*
No matter how much distance she creates, I could cover it in an instant. Slamming my right fist into her face, a loud smashing sound reverberated so loudly that it echoed against the air. Needless to say, the enemy was sent flying as her dark yellow hair fluttered violently under the newly created pressure. The chaos labyrinth was beginning to falter as it slowly shrunk and stopped shooting projectiles at my body.
Naturally I was constantly dodging those projectiles, I had forgotten the specifics to my training with Palmicia but my muscles remember the movements by muscle memory. In other words, I was dodging all of her projectiles since I could do it. On the other hand, the enemy seemed to be quite nimble and fast as well. If not for my superiority in speed and technique, the situation might have played out in the opposite direction.
However I was not only using my speed, but every strategy or technique I could think of. My Stick, the 2 ominous black devil horns that materialise on my neck had begun sucking in magic from my surroundings into my body. Magia retainment status: 90%. I don't remember how much my Magia retainment was at before, but this time it came naturally to me at 80%,and then now 90%. It looks like this will be the limit of this body.
Getting even faster, I leaped forth to swing an extended vacuum blade. It crashes onto her arm and shatters like glass before dissipating back into magical particles. She too closed the distance this time as she attempted to touch me. I assume if she could remove my memories and senses, she could remove more.
In the split instant where her hand was approaching me, that was the conclusion I got to as there would be no other point of touching me. I couldn't narrow down what else she was going to remove, but I stepped back just outside of her reach and thrusted my vacuum blade straight into her palm and arm like a meat skewer.
Then I twisted the blade and flicked it away, mutilating her entire arm. She was shocked for a moment before she was sent flying once more by my kick. She was quite a durable magical girl for an assassin type. Aren't they suppose to be faster but fragile? I suppose it's because my enhancements were absurd to bridge this class gap. And she was a type of assassin that had excessive defense huh... A barrier skill for a second skill. Why does everyone have a barrier skill, it's so annoying!
She was laying on the ground where she had landed, I appeared next to her to swing down the black ominous blade as her barrier materialised. It was a simple feint that tested her sense of urgency, as she clearly put up the barrier to early. I grit my teeth and pulled my blade back but slammed my left fist into the barrier at the same time, shattering it. Then... She grabbed my arm.
"[Infectus info]!!! Why... Why isn't it working?!" (?)
I feel like I understood her own skills even more now. She was able to freely gather information from all the way here in a construction site by using her skill, it just gave her all the information she needed. But if she wanted to alter not only the location of info, but also the info itself, she needed to touch us to remove our memories or senses as they are bits and pieces of information protected by our magical defences.
In which case, I knew she wanted to touch me since the start so I've kept up a thin layer of an air barrier. No matter how much she grazed or touch me, she had to break through that barrier first. But when my Magia retainment status is at 90%, even Palmicia would have trouble doing so.
I see a vision of bright blue sky, but under it is an endless grey. Though the colour was grim it was filled with boundless warmth and affection. Remnants of a memory long gone. It reminded me of the gaping large hole in my soul, in my personality, in my being. It was unbearable, it felt like I'm a being that shouldn't have existed. Shit, I've started crying again, but in front of her.
"Final skill [Ad nihilum redi], everything, even your precious barrier will be gone." (?)
"UUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
I rage and I cry but nothing changes. I've mutilated her right arm so she was actually trying to restrain me with her left, it was a simply issue to solve as I shoved a vacuum blade into that hand as well from below the wrist and cut down all the way to her chest. Then I kicked away her palm that had a trace of her final skill. It flew far away, but before she could react to it after experiencing the pain of a second mutilation, I slammed my enhanced fist into her face.
In the end, I had straddled her chest and begun slamming kny knuckles into every inch of her face. I screamed until my throat was coarse and my tears were dry, but it continued into a low primitive growl that was nothing but harmful for my throat. I wail, I grief, but nothing could be done. So I vent and I slammed my fists repeatedly into her face while she tries to break free. Initially she tried to slam her knees into my back but I wouldn't budge. Eventually she lost her stamina and could only lay there as I rain pain on her head.
'BANG! BANG! BANG!'
There were intervals between each punch, but those intervals of time were spent to bring out my full strength, making the punch as strong as possible. The ground shook heavily under us as it began to cave in under the pressure exerted. But I couldn't see anything else, so I resumed. My right fist, then my left. Her face was slowly peeling off as my punches took out chunks of her flesh off, her bone began to be exposed as a putrid smell waft into the air.
She was still conscious and moving as he rlips were quivering each time, but I continued to slam my fist into her face as usual. Even her skull had begun to cave in as her face appeared to be uneven. I sliced off her arms each time to make sure she couldn't use her skill on me. If she used her final skill, she would be taken down with me. So she could do nothing but suffer and cry in pain. But that was not my problem. My problem was my loss of memories.
And so I continue, I seeth with my dry throat and put ont he ugliest face of fury I could. Furled eyebrows, wrinkled nose ridge, fully tensed cheeks and gritting teeth. It didn't take long for her nose to cave in, then her eye sockets, right after her eye balls exploded into blood with nothing protecting them. Finally after a bit, I reached her brain. So I caused a large splatter of her grey matter before I impaled it along with the rest of her body with a vacuum spear. In the end she was nothing but a weakling, yet... Yet... I lost so much to a weakling...
"Huff huff huff, UAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!"
I let out one final fit of rage, I smash her corpse into an unrecognisable mess. All sorts of fluids stuck to my fist as I bashed each and every inch of her body into a liquidy pulp. Then I suck in all the fluid and flesh into the vacuum blade before compressing it into a basketball sized orb and stuck in countless more vacuum blades. After I released my magic, there was nothing left but a grotesque puddle of red and yellow goo. I would use the propulsion technique to splatter it everywhere, but I don't want to get it on me.
So I turned around and began walking away... But right after, a blinding pillar of light materialised behind me. I turned immediately, feeling a cold dread claw at my spine. Why did I have this feeling? I'm not suppose to be able to feel hot or cold anymore. It was fortunate I haven't released my Magia Retainment, I summon my vacuum blade once more at the most comfortable length of 1 metre. It was virtually weightless as it was made of condensed air with a hollow vacuum in the centre. It was straight and simple, since my hands wouldn't feel comfortable wielding a blade with a curve without any training. I merely swing and hack as I saw fit.
When the light subsided, the magical... Boy was back. It seemed he had completely revived. It was a tiny feeling in my gut, that if he could erase information, maybe he could also create it. In other words it was still an application of his first skill that allowed him to function, even if he is technically already dead. Would that mean he was an undead with no way of killing him? But I doubt it was that simple. As long as he runs out of magical particles... Yes, his existence should be closer to a spirit now. A being primarily composed of their magical particles and could live without a physical body.
These beings were actually quite simple, we've been taught how to kill such incorporeal beings even if the concept of death does not apply to them. They can still be returned to nothingness, they can still end up in a state where they cannot function. They were just like viruses, neither living nor dead, but functional like machines and possible to destroy like machines. In other words, I can still destroy him. His body had returned into his untransformed state, rough and messy but average black hair. Large greyish green coat, baggy pants and shirt. He looked like a homeless person.
Perhaps he was one. A homeless person that held hostility towards society for failing him. I was bo-... I can't remember if I was homeless like him or not, or if I had a family. But either way, I'm killing him.
"This is your end. I can't be killed anymore. Honestly I still wanted to hold on to my humanity, but you killed me so there wasn't much of a choice."(?)
"Yeah, I know what you are. Now it is my duty to exterminate you like the insect you are before you cause any damage to the surroundings."
"An insect? Why, I'm way more intelligent than one. From my perspective, you're the bug that ruined a large portion of my life. All the things that came with a mortal body like taste and smell or touch, it's all gone. I can barely simulate sight and hearing with my magical particles. How are you going to take responsibility, huh? "(?)
" By ending your misery. "
Just because he was intelligent, that didn't mean spirits weren't classified under monsters. Anything that wasn't a human was a monster. And as a magical girl, it was my duty to defeat monsters. It was obvious, but I couldn't care less about the consequences of killing him. This hands that bring blood, I'll use them to kill him once more. Usually to defeat a magical girl, you would have to destroy their heart for a low grade magical girl, their brain for a mid to high grade magical girl, and then their everything for the next thing.
Since she had somewhat ascended to the next stage, I'll have to remove everything from her to defeat her. It was just like what she did to me. But I'll have to make sure she completely ran out of magical particles. As she was closer to a spirit now, attacks that focus on magical particles or magic attacks were far more effective than physical attacks. It was kind of a disadvantage as I specialised in hand to hand, but I still have my trusty vacuum blade.
We both stepped towards each other, readying for round 2. He didn't have to transform into a magical girl anymore since he was a spirit, he could use skills without transforming. He was also not limited by his original body's magic circuits, the body was made very shoddily, it meant that he would forcefully break big holes in the body for the magical particles to be extracted from his well.
"Tch, that so called dragonoid was a weakling for not finishing any of you off. He even went far away to live with his family, how sickening. You know how hard I worked to drag his family into instability so that he would rely on the cult for a living? Hehe, maybe I should have had some fun with his daughter before I lost my body. Well, it was too late for that now, I'm sure I could work something out for that after I'm done with you. " (?)
.... I don't remember much, but a vague feeling of gratitude welled up in my heart. Was I indebted to that dragonoid? Because for some reason, I felt uncontrollable rage after what he said. I gripped my blade tighter.