*
"!? Tch, they're high end. Looks like we encountered higher ups, I'll have to leave this to you guys and work on the anti magic."
I began to walk backwards, staring at the 3 like prey watching its predator, slowly retreating to avoid exciting them. Well, they were human in the end, so it must have looked comical to them. We sent a message to a branch of The Rising Knight Order, so Palmicia may arrive some time later. For now, perhaps stalling for time would be the best course of action.
Despite coming here with only the 3 of us, we were rushing because of the deadline set by The Eye God. But in actuality, the cult has many enemies as well. Paridia told us about the existence of the other underground organisations the continue to vie for supremacy against the cult.
"... Damn, I was really hoping to save my strength the whole way, so that I can take it all out on the progenitor." (Paridia)
She stretches on the spot, massaging her muscles in front of the enemy. Placing her right hand on the back of her neck while bending her elbow, a soft cracking sound escapes her neck and shoulder, her eyes retained focus on its targets as she does so. A faint pink aura begins travelling up her body starting from her feet, carefully wrapping her into the heat of battle. She could feel her blood course through her veins faster as magical particles circulate throughout her body.
"Hmpf, Kaori, you sure that you just want us to stall them? What if I go for the kill?" (Myuu)
She forcefully flexes her muscles on the spot to remove the fatigue from being inactive, to the naked eye it seemed that she hasn't moved a single bit, but her muscles had all activated at once. As if it was proof of that, shock waves toar through the wind and cracks formed under her feet when she flexed. There were even a few scratches made onto the ceiling. She summoned the spear that she lent to me, spinning it as she rotated her wrists around at the same time as a warm up.
The 3 A grade opponents stared on in fiery glares that could boil water. The tension that they exuded was palpable, as A grade magical girls with comparable power they have auras that can match up to ours as well. The first one wore a large yellow coat with orange and red 'X's plastered over it, the 4 ends of the 'X's sharpened to a point like sword slashes. A chain constantly travels behind her as if it was a living thing, swirling and slithering around.
She wore 2 white belts with black dashes on it, her body donned a simple white T-shirt with black sweat pants and hard leather boots. Her orange reddish hair split down the centre, covering her ears and curving towards the back.
The second A grade wore something akin to a witch outfit, with a comically large greyish purple cone hat and a similarly coloured robe. Though it was only the outer wear that looked like a witch, under her robe was a white frilly dress with black outlines and intricate black embroidery, as well as 2 vermillion eyes peaking out from under her blond hair.
There was also the fact that she didn't hold a witch's magical broom in her hand, but she actually armed herself with an automatic rifle. Outside her robe, her sleeves only rich to the elbow and her forearms wore gauntlets as well as metallic turquoise cuffs.
The last A grade was a brunette with a small dress that barely covered her body, it was sleeveless and it stretched down to her hips. Below was a pair of short denim pants which held a garter belt under it that attached to a pair of black thigh highs with intricate black frills.
Her supple fingers wore transparent dark grey gloves that were connected to 2 large metallic attachments each, they looked like large blades that sprout from the sides of her wrists and the blades extend to the top of her head. One of the straps of her dress fell over her shoulder and was hanging loosely by her arm, frankly it was quite the irritating sight.
"Quite cocky aren't you?" (A grade 1)
Myuu attacks her at a speed that I cannot follow, an instant after the A grade finished speaking... No, it was before she even finished, Myuu attacked her preemptively. She bit on her words at the last second, leaking a groan as she parried Myuu's spear with great difficulty. Even I could see that her arms were visibly shivering under her superior strength.
After another second, 2 loud booming sounds erupted next to them. One around the opponent magical girl's head and the other was at her hip, Myuu's right leg lands on the ground right after with smoke fading off right over it. The opponent's left arm was also raised to her shoulder, likely to block Myuu's kicks. She could only rely on her right arm holding her blade to hold off against Myuu's spear.
Myuu jumps back, relieving the pressure on the opponent's side, but she immediately follows up with another swing of her spear. This was the advantage of her weapon, while it would be hard to penetrate defences and thrust at a short range, she could easily retreat like this and exploit the longer reach of her weapon to attack from afar.
The opponent could only bring her blade around to block the far swing coming from her left and then above her head to block the overhead blow, each time the weapons the collide, the floor cracks under her as all the force is concentrated on her body.
The witch-like magical girl comes to her aid, after that series of exchanges she stops hesitating and begins open fire at Myuu. Of course, it was a gun produced by her skill, so the bullets travelled at a speed that was too fast relative to A grades. There was a chance that she would hit her ally, but she could no longer stand in the back row and watch her friend gradually get beat down. She would rather accidentally fire shots into her friend than do nothing and regret it later. Though Myuu follows up by planting her spear into the ground before pole vaulting over the shower of bullets.
"Mai! Incoming fire!" (??)
"?!" (Mai)
It seemed that the one in the yellow coat, the one that Myuu was fighting was called Mai.during that entire sequence, Paridia was watching carefully at the other 2, intending to help Myuu out if they ever jumped in. But Myuu seemed to be doing fine... No, this was simply the best time to counterattack.
If 2 of the enemies were focused on Myuu, who could simply heal herself when needed, then Paridia who wasn't much of a healer can take this time to fill in her actual role. She had always been sent on bounty missions during her time in the cult, she was a well known assassin in the cult itself along with Gerald. So she should assassinate the third member while the other 2 are too busy.
While Myuu's achievement of having a draw with the strongest ArcMaiden far overshadowed Paridia's achievement of beating Triney, one of the weaker ArcMaidens along with Kanou, she was actually no slouch compared to her companions. Using her first skill to prevent her prey from even moving by applying her skill from every direction, she shoots one concentrated white beam straight at her head, from multiple directions.
The third magical girl whom was at her wits end due to Paridia had a chance to escape Paridia's power until she saw the beams of light that followed. So under her desperation, she activated it. Her Oblivion Magia.
A world of deep blue wraps around the edges of our surroundings, swallowing everyone in something akin to the sea, but it seemed to have a tighter grasp over us. We were saving our magic for the fight with the progenitor, so Myuu and Paridia weren't willing to deploy their own Oblivion Magia to combat this. It meant that we had to fight under unfavourable conditions until the end. At a time like this, it was suppose to be my turn to clear away the enemies anyway, so it was actually my responsibility to fend off this Oblivion Magia. But with the anti magic thing going on, I couldn't really pull it off, can I?
Performance reached 5%, I was now around the middle of B grade. I could still pull off a role like the witch magical girl and act as support for my teamates... But... They trusted my words. I have to fulfill them and continue extracting the anti magic! I hope they can hold out for now. The third A grade opponent who was in a garter belt summoned a magic staff out of thin air, it was similar to those big sticks held by wizards in a fantasy.
Tch, 6%... It's still a long way from 100%, but with this they won't be more than 20 times faster than me. The third magical girl attempts to use her skill inside our bodies, to by pass our magic defences and grant an instant death. But it was fine as long as we escape the area of her casting so that we dodge before her magic appears. I begin running as did the other 2.
Paridia flies into the air with great difficulty, solidifying the light under her feet as pours barrage over barrage of light beams at the 3 enemies. Followed by super thin invisible light threads, she creates threads of blue and red lights and fixes them all over the area, before making them invisible by bending the light around these threads. This was now a place that she controls, despite not having set up an Oblivion Magia of her own. She attacked and set up traps all at once without a single beat missing.
Perhaps I was panicked for nothing, they did look pretty confident despite me being in this condition... 7%, it still isn't enough... They must have had their own plans... Their own vision of the future... That's why they're fighting so hard. I... I'm ashamed for having underestimated my companions...
I continued watching over the battle as they fought. Myuu had vaulted over to the witch-like magical girl and swung her spear with all of her strength, not even I could follow her speed with my passive. The opponent dodged at the last moment by jumping back, but a chunk of her flesh from her legs was sliced clean off. Mai attacks her from her back.
"Don't forget that I'm here!" (Mai)
She holler as she swings down her blade from above her head. Without looking back, Myuu summons a second spear to parry it casually from behind herself.
"Tch, Mai, This isn't going to work... Her defenses are airtight, we'll have to coordinate an attack that was just as complete or even more so than hers." (??)
"Damn, Guli cover me!" (Mai)
Jumping backwards to make distance, the witch-like magical girl or Guli materialised a second rifle and began firing wildly. Myuu spins her spears to deflect the barrage of bullets. Not letting this opportunity go, Mai leaps with all her strength as she swings her sword in a drawing motion before sending a straight thrust at the back of Myuu's head.
At the last moment, a tree grows between the 2, blocking the blade as the tip gets deflected with a loud clang. Myuu crouches down by kneeling on a single leg, reducing the area she needed to cover from the storm of bullets coming her way. Using a single spear to deflect everything, she uses the remaining and now free spear to throw it like a javelin.
8%, I'm still getting there. 9%, 10%. Thus begins the rapid climb. The spear flies at Mai. 11%, 12%. Mai dodges the spears and swings her blade once more. Myuu rolls out of the gun's barrage, summoning a fence of bushes the block Guli's view. 13%, 14%. I was now around the low end of an A grade, even if I got in now I wouldn't die in a single hit. On the other side, Paridia was quickly pressuring the third magical girl.
The effects of her Oblivion Magia were similar to her aura, but despite binding us in her aura it wasn't that effective, so I had simply ignored it the whole time. The other 2 don't seem to feel much either. The anti magic may lower my combat ability, but my leaking aura was still the same as before. I ran towards Myuu. 15%, 16%. I threw my fist at Guli before she noticed my presence. She turns around and blocks it with her forearms by bending her elbows. But she misread the air current, with my current level I could extract anti magic and used a bit of my first skill.
My fist lands in her face, sending a loud bang echoing around in the vicinity. 17%, 18%. Without Guli's cover fire, Mai struggles to keep up with Myuu's relentless assault with her Dual wielded vine spears. It was time for our counter attack.