*
She pushed me away at the last moment... A grand light of grey eclipsed everything else behind her back. At the same time... I instinctively emitted my own light. I don't know why I had 2 skills from the start, but if they were for this moment I wouldn't be surprised. I pushed off the grey light with [Noble Vapour beam]... With my own red light. It spread the grey light in all other directions, and without any resistance swallowed the entire room.
Gerald's body collapses without warning. Looking at her weakened body... Her back was petrified and she was breathing heavily... She used her body as a shield... The opponent used her crystals as the basis, and spreaded the crystals throughout the air in the form of dust. Gerald had inhaled plenty of dust already so she was bound to petrify even without touching that grey light. The grey light was meant to petrify things that haven't made contact with the black crystals...
I clench my teeth, gripping my fists even closer. I've been in the support role this whole time, but now Gerald was out of the picture... She couldn't serve as a vanguard in this condition... She even shielded me at the last moment... Surprisingly my mind remain calm, it felt like the red light I emitted was absorbing the tranquility of the surroundings. An odd sense of peace permeated my body and a constant subtle harmony rang in my ears. A residual of all the noise that's been made in this battle, yet it felt organised at this moment.
I see... By using the red light to make the fuel of magic... Magical particles go wild and disorderly in my surroundings, my body simply felt less wild and more organised. It was like a rejuvenating effect unique to myself when I engulf everything in this light. Since it causes magic to go wild, it deflected and caused the grey light to scatter back into mere magical particles, losing its effect. Vehegian's skill stopped having any influence on it and it simply died out. Now she couldn't even for black crystals anymore as magic construction required a stable flow of magic to hold together a structure like the black crystal.
I ran towards Vehegian with only my fist. *BANG!!! * A loud resounding echo exploded out of... Vehegian's fist as she struck my stomach. There was still the speed difference, Vehegian simply had more strength than us individually. Without my illusions and paralysis now, she was able to exert all her raw strength. But I knew about it already. I had prepared for her punch. I exploded white light around my body, attempting to blind her. With my own passive, I couldn't blind myself anyway, so the entire room was bathed in white.
I launch my small fist at her cheek, I have no idea of anything about the form in punching or kicking, but I got in close and threw all my strength into it. My knuckles landed with a popping sound as bones in her head begun to crack. She may have broken some ribs, but I suppose I got a good one into her face. Even better if I blind her by gouging out her eyes, than I dont need to waste my magical particles on anymore flash bangs.
Despite being swallowed whole by a blinding light and a punch to her face, she retained her composure and swung a devastating kick that sent me flying. Landing against the wall, the air was knocked out of my lungs, forcing me to gag and cough out the blood seeping into my lungs before taking sharp painful breaths. My torso was tinged with pain, so much so that I felt like my head was burning up and that my mind would give out at any moment.
I roughly picked myself back up as she launched another punch into my gut, but this time strength had left my legs due to her earlier kick, so even her punch could carry my entire body weight and send me flying into the air for a few seconds. She proceeds to send her left fist at my face, I bring up my right forearm with my elbow bent, completely deflecting it as I pushed my body closer to hers then I threw my own left punch at her face.
She blocked it straight on with her right elbow and sent her knee against my diaphragm, but I blocked it in time with my own knee. My body was weaker, so when my knee was struck by hers it made me lose my balance for a moment. At close range, her attacks looked faster so it was difficult to use [Bountiful treasure trove], but I had no choice. I had no martial arts experience unlike her movements which seemed accustomed to combat, I have to use a skill to turn the tide around. I knew she can't use her own magic so it's the last thing to do, to hold out and attain victory and attrition.
This time, her fist struck my face down into the ground. It moved before I even notice. I was thinking of using magic way too much and it presented a big gap where my guard was lowered, since I was only focused on counterattacking. Yet I failed to foresee such a simple attack. A straight punch to the face with all her power. My head landed on the ground with a thud, a large fiery pain consumes the back of my head.
Ughh.... It fucking hurts.... But I can't give in now. Not while Gerald is waiting for me to win... Then I'll save Gerald soon by myself... Returning the favour... Vehegian sat atop my body and begun raining blows on my body, her rapid movement strikes so hard and so painfully that my skin begun changing colour and my bones penetrate my flesh. Her blunt fist caused a lot of internal bleeding as blood overflowed out of my throat even while I layed on the ground.
I simply waited in pain and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited... It was hard to see through the blood, but her movements became more recognisable as time went on. Then... I stopped each of her fist with [Bountiful treasure trove]. I spat the blood gathered in my throat at her eyes, blinding her physically. Then I clawed and grabbed at her throat.
Despite being an experienced magical girl or something... Actually I don't even know who she is. She was just some enemy that showed up out of nowhere. But if eliminating her grants me and Gerald freedom, I'll happily throw away my humane senses and kill her. If she was trying to kill us, she has to be ready to be killed.
That was what I had used as my stance on any that opposed us on our way out... I grip tighter while freezing her arms at the corner of my eye. They were frozen from the shoulder down and her legs had lose their strength from sitting on top of me. It was he rposture that costed her her life.
I clasped my fingers together as tightly as possible and with all the remaining strength in my body, clenching my teeth as hard as possible. My cheeks went red with tension and the ridge of my nose wrinkled with all my strength. My shoulders and fingers pulsated, a feeling of numbness gradually takes hold. Not effective enough! I need to close it tighter!
Torso was already screaming in pain before, but it alleviated a little as it began regenerating. After what felt like half an hour had passed, her arms finally gave out and her eyeballs rolled back. Her neck had also physically been deformed into a thin pipe. My body had regenerated a lot at this point, so I was thinking of letting go.
She could simply regenerate back her damaged windpipe and I wasn't sure if magical girls needed oxygen to live or not... I'm guessing they need it as I observed but it may have been a trick. I let go and quickly ran to Gerald, Vehegian's body limply fell to the floor. What I didn't notice was her faint grey pupil staring straight at me.
Gerald had fainted for a while now... It seemed like she was really going to die since her petrified organs weren't going to function anymore... She opened her eyes with a little struggle, as if waking up from a long nap. Her fingers convulsed lightly before pointing at Vehegian. When I looked over... No, she was still there. What did Gerald mean by this?
She stared intently at the corpse, as if expecting it to come back to life. She then looked back at me with an irritated glare, shaking around her vibrant red hair that covered her face with disapproval. Come to think of it, I hadn't focused much on it, but her hair had changed colour when she transformed into her magical girl combat dress. I wonder if my own hair had changed colour too.... Ah... It did. It was a faint pink that one would see in cotton candy or strawberry cake.
Gerald then opens her mouth and closes it like a gaping fish jaw, no sound came out. The petrification must have gotten to her throat as well. At that moment, the corpse... No it wasn't a corpse anymore. Vehegian was still alive the entire time, she couldn't run away since I froze her arms and blood stopped flowing to all of her immobilised limbs.
She pounced in an instant but a stake of darkness shot through her neck and then her brain at that moment, bringing the entire fight to an end. Gerald glared me, her intentions piercing through. She wanted me to finish her... But I didn't know one had to destroy the brain to do so... I was too ignorant of the world of magical girls.
The only knowledge I possessed was the necessary minimum required about magical particles. The law of magical girls granted this knowledge on what names and terms magic related things had. But not so much on their mechanisms and... An anomaly from the world's natural order, magical girls fighting each other and how to end them. I didn't have such knowledge, so it was natural that I felt confused while fighting an enemy.
I would later learn that Vehegian was only C grade, and that decapitation was enough. But since I was crushing her neck rathean severing, she would still be alive with that. This time a different person walked through. A person on a whole another level, another magical girl. As evidence, her aura completely oppressed us. To the point we fainted on the spot...
When we came to, Gerald had been healed up and was sleeping next to me. As it all happened too fast I hadn't had time to think. But the moment I awoke, the first thing I was anxious about was of Gerald's health. Seeing her body unpetrified and sleeping soundly brought indescribable closure to my chest.
But since we're alive now, it meant that they either want to return us to the status quo as test subjects or have some other value to find out of us. I looked back up at the ceiling, it was like an Ash grey with a texture similar to unprocessed paper. Basically it looked somewhat like the leather from a leather shoe.
From there, we met our new boss, Marianne. She had a dark blond, platinum hair that reached shoulder length. Her bangs reached outwards to the left and right like draping curtains while the center of her fringe parted over her eyes that peak out from the 2 gaps of her fringe. Her fringe curved outward, despite the loose strands that flowed around, they retained a unified gloss that shone under the ceiling lights.
She wore a 2 piece business suit, a white shirt and an elegant greyish black vest. Her long trousers gave a sense of her tall height as she stood imposingly at the end of our beds. Despite the rough look of her hair, she displayed a beauty akin to a porcelain doll, her skin ostensibly glowed without a single trace or blemish.
"... You have some use out of us don't you, at least moreso than Vehegian."
She raised her eyebrows, the ends of her lips twitched for a moment. Her eyes closed, bringing her composure together to hide her excitement. She wet her lips before parting them again.
"...! Well, I can at least say you're smarter than her." (Marianne)
"Why not tell me? Why did you let us live and even patched us up while you were at it."
"Why not we start with an introduction first? I am Marianne, the reigning regional lord assigned to this area. This facility is also under my jurisdiction." (Marianne)
Seeing as she introduced herself despite how she supposedly already have our names with the authority she possesses, I thought it would be rude not to return in kind. Rather in a life and death battle, courtesy is just an unneeded formality.
"I am Paridia. Over here is my partner Gerald. Am I right in assuming... You intend for us to become your subordinate?"
"Bingo." (Marianne)