I am Kurt Von Ritzburg

Making the envisioned mana saber is harder than I thought. And as a substitute, I thought of a certain magic.

A magic that can make my weapon enhanced, and work as a substitute in fights.

"Should I give it a try?"

Before I could try to manifest it, the tiger pounced towards us. And rather than running, it just lunged from that point and to my surprise, it covered all that distance with just a single jump!

[Barrier]

A magic barrier formed as a defense in front of us, but I doubt it would last. It was nothing but a tool to buy us a second.

"Dodge it!"

Both me and Miria jumped and dodged before the tiger could nab us.

Roar~

The tiger swiped its claws and the barrier broke like a feeble glass. 

'To think it broke a magic barrier without any effort…!'

Even though I manifested it with just the spell's minimum magic power requirements, I didn't expect it to be destroyed in one simple strike.

But it surely made me aware that though the demon tiger's speciality is its speed, it is not lacking in strength as well.

"Miria."

I looked at her, pale yet standing with determined eyes in contrast to her given up eyes from moments ago.

"Alright."

Looking at my eyes, she nodded and agreed to it.

My call was nothing but a gesture for us to attack it. I rushed towards the tiger from the front. It is dangerous, but without it we won't be able to land a hit on it.

'You have a low magic power. Don't waste it. Use it most efficiently.'

[Reinforcement Redirection - Legs]

Instead of using more mana to reinforce my body, I directed the current acting mana from all over my body to my legs.

"Ack!"

The sudden overload of mana made the legs to pop out veins with pressure, emanating immense pain but it was worth it.

My speed skyrocketed! Unlike my previous speed, I was significantly faster.

'It's good that I watched Hunter x Hunter.'

In the Hunter x Hunter, there is a technique - Ryu where the user precisely manipulates the energy(nen), to perform real time offensive and defensive value adjustments.

And my reinforcement redirection is based upon this technique. 

Rather than reinforcing the whole body, use that mana and concentrate it only on the active point.

"This time, I am pouncing on you."

And with sword in hand, I lunged towards the tiger. It was quite unbelievable, but just in one shot I was in front of the tiger.

'The momentum is good. If I attack like this… Huh?'

And then I slipped! 

'Damn!'

The sudden speed gave me strength, but I wasn't too used to it. It made me unbalanced at the crucial time!

"Kurt!"

I was down, and the tiger's paw was coming on me. Miria shouted in worry, and was dashing to rescue me.

'She won't make it time!'

Do you know what I learned about being a villain? That is to never rely on luck.

After having several bad encounters with luck, do you think I would hope for good luck?

"I am Kurt Von Ritzburg, the villain!"

I was down, so what? I am still alive!

[Reinforcement Redirection - Right Hand]

And the mana rapidly transferred from the legs towards the hand and the muscles swelled up, and the hand became bigger, akin to a buffed man's arm.

It was red because of pressure and the blood also started to come out from the pores and rupture of the veins.

But all these injuries are tiny compared to death.

Roar!

With a mighty roar of dominance, the tiger stomped his paw on me to crush to death, and I swung my sword upwards straight at it.

Clang!

"Don't think I would die that easily, you cat!"

Splash!

And instead of that paw crushing me, the sword went through it, splashing the blood on my face.

"Raaaaw!"

The tiger cried in pain and went a step back instead of pushing it through because of its instinct. 

Unlike humans, who have the courage to face someone unknown and stronger than themselves, animals are different.

Strong dominates the weak. It's in their instincts. And now, the strong tiger is injured by a human.

Its instincts kicked, and it in fear took a step back. What if it is a demon? In the end the tiger is also an animal.

"Miria!"

It's a chance! And the same thought was also on her mind.

“I got it!”

With the shout, she strained and took out all of her strength and striked the afraid tiger. Unlike me, Miria’s base strength is higher than mine.

She is an adult, and is an excellent hunter, so her strength is undoubtable. And upon that, I have casted a reinforcement on her.

And she jumped and as soon she found herself in the range, she struck her sword down, aiming at the neck of the demon.

“Roar!”

But the tiger wasn’t a demon to lie down and let itself be struck down. Rather than an attack, it was more of a desperate action. It swung his huge paw haphazardly as his last course of action.

“That is dangerous!”

Even though it was a random attack, it came towards Miria. It was like a god didn’t want to see us alive. It was towards her torso, and with the tiger’s sharpness, if not all, some part of her will be torn away.

I tried to stand up, but the pain in my legs didn't allow me. 

‘Damn! I have no other choice!’

I closed my eyes and concentrated all my senses to control the mana. All that mana from the rest of my body started to move towards the right hand. It would be ideal if my hand bursted out from the mana pressure but it didn’t happen.

‘It was worth it to practice mana control.’

Rather than simply accumulating the mana in my hand, I started to move it on my sword. It was impossible to infuse mana into an object with enchantment, but I wasn’t doing on spot enchantment. The mana rather than entering the sword, covered the blade and formed a white covering around it. 

I looked at my white sword, and a smile formed on my face.

“I did it.”

Mana Envelopment, the magic I thought of as a substitute for magic sword.

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