*
Above the labyrinth, the newly prepared vast deserts that cover the secretive location of the labyrinth... The only way to get in was to have a high level radar that can detect its location and break in, or go through the more convenient route of asking the magical girls patrolling for the location of the teleport devices.
Even in the human city, the magical girls should have a station there where a few individuals work with the police to guard the teleport action device. But any magical girl of the Sanctuary is freely allowed to simply ask and enter.
Her long brow hair flew freely in the air, swaying along with the sandy breeze of the arid desert climate. They stretched far to the left at a length long enough to reach her butt, she wore a short tan coat with countless belts wrapped around her arm, tightening the coat down on her body. Underneath her open coat is a white button shirt with black buttons of various shapes such as stars and crescents.
Her shirt was tucked outside her checkered skirt that was blood red and grey. Unlike the others, she didn't have tights on. She had a pair of high socks instead with short sports shoes with lime green designs. However... Similar to her arms, there were quite a number of small belts wrapped around her thighs and lower legs. Her limbs were adorned with belts, the ones on he legs held small scabards with knives inside.
"I hope you don't mind, but it seems your stats are lower than mine. So [Judged journey] might not see any used. [Enhance sense] will be enough." (Kenzi)
She reaches into her cardigan and pulls it out... A large broad sword of roughly 75 cm, the hilt was decorated with a gold cross guard and a thin handle that fit perfectly under her fingers. She handled it with a single arm and pointed it at Kaori. She was right, base stats wise, Kenzi held the upper hand. But... Who has Kaori been fighting all this time? That's right, they were enemies with seemingly higher stats with equally daunting presences.
But this time she wasn't allowed to enhance herself with [Hollow calamity]. She has to work with what she had. It didn't take long.
Kenzi's figure instantly blurred and she arrived in front of Kaori, Kaori brushes her feet against the ground to stabilise herself and slams her swiftly materialised void rapier forward, landing a parry just in time. Using her balanced posture, she shifted her weight to one leg then swung the other with a powerful kick, forcing Kenzi to move back a single step. Kaori twisted her wrist and stabbed forward with the rapier at impressive speeds, but a sizeable weight that felt like a boulder bore down on Kaori's arms as Kenzi managed to return a blow with her broad sword.
...! Kenzi was using her superior speed and strength to intercept her rapier, she could have dealt a dead blow then but she didn't, because then it would have been a trade of hits... Kaori wasn't weak to the point that she could receive attacks without counter attacking. She would be sure to deal some damage back, all of this was possible because her intuition and experience allowed her to stand on this stage.
They stood shoulder length from each other, blade ready in their hands. This was essentially a quick draw between cowboys, but instead it was magical girls drawing their swords. They stare and observe the other with deep anticipation...!
They swung their respective weapons from under, clashing their pommels into one another. A loud piercing sound reverberates as their weapons clashed on an unconventional, their fist nearly touching. Reigning drill cross punch. Kaori shot her left fist forwards from under her blade, Kenzi dodges to the right, meeting a frontal kick from Kaori. Her leg tears through the air, leaving behind thundering roars before it smashed into Kenzi's palm. She dodged towards the right, there wasn't much time for her to twist her body away or to dodge the kick.
So she conceded with a block using her left palm. Her wrist shattered under the force, but for a magical girl that was practically nothing, even if it still hurt a lot. But more overwhelming than the pain was the cheeky joy bursting through her smug expression, a crescent sneer opposite from her usual docile smile. Kaori promptly retracted her outstretched right leg and ducked lower right, as if a train had ran past her face, a loud burst of air could be heard from her left ear.
Her precautionary stance immediately paid off as Kenzi had launched a counterattack without pause. She had dodged just in time because the attack was aiming at her face at the previous position. At the peripheral of her vision, a large pillar had shrouded one corner of her vision away. Kenzi's left lag had shot forth like a rocket, there was no other reason Kaori dodge other than intuition.
"[Enhance sense]" (Kenzi)
A black aura wraps around the extremities of her limbs before Kaori had noticed. The air around her had slightly changed, it got a little denser. Kenzi was exerting her aura, whether it was intentional or not didn't matter. Kaori skipped a step forward while ducking, she could feel the air above her head burn as 2 punches fly past her before an overhead slash of the broad sword heads for her exact location.
A void rapier materialises in her right hand, lift the broadsword at a slight angle as she side stepped to the left and slightly forward. She enters shoulder length distance, Kenzi had repeatedly attacked, Kaori had already slipped past the reach of her arms and was beyond her elbows. She couldn't elbow Kaori if she wanted to due to the proximity.
*BAM*
Kaori grabs and disables her right arm while sending a knee into Kenzi's torso, with her sheer strength Kenzi rips away her right arm from Kaori's and smashes it on her knee, sending a shock wave into the surroundings. A large open space cleared up as the shock wave launched all the surrounding sand far off into the distance. Kaori's knee aches from the unexpected interception but she grits and launches her left fist into Kenzi's free torso.
This separates the 2 from the entanglement. Despite the clean hit, Kenzi's body only received a light bruising lighter than a deep scratch. It instantly healed up as she recovered her stance.
"Heh, is that sword too wieldy for you? Weren't you a pugilist at heart? Just like me." (Kaori)
"Hah... You sure do know how to bark for someone who sucks at getting out of stalemates!" (Kenzi)
*Ping*
The high pitch noise of metal scrapping against one another rang out under the blazing arid weather when their blades intercepted.
"...?! I'm going at full speed, how...?! " (Kenzi)
Kaori was using both arms just to balance out the overhead swing, she held her rapier with her arms stretched forward and the blade pointed backwards towards the ground. She extended her blade to dig a long distance into the ground, but it was too thin to be observed with the eyes alone so it looked like she parried with only her own strength.
"...! So that's how..." (Kenzi)
She really took the time in the parry to analyse Kaori's stance... Just because she had the upper hand... A slight wisp of anger was set ablaze in Kaori's heart, but she quickly regained composure. Kenzi was right, she sucked at getting out of stalemate such as parries and staring across distances. All this while, she had been brute forcing with her stats, but well...
Eventually her mind caught up with her body. Only a supercomputer with unlimited processing power could hope to predict the attacks of God magical girls and hope to dodge them. Her experience was not for naught. Countless times, this exact experience... Her body already acclimated to this frustration. She is a magical girl, not a swordsman, why play by their rules?
Her blade branches off indefinitely into countless loose spikes, like a plant rapidly growing roots in the ground... But those spikes took a swing around Kenzi's broad sword and launched at her torso. She finally took a step back and retreated from the parry with her broad sword, but more spikes rise up from the ground and air. At once, she was completely surrounded.
"Congratulations, you forced me to forge a new technique. Because my magic control has finally afforded me the ability to - first skill [Hollow calamity], refined technique - Storm of void veins." (Kaori)
She had always thought of this skill, simply put it was too expensive to implement and was horrible cost efficiency wise. Only now that she achieved A grade and better control over her magic...
In the first place, when a magical girl attacks with magic, they spend magical particles and the particles are sent into an activated state. In the activated state, it is mostly uncontrollable energy unless already funneled into a skill. That's why it easily slips away as chaotic energy, shock waves and other residue. Energy conversion is never 100% efficient simply due to the presence of such residues. But... What if the energy could be controlled? That is the underlying mechanism under Magia Retainment.
Even though she promised to not use Magia Retainment or other auxiliary magic... Well, she used it in conjunction with [Hollow calamity] using all of her well to enhance her body... But this time she's going with no enhancements, so she isn't truly using Magia Retainment. She's only siphoning the marginal amount of magic used back into her well, recycling every particle. Her body hasn't been enhanced by [Hollow calamity], so it's fine to use it in this cheap manner.
Recycling attack magic is different from recycling enhancement magic to repeatedly augment herself... So it's fine, right? With one power cleaving swing, Kenzi slices apart the magic holding the void veins together and frees herself, but before she stepped out of that cursed area. Kaori had jumped far into the air and covered the sky with void veins. They all propel towards the ground like missiles colouring the afternoon sky black.
They drive deep into desert ground, causing sand to launch into the air. In the middle of that airborne sand, Kaori closes the distance with her rapier at the ready. Kenzi does an emergency parry in response, her [Enhance sense] allows her to pickup on any possible stimuli, any change in the environment whether micro or macro in a radius of 1 km. In that regard, it's the same as Kaori's radar. But as long as she poured more magic in, she could respond even faster. Because a sense is not only picking up on signals, but also on responding to it. That's what nerve impulses or involuntary movement are.
Pushing her body to the very limit by making every single one of her actions align with her nerves, this was the true value of her skill. And it could push her body even further beyond. With a single strike, she bisect Kaori's body with her broad sword without much thought. But right after, Kaori launches a kick to her head. Even though her body was bisected, she controlled her body with [The gap of impermanence is a cage].
Kenzi blocks the kick with her blade. Strengthening, speeding up her nerves and by extension her flesh, Kenzi reacts to the kick as well, but...
"YOU THINK I'LL GO SOFT?! EAT THIS!!!" (Kaori)
Void veins spread out of her foot like roots soaring into the sky, but... They're not stationary, if one observed closely they're rotating! Rotating and rotating, gathering momentum with something mass less like magic, the drills power soar without limit as long as it kept spinning. *Crack* The sword cries. One could hear a soft but firm hum in the background, the drill was spinning air faster than a typhoon, the air above the labyrinth was rotating and generating friction, enough to tear through the atmosphere like a rocket's engine or a continuous bombing.
Kaori bends her right knee and slams down her left on Kenzi's head. Her strength isn't enough to kill her, but just enough to knock her out. She releases the drill on her right leg and crouches down next to Kenzi's body which dropped like a doll.
"Phew, that was crazy. Her reflexes can easily surpass itself the next moment, but the attack strength isn't enough so there's this magic sword..." (Kaori)
Where did she find such a good sword? While pondering such things, she drags Kenzi's body back in the labyrinth.