Chapter 359: Second Mutation
Geralt took the two-handed sword and first performed a standard set of Wolf School sword forms. He felt no sense of sluggishness or heaviness whatsoever. He nodded and began to spar with Eskel.
They were both using the same sword forms, but the other witchers and the two sorceresses watching could clearly see that Geralt was far superior to Eskel in speed and reflexes. Geralt effortlessly parried every attack Eskel threw at him, while Eskel, in turn, couldn't even keep up with Geralt's offense.
Eskel's own, more direct feeling was that even with Geralt holding back and not taking advantage of his openings, every time they clashed swords, Eskel was the one who lost. The vibrations traveling through his weapon made his hands numb, and after a few rounds, he could barely hold onto his sword.
Seeing his brother struggling, Geralt voluntarily stopped and backed away, giving Eskel a chance to recover. But even without a clear victor, it was obvious to anyone with eyes that Geralt was completely dominating the fight.
Tissaia nodded, and the quill floating beside her began to write furiously on a similarly floating piece of parchment.
Next, Tissaia had Geralt put on a suit of full "Maximilian-style" plate armor, the kind only high-ranking officers of the Nilfgaardian Empire were allowed to wear, and had him run a lap around the castle. After Geralt finished a run that would have exhausted a normal witcher, the famed White Wolf was only slightly winded. He could have kept going.
At this, Tissaia's eyes sparkled with a strange light. The floating quill even broke its tip in its haste to write down notes. Geralt wasn't running without a load; he was wearing full plate armor that could withstand arrows.
The Nilfgaardians claimed that their "Maximilian-style" plate armor was the pinnacle of human wisdom and technology, the strongest armor in the Empire. And while its defensive capabilities were indeed excellent, it had a fatal flaw: it was even heavier than the plate armor of the knights of Toussaint.
So, even though it was designed for high-ranking Nilfgaardian officers, in reality, very few could fight in it without a sorcerer casting a "light-weight" spell on it. But now, Geralt could not only move quickly in it, but also keep going for a long time.
Tissaia and Yennefer exchanged a look, both of them excited about the results of their research.
The other witchers were in a state of deep shock. Especially Eskel and Lambert. They were all from the Wolf School. They knew Geralt was stronger, but only a little. Now, he was leagues ahead of them. However, after the initial shock, they felt a sense of excitement and elation.
Just imagine: if all witchers could possess such physical abilities and band together... they could one day overturn the mountains of prejudice that weighed on them and truly stand tall, never again to be humiliated.
With the physical tests done, it was time for the Sign tests. They all returned to the training yard, and Tissaia set up a few dummies. The dummies were the weight of an average adult male, and Tissaia had them all wear half-plate armor. She then had Geralt cast Signs on them to test the results. For safety, everyone stood behind and to the side of Geralt.
Geralt took a deep breath and cast a powerful Aard Sign. As he pushed his hand forward, he felt a slight chill in his palm, and then, something incredible happened. The air temperature suddenly dropped.
A wave of frost first coated the dummies three meters in front of Geralt, and then the chill passed through them, leaving behind ice shards and frozen marks on the ground seven meters behind. Then, the ensuing shockwave shattered the frozen dummies into a million pieces. The half-plate armor on the dummies was cracked, but it was the bodies inside that had broken apart.
The witchers watching all stared, dumbfounded. As witchers themselves, they knew exactly what they had just seen. Geralt's freezing Aard not only had a shocking range of ten meters, but it also had a two-stage attack.
The first was ice damage, followed by a shockwave. Unless an enemy was a heavy soldier with a tower shield, that one Aard Sign could clear an entire area. Even if it didn't instantly kill a heavy soldier, the sudden drop in temperature would be enough to slow them down and make their hands and feet go numb.
Tissaia waved her wand, and the scattered remains of the dummies flew into a trash can in the corner. She then set up a new batch of dummies.
Next was the Igni Sign. A terrifying blaze erupted from Geralt's palm. Just like the freezing Aard, the flames had a frightening range of ten meters. When Geralt lowered his arm, the line of dummies had become human torches, engulfed in fire. The visual effect was so potent that it needed no further description.
If those dummies had been real soldiers, not even a shielded heavy infantryman could have survived such flames.
Then came the Quen shield. The Quen Sign had two casting methods. One was to cast it directly, forming a shield around the caster. The advantage of this was that it was fast and used less magical energy, but the shield's duration was short.
The disadvantage was that the shield was as flimsy as paper. A normal witcher's Quen shield could only withstand one attack. Even Geralt could only block two or three attacks with it.
The other method was to hold the casting posture, continuously supplying the shield with magical energy. The advantage was that as long as the chaotic magic inside the body was sufficient, the shield would not break.
The disadvantage, of course, was that this method consumed chaotic magic at a much faster rate, and since it required intense concentration to maintain the shield, the caster could not perform any other actions.
When Geralt tested it, he was surprised to find he had a third casting method: a delayed-charge shield.
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