*
Darkness covered out every inch of land, even the brightest rays of the sun got blocked out as coldness consumed the vicinity like a chilly landslide. Various incomprehensible noises echo out in this bleak land, filling the stale musty air with tension.
I could feel it to my core, the pulsating movements of my erratic heart. I don't usually get scared of the dark, after all it is just the absence of light. What I'm truly afraid of, and what most people may agree with, is that something dangerous may be lurking in that patch of blackness that nobody can see through. With how people live most of their lives in their homes, they can get used to it when it's dark in their own home right? What about out on the streets, when it's so dim one cannot observe their own foot or tell left from right?
This is where my fear is amplified. My power makes use of the wind, even if I regain 98% of my combat ability, the matter of the mind cannot be cleansed so easily. I can hear it, I can feel it. Not just my own heart beat and warmth, but those of people nearby. There's definitely more than one, and people's breathing rate and capacity is different that of animals. These are definitely people, and they may be out to hunt me.
In any case, fear will only affect me if I keep thinking about it. The problem is that I can't stop. That is fear. It occupies, engulfs and burns through the psyche until nothing is left... Ughhh, dammit now is not the time... To cry..... I need to find Myuu and get out of here... I'm already a blind bat in this darkness, now even tears will get in the way.... I do... I don't.... I don't want to die....
I punch the floor in desperation, I hadn't even noticed that I became too scared to even stand. Damn it! Damn it all! I don't want to die.... It was then, I felt something cold wrapped around my waist. Unlike my skirt, the top half of my costume was a little thin and fitted really comfortably to my skin. I could feel the smooth rubbery texture rubbing over my stomach as it dragged me along the floor. Cold fluid sprinkled out of an unknown direction, a bit of it landed on my shoulder, it slid down at a slow speed that indicated it was viscous.
After getting dragged some distance, something the opposite of cold, a warm finger and handkerchief had wiped off my tears. A small illumination lit up our surroundings, I was far from the heartbeats previously detected. There was now only one next to me. I could recognise it even under the dim conditions of this odd barrier. Her mischievous expression had a touch of softness this time, her long eye lashes were much more relaxed as were her cheeks. It was like she was looking at a child, at something beneath her... Stop it... Don't...
"I... Cannot help with your fear. I'll just say this, you have lost everything from the great disaster right? It's distasteful to brag, but I still have a mother to return to... Even if she is not mentally present...
In any case, you only have yourself left right? With nothing but yourself to fight for, you would naturally fear when you would lose yourself too. I still have someone to fight for, no, I have even more to fight for now. That's where I'm drawing my courage from.
The Great Disaster broke your will didn't it... With nothing to live for, you cling to your image of a magical girl to live... Even if you don't mean it, you said you would fight... This is where that mistake brought you. "(Myuu)
As if chiding her own child, this rather tiny mother had a soothing and pleasant voice, spoken in a gentle tone in order to not provoke too much of my emotions... That's where it got worse... I'm not... Dumb... Doing that will only make me realise my patheticness and feel guilty about it... Seeing as her attempt failed, she had a look of resignation as if she was dealing with a selfish and troublesome child. Without any wasted movements, she closed her own eyes and hugged my head to her stomach. I was laid sitting on the ground while she stood up, so the height matched up.
"... You misinterpret me... It's okay to make mistakes. That's where I come in. Why do you think I'm here... Do you seriously believe I wouldn't be worried about an idiot like you?...
I'm not saying what you did was wrong, your actions were probably the best possible decisions made from your own point of view. Everyone of us are just different outcomes of the Great Disaster. Even now, its effects still linger on in you... Anyway, we are not like the ancient magical girls. We're still pretty much just kids. So it's okay to cry, cry your heart out. "(Myuu)
" Uguuh... Uu.. UWAAAAAAAAAH!!!! "
The tears couldn't be contained, just like how I didn't listen and went outside anyway. They kept flowing down, accumulating into a pool in front of my knees. I grabbed onto Myuu's dress tightly, unlike the others so far, her combat dress was surprisingly the closest to that of a magical girl's. They were in a sense, my ideal. All of it was let out, my pent up frustrations, my grievances, my wish, my sadness.
"Do you feel better now?" (Myuu)
"Un. Much better..."
Smoothing out her lips into a smile, she nodded her head in satisfaction with a dazzling expression of satisfaction. She tilted her head and gave a thumbs up.
"Come on, let's go. We can't stay here." (Myuu)
"Myuu, we're surrounded. They've noticed us the whole time even if we did run here, if they deployed this darkness thing they should be able to see in the dark..."
Pausing for a moment, she attempted to look around before remembering it was too dark to see anything. Pondering into deep thought, her eyes had sharpened into a serious gaze. We began to whisper.
"...tch, any way out? I presume you have some detection ability if you could tell we're surrounded... Are you scared? "(Myuu)
"Undeniably so. But I think I finally understand Myuu and got some courage out of it... I don't want to die, but I also don't want you to die. I want the both of us to be alive."
".... Well, if we're surrounded then there's no point to this darkness for hiding ourselves. "(Myuu)
Activating her own skill, the walls and street areas of the nearby buildings instantly lit up, revealing fiber-filled texture of overgrown vines covering every inch of surface. Only the ground was sparsely filled with vines, making an uneven surface hard to run on. Walking out of the corner of a building that was 3 buildings away, 2 hostile magical girls showed up.
One wore a pale purple robe that covered her head and acted as a cape. A frilly white cloak covered her shoulders with double layers that covered a side each, metallic gauntlets of a snow white sheen glowed under the light emanated from Myuu's skill. Her top was sleeveless, so the section between her cloak and her gauntlet bared her arms.
Her top was also a tone of white, though it was a bit yellowish with numerous grey metal attachments. There were frills coming from the center of her chest to her sides at a downward angle, some metallic plates hung off the sides as her stomach region was decorated by a starry pattern of black and dark purple. Her leggings were white with a couple grey stripes at the side that stretched from the top to bottom, they were kind of like sweat pants of certain sports brands, except that they had small white metallic armour covering her knees and boots.
The other donned a large black hat with a pointed end, she wore a white shirt with white buttons and cuffs and a black hanging cape. Her costume was oddly reminiscent of a magician, the typical portrayal of an entertainer with normal magic tricks instead of reality defying powers.
"Let's go Kiuney, looks like they spotted us. Buff us up." (Brish) The one in the purple hood spoke as her armour rattled under her stride, her steps were confident, filled with experience. Just looking at her demeanour already made the battle seem hopeless
"Mhmm." (Kiuney)
The one in the white button shirt gave a prompt reply, her silky black hair wavered under the wind, making a match for Brish's blond golden locks. In an instant, the dark clouds blocking the light had cleared up, revealing the aftershocks of a distant battle pounding on the hemisphere barrier that we were in. It was only the side spray of attacks from that battle, yet it pounded the barrier with so much pressure that glassy cracks had surfaced and vanished at once.
An invisible force struck the ground next to me, I barely dodge in time by jumping to the side to avoid the recoil of that attack. It blew a large cleaved hole in the ground with small fragments of rocks flying fast enough to scratch me. For all I know, those rocks could have been part of the attack and taking them without knowing the effects wasn't such a good idea.
A similar force struck the ground around Brish, before I noticed, she had already vanished. Jumping backwards, I check my surroundings to see where she had gone to, only to experience a sharp pain striking my back like a truck.
"Guh?!"
Sent flying by the strike, I jumped off the ground with the tip of my toes before I fell. This allowed me to reorientate myself as I spun mid-air to land on my feet and observe my opponent's movements. Looks like this was a pretty simple battle tactics-wise, a direct combat magical girl fighting against another combat type magical girl, accompanied by 2 supports fighting each other as well. There isn't much to it other than a double brawl.
Raising my arms up while keeping the enemy in my sight, I endured the stinging pain on my back as I sauntered forward. Each step was laden with a tinge of agony from my flesh. The regeneration worked its magic, though severely slowed down by the anti-magic. Right now it was still endurable, but I wouldn't count on it to continue in this condition. It will most likely worsen, I'll have to end the fight as soon as possible. Concentrate, use your power to make yourself stronger. Calm your heart, look forward and... Move!
Unleashing a devastating punch the teared through the air like a missile, Brish led the attack as I followed it up by forcing my left hand to catch it. My wrist bones creaked under the impact, I could feel my body rattle from the force alone. That was only a single punch, but I couldn't give up here. Unleashing a high kick with my right leg, it swung towards the left as she countered with her own right leg. Bending her knees at unbelievable speeds, she smashed it into the lower part of my leg. My kick was easily deflected, but there was nothing blocking the back side of my kick, so it didn't get crushed into a bloody pulp.
I catch my balance once again, this time sending my own attacks in a barrage of punches faster than pistol bullets. Every punch was tanked by her astonishing toughness, she put her hands up to block the punches like a boxer and didn't even flinch a little. Now. While her guard is down, full power first skill, [Hollow calamity]. Packing more power into my punches, the opponent's blocks became more and more visibly affected. At first it was like an immovable steel wall, now a small dent is finally starting to form up.
Unleashing punch after punch, a tiny amount of smoke began to rise off of my fist after every hit, Brish's guard began to sway up and down unsteadily. Spinning one round, I swung my left leg high with all the force I could muster, unfortunately I wasn't used to kicking. The magical girl augmentation may have made my body more flexible and capable of kicking high, but the strength still isn't there. My left leg was caught. Predicting this outcome, I sent a rain of wind blades to the side of my leg, hitting her who was behind.
The wind blades were merely a distraction for my next attack. I lifted myself into the air with a small bounce and swung my right leg in with all my strength and peppered the enemy with wind blades, the attack was successful enough for her to let go of my left leg. I was initially caught by surprise. I can enhance my body even more at a price, but this battle didn't seem so unbeatable anymore.