***(Rei vs slime)
Kanou and Gamma vanished at once, leaving the other 2 to an expansive battle field. Though they were actually in the middle of a wrecked demon city. Every once in a while, one of Miwa's lasers would fly from somewhere and evaporate entire streets away. The demon army that attempted to support their leaders, the demonic heavenly kings, ended up as nothing more than fodder.
There was a large dispatch from the general infantry unit and support corps, but De Lan had caused them to plunge to their deaths or to stab themselves with the swords they carried. The demon army was also stretched thin on multiple fronts as the S grade magical girls of other factions fulfilled their part of the alliance agreement by sending their forces in at the same time that the Sanctuary did. The only factions that didn't respect the total human alliance... Was the holy kingdom.
They worshipped the one and only pope saintess, an SS grade magical girl with an entire foot in the divine. It was still too strange. One would assume a theocracy like that would leverage on the threat of demons, portraying them as a scourge of evil that plagued and corrupted God's earth or something like that, but... They worshipped the pope saintess herself, as a god magical girl, and as a source of miracles that brought prosperity and allowed survival. She was the reason their entire faction could live. She was the buffer between the harsh elements of the wilderness, the obliterated urban landscape of the post Great Disaster age, and them.
There were about 5 factions left. Based primarily in what used to be North America and governing most of South America was the holy kingdom of Blumford, ruled by the pope saintess.
Based in Europe and Russia was the Illnoia Administration which had annexed the previous ruler of Europe, the Gangrea Monarchy. The ruler of the monarchy was the immortal king, but due to some infighting and egregious circumstances, his weakness was seized and exploited. The administration was ruled by the Dragon God. Quite a simple explanation, their name was directly related to their abilities.
Based In Africa and middles East was the Grundo Alliance, with no god magical girl ruling, an emphasis was placed on finding human resources and utilising them to the best of their ability. As a result there were around 13 S grade Warlords protecting their domain, this was the most numerous out of any of the continental factions. The Demon country was situated near the Southwest of Africa and Southeast of south America, so they were the first to face the threat of the demons.
The last took place in Asia. 'The Sanctuary of the Eye God', the ruler was self explanatory as they were in the faction's name. They boast the largest amount of land, due to having the most massive population and space, a major emphasis was placed on organisation and management. Like how the Grundo alliance and the Illnoia administration prioritised consolidating power, the Sanctuary prioritised making the country easier to manage.
By forming an intricate ladder of positions that grew out as it got lower, like a pyramid with a heavy but stable foundation, a chain of command was able to cascade downwards to manage more and more people until everything could be put into place.
The last was the Haradell union. A mysterious union with little to no contact with the others, said to be a paradise and a nation of magical girls floating about the United Kingdom. But to be clear, the union has no ties with the kingdom, it is a nation solely made of magical girls... Unless they have enslaved some humans as a source of menial labour... As second class citizens.
But this didn't matter, while they were aware of the divine knight's betrayal after some time, due to their communications network, only demonic heavenly kings have appeared here. Kei vanishes, she was nowhere to be seen.
In her dainty fingers held a little white piece carved from bone, they certainly were supple and well suited to pressing on the teeth of dead animals to play music out of a piano, but this time what she held was actually something else. Her fingers wrap around the pieces, picking them up and placing them on the board.
[Heavens granted under the dashing lies]
First effect, she cannot be detected. This is a bit of an advantage and demerit. She would be able to avoid long range high power attacks, but her allies wouldn't be able to find or communicate with her.
Second effect, she could still communicate with her allies albeit some heavy restrictions. What materialised in her lap in front of her was a chess board. An invisible stool was also conjured right under her, though that was a magic item that she had commissioned.
This was the main effect, whatever she did to the chessboard became reflected in real life, with set effects happening to certain actions. She moved a piece forward, the king. She had no other pieces right now other than herself... Ah...? There were 2 bishops nearby directly facing 2 pawns. Neli and Kaitmei were here, they were holding off the army units and preventing them from gathering into formation.
For now, she moved the king forward. A copy of her of sorts, another Rei materialised in the world. It wasn't a complete copy, more like a remote terminal. If she got hurt, Rei would get hurt too. The only safeguard was that if the Rei terminal was destroyed, she would only receive damage to 50% of her health. But the cloaking would also come off... Depending on where that 50% went, it might be fatal or immobilising...
Well, it was a risk that she had to take. She pushed the king piece to the enemy's kingpiece. What her skill allows her to do... Is to ignore the rules of chest. She could follow the rules anyway, granting some bonus effects. But there was no such thing as rules in real combat. Her double rushed forward, her dull orange hair had streaks of yellow at the front. Her hair was spiky like a certain main character in a shounen anime, 3 gentle spikes sat atop her head, concealing her hair line and pointed to her right.
2 longer locks round her cheeks like a lion's main or a flitting ember that frayed in the wind, a few shorters locks converged over her eyebrows. Her face was sparkling, like a torch shining in the darkness, her sharp elegant eyes emanated a mature aura with her well shaped nose and accompanying lips. Behind the 2 locks was a draping hair, akin to a shoulder length Ed curtain. They flowed behind her beautifully like a blaze that would never be extinguished.
In all manners, she looked to be the cheery and rambunctious archetype. A person attuned to battle in the melee. So when she vanished, the slime couldn't contain its surprise. It had assumed that she would get close and punch it apart, but nevermind, this was more dangerous than it thought. It looked around in caution before Rei reappeared in front of it, but something was wrong...
The slime had a passive similar to Kaori, it was constantly examining the composition of its surroundings. This Rei was... Had 10% of the original's density. It was a first skill so it's usually cheap in upkeep, but the augmentations on it are the same. Even if the base has lower density, if it's not much different from a normal human in performance, the augmentations will bring it back up to the performance of the original.
What's more, it had automatic combat capabilities, essentially using an AI for learning the movement of enemies and executing the conceivable best moves... So it would be disadvantageous in unexpected situations such as Oblivion Magias with unknown magic. Essentially Rei's copy was only meant to be a rank and file soldier. To be fair it was the perfect soldier, it just didn't amount to much more than that if it was faced with situations that went beyond the scope of a 1v1 battle.
The Rei copy brought out a simple western blade. Double edged, around 60 cm in length and less than 700g in weight. Unlike how it has been caricatured in many fantasies, swords were actually very light and practical. Their lengths were also rarely very long, with a maximum of around 80 cm length and 1 kg weight. Well at least it wasn't as strange as Kaori's vacuum weapons which were weightless.
With a single swing, her sheer strength ripples through the air and splits the slime in half, but... She understood the slime wasn't something that was 'meant' to be hard. It was a soft viscous creature, splitting it in half wouldn't do any substantial damage, especially not if it was a demonic heavenly king.
Usually slimes have cores as weaknesses, the core acts as the medium that holds the passive skill [viscous body] or [slime constitution] which channels magic into itself to create the slime's body composition. Destroying the core would destroy the slime for good.
But some of them might not have a core, those slimes weren't of the fluid body type, every single bit of their body was a stem cell instead. Every cell could readily multiply itself, self organise and act as a brain. They are more susceptible to physical attacks and take more magical particles to regenerate their body, but as long as a few cells survive, they survive.
The fluid body type slime was akin to an evolved bacteria, with a core holding its crucial information akin to a nucleoid region holding the bacteria's genetic information. The coreless cell body type was not a bacteria at all, rather it is more like... Cancer. Any animal could evolve into a cell through convergent evolution with magical particle interference, it is the result of cancer cells deviating into its own species.
Rei looked like a power type magical girl that gets close into combat, but she was more of a commander. She was at a disadvantage here, she commands the Rei clone to step back by shifting her king piece back diagonally. The clone swift leaps off the ground with a soft but efficient tap, leaving a small indent the size of her foot. It looked like she was a rocket as she rapidly flew away even in Rei's eyes.
In some cases like these, the higher efficiency combat AI's capabilities look absurd. When she looked back at the clone's previous spot, there were a few sharpened slime tendrils in the air, the volume looked strangely little. A few more pawns show up on the enemy's side of the chessboard... Yet she saw nothing on the field.
Another trait of the chessboard, it accurately presents the forces of each side, though this is dependant on the set 'scale' of the battle. Right now, this was a duel rather than an entire war, so each chess piece represented an individual rather than an army corps unit. In an individual battle... It was reasonable to think the slime could split into multiple individuals.
The additional pawns, units lower in threat than kings, must have been some of the slime's body planted somewhere all over the field. Hidden traps were revealed so easily with this board. She smashes the pawn apart with her king piece, the Rei clone notices the slime wire traps and slices them apart with swift precision. The strings recoil from being too taut and pull away from where she sliced.
The slime was an amorphous being, the demonic heavenly king was of the cell body type. With their higher well capacity, it doesn't face the same weaknesses as the typical cell, only the advantages. Needless to say, it was a demon. An intelligent monster. There was no reason to let her guard down here. Rei moves the piece forward, engaging the clone in combat. The Rei clone dashes in the air and launches a big slash, cleaving a large hole in the ground.
The slime splits apart completely... Willingly. It did it to dodge the attack, losing none of its cells before shooting of tendrils at Rei. Rei swiftly moved the king piece back as fast as she could, more pawns arose form the enemy's side and emanated from their king piece. She moved her piece away from the pawns. Each square on the board represents how much she can move for every attack the enemy launches. If the pawns multiple faster than her clone could move, then she was done.
Technique, 'premove'
Relying on her own strategic thinking to predict the enemy's movements, she makes moves ahead of time which are executed like a computer program by the clone. The clone was already 2 squares away when the tendrils arose to reach her. All of these effects were merely the result of her first skill, if things got hairy she still had her second skill. Now, imagine if she could premove with an entire army. Tactical retreats could suddenly become smooth, moral and logistical difficulties stop becoming obstacles.
This has always been how she crushed her enemies. Well she has been playing this weird chess, in an actual game she wouldn't be good or anything... It's more like playing some abberant obscure offshoot of chest, it has no relevance with the real thing. The enemy pawns continue to multiple. She moves her king horizontally, causing the clone to run sideways.
She ran with maximum efficiency, slicing apart the tendrils that approach in her away. Swinging left where the attacks were coming, she sliced right once more and dived in the middle of the air, spinning mid air to slice at every direction, before daintily landing on her feet.