There's a figure laying around on the benches near the school campus, It's me, I'm currently killing time while looking at my phone trying not to die from boredom, it is now Friday, I'm currently skipping literature class since I already have enough credits to pass the class without me being there, following the last incident nothing of note has been happened apart from me continuing my training sometimes helping Vera.
[Why is it so hard to continue??? I mean I already knew I wasn't a true magical girl but no progress].
Although I have been praised for my quick learning of martial arts and Aether sense, I have yet to discover a weapon or my 'unique magic', Is crystal clear that most magical girls get their weapon and magic from the start from what Aqua said, even her magic develop first before becoming a magical girl, it's making me infuriated, I hoped to at least make it up with effort but so far nothing has happened.
[I'm I that hopeless in this? even if don't say it, I like being considered a magical girl even if it is only in name]
Incredible enough, my stamina is slowly improving and my mood has been good even after all the training, even if I drooped from this line of work I would continue exercising since I found it refreshing.
"Nothing yet Sauriel?".
"Being hopeful for problems is not healthy".
He's right, I should not hope for disaster to occur just so I can feel like a hero, but It's not like I want to feel this way anyway, but as if to spite me Sauriel suddenly receives something 10 minutes later.
"We have some weird aether signatures, you can look into those".
"Okay~" I say but in my heart, I'm still thinking about Sauriel's warning, I should somehow see how can I fix it.
I head to the location, which is surprisingly near my house, I ran like always, transformed and putting aether into my feet to use fleet footwork, when I reach the location I see a strange scene and the hear someone.
" aha ha ha ha get moving you dumb teddybears".
A childish female voice with a dumb villain tone coming from atop of a store, I look up but notice that there are moving teddy bears in the road, there a lot of them, I count 15 teddybears that are 1 foot tall, there's also some big one that had a height of 6 foot, they are colored brown with black eyes, they don't seem to have much sentience, but they are carrying boxes and random stuff behind the store.
[What is this? this looks way too organized].
"Show yourself!!" I assume that there must be a perpetrator and that this is a robbery, a weird one but a robbery nonetheless.
"O ho~ a dumb magical girl has decided to show herself".
[Yooo she sees me as a magical girl!! now, this is time to show off].
At a top of the store building I see a girl that is looking at me, she has bright orange hair with blonde strokes arranged in twin tails, she has light green eyes and her mouth is covered by a black face mask with shark teeth poorly drawn in them, she has an orange jacket with some black and white accents, she has a black tank top and thigh highs that lead into black boots.
[So both of us have boots in common, neat, maybe that how she knew I was a magical girl? wait no she is visibly evil].
"You should stop this before I stop you myself".
[C'mon just come back down I don't know how I'm gonna get up there].
"Nahhh why should I listen to the enemy?? do you even think properly in that big head of yours???" she is taunting me by pointing at her head.
[Well calm down, my head is not big is just her perspective is wrong].
"Mmm it seems I underestimated the situation, just hold on for a few minutes Amy" Sauriel seems occupied with something "Also remember to name the teddy devils, I haven't seen those before".
[I haven't fought real people except for Aqua, but she crushes me every time so I need to be on the defensive].
"You're underestimating me" I try to intimate her but it doesn't work.
"We'll see about that, now idiots attack her, except you three continue the hauling" most of the teddy bears start slowly walking towards me excluding 3 out of the 5 big teddy bears.
They're painfully slow-moving, I look back up to the twin-tailed girl, she doesn't seem to pay attention to me.
[Actually mocking my strength].
I'm a bit angered, I walk up to one of the teddy bears, it hugs me.
[What?].
I'm a bit surprised but I don't mind, I grabbed by pinching his back and look it in the air, it tries to punch me but it's literally made of fabric so I just close my fist and hold it tightly, it seems to have a tough material inside it.
[Well gotta do what you gotta do, right?].
I pull my right arm as far back, then put all my strength as I throw it directly at one of the bigger teddy bears in the back, it raises its arm and blocks the thrown teddy bear, it falls on the ground and slowly gets back up.
[So they are a bit tough, not that I expected that to work, well-gotta name these devils since Sauriel suggested it, the small one will be teddies and the big ones will be, uh, I don't know, Ted bears].
One of the teddies hug my left leg, I shake him off, then look at it.
[I don't understand how is this supposed to be dangerous].
I raise my right leg above it, coated with aether, and stomp on it, it feels like fabric except for a single 'shard' of the tough material, once I shatter it the Teddie stops moving.
[So each devil has something inside it that makes it move??? I mean this already happened a lot of times so it's my best guess].
I begin moving to each teddy bear and try to stomp on it, it takes like 3 stomps for each teddy bear, but they just keep coming, now they have at least 50 in the road inundating it, the twin-tailed is now checking her phone.
[Goddammit, I got too excited to fight].
I start punting them as if they were rugby balls, they are flying and hitting each other before slowly rising again, they try to hug me, I shake them off only to continue stomping or kicking them.
[How many of them do I need to destroy??? I mean if I retreat they will just catch up to me, but continuing this is just tiring].
Even though I know the consequences I continue my failed strategy, it works until one of the Ted bears gets to me, it tries to hug me, I back off.
"Aether Back Kick".
My kick connects directly into the Ted's stomach, it sinks deep into it, but Ted doesn't even flinch, it instead grabs my leg before I could retract it.
[Wait hold on that's just unfair].
I tried punching it, but the same result, it was just too soft to land good punches against, by the time I realized I f*cked up more of the teddies are hugging me and climbing from my leg, their punches don't hurt, the Ted pulls my leg and hugs me.
"UHghh".
Its hug envelops most of my body and it lifts from the ground, it's suffocating and crushing me at the same time, the Ted seems is now moving in a direction I can discern. When trying to use Aether sensing I only get the Aether that is hugging me which doesn't help at all.
"MPhhhhhhh".
[I'm being captured by the enemy this easily??, what's wrong with me, I should off tried something more intelligent instead of rushing things out I didn't.]
I begin to lose hope when I hear something.
"Cover yourself Amy" another female voice, sounds familiar so I do what it tells me, I coat my entire body in aether, this time I make it condensed for extra safety.
"Propane Slash".
A wave of fire hit's me and the Teddybears around me, Ted seems to shake a bit and it starts 'running', it has the pace of a walking person.
"Phosphor Arrow".
A lance of fire strikes the head of the Ted, it dissipates immediately but it's enough to let me go of its grip, I fall on the ground then roll backwards to make distance from the Ted I then look back to see a familiar witch.
"VERA!!!".
"Amy you simple-minded moron, you shouldn't let yourself get captured so easily" she reprimanded, it is reasonable though.
[I did get captured rather easily, even when I said that I was going to play defensively]
"Sorry, that was a stupid mistake, I'll try not to repeat it".
"Very well, I will be disappointed if I see that pathetic back again".
She pointed the end of her broomstick towards the fleeing teddies.
"Bunsen burner".
Like a flamethrower, flames started spewing from the broomstick, they washed over the teddies burning them, The teddies get charred and slowly break, each one reveals a red crystal in their insides, the crystal shatters once it gets burned for a few seconds, eventually only the 2 Ted's remained.
[What attack power, she is supposed new?? well, I don't have magic or a weapon].
"Hey don't get distracted, we still have work to do" Vera sounds confident in herself, my confidence is nowhere but I try to keep a smile on my face.
"Huhh? more dumb Magical girls??" The twin-tailed girl only noticed us now.
"So you're the suspect?? surrender yourself and we won't hurt you".
"Shut up!!! yall keep crawling from the ground to annoy me, maybe I should just take you out right now!!" she is genuinely annoyed at Vera for showing up, then again, she did mop the floor with those teddy bears.
[Nicely enough, her flames don't leave burn marks, but they are still hot].
We focused on the 2 remaining Teds, Vera just waves her broomstick around to prepare magic while I think of a possible follow-up.
"First we take out the closest one out" I say to vera.
"That's was obvious from the start, go and attack it after I weakened it" she replies.
Vera's broom catches on fire at the tip, she then draws a circle of fire in the air, it stays suspended in the air.
"Brigit's Will"
She trusts the broomstick end through the fire circle, a fire javelin is shot at high speed at the teddy bear.
"Fleet Footwork".
I start running at the objective, the air is pushing against me but I ignored it, the Ted crosses his arm to try to block the javelin, it hits him and pierces through his arms and grazes its belly, it's not enough, unlike the previous attack it stays there as if it were solid, I get close to the Ted, I do a small hop.
"Aether Dropkick".
I drive my feet into the javelin, It breaks through the Ted's torso, once done the javelin burst into flames, engulfing the Ted, it tries to put the fire before collapsing in the floor.
"Not done yet".
We begin to prepare for the other Ted, but the Twin-tailed girl lands in front of it before we begin.
"I already had enough of these idiots, You get back there and continue helping we are almost done!!" She was yelling at the Ted, it goes to the back of the store, Vera and I face each other with determined looks.
"You sure you want a 2 versus 1, you're at a numeric disadvantage without those plush bears" Vera remarks, we are trying to get her to surrender to make more trouble and waste time.
"The odds are still in m favor idioooo-" in the middle of talking, Vera shot a fireball at her but she dodge it.
"Now that's not nice, I was talking but it seems the magical girls don't like to talk it out!!" she looks at us with a resentful look, she didn't like that at all.
[She was the first one to attack though!!]
"An insult barely passes as a word" Vera says confidently.
[Awesome, she really is like a magical girl].
"Ahhh I'll make you respect me red-haired idiot" she walks a bit back, then jumps 20 feet in the air.
"What? " we both say, she just performed high jump without much effort.
"I don't use these often, consider yourselves honored" she pulls something from her jacket.
"Grenades??" I scream.
She had pulled a long string, it had attached several toy grenades along with it, they are green and clearly made of plastic, each one had a bunny sticker, there was a second-string attached to all the grenade pins.
"You'll be defeated by Magda - The Walking Disaster" the grenades were now in the air above her, she pulled on the second string and all the grenade pins get dragged out of their places.
*BOOOO.
All the grenades explode at the same time, the loud sound is deafening to my ears so I cover them, after a second I take a glimpse at Magda, the explosions behind her are still there, which is weird.
[What the f*ck is happening to those explosions??].
The explosions are suspended in the air, is like someone stopped time for those specific explosions, they are unmoving bright balls, I'm in complete shock to notice that Magda is now grabbing the remaining string and is moving in a downward sweep motion.
"Carpet Bomb"
Magda is moving her arms as if she was using a big hammer, the string follows her, but so do the frozen explosion since they are tied to the string, they are moving in an arc directly at the ground, when I react I look at Vera who is astounded by the view, I grabbed her arm, and jump to the side to evade, The explosions hit the ground and unfreeze.
*OOOM.
They unfreeze and finished exploding, the shock wave sends me and vera flying, I hug vera to protect her, I slam into a wall before falling over.
*pant ... pant.
[That hurt a lot].
I'm gasping for air, Vera is coughing because of all the dust raised in the explosion, after a few seconds she regains her composure stands up, she offers her hand to help me stand up, my back is killing me with pain but I still stand up.
[Forgot to coat my body before hitting the wall, but goddam what was that?].
"Wow you actually survived that, I counted on you having poor reflexes but I guess you are not completely useless" Magda is referring to me, I take it as a compliment since my reflexes are good.
[Don't know how to take a compliment from the enemy but okay].
"Amy are you good to fight?".
"I can hold for a few more minutes".
Interestingly, the road that just exploded isn't that cracked, I guess that the grenades were made from aether and therefore didn't break stuff as easily, they were still quite deadly even if they missed the target.
"Well I still got time to play" Magda pulls a tiny stick of dynamite from her pocket, She lit's it up via friction against her jacket, Vera shoots some fireballs at her but she dodges them all.
"I don't play often with idiots" Magda lightly throws the dynamite in the air, it explodes but immediately freezes in the air, the explosion is the size of a football.
"Catch".
We shield ourselves since we expect something, Magda kicks the explosion at us, it detonates close to us but nothing too damaging like the last one.
[She can control explosions and even interact with them as physical objects, is that her magic??].
"Don't do anything too reckless Amy" Vera warns me.
"I have no choice, just provide some covering support for them".
I start running with fleet work towards Magda, she also starts rushing towards me, she pulls 2 dynamites sticks and light them up, We come close in a crash course, I pull my arm back, put condensed aether and punch as hard as a possibly can in her direction, Magda hops a little in the air and drops dynamite.
"Rocket Jump"
The dynamite goes off underneath her, she launched herself over me with the force of the explosion, so I miss my punch completely, I turn back and deaccelerate, but I'm met with a bright ball in front of me, I immediately block by crossing my arms.
[A frozen explosion!!!!].
Magda had pulled 2 dynamites, one to jump every and this one is to kill me, I'm panicking, it is way too close to me and I don't know when it will detonate.
[Block, block, block, block, block, block, block, block, block, block, block, block, block, block, block, block].
My mind is screaming me to block, but I can't block an explosion only with my aether-coated arms, I'm done for.
"LATER IDIOT!!!" Magda is laughing in the background, she is enjoying my terrified face.
Not this again. I'm again here, seeing my life flashed before my eyes, every time I was helping Mary, the lessons with Aqua, even the stupid meaningless banter between me and Sauriel, everything that I had gained in less than a week.
[Infuriating].
Not only was I gonna be hurt, but I could also seriously die from this hit, it makes me angry with myself, I wasn't strong enough to even predict how an actual person would attack me or how dangerous a situation like this could become, My whole body is heating up.
[I refuse to accept reality, this isn't how is supposed to go!!! Even if I'm not a magical girl, I still want to live].
I feel as if my whole body is burning, I ignore it as I'm more lost in thoughts than anything else, then I cool down rapidly.
*Boom.
I'm blown back and start rolling away on the pavement, it hurts but the explosion itself didn't hit me directly.
[What?? how?].
I glance at the explosion and see the reason.
[A single broken wall made out of the ground].
I'm astonished, It's like the ground itself didn't want me to die and raise a shield from me, but that didn't make sense at all.
"You luck out of that one!!" Magda shouts at me while running at Vera.
"Amy get yourself together!!" Vera is also shouting, Magda kicks Vera but is blocked by her broomstick, Vera still takes the knockback so she slides along the asphalt.
[What? how is that possible, I don't think that should happen even if I wich for it].
I'm still frozen in place, I begin looking around to see for a reason, Vera is blocking most of Magda's punches but she is struggling, it eventually clicks, something like this could only have a few explanations, and the one with more probabilities of being true is...
[Please let it be that].
I raise my arm in the air, I begin imagining a wall made out of rock and then pour aether into that 'concept' in my head, The ground in front of me raises making a thin rock wall.
"I can't believe it!!".
In the middle of a battle against a stronger opponent, my instinct to preserve my life had manifested my magic.
"Eart Manipulation!!!".