Chương 69: 67 - What Could be Better than a Shieldbreaker?

"What's a shieldbreaker?" asked Jonny as they exited Oliver's study.

"Shhhh," whispered Igrette.

"It's exactly what it sounds like. A strike designed to break shields."

"But–""We'll talk more when we have a room." They went downstairs and found Alden and Haley waiting in the sitting room, nursing glasses of red wine. Haley immediately got to her feet and showed them back upstairs to a pair of rooms where they could stay. They were separate, but there was a door between them, which Haley described as good for peace of mind. It was where Alden's brother's family stayed when they visited, which wasn't very often.

The rooms were both fairly empty, with nothing but a bed, a desk, and a dresser in each, but they were clean, and the temperature control enchantments were intact, which was more than could be said about some of the inns along the road. And anything was better than sleeping in the snow in the mountains. Haley gave them a brief rundown of what the breakfast situation was like, and where the bathroom was, and warned them that the rooster would be waking them up early unless they were deep sleepers.

Igrette thanked her for everything, and said goodnight, then followed Jonny into his own room.

"So shieldbreakers," Jonny said as soon as the door closed.

"What do you mean? What's the difference between a shieldbreaker and just a stronger attack?"

"When talking about ordinary mana users, the difference is how focused the attack is. It's difficult to focus a spell onto a small area, and it's difficult to channel a large amount of mana, and it's even more difficult to do both at once. That's a shieldbreaker. A lot of force concentrated on a small area designed to punch through tough defenses."

"But I can't do that," said Jonny.

"Right, which is a problem. You're strong, and your body is incredibly so, but it also limits you. You can't hit any harder than you can punch or kick, and you can't form your mana into a point. If you try to push more mana into an attack, you hurt yourself, and even then, it won't result in that much more power, since it's still limited by your body."

"How can I make a shieldbreaker, then?"

"That's the question, isn't it," she said with a half-smile.

"Think about it as you try to go to bed. How would you fight against an opponent who can block harder than you can punch? Or whose body is simply so durable that your punches don't do anything? Tomorrow, we'll get working." Jonny could tell that Igrette already had an idea of what he needed to do, but she also clearly wanted him to figure it out for himself. And he had never been the type to need all the answers laid out for him, so he just nodded back to her.

"Okay."

"Have a good night," said Igrette.

"We'll relax for a little while in the morning, but training starts in the afternoon."

"Okay. Good night." Jonny changed out of his travel clothes and got into bed, the whole time thinking about Igrette's words. She had a point. He was strong, but even with gravity flashing to help him deliver punches at full power, it wasn't enough. When he fought the bear, his punches damaged it, but even at full power, it wasn't enough to truly hurt the beast.

For a wild animal, just disorienting it and scaring it off was enough, but if the bear was smarter, or quicker, or had just stuck around a bit longer until Jonny's heart got overloaded, that would have been it. He could probably build his power up a little further, making micro-adjustments to his technique as he fully mastered internal mana techniques, but even so, his power was limited by his body. And how the heck am I supposed to get around that? He thought of maybe using gravity.

An axe kick aided by gravity magic would certainly be powerful. Maybe if he loaded only his leg with it, he could deliver a truly devastating blow. But the issue of his body still remained. Would his foot survive such an attack? Or would it shatter too? Tools were off the table. A sword or a knife would be a sharp point, but that didn't do a whole lot for him when he couldn't put mana into it. Though maybe it could?

Even if it broke on impact, a blade moving fast enough with enough force behind it would do something, right? He racked his brain for another quarter of an hour, trying to come up with something to get around the problem Igrette had presented. Right now, his best solution to enemies he couldn't punch or kick was joint manipulation, but if he was fighting a mage, or just some kind of magic beast with a barrier ability, that wouldn't do him much good. He had to touch them to tear their limbs apart. Oh, I get it!

he suddenly realized. It's a trick question! Clearly, there was no way for him to get past a shield that he couldn't punch or kick out. In that case, the solution was to simply not engage it. Go around it. Fight a battle of attrition and wait until his opponent exhausted their mana. He was pretty sure he had a larger mana pool than any other mages in second layer, just because of how his mana worked. Having second layer density in his whole body meant a lot more mana than if it was just concentrated in his core.

He wasn't sure how much more, because he knew his core was also much smaller than most, but it was definitely a powerful advantage. In a situation like this, attrition was his friend. Satisfied he had found the answer, he soon fell asleep, dreaming of a rematch against a suspiciously Tommy-shaped opponent, and the next morning, woke up in a good mood. Igrette was already gone when he woke up, so he got dressed and went downstairs to find her eating breakfast with about half the Smiths.

Haley was not present, and neither were Olivia or Samuel, but Emily and the twins were there, as were Alden and Oliver. Oliver looked exhausted. Jonny was pretty sure the old researcher hadn't slept. But despite the dark circles, his eyes were bright and full of energy. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"I have a theory," he said with a grin when Jonny sat down.

"I haven't found the right texts to back it up, but don't worry, I've got something. It shouldn't be long…" The twins looked like they were in a bad mood. They were oddly silent the entire time, and spent the whole meal poking at the food without much enthusiasm. A few times, they glanced toward the door, as if pondering running away, but their father's glare had them fixed in place.

Emily was the only one who looked wide awake and full of energy, her legs swinging under her chair as she chattered away at Igrette with her mouth full. Igrette was patiently listening as the girl talked about all the things she was doing to get stronger. Jonny soon got dragged into the conversation as well when Igrette mentioned that Jonny had spent a lot of time strengthening his body. He didn't actually mind, though.

It felt good to be the knowledgeable one as he explained one of the few subjects he could claim to be somewhat of an expert in. At the end of the meal, Haley and Olivia finally arrived, lugging a few crates of milk bottles, while Samuel toddled behind them struggling with a single half-full bottle. They had been milking the cows, Jonny realized. And it seemed that they had already eaten, since they didn't sit down, nor was there enough food left for the three of them.

The two children disappeared off to somewhere after delivering the milk to the kitchen, but Haley returned to say good morning to Jonny and ask again if they needed anything.

"Actually, since it's going to take some time for Oliver to do his research, I was hoping you'd know of a place where we could do some training. Are there any local mana wells?"

"We have two on the property, actually," said Haley. One due west of here, and the other to the northeast, right at the base of the hill. You should use the one to the northeast. The one to the west is better and closer, but that's Stella's territory, and she's not a big fan of strangers. We'll see if we can get her acclimated to you in the next few weeks, though."

"That would be lovely, thank you," said Igrette.

"Can I come?" asked Emily, her mouth still full of egg.

"Don't talk with your mouth full. And that's a question for Miss Ignacia, not me." Emily hastily swallowed and looked up at Igrette.

"Can I come?"

"What's the magic word?" prompted Haley.

"Please?" Igrette smiled down at her, then turned back to Haley.

"Actually, that's a better question for you. I don't mind having her around, but I'll be training Jonny in combat."

"Combat?"

"I worked as a medic for the rangers after the war. I know some self defense. And Jonny here is very interested in it, so I show him some things when we have the time." Haley pursed her lips as Emily looked up at her with puppy eyes. If Emily was at all surprised or put off by the prospect of learning how to fight instead of just strength training, she didn't show it. Jonny suspected she was more interested in just being around than actually doing any training.

"I say let her," said Alden, surprising everyone.

"Never bad to know some self defense."

"Self defense, yes," said Haley.

"But I'm not sure…"

"It'll be good for her," argued Alden.

"And it'll help with those boys in town." Haley grimaced.

"The twins and I will be right out there with 'em. I'll keep an eye on things."

"…Oh, alright," said Haley.

"But be careful. I don't want her getting hurt."

"I'll make sure she stays safe," said Igrette.

"Only stances and forms for now. She won't even scrape her knuckles." Haley visibly relaxed at that, and then nodded.

"Thank you. Then… Have fun. And stay safe. I need to get this milk ready. Turner should be here soon…" A few minutes later, Jonny and Igrette were back on their feet and waiting just outside the back door as Alden and the twins went to fetch something from a nearby shed. They returned with rounded shovels, and the twins looked extremely unenthused about whatever they were about to do. They had resigned themselves to it, though, and neither of them looked ready to run.

"What's the plan with those?" asked Igrette as they walked.

"Digging a pit," said Alden gruffly.

"A safe place for them to practice fire spells. I know them, and I know they won't stop. Might as well make sure they don't burn the farm down while they're at it. Oughtta teach 'em a lesson too." Igrette nodded with approval.

"Smart man. Doing it near the mana well to make it easier to practice?"

"Yeah, and there's a creek. If something goes wrong, it'll stop the fire from reaching the rest of the farm, and they'll have enough water to put it out if they act fast." Jonny thought the plan sounded pretty ingenious, but the twins didn't look very excited about it. Understandably so, he figured, but frankly, this was almost a reward. Sure, they had to put in some work, but as "punishment" for misbehaving and casting destructive fire spells without supervision…

they were getting a place where they could cast destructive fire spells without supervision. It seemed like a pretty sweet deal to Jonny. Shortly after Alden finished talking, Emily started peppering Igrette with questions about what kind of training they would be doing, and that conversation carried them all the way to the mana well. When they arrived, Emily seemed very excited to get started, and was very disappointed when Igrette told her what she would be starting with.

"Run to that tree and back ten times." Emily looked betrayed.

"We need to figure out how much stamina you have," said Igrette seriously.

"Stamina is one of the most important parts of fighting. Jonny here runs every day." Emily looked to him for help, but he just nodded seriously.

"I do," he said. Emily was crestfallen, but after a bit more coaxing from Igrette, she finally lined up and started running. Then, she stopped a few steps later when she realized that Jonny hadn't joined her.

"What about him?" she asked.

"He'll start in a moment," said Igrette.

"I have something to talk about with him first, but he'll be running more than you when we're done." Emily narrowed her eyes in suspicion, but started running a moment later anyway.

"So, did you think about my question last night?" asked Igrette as soon as she was out of earshot.

"I did," said Jonny confidently.

"And I think it's a trick question. If someone has a shield that strong, I can't break it. I just have to try to outlast them. I have more mana than most people, and they can't keep the shield up forever, so I just need to bleed their mana until they can't keep it up anymore, then strike." Igrette smiled down at him, and Jonny's mood fell. That was not the smile she gave when he got the answer right. That was the smile she gave when she was about to teach him a lesson about overconfidence.

"Not quite," she said.

"You're half-right. But still not quite there. If we go with your answer, what would happen if, say, you got trapped? If a mage decided to put a dome shield right around you, pinning you in place as they prepared a shieldbreaker of their own to pierce your skin?"

"I'd be ffff… I'd be in big trouble."

"Exactly. But you're still half-right. You can't increase your power, and you can't make a needle point with mana. Your shieldbreakers won't be at all standard. But I can think of two ways you can still make one. One is for melee opponents with tough skin or armor. The other is for ranged mages creating shields of pure mana, or other elements. Both are related to techniques you already know. One is actually based on an idea that you originally had." Jonny frowned.

"Go do your warmup runs. Twenty times to the tree and back. See if you can figure out at least one of them by the time you finish."