“Even the best sword is nothing more than a useless hunk of metal unless it’s properly sharpened.” - Old soldier’s saying.

“Sloppy,” commented Yliz as she checked the results of Kino’s handiwork on the practice target. “Also wasteful and inefficient,” she added. “While your strike completely annihilated the target in its entirety, there are many more efficient ways to do so, all with less expenditure in mana compared to what you did just now.”

“Note how you created a sphere instinctively which engulfed the target as a whole. Most of that sphere did nothing as they never even came into contact with the target at all, so all those parts were just wasted mana,” continued the elven woman. “While this method is effective and even advisable if you’re dealing with either other unliving or particularly strong blood mages, for the vast majority of targets this would just be complete overkill and a waste of mana. Actually, even against such targets, doing it this way would still be a waste of mana.”

“What should I do, then?” asked Kino as she scratched her head with some confusion. “What if I have to deal with such a target?”

“I sort of get why you created a sphere just now. It’s the most natural shape most people formed their magic into. Even I was the same way when I was young,” noted Yliz. “And to answer your question, have you considered creating smaller spheres? Ones just large enough to encompass the section of the body you’re targeting and no more? That would allow you to completely annihilate targets that needed that level of violence with greater efficiency.”

“I see you caught on to my meaning,” said the woman as she saw Kino’s eyes narrow in focus. “Test it out on that target over there. Get the sphere as small while still completely covering its head.”

It took Kino a moment longer than her previous display – which was nearly instantaneous – but after a second or so, a smaller orb of void appeared where the target’s head used to be. The target was just a straw dummy, so it was annihilated without causing any fuss, leaving only a headless target once the void orb disappeared.

“Better. How much mana did you use compared to the previous orb?” asked Yliz as she tapped her chin with one finger. The smaller orb had formed in the center of the target’s “head” and left some bits above and below, but the bits above fell down straight into the orb as well, so only parts of the target dummy’s “chin” and “cheek” remained.

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“Around… less than one-twentieth or so,” said Kino with some surprise in her voice. While she was absurdly skilled at manipulating her void magic compared to most known void mages, she still did things mostly instinctively. That she possessed ample mana – while her mana pool also continued growing over the years – as well meant that she had never really given much thought to economizing her mana usage over the years.

“Assuming you are facing countless enemies, you would last twenty times as long if you use your magic this way,” stated Yliz simply as she noticed that Kino had gotten the point she wanted to convey. “Try it again, this time aim for the heart area as well as the shoulders. Try to hit all three places in one move if you can do so.”

“All right,” said Kino with a nod, now somewhat excited at the prospect. She took roughly as long as the previous time to launch her attack, and three orbs of void manifested directly within the straw dummy’s body, one in the center of its chest area while the other two were where its shoulders would be if it was a human.

The orbs of void left three large holes on the dummy, and its two “arms” fell to the ground with thumping noises. A few moments later, the remaining bits of its chest also collapsed under the weight of what was left of its upper torso and fell over as well.

“Very good. There are many ways that we can make things even more efficient, as most opponents you face would be living, and thus easier to kill when you apply your magic in the correct way,” praised Yliz with a smile. “If you’re fine with it, we can continue this sort of training during the day, from the first to sixth day of each week, what say you? I have permission from above to train you during those times.”

“Certainly, Ma’am,” replied Kino quickly. “And thank you for your troubles.”

Aideen had naturally been the one who checked around and found that Yliz was practically a ready-made teacher for the sort of training Kino needed. The elven woman was a death mage herself, and magic of the death affinity was one of the more volatile ones, with many mages needing training to handle them properly.

Necromancers had it easier since they mostly used theirs to control undead beings, but direct combat mages like Yliz needed greater control over their magic to use it properly in combat. Aideen’s own brother Diarmuid had been a prodigy at that, but he had passed on centuries ago and was naturally unavailable to teach Kino.

Besides, another reason Aideen chose Yliz was so that Kino wouldn’t be alone during the training. As it happens, Yliz was also training other youngsters who were either interested in the methods of the Death’s Hand or were potential agents to be inducted to the group. One of those youngsters was Eilonwy, who Kino was quite delighted to see on her second day of training.

Kino kept a pretty close and friendly relationship with Mimia and Èirynn’s three children, and she was the closest with the boisterous and energetic Eilonwy out of the three. Naturally, the two friends were happy to find out that they would be training together, as Aideen had also arranged for Eilonwy to accompany Kino during the training. It was easy to arrange things since she had the Bone Lord’s backing behind her.

That way Kino wouldn’t be alone during the training, while Eilonwy would also benefit from a more personalized training program. Aideen had learned some tricks from the Death’s Hands of the past herself, but those tricks evolved with time, so the current members were better suited to teach the youngsters.