53 Autonomous Weapon

During one of Jien's many sparring sessions, after being disarmed once again as he tried to transfer his weapon from his dominant hand to his off-hand he had a thought that he couldn't seem to shake. The issue with his proposed change to the style is to make the best of it he would need to have precise control of the transfer of the weapon from one hand to the other. It wasn't so much a matter of switching hands though. What Jien had proposed was to use the transfer to make his strikes erratic and unpredictable.

To do this properly he wouldn't just be switching hands he would need to shift his body's position and also shift the location of the blade itself to strike from a different angle of attack. This often left him in trouble in the sparring sessions as he quite literally tried to juggle the blade between his hands, even if for just a few short moments. This created an opening for any experienced fighter or mage to knock his weapon away while it was in the air.

The answer to this in Jien's mind was as simple as it was difficult. The concept was simple. If someone was going to knock your blade away while you were transferring it just have a blade that will dodge their strikes while moving to the other hand.

This concept may sound simple but the act of making it a reality was massively complex. How would one make a weapon that could move of its own will, or more precisely move with its master's will but on its own power. Jien couldn't think of a good answer on his own. There were definitely spells that could move objects and they came in varying versions depending on element or god. The issue was that none of them was necessarily fine control spells. They were mostly used to sling projectiles loosely at enemies or roughly shift heavier objects if multiple mages worked together.

Jien after that afternoon's fencing training brought the thought up to both Emily and Mark. Emily was of course his fencing instructor and the one who knew her version of the style the best, while Mark was his instructor in the arcane arts and mana manipulation. He hoped that perhaps between the two of them they may be able to assist him in finding a solution, lest he have to give up on his idea on how to advance the style for something different.

Emily was stunned yet again at Jien's thought process. She was astonished that yet again he was trying to make something so complex rather than just choosing to choose a path like dual wielding with a mage staff or wand to assist in casting. Wouldn't that be easier than all of this about being able to swap a weapon between hands in the middle of combat? She had tried to suggest it but Jien had turned her down simply stating that he never intended to be reliant on an external weapon as a mage. Though external sources such as staves and wands could help with control when casting he found it to be a sign that those using them lacked that control for themselves, making them overly reliant on an external influence.

In the end Emily couldn't argue the point, which brought them back to searching for a potential answer. The first and most obvious answer that Emily came up with was using an air elemental spell to wrap the blade and move it according to the spell's instructions. The only issue with this option was the same as using any other spell. The caster of the spell would need to make all the calculations to control the spell as they cast it in the middle of a movement and in the middle of a fight. The number of variables in the spell to fill in would be atrocious even to the most well learned mage.

Mark provided a different viewpoint. If he was looking just to have the blade switch hands, why bother with fine tooth control? One could use a simply lightning element spell to magnetize the blade to be attracted to the proper hand. This of course still risked the opponent disarming you, but even if they did, as long as you were willing to pay the cost in mana you could still attract the blade back to you. The only remaining issue would be staying alive until it came back to your hand.

These discussions were definitely useful to Jien but they were also confusing. There were a number of different paths but none of them felt like the solid answer to his issue.

It wasn't until he had a short discussion with Runa that he came up with something feasible, though perhaps a bit dangerous in practice. Rather than trying to manually control the blade, what if he found a way to create a link between his sword and his hands. If the blade only had to follow a single path and was linked firmly then even being disarmed would be only a momentary issue.

If the blade was knocked away the link would restrain it from moving too far away and would allow it to be drawn back to his hand. He would still have the issue of surviving until his blade returned to him but the wait would potentially decrease significantly.

Jien started to ponder on this possibility. How would he create the link to use. He could use the magnetism idea that Mark provided for the movement, likewise he could use the wind spell concept from Emily but those were solutions for the movement and not the link itself. He wanted something with a certain amount of length to allow for maneuvering his blade but not anything physical if he could help it.

If he used something like steel cord it would be all too easy for his opponent to sever the link and then disarm him completely. He needed a solution, and he wasn't quite sure how to approach it.