatient man of action himself. He swept one hand through the air. "Of course! No problem!
"There's no room to cut loose in town. Isis, get your weapon and head outside the walls. Let me see what you're capable of first!"
"Got it!" Without another word, Isis took off at a run, her long legs carrying her out in a flash.
After Isis left, Altaïr gave a wry laugh. "Senior Ted, Isis is already improving fast enough. If you keep putting this much pressure on her, aren't you afraid she'll buckle under it?"
Ted's expression settled. "Buckle? You underestimate her. She and I are cut from the same cloth. I didn't buckle back then, so how could a little pressure like this break her?"
He paused. "Of course I know you two are prodigies. Even I'm just the tiniest bit less gifted than you.
"Do you know what wears down a prodigy's fighting spirit more than anything else?"
"I don't know," Altaïr admitted. He had honestly never considered the question before.
"No matter how capable someone is, everyone encounters bottlenecks. The stronger you become, the slower you improve. That's inevitable.
"Right now, you're still growing rapidly, so you haven't noticed it yet. Sooner or later, however, you'll reach a point where no amount of effort seems to move you forward even an inch.
"What will you do when that happens?"
Altaïr thought for a moment. "Keep training while searching for another way to break through, perhaps by learning a new Hunter Art?"
"That's the right approach, but what if it still doesn't work?" Ted gave him a long, penetrating look. "There are countless Hunter Arts, and the training methods for most are public knowledge. Why don't High Rank Hunters simply learn every one of them?
"Because techniques, even powerful Hunter Arts, are only tools.
"Whether you know two Hunter Arts, three, or five, they won't improve your actual strength. At most, learning more of them gives you greater tactical flexibility."
Altaïr fell silent.
"You're a swordsman. When you hit a bottleneck, you can continue honing your swordsmanship and polishing your techniques. However slight the improvement, it still gives you a sense of progress.
"A Gunlance is different. To put it bluntly, the weapon has a high floor but a relatively low ceiling. There aren't many ways to reinvent how it is used.
"Harder training won't solve everything either. You'll understand in twenty years. Even if you train until you collapse every day, you'll barely manage to keep your physical condition from declining.
"Going several years, or even more than a decade, without making any progress is perfectly normal. The prouder and more ambitious a prodigy is, the more easily that stagnation can break their spirit. Plenty of people lose heart because of it."
Altaïr murmured in acknowledgment. Isis was facing a similar problem, though it had not yet reached the point where she could not advance an inch. Her progress had merely slowed, and she could not find a direction in which to improve.
"That's why I say 'perseverance' is the heart of the Gunlance. I'm not only putting pressure on her. I'm planting that conviction deep in her heart.
"Even if you can't move forward an inch, even if you can't find a direction, you grit your teeth and keep going."
Altaïr nodded silently.
He knew Ted's words were a reminder for him as well.
Ted sighed, stretched out one large hand, and patted Altaïr on the shoulder. "It's a wonderful thing for Isis to have a partner like you. When two people possess similar strength and talent, they push each other and neither finds it easy to grow complacent.
"Unlike me. My teammates were never quite up to par, so I had to drag them forward myself."
"You must have a death wish!" Beside them, Malika's eyebrows shot up.
Before the squad disbanded, she too had been one of Ted's teammates.
Ted merely raised his chin smugly. "What? I'm right, aren't I? In the entire Alcohol Squad, I was the only 8★ Hunter. Weren't the rest of you all just 7★?"
Malika ground her teeth, but for the moment, she could find no retort. She looked ready to snatch the liquor bottle off the table and smash it over his enormous bald head.
Altaïr had no desire to get caught in their marital quarrel, so he quickly reminded them, "Isis should have her weapon by now and already be on her way out of town.
"Shouldn't we get going too? Is there somewhere suitable nearby?"
Malika drew several deep breaths, grabbed the Dragon's Breath Liquor from the table, bit off the cap, and gulped down nearly half the bottle before her temper finally cooled. "Manti Town has a history of attacks by colossal creatures, so Battle Street was built outside the walls.
"We won't have to worry about hurting or frightening anyone there. You can cut loose.
"Enough out of you, baldy. Let's go!"
—--
The three left the inn. By the time they passed through the town gates, Isis was already waiting outside.
Battle Street was exceptionally wide. Because of the earlier evacuation notice, hardly anyone was around, making it ideal for them.
When Isis spotted them in the distance, she waved vigorously, then raised her weapon, shield in one hand and Gunlance in the other, and charged toward them at full speed.
Ted laughed and clapped his massive hands. "Hahaha! Not every Gunlance user can charge with a shield in one hand and a Gunlance in the other. She really was born for the Gunlance."
Before he had even finished, a thunderous boom split the air.
The recoil from a shell lifted both Isis's feet off the ground in mid-charge. She instantly hurtled more than twenty meters forward, sweeping her Gunlance in a broad arc toward the three people still six or seven meters away.
The broad blade of the Glavenus Gunlance whipped up a gale that sent the hair of all three... or rather, both of them streaming backward.
Isis landed, spun to bleed off her excess momentum, then lowered her Gunlance and asked excitedly, "Uncle Ted! I invented this move. It's called Blast Dash!
"What do you think?"
Ted remained silent for two seconds. Then he snatched the half-empty bottle from Malika's hand and took several long gulps.
"Damn, is this what people do with Gunlances nowadays?"
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5 bonus chaps for every 100 powerstones