*
Having it dodged my attacks would be troublesome. But after enough fights in my life, I can roughly recognise when it was better to draw back. Of course I'm not retreating, but I should not mess up the momentum I had and take the chance to put some distance. From a distance away, it could not kick or slice me apart. It could shoot blades of metal or air at me, but my barrier takes care of that. Thanks to that, it believed my barrier was on at all times. When I've turned most of it off to conserve my energy.
I reinforce my body by coating my limbs and torso with my magic. Once more, I leaped off the ground. But instead of rushing in immediately, it was a side step to rotate my body so I could run around the target. Strangely enough, it had begun to stand still. There were still numerous blades of metal struck around the area, sticking out of the ground. Using them as ammunition, I launched them at the crane with my skill. Adding multiple layers of my first and second skill onto my right fist, I continued to curve around it as a gradually increasing weight causes my fist to sink.
Reaching maximum speed with one final leap, I shot into the crane with my right arm ready in a bent position. I twisted my hips, shoulder and wrist, while putting my strength into my elbow. This caused my punch to curve to the left, barely landing on the crane's large metallic body. Its sheen warped around as I blocked a portion of its shiny body from the sun. It also vanished as a chunk of its body was gone. I had dashed in from the sight, so it was a front portion of its body, collapsing its posture immediately. The metal feathers bending unnaturally. Other than the chunk that my fist sent out of its body, perhaps my attack had also caused some small fractures that allowed it to bend its body.
"KGH?! AHHHHHH!!!!!"
The skin around my wrist was a deep purplish black that spanned around 6 cm. An unbearable sharp pain permeated my powderised wrist bones. Even though the attack was successful, most of the force had been sent back as recoil to shatter my wrist. Ughhh.... This was why my second passive was suppose to deal with recoil. If I used my skills to enhance my punches and kicks, it was suppose to kick in and send most of the resistance back into the enemy. It only works to protect my body from my own skill, so if the attack or defense was from the opponent, it would not be recognised by the passive.
... Then what the hell happened here? It's probably the new skill that the alloy crane when it combat evolved... Perhaps a similar skill that sent attacks back to me as recoil, if it put more magical particles or if the skill was of a higher grade, its effects would take priority over mine. That is if both skills affected the concept of recoil... There's also another possibility that was often taught in school... [Magic-jamming]. It was simple, it disables any skill in a given area. If it was strong enough to overcome the magical girl's will stat, then it would also weaken them and lower their magical girl augmentations. It was one of the most trouble some magic that exists, enough to have it written in a syllabus.
It was not exactly common, but not that hard to find either. To be exact, it was an incredible nuisance. There wasn't any way around other than brute forcing it with stronger magic. You could have stronger defences and deal with it physically or you could output so much firepower that its effects vecam negligible. If you were to use less magical particles than the magic jamming, your magic would need to be more complex and higher in rank. Stuff such as manipulating time or space itself, but those are the easiest examples to find. One could also cancel it out if they have their own magic jamming skill.
In any case, everything falls short on this tedium at the current moment. Thankfully, it isn't the type of monster that has ridiculous regeneration. The large chunk in its body and its ripped off wing will continue to stay like that for a while. It had also lost its balance and was standing still while wary of me. With as little movement as possible, it could retain its balance albeit losing the initiative to attack.
I had trained for many months and even more since I've awakened as a magical girl. Transforming was like breathing now, though I rarely transform back into my original male form. I got used to life like this, acclimatised to this body, and I've trained it to a point that it was much stronger than before. As long as I don't use too much strength in it, there shouldn't be enough recoil at all. My physical strength, enhanced by the basic augmentation of my magical girl transformation... Should be plenty.
This was it. Even if simple, it was a ridiculous enemy that made most of my magic obsolete. Now that it had gained proper control over its own power, it began to exert the [magic jamming] over a larger area and started to move. It was no longer a still target. Vanishing on the spot, it left behind a small crater in the shaped of its talons. I followed by side jumping to the left, as my surroundings blurred, a blur nearby began to gain clarity. It had the usual silvery shine as the metallic monster it was.
Sending my right leg into the ground, I pivoted and changed directions in an instant. Leaping straight at it, it seemed to have gotten a lot faster too as it could dodge to the right before swinging it's wings down. Pushing my body to fall and roll onto the ground, I barely evaded the large blade-like metal wing. Picking myself back up, it seemed to have gotten more intelligent as it rushed in after my posture broke. It had gotten much swifter than before, but it was still not enough. If I were to say, its speed was at the bottom of C-grade before its evolution, and now its 1.5 to 2 times. My own speed stat was B grade, in other words it was 5 times the original speed of the alloy cranes.
Even if my speed was a few times that of the monster's, my position was extremely disadvantageous as I was sitting on my butt. The crane had jumped earlier building up more speed. There was no way to dodge from a sitting position, at least not any methods that I have practiced. I didn't foresee this kind of positioning, so all that's left that I could do was to fight back. Planting my hands into the ground, I lift my entire body from one side. I switch positions by putting my right arm on the left side of my body so both arms are one side. Swinging my right leg with all my strength, I put my all into the kick.
"Argh!!!"
My right arm was already heavily injured, just using some strength with me made my throat utter out a cry in pain. Making contact, my kick was not power enough to pulverise its steel body, but it was able to blow it away in quite some distance. It tumbled onto the ground, launching dust into the air that immediately dissipated due to its air manipulation. Not just the dust, even the air began to dissipate from my surroundings. My kick may have paralysed it a little, but that also goes for the leg I used to kick it with. The pain was akin to having a wooden bat hit my shin.
[Hollow calamity], it was planning to drain all the oxygen in the area and form a vacuum, so I pulled all of it back. The skills cancel each other out. Placing my left arm on my left leg, I pushed myself back up to start walking towards it. I still have a bit of magic left inside me, a battle of attrition would end with me losing unless I tore out all its weapons and carve it into a smooth ball. It also begins to pick itself up, a huge chunk in its torso causing it great amounts of difficulty. It struggles, the sound of metal dragging against the dirt echoed into my ears.
Are my ears okay? Are they starting to ring? Looks like I can still push my body a little further. After that, I would be done for. I have to finish it. Using my left leg to side step, I landed on it before placing my palm on the crane's back. It's magic jamming stopped any form of magic in a designated area, but if it stopped the magic inside itself, it would cease to exist. Magical particles are massless, the magic circles they form are 2 dimensional. I can still form magic in between my palm and its body without the effects of the magic jamming.
"GUH?! AHHHHHHHGHHHH!!!!!"
Large blades of metal penetrate my palm as I was about to cast my magic. An excruciating pain engulfs my mind like a merciless storm. At the site of implement, my palm felt like it was being lit on fire, but it was a bit different. It was hard to describe pain, it was a sharper sensation than any other. But I was already ready to finish this fight. I can't let it set me back.
"AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Second skill activate, [The gap of impermanence is a cage]. Substance manipulation, I seperate the blades from the crane's body and extract it out of my palm in the form of tiny particles, then I slowly seperate the rest of the crane into metal dust. Starting from the outside, it looked like it was decomposing. As the sheer seething pain on my palm persisted, it felt like I was going to pass out soon. The wings and legs are almost gone. Just a little more...
It had already lost the will to resist, not realising I was also on my last ropes. I place my second palm on its body, pumping the rest on my magic into the skill as much as possible. Some organs begin to peak out as its tough metallic skeleton and body began to turn to dust and blow away. It's wings are completely gone and its legs are now 2 giant toothpicks. It's body has lost a third of its size. Since a chunk of its torso was already gone earlier, all that's left is a scarecrow sized metal pillar. It was practically dead at this point as the magic jamming on the area had been lifted. It was like a sense of oppression had vanished, now that it was no longer around tk threaten my life, my shoulders felt lighter.
Enhancing my left fist with my magic, I obliterated the remains of the alloy crane with one final swing. All that was left was shards of metal. Even if the magical particles here manage to take form and create a monster's ego on the spot, the new allow crane would be far weaker with most of its mass gone. As monsters are creatures formed from magical particles, some of them could do what was called a 'revival'.
Magical particles often formed egos in the natural environment. By coincidence, they form magical circles and then complex circuits that make up the monster's ego and soul. When a powerful enough monster is defeated, some have a chance to reform their body from nothing but magical particles from the environment. In almost all cases, they would be far weaker than their previous self, so it usually isn't an issue unless the magical girl dealing with them was half dead like me.
Unlike humans, their ego and their soul is the same thing. Humans could have their ego ripped out and their spiritual body left as an empty husk. The ego is the personality, the entity doing the thinking and decision making. For humans, they are seperate from their spiritual body or soul, as humans had evolved to use their soul as a secondary shield for their ego. Perhaps there was a predator that only consumed egos in the past, people didn't really know why or how the soul could be used as a shield. In fact, people are even skeptical of the existence of the soul. Does magic recreate a soul and tie it to the individual's body like a voodoo doll? Or does the magic only extract the soul that was already there?
Sitting down, I untransformed. It had been a long while, but I was tired for already maintaining it this long. Usually I could last up to a month before needing to take a rest. Transforming into a magical girl causes the body's magical particles to accelerate and augment the body. This can stress it out a lot. If I get into such a difficult fight, the transformation would only last a week. Well, I could transform again and endure. My wounds won't heal like this. But the magic communicator device was on my untransformed clothes.
"Hey Myuu? Can you pick me up? I kinda broke a leg and an arm. I'll send the signal."
"...*Sigh* Alright, wait a sec." (Myuu)