[Adversity]

Claude's feet were rooted to the ground as he stared at the scene before him.

Chaos.

That was the only word that could pop into his mind to describe it.

He watched as everyone flicked some sort of mechanism on the shafts of their spears as they charged.

Hiss!

As soon as they did, the spears began to emit steam, a soft hissing sound escaping them, not too dissimilar to the giants rumbling towards them.

Whizz!

The screw-like heads of the spears soon began to rotate rapidly, reaching such speeds that they appeared blurred in Claude's vision.

"Come on!" He watched Karl scream as the man soon came face to face with one of the steel giants.

Vrrrr!

The giant in question extended its right arm, and its metallic fingers disappeared, replaced with a rotating saw.

It swung at Karl, who dodged, throwing his body to the ground beside him. While crouching, he drove his legs into the ground before leaping toward his foe.

Vrrr-Clang!

The spear pierced through the leg of his adversary, bringing it to its knees.

'What?!' Claude's eyes widened as he saw this. He had been fully prepared to think that this battle would be unwinnable, yet he now learned they had a chance.

Nevertheless, his attention was soon grabbed when another silvery behemoth appeared behind Karl, raising its saw-like arm and slashing at Karl.

'No!' The moment Claude saw that; his mental energy surged into action.

With little to no delay, an orb of water was generated and fired at the extended metallic limb aiming at Karl's back.

Boom!

A thunderous noise sounded as the spell deflected the attack, redirecting the rotating saw to the ground.

Everyone's eyes shrunk as they saw the blade cut into the ground as easily as a hot brand through wax.

The sound of gulping echoed from everyone's throats as they realized what would happen to any of them if that landed on them.

But, they could only clench their jaws as they charged ahead, finding their respective foes.

Around 40 villagers had joined the expedition, and there were only around a dozen enemies.

Thus, they had a clear number advantage, with 3-4 villagers grouping to deal with an enemy.

As everyone else engaged in a massive brawl, Claude, at the rear, had his mind focusing on something different altogether.

'No damage...?' He thought back to how his spell merely deflected the attack; it didn't even dent the giant's silvery skin.

Gritting his teeth, Claude didn't want to believe that his greatest reliance was useless here.

Condensing another ball of water, he flung it at another one of the giants that was in the midst of fighting.

Boom!

As the spell collided with it, water droplets fell over the battlefield, obscuring Claude's vision.

However, once the miniature rainfall cleared, he could see the damage he had inflicted on the enemy.

Nothing.

He was once again unable to leave a single dent in its armour.

'Damn!' Worry flashed in Claude's eyes as he realized his greatest reliance might not help much in this fight.

"Arrgh!" A scream soon sounded from nearby, a guttural eruption of pure agony.

Looking in shock, he watched as one of the village guards was felled by the rotating saw blade of the foe he was battling.

The man's body was brutally bisected at his waist, the separation of his torso from his legs creating a ghastly spectacle.

Blood spurted from the wound in an unrelenting torrent, painting the ground near him in a macabre red.

His face was contorted in abject horror, as the whites of his eyes were fully visible, bulging with fear and disbelief.

As his upper half slumped to the ground, his fingers twitched spasmodically whilst the gory mess that was his intestines spilt out.

Shock and hatred filled the eyes of everyone as the scene was etched deeply into everyone's minds.

It wasn't just the villagers who felt angered by such a scene; so too was Claude.

Partly due to the man being a comrade despite how short their time together had been as well as the horrific manner in which he had fallen.

Claude had become intimately familiar with blood in his most recent few days, nevertheless, this was the first time he saw someone die before his eyes.

Not only did he just witness a death, it was one that was so brutal one wouldn't even be able to believe that the corpse was once a walking, talking person a few seconds prior.

Clenching his fists, Claude felt rage and anger boil within him, he felt as if the universe was spiting his weakness.

He finally possessed a potent form of strength, yet what had he even achieved with it?

Claude thought back to what he had even used his powers for, 'With magic all I could do was kill a snake and luckily destroy some ghosts...'

Hopelessness filled him. At this point, he was completely useless.

The only thing he could currently do was to help deflect some incoming blows for the villagers, but how many times could he do that?

Two times.

That was the number of times he could cast a spell again.

His eyes flickered to his side as he saw Peter, the head of the village guard, fighting by himself, allowing more help to be given to the others.

Peter danced around his foe, poking it occasionally with his spear.

However, he had now been caught off guard and was about to be mauled like his comrade from earlier.

Bang!

Claude fired another orb of water to interrupt the enemy's movements, allowing Peter to drive his spear into what seemed to be the head of his enemy.

'One down!' Claude heaved a sigh of relief as he saw an enemy fall.

Nevertheless, despite there being one fewer foe to fight, the fact he was only able to cast one more spell dangled over his head, akin to a guillotine's edge.

On the other hand, despite the fight not going too badly, Claude always kept in mind that the villagers were merely humans.

They would eventually get tired, and once they did, he could easily guess how the fight would end.

With all of them as corpses.

"Hmmm?!" From his periphery, Claude saw something interesting.

Hiss!

From the foe that Peter had put down, a jet of steam seemed to escape its fallen form.

'Is that possible...?!' Claude's eyes gleamed with realization as the cogs in his mind began turning.

"I've been wrong... My strength was never magic... It was never power... It was... Intelligence."

His mind flicked back to his memories.

His escape from the horse-like demon. He remembered the sheer terror that gripped him as the monstrous creature bore down on him.

But it wasn't raw power that saved him then. It was his quick thinking, using the environment to his advantage.

The fight with the snake. The venomous serpent had cornered him, its fangs dripping with lethal poison.

He recalled how at the spur of the moment he modified his spell using his existing knowledge, allowing him to deal with the agile creature.

Killing those ghost-like things. Those beings had seemed invincible, their ghostly forms slipping through physical attacks.

Yet, he won. Using his observation, he realised that they weren't always able to immaterialise, so he promptly dealt with them.

Even in the latter two cases, his intelligence and quick thinking were what saved him, not his magic.

Magic was merely a tool in those situations.

A powerful tool, yes, but one that required a sharp mind to truly ever be of use. 

It dawned on Claude, that he had always used his mind to create miracles, finding solutions where others might have seen none.

And, like before, in this dire situation, a strange solution found itself taking root in his mind.