"Are you sure you're okay?"
Standing across from each other in a dirt field, Tom wanted to make sure Lisa was okay before they continued their lessons.
"... Yeah, part of the reason why these people look at me like they do is because waving spells is as easy as breathing."
Normally, most demi humans like elves had an aptitude for magic, it came to them without much effort, almost like breathing, but not quite.
There is a huge difference between doing something almost as easy as breathing, and just as easy as breathing. Where the former required effort, the latter could slip out of control without any conscious effort; just like breathing.
"... That's a problem, I guess I'll add in some anger management training to your regimen. But we'll save that for later."
Given how easily Lisa could start manipulating her surroundings without being aware of it, especially in high stress situations, Tom figured he would need to help her deal with that.
(Even if I still have no clue about this 'magic' stuff, I can still help her with other things.)
"Great then, reset."
"Ready."
Taking a stance without any weapons, Tom watched as Lisa got into position, taking care to mind her spacing as she branded a knife at him.
"Then let's go with a few counters, show me what you remember~"
Without waiting further for Lisa, Tom attacked at full speed and went directly for Lisa's knife, with Lisa barely able to pull back in time.
"Good, then what about this-"
Seeing Lisa was struggling to react in time, but still going by her training Tom turned the intensity up a notch as he continued to pursue Lisa's retreating figure by sliding as he lowered his stance and went for Lisa's still outstretched arm holding the knife.
"Wh!-"
As she had been forced to read for several hours yesterday, Lisa had blissfully forgotten how Tom was when it came to sparing, so she panicked and raised the knife to keep it out of Tom's reach. Seeing his opponent so fully open herself up to him, Tom felt it rude not to accept the invitation and switched focus, going for a low tackle instead of taking the knife.
"GHA!"
With Tom slamming into her lower abdomen, Lisa lost all the air in her body as she was flung backwards, still Tom didn't let her fall as that would be too dangerous and caught her as she dropped the knife.
"Okay, breathe."
Holding Lisa upright as she struggled to breathe, Tom immediately started to lecture.
"The objective was to counter me yeah, but at the end of the day protecting yourself is always the best choice… When retreating in a disorderly fashion just like you did, what style of terminal guidance is the best choice for CAS, specifically loitering drones?"
The way Tom saw it, if Lisa couldn't answer this basic question while in pain, there was no way she was going to be able to make the correct decision while getting overrun.
".... Fuck, really? Of course it's either GTC, LAM-G or a creeping red-zone."
A bit surprised at how Tom had chosen to revise with her, Lisa answered his question as soon as she caught her breath. The question Tom asked had been part of the strange book he had handed her yesterday, and although she struggled to understand what it was even about at the start it quickly started making sense when she thought about it in the sense of magic spells.
Without a neural implant like Tom's (which was apparently only for VVVIP's) Lisa commanded the drones she had learned about through radio commands, usually it worked like a chant for an offensive magic spell where she would first designate what ordinance she was tasking, then setting a target for it with conditions for autonomous thermal guidance like the options she had just listed.
"Okay, good answer. Let's forget about the knife for now and work on your blocking instead."
Accepting Lisa's answer as somewhat acceptable for her first day with the stuff, Tom moved onto correcting something else he had noticed.
"Blocking?"
"Yeah, you're clearly uncomfortable in melee range, and given we're the only ones in this world with firearms I need you to be able to deal with people that come too close if you're to help me rescue your mom."
Taking a stance after explaining, Tom decided that it would be best to start slow and formed a fist that he brought towards Lisa in slow motion, stopping about 20 centimetres from her face.
"I call it blocking, but that's often the worst thing to do, as you still transfer the energy of an attack into your own body. Open your fist and position it so that you can guide my fist away from your body as it continues towards you… Yeah, just like that, again."
In no time, Tom had Lisa starting to block his attacks, gradually increasing the speed of the punches while making sure he didn't put much force into them.
"Good, instead of your hands you can also redirect with your forearms and wrists… Yeah, just like that."
Still attacking even as he was talking, Tom had long since raised his tempo to where Lisa didn't have the time or spare focus to respond back, when it seemed like she had adjusted he would either up the tempo of attacks or start messing with the spacing between them.
Around noon Lisa collapsed to the ground in exhaustion from Tom's constant attacks she had to block or redirect, she really needed a break so Tom gave her one.
"If I want to attack a hostile force hiding inside a reinforced stronghold but have no block 3 or 4 Wasp's available, what other choices would be preferable?"
"Hah… ha…. A block 10 or 5?"
Taking a bit of time to get her breathing under control, Lisa nevertheless answered somewhat intelligently, still Tom wanted to make sure she understood what she was talking about.
"Explain your reasoning."
"Given the enemy is in an enclosed space, the chemical warheads of the block 10 would be useful, even if they have protection against it fighting in full gear isn't very comfortable and would turn light injuries into incapacitations. If no block 10's are available the block 5 with an incendiary warhead would make the aforementioned enclosed space even more problematic for them."
"Good, great even. Take a break, I have stuff to deal with."
"Sure…"
Without bothering what 'stuff' Tom had to deal with, or even how long her break would be Lisa was too exhausted to wave him goodbye as she remained lying on the ground.
"You can come over now!"
Shouting to no one in particular, Tom remained standing as Nick appeared from behind a building.
"How did-"
"Not important, you're here to tell me the envoys have arrived right? Let's get this over with."
Not waiting for Nick's response, Tom started walking towards the group of elvers who had arrived at the village just 20 minutes ago. As Tom could no longer trust what any of the villagers said or did since his little spat this morning, he had been getting used to constantly accessing his neural uplink while training Lisa, so he had seen the group of outsiders arriving, them talking with Nick and Nick struggling how to approach Tom due to the threats from earlier.
As Tom walked through the village with Nick behind him, what little foot traffic was there quickly parted and as the villagers didn't want to anger Tom again, none dared to even look at his face.
(Too bad it had to come to this, but hopefully these outsiders will smoothe over the situation one way or another…)
As they were most likely the people looking for him and had sent out Nick in the first place, Tom assumed (hoped) these visitors were somehow connected to his boss and could help him out as their goals were hopefully aligned.
(Hmm, better safe than sorry I guess.)
Realising he was putting a lot of hopes and expectations on the upcoming meeting, Tom grabbed the MPX-11A2 handgun in its holster on his chest and switched it to his hip for farster drawing before making sure a round was chambered.
Arriving at the village elder's house, Tom entered without knocking and was met with a group of elves who first looked surprised at Tom, then to Nick behind him before a redhead of the group finally addressed Tom.
"Can I… Help you?"
Clearly uncomfortable with a random human walking in, the redhead clearly put a hand on her sword as she addressed Tom.
"Yeah, you sent Nick here to fucking get me, so I assume so."
Inspecting the redhead a bit closer, Tom found her to be clearly trained with the swords she was reaching for, not only were the right muscle groups toned but she was clearly also confident with it.
"I find that really hard to believe, human, where lies your allegiance?"
Drawing her sword, the redhead casually pointed the tip of the sword towards Tom's throat as her allies also got ready to kill him.
(Well, shit… Why the fuck did my boss make me look like this with all these fucking issues.)
Given the ruthless lady of the Hunt had the ability to summon him to this world, and that she had also enhanced his body as his request, Tom reasoned she could've also adjusted his body to be less problematic.
"For fuck's sake… Nick, tell them or I'm going to demonstrate in a way no one else will appreciate."
Not willing to put up with more of this treatment as they were the ones to summon him, Tom prepared to turn the room into an impromptu, open-concept graveyard and thus made Nick deal with it.
"My most honoured head priestess, although it is indeed hard to believe, I have confirmed that this man is the apostle of our benevolent lady of the Hunt."
"... Confirmed? How so?"
Lowering her sword slightly, the head priestess appeared to be at least somewhat open to having her mind changed, although begrudgingly.
"He can wield her divine mana,-"
"Him? A human? How preposterous."
Still, there were apparently limits to the head priestess' believeth, so a demonstration appeared to be necessary.
Yet again.
"... I fucking swear."
Cursing under his breath, Tom centred himself as a steady rage bubbled just under the surface.
(... I need a X-98(r) Theta grenade to deal with this.)
QURREY_COMPLEATE
STATUS:_AVALIBLECOST:_50_POINTSCONFIRM_PURCHASE_Y/N?
Without any apparent outside influence, Tom's body started radiating divine mana and in no time this mana concentrated itself around his hand, transforming into a training version of tear gas grenade Tom used to clear out the monster nest up north.
"Did it ever appear to elves that people sometimes are more than they seem?... I guess that might be a larger issue with this world, but I guess that's a problem for later."
Pulling the pin, Tom left a single finger on the lever as his gaze lowered the room's temperature by a few degrees.
"For now it's time to teach all you dipshits about the wonders of teargas."
After clearing out of the village leader's house with a reduced strength theta grenade, Tom found the formerly haughty head priestess prostrating herself before him.
"I sincerely apologise for my… Rude behaviour, saint of our most ruthless lady."
Stifling a cough mid sentence as she was still quite affected by the tear gas, the head priestess nevertheless apologised for her serious transgression.
It wouldn't be that much of an exaggeration to say that this was Mari's largest fuck-up, even with all the issues she had had after taking over for her older sister, dissregarding and even insulting a living saint of her most merciful lady of the hunt was properly the worst thing she had ever done.
"Apology accepted."
"But-"
"I told you already. Apology accepted, strictly because I am interested in working together with you, not because I've forgiven you, or the village leader for that matter."
Letting the head priestess know she was treating on thin ice, she finally got up from the ground and started cooperating.
"Understood, graceful saint-"
"Call me Tom, I'm simply a hired 'fixer' for my boss."
"... Understood, Tom, I am Mari, head priestess of the Tsuya free states. What can I help with?"
Instead of full reverence which Tom clearly didn't enjoy, Mari introduced herself with a light bow as she asked how she could help.
"I've recently undertaken a private commission from a 3rd party that involves burning down a certain kingdom, killing their king and freeing their enslaved demi-humans. I think our interests are aligned and I would like to seek some level of cooperation."
Taking a second to process exactly what Tom was suggesting, Mari wasn't exactly pleased with what he was suggesting.
"... That… Will be hard to support officially."
While Mari would love nothing more than to see the kingdom burn and fall, the reality wasn't as simple as that. So far, the Tsuya free states had only survived because they hadn't attracted the kingdom's attention.
(If they stop using all their resources on the Ivory trade federation, peasant uprisings and the rising number of monsters we would be crushed in no time… Aiding in poking this particular bear would well prove our doom.)
"Yeah, of course. I'm not asking for any kind of official support, just some help to avoid attracting attention here and some help breaking up slaver rings there. You know, things that the Tsuya free states definitely aren't already doing."
Explaining the kind of assistance he was hoping for made Mari a lot more agreeable, and after a few seconds she extended out a hand.
"In that case, we'll have no issues getting along Tom."
Of course, Tom had no way of knowing at the time that he would soon be pressing a pistol to Mari's head as he shook her hand.