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This was not a test he was prepared for. He'd known that when he decided to fly up here. But there was even more to the insanity of the situation than just that.

Because he already had a rather strong idea of how outclassed he was here. Thanks to Melchor Blackburn and the late Xuan Sebolt. And also Zeff, later on.

Hector had already witnessed a powerful smoke-based warrior in action once before. He'd had quite the front row seat, in fact. Xuan's fight with Melchor at the Blackburn fortress known as Marshrock had certainly been something to behold. And when Melchor gained the upper hand, Hector had been the one to carry and protect Xuan from him in order to give Xuan much needed time to recover.

That was the first time Hector had seen precisely how terrifying the gap in strength between servants could be. Melchor and Xuan were each one the deciding factor between victory and defeat for their side. Everything in that battle had revolved around them, around their clash.

And of course, in that fight Hector had further witnessed Xuan being nearly defeated by Melchor. So he knew now that smoke warriors could be defeated. They weren't simply invulnerable, thankfully.

How Melchor had done it, though, was the difficult part.

To Hector's eyes, the crippling blow from Melchor had appeared as essentially just a giant explosion. It pierced the smoke at its heart and then burst apart, dispersing it everywhere.

Not unlike the exploding javelins that Hector had been testing here. Just a lot more powerful.

However, Hector knew now that Melchor's technique on that occasion had involved more than making a really big boom.

Because he'd asked Melchor about it once, when the man happened to show up during one of his training sessions with Zeff.

"Ah, yeah, that was a pretty advanced little trick," Melchor had told him. "Smoke can be very troublesome to deal with. You can't just punch it. And if your opponent has enough control over the form, soul power won't do anything, either. Because they can manipulate their body around your attacks at will. So what you do is concentrate your soul power into a single attack and strike at the enemy's most vulnerable point with something that can disrupt their form. Such as an explosion. Because they can't warp their body around that kind of attack. It's omnidirectional."

But after he'd left, Zeff had more to add.

"First, you have to be able to sense soul power," the Lord Elroy had said. "Without that, you won't be able to tell where your opponent's most vulnerable point even is."