Chapter 217: Strength and Weakness is Relative

From start to end, the flow of battle was in her control. She used her strengths while forcing her opponent to rely on its weakness. She led her foe to its death, swift, with composure. There were zero twists, with the fate of her opponent being determined from the start.

"Know yourself, know your enemy, and you will be undefeated for a hundred battles." Madam Rizenne's voice echoed, "It was something said in the bygone era and stays true even to this day."

She unleashed her psychic arm, turning it visible, allowing everyone to see. "Rigordiles have tough bodies, not to mention the sturdy scales covering them. They are capable of absorbing shock, deflecting sharp attacks, etc. They are a tough layer that serves to protect it from harm. This attribute of it is enhanced at every Tier, making it deadly."

"But, if you play your cards right, you can turn an advantage into a disadvantage and vice-versa." She smiled, "Let me break it down for you."

Her psychic arm trailed across its back, "The design of its spine is suitable for movement in the water. It imbues in the Rigordile enough flexibility to move its body sideways, allowing it to swim. Its streamlined body further enhances this effect. Upon evolution, it has also taken in some humanoid qualities, getting the ability to walk on two feet."

"But, here is something you can exploit," Her psychic arm lifted the dead Rigordile, making a line from top to bottom on its back. "The Rigordile is flexible sideways but is rigid in bending forward and backward. It is due to the structure of its spine. This prevents it from bending, a reason why it leans forward in its lunge, using its tail to grip on the floor to its back for balance."

Her psychic arm pointed at its arms, "Its long arms almost cover this defect but, we humans are shorter in stature. If we crouch low and attack, the Rigordile won't be able to defend. Also, it can never move its legs like us to deliver kicks or stomp the ground. Its body will lose balance the moment it does so, limiting its attacks to its hands and tail."

"Knowing this, you can scuttle around its legs. All you have to watch out for its tail, which is comparatively flexible enough to aim between its legs." Her psychic arm pointed at the groin region, "To counterattack its tail, all you need to do is aim at its groin. Remember that the groin is the weakness for most species. When given the chance, attack its genitals. That will affect any being…a lot."

"Whether you are a human or Frenzy Beast, you possess a fleshly body. And that means, your body has a lot of nerves, with each of them in charge of a wide range of operations." Madam Rizenne smiled, stressing her words, "All nerves are connected. If you damage one, all body parts connected to it are affected. Now, to know the damage of which nerve affects what, you have to learn and experience."

"The psychic arms of Line Controllers have almost nil combat abilities. Its pitiful range is also a weakness. I am sure that is what you have been told till now and what you have concluded based on your own experiences." Madam Rizenne glanced around, trailing past the faces of all Espers, the silence ensuing for 10 seconds.

She then spoke, "The destructive capabilities of Line Controllers aren't worth commenting about, if we are only considering the effect against inanimate objects. Remember that any living being has organs, nerves, etc. all through their bodies. Every cell, every nerve plays a pivotal role in the body's functioning."

"Knowledge is power," Carried through her psychic energy, the statement resounded in the minds of everyone, "If you know where to target, you can bring down even the strongest of opponents. In my case, I aimed at its groin and targeted the nerve that actuated its tail's movement. A nerve is not that heavy, easily affected by a Line Controller's psychic arm."

She looked at Jyorta and Laila, "Yes, as you experienced with the One-horned Rhino, nerves are connected to organs, and when you pull them, you are invariably also pulling the connected flesh and organs."

She smiled, "That is, if you are pulling in the wrong direction. Even in nerves, similar to arteries and veins, but slightly different in function, blood flows. That flow of the blood is due to the blood pressure forcing it to move forward, amid the muscular pressure. You can't selectively affect with psychic arms of Line Controllers, but to affect something, you need to use your brain. Think, learn, and act accordingly. Use anything you judge will work the best."

"The bigger the creature, the greater its body's need for blood and oxygen supply. Therefore, the pressure and velocity of the blood flowing in its nerves, arteries, and veins are also very high. In such a case, all you need to do is bend the nerve a little, preventing the blood flow. The direction in which you have to bend is also something to be learned. Only then will it be effective; otherwise, the body's natural recovery mechanisms will rectify it. The pressure of blood flow will automatically reorient it."

She pointed at the Rigordile's groin, trailing her psychic arm towards its tail, "When I pulled a nerve in its groin, its tail became stiff. Remember that the stiffness recovered within a couple of seconds. But, in a battle, even the fraction of a second is enough to clinch victory."

"I pulled at the relevant nerves to stun it, allowing me the time to plan and execute my next move. Like I said before, knowledge is important. When you know, you can plan and execute. If I had no knowledge of its anatomy, I wouldn't have been able to replicate my earlier feat." She glanced at Haesha, "Now, let us come to what you witnessed at the end."

Madam Rizenne dropped the body of the Rigordile, "Everything, whether animate or inanimate possesses a certain resistance to psychic energy. In the case of inanimate objects, despite varying from material to material, the resistance is a fixed quantity. You can decrease it gradually, finally turning the object into your Refined Object."

She then pointed at the Rigordile with her hand, "But, such is not the case for living things. The resistance they offer to psychic energy is constantly generated, the same as their aura. So, even if you were to convert a part of their body into your Refined Object, the moment you retract your psychic arm, the resistance in the region will increase from zero to its maximum. Depending on the Tier of the creature, the time for this increase varies."

"You might have experienced it a couple of times by now," Madam Rizenne glanced at Jyorta and friends, motioning for the remaining Espers to experience the same with the One-horned Rhino, "Most of its cells have yet to die. So, you can still experience the effect."

Five minutes later, after every Esper had managed to witness the recovery of the resistance, Madam Rizenne continued, "Consider a smooth pipe through which water flows. Let us assume this to be a Refined Object's case. Now, the pipe is rough, also having some protrusions. When the water flows, it will face some resistance in its flow. The bigger the protrusions, the greater the resistance faced by the water."

"But," She smiled, her expression bordering on cunningness, a sinistrous gaze suffusing her visage, "The water flows, despite the resistance. This is what we will make use of as our weapon. The resistance offered is thanks to the aura in a being. Even inanimate objects have an aura in them; we can't sense them only because inanimate objects are unable to emit aura."

"The resistance aura offers to external psychic energy is radially directed, just like pressure. Each cell offers resistance against psychic energy in all directions." Madam Rizenne chuckled, "Can you now guess what happened?"

Some looked on the verge of guessing but seemed to lack clarity. As for the rest, they were still clueless. Without any disappointment, Madam Rizenne continued, "When I passed my psychic arm through the Rigordile's skin, I reduced the resistance of the area against my psychic energy, seeping further in as a result. Once inside, I made it stop between sturdy muscles, curling the remaining length of my psychic arm into a sphere."

"After that, I tried to pull the skin. Remember that the limit of the psychic arm is its tolerance. So, you can't use its own power to snap it into two. But, when I moved my body, the psychic arm moved, since it originated from my head. This momentum was transferred through the psychic arm, stressing it. Since the point of effect was the skin, due to the force of my motion going beyond its limit, the psychic arm snapped there."

"Take the string theory. There is a limit to the tension a string can withstand before snapping. If you were to experiment, it would result in some kilograms of weight. The moment the tension exceeds that limit, the string snaps. It is the exact concept for our psychic arm. The maximum force our psychic arm can withstand is the force it could exert, i.e. its weight limit multiplied by its velocity limit. Beyond that, it snaps."

"Now, an interesting phenomenon happens here," Madam Rizenne created a large block in the air using her psychic arm, modelling a piece of flesh and skin. Another psychic arm seeped through the skin, its ends curling up into a sphere within two flesh layers. After a pull, the psychic arm snapped at the point on the skin, replicating her explanation.

The portion beyond the skin dissipated into the air while the portion inside broke down into psychic energy. "The psychic arm destabilises and breaks down into psychic energy. Once my psychic arm disappeared, the places it passed through began to recover its resistance towards my psychic energy. But, here lies the root of a disaster."

"The skin has now recovered its resistance, fully resistant against my psychic energy. But, the part of my psychic arm that broke down into psychic energy is still within the muscles. Now, they are resisted from all sides, preventing them from moving." She continued, "Psychic energy cannot be absorbed by a body's muscles, even if it originated from themselves. Only the Unranked Skill Regen, thanks to Madam Mary's incredible knowledge and wisdom converts psychic energy into energy that a body can absorb and will not offer resistance to."

"Now, the psychic energy will be cornered, suppressed by the aura emitted by the surrounding muscles. They continue to be suppressed as the body delegates more of its aura to annihilate it. It is similar to how the white blood cells in our body function to combat harmful bacteria. But in this case, the aura is unable to negate the psychic energy, only serving to compress it, pushing it as a whole through weaker muscles."

"You get my point now?" Madam Rizenne smiled, "They are eventually pushed until the skin. Now, the Rigordile's skin is its toughest part, so the aura emitted is also stronger in the region. They continue to compress the psychic energy, making it store a lot of potential energy. And, when the body moves, each muscle in it moves accordingly, linear or vibrational."

"This creates a momentary displacement in the surrounding muscles, creating a difference in the uniformity of the aura. After all, the strength of the aura is dependent on the number of cells emitting it. The moment an imbalance occurs…the compressed psychic energy explodes."

"If its skin wasn't as sturdy, the explosion would have punctured a hole and cause blood to seep out. But, the damage wouldn't have been severe. In the Rigordile's case, the force of the explosion spread inward, affecting the muscles and organs."

"Also, the psychic energy will seep through a lot of muscles due to the explosive force, going past the resistance until its momentum slows down. After that, the body's aura will begin to compress it once again, creating a vicious cycle of explosions."

"Strength and weakness is relative." Madam Rizenne sighed once, massaging her sore throat, "I hope you take this to heart. The Rigordile's strength became its downfall."