*
While there were a few more magical girls who resisted, they weren't too hard to bring down. Rather than having a similar reason to Andreas, one of them confessed to lying after I commanded Barius to investigate into it instead of blindly helping them. The other 2 came back with negatives, with only Andreas reported to have a living relative under a curse. The rest either had healthy and well to do families or had no living relatives.
The day was nearing its end and the reports arrived in the late evening. They were quite fast with the information gathering, did they have someone with a locator skill? Something so convenient like that could shift the direction of wars... And if I had it, I would use it to find my enemy.
Too bad huh, Barius and Neli is under the enemy's influence. Asking them to investigate the enemy would only reveal my own plan to them. I have to act by myself and find my own solution. I have to operate under the assumption that they know my location. But how do I bypass this? So that in the unlikely case they slip up I can exploit this... My radar. I'll find them and fire a long range attack. The only problem is the large amount of magical girls in town, I wouldn't be able to identify which one on my radar was truly the enemy.
At least I gained some inspiration. The best way to force her out is to take her place. Destroy everything she built to obtain. Then stare down at all her plans and tricks to make her see the face of futility. On the third day of staying here, I spoke to Barius again. While she was indeed under the enemy, she was also a really useful tool since I operated as her friend in this fight. While I don't know how she's being influenced, I didn't need to. I just have to make sure she doesn't kill me when my guard is down.
"Barius, I'm dissatisfied. Let's do a spar. If I win I'll be the commander for this town. If you win I'll cede my right to challenge you for this seat."
"... Sure." (Barius)
She seemed oddly compliant. Even if I gave such an erratic order to her, I can never see what she's thinking about on the inside. She looked neither too joyful nor too sorrowful about it, it was as if she had expected it. Even if I call it a spar, I have to keep my guard up in case she tries to kill me.
We went to an open field right outside of town, the familiar barren land gripping at my conscious. Despite the faction being called the sanctuary, the region was largely a sandy dessert. Monsters suited to living in the dessert were more frequent, so aerial monsters like the steel crane don't appear much to raid human towns.
I hold my arms up, in the short span of time I was here, I had become much more comfortable with bare handed combat than swordplay. Seeing this, Barius swallowed her saliva in the next moment to psych herself up. She needed to adapt to my new style afterall. As the one with more information, I had already gained an advantageous headstart. I put my energy into my legs as they lift me into the space in front of me, the air rushes pass me in a blur as my eyes focused on Barius.
With a straightforward and powerful move, I twisted my entire body with the help of my first skill, swinging a destructive axe kick with all my strength.
"Partial time stop, barrier." (Barius)
"Technique - Partial movement, fate lock. Refined technique - propulsion.
Refined technique - reigning drill cross punch. "
Enhancing my kick with 3 different techniques, anticipation filled my heart and warmth filled my mind.
"... Counter technique - alter flow. Cancel flow. " (Barius)
She swung her own punch against my extended kick, for a moment it felt as if time stopped without the help of her skill. We stared at the point of collision for a split second, predicting the outcomes and deducing what to do next. Despite the physical or magical nature of battle, it still forces us to think a lot. If you want to win, think. If you want to survive, think. If you want to get what you want, think.
It felt like my body was getting weak, which was when I released what her cancel flow technique did. As its name indicated, it eliminated a stream, though it didn't suggest what material that stream was made of. It was magical particles, she canceled off my techniques, making my body feel weaker. Despite that, I had still acquired more momentum than she did.
Her technique made it so my skills and techniques couldn't enhance my body, forcing me to rely on my natural magical girl constitution. Despite her being a grade above me, she only had on more A grade and one more S grade stat than me. Our strength was roughly the same regardless of her effectiveness level. Her alter flow must be something to do with the physical attack... Maybe it raised her reaction speed. Her counter was rather unnatural, with that speed she could have just dodged my attack rather than stay there to parry it.
I landed a distance away, driving us back to our initial states. Not much has changed other than the position of the magical particles in the air and the faint gasping of our hearts. As the days pass by, oddly enough Barius has given me quite some inspiration on how to deal with an unseen enemy. I must respond to her feelings seriously.
I summon my vacuum blade before leaping back into battle, this time I didn't put much strength into my legs and instead concentrated them into my arms. Taking wide swing with both arms from a distance, she dodges to the side with her left fist raised. I could also see that she was hiding her right arm, was the left a decoy?
Seperating my left hand from the handle of my vacuum blade to wrap her left punch in a palm, not much force could be felt as she concentrated her power into her right fist instead. Using her left arm to push my hand near my face, she swung her right arm in. While I didn't expect for her to use my own left hand as a diversion, I pulled back the vacuum blade back in time as she tried to distract me. With only a single arm holding my vacuum blade, I blocked her right punch.
All of her power transmitted through and struck my body along with my own vacuum blade, causing me to fly a couple metres back. The punch was hard enough to make me feel like I would puke out whatever meal I ate before. My feet dug into the ground, giving off a powerful flick of the sword, I shook away the dirt on my body. Unlike my hyper aggressive style of battle, she simply stays there and takes my attacks head on. In the long run, I was wasting my stamina and magic while she was skillfully conserving her own.
So I walked. There was no need to run if the enemy wasn't going to. She won't take the initiative to gather velocity and momentum, we both can enter maximum speed at close range. Moreover, I adapt to my enemy's movement patterns. After what seemed to be a long and sluggish stroll, I swung my vacuum blade in a basic arc. Aiming for her torso while activating fate lock.
'Krkkkkk!!'
Before I noticed, she had parried with her own sword formed out of water. Her movements reminiscent of the water she held in her hands were smooth and continued. They weren't erratic in the least and it looked like there was a predetermined path for her sword, striking down everything she wanted and using the environment to its advantage. She would slash vertically downwards and the water born from that attack would strike and carve the ground under it, throw whatever material it was made of at its enemy.
Slicing away horizontally, we blade slashes drew a beautiful perpendicular arc in the air, clashing violently as wind and water flew all over the place. Seeing as it was going nowhere, I sent a powerful kick from my left leg only to be met with her own kick. The clash went on for an awfully long time, its crude boorish nature whittling away at my sanity. I let go and does so too at the same time, we both began to walk to the side circling the ground on the center like a wild predator. Tch.... I'm practically showing all my cards here. Well, at least in this battle anyway.
Dismissing the vacuum blade back into magical particles, I rushed forward with a quick step, forming a crater in the ground as I shot forward with all my strength. She ducked lower aiming to headbutt my torso, but... I struck her head with my fist before it reached me. My fist got a bit deformed as my wrist and finger bones smash against her tough skull, but it still forced her face into the ground.
A humiliating exchange for her, she tasted the dirt for her wit. Most people wouldn't have seen it coming when you escape their vision, but I blindly struck at the space below me. Using my fist and her skull that was connected to it as a lever, I pushed my entire body upwards into the air and my entire body weight into her head. Otherwise the headbutt would have knocked all the air and perhaps even blood out of my lungs while using my own momentum. Her long grey hair flailed around as if bouncing from her crash into the ground.
I sat on the ground next to her, and she didn't seem to be waking up anytime soon.... Looks like I took it too far... She got knocked out cold. Her white flutter dress and cool grey vest suited her domineering personality nicely. For some odd reason when I look at her unconscious face like this, it feels like she would be a very brave person. I had propped her up into a sitting position and sat down next to her. Neli was back in town doing work related to the abolishment of the magical girl tax. Some things just don't go smoothly.
Haaah~ Just what am I doing here. If I were to say, I was just running away from Myuu. I disappointed her, at the same time I couldn't accept it. I couldn't let go of Amony. She was sure to cause us trouble in the future if left unchecked. Why would they openly defend her when she admitted that she needed to kill one of us to revive her family? You don't know whta people could do for their family. It wasn't such a straightforward case like they thought. It could bring so much unwanted baggage...
I'm one to talk huh... Maybe I was the unwanted baggage... I can't grow any stronger with my parameters. While the concept of training exists for others, it doesn't exist for me. While I was indeed possessing a powerful body, it could no longer grow any stronger. When I think about that, I think about how much hard work Kaori must have put in. It circles back to Kaori no matter what. My entire existence feels like it's revolving around her, as if it can never gain any special meaning on its own.
I felt like running, to start everything anew. So that I could be my own person, have my own personality, have my own life. But even here, with Barius, I'm still stuck in her shadow.
".... Looks like you win huh?" (Barius)
"Yeah..."
"... Why do you look so unhappy? You won! You beat your rival." (Barius)
She noticed my unchanging expression of melancholy, her words trying to slip between the cracks of my exterior. How dreadful, how terrible it makes me laugh. I gave her a crooked smile as my right eye twitched in annoyance. I can't even reminisce about my short history with her around... Really, it's like she's been distracting me during my entire stay here... There was no point buying time anyway, I'll eventually find the enemy and kill her. So I wasn't too worried about that.
"... Alright, let's go back. We have a lot of paperwork to do. Imagining the administrative nightmare is giving me goosebumps!" (Barius)
"... How long more do I have to wait."
"... Soon. " (Barius)
I acted vague, but she gave a semi serious answer. Did she see through me that easily? She puts her index finger to her lips, gesturing silence while putting a big and bright smile behind it. For an instant, I thought 'Ah, she's beautiful', though I quickly quell those thoughts away. I push these matters to the back of my mind and put on a smile. Maybe I was putting on a brave front, maybe I found something special that made me happy.
Though my heart aches just as much as it became happy.