*
"?!" (Kanou)
I finally close up the gap, throwing a frontal kick to her abdomen. She dodges by shifting her entire body to my right, smoothly evading around my right extended leg. She attempts to jump back, but I transitioned quick from my missed kick to sliding under her legs to trip her up. She manages to hop a bit of distance but didn't move at the velocity she wanted, I seize the opportunity to spring forward with my remaining leg and threw a punch.
Barely missing, I grazed her abdominal flesh with my tightened knuckle as I regained my balance. I can't let up, even if my movements are quite awkward I have to work around them and continue maintaining the pressure on her. I can do it, I'll do it. I threw my right fist at her once more, this time at her face while protecting my own torso with my left. She easily matches up to my attack with her own punch, in a straightforward clash... Obviously, I let up under her superior strength.
I twist my entire body to stop resisting her punch and instead let it through, then I swung my left fist at her face instead, all in one swift motion. She smacks it away from the side by using the flat of her free palm to collide with it. My movements were trivial for her even if she were to stop using any of her skills. In a physical fight, no matter how much enhancement I had, I wouldn't be able to match up to her.
I disregard my arms and released all the tension on my arm muscles. They flew limply to my side as the momentum carried by Kanou's counterattacks had done much more than I could handle. So I dived forward with only my head and torso... Into her abdominal muscles. I couldn't feel the toughness of her muscles enhanced with magical particles in her magical girl augmentation, but at least I knew through experience that the abs aren't soft at all. Even so I was prepared.
*Kshkkk!!!*
For once I made a wound. It was a surprise attack for sure, though one made in vain. I had used a large amount of magical particles to form a vacuum blade that would arise from my head and pierce her stomach in a head ramming. She was an S grade, something like this was basically a clipped nail for her. A clipped nail that hurt.
The shock on her face had given me enough time to grab both her arms with my own. She can probably struggle away or pull my arms off with her strength, but that wasn't the point. I pull her arms towards the ground, lifting my body so I could clasped around her with my legs. She broke her arms out immediately aiming to push me off with her quick wit, but it was too late. Vacuum spikes extended forth from around the inner side of my legs that tightened around her waist, locking me in place.
I aim my head low once more, her retaliation narrowly missing its mark as it grazed the top of my head and cut off a large tuff of hair. She had immediately aimed for my face in order to tear my neck off and finish me off, at this distance I couldn't lessen the impact much after all. It was practically a win for her when taking into considering the difference in power, and how this move of mine would spell the end of most people.
"But! I am not most people! I will beat you!"
Having ducked her first and final punch since I got this close, I wrapped my arms around her neck in a choke hold. She stood still before turning to face me.
"... I can't feel it... Are you done? "(Kanou)
Without another moment to spare, I couldn't even follow her fist as I had used up magical particles to pull off all those attacks. I now had much lesser to enhance my body with, not that it changed my physical situation by much. I was still weaker than her either ways. I was sent flying over 20 metres as my body tumbled and crashed against the floor.
My body can't even move itself up as her last hit had shattered all my bones. My muscles were also all torn up inside so magical particles couldn't solve the problem, I was properly paralysed. I can't even lift a single finger now, it was a miracle that my eyelids still worked... I was certain that she targeted every bit of muscle in my body... Was she holding back even more the entire time? This time she suppressed the outward force of her punch, but in return all of it was transmitted into my body to cause internal injuries.
Was this really how it was going to end? Kanou was akin to an insurmountable barrier, standing and blocking light from reaching me like a huge wall. It felt like my goals were just beyond this sturdy wall that I cannot bust through or climb over. No plan would have been able to bridge this gap between us. I can't forge completely new techniques, only the culmination of my previous skills and techniques. A mish mash of disoriented and unguided chaos. Would I really... Die here where... No one will notice my existence...?
... I refuse. Magia retainment: perpetual. I draw energy from my soul if souls exist, fueling my ability to use more Magia Retainment and manually increasing my well. I forcefully take control of the magical particles around me by altering their movement. Technically they are still under Kanou's dominion, but if I make them move however I want, aren't they basically mine?
Now, the limitation of Magia Retainment does not come from the technique itself now that I have achieved balance and mastery, rather it is from the vessel itself. In other words, my body can only hold so much magical particles even if I seize control over the magical particles in Kanou's Oblivion Magia, if I take in too much my body will melt away with no chance of recovering.
Hahaha.... HAHAHAHHAHAHHH!!!!! Is there any choice to my actions for any longer? I am forced to take gamble after gamble, forge shoddy techniques after other techniques. All of it culminated into me burning my life force in the end. I am quite literally killing myself in order to save myself, since an S grade wants to stand in my way. Since The Eye God wants to stand in my way as the business partner of the progenitor.
I heard that the progenitor was an ancient hero from long ago, but has been reduced to such a pitiful and despicable figure now. I don't know the reason why she delved into such low dealings that were unlike anything a hero should be. But I won't admonish her either. I realise we all have made our own choices after so much grueling thought, overcoming a monumental amount of doubt and pulling the resolve forcefully out of our own wills. If we were weak willed, we were forced by the world to temper ourselves into being steel willed.
I'm sorry Kanou. But I'm not going to let up just from burning my life span a little. With this, it would be dangerous to go untransformed. Maybe Kaori would resent me if I ever got my memories back. Maybe all her friends will tell me off. Me... I... I never had much of an identity. I drifted along looking for things to fill up this void, and I arrived here.
I use Magia Retainment, my most advanced technique that had extremely high precision in its manipulation of magical particle movements. It acted as an artificial magical circuit outside my body that would channel my used magical particles back into my body forcefully. So I cna just open them up and take in more than I can normally use. I risk disintegrating my own body, a risk well warranted.
".... Why won't you just die. It would have all been painless if you surrendered from the start. You aren't going to win. Your resolve matters not, YOU THINK YOU CAN CHALLENGE THE WILL OF OTHERS JUST WITH A LITTLE WILL POWER?!? " (Kanou)
"YEAH, I'LL DIE TRYING IF I HAVE TO!!"
With a curt reply, I tightened my fingers into my grip as much as possible as I resisted a heavy pressure coming from the magical particles. As these magical particles were not mine, they had trace amounts of Kanou's magical signature that or aura that would apply pressure on others due to its density.
The difference between my own magical signature and hers was what allows magical girls to pressure others with their aura. It was meant to be an intimidation technique, though the irony was that the stronger magical girl usually had a stronger pressure, so it didn't see much use other than oppressing the weak.
My back was slightly hunched over, my legs bent at a slide angle lowering me nearer to my centre of gravity, I raised my arms in the air in resistance against the pressure. I was absorbing all of it, every bit of magical particles I could get my hands on. If I explode at least I could take Kanou out with me. It was petty, so petty that it amused me enough to make me pull out a slight smirk.
The weight of her magic was constantly crashing down on me, but even then I slowly moved into a normal upright standing position. I was getting used to it while she was desperately trying to arrest back the control. The fact of it was that I was manipulating the movements of the magical particles instead of stealing her control, so anything she did whether it was reinforcing her hold over the magical particles or attempting to steal them back, it was futile.
In a bid to stop me, her high intellect quickly arrived at the right conclusion that she should kill me now. It was easier to damage me and destroy my body while I was immobilised instead of wasting time trying to control magic. She still had the magical particles in her own body that I couldn't steel, her superior augmentations granting her an advantage in physical combat.
The ground creaked under her anger and ruthlessness, without her first skill her energy was less controlled and less destructive, but it was still too powerful for me to handle. I watched in horror as she zoomed closer towards my location at a speed I cannot react to... The enhancement made it right in time. Magia Retainment: Perpetual began to take more effect, I was now able to divert some of her magic's weight and move some what.
I match her right fist that had launched faster than a rocket with my left, throwing my entire body into it. The magic I had stolen from her and was currently stealing more coursed through my arm a few times as a fuzzy ash grey cloud ring did, reducing the impact of her punch each time.
The first removed half of it, the second removed a third, the third removed an eighth. Reducing most of her attack's damage, my fist received minimal damage from her attack, though the magic coarsing through had damaged the insides a lot. A saving grace of my lack of pain, I can damage my body as much as I want while going wild.
I was steadily growing stronger but gradually burning my life span. I leaped at her this time, finally taking the initiative in a really long time. I launch my right fist with reigning drill cross punch, but instead of wrapping my arm in my first skill to form a drill out of wind, I was directly using the magical particles that I stole to power up and sharpen my fist. She retaliate with her own, matching the punch with equal strength, causing a large burst of wind to fly out of the collision.
The air trembles under our violence like a frighten child, a deep reverberating bellow echoes out of the wind. I launched my entire body forward, with my kneww at the front aiming at her torso. She smashes her own knee at my shin by slipping her leg under, even with a newly found physical advantage, she had experience befitting her title. She knew exactly how to counter any of my movements if they seem slightly irregular due to my lack of experience.
I stop pretending to flinch at her attacks, taking her shin buster head on and throwing my own fist in a reigning drill cross punch once more. My knuckles tear through the wind and lands into her cheek. This time I had absorbed enough magical particles front the air overpower her. Her body was thrown into the ground like a ragdoll as her head bounced against the ground with a really loud and noisy thud, the ground had cracked at where she landed showing her own resilience in an inhuman way.
She stands back up with a slight wobble, her back firmly straight as she faces me head on. She uses her first skill with her remaining magical particles, jumping far distances to rack up more momentum, landing her feet directly at my solar plexus. As my body was sent flying, she appeared again in mid air to strike me into the ground with a punch, forcing blood out of my throat as the impact coursed through my body.
For some reason my body reflexively flinched despite the lack of pain. An oddly refreshed smile appearing on her face.
"Witchcraft.... Or blood magic. Whatever you call it, it's similar to yours. I shall also sacrifice my untransformed state's blood in order to use slightly more magic." (Kanou)
She raises both her hands, as if initiating the opening of some kind of show.