Tenshin played mind with Alicia. He let the girl guess Tenshin's next move. The slight bluffing movement of the sorcerer boy had made Alicia a little flustered.
"You said we'd settle this diplomatically, right? Please don't do this," Alicia crooned.
"We've passed that phase," Tenshin replied. "Again, I despise myself for doing this, Miss Alicia, but the doomsday clock is ticking."
Without a single moment wasted, Tenshin dashed towards the girl. The panicked Alicia threw plasma bullets at the young monk. Tenshin belittled her attack, as he simply dodged and bounced the shot with his magic circles just like that. The more her heart raced, Alicia increased her fire rate until it finally 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘰𝘧𝘧. Alas, not the one that she expected.
A single forceful Arcane stroke ripped the young sorcerer's right arm apart from his body! Tenshin fell silent for an instant, staring at his stumped hand. Likewise, Alicia slowly opened her jaw wider. They both shrieked hysterically.
"MY HAND! MY HAND!" Tenshin screamed.
"Y-YOUR HAND!" screamed Alicia as well!
"MY HANDS! W-WHERE? WHERE IS MY HAND?"
"H-HOW DID I KNOW! I 𝘋𝘐𝘋𝘕𝘈𝘌 MEAN TO SEVERE YER HAND!"
"B-BUT I DO NOT FIND MY HANDS!"
"SEE, IT'S ALL YER FAULT! YOU 𝘚𝘏𝘖𝘜𝘓𝘋𝘕𝘈𝘌 GIVEN ME SUCH A SUDDEN ATTACK! NOW YOU LOSE A HAND!"
Tenshin paced around, looking for his hand while wailing in frantic. Too many cracked reflections in the mirror world made it difficult for him to find the shape of the missing body piece. It was only then that he could see that his right hand was lying some distance away. He ran towards the amputated landing site, leaving the bookworm witch clueless.
Tenshin shouted again from a distance, in a joyful tone this time.
"I find it!" Tenshin raised his amputated right hand high while waving. He then ran a little while flaunting the piece of the hand in the metal coating.
"It is okay. Do not panic, everyone. My hand is back… uh… oh, w-woe! D-d-do not l-look!" The young wizard swiftly turned around. He put his hand back in awkwardness. "No, no, no…. Y-you should not h-have seen this."
Some time ago, these two people should have been fighting each other's magic. Then this interruption made it even more tactless. Frowning, Alicia looked at the timid-mannered Tenshin who turned around.
"Wait a minute. Yer right hand has been fake all this time?"
"Huh? Ha ha ha ha n-no, really! It's just a form of magic…." Not long after, conscience rebuked him so that Tenshin sighed. "Alright. Th-this is indeed a prosthetic hand. Yes, Miss, please look down on a cripple like me."
How lost Alicia became at the lad's statement. She shook his head. Her forehead crease ceased to be loosened. "Why, on Ellie's wrath…, would I do that?"
"S-so… you accept me the way I—no, you don't mind my prosthetic hand?"
"Divine Mercy, you're 𝘢 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘯, aren't ye? How many times have I told you I 𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘢𝘦 care!" Alicia replied, irritated.
"Oh, yes. That is r-right."
"That's enough! I'm sick of 𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘦! This time, I won't bat an eye if yer right hand is 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 severed!"
"F-fine…. By the way, Alicia, C-CATCH THIS!"
One did not know what was in Tenshin's mind, he let detached his newly attached right hand and threw it at Alicia. The flabbergasted girl moved back as fast as she could, away from the part of the hand that could have been a trap. But Alicia was too fixated on the floating prosthetic hand that she did not see what Tenshin was attempting. It was only when she looked ahead, the annoying sorcerer had vanished among the reflections of a thousand mirrors.
How nimble, that sorcerer! There was no sign of an acutely shy magician around. He better not leave her alone in the mirror dimension to torment her soul, so that she became submissive and ready to be transported to wherever the monks abide. But Alicia also wondered how a clumsy and socially inept sorcerer like Tenshin could do such a heinous deed—though she must admit, it was actually a sound stratagem. Alicia saw behind the glass realm, the two friends and the wizards were still busy fighting the two Merlin's sorcerers.
Alicia suddenly felt a breeze behind her. She knew a blowing wind in an enclosed wind was beyond possible, let alone she was in another dimension! Immediately the orb witch realised Tenshin was behind her! But the response was too late. Just before turning around, Tenshin had already restrained the orb mage's movement with both hands.
No error found in that saying—both hands: Normal left hand wrapped in organic leather and fingerless gloves. While the right one was the result of a real hand projection, complete with five fingers that move freely, unlike the rigid hand mold with a vacuous hole that was thrown just now. This new synthetic hand was created from his magical energy. Apart from being reddish-orange and full of sparks, there were assorted symbols and patterns that make up the almost transparent tissue of his hands.
His two hands shadowed the sides of Alicia's head but did not touch her scalp. The sorcerer's two middle fingers seemed to release a small force right at the girl's two temporal bones. The magic slowly spread to the nerves of the head, immobilising Alicia in an instant.
"It is okay, i-it is okay," Tenshin in a trembling voice tried to calm Alicia in her paralysed state. The girl's pair of myopic eyes glared, her nose breathing shallowly, full of pace.
"Shhhh shhh shhh shhh… c-calm down. Calm down. I-I will hurt you, A-Alicia. Therefore, do not fight…. do not fight…. Sleep well, O Child of Miracle…."
A white noise obscured Alicia's hearing. Tenshin's voice of suggestion gradually muffled. Her eyes twitched and blinked excessively. Alicia wanted to fight her drowsiness, it could be seen from her tense body and her hands wanting to crush something. Too bad each finger could not be fused with the other. She tried to draw power from the Orb that floated right under his palm, but concentrating while being forced to sleep was excruciating! The girl could feel the Arcane's flow starting to enter the nerves of her hand, but every time she almost succumbed to the shimmer of an empty dream, her divine power was blocked or even drained out. It had been a while, and Alicia still kept rebelling against the influence of Tenshin's hypnosis, which made the man almost impatient. And when Tenshin was ruled by emotions, that was where his focus began to founder.
"A-A… licia! D-Do not… fight!"
Alicia felt her control slowly but surely returning.
"N… n… n… n…"
Still, the girl was trying hard to wag her frozen tongue.
"Alicia…! SLEEP!"
Yelling was useless. He was pushing himself so hard that the focus of his magic was scattered. The Arcane's power shot straight into Alicia's nerve centre. Alicia Crimsonmane immediately yelped.
"NO!"
She regained complete control over herself again. Then Alicia turned around and threw the Orb at the young sorcerer's head. The Sorcerer managed to dodge. Alicia pulled her blue ball and hit one of Tenshin's shins from the front! Poor Tenshin, he screamed in pain, making Alicia also slightly flabbergasted. How not, Orb really hit the target, right on his sensitive shin. The man capered with his sore leg lifted forward. The uncontrollable misbehaviour disrupted Tenshin's balance. His support leg slipped, and the pious young man surrendered to fall on Alicia!
Alicia had lost consciousness for a while. The difficulty of grasping the air brought her to her senses, only to realise that the young sorcerer was on top of her! Not to mention she can feel the warmth of Tenshin's breath because his head was right next to the girl! How her face was filled with blush. But if that alone made her blush like a steamed crab, there was one more thing that really embarrassed her beyond measure!
Tenshin, still dizzy as he was, tried to get up before his face was fixated on the expression on the girl's gaping face, full of shame. The adorable red blushes also radiated on Tenshin's visage!
Regarding one other thing that embarrassed Alicia: she felt a peculiar grip on her breasts, one of which even gave a warm and tingling sensation that made the girl almost squirm! Alicia held her vocal cords in order not to let the cosy sigh escape her lips! She also ventured to peek at her ripe chest, and her guess was right. Tenshin's hands rested on her 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘱𝘴! Yes, again, both hands. Tenshin forgot that he did not have a right hand; he still allowed the hologram of his sparkling hand to hold tight to Alicia's breasts. Tenshin was not aware at all, at least when Alicia glanced at her touched chest, he looked down too.
Both of them screeched each other's ears in unison!
"M-M-M-MY HAND! M-MY O-OTHER HAND!" Tenshin looked back at Alicia's reddened face. Still in shock, the girl's brows furrowed slowly, and her two rows of teeth began to meet.
"S-s-sorry! S-sorry! I-I… I… did not mean—"
"YE LEWD BASTARD!"
A brilliant blue light trounced Tenshin's face. He thudded with his back hit the ground! Tenshin winced in pain. He felt his fiery face after being hit by the shot from Orb. The face was safe! Still smooth and still handsome, apparently. But that did not mean there was not a heavy toll to pay. The hard impact just now made his broken nose bleed. His glasses were broken and unusable.
He looked at Alicia, who was stricken with tantrums, about to torture him. Behind the lenses of the sorcerer's glasses, he saw dozens of ruthless Alicia Crimsonmane! With his battered condition, let alone not being able to see, there was no way the man would still insist on catching the wild red horse, whose hands were gushing the strongest magic power in the universe.
Tenshin took out a white flag, "Miss Alicia… e-enough! I g-give up!"
"𝘎𝘪𝘦 𝘶𝘱? 𝘕𝘢𝘸. 𝘕𝘢𝘸. Yer the one asking for 𝘢 𝘴𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘦-𝘨𝘰, 𝘢𝘺𝘦? '𝘔𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯, 𝘺𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵! I'll kill ye!"
"Kill me–WHAT?"
Alicia did not reply back. It was the rain of magic bullets that did the reply. Even though there were only the two of them in the world, she would never accept her body being touched by just anyone! The volleys increased the bruises on the poor young sorcerer's body. He could only curl up, protecting his face with his hands crossed.
"Akh! Ouch! It hurts! It hurts! Alicia, I'm sorry, please stop! Ouch, ALICIA!"
The girl's hearing nerve was still severed. Snagged by a barrage of pain, Tenshin performed a series of hand dances, and a stream of orange magic came along. He pushed his hand towards the girl, sending a strong wind force, enough to make the careless Alicia thrown away.
A glass shattered in the middle of the empty horizon, spewing the magic lady, Alicia, back into reality while rolling around. Tenshin also came out in a state of falling down. He did not seem to move an inch, letting the shards of dimensional glass stroke on him before disappearing. The shattered glass incident alerted the entire audience in the room.
"Tenshin!" exclaimed Ko Zarni and Ganika at the same time. Ko Zarni threw his extended Slangeskroll to dispel Nadine, Gilmore and the wizards, then rushed towards his comrade in arms. Ganika did the same with her magical fan bouncing off half the magician's unit, then went across them with her magical platform.
Nadine and Gilmore also shouted, "Alicia!" when their best friend finally reappeared from the middle of nowhere.
"Alicia, awright, hen?" Gilmore offered his palm to rest her head on.
Alicia tried to move while holding back her pain. "Calm down, Alicia. We're here," Nadine reassured her, and the girl immediately hugged them both.
"Little brother, are you okay?" Ko Zarni with the same attitude helped his little brother lean on him. "Damn, look at you, black and blue!"
"What happened to you?" Ganika greeted him, "Don't tell me that lady massacred you all because you touched her private parts, you clumsy."
"Ganika, I don't think this is the time to joke around like that…."
"N-no… G-Ganika is right. I did not mean to, though," said Tenshin quietly.
"You—what?" Ko's tone rose slightly, then again said to Tenshin in a whisper. "Little brother, you only have one task in the midst of the golden opportunity I gave you…."
"I-I told you I did not mean to!"
"All right, enough, enough. Help him up, Ko."
"Slowly, I think the Arcane ball crushed my leg…."
"You didn't break your leg, idiot."
After finishing chatting with each of the little friends on both sides, they shared a glance while pointing weapons. Ko Zarni had his back to the other two. The triplets were still embracing while an elite wizard unit gathered before them with a dozen small sticks pinned to the sorcerer trio. Ko Zarni and Ganika were indeed formidable adversaries. Even though the wizards managed to donate some bruises and cuts to them, they never showed any signs of trepidation.
"You are outnumbered, sorcerers! Surrender at once!" one of the wizards gave a warning.
"Tsk! You won this time!" Koh replied, "But if you still won't listen to us, you are responsible for billions of lives lost on earth!"
Suddenly, the sound of a tremendous explosion rattled the entire building and pierced their eardrums. The entire building changed its shape to its original shape.
"What was that 𝘫𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘰??" Gilmore exclaimed, "𝘋𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘢𝘦 tell me 𝘺𝘰𝘯 Lailoken is about to make Skycastle fall!"
Still weak, she was, but Alicia managed to rebuke him. "Gilmore, don't assume things! And he's not Lailoken!"
"Assuming what! 𝘔𝘢 𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘥'𝘴 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘯' and I feel like I'm being pulled by the ground! Of course, we fell 𝘧𝘢𝘦 a height!"
"We don't fall from a height, okay? You just got dizzy from the explosion, like everyone else!" Nadine explained.
Merlin's followers were also uneasy about the explosion. They nodded to each other, then Tenshin, embraced by Ganika, formed a portal crack—back into the skirmish between the wizards and sorcerers. The three stepped in and the portal shattered right away. []