*
"Before I go into the plan, here are the general rules we need to follow... As C grade combatants, Jiyu and I should not fight. At least not proactively.
Lastly, the goal is to get me as near as possible and buy me enough time while you're at it... " (Kaede)
The 4 magical girls ran in the direction that Jiyu pointed at, leaping from rooftop to rooftop as going from the sky was more convenient than traversing around buildings and roads.
During such a moment, her memories of Neli flashed through her mind. Her beautiful cactus lime hair, her jett black assessories that seem to glimmer under the evening incandescence, her sleeves that seemed to stretched partway, with half a side stopping at her wrist and another half extending on into the flowing air to reveal a cherry blossom pink texture on the inside of her forest green clothes.
The black ribbon and black metal bangles residing over her dress and waist bounced as she flew forward at high speeds. With her gravity manipulation magic, she absolved the need to even leap off the ground, making her weightless and immune to air resistance at the same time. It seemed that her magic could remove any force acting on her and guide her to wherever she wanted.
Her forest green dress had enormous frills near the hips that were attached to metallic waist guards that jutted out with a terrifying edge. Her upper arm and thigh seemed to have similar armour that wrapped around her body while protruding the air with curved crescent blades. The black embroidery and outlines of her combat dress were sharp and crisp, blooming dark flowers on her puffy dress.
The way she moved also seemed elegant, as if she was the textbook definition of a superhero, one that everyone knew about, wore a 's' on his chest and donned red underwear outside his pants. Perhaps Kaede was jealous, controlling gravity... How cool would that be? Her thoughts were quickly waived away as she sensed a large mass of magical particles in the distance...
No, there was no concept of space for magical particles, so it felt like they were everywhere at the same time. What magical girls are sensing was the density of magical particles in one place. Rather than saying a large being was ahead of them, it was more accurate to say that it was a dense being.
"Demon King right ahead. 100km, right at the edge of my radar, but a distance an A grade could traverse in a second. Prepare without delay!" (Kaede)
The others had been briefed before hand, the main point was that they would establish a false hiearchy. As expected, the moment Kaede had detected the Demon King, he arrived next to them without missing a beat. She immediately forms her void rapier in front of her as the Demon King slams a giant claw that materialised over his arm before Kaede even noticed. The claw had grotesque black skin and bulging purple veins. Its nails were a deep shade of dark scarlet but glowed under the setting sun with the sheen of a metal.
The Demon King's palm had slashed against the void rapier from the front, while Barius's ice great sword slipped through my front and struck the rapier from the back. She was doing a great job of supporting me, with this the Demon King would think that he was repelled by our combined strength, though it was mostly Barius's strength. This was the deception that we were aiming for, to pretend that I was the strongest in this group while hiding Barius's power for a sneak attack.
Caught in this deadlock, Neli takes advantage of this instant to activate her super gravity, pointing at a diagonal and downwards angle that pushed the Demon King away from the clash with Kaede and Barius. Just as planned, Jiyu went into hiding the moment the Demon King arrived.
The Demon King was a fearsome 2 metre humanoid creature clad from head to toe in jett black armour. The armour was bountifully thick and round on the chest, and his limbs were in a perfect balance of muscle and flexibility, giving absolutely no hints to his gender. For now it was referred to as a male due to his title of Demon King. That was why it was even more repulsive to see flesh slip through the cracks in his armour to form a giant pulsating claw.
Neli shoots a few highly compressed gravity bullets while Barius and Kaede tries to hold him down. A few thunderous roars spread into the air as the bullets burst open upon collision with the Demon King's tough armour. Barius slips her ice blade into the back of the Demon King's torso right as Kaede thrusts her void rapier into the front. Taking out their blades from the wall of metal and flesh, they hopped backwards in an attempt to avoid the Demon King' s next attack.
He wasn't confused as being on the front lines got him used to fighting against multiple targets at once, but it was still very annoying for him. [Demon King constitution(degenerated)], just like any other constitution skill it acted as a passive that granted minimal effects, such as enhanced healing, slightly increased perimeters, boosted senses and boosted perception, it's true value lies in the occasion when the skill is manually activated. All of these passive effects become significantly enhanced, before Kaede could catch it with her eyes, the hole that she left with Barius had already closed up.
Exploiting that gap in their flurry of attacks, the Demon King was finally allowed to take a break from their barrage. He launched multiple magic claws from afar to assault everyone at once. Without taking any breaths, even a tiny moment of his opponent's recovery was used to his advantage.
In a tiny instance of Kaede and Barius jumping away from the Demon King after pulling out their weapons, no... In less time than that... The Demon King had completely reversed their situation. They tried to pressure him with constant attacks, but that also meant that they themselves received no rest or breather, and now that they were trying to respite and rebalanced themselves they were practically sitting ducks for a counterattack.
Barius blocks it with her ice blade, the impact of the claw attack punctures through the thin weapon blocking it and launches her body against a nearby building, causing fractured sharp wall fragments to pierce through her back. Blood pooled down her back and onto the ground behind her, her wounds became akin to a garden sprinkler of grotesque scarlet. The smell or iron plagues her nose and her vision trembles.
On the other hand... Kaede's void rapier evaporated from existence and she took the claw head on, her clothes were torn with 3 obvious gashes that slashed downwards. She was hurt, but far less than Barius. Her body endured the hit as spears of spinning water struck at the Demon King's back afterwards. A new void spear appears in her arm, materialising from the handle upwards instead of appearing completely at once. It showed the extent of Kaede's injuries.
Noticing that Barius was way more injured, the Demon King now focused his attention on Kaede. The double crescent horns materialised at that moment, bent like a goat's and as dark as the night sky, they radiated a dark purple aura. It was the Stick created by Kaori, ever since its creation it didn't vanish out of existence when dissipating into magical particles.
The information of the Stick was embedded into Kaori's body like a skill, so she could recall it at any time or recreate it. Kaede and the amnesiac Kaori can't decipher the information, so they can't recreate it, but they can summon the one that is already created and carved inside their body.
Faint purple aura poured out of it as translucent horns materialised over Kaede, it seemed that her body was too damaged to properly summon it. She looked better than Barius because all of her injuries were on the inside, her organs must have become mush upon the claw attack by the Demon King. Kaede steps forward and leaps low, dodging the 5 claw attacks the shredded the air in Kaede's path.
Neli leaps in to send a hypergravity kick from the side, but it doesn't even make a light dent into the Demon King's armour. Kaede closes the distance and swings the void rapier just as Neli struck. A metallic wing and 7 sharp tendrils rose from each side of the Demon King's back, blocking both attacks with a wall of flesh and metal. The tentacle like blade edged tendrils and wing were a partially metallic and partially muscle and vein composite.
The cracks and gaps in the Demon King's armour glows bright purple as he releases a loud roar, the air around them rumbles before erupting into a flood of flames. An explosion wraps around the vicinity. When the flames and smoke dissipate, the Demon King had stepped behind Kaede and unleashed multiple strikes, the impact arrives late and blood flies out of her throat while her eyes became red and bloodshot.
"aaaaaAAAAGGGHHHHH!!!!!!" (Kaede)
A furious Neli rushes forward with her diffential speed technique, boosting her speed exponentially higher until distance almost becomes a myth for her.
"Black hole strike!" (Neli)
The first dent in the Demon King's armour is formed. A breath of fresh air courses through everyone's dilapidated lungs, the Demon King reaches his arm over to check his injury, in which Kaede rushes forward to return the favour. She stabs through the back of his palm then into the injury caused by Neli. Before giving the Demon King time to even scream, she throws a large kick that sends him flying into the air. Gravity bullets barrage him while he is in mid air, sending him further up and peeling his defences further.
Now the false hierarchy is firmly established, the Demon King believes Barius to be a weakling stuck trying to recover herself at the backline, while fully focusing his attention on Neli and Kaede.
"... Where is the last one hiding? Running wouldn't help at all, a hundred km is nothing, you know?" (Demon King)
He vanishes in the next moment, his voice was a mixed of raspy dryness and echoing deepness, it resounded in the air like a megaphone relaying and amplifying its user's voice. His speech had filled the air to its brim, ensuring anyone in the vicinity could hear properly. There was no evacuation notice yet, so there were plenty of humans nearby. We were sure that the loud noise should have already warned them... But...
"Here." (Demon King)
He reappears a few metres away, the building that was initially there exploded with a bellowing burst of debris. In his hand, he held a random resident of the sanctuary, a little girl aged around 10-14 or somewhere around there. The point was that... She wasn't going to escape the Demon King's claw alive... The residents around her must have kept quiet and hoped the battle would be over soon, and the moment that the Demon King spoke... It made some of them yelp out of shock and terror. That was how this one was caught.
Kaede was the first to move after realising what was happening, she extends the length of her void rapier and slammed it into the Demon King before he did anything to the little girl, she used all of her power to propel herself forward. Barius was the key to that, she froze time with her second skill while leaving Kaede and herself able to move during the frozen time. Rather than freezing time, she was actually slowing the flow of time. If time was a river, she was reducing its fluidity and adding to its viscosity, while keeping Kaori and herself fluid.
Barius knew that Kaede had gained back her memories, but she didn't know she lacked the memories from before The Great Disaster. Since Barius didn't know her from before either, she couldn't verify or get affected by it anyway. In other words, no one could effectively find out that something was amiss from how Kaede was acting. Even if her mannerisms had changed slightly, they still largely fit Kaori. So she put her trust in 'Kaori'.
Making use of the time stop, she arrived in front of the Demon King before Barius raised her arm into the air and released the time stop. Time resumed and the Demon King shoved the hostage right in front of his body immediately to block the void rapier, with the accumulated momentum from the rush to save the hostage... It ironically ended up preventing her from stopping. So the blade drove through the girl's body... And the Demon King's...
"Void rapier, distant severance." (Kaede)
The blade dematerialises and nothing passes through the little girl, then it materialises behind her and stabs the Demon King.
"KUghhh!!!" (Demon King)
Neli wouldn't pass up this free chance to strike at a defenceless Demon King.