***(Myuu)
An arm shaped hole in her torso was visibly peaking through even her robe. The shape of it was completely complementary to my arm. Though I was no longer in the mood to joke around. I could feel it. My actual well was going to dry up soon, I don't know how many more revives I actually have.
HuoLi clutched her chest feeling the strange emptiness of her body for herself. Those injuries were now permanent, blood continuously dripped out of those gaping wounds. Giving her time to sort her bearings, she seemed to have found her resolve as released her hands from her tightly clutched torso. She walked forward, brimming with energy. The formless substance that was a result of her first skill spreads out in the air like a liquid that disobeyed gravity. They wrap around her body like a second cloak while boasting sharp extensions that could slice us up in an instant.
As for other news.... It was a little messed up and quite useless at this point in time... But I think I could pull off dodging some of her attacks now... My physical speed wouldn't really be able to catch up to hers, but with a little insight and positional managing, I can reduce the need to revive... In other words, I only became this capable as I was becoming closer to running my well dry... I couldn't catch a break...
Looking over at Gaia, she notices and returns my gaze. I nod at her once, before she returns the nod as well. We would coordinate another rush... Though it may be the final one. That was what the nod conveyed. From here, the pace of the battle would drastically shift. That was the warning. She dematerialises and rushes toward HuoLi, while I kept my eyes sharp as I rush her from another side.
Her first skill, the timeless substance shoots forward in my direction like a growing spear. At this horribly disadvantaged position of running towards her attack, I pulled of an evasion with minimal movements... Is what I'd like to say but I physically couldn't move further than that or I would lose momentum. Shifting my body to the right by a meagre amount, the attack grazed my left cheek and shoulder, gouging out a chunk of flesh. But I wouldn't use a revival for such small injuries, I'll only use it for when I die.
Gaia materialises in front of HuoLi and throws her own punch, it seems she was also slightly faster than before. HuoLi was too distracted with my rush that she neglected Gaia's, though she barely blocked Gaia's left cross in time with her left forearm. A resounding collision cause a circle of shockwaves to expand outwords. Gaia quickly follows it up with a kick, it was then that the substance lopped off her leg completely before expanding and swelling heavily to block my incoming fist. In one smooth motion, she has managed to neutralise the both of us.
Using my first skill to heal my other arm along with Gaia's, we send one more volley of our fists, the impact cracked the ground under the feet of the 3 of us as it visibly shook the formless substance. HuoLi was finally pushed back along with the soil dragged along by her feet. There was a pair of moulds formed in the soil, it was evident that she dug her legs deep into the ground to fend off that most recent impact.
".... Tch! You monsters... How did you guys catch up so fast!" (HuoLi)
Keeping silent, we proceeded to find openings inbetween her defensive substance wall, forcing her to close them up if she didn't want us to attack from them. We were... Getting cocky. Before we... No maybe it was my own myopia that led to this. While she could use the substance as a defensive wall, she easily made it grew spikes and pierced our livers.
... [Being: Verdant centralised ensemble]. Just as I revived, the very same spike that I made blunt by erasing out of existence... Pierced my liver once more. It was as if it caught me in a choke hold, I was firmly stuck to it and it would kill me each time I revive. She... She waited until now to do this... So that I wouldn't be wary the next time she used it... She only began using it as a last resort... KGHH!!!! Then... I must use my first skill instead... To restore my Vitality and fight while injured...
Meanwhile, Gaia had been perforated by countless spikes that they pretty much held her body in place...?! That... That was the last of her magic, she couldn't regenerate anymore... I'm sorry Gaia... For being such an irresponsible master. If this is how it was going to be... Taking my vine spear, I sliced my own torso off... The upper half of my body fell off due to inertia, reviving on the spot I was finally free from that death trap. Throwing my body off the ground, I created some distance between us before regaining my balance and fighting posture.
I begin to walk leisurely towards her while holding my arms up in a battle ready pose. She too had stopped running away, it seemed that while I had gotten used to her movements enough to dodge her attacks, she had done the exact same. Shifting to the side and bending back, her attack struck diagonally forward and missed by a hair's breadth. And it was great progress, I didn't get grazed by it. I punched the substance to give myself some momentum, did a flip over it and began running along it as a guide towards HuoLi.
I bring out my trusty spear once more. Even if it can't pierce anything, whether it be HuoLi's weapon or body, just holding it in my hand makes me feel better.
***
It was as vivid as any other time, that was why it hurt even more so when she forgot... No, Kaori didn't choose to lose her memories. But when she chooses to form her own identity with that body, it feels like she's another soul using Kaori's body and denying Kaori's past. That was why I was always so irritated when she tried so hard to be different Kaori... Did she even do it? Or was it just my selfish myopia?
In the end, I was the one who ran from that mess. She ended up hunting the culprit who erased her memories by herself while the rest of us huddled up in fear... Do we even have the right to call ourselves her comrade when she returns?
As such, I attempted to return the favour and be her guide. But I knew it myself... That she could clearly see through me. It led to a fight, and even after joining back into one team things weren't exactly the best between us. Our relationship was still as strained as ever. Right now, we moved and cooperate with each other only on the basis of our resolve. Our individual wills and wishes to see this case to its end. Even if we couldn't agree on something sensitive and personal like her identity, we could easily put such superficial things aside for the greater good... For this mission.
Just when was it that I began feeling complicated towards her? When was it that such a simple relationship felt so murky and messy for me? I have no idea how she feels at this point... Which if I told my younger self a year ago, she wouldn't be able to believe it. We were that close I suppose, or was I clinging to her fool-like disposition for some vague sense of normalcy in reality?
At first she was so clear, so real compared to everyone else... No, I only wanted to think so. I was at the root of it all, the first denier. The first one who picked up the axe and began to judge. While I was busy wallowing in my delusion, unable to accept that my father was gone and my mother had suffered too much trauma to live properly, I decided to deny the reality of others. They were the ones who had accepted reality as the horrible eclipse brought upon us by The Great Disaster, I was the only one running away.
So I denied them, to my own frail heart, their faces were blurred into an incomprehensible mosaic. I couldn't accept that others were able to cope better than I did with the present situation. I pushed them away as if it was natural to do so and isolated myself. It was all because if I accepted their faces, I would be accepting that The Great Disaster had occurred by extension.
I was so horribly blinded... That I failed to notice my own blindness. I clung to Kaori, she was a similar fool, a moron that exhibited the same delusion as I did. But that was simply only the surface of it. In actuality she was just awkward around others her age, she was able to interact just fine with our teacher, the doctors and anyone else operating shops in the labyrinth. She was just a socially isolated... Loser...
Her expressions were so carefree that I got fooled into thinking that she was also delusional like I was... No, I fooled myself into thinking so in order to wish up a sympathiser. My desperation had been engraved so deeply into my mind that it hid right under my nose.
She wasn't anything great like what I envisioned. What I first burdened her with was the image of a perfect magical girl. The ideal magical girl that could solve any problem with sheer idiocy and luck. A protagonist type that wouldn't encounter anything too harsh, and if she did she could probably resolve it with ease. It was utterly unrealistic even for a dream... And it was ridiculously irresponsible of me to pin it all on her.
Damn, did I really have this much of an inferiority complex? I always beat her in stats and combat capability, so why is it that I still feel this need to prove myself...?
... I don't know.
I don't know what to do. I don't know how to deal with this. I don't understand what she needs. I don't get what I can do. I don't know what is right.
***
I twirl the spear in my right hand, sparks flying across as I dragged it across the shapeless substance that forms her shield. Her shield sharpens up into drill spikes that extend toward my body, I stab the spear directly at the tip of the drill, recoiling myself away from her with a big backwards fall. I drag my feet into the ground to slow myself down, swinging my spear into my left hand to block HuoLi's devastating kick.
Both my arms clutched at my spear's shaft, holding it horizontally which HuoLi's leg was pressing down into. Cracks appeared on the spear, spreading out like scattering snow. The bones in my legs crumble under her strength, my fingers clutch my spear to the point the skin became white and my elbows spasmed uncontrollably. Circular shock waves continually spread out at the point of collision, they flew so fast and destructive that they could annihilate buildings much less normal humans.
I unsummoned the spear, letting her foot slip down as I barely dodged it. A burning sensation occupied the right side of my waist, I look down to see her fist had swung out a huge chunk of flesh. I throw my left fist, only to have it blocked and assaulted by her counter. The shapeless substance had formed gauntlets over her bare fist as they smash my flesh apart and retreat before I could permanently remove her fingers.
I dash forward, I could gradually feel my body getting stronger as it gathered more magic to enhance itself. The damage she dealt to my body began becoming shallower. She launches her fist as she gathers her first skill and turns it into a large drill, side stepping out of the way I kept most of my body intact... But it was impossible to get out in time as it took my right arm with it. She then transforms the drill into 2 long sworts, the one on her right hand bisected me instantly while the one on her left penetrated my heart. It skewered my bisected body like a kebab and lifted it into the air.
With no choice but to revive, it removed the parts of her first skill that were inside my body, but not outside. Since it had trusted through my torso like a barbecue stick, when I revived I only removed the center area of the stick. Both sides that were outside my body continued to exist and managed to stab me immediately as I revived.
"UGHHHH AGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!"
Stuck in this sandwich of death, I launched my spear at her in vain. She didn't even flinch or blink as it smashed itself apart in her face. She simply stared on in caution as she resumed my execution. I was now stuck at a far distance... Where I will be continually killed until I couldn't revive anymore... Maybe... This is goodbye...