*
Few days passed just like that. It was time for the attack, the watch out kept a careful eye so that we were prepared at the right time. Friedra had recovered and Kanou was on standby. She had previously gone to get reinforcements from central of the Sanctuary and got held up for a few days.
"It was really troublesome... Well, I'm glad you guys are okay. I finally came back and just in time too. I can sense a couple of them, S-grades." (Kanou)
"A couple of them... Couldn't you have brought another S-grades with you?" (Myuu)
She was slightly troubled by Myuu's pleading expression, but she waved it in an instant with ease. After all, it was a case that was out of her reach.
".... Our faction only has enough S-grades for the 8 surrounding territories. Triney is busy protecting her own region. We have to deal with this ourselves." (Kanou)
"... That's horrible, so we're just suppose to sit here and accept this? Aren't we basically like ants compared to S-grades? "(Fiel)
Her appearance and presence was forgettable. She had sleek black hair that grew to slightly below her shoulders, and though her magical girl combat dress was princess esque in design, it was a copper brown that didn't match her hair at all. Her skills reside around the materialising of dense rocks for use as projectiles. To the average magical girl who lived around this labyrinth, she might as well have not existed. The silver lining to this was the 2 close friends she had gain as a result of her hard work. Vibell and Izumi.
"I'm afraid we still have to fight. No matter what, I believe we all still have a reason to do so. Though there were many bad memories along the way, this is ultimately where we lived and set our goals." (Izumi)
She had a more uncommon light brunette hair, at least it was rare in the country she was from. Her combat dress consisted of multiple iron plates resemblant of a samurai's eastern scale armour and cloth that covered other parts of her body. Her fighting style was with a katana that materialises from her passive skill in which she loads magical particles into to make stronger. The magical particles make the katana more durable, sharper and become able to repair itself.
She also relies on her armour which is a mix of light cloth and heavy metal plates. Even though it was a mix, she still held the advantage of both types as a magical girl. Other magical girls usually only focus on one type of armour, being completely draped in light armour or fully clad in heavy metallic armour. Though the best type is energy based armour which are both light and durable, with the disadvantage of consuming large amounts of magical particles when taking damage.
"Thou art right. T is simply the truth f'r most of us h're" (Vibell)
Her magical girl form was reminiscent of the common magical girl. The most common hair colour that existed in magical girls, she had grey hair. Specifically, hers were dark grey as they generally existed in a spectrum of shades. Her passives allow her to materialise daggers, she could strengthen them like how Izumi empowers her katana, but she could never reach anywhere near her in terms of destructive power.
Her skill was a stealth skill that bent the light and other matter around it to camouflage her target. Unlike a recent enemy, her method of concealment works physically on the material environment, while that enemy's skill directly manipulates their target's mind to be unable to perceive things with their 5 senses. Each way of concealment had their own perks and disadvantages, but they are generally useful on typical monsters and average magical girls.
Usami and Xin had lightning and gravity based skills respectively, both with black hair but done in different styles. While Usami had curls on the back of her hair and spikes around her fringe that give more of a coarse look, Xin had short hair that barely reached her neck and her bangs parted on both her eyes with some of her neatly trimmed fringe left in the middle. They had less battle experience and were technically new to the group as they escaped Illnoia early and chose non-combat related occupations.
The usual Barius, Garion and Kenzi were also ready for the battle. This left me and Myuu who made our preparations and recovery in the past few days. Just as Friedra had recovered, their A-grade magical girls had also done the same. All our forces were outnumbered on every grade, it was a treacherous uphill battle that obliterated most of the morale in our forces.
Before anyone notices, the higher grade magical girls had already begun their attack. In an attempt by both sides trying to ambush the other, their attacks occurred simultaneously. A bright light swallows the sky and spreads out ever forward. On the other end, an environmental nightmare was what awaited any possible observers. It was a rain of nuclear bombs, it ravaged the land and turned it into a wasteland of nuclear fallout. Excluding radiation, the ground had been charred and disintegrated to bits, leaving a building sized hole and at least 5 units wiped out.
The bright light that reached towards us was a similarly destructive attack. It was a ray of light that wiped out anything it touches, leaving charcoal black ground glowing red and erased 2 units. 16 to 22, that was the amount left but it hardly mattered now that the S-grade magical girls were here. They also go by Arch-general or King class magical girls, said to be so rare that when found they would completely change the tide of victory.
While the A-grade one's took command and begin to fight with their armies, the 2 enemy S-grade magical girls had arrived here in an instant to begin their battle. While the fight was basically only between 3 people, them being S-grade completely blow the scale out of the park. This was also the first time I saw it. Pure white hair, a symbol of power only described in the textbooks. It was so rare that after going through thousands of magical girls present in this labyrinth, she is likely the only one.
No wonder she was an S-grade, not even Kanou could match her speed of growth... While Kanou basically had light grey hair, she had trained over the years to reach where she was now. This girl on the other side however had probably reached the same level in less amount of time, power was practically rolling off her body in waves of magical particles. She had so much that the air around her became extremely dense and hard to breath in.
"Base technique - [Beneath the ground] 1 star." (Edalsear) A fluffy collar wraps around her neck, her combat dress was skin fitting like a swimsuit. More accurately, it was a navy blue bodysuit that reached her hips where it extends like a dress. Her skirt was short and loose like cloth, it did little to get in the way of her movements and was decorated with a dark shade of teal.
She had black tights on and white shoes below her skirt, metallic greaves fix themselves above her shoes and below her knees, glowing a blue metallic sheen. The bodysuit reaches her elbows with bright teal highlights that glow and form patterns all over her top. Between her wrist and elbows were metallic gauntlets similar to the ones on her lower legs, reflecting a similar shade of dark blue.
Her white hair forming her fringe folds over into the rest of her hair like it was combed backwards, the rest was folded into a low ponytail. Her eyes observe us like hawks, sharp and focused. On the right side of her head was something resemblant of half a mask, it was like a piece of metal that bent sharply to the right like an elf's ear, next to it was a diamond shaped curved piece on her right cheek, with 2 more sharp protrusions pointing up and down. It covered her right ear and seemed to glow with a similar teal brilliance.
Not surprisingly, Kanou met it with her own aura, the both of them emanating an unimaginable amount of pressure on their surroundings. It felt like a large weight was pressing over my lungs and throat, preventing me from breathing. This usually invisible pressure, otherwise known as an 'aura' was a show of power from individuals with plenty of magical particles.
Once a person had a large enough well, they can release enough magical particles out of their body to impact their surroundings, as magical particles get more compressed and dense they gain the properties of liquids then solids. That was why a large enough amount of magical particles in the air could begin to simulate sea pressure and press down on everyone.
Just as a magical girl could raise their well stat to this level, if they raise their will stat, then they could simply recycle the expended magical particles and avoid wasting so much of it. To magical girls, we would usually be able to see this aura's colour, but to the ordinary person all they see if the ground caving under them or they black out and possibly die on the spot. For magical girls to avoid this, we emanate our own aura in order to meet the pressure head on as a shield. But this was basically a stopgap measure compared to the absurdly heavy auras of these S-grade magical girls.
The other S-grade magical simply stood behind the first one, she wore a hood that hid her combat dress as she observed the standoff between Kanou and the enemy magical girl. I notice the pressure has caused some of my friends to forget to breath, I tap their shoulders to stimulate their consciousness.
"KAGHHHHHHHH?!???" (Kenzi)
"UGHHhhaahhh" (Vibell)
Launching the first attack, Kanou makes use of her combat action priority or 'action priority' to surprise the enemy. She vanishes in an instant and rematerialises in the next with her foot on her face. Her first skill [Pain is for the still] allows her to move in an instant to anywhere she wants. Unlike teleportation , the skill forcibly moves her body around in the universe, generating large amounts of recoil and energy. This recoil and energy is then transferred to the enemy, so the further the location she teleports to, the more damage she deals. This is only limited by how much magical particles she can pump into the skill, dictating and limiting its distance with her well.
The attack connects and a visible shock wave travels through the left side of her face, her flesh caving in for an instant before bouncing back like rubber. Forming belts of flesh that expand outwards and dissipate in the centre, traveling through her face before vanishing. Landing on the ground, Kanou takes a few steps backwards to observe how her attack did. While Edalsear staggers backwards while keeping her balance.
'She didn't fall... So she's pretty tough, is she also a close range type? That would explain the gauntlets and greaves.' (Kanou)
Edalsear leaps in to launch her own fist, Kanou reacts in time easily to swing her own arm and meet the attack head on. Their knuckles clash but only Edalsear was sent flying backwards. The impact of it gouging a clean line out of the ground next to their feet. The crumbling of rocks and concrete could be heard nearby with dust and debris blocking the air and everyone's sight of Edalsear. When the dust cleared up, Edalsear had already gone back into a standing position. But something was off. She had a monotone and disinterested expression the entire time, so why was she smiling so eerily now? That's not how people react to getting knocked flying in a fight usually.
Hence, she spoke. "Is this the power of an S-rank? It's been a very very long time since I've had the need to use more than 1 star... It's so exciting~!" (Edalsear)
Her gauntlets and greaves begin to glow.
"Common technique - 2 stars(140% strength) [Beneath the ground]." (Edalsear)
We couldn't do anything but watch. What was the point of being here? A single punch from Edalsear would turn most of us into red mist...
Following up with another kick, the opponent powered up once more. She hadn't landed a single hit on Kanou, but she seemed to have taken multiple hits on purpose.
"Common technique - 3 stars(210%) [Beneath the ground]. " (Edalsear)