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The ogre roars loudly, shaking the trees of the forest, either out of frustration that his attacks kept missing, or annoyance at us fighting back.

“Ah…”

The pressure from the powerful roar instills fear into the students, who cower back.

That leaves them wide open, which the ogre notices as it begins dashing at them. But the nerve threads from my detached hand wrap around his arm and I stop it from getting closer to them.

“Grrr…”

The ogre makes a low growl, feeling me yanking on its body.

“Who said you could go there? I’m the one fighting you.”

I hold out my remaining hand and taunt him to come at me. Even if it can’t comprehend human speech, the gesture works, and the ogre glares at me.

Then I wind up my nerve threads and form magic blades on both my hands. I don’t think shooting will really work against this guy.

The ogre makes the first move, dashing forward faster than its large size would suggest, holding a sword horizontally to the side. I manage to block the sword as it swings at me with one hand, then use my free hand to counterattack.

But the ogre also has a free hand, with which it blocks my attack. After that we continue a cycle of attacking and blocking each other. If it thinks this will go on, it’s underestimating me though. I kick up, while forming a magic blade on the tip of my foot.

There’s a swishing sound as my magic blade cuts through the air, but the ogre quickly turns its body back to dodge, losing its footing in the process. So I slice down again, then to the left, right, then straight down.

From there I go diagonally back up, thrust forward, followed by another swing up from the right, and back down.

I constantly use all the magic blades I have, on both hands and feet, movements I can only perform as a magic automaton. I feel like I’ve gotten better after training with Ruri for a while, though I’m mostly using these unconventional attacks to mask my lack of skill against powerful opponents. And this ogre is a powerful opponent.

It’s not a stretch to say I’m the only one in the world who can fight with blades on all four limbs, while being able to completely ignore the way human joints should work. Then again, this is the first time I’m fighting an ogre like this, and it’s the first time the ogre fights me. Somehow the ogre is still able to block most of my attacks.

It’s not like he’s reading all my moves, but I feel like my attacks keep getting less effective as time passes. At this rate I won’t be able to do anything at all, and I won’t be able to defeat it even if I were to grow an extra limb or two.

I need to figure something out while I keep it busy with my attacks.

But before I can think of anything, the ogre makes a move.

“Graaaaaaaaaahhh!!”

There’s a bright flash together with the eardrum-shattering roar, which shatters all my magic blades and leaves me exposed. Then it holds its two swords up, ready to swing them down at me.

I doubt I’d be able to escape unscathed if the swords hit me, considering how strong the ogre is.

Everything around me seems to slow down. Think, me! Look at your surroundings, predict its movements, process everything! But don’t enter automaton mode! There has to be a way out of here, an infallible plan that can let me preserve my sanity! And I have to put it into practice flawlessly!

I’m still falling back from the earlier roar, so I deploy a barrier behind me to regain my balance, then get rid of the barrier and go two steps to the left and three back. Then I see the blade pass right in front of my eyes.

But I don’t have time to feel relieved. I deploy a barrier right in front of me before dashing, using it in combination with my body for a shield bash. The hit throws the ogre out of balance, giving me an opportunity to attack.

It’ll take some time for my broken magic blades to regenerate, but I still have hands available.

Two arms, thin like bones, stretch out from under my skirt. Thin fingers extend from their tips, covered in the blue glow of mana. They’re smaller than what I get from my hands, but they’re still proper magic blades.

They swing wildly to tear and pierce into the ogre’s thick hide, shredding it apart.

By now I’ve rebuilt the magic blade on my left hand, so I spin like I’m about to do a round kick, attacking with three different magic blades. The ogre’s face contorts with pain as its body spews blood, but the wounds aren’t deep enough to kill it.

I use that moment to jump back and prepare the finishing blow.

I make three openings into a single spot of my magic storage. One next to my left hand, where I erase my magic blade and reach inside to take control of one spool of Steel Silk. The other two openings are on either side of the ogre, from which I get the Steel Silk out to restrain the ogre’s arms.

The ogre starts squirming around trying to break free, but even if it’s an evolved ogre, it can’t break Aria’s Steel Silk or my mana.

Then I take out Black Hawk and White Viper with my hidden arms, and hold Blue Hound with my right hand, aiming all of them at the same spot. I don’t need to look through their scopes from this range.

Sadly for the ogre, I’m not a swordsman.

“Wake up. Time to die.”

All three guns fire at the same time, the magic bullets hitting the target. A torrent of fresh blood sputters out, the ogre meeting its demise while I keep hold of its arms.

“Phew…”

I can’t feel any more mana signatures nearby, so I can finally catch a breather.

“Instructor Natalia!”
“Are you alright?!”

The students run up to me worried.

“Yes, I’m in perfect working order. Are any of you hurt?”
“No, we’re alright.”
“That’s good then.”

That was quite a difficult battle, but the students are safe. I was able to put my training with Ruri to practice, and I got to see how useful my hidden arms are. It was quite the productive fight, if I say so myself.

I can probably find even more uses for my hidden arms, so I’ll have to keep practicing with them though. Hiding them inside my skirt was definitely a good idea.

“Umm…instructor? I don’t know how to say this…”
“?”

While I think about that, one of the female students awkwardly approaches me. The other students are also acting strange. Especially the male ones, they keep looking away, but then secretly glancing at me.

I wonder what’s gotten into them?

“Umm…your skirt… You should probably do something about it or umm…”
“My skirt?”

Hearing that, I look down and see that my black skirt is torn to pieces, a pair of alluring legs wearing garter belts peeking through.

“Ahhh!!”

I cut my skirt when I formed magic blades on my hidden arms! Okay I take it back! I should never keep them under my skirt!