Ludwig nodded, this time, he began twirling the heavier chain, but instead of using his own strength to spin it, he used the souls in his lantern to fuel it instead. Allowing the chain to follow his will instead of his own strength.
The spinning motion was ten times faster, enough that the chain was whirring through the air creating frightening howling sounds in the process.
Joana smiled as she readied up, “Go again!” she said and Ludwig flung his makeshift weapon at her which she dodged, but with a slight pull, the chain’s head turned like a scorpion’s tail and aimed back at her back. Joana dodged it like the last time and rushed Ludwig.
Ludwig hurriedly called back his chain which returned to his side right as Joana’s claw like hand reached for him.
He raised his arm up toward her, and the chain immediately wrapped rapidly in front of him in a makeshift shield while the sword shard planted itself in the center. The buckler form of the chain had a spear-like extension at the center due to the shard that made it hard for Joana to grab at him with her bear hand, so she went for the chain and tried to pull Ludwig forward.
But the chain simply keeled over, making her lose her stance due to using so much force to pull something that easily peeled over.
In that second, Ludwig made the chain that was in her grasp wrap around her arm, and he pulled hard, Joana allowed him to pull her forward as she used the force to get closer, this time she had the chain in her hand, so Ludwig didn’t have much leeway in maneuvering the shard. And with her other hand that stopped mere inches from Ludwig’s neck, she said, “You lose again.”
“We both lose,” Ludwig said.
Only then did she notice that his other hand which he never used was holding the sword shard was pointing it at her side.
Her eyes widened up. “You little monster, you unwrapped the chain in that moment to arm your other hand… quite smart, good, good, I think you’ll like the manual, I’ll find it for you,” she said as she removed herself from Ludwig.
“I see why you’d like this chain, but it’s not something I can teach you much about. This is a new path, something you’ll have to thread yourself, but just because it’s hard and unknown doesn’t mean it’s bad,” She said.
‘I feel like I heard this somewhere else.’ Ludwig smiled.
“Still, this doesn’t mean you’ll be slacking off on your sword training,” she said.
“I know,” he replied.
“You’ll need a handle and a guard for that shard of yours, it’s strong don’t get me wrong, but without a proper handle it’s very difficult to use it for swordsmanship, I know a blacksmith that can make something for you. How about you give your master these items?” she asked.
Ludwig hesitated for a second.
“I know what you’re thinking, but trust me on this, this person isn’t the kind who’ll take your property for his own, in fact seeing something like this he might actually be even more willing to work on it for free.” She said.
“What do you mean?” Ludwig asked.
“Well, he’s the best blacksmith on the continent, so imagine how many orders he has, but seeing something of that caliber, he’ll definitely want to work on it. For a blacksmith, challenging themselves gets harder and harder the more proficient they get, and this my student, is a good challenge for that man,” she said.
Ludwig nodded and removed the bracelet and the sword.
“Why are you removing the bracelet?” she asked.
“I think it’ll be more of a challenge if you tell him that I need to use the shard as a separate sword and an extension of the chain at will,” Ludwig said. “Two for the price of one I guess,” Ludwig said.
She thought for a second and nodded, “You’re probably right, alright,” she took his items and placed them on her own ring. “I’ll notify you when they’re ready.” She said, “And sadly our time is up, I still need to go over to Vastion to figure out more about this case, Hubert’s parents will be arriving soon here,” she said.
Ludwig nodded, as he had completely forgot about the incident earlier.
Joana soon left, leaving Ludwig all by himself. He soon left the area and began wandering around the academy, finding nothing much to do, he simply went back to his room.
He needed to figure out more about some of the magic he learned from Tibari’s books. Almost then and there did he remember that he forgot to ask his teacher about the training methods he learned about. While he was trying to find his teacher, “Ludwig!” he heard.
Turning, it was both Kassandra and Hoyo who were coming over, “Man it’s been a while,” Hoyo said.
Looking at him, he had a bandage over his head, “What happened to you?” Ludwig asked.
Hoyo looked embarrassed.
“One of the nobles,” Kassandra said.
“Hey, I said I fell,” Hoyo rebutted.
“Yeah right, they probably were too jealous of the three of us passing without even needing to do any exams, by the way thank you Ludwig, I’m glad we got to clear the whole thing without writing a single word, I heard so many had failed professor Vastion’s exam that half of the class are doing recoup classes.”
“Good to hear. I’m also glad I didn’t need to do any tests. Still you guys heard about all that stuff that happened?” Ludwig asked.
Hoyo jumped in, “Yeah man, whoever did that is fucking twisted, I didn’t know Hubert personally, but… man this makes one terrified to even walk out at night,” he said.
“You’re not supposed to wander the academy at night anyway,” they heard, looking behind them, a new person joined, someone Ludwig already knows.
It was the same girl from earlier, one of the Student Council members.
“What’s a council member doing here?” Kassandra asked.
“We’re here on business, Ludwig Heart,” she said.
“Yeah? I’m pretty sure I got cleared up this morning,”
“Oi,” Hoyo jumped forward, “Did they accuse you of something, I’m pretty sure you were with the Tower Master for the past week and change,” he said.
“We’re not here to accuse anyone, the case has been moved forward to more specialized personnel, regardless, Ludwig are you interested in joining the Student Council?” she asked.