*
In the next moment I leaped into the air, pushed my palm against the ceiling of the corridor and shot myself straight towards the A grade enemy. As predicted, her whip struck where I was standing a moment ago, and it took time for it to go back to her so she can swing it again. But even with that time lag, she used brute force to pull the whip back, risking it hitting herself. It rushed like a fighter jet, tearing through the wind to the point it made the same sounds that the jet does. It began glowing a deep scarlet as she kept pumping in magical particles to enhance it, before swinging it at my plummeting self.
It had all happened in the time span where I was trying to land a kick on her. It was what 50 times speed meant, she had so much more breathing space to her moves that it was absurd. As for me, a single mistake would be fatal. How unfair right? Using my passive to observe her movements, I continue predicting her actions down to the individual stances that she takes. As a whip fighter, she would maintain a certain distance and keep me away while attacking with her whip, killing 2 birds with 1 stone.
I can not stop moving or I would get hit, a single graze was enough to send me flying. It shouldn't be something that happened rarely either, grazing the opponent is pretty common in a fight, so I should prepare for it. Running low, I spun around to swing a large axe kick at the incoming whip. This move will annihilate my left leg, but it was a risk that I had to take. After all, I'm running out of time.
The contract with The Eye God... It stated that I must kill the progenitor within today, spending so much time on a single higher up was ultimately a net loss to me. It'd be more forgivable to lose a limb instead. Using my remaining leg, I hopped forward to dodge the next whip strike, which left an indented trail on the ground surrounded by cracks. Finally, I threw the spear at her head with my remaining strength. This time, the spear was stronger than me, so it travelled faster than I did. It tore through the space between us like a missile, leaving behind a deep bass after effect.
My left foot was eviscerated, but with how much I had gone through it was nothing to worry about. I simply needed to go on all fours and leap about like an animal, I already utilise this pattern of movements when jumping from wall to wall, ceiling to floor. It was part of my training to move in a 3 dimensional manner to make my attack patterns less predictable, I had used it once in a spar with Barius at the Illnoia Administration border outpost and in training with Palmicia.
The opponent pulls her whip back to form layers of coil in front of her body, blocking the spear and slowing it down as it spun like a drill against the whip's rope.
*SLAM* *crack!*
Catching up to the spear, I slammed my palm onto the other end of the spear, giving it the last push it needed to crack through the whip like a chisel to a marble statue. Pushing through with my strength, this was a positional advantage that I forcefully made by using the spear's power. Under its pressure, her choices became limited and her movements sealed.
Finally, the spear busted through the whip. It was a difference in weapon types, moreover she didn't enhance her whip with everything she had to conserve her well. The whipe fragments seperate to reveal her porcelain skin, her eyes and nose peaking through the gaps with a panicked glare. At the last moment, the spear flew towards her neck which swerved away just in time to avoid the fatal hit.
In exchange, a big gash formed as the spear had grazed her cheek. The spear continued flying down the corridor, popping open 2 of the B grades that stood behind her ready to ambush me. The last B grade jumped at me from behind, sensing her initiation of a high attack with my radar, I ducked under and headbutt her torso. The force of my counterattack forced her to hunch over as some spit escaped her lips. This opened up her neck for both my arms to reach and grab, so that I could throw her entire weight over my head.
I threw her at the A grade just as she dodged the spear, using my 3 dimensional maneuvering by propelling the air under my feet, I hopped against the ceiling and landed behind her. I had to pause the extraction of the anti magic for a bit to create that air propulsion, that was how impatient I had gotten. The spear returned to me at the end to finish the entire manoeuvre as I skewered her back, then dragged it up to her neck, splitting her in half from the waist up. Flicking off the blood on the spear, I moved on, ready to intercept any party that came our way.
3%, my performance is still on the lower end of B grades, but it was still enough to defeat the incoming enemies. They had practically used human wave tactics in an attempt to overwhelm my advance, but if I just swing the spear faster they would all get taken out in one hit. Slashing down 3 at once, a more advance B grade swerves their feet as they reached my back. I had just finished a particularly large swing, so my arms were quite tired, and she seized that moment to get behind me.
She swings a medium sized sword, aiming lower to immobilise me. As her blade slashes a deep gash at my waist, I threw a heavy punch with my left arm in exchange, causing her to stagger for a moment and giving myself room to breath. Though the wound wouldn't go away anytime soon, it was a problem I should ignore for now. My breathing deepens in intensity as I trained my sight onto her figure, spinning the spear around I laid it to rest on my arms as I shifted to an attacking stance.
Thrusting the vine spear straight forward, it phases through her body before she side steps out of the way to swing her blade. The tip of her sword slices through the air with a heavy gale piercing through my posture as she aimed for my neck. I tip my spear upside down and blocked it with the other end, parrying off the blow at the last moment. We exchange a few blows in that manner as sparks flew off between collisions.
No matter how much she swung, she couldn't break through the defences of the spear and my wielding technique. I had trained up to some proficiency with every weapon after all, I wouldn't say I mastered anything and the weapon I'm most proficient in still remains the vacuum blade that I always rely on, but I had taken up such endeavours so as to not lose instantly when I change from a sword to another weapon.
After all, creating a sword out of a vacuum... Isn't it a given that I can give form to any weapon I want with the vacuum afterwards? If I trained with a variety of weapons, then I can effectively use all of them during battle, as well as vary in my attack patterns to build a successful advance.
I also become familiar with how the weapons are wielded, how they can be moved and how they would be moving afterwards. In other words, they also allow me to predict the opponent's movements to some extent. It was the only reason I could match up to my enemies up u till this point... As it formed the core of my training for the entire time I was in the labyrinth.
Muscle training simply wasn't enough, so I did shadow boxing or wielding imaginary weapons. In hindsight it seemed like an embarrassing secret I should never tell anyone... Haha... But once I was able to make the vacuum blade with the Stick, I spent all my time on practicing how to wield it. If anything, I kept trying to find new techniques that would make me stronger, but never came up with anything.
The only substantial result that came from researching and practicing my own magic was the Stick, it was shaped like a pair of S-shaped devil horns that were stuck to the back of my head, and they were jet black. Their function was to essentially act as my second brain to aid me in battle, but eventually my normal brain grew more capable in manipulating magic and had outgrown the Stick in ability. So it was no longer needed.
In the end, no matter how hard I try to think up new techniques for my magic, they either didn't work or they were useless in a practical sense. The only times I got new techniques to work were during battle, when I needed my magic to behave in a certain way to achieve a practical desired effect. At first they only granted marginal improvements to my combat power, like reigning drill cross punch and super hollow propulsion, they simply polished the already present power I have but do not bridge gaps in powers against superior opponents.
Using the 3 dimensional maneuvering, I bounced past the speed barrier, leaving a crater in the ground as I reached the nearest wall. Crowds of C grades and B grade enemies show up to further retard our efforts. While we may slow down a little due to my situation with anti magic, ultimately we were continuing this battle with the original plan. A little anti magic won't be able to get in my way, unless the opponent is S grade.
Reaching the nearest wall, I bounced off it while riding the momentum, which I redirected to send me towards the ceiling at a low angle. Doing these manuevres require me to use my first skill... So my performance will stay at 3%. My recovery rate was gradually increasing, the longer I use my first skill to extract the anti magic the more I could use magic as well. It meant that cross a certain percentage of performance, I'll be able to extract the rest of it instantly.
Back to the battle, I bounced off 3 walls consecutively as I cut down everything in my path. With the spear being vastly superior, I had no worries of it getting stuck in their corpses. I could thrust the spear without worries as it tore through their flesh like paper. Landing on the ground, I bring down a swing and lopped off 4 heads at once, before bouncing to the next wall. With another leap to the ceiling then towards the ground, I spun my entire body and cut down everything in my way, bisecting 3 others like a miniature typhoon.
While I was at it, I might as well enhance the spear with my own power- Then send it with throw, while using my first skill to force it to change trajectory mid throw. It reaches the first opponent which was directly in front of it in a straight trajectory, blowing up her head as it punctures the air, red and grey bits flying across the air. Then it swerves towards its next target, moving in unnatural directions as it locks on to its prey. After around 10 enemies, it loses its momentum so I had to make it return to arm.
For now, I had cleared up the nearest crowd. The spear was coated in their blood as it flew back into my right arm. My elbow twitches from the fatigue as my body temperature dropped due to being drenched in blood. My body temperature no longer had any physical effect since I've transformed into a magical girl, but it had a psychological effect. Feeling cold would get bothersome during battle, it was difficult but it was possible to ignore it and try to maintain battle performance.
I resume the extraction of the anti magic, reaching 4% at in the next moment. Subsequently, I reached 5% after a few minutes of walking before encountering more enemies. I must have cut down on a lot of their numbers for it to take this long for reinforcements, but now I could sense them in the distance. They were a few kilometres away, we must be walking through something akin to their dorm as there were rooms throughout the corridor. Well, in cases like this where they want to cut corners and reduce the usage of space, the lower grade magical girls would likely be put in dorms. I would suspect that only the A grades and above get proper rooms to themselves.
Just how large is this corridor... With my passive it was a simple task to confirm, but despite being 10s of kilometres long, this corridor isn't the only floor. There's still more below the ground we stood on, perhaps they were just fake signals sent by the enemy to act as a trap, that's why our first step in this underground lair is to be wary of every direction. They could launch an ambush from any direction by going through the walls, ceiling and floor.
On the next footstep, the signals got closer in an instant. They must have lept with their full speed... And they were 3 A grades. They weren't on the low end either, they pose a threat to all of us.