*
Her fingers were stained with her own blood, a gooey viscous coating of dark crimson entraps her once supple but no torn fingers. Their blood vessels had all burst at once as she sent her body beyond its natural limits. This was the reason why there were limits, why even magical girls could not casually access the infinite amounts of magical particles available in the universe.
She had just kicked Karell in the face after a battle in mid-air, her gait was wobbly but her eyes were focused on the collapsed girl at a short distance away. The crater was deep, she had kicked her pretty hard. Since Kaede was fighting a person with higher stats while overpowering them, she was straining her body particularly hard. No matter how she looked at it, she should have obeyed the limits of reality.
Even magical girls who could conduct magical particles inside their body hundreds of times better than humans, they reach an eventual endpoint too in their endeavour for strength. Training through the usage of magic and muscle raises their body's capacity to conduct more magical particles, raising their stats, as with more magic used, their augmentations could amplify their bodies further.
Of course, this fixed capacity is in place with safety in mind, going beyond their natural capacities would mean conducting more magic than the body is capable of, the excess energy in their body would begin to break it down while held inside, much like how food is digested in one's stomach acid, they start to decompose under the energy strain.
Rather, it was Kaori who was strange enough to use Magia retainment. She battled actively against this rate of break down with her regeneration by using her first skill and channeling the energy into her regenerative ability. She also distributed the energy evenly across her body to lighten the load on each individual unit of volume. While her regeneration is busy with keeping her alive, she was especially fragile to enemy attacks which could send her decomposition into breaking the equilibrium...
So that's how she did it. She simply used her first skill to shift the equilibrium, the decomposition wouldn't start as a result. If that is so, even her regeneration could become higher than usual. It was absurd that she was messing with the law of magical girls so directly...
A few metres away, Karell had already gotten back up, a cold glint in her widened eyes overshadowed the rest of her face. In a flash, the colour of her figure vanished. Colour drained from the sky as Kaede accelerated, leaving it behind in a blur. She held her rapier like a great sword as she swung towards the incoming Karell, who had dodged it with ease by side stepping.
Kaede responded by pulling back the rapier closed to her chest, then she lifted her left leg over it and struck Karell who had barely managed to block it with her staff. As her leg kept the staff busy, she swung down her rapier.
*Ring*
As if a series of screams had been compressed into a single moment, an alien like distortion of shrieks and hollers engulfed her auditory senses and disappeared in an instant, leaving her a little disoriented. She felt something was strange but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Literally, she could no longer move her arms, falling leg forward.
Invisible chains had tied down her limbs to the ground and locked it in place, she could feel a circular sense of constriction around her wrists, arms, thighs, lower legs and ankles. The only part of her body that didn't feel restricted was her face, though it might as well be stuck in the teeth gritting face as she exerted all of her strength to get free.
Her opponent... Didn't smile. She was serious the entire way even after gaining an advantage. Her gaze carried something that she couldn't see, and it was crushing her to bits right now. Karell swung her staff straight at Kaede's head, the spatial magic was about to shred it into countless pieces when she ducked.
She was using her 2nd skill, her physical movement magic to counteract the restrictions... Usually if she used it on her body, she would rip it into pieces and free herself from the restrains... But she simply moved the restrains along with her body, keeping it in one piece.
She expends copious amounts of magic, shooting her body backwards to put some distance between them. Something was wrong, she couldn't get rid of the restrains by peeling them open with her magic. Even though Karell's magic was gone, the 'restrain' effect was still there. A phenomena that wasn't tied to the magical particles constituting it... It either had a different form of energy currency... Or it was something beyond her own comprehension. Something that operated outside of the conventional rules... It might either have its own rules or none at all.
Her opponent rushes towards her, giving her no time to deduce what was going on. In a panic, she coated her left fist with magic and threw it towards her. If the restrains were kept, she had to spend exorbitant amounts of magical particles just to move in a rudimentary manner. In other words, there was no way to win if she kept to her present circumstances. Her left fist struck the staff, and in that moment she felt the restrains come off... Her fist deforms as the staff smashes into it, but she left cracks in the staff as well.
It was an entirely new effect different from spatial magic since she couldn't undo it, it was most likely the effect of a second skill. Then she must be wary. A magic that does not rely on magic as fuel. But there would always be a mechanism to things, there was an order of specific actions that activate it. No matter the effect, it needed some form of requirements. For now, she simply felt that dishing out kicks were dangerous. It was mere instinct that told her that much, but examining further, she froze right after kicking Karell's face.
As long as she avoided that, things should be fine right? Kaede rushed forward, discarding her rapier. This time she would concentrate all of her magic on her fists. Karell rushes towards her in tandem, swinging her staff and exploiting its farther reach to strike before Kaede got near her. Kaede brings up her left elbow, ready to parry and counterattack. At that moment she froze once more.
...?! Even blocking is a no go?
She had deciphered the mechanism in an instant. Certain actions froze her in space, while getting hit... At least by the staff would free her. She only froze in her block right before the staff smashed into her arm. Any magical girl would feel things were bleak at that point, after all her arm just came off. But she held on, insignificant as it is, she didn't want to stap desperately grasping at victory.
She jumped back, gripping her rapier tighter with her one arm. This was what all her experience and training was for. It was to account unforeseen circumstances like this. Her arm had grown back halfway due to her regeneration, but she leaped forward with her rapier in only hand.
With her entire body weight, she jumps into the air to slam her rapier, for a moment she felt her movements stop but due to her momentum Karell had to block the attack with her staff. It counted as a hit. More and more actions were becoming triggers for the opponent's magic, but as long as she hit her staff she would free herself from it. The only problem was when she missed, so she had to properly land and block every attack perfectly, or the rhythm of battle would be controlled by Karell.
Comets flew by in the air as 2 silhouettes continuously exchanged blows, despite hitting the staff each time, she was still rapidly moving then being stopped, inflicting tremendous recoil onto her bones. They creak under the pressure as her mind worked its way to find a solution. At this point, they had fought over a long enough distance to get far away from the event stage... She would know how she would have fared if she had to see the sea of blood in her peripherals and have her sense of smell assaulted by the singeing scent of iron.
The ground cracks and gives way to the immense force unleashed by their limbs and channeled by their weapons, slashing towards her left, Kaede was blocked by the staff once more. With an agile spin, she attacks from the other side, slamming and pressuring the enemy.
Everytime her attacks were about to land, they freeze right before the making contact with the staff, but Karells swings it with all her might into the rapier, forcing Kaede to push from that position. As such, she could never bring her momentum from moving her legs and waist into her arms and blade, severely diminishing the ferocity of her attacks.
After waves of countless attacks raining on each other's weapons, Kaede had fully regenerated back her left arm. She grabs the hilt with both arms-
"Ah..." (Kaede)
She froze. This time the restraining effect was worse than last time, it was far more potent... To the point that it reached her organs and was threatening asphyxiation. No...! She needed to move! Her heart wouldn't let her end it now. Even if she kept running, kept crying, kept whining all this while... The artificial memories of Kaori had fostered even a sliver of pride inside her. She was in Kaori's body, a powerful magical girl who went toe to toe with S grades while having B grade magical girl effectiveness...
Kaori pierced through her limits with sheer will, operating her mental strength at full capacity to do her best and pull in magical particles from the environment. It was akin to using all the wisdom accumulated and Intelligence honed over one's entire life in one go, and then to keep that up constantly during battle. Her mind couldn't relax, not even for a sliver of a moment or it would disrupt the Magia Retainment...
That is why, she views herself as objectively weaker than Kaori. Kaede couldn't muster the will to maintain the hyper concentration state that her mind needed to activate Magia Retainment. She easily got distracted, dwelled over her own faults and drowned in her regrets. She was easily engulfed by the situation in her vicinity that she was also shortsighted...
Honestly, she was terrible at combat. If not for Kaori's magic, she wouldn't know what she would do. Her only saving grace is Kaori's muscle memory, in which even that will soon vanish. Muscle memory is muscle memory because it's been used consistently and repetitively. Since Kaede didn't undergo the same training that Kaori did, the vestiges of Kaori's journey were fading away...
With that said, she felt like a terrible being that didn't deserve mercy. Like a phantom that had no place in the world, who happened to possess and erase a great person. Imposter syndrome? No, that would involve underestimating themselves. Kaede at the moment is objectively not performing well enough at all.
Once again, she expends large amounts of magical particles to move her arms and block the next staff attack, freeing herself from that hell.
"Fuh~" (Kaede)
She exhaled deeply as her eyes gazed intently at her opponent. Right now, she honestly thought that retreat wouldn't be a bad idea. Using the information she gained today, she would assemble a plan of counterattack and corner her.
NO!! Her inner voice screamed at her, it wasn't a new ego who had entered her body or anything too special. It was just her own voice, refusing to back down. Her pride flared up as she gripped her rapier with a single arm. She approached Karells with a cold gaze, her mind had finally achieved a perfect stat of concentration. Subconsciously, she began to use Magia Retainment out of her muscle memory, her aura viciously trembled as if it had erupted.
Since her technique was merely subconscious use, its effects weren't that significant. But it allowed her to resist the restraining magic better. Her movements became less rigid as she swung closer to Karells. After which, she blew debris and sand into the air with the wind, generating a high pressure sandstorm with flying rocks that could sand down and kill living creatures.
"That's it, I've figured you out... Game's over." (Kaede)
She whispered softly over the bellowing wind and crushing sand, the crunch of debris on the ground was the only sound accompanying this chaos.