Harita swung his deep black katana in a wide arc, his blade seemingly blending into the darkness that prevailed over the bewitching magic of the enchanted forest, abosrbing just the subtlest amount of power from it.
The Witch smiled gleefully, almost in ecstasy, as he watched his feeble attempt at an attack come for her at frightening speed—to Lieren's eyes, that is.
"Have you truly not learned your lesson?"
There was disappointment in her voice, laced with the vile poison that overpowered most of her out-front emotions. She sighed.
"Foolish, foolish child. It seems you require some more… physical lessons to keep you behaved."
Witch disappeared once again, silver motes dancing in the air like metallic fireflies.
Lieren's eyes narrowed.
'This again… how does she keep doing it? Especially at such short intervals.'
He was dead set on unraveling this thread as fast as he could.
Harita twisted in place, growing still, holding his action. He waited, hot perspiration flowing down his face.
…His eyes shot wide-open at the drop of a needle. Glaring, he looked behind him, where silver motes had begun gathering into the shape of a dilapidated tree.
"There…!"
He brought his curved sword down at the manifesting figure, holding his sword's hilt with both hands to exert as much power possible.
"What…?!"
A surprised yelp escaped from Witch's throat. Her astonished echoed deep into the recesses of everybody's mind present.
With a lightning-fast swing, he brought the sword down onto Witch's arm, aiming for her shoulder, the part that connected the two. If he's going to take a shot, he might as well make sure that it deals the most amount of damage possible.
Sadly, reality was too cruel to grant him such an opportunity… for now.
Harita's blade tore through Witch's shoulder, sinking deep into it. Flesh tore from the force exuded and ripped bark-like skin, but didn't quite reached where he wanted it to.
Witch glared at Harita with what he recognzed as the kost beautiful pair of silver eyes he has ever seen, topped by none and worthy of nobody. A sickly fire was alit deep within her pupils.
"You…! How dare you?!"
Harita just grinned. Getting her attention was easier than you would think; you just have to stab her. He felt more powerful and optimistic about the future now that he realized the odds of the situation. Nevertheless, they were really low. He spoke in a teasing voice:
"You really shouldn't underestimate people too much, miss. It never ends up in your favor."
Witch got even angrier, veins popping on her milky-white skin.
"Y-you…"
As she bubbled up in rage, silver spheres of shining light appeared midair, just above the two of them. Witch took a deep breath, then smiled triumphantly, keeping her magnanimous image as much she could.
She smiled triumphantly.
"…Is that so? My apologies. Kairos hasn't been particularly nice to me as of late."
A cold shiver ran down Harita's spine. He flared his Reinforcement and leaped to the side, condensing his power and releasing it with one powerful burst of mana.
The witched cackled as Harita pitch black katana slipped from he arm roughly, as id enjoying the pain itself in some kind of ridiculous belief. Condensed rays of concentrated blinding light shot out of the orbs, drawing curved arcs in space, leaving Harita with no space to run away to.
"Dammit!," he cursed. The situation couldn't be worse.
He flared his mana, pumping more of it into his channels, enhancing his Reinforcement spell. Harita dodged them all easily, evading the incoming spells with liquid flexibility; that is, another orb appeared behind him. He was barely able to react before the orb exploded, very similar to Lieren's spell: Invisible Abjuration does, except much more powerful and precise.
"…?!"
Harita grunted, every part of his body complaining at him to be more careful. He couldn't make any promises. Fresh blood trickled down his leg: part of it had been gouged out by the explosion. If he hasn't focused his Reinforcement spell to protect his vitals, he would've already been dead several times over. Even through Augmentation, he could still feel the cracking of his bones a she took the full brunt of the spell head-on.
He cursed inwardly.
'Dammit! Why did I think she could only teleport? Of course she could use ranged attacks!"
Harita gnashed his teeth, trying to bear through the pain of his shattered bones. He couldn't look pathetic in front of the kid, he looked up to him. That's why he decided to stay standing, grinding his teeth to stay lucid for as long as possible.
Compared to the kid's horrifying regeneration ability, his was more tame and simple. He can't heal from big wounds, but he can deal with ones such as this.
Cold sweat suddenly ran down Harita's back.
"No way…"
More silver spheres appeared, a dozen more than earlier. They hung in the air, provoking him.
Witch grinned wildly. For the first time, her horrid appearance left a mark o her illusory façade.
"Yeah, I can't believe it eithe—"
Before she could finish, the shadows writhed and struck her. She disappeared just in time to dodge it, reappearing where she had been just a few seconds earlier. An invisible arrow exploded just inches away from her face. She stared at the disrupted space with disinterest.
"..."
Lieren watched this all unfold. Imaginary gears spun in his mind furiously like a well-oiled golem.
"She's… teleporting? Or is it warping? It must some kind of conjuration, or something. Materialization is definitely a must: she can't just disappear and reappear like that without involving some kind of kind of complex conjuration ability. From what I've seen, there seems to be more it, something she hasn't showed us. There seems to be two phases to her ability: a movement and an evasive one, though I can't fully rule out the possibility of a third. I'll just say that there is one and watch what happens… for now, at least."
It pained Lieren to watch Harita suffer, but he just had to suck it up and watch with all he could, analyst as much as he could. A direct confrontation with that… thing couldn't be a worse situation.
'And yet he's out there. Who's the monster now, huh?' The shadow of a smile rose from appeared on his face.
Red helped calm him down, care for him, and ease his cluttered mind: the last thing to be had at this vey moment.
He had been observing the way mana shifted in Witch's vicinity this whole time, taking mental notes of each behavior, its effects, and the rules by which she followed in order to create such as an overpowered ability.
Thankfully, because of his Resistance, he never fell prey to Witch's enthrallment, allowing him to watch her and not become her slave upon just a single sight of her… visage. He only saw it for a brief second, but he could tell that Witch's alleged appearmace was extremely beautiful during the split-second that he caught a shy gleam of her milky-white skin.
'Now, however…,' a figure made him stop talking.
Red shielded Lieren with her body. Powerful emotions she didn't quite understand yet willed her to do so, overwriting everything else… even her own goal. Escape.
Harita clenched his teeth and dashed again. His bleeding wound burnt: much more than normal.
Witch noticed this and raised a brow. To Lieren, it looked much worse.
"…Oh? You still want to fight? That's pretty impressive… in way. Though it's exceedingly stupid, as well."
She pointed at Harita's new bleeding wound. There was something… wrong with it. Now that he thought about it, the pain that it brought him was much more than a normal spell with the same power would do to him. It wasn't that it was particularly strong, but more of lasting. Even now, he could feel the spreading throughout his body.
Harita swallowed deeply.
'I have a bad feeling about this.'
Witch continued, ignorant and impassive to Harita's throes.
"I'm just going to tell you now; you've been poisoned."
"…?!"
'Annnnnd there it is.'
Contrary to his carefree thoughts, his outward appearance was much more dire. Cold sweat ran down Harita's back.
Now that Witch pointed it out, he really could feel the poison—more specifically the malicious intent behind it—flowing throughout his body, gnawing everything it comes across. From cells to membranes, to bones and nerves; nothing was safe in its maw.
It was pure agony.
Witch continued without giving a care to the panicking Harita. Silver motes of mana swirled around Witch's index finger, the one pointed at him.
"My mana you see, is quite unique: it's different from a normal Adorned's. It has the properties of rot, one of the worst debilitating effects there is through magic."
Witch grinned madly. There was a glint of insanity in her eyes.
"It'll eat you from the inside out, steadily gnawing at your soul piece by piece; until there's nothing left. Then, it'll devour your soul, leaving you with nothing. Not even the edict of life itself."
Lieren, hearing this, couldn't help but feel the heavens and earth collide with him at the center. His Aegis' life was in danger.
…Things weren't looking good for them.