Everyone began training seriously again. Cecil was on the side observing them and giving them pointers."...Hey Cecil... this intent... are you sure it"s something we can learn?" Eli asked a little frustrated.
"Eh?"
"Well... I"m not expecting for any of us to learn it anytime soon but... this is the first time I"m hearing something like this...I"ve asked some instructors about this, but even they"re clueless."
"Well, I"m not lying. It"s... a feeling I guess... I"m not sure how I can describe it... all I can say is that it"s a feeling."
"...feeling?"
"Yeah, it"s a feeling! Uhm... oh! I know! I can just show you!"
Cecil asked Velicia to come closer as well, so that he could show the two what he meant by Intent. He didn"t ask Ainz, Fina, or Lucia to come. Ainz and Fina don"t need to learn about it while Lucia"s already seen his Intent on multiple occasions during their journey.
"Okay, since it"s hard for me to explain, I might as well just show you!"
Cecil took a couple steps back and stood at a distance from the 2 girls. He pulled out a long case from his spatial ring and set it on the ground. He opened the case and took out his spear.
Lucia decided to stay close just in case since she knew what would happen when Cecil directed his intent towards her two friends.
"Hey, Lucia... why is Cecil taking out his spear?"
"Hm? Well... from what I know, Cecil is much stronger using a spear than a sword."
"Eh?"
"Yeah, most of the time he"s using a sword because he"s trying to awaken his Sword Intent, I"ve never actually seen him get serious when using a spear, but from our last quest didn"t you see him use his spear and almost clear the whole inner plantation area of monsters by himself?"
"..."
"So... he was always holding back even when he"s fighting you?" Velicia asked ruefully.
"Ahaha, of course! If he went all out, I"m pretty sure I wouldn"t even hold on for a minute!" Lucia replied with a laugh.
The two girls sighed hearing this. Cecil cleared his throat and got their attention.
"Alright... uhm... brace yourselves, okay!"
Cecil didn"t take a stance. All he did was just hold his spear with a relaxed pose, but in the next instant the atmosphere around him immediately changed.
"Ugh...!"
"!"
"..."
An invisible pressure immediately began radiating from Cecil who was just standing there in the clearing. He only had his calm gaze directed at them, but the 3 girls stood frozen in their spots. Their faces began to pale and their breathing began to stagnate. They felt as if some sort of monster was eyeing them maliciously.
Velicia was the first to fall to her knees in fear. Her face was so pale that she even began to tear up.
Seeing this Cecil immediately retracted his spear intent and rushed towards the girl.
"Oh, c.r.a.p! Sorry. Sorry! Ahh... this is why I didn"t want to show you guys..." Cecil said while propping up the pale Velicia who now had tears streaming down her face.
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Next to her, Eli was struggling to even stay standing. Her face was pale and although she wasn"t crying, she was sweating profusely. She didn"t even register when Cecil had approached them.
Lucia had it the easiest. This wasn"t the first time she"s felt Cecil"s spear intent, so all she did was close her eyes and clear her head, trying to maintain a calm mind. She knew that if this was a battle then she would have already lost.
When Cecil retracted his intent, Lucia opened her eyes tiredly. Even from her previous experiences, she still couldn"t get used to having his Intent directed at her. Lucia quickly reached out towards the pale-faced Eli and helped her down to sit.
Near the carriage where Ainz and Fina were practicing, the two in question were currently also pale faced even though they were standing far away from where Cecil and the girls were at.
"H-h-hey.... b-b-brat... d-did you f-feel that?" Ainz asked while stuttering.
"..."
Hearing no response, Ainz turned to look at Fina. He found that the girl was pale-faced, shivering from head to toe and was just staring blankly ahead in fear.
The two were originally focusing on their practice, but seeing their 4 friends gather together they naturally got curious. When Cecil released his intent, they too were caught in its pressure. Although it wasn"t as bad as Eli and Velicia who were standing closer to Cecil, Fina was thoroughly shaken up while Ainz only felt the terrifying pressure originating from Cecil.
"...d.a.m.nit. What the h.e.l.l..." Ainz struggled to get up. He stumbled, but quickly made his way to Fina"s side.
He didn"t know what to do and could only awkwardly stare at the girl. He quickly looked around and found pet form Silver who was now awake after seeing his master release his intent. Ainz stumbled towards Silver and quickly picked him up. He made his way back to Fina and placed Silver down next to her.
Silver was still staring ahead at his master and didn"t register when Ainz had carried him up. The next thing he knew, he was beside the little merfolk girl that was always grooming him and feeding him for the past few days.
Silver looked up and saw the girl was frozen in fear. He barked and transformed his body into a larger size, and then he quickly wrapped his body around the fragile looking girl.
Fina snapped out of her fear when she registered the warmth that was wrapping around her. She saw Silver looking back at her worriedly and she smiled in relief before she began patting him.
"Ugh..." Fina groaned listlessly. She took a look around and saw the somewhat pale faced Ainz sitting across her.
"Ainz... w-what was that?"
"Cecil said earlier that he was going to show the girls what Weapon Intent was... I"m guessing that"s what he was referring to?"
"...it"s scary."
"Yeah... even from here it felt like Cecil was holding his spear to my throat... Oh c.r.a.p! I gotta go help those 3!" Ainz said after realizing that it wasn"t just them that were affected. The 3 people who were closest to Cecil had to have had it worse.
Ainz quickly made his way towards Cecil and the rest and found that out of the 3 girls only one of them had broken down in tears. Velicia was currently being hoisted up by Cecil and the boy quickly eyed him.
"Hey, Ainz just in time, sorry about earlier... Help me bring Velicia back to the carriage... I"ll help Eli and Lulu back."
"O-okay..."
Cecil quickly handed Velicia over to Ainz and he lent his shoulders to both Lucia and Eli and the group made their way back to the carriage.
When they got there, Cecil sat the two girls down and he quickly took out some bread and water. He gave it to his friends and told them to calm their breathing before telling them to drink some water and have a little bit of bread to calm their minds.
"...Well that was Weapon Intent... Spear Intent in my case," Cecil said after he saw his friends finally calmed down.
"Like I said, it"s just a "feeling", the only way to awaken this "feeling", this Intent, is to have some form of enlightenment. I had mine when I was only 9 years old, but I can"t explain clearly how I was enlightened... it just came to me one day and that"s it."
"..."
His friends could only listen on in silence. Even his absurd mentioning of gaining this terrifying ability when he was 9 only garnered a slight nod in reply.
"...you never said anything about it being so terrifying." Eli added in a hoa.r.s.e voice.
"Y-yeah... I... I thought you were going to kill me..." Velicia said meekly, with tears forming again in her eyes.
"..."
"Well... that"s the thing... Weapon Intent is supposed to cause fear in the minds of your opponent"s when you use it. This time I only wantonly released it so the effects were a bit diluted, but if I had–"
"WHAT?! THOSE WERE ONLY THE DILUTED EFFECTS?!" Ainz exclaimed in disbelief.
"Y-yeah. Calm down Ainz let me explain..."
Cecil began explaining to his friends the known effects Intent had towards an enemy. Intimidation, pressure, and other such things were the things that Cecil simply explained. Even for Cecil, there were still many things he didn"t know about Weapon Intent, so what he explained was only the superficial and tangible effects.
Once, he finished his explanation, Ainz quietly opened his mouth.
"...that"s absurd."
"It is, and that"s why I want these 3 to awaken theirs quickly! I did it when I was young so I"m pretty sure you guys can too."
"...we"re not freaks like you Cecil." Eli replied in exasperation.
"Yeah... e-even if we learned only a little bit of this intent... I"m pretty sure we"d be strong enough already..."
Velicia added, but her voice clearly still held a tinge of fear within them... fear towards Cecil.
"Veli... you don"t have to be afraid of me. I"m your friend not some monster."
"Y-yeah... I"m still a bit shaken from your display... honestly. I can"t believe someone of our age can produce such a terrifying ability..."
"Actually I"m probably the youngest here?"
"Eh?"
"Wha?"
"Well, Lucia and Fina have their birthdays near the start of the year... I just turned 14 during the Month of Closing, Enduar... so... yeah. I"m the youngest in our group!"
Everyone became quiet again, even after Cecil"s lame attempt at uplifting the mood. Cecil felt a little helpless at this.
"Sorry everyone... I really shouldn"t have done that..."
Lucia immediately responded when she saw the dejectedly look on his face.
"No, it"s fine really... although we"re all a little shaken up. At least we know that this "Intent" that you"ve been constantly rambling about is real. This actually makes us more eager to obtain it for our own... right guys?"
"Yeah!"
"Mhm..."
Ainz and Fina smiled in relief seeing their friends" resolute response.
"That"s great then! Ah, I"ve just got a great idea! If I release my intent on you guys during training, I think it"ll help– MMPHH!"
Lucia immediately slapped Cecil"s mouth shut and covered his mouth with her hand. She gave him a death stare and slowly said, "Are you trying to train us or scare us off?"
"..."
"No Intent. Just train us like you normally do."
Cecil nodded his head repeatedly after seeing the deathly stares his group was giving him.