If You Put It One Way, It Was Communication.

When the magic stones were collected, Aria let the three stones roll around in her palm.

“Alright, you understand how it works now, right? Shall we give it a try?”

“Huh? Try what?”

“War Cry. You learned it, didn’t you?”

If one said he learned it, then yes, he had. Or rather, it had been carved into him.

But whether he could actually use it properly was a different matter.

“Um… this tells the enemy where I am, doesn’t it?”

“And what about it?”

“If the enemy’s smart, wouldn’t they set up an ambush?”

“They would. But if you know you’re going to be ambushed, you won’t let your guard down, right?”

Kikori shuddered at what a brute-force line of reasoning that was.

It was true that he wouldn’t let his guard down. But still… doing that all the time felt like it would grind down his concentration until it vanished.

“War Cry is basically for short, decisive battles. Put another way, if you use it to draw in someone stronger than you, you could say it’s a skill that gets you killed quickly.”

“Whaaat…?”

“But the monsters around here are basically weak ones. You could say there’s not much risk of drawing in something really strong. And besides…”

“And besides?”

“Truly strong monsters don’t even pay attention to the howling of the lower rabble. In other words, the opponents that War Cry actually works on fall into a pretty narrow power range.”

“I see…”

Weak monsters came to check the source of the War Cry and attacked once they realized it was a human.

Decent monsters thought it was a provocation and attacked.

Strong monsters didn’t care at all.

When he thought about it, Kikori felt it was a well-designed skill.

Sure enough, it was something worth learning.

Above all, even just being able to nullify enemy luring traps to some extent had value.

“If you’ve got it, then let’s try it. Go on.”

“U-uaaaaah!”

“Too quiet!”

“Uuaaaaaaaaaah!”

“You’re holding back! A goblin’s dying scream is better than that!”

“Ooooooooooh!”

“No good at all! One more time!”

“Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooh‼”

After repeating it several times, Kikori started coughing violently, and Aria handed him a water flask with a look that was hard to describe.

“You’ve got no talent for this… how should I put it, it feels like you’re unconsciously putting a limiter on yourself when it comes to shouting. Something like that.”

“Cough, cough… I-I thought I was trying my best.”

“Hmmm. To be honest, you’re lacking killing intent. If you don’t pour in the resolve of ‘I’ll kill every last thing around here,’ you won’t attract more interest than a drunk’s shouting, you know?”

“Killing intent…”

“That’s right. The essence of War Cry lies in self-suggestion. If you don’t have the resolve of ‘I’ll definitely kill you,’ it won’t get across to the other side either. If you put it one way, it’s communication.”

I see—Kikori thought that was certainly an ability he lacked.

But… if it was resolve to kill, then Kikori should be able to put that into it too.

“…I’ll do it one more time.”

“Good, that’s the spirit.”

At Aria’s smiling encouragement… Kikori drew in a deep breath.