When Sonoko's vision finally returned to normal, the first thing she noticed was the scenery of their normal training area had been replaced by that of the remote countryside, similar to where the two mages had held a mock battle to demonstrate magic. The second, and significantly more shocking sight, was that immense 'vines' of stone and earth were woven across the landscape, stretching for several hundred meters in all directions, perhaps even a kilometer, and connecting various parts of the countryside together. The area looked somewhat like it'd been transformed into a muted color and significantly scaled down version of the Jukai.
"Hey… It kinda looks like the Jukai. Do we really get to fight here?" Gin asked with a curious and eager voice, scanning the area.
"Correct." Negi answered with a pleased smile. "Since you'll be mainly fighting within one kind of area, we thought it'd be best to make the arena as much like the Jukai as possible, so Fate made this. They'll also be handling what you'll be fighting." Stepping aside, Negi opened the floor to Fate.
"The point of this training will be to give you more experience dealing with massive scale enemies, in a controlled environment. It will also be a chance for Negi-kun and I to observe how you battle and what style of magic you may be best suited for." Fate, pacing up to where Negi had stood a moment ago, began in an authoritative voice, the large black key floating behind him. "I don't know all of the details of what your training has been before, but even though this is merely practice, you should treat it as if it were a real battle. Don't hold anything back, as that's an easy way to get injured here."
Sonoko saw Sumi raise her hand for a question.
"Your opponents will be physically incapable of dealing lethal damage to you, and I can force them to halt at a moment's notice. The three of you will be completely safe." As if he could read Sumi's mind, Fate continued. Though it did lower her hand, Fate's dull delivery didn't appear to lower her concerns, as Sonoko could see her friend remained a hint conflicted.
"However," Masuzu's voice sharpy interjected from beside the Heroes. "If I feel the situation is becoming too dangerous, the session will be ended early."
"Yes…. There is also that." Fate, after a small pause, continued in an unflinching tone. "Besides Aki-san's authority to end the battle, you can choose to stop if the fight is too challenging for you. Simply leave the arena on your own or state you wish to quit, one of us will see you. Think carefully before choosing this. The Vertex wouldn't be so kind in a real battle." Fate finished with an edge to his words.
"Assuring everyone's safety is top priority for us and the Taisha." Negi quickly interjected for additional reassurance.
Finally, Sonoko could see the tension starting to leave Sumi's features. She wasn't going to lie to herself, she fully understood Sumi's concerns here. Even despite the assurances and knowing they could heal wounds, sparring with live and dangerous weapons would take some getting used to. But, knowing her teacher could call off the combat and the Taisha made certain it'd be safe, helped reassure her. All the more reason for them to take this chance while it was in front of them.
"Go ahead and jump onto the 'roots', and Fate will summon up what you'll be fighting. We'll be watching carefully from here and give you a moment to look around." Negi instructed.
After taking a moment to transform again, Sonoko took to the air alongside her friends, crossing the distance in a single jump and deftly landing upon the earthly roots. The Heroes' enhanced strength let them easily cover even hundreds of meters in one leap.
Now up close to the replica Jukai, Sonoko took a chance to scan the area in further detail. Looking around for any terrain which might've been usable to their advantage. The girls knew that of the real Jukai quite well, but while the recreation looked incredibly accurate from a distance and still held up fairly well under closer scrutiny, it wasn't perfect. A root slightly thicker here, the gaps between some a touch longer there. Still, it didn't look like it was enough to require any major tactics outside their usual at least. If their opponents would be the same, that remained to be seen.
"They really did a good job with this. Doesn't look as pretty or colorful, though~." Sonoko commented with a pleased smile, looking around the soon to be battlefield. One thing this replica failed to recreate, was the otherworldly and mystical feeling the multicolored roots and landscape of the real thing invoked, no matter how many times she saw it.
"Yeah, magic's sure something. Wonder what we're gonna fight." Gin spoke up curiously, resting one of her axes on her shoulder.
As if answering her question, a colossal rune circle appeared in the air across from the girls, darkly colored, dozens of meters across, and inscribed with an intricate Mandala-like pattern. From within the circle, two massive sets of limbs emerged. Both shared clawed fingers and skin as deep as the darkest night, but that's where the similarities ended.
The first pair were long and thick, vaguely similar in shape to a bulky human's arm, but with a size far exceeding a city bus'. The demonic looking claws making up each hand effortlessly dug into the earthly terrain beneath it, serving as further aid for the monster they were attached to pull itself into the world.
The second set of limbs, likely belonging to a separate entity from the space between them, had what looked like wings attached to the claw-like fingers, resembling that of a traditional wyvern.
Soon after the limbs, came massive demonic looking heads, their pure white and soulless looking eyes the only different colored part of the emerging monstrosities. Both possessed horns jutting out from parts of their faces. Shortly after, came the lower bodies of the demonic beasts, followed comparatively thin tails.
The first of the creatures resembled a humanoid like dragon. Standing hunched over, it possessed a broad and thick torso, with 2 large wings jutting out from its back that were each bigger than its entire upper body, and giving it a far more imposing stature. Moving down from the torso, the monster stood upright on two lean, only when compared to its trunk like upper body, legs. Sticking out from its rear, a thin tail longer than both legs, swayed menacingly in the air.
The second of the duo, was far more beast-like in appearance. Standing on all fours, the rest of its body followed the pattern of its wings, looking much like a wyvern. A long and thick neck led into its body, with the hands and arms connected to its wings and resting on the ground in front of its face. Further contrasting the other, its tail was of a significantly more stout and powerful build. While the wyvern's head only came up to a little below the other dragon's chest, it looked overall the bulkier of the duo.
The emergence of these monsters was certainly a shock, but Sonoko suppressed her surprise, immediately scanning the Heroes soon to be enemies and considering potential battle plans. The last time something slipped her notice, Gin nearly died for it.
"… We're gonna get to fight dragons?!" Gin loudly yelled, her voice a mixture of awe, eagerness, and curiosity. Briefly glancing toward her friend, Sumi could see the axe user had a wide grin plastered on their face.
"Correct. Now, begin."
Reacting immediately to Fate's words, the taller of the two monsters charged forward with a speed wholly unsuited to its scale, a flap of its wings accelerating it through the air even further, pulling its fist back for a strike. Readying to support its partner, the wyvern took to the skies.
Reacting quickly, Sonoko shifted the tip of her staff into its shield form to intercept the blow, both Gin and Sumi wordlessly falling in behind her for protection.
The monster's fist slammed into Sonoko's defenses, but they refused to give an inch, a fact Sonoko noted. The monster's overall speed certainly surpassed the Vertex, who generally possessed a slow main body with quicker appendages for attack or defense, such as Scoprio, but the weight behind its punch, while powerful, lacked the same impact.
"Wasshi! Hit the wings!" Sonoko instructed. If it was weak but quick relative to the Vertex, then the first priority would be to limit its mobility, especially if it possessed the same flight as the wyvern.
Materializing an arrow in her bow, a flower like gauge appeared around the tip and the petals slowly began filling while Sumi prepared to counter, but before she could, a large shadow overcame the area surrounding them.
Glancing up, Sonoko saw the second beast rapidly descending downward with its claws ready to crush her team.
"Move!" Sonoko shouted before jumping to another root, just in time to avoid getting trampled.
Barely even a moment after Sonoko landed, a glowing ball swirled around the wyvern's mouth, the air temperature around it dropping rapidly until even the coldest storms would've struggled to match it and turning into visible vapor, before shifting into ice that flowed into the expanding sphere.
"I got it!" Gin called out, stepping to the front of the ground, fire igniting around her twin axes to counter the coming attack.
A massive wave of ice, half the size of the monster itself, erupted forth from the wyvern's mouth at incredible speed, causing the ground within its path to instantly freeze over, without even a trace of direct contact with the advancing wall of ice.
"Haaaaaah!" Gin shouted with a mighty swing of her axe, slicing the blizzard to pieces with each attack, the roaring flames surrounding her weapons halting the ice's freezing power dead in its tracks and melting stray pieces thrown aside by her strikes.
The humanoid monster dashed to the side of the group, rushing forward with the right hand in its claws curled back to slash at the Heroes.
The flower gauge fully charged, Sumi took aim at the charging monster and released her arrow. The projectile sailed through the air and straight into a magical barrier crafted by the monster, but it managed to stop the momentum of the beast dead. However, the initial impact was far from the only power within Sumi's arrow. Briefly glowing blue, the arrow exploded into a large fireball, surrounding the creatures face with smoke and scattering part of the monster's barrier like broken glass.
Trusting Gin and Sumi could deal with the wyvern for a minute if attacked, Sonoko again changed her weapon's form, the front switching to a large, pointed spear over twice the size of her own body. Pressing the opening made by Sumi, Sonoko jumped forward with all the force she could muster, piercing through the remainder of the barrier and slamming into the monster's wings, now acting as a further physical defense. With her momentum slowed somewhat by the barriers remains, Sonoko failed to charge entirely through the beast as she'd hoped, but the sheer power in her blow still dug half of her spear's tip into the wings, pushing her opponent to the ground in an earthshaking fall.
Wanting to maintain offensive pressure and damage the wings before it could recover, Sonoko quickly adjusted her grip to pull downward and tear into the wings, but the demon suddenly flung them open, knocking Sonoko into the air.
Realigning herself in midair, Sonoko recovered just in time to see a vortex of wind spring forth from the monster's mouth and surge directly toward her with the ferocity of a tornado.
Acting quick, Sonoko moved her spear in front of her and tried to shift it into a shield to block the attack, but her weapon didn't even begin to change form before the raging winds slammed into her like a truck at full speed, sending her screaming skyward and turning the world into a blur while she tumbled through the winds. She thought she heard one of her friends scream her name, but couldn't make out who between the intensity of the storm around her.
But, almost as suddenly as it'd struck her, the winds faded and Sonoko found herself a moment to catch her bearings, but what she saw brought no comfort to her. She'd been thrown immensely high, somewhere close to 200 meters at least, but her enhanced eyes could see Sumi was preventing the wyvern from flying toward her with a volley of arrows, weak and unable to inflict significant harm, but enough to force the creature to back off and defend itself. Gin meanwhile, was racing across the Jukai to a position underneath Sonoko. But where was the other monster?
Quickly spinning to look where she'd been launched from, the demon barely entered Sonoko's sight for a moment, before it rocketed past and directly above her, pulling its hand back for a powerful punch.
Seeing the impending attack, Sonoko prepared herself for the impact, but not without a plan. With nothing to brace herself against and the monster's speed, she wouldn't have been able to switch to her shield and the impact would've still sent her crashing to a painful landing. She couldn't avoid the latter if the creature was tough enough, but if she placed the spear in the monster's path, she could still use its own momentum against it for damage.
At the last moment, Sonoko raised her spear into the path of its fist, causing her weapon's tip to plunge right into her foe's punch and halt it, but the immense force within the strike still carried enough power to split the air with a shockwave on impact, launching Sonoko, weapon and all, at tremendous speeds straight back toward the fake Jukai.
Crashing painfully into the earthly roots, Sonoko groaned while trying to push herself back to her feet. She didn't have the same toughness Gin did and all the successive impacts left a few open wounds on her aching body, but she couldn't let something like this stop her! Gin went through far worse without complaint.
Giving one heave, Sonoko shakily pushed herself back onto her feet and glanced up in anticipation for another attack. Her enemy seemed to have been given brief pause from running its hand through her spear, it was hard to make out the extent of it at the distance and with the creature's skin being monocolor but, its right forearm looked somewhat mangled. Still, the damage wouldn't deter the monster forever, a storm already brewed and raged around its mouth while it dived straight at Sonoko.
"Sonoko!" Before she could craft a plan, Gin's worried voice sounded through the air, followed by her red clad form landing beside Sonoko, eyes trained upwards at the falling monster, but keeping Sonoko at the edge of her vision. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Is Wasshi okay?" Sonoko quickly fired back while steadying her stance, the same concern Gin had for her, echoed for Sumi's wellbeing. She was already formulating an idea to finish this beast, but ensuring the safety of her friend was top priority. Her weapon was ill-suited for single combat if the enemy could break into her guard and these monsters exploited openings at lightning speed.
"She's okay for now. Any ideas?" Gin asked, looking up at their enemy. The vortex of deadly wind seemed ready to explode any second.
In response, Sonoko shifted her spear into its shield form and raised it above her and Gin, ready to stop even the strongest attacks. "Mino-san, when I say go, rush out to the side and throw an axe once your away from the wind! And go help Wasshi right after!" The demon obviously planned to use the wind attack to pin them in place and cover its approach to melee range, and Sonoko knew perfectly how to exploit it with her own plan. If Gin's attack didn't kill the monster, then all she'd need is to knock its breath attack away for just a moment to make the perfect opening and kill the demon. She had complete faith Gin would be strong enough to move in and overcome the monstrous force of the tempest, but they needed to wait until the creature was close enough for the perfect shot.
"Got it!" Gin replied, tightly gripping her axes and getting into a stance to rocket away from the shield's cover at a moment's notice.
Not even a second after Gin finished her sentence, a thunderous noise exploded above them and Sonoko felt an incredible pressure slam into her shield and rattle her arms to the bone on impact. Every passing second, the force of the blast increased as the monster approached, threatening to forcibly wrench the staff from her hands. But she had to endure it to make an opening for Gin, just one, more, moment.
"Go!"
"On it!" With all the strength she could muster, Gin sprung out from under the shield and into the raging tornado. The pounding force of the wind slammed down onto Gin's body, trying to halt her movement, but the girl was ready. Forced toward the ground not long after her initial jump, Gin rolled onto a root in path, using her current momentum to gain extra distance and slip past the edge of the roaring tornado.
"Take this!" Spinning back to face the direction she'd come from, Gin threw one of her axes with a loud shout, sending it sailing through the air with incredible precision and power that sailed cleanly over the winds and on a direct path to its target.
A terrible roar of pain shook the area in tandem with the almost unbearable force assaulting Sonoko's shield fading into nothing. Moving her weapon aside, Sonoko could see the now extremely close monster, it had to be no more than 10 meters from her, with a large gash down the middle of its torso and Gin's axe firmly embedded deep into the cut. Her plan worked!
But, it wasn't over yet. That monster still lived and was already starting to retreat and prepare for defense. She wasn't going to let it. Leaping skyward, Sonoko once more changed her weapon's form back into its spear and positioned in in front of her.
"Haaaaaaah!" Shouting, Sonoko thrust her spear forward with all the power she could summon into her arms. Without any magical defenses and already injured, the demon was helpless to block the incredible power behind her attack. Effortlessly, Sonoko pierced through the monster's chest where Gin's axe rested, erupting out of its back and cleanly severely it in two.
Looking downward, Sonoko knew better to assume something like this would immediately be a finishing blow after dealing with vertex, her suspicions were confirmed. The demon had been severed in half and its lower body lifelessly fell back to the earth, slowly disintegrating to nothing, but what remained of its upper torso, stubbornly fought till the end. Even as it slowly started fading away like its lower body, the monster still prepared to unleash one more blast of wind.
Letting gravity take over, Sonoko raised her spear behind her head while she fell toward the monster. The winds around its final attack intensifying for one last, desperate move. This was going to be cutting it by the skin of her teeth, but one final attack would finish this monster once and for all, and she refused to let unleash a single attack more to delay helping her friends.
The storm approaching its peak, Sonoko reached her target. With a mighty swing, the girl brought her spear down at maximum force, splitting the decaying remains of the monster down the middle, from the top of its face, down to the last remnants of its torso, finally slaying the demon.
Unsteadily, Sonoko landed back on the ground, taking only the quickest of moments to catch her breath. She couldn't rest any longer. She had to go check on Sumi and deal with the last monster. She'd told Gin to help Sumi after attacking the now dead creature, but Sonoko experienced firsthand just how quickly these creatures could hurt her.
With Gin having run off to save Sonoko, Sumi was left to contend with the wyvern alone. A risky move, but Sumi had faith in her friends and being able to regroup once their leader got rescued. Besides, this was nothing compared to the struggle Gin had gone through. If she could push back 3 Vertex all on her own in an extended fight, Sumi knew she could distract a single foe for a bit.
Pulling back her bow string, several arrows materialized with her weapon before sailing forth at her airborne enemy, possessing nowhere near the punch of her charged single shots, but covering far more air. With its surprising speed, it was hard to line up a powerful shot on anything vital, despite the huge size of her target
Stopping its rush forward, the wyvern responded with a flap of its wings and gust of wind, throwing a few of the arrows off course and pushing the beast backwards for further safety. Even still, two of Sumi's shots squarely exploded into the monster's chest, but to no effect outside of annoyed shake of the wyvern's head and drawing its attention from helping its partner, straight toward Sumi.
With a thunderous roar, the beast beat its wings and surged straight for Sumi at tremendous speed.
Preparing another arrow, Sumi took aim at the creature, anxiously watching the petals surrounding her weapon fill one by one as the beast drew ever closer. "Hurry up..." Sumi worriedly muttered to herself in frustration.
Before the gauge could fill, the monster descended upon Sumi and viciously slashed at her with its right claw, but Sumi was ready.
Leaping to her left and outside the monster's guard, the petals on Sumi's weapon fully illuminated and she took aim right toward the beast's wing, the hand attached to it firmly embedded into the root she stood upon moments ago. This would cripple its wings for sure!
But the wyvern refused to be easy prey.
The moment Sumi released her arrow, the monster pivoted rapidly along the same arc it'd swung its claw, bringing its much thicker and more powerful tail around and straight toward Sumi, like a whip thicker than a bus
Before Sumi could even try to defend herself, the trunk-like tail slammed into her with horrific force, getting a pained scream from Sumi. But the sound was silenced barely a moment later when the tail continued its arc through the air, carrying Sumi against it, and brutally crushed her back into the ground.
The tail removing itself from her body, Sumi's dazed senses slowly started coming back to her. Her whole body throbbed with pain, but nothing overwhelming, until she tried to stand. The moment she put weight onto her left leg, a jolt shot up her body and nearly made her drop back to her knees.
Gritting her teeth through a hiss, Sumi pushed through the burning feeling in her leg and unsteadily stood back to her feet, supporting her weight on her right leg. Quickly looking back at the wyvern, Sumi saw the creature preparing for another charge, having retreated a slight distancet. The hole in the monster's chest must've been the cause.
Readying another arrow, doubts started creeping up on Sumi. This was supposed to be practice and her leg felt like someone had driven a knife through it repeatedly. Was training this dangerous really better and safe? She was already in a rough state after the tail slam; what if some accident happened and they couldn't be healed in time? Fate said the monsters couldn't deal lethal damage, but with the pulsing pain coming from her leg and threats like those sharp claws…
At the same time, Fate's words rung in her ears and she couldn't so easily toss them aside. The Vertex weren't going to give them the luxury of a break. Were this a real battle, there would be no mercy or chance to say she had enough. Her friends were enduring this same training too, and Gin had even been ready to fight to her last breath against the Vertex, when herself and Sonoko had been too injured to fight. And even those extreme injuries had been healed.
The wyvern created a storm of wind with a powerful flap of its wings, darting straight toward Sumi with a blue glow around its mouth.
At the thought of her friend, Sumi felt a new drive and energy empowering her limbs. Gin hadn't backed down when starring down 3 Vertex. Gin hadn't wavered, even with horrific injuries. If Gin could soldier on under those bleak conditions, she could endure this.
With renewed vigor, Sumi jumped to the right, charging her arrow all the while, narrowly avoiding the wyvern's freezing breath as it raced past where she'd been a moment ago.
Rolling, Sumi planted her right foot into the ground to steady herself, but with only one leg it wasn't enough and she tumbled into a painful landing on her back. But she couldn't let this pain slow her for even a second. Looking up, her foe had already reoriented themselves for another dive.
Moving once more, Sumi threw herself off the edge of the root just as the wyvern's clawed foot dug into her former resting place and wrapped its sharp toes from one end to the other.
Spinning as she dropped downward toward another root, Sumi pulled back her bow string with all the strength her limbs could muster and fired. She had no specific target on the monster, no time to aim, no weak-spots she looked for. But she knew one thing for certain. Against a target this big and this close…
She couldn't miss.
Her arrow struck true and embedded itself deeply into wyvern's right claw, glowing with an intensifying blue light that preluded the explosion to come. A perfect shot!
Just as a satisfied smile started to grace her face, it was soon replaced by a pained cry and another jolt of fire shooting through her leg as she roughly fell onto another root. But this time, Sumi couldn't force herself up so easily. She'd risen to her feet with some effort before, but every attempt to stand now sent an increasingly intense surge up her body that threatened to make her knees give out and drop her to the floor again.
"Sumi!" Gin's voice shouted, followed by her deftly landing beside Sumi, holding a single axe in one hand compared to her customary two, and wrapping the other around Sumi's back to help support her. "What's wrong?"
"M-my leg." Sumi muttered in response, just barely managing to stay upright with Gin's support
Before Gin could reply, a thunderous beat of wind drew both their attention.
Just a short distance away, stood the furious looking wyvern, missing part of its left hand and an immense ball of rapidly expanding ice above its mouth. The sheer scale of the impending attack already rivaled the wyvern's entire being in size, yet it continued to swell with a terrifying pace, looking more like a small mountain of frost, than any projectile.
"Dammit..." Gin muttered apprehensively, shifting her hold on Sumi to tightly around her waist. "Time to move, hang on!"
Dematerializing her weapon, Sumi firmly gripped onto Gin's body and braced herself.
Leaping with all the strength she could muster on such short notice, Gin shot over 100 meters to the side.
An instant later, Sumi felt a tremendous air pressure slam into her and Gin as the mountain of ice hit the ground, further tossing them through the air, and breaking the glacier into large chunks that scattered themselves across the landscape and sky.
"Incoming!" Sumi shouted as a large piece of ice rocketed straight on a collision course, her grip on Gin reflexively tightening. It'd hit them just when they landed at this rate!
"Crap, this is gonna be rough!" Gin hissed, realigning herself to face the flying projectile and preparing to counter Just before her feet hit the floor, Gin swung her weapon with a furious shout and cleaved cleanly through the attack.
Immediately digging her heels into the ground, Gin was sent skidding along the length of the root. The further force from the midair impact throwing off her landing plans and almost sending her tumbling onto her back, but the girl's strength refused to give and she mercifully came to a stop.
"Sumi, can you stan-"
Behind Gin, the wyvern crashed into the ground like a lightning bolt, its remaining hand pulled back and ready to strike.
"GIN!"
Turning her head around, Gin's eyes immediately shot wide. Gritting her teeth, Gin raised her axe in a defensive fashion, but she wasn't going to be quick enough. Adjusting her hold on Sumi in the same breath, Gin moved her body to shield Sumi if her axe couldn't stop it.
Tensing up, Sumi braced herself for another painful impact.
Instead of another strike, Sumi heard a familiar sound, followed by a loud thud that briefly shook her surroundings. Opening her eyes, Sumi saw their leader standing in front of them with one hand holding her shield, the hilt braced against her back to compensate for using one arm, and holding Gin's second axe in her other. Even still, her body visibly trembled from the hit.
"Wasshi, are you ok?" Sonoko questioned with concern, gritting her teeth through the wyvern's strike and with a tense look in her eyes.
"I'll be fine, i-it's just hard to stand." Sumi responded with a wince. She felt so useless right now. Against Vertex, she could usually stay at ranged and snipe safely, but facing a foe this agile, she'd only force her teammates to defend her like this! She may have had the only ranged weapon of the trio, but how could she use it effectively now, especially when the beast could use attacks that could require them to dodge instead of guard?
"Then, we'll retreat and regroup." Sonoko declared, ready to leap back. They needed some breathing room. Sumi couldn't fire her bow while being carried, and both Sonoko and Gin's hands were tied holding things.
Before anyone could move, a small blast of frost shot from the wyvern's mouth, a block of ice encasing the front of Sonoko's shield and rooting it into the ground beneath her. Following up, the beast pivoted in a manner Sumi immediately recognized and caused her to gasp at what was coming. "It's attacking with the tail!" Panicking, the girl shouted, mind briefly flashing back to when Scorpio had done a similar move. Sonoko wouldn't be able to shield them like this!
"Not this time!" Gin fiercely roared with a determined face. Raising the axe in her other hand, Gin swung downward at the oncoming tail with every ounce of strength she could summon, severing the appendage in two.
Howling, the wyvern immediately retracted the remains of its tail and took to the skies with a flap of its wings, retreating backwards.
"Good job, Mino-san~!" Sonoko cheered, before giving one strong tug on her shield and detaching it from the ice with a grunt.
"Thanks, Sonoko." Gin shot back with a small grin, before turning her attention back to Sumi. "Think you can stand, or should we get you somewhere safer?"
"I can still fight!" Sumi immediately and resolutely responded, working her way out of Gin's grip and standing under her own strength again, keeping weight off her injured leg. She refused to be a burden to her team over something this small, when Gin endured far worse.
"Alright, but don't stress too much, we can keep his attention off you." Gin replied while taking her second axe from Sonoko, an undercurrent of worry in her words. "Guess we just need to wrap this up, then." Immediately shifting back to her usual fiery demeanor, Gin confidently starred back at their foe.
The beast hovering a distance away in the air, Sumi saw the massive monster looked far from the imposing figure it struck before. Part of its upper torso had a hole blown open. Where a claw previous rested at the tip of a wing, there was now nothing. Lastly, the imposing tail that'd been long enough to wrap around its body to the front of its face, now only extended slightly past the legs. The wyvern stubbornly refused to die, but another solid hit looked like it'd be sufficient to slay the beast for good. But getting that hit in would be difficult for one reason.
The wyvern was charging up another massive mountain of ice.
"It's doing that again..." Gin grumbled, getting ready to pick up Sumi and move again.
"Wait!" Sonoko quickly interjected, smashing her weapon against the ground to shatter the ice clinging to it. "I have an idea."
Sumi and Gin both leaned in expectantly.
"Mino-san, do you think you could reach it if you kicked off my shield and I gave you a little push~?" Sonoko quickly asked, knowing they wouldn't have long before the attack came flying.
"Yeah, he doesn't look that far. Not sure if I can get through all that ice in time, though..."
"Not a problem~!" Sonoko, undeterred, confidently fired back. "Wasshi, shoot a volley of arrows at the big ball in a couple different spot. Ice is fragile, so they should explode a bit deeper inside, and break it up into smaller pieces. Mino-san should be able to get through easier then, especially with her fire. I'll stay here with you to keep any bits of ice away while shooting~."
"Understood, Sonocchi." Sumi gave an affirming nod, materializing several arrows in her bow and taking aim. The wyvern seemed to be playing more defensively now and pinning down an enemy that quick and with air superiority could've been difficult. This plan was definitely their best shot to kill it.
"Alright, let's do it!" Gin eagerly said, taking a position in front of Sonoko's shield.
In the time they'd discussed Sonoko's plan, the ball of ice had expanded to a terrifying size, easily dwarfing its summoner by five times over and ready to crush everything in its path.
With a powerful heave of its head, the wyvern hurled the mountain of frost with surprising speed, straight on a crash course with the three Heroes.
In response, Sumi let her arrows fly to intercept the oncoming attack.
"Mino-san, now!" Sonoko ordered, angling her shield to point toward the ice and wyvern.
"On it!" Gin responded, backflipping onto Sonoko's shield and readying herself to rocket forth.
The next phase of their plan all happened in the same instant, Sumi's arrows burrowed themselves into the sphere, Sonoko thrust forward to give Gin further momentum, and Gin kicked off the shield with all the strength in her legs, igniting the fire within her weapon while she flew.
All at once, several lights exploded within the holes Sumi's arrows made, spreading cracks across the humongous ball, before violently fragmenting the attack like a pane of shattered glass, showering the area with the remains of the sphere and deafening sound of the structure crumbling.
Broken into far smaller pieces, Gin effortlessly barreled through the remnants of the ice with her fiery weapons and out the back, emerging straight in front of the wyvern with a confident grin on her face.
"Got you now!" Spinning to gather further momentum as she fell, Gin swung both her weapons downward with amazing force.
The wyvern formed a quick barrier as a token defense, but the outcome was decided the second Gin attacked. Her first slash through the barrier without the slightest resistance, while her second carved deeply into the beast's neck. But, Gin wasn't done. The girl relentlessly sliced at her last enemy over and over again, dicing the wyvern into as many pieces as Sumi's arrow split the ice into as they fell back toward the earth.
But Sumi couldn't see the end of Gin's barrage, a massive chunk of ice barreled straight toward her and Sonoko's position, forcing her to limp behind Sonoko's shield for safety and brace herself.
Merely a moment later, the remnants of the ice ball collided with Sonoko's shield, briefly shaking the area and forcing a grunt from Sonoko while she resolutely gripped her spear, not letting the impact budge her more than an inch.
Seconds ticked by and the sound of crashing ice assaulted Sumi's ears, drowning out any other sounds. She nearly felt herself collapse from the impacts, only just managing to stay upright with Sonoko's staff to support herself against and biting her lip from the pain shooting up her injured leg.
"Is... Is it over?" Sumi cautious asked once the rumbling had stopped. Glancing around, the Hero saw scattered bits of ice in various sizes scattered around much of the arena.
"I think so, Wasshi." Sonoko replied, breathing a sigh of relief, letting her shoulders slump and leaning against her spear for extra support. "Let's go check on Mino-san. Need me to carry you~?" Sonoko's tone returned close to its normal casualness, yet it fell just short of her customary energy.
Briefly glancing toward her leg, Sumi nodded with some concern on her face. She knew Sonoko had taken some solid hits earlier in the fight, and considering how much her own injury throbbed, she wondered how much her leader was trying to hide. "Sonocchi, what about you, are you alright?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine~." Sonoko answered dismissively, standing up straighter and dematerializing her weapon to pick up Sumi. "Just a little tired~."
"Hey!"
Before Sumi could respond to Sonoko, Gin's voice cut through the air, soon accompanied a distant thud. Looking at the source, Sumi saw her friend sailing through the air toward them.
"Mino-san~!" Sonoko cheerfully greeted with a wave as Gin landed.
"How are you two doing?" Gin asked with some concern, wasting no time checking on her friends
"Fine~."
"It's nothing too troubling, aside form my leg." Sumi replied. She wondered how Gin was fairing, but the girls demeanor didn't worry her much. The axe using Hero looked like she'd barely suffered any injuries, and Sumi liked to think she'd gotten decent at telling when her friends were trying not to make each other worried.
"Yeah… That should get healed." Gin commented, glancing toward where everyone had initially teleported to, only to raise an eyebrow. "Wait, where'd they go?"
"Right here." Negi's voice answered.
Glancing to the, Sumi saw her teacher and the two mages standing on one of the roots a couple meters away. Masuzu and Negi looked a touch concerned, where's Fate wore his almost omnipresent neutral expression.
"First thing's first, let's take care of your injuries." Negi added, moving next to Sumi and crouching near her injured leg, while Fate moved over to Sonoko. A small green light surrounded both of their hands as the healing magic began working. "Pay attention to the feeling of the magic if you can, I'd like to take a moment to discuss healing magic after this."
Despite Negi's instructions, Sumi felt some resistance in herself toward the idea, thoughts drifting away from the tingling in her leg, from the feeling of the bone stitching itself back into place. She'd agreed to give Negi a chance to explain himself, especially after promises of seeing Kyoto with her own eyes, and the Taisha had approved of making this part of their training, but even despite that, Sumi couldn't fully bring herself onboard with the idea. As useful as the magic was, she never liked things of western origin much. Fighting these monsters was useful for training absolutely, but there had to be a line somewhere.
"There, all done." Negi commented with a smile as the glow faded, standing back on his feet. "How do you two feel?"
Putting weight back onto her injured leg, it felt almost good as new to the girl. There was a trace of lingering soreness, but otherwise it felt fine. She had to admit, even if she may not have liked Negi much or where these abilities came from, they were incredibly useful and twice now, they'd healed injuries which could've taken some time to recover from, including ones Gin could've died from. Would she really place personal pride over her friend's safety?
No, absolutely not.
"Much better. Thank you, Negi-san." Sumi replied with a relieved sigh.
Sonoko echoed a similar sentiment.
"Minowa-san, what about you?" Negi asked, turning his attention toward the other.
"Nothing to complain about here." Gin replied with a proud smirk.
Satisfied, Negi returned with a nod. "Good, then we're almost done here."
"I've seen the recordings of your battles, but it's different to see it in person. You three have come far with your teamwork.." Masuzu interjected with a soft smile.
The praise brought a smile to Sumi and her comrade's faces. This had been their first extended fight since the training camp some weeks back. Capricorn had been a quick engagement, while the battle against 3 Vertex at once had become a worst case scenario in short order. Hearing that comment from their teacher and this victory, even if it was practice… It was a reassuring feeling.
"I'll admit, you dealt with those monsters quicker than I expected. Even a higher class mage would've struggled against just one of them." Fate commented, his voice ever so slightly less abrasive than Sumi was used to.
Was even Fate complimenting them?
"If it was this easy, then perhaps I should create stronger creatures..."
Ah, she knew it couldn't last.
"Before we finish, I'd like to briefly touch on healing magic while it's topical." Negi quickly interjected, face a hint exasperated. Before he continued, the child fell back into his customary teaching voice and posture. "Healing magic, while quite useful, also needs to be treated with some caution when it comes to more severe injuries and outside experienced hands. It's possible one can put too much power into a healing spell when helping another. While healing the injury and better than leaving severe wounds untreated, it could cause some negative side effects from the excess mana, like if one became sick, nothing too severe in my experience."
Pausing a beat to allow everyone to process the information, Negi continued. "Think of it something like this. Your body regulates and produces certain chemicals without issue, but if it suddenly produced too much, it could cause problems."
Sumi listened attentively to the other's words. The information was certainly good to note. How risky was this magic then? She had seen Negi and Fate use it without issue plenty of times, but considering the unique situation of her group and what happened when Gin tried it while transformed, cautious was healthy.
"So… Like too much of a good thing then?" Gin asked slowly, the question marks practically visible above her head.
"Essentially." Negi answered with a nod. "I had it happen with myself once. Expending some energy will solve the issue. However, while this normally is a rare concern, considering the unique circumstances, I wouldn't advise trying to practice healing magic unsupervised much for now. It's best if you get a more solid grasp on how to control spells as a precaution. If the Taisha approve of some self-study. Any further questions?" Glancing around, Negi asked.
No one answered the mage.
"In that case, I suppose we're done for the day. Fate can send you directly home."
Taking that as a cue, the person sized black key materialized once more in front of Fate's hands, glowing briefly. "Relocate."
Hours later, Sumi rested in her room, preparing herself for bed. It'd been a long day and more intense than their usual training for the Hero, but she'd soldiered through it. She wondered what kind of routine further practice would follow when it came to this kind of practice. It seemed the Taisha were also being cautious and experimenting with how much room to give the mages, much of it felt up in the air.
But, before she could get into her bed, the girl heard her phone ringing. Curious, Sumi saw that it was Sonoko calling her. Somewhat odd, usually the girl simply texted through the messenger app the Taisha made for Heroes.
"Good evening, Sonocchi." Sumi warmly greeted.
"Heeeey, Wasshi~." Came Sonoko's sleepy voice from the phone.
"Is there something I can help you with?" Sumi asked curiously.
"What'd you think of today's training?"
The question got a raised eyebrow from Sumi. "It… was more intense than I expected. But, as long as they can ensure it remains safe..."
"Yeaaaah, it was pretty tough~. But, it's good practice. I hope they'll let us practice some magic, it looks fun~."
Sumi frowned lightly at that topic coming up once again. Even if she would learn it for the sake of her friends, it didn't mean she had to love using it. "It's useful..."
"Something wrong, Wasshi?" Sonoko questioned with concern.
"No, I'm fine." Sumi answered back with a sigh. "It's what the Taisha decided. And, if we could learn skills like that, especially healing magic, then maybe we won't have to worry about something like before happening again…."
A silence quickly fell over the conversation after Sumi finished.
"… That's good to hear, Wasshi." Sonoko finally said, her voice a hint more serious than Sumi was used to in casual discussion, but at the same time, she sounded at ease.
"Sonocchi?"
"That's it~. Just wanted to see what you thought about all this too and say goodnight~." Sonoko followed up, a soft yawn escaping her mouth afterward. "Goodnight, Wasshi..." From her voice, it already sounded like Sonoko was somehow drifting into sleep.
"Goodnight, Sonocchi." Sumi said with an amused smile before hanging up. While her leader's habit of falling asleep so suddenly could be a little annoying sometimes, it was also kind of funny how she could manage so easily almost anywhere.
Putting her phone down, a yawn worked its way out of Sumi's own mouth. Slipping into her own bed, Sumi closed her eyes. Everyone had a long road ahead.
Author's Notes:
Alright, it's been a while. My beta reader suffered a horrible computer crash that took a while to deal with, and I figured to let it go through them, since it's been a while anyway. However, that's not the only reason this has taken so long, because I have an announcement. For a while now recent events with the YuYuYu franchise have kinda drained some of my enthusiasm for it, and mustering up the motivation to continue writing for it has been a little hard, in particular, the last few weeks. I actually got quite a bit of the chapter done in the first month after 8 was posted, but after that everything coming out progressively didn't help and I lost my drive. Despite being close to done, I actually considered making this announcement anyway, but I felt it wouldn't be fair after waiting so long to do that, so I managed to get this out. That announcement?
I'm putting this fic on indefinite hiatus for now. I already had update problems, and now I can't even pretend to try and keep things going at the moment. I want to make it clear, I am not canceling or abandoning the fic. This is just a hiatus, my hope is to come back to this someday, whenever that may be. I just cannot summon up the will to try writing with my current feelings on the franchise. Sorry about this, hope it'll be sooner, rather than later.