*
Shattering, both the air wall and vacuum blade was now gone. The sound of glass cracking under a high amount of pressure blared out at a pitch high enough to break ear drums. Taking the initiative, I launched a high kick at the defenceless Brish, which shattered her cheek bones. Recovering from the attack first, she swayed from the lack of her sense of balance, before catching herself and launching a fast punch into my gut with her right fist.
Fluids, a mix of spittle and blood shot out as I endured the pain. I launch my own right fist at her face, only for my strength to wane for a second and hit her robust neck. Not leaving without any results, I moved closer to strike her abdomen with my left fist. In the end, the vacuum blade got through slightly and a large deep cut left a trail of dark crimson leaking near her abdomen. Brish felt extremely weak due to the loss of blood, her vision began darkening like mine did, losing focus for a second.
Returning the favour, all her muscle completely tensed as she delivered her right fist into my left cheek, the audible sound of bones cracking caressed my broken ear drums. Jumping back to a safe distance, she raised her arm to aim some wind attacks. Rolling to the side to avoid her attacks, I threw the magicle particle regulator at her. Still vigilant, she shot a wind blade at it before it came close, the explosion of the device causing a large cloud of smoke and dust irritated her eyes.
I've sent magicle particles to heal my injuries, though the recent ones are still vividly etched onto my body, the very first air wall expansion blast has finally left no traces of its existence. Well, other than this irritation and anger. In the end, I've no more magical particles for fighting, but I still have some saved or recovered for the transformation and regeneration.
Running into the cloud of smoke, I used a small bit of my power to detect her position and unleash a punch in that direction. Launching her a few metres away. Walking out of that raised mess of dust and smoke, I choked out some of that polluted air out of my lungs as I observed the Brish that's sitting on her legs. Honestly it hurts, both my body from fighting and my conscious from having to kill her. Seeing her on the ground and weak only reminded me of myself. I fear dying, yet I'm about to inflict that on another individual. My knuckles tensed beyond white. My heart tightens. I walk closer.
It's one thing to kill animals or monsters for fun, food or survival. I don't care about animal lives. But humans... Are another thing entirely. The fear of death is not something that fades entirely, it sits in the back and waits for its time to grip your heart once more. Hmpf, the only thing this situation presents is this.
"... Oi, I don't know what's your name, but I don't want to kill you..."
Aching all over her body, she struggles to lift her neck and make eye contact.
"Huh?! What kind of rubbish are you spou-" (Brish)
"Guess you can't tell. What I want to be is a genuine magical girl, the one that shows up in anime and saves the day. Killing you would be going against that ideal. And killing you would also give me nightmares.
It sounds stupid, completely bonkers. But there is nothing more to it, I don't give a shit about your ideal or whatever. Just join this side and live a peaceful life with us. "
With a face full of confusion, her eyebrows contorted as her eyes swim in utter disbelief.
" That sounds absolutely insane... Are you just a child, or are you out of sound mind? We've been living in this kill or be killed world for quite a while. What you say completely runs contrary to experience, you would be going against something akin to the law of nature itself.
There is no utopia, just as there is no perfect world and ideal peace. Too bad, it's in so much turmoil it's insane. We're just a small army, other continents are fighting on a much larger scale. How are you going to stop that? How... Are you going to bring back my comrades who are long gone, you idealistic piece of shit! "(Brish)
Tears had welled up in her eyes long before she realised. Her anger, her frustrations. Only a tiny fraction of it was let out, yet her feelings were quite clear. Most of it was right on her face. She can't abandon those feelings, that was the conflict occurring before my eyes right now.
"... I have no right to dictate how you feel. I... Can not make a decision. Let's leave it here and come back another day."
"... You will only regret taking such naive actions. I may be soft or weaker than others, you don't have to take my word for it. But what about your friend, did you forget her life is also in danger as she fights my partner? Would you be able to walk away from this if that was the case? "(Brish)
By reflex, my cheeks had tensed and my brow ridge knit. Tch, my mind blanked out for a second due to that sudden influx of rage. Looking down, my hands had already bunched up into fists that wouldn't stop shaking. I... Am weak... And naive... But it's not like I can immediately discard my nature...
"... Come here." (Brish)
"Huh?"
In a soft tone, almost endearing, she spoke gently unlike how strangers would interact. I still don't know her name nor her motivations. I can only guess that she's here for revenge and that the Eye God may have wronged her. Looking up from the ground, my conscious was in an absent state at the moment. It feels like I'm very light headed, unable to think things through properly. There is also some aching at the temples.
I walked closer to her. Contrasting with her fluttering dark purple cloak was pure white armour adorned onto many parts of her body. Her blonde hair matched the tone of her armour, almost as if she came out of a fairytale. Her elegant narrow eye lashes shook as we made eye contact.
"If you can't take my life, take this. The road up ahead will be the roughest thing anyone could go through, I'd be more surprised if you actually stuck through with your silly ideals. Don't worry, my partner isn't the type to kill, though many of my comrades are. " (Brish)
Extending her palm, her fingers opened up to reveal.... Nothing. Her fingers were wide open, palm facing my neck. I don't think there's a need to explain.
" Final skill activate, [Inverse sky collapse. Behold, this is what it means to fight for your life. This is what it meant to throw everything away for your own cause! THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS TO RESOLVE YOURSELF! THIS IS THE PEAK OF MY POWER!" (Brish)
Small white orbs materialise out of thin air to gather at one spot right in front of her arm, emanating a pressure like no other. It was very difficult to describe, but essentially it felt the same as staring into something as dreadful as a black hole the intensity of ferocity of the white orbs could not be detected visually, but rather it was felt by a magical girl's ability to detect magical particles. And each white orb was an extremely dense cluster of magical particles, a bomb that sucked everything in except for light, hence appearing as white orbs. The feeling that it truly gave off was that touching it costs an arm and possibly more.
".... So this is what it meant to have my trust betrayed. Odd... I've always known what it meant, felt it in my daily life. But it has never been to this extent... In a battle of life and death. I need to find my own resolve.
First skill activate, [Hollow calamity] technique- Inverse pressure."
I see, I think I finally feel the grip on reality I have with this skill. It was never quite there but I think I finally understand. At first it was the rather slow build up of my skill, rather than starting off powerful and maintaining a level of power, it started off with weak proficiency and slowly grew in strength. Next was the fact that it was different to Brish's wind manipulation, it used the existing air instead of creating new air to launch at the enemy. It was rather inconvenient to stretch the oxygen thin and risk fainting, but that simply meant something was wrong.
Immediately putting this spontaneous feelings of suspicion to good use, essentially I tried to manipulate something other than air. Now that I understand the flow of my own magic better, it didn't have to start at a low output anymore. It could start at a moderate level before increasing until it was high level. And putting this 'flowing ability' of this skill to good use, the only chance now was to use it on this opponent's final attack.
I finally understand. [Hollow calamity] is the manipulation of pressure gradients, whether increasing it or decreasing it, I am able to tweak the strength of existing things in reality. Anything can be identified as a pressure gradient, the opponent's final attack was able to instantly suck in large volumes of space into a tiny orb and let it explode. What if I reverse that gradient?
Before the orbs took effect, they shattered into unimaginably small pieces. So in the end, it was like this... Pointing my palm at Brish, I prepared my final gift to this magical girl who awoken my eyes.
"Hahah... So you finally understand?" (Brish)
Her pure white armour clattered around as she moved around on the spot, still in an disadvantageous sitting position.
"Tch, I hope it was worth it. If you come back and haunt me as a ghost I'll exorcise you."
"Mhmm goodbye." (Brish)
Making use of [Hollow calamity], I manipulated the pressure gradient of air more efficiently than ever before, forcing all the oxygen out of her throat. A haemorrhage was in effect, she collapsed with a thud like someone dropped a slab of meat on the ground.
A few buildings away, I could hear something crash and rupture the ground. Dashing to where Myuu was, she seemed to be doing fine, albeit full of cuts and wounds that were slowly being healed by her passive regeneration. Above the cracked and destroyed ground was the other girl, she had a similar amount of injuries with Myuu. Seeing as I was present, I was met with 2 different reactions. A pained one and a relieved one.
"... Liar...." (?)
Looking far away, she spoke those words before running away. Myuu and I were in too bad a shape to gave chase, nobody had the capacity to fight a second battle. Exhausted, I dragged myself back to the apartment along with Myuu. The top floor had been obliterated by some magic attack, there were only 4 floors, it was lucky I chose to live on the 3rd floor. Most people preferred to live on the 4th floor, so that as little bugs appeared in their apartment as possible.
Entering the apartment, Myuu came with me since it was the closest place to got to. Locking the door with slight fervour and a tinge of anxiety, my legs gave way while my muscles were drained of all coordination and balance. Originally, I didn't want to lie on the bed since I was afraid of how the blood and sweat would dirty it and make it annoying to clean. Unfortunately, Myuu just went ahead of herself and pounced onto the soft mattress. It wobbled like pudding for a second before settling down. Observing a heaving and lethargic figure on my bed, I also felt more lethargic and sympathised with her sense of exhaustion instead of getting mad. We arrived back in safety. It was better to just rest and recover our strength than run in like lunatics.
It was something I noticed only after seriously fighting a magical girl. Next to our physical and mental stamina, there was also our supply of magical particles that we have to be cautious about. The opponent didn't treat me seriously at first, and it worked in their favour when I started filling my attacks to the brim with magical particles. I would say my capabilities are pretty average, so putting my all into it would still pose a threat to a mid-level enemy like her.
A high-level enemy like the person throwing sun's around would be impossible for me to deal with. After the opponent with the pointy witch hat's illusion was dispelled, I noticed in the distance that I can't notice anything. The fight was too fast and scary for my eyes to follow. I think I'll just lay here in bed with Myuu for a while. Can't do anything about that fight out of my league.
A fireball would just be a sphere of flames and maybe some gas-like features, but that person was throwing around something that look more 'solid' and dense, it was even thrown faster than I could dodge too, yeah I rather not peak my head out the window for the next few days. I'm just glad there's hope, even for a scared cat like me.