Skill Hunter -Kill Monsters, Acquire Skills, Ascend to the Highest Rank!

Ike and Relin carried huge bags full of caltrops and carefully scattered them across the field. Ike noted the locations where they'd spread their traps carefully. As long as he memorized their locations, he could safely fight in this field, while tricking his opponents into the traps. As long as they're able to be injured by traps like this. He snorted at himself and shook his head. No point being so pessimistic about it before it happened.

"Heyo. How's it going?"

Ike jumped. He looked around. "Wisp?"

Prickly, tiny feet pressed against his cheek. Ike stiffened, barely resisting the urge to smack his face. The small black bug hopped off his cheek. Midair, it transformed into Wisp. She landed among the caltrops, her bare feet straddling a pile of them. "What're these?"

"Caltrops. They cut peoples' feet open," Ike told her.

"Oh. Neat! So this is what you do if you can't build webs." She hopped out of the caltrops and peered around. "You've really dressed this field up, haven't you?"

"We're working hard. We can't all instinctively knit silk."

"And more's the pity."

Ike nodded. "Look around and learn where the traps are. I don't think your webs will hold the monsters forever. If we can, we're going to keep the primary fighting here, so it's good if you learn where we set the traps, too." Your journey continues on empire

"Got it."

Ike glanced at the sky. Mag could benefit from learning where the traps were, too, but then again, he could fly. He probably wouldn't participate in the ground battle at all.

Actually… Compared to fighting on the ground, Mag would have greater utility running scouting rounds over the battle. The boars had been relatively easy to kill, but whatever came next wouldn't be. Knowing where they were moving and where they weren't would save him and Wisp time on the battlefield, give them precious seconds to respond to the monsters before they arrived. I'll have to ask him to do that when we run into each other again. Currently, Mag was circling the sky, watching for the next round of monsters and keeping an eye on the other teams. He didn't want to interrupt Mag's duties, but he did need to talk to the bird before the next round. There wouldn't be enough time once it started.

Relin drew up alongside Ike. He glanced at her. "Can I help you?"

"Do you want us to attack, this round?" she asked.

Ike thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Keep focusing on maintaining the castle's defenses. Man the cannons and the spell arrays. Like I said, we're here to grow stronger. We won't get any stronger ourselves if we rely on you to fight for us."

"Are you sure? This round is much more difficult than the first. Contestants often die in the coming round."

That's concerning. Nonetheless, Ike shook his head. "I'm sure."

Relin hesitated, then nodded. "As you wish."

He and Wisp had been in life-or-death fights before. They were the fights they'd both grown the most in. Compared to placidly fighting enemies who posed no real threat to him, he grew much more explosively in dangerous battle. He didn't know if that was the case for everyone, or simply the way he'd learned to grow, but it was definitely true for him. He'd developed Storm Clad in the heat of battle. Ranked up in battle, even.

Though there were definitely things he needed to fix about his current skills. Like the defensive one. Going all flaccid and limp on the field was good for absorbing hits, but it wasn't good for jumping up and fighting on. He needed both. To go limp, and then pop back up, ready to fight, in the next instant.

As he scattered the traps around, he called up the defensive skill, testing its limits. If he cast it on a part of his body, it didn't trigger the laziness. It was only if he cast it on his whole body that he didn't want to get up again. Or, as he tested it, nearly the majority of his whole body. If he cast it on all of him but his hand or all of him but his pinky toe, it still triggered the laziness.

Relin glanced over every time he hit the ground. On the second time, she paused. "Do you need help?"

"No, no. I'm just… testing skills," Ike explained.

She nodded slowly. Disbelief flickered in her eyes. "Okay. As you wish."

Ike laughed awkwardly. I know I shouldn't do this in front of strangers, but beggars can't be choosers. I don't have the time to go hide and do this quietly. I just need to get it done before the next round.

He could use the partial skill without worry, but that wasn't the problem. This was a defensive skill he needed to use when a huge skill slammed into him, something he couldn't dodge, avoid, or withstand normally. Partially changing his body wouldn't be enough in the kind of situations he needed to use it. When something massively larger than him punched him with a fist the size of his whole body, it wouldn't do him much good if he made his arm go limp.

Ike kept going limp as he seeded the field with traps. He tried protecting his mental energy, tried channeling his core, tried everything he could think of. It didn't matter. No matter what he did, when he went all limp, he went heavy lazy. There was no breaking out of it. He tried repeating the skill over and over until he got used to it, but he never got used to it. Once the laziness struck, it took him a solid one to three seconds to stand back up again. One to three seconds wasn't much in the grand scheme of things, but in battle, it could be the difference between life and death. The limp skill was only good against blunt force trauma. If someone smacked him, then stabbed him, he'd still be just as dead.

There has to be something I can do. He frowned, thinking. He tossed a handful of caltrops on the ground and kept walking. In his mind, he ran through how the punch hit him. The knuckles slammed into his shoulder, and the wave of force passing through his limp body without harming it.

Wait. Is that the key? Ike stopped abruptly. He turned to Relin. "Punch me. With all your strength."

She gave him a look. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely sure. Punch me." He turned his shoulder to her and patted it, gesturing her on.

Across the field, Wisp whipped around. "Wait, Ike, I'm on my way—"

Relin drew back her fist. Her aura suddenly spiked. Higher than Ike had expected. Higher than his or Wisp's auras. For a split second, he sensed the emanations of Rank 4 from her fist. He froze. Holy shit. I might have miscalculated a bit. Wait, hold on. Maybe I do want you to fight—

Her fist slammed into his shoulder, and Ike went flying.