Once more, the landscape of Shikoku had transformed into the wondrous, almost alien like even, technicolor landscape of the Jukai. Negi had seen quite a lot of locations in his short life, but none of them look remotely like the endless sea of roots before him now. However, admiring the scenery could wait. The coming encounter with the Vertex was one everyone had been warned of, saying that it would be 'unusual'. Being the child only had one brief engagement with the monsters, he had no idea what to expect out of a 'typical' attack, but everything that greeted his senses, from the enemies in front and the reactions of the girls beside him, instantly keyed him into realizing that warning was likely quite correct.
Advancing across the bridge was what looked like a small battalion of the creatures, all in many different shapes. However, save one of them, the approaching hoard was nowhere near the scale of the ones Negi had previously seen. Where's the trio from before had been the size of buildings, easily around 30 meters in height, these beasts were each roughly the length of a large city bus and of quite different compositions.
The first type of creature possessed a long, thin body, being the tallest of the lesser Vertex. The upper half of it expanded into a series of interconnected discs that gradually grew in size till it stopped at a parting with a long forked 'tongue' and two parted halves that made its face resemble a mouth. Draped around the 'neck' was a wide plate of what seemed to be armor that jutted out a meter from its body. The back half of its being tapered off into a much more narrow blue colored tail, with a white cylinder around the tip. It most resembled a snake
The second monsters had a far more impact design. Its main body was shaped similar to a blue colored bow with a handle placed out at each side at the center point of its body. More than a dozen pale arrows rose outward from the center of its body, floating around it and seemingly not attached toward anything particular.
The third type possessed a body nearly as narrow and long as the first, what looked like a series of 7 thin torsos, each with a pain of wire like 'arms', stacked upon each other and supported by a single pair of larger legs at the bottom, with feet resembling hands more than anything else. At the peak of the monster, the body led up to a tiny triangular head with several long wires coming from it. This one looked like some kind of centipede
The fourth and final Vertex, with many copies within the advancing offense, was much simpler. A single red ball, divided down the middle with one half red and the other white, flowed downward to two appendages that weaved together with a similar coloration. However, it's method of attack was quite clear, with a large red horn extending from the top half of the orb comprising its body, surrounded by several rings of varying size at its base.
Among the hoard of near identical Vertex, two individuals stood out. The first one was enormous next to its smaller companions, being of a stature similar to the three initially encountered. It was pale pink with highlights of a darker shade across various points of its being. The center of the body resembled a triangle shape whose side's were circular than ridged lines, coming to a downward point at the front of the body, which rose up and toward it's back, making it resemble a pyramid with the rear side missing. Around the face of the creature was a large and transparent flowing scarf, gently weaving back and forth as if a gentle breeze blew over it. Below its pyramid-like body, a thick appendage trailed downward and tapered off into a far narrower endpoint. The second one was perhaps the most unusual of the crowd. Even next to the smallest Vertex in sight, it was tiny, human sized even. Likewise, its body type resembled a person's, though with a much thinner torso and with a pillory secured tightly around its featureless upper body. Oddly, a chain was wrapped tightly around its neck and flailed wildly with the breakneck running speed of the monster.
"There's so many of them..." Sumi commented with tense, pursed lips, speaking lowly and shakily.
"Hey, easy there Sumi." Gin softly said, reassuringly putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "They're a lot smaller than what we usually deal with, so I bet they're not so tough." She added with small grin.
"I think you're right about that." Negi confirmed, flashing Sumi a confident smile. They still had quite some time before the Vertex would reach them, and the child intended to take full advantage of it. "That large one in the middle." He pointed toward the massive pink one that seemed like the 'leader' of the pack. "I didn't have the best chance to closely observe the ones you fought before, but its presence feels comparable to them. On the other end, the smaller Vertex, all feel worlds weaker. The quick one still feels strong for its size, but still far from the other."
Oddly, it reminded Negi of the demons summoned forth by The Lifemaker's power, the same ones used in practice with the Heroes earlier. They came in many different shapes and sizes, with the larger ones worth entire hoards of the smaller variety. Even more red flags were being raised, as if the story about a virus didn't have enough holes next to his prior experience with the supernatural.
"That's good." Sonoko said with a subdued sigh of relief, some of the tension visibly leaving her body. "Still~, it's gonna be really different fighting them like this~." The Hero tapped the screen of her phone, transforming in a brief flash of light. "Hmm..." The girl hummed, tapping her chin with her finger while likely thinking of a battle plan.
"Don't worry, I-"
"Wait." Fate spoke, cutting Negi off. "Negi-kun and I will remain back here."
"Huh?" Both Negi and Sumi said in perfect sync.
{I have a good reason for this, Negi-kun.} Fate responded telepathically toward Negi, before the mage could question it.
{And what could that possibly be?} Negi shot back incredulously, squinting his eyes at Fate skeptically.
Sumi opened her mouth to protest, but Fate continued his interjection, speaking with a diction like Negi when teaching, though more reserved and closer to his normal behavior. "A few reasons. Firstly, the sheer number of enemies here. Their goal is to destroy the Shinju, correct? It wouldn't be unrealistic to think some of their numbers might try to slip past while the rest keep everyone else occupied. Especially the one running across the Jukai right now. It's moving far quicker than the others and could make a difficult target once the remainder of the enemies start attacking."
{For the reasons I am presently outlining to Washio-san, but also because it will provide us a good opportunity to more closely inspect the Vertex. Perhaps we'll be able to learn more about our enemy and more of what the Taisha may be attempting to hide.} Fate answered Negi calmly, speaking 'normally' while simultaneously conversing with the other mage.
{I am aware of that, Fate. I can deal with the Vertex and accomplish that at the same time, but without needing to risk anyone's safety.} Negi retorted, unconvinced and crossing his arms with a skeptical expression.
"It's unlikely to happen, but not impossible for one of us to get distracted during battle and overlook a single enemy between so many." Fate further elaborated, but Negi knew the chances of that happening were practically zero and it was an excuse for the real motive. They'd been in far larger scale battles, and Fate himself had even found someone the instant they teleported away, even after spreading more than a dozen identical clones across a whole capital city.
{There won't be any danger, Negi-kun. Those smaller Vertex shouldn't pose any significant danger toward them and the Heroes are quite capable themselves. We will be here the whole time in the event something occurs. I can teleport, while you are quick enough to go from one end of Shikoku and back over 5 times in a second when using Magia Erebea. It will also be a good opportunity to see how effective their training has been since the last attack. We won't be here forever and if these attacks become normal, they should be prepared.} Fate dismissively answered.
Negi's mouth curved into a doubtful, pensive look, eyes tinged with concern. {While I understand that and you're not entirely wrong, this is the first major battle outside of training since we arrived, along with the circumstances being outside the norm. The smaller Vertex feel vastly weaker, but we don't know what they're capable of. They could be a problem when working with the stronger one, and you saw how injured everyone was before. I think more practice might be better while we can help it.}
{Nothing we can't handle will happen. Besides, while I understand your concerns, consider what happened with your own class. After being scattered across Mundus Magicus, they all grew greatly through what they faced. If you had the chance, I'm certain you would have shielded them from some of the more severe ordeal for their safety, and they would have never had such a chance. People need to stand on their own sometimes, Negi-kun.} Fate responded with an unflinching look.
Damn, Fate did have him there and make a strong point. Even still, Negi couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling about throwing the girls into an uncontrolled environment of combat so soon after one of them nearly died last time.
"… You guys talking with magic again or something?" Gin flatly questioned.
"Huh? Oh, sorry about that." Negi apologized, turning toward Gin with a guilty smile. He hadn't meant to leave them out of the conversation like that for so long. "There is a possibility of what Fate said happening, but I'm still not comfortable with leaving you three to fight them while we stay back here."
"Hey, come on! We can handle ourselves. Besides, the Vertex aren't the only ones with new stuff. We can use magic too now." Gin responded with a confident grin. "There's only one of the big guys around anyway, we should be fine. We've dealt with the Vertex a few times before you two showed up.
"But, this seems completely different from before and we haven't practiced for fights like these..." Sumi voiced skeptically, face falling into a frown and expression concerned.
"We won't be here forever." Fate added, moving one hand to his side to draw attention. "Training is important, but a live battle with your life on the line is quite different from a spar. While we're here, we can ensure you remain safe and see how your training is coming along. If this proves too much for you, we can easily handle it and provide more intense training."
"You both have a good point." Sonoko spoke up thoughtfully, though much of her customary casual tone still present. "There's a lot of new Vertex we don't know about, but it'd be bad if any of them got past us and it's our duty to be able to protect the Shinju-sama~." Continuing, her eyes and voice both took on a touch of weight to them, looking at the two mages with a steady glance. "If we handle things up front, you're sure you can handle anything that goes wrong?"
"Easily." Fate answered without an ounce of hesitation. "Minowa-san saw how rapidly Negi-kun and I can step in if needed."
"Well..." Negi's answer, however, was more reluctant and concerned, face frowning. Yes, he was beyond absurdly fast when he needed to be and Fate had incredibly potent healing magic, but if one of them took something quickly fatal, he didn't want to chance it. "We should be able to, but I'm still worried."
"Come on, have some faith in us!" Gin commented lightly, putting a reassuring hand on Negi's shoulder. "Fate-san was right. You jumped into the fight and got me out before I had a chance to blink. Even if something does somehow go wrong, we'll be fine. You worry as much as Sumi does."
Sumi straightened up at the comparison, looking at Gin with a dumbfounded expression, mouth open in some combination of shock and horror as red tainted her cheeks. "I-I'm nothing like him!" Yep, even if he and Sumi were starting to get along somewhat better, she still didn't seem to like the western thing.
"Yeah, I kinda see it too~." Sonoko teased, her demeanor briefly going back toward her usual smiles and playfulness, before lowering just a touch. "But, we should take care of the Vertex soon~. That fast one is getting pretty close. I'll trust Spring-san and Fei-kun." True to Sonoko's observation, the smallest and quickest of the Vertex had gained a fair bit of ground already.
"Come on, let's get going!" Gin eagerly said, tapping her phone. A glowing light briefly enveloped Gin's body, shifting her outfit from her casual clothes, into that of her Hero uniform. A red colored overcoat covering an inner skintight bodysuit grey in coloration, with similarly red highlights. In both her hands, resided an axe.
Sonoko and Sumi soon followed suit, the former's clothes shifting into a dark purple outfit that vaguely resembled her school uniform, also covering a bodysuit, but with a much more complex look, white highlights and patches around her stomach and sides.
Sumi's outfit was the most drastic change, switching to a light purple colored design that resembled a shrine maiden's robes, long sleeves draping around her wrists and coat going around her body and nearly to the ankles.
Negi let out a resigned sigh. It seemed he was being outvoted on the issue. Hopefully, he was just worrying too much. Wouldn't be the first time he'd overthought a problem. "Alright, good luck you three. We'll make sure none of them get past us." Raising his hand, a large orb of crackling lightning appeared above his palm, rapidly shrinking in size till he crushed the sphere and the spell's energy flowed into his body, enveloping his being in a pale pink, nearly white, hue as it shifted into the first of his two lightning forms. He wanted every bit of speed he could get if intervention became necessary.
Taking point, Gin jumped off first, Sumi and Sonoko trailing slightly behind her, sailing into the air and making a series of powerful jumps till they neared the running Vertex. Reaching the humanoid, she swung one of her axes at it with devastating force.
And missed by a mile.
The Vertex similarly possessed an incredible incredibly reaction time with its speed, vaulting over Gin's horizontal swipe, past her head, and hit the ground running without a single break in flow or momentum.
Sonoko tried her luck next, swiping at the creature with her weapon's default state, only to strike air just as Gin had. However, she pressed the attack, switching her weapon into its longer spear form and stabbing at the mid air Vertex with its increased reach. But, even with her clever followup, Sonoko only clipped one side of the pillory and its hands, the enemy still a master at dodging even in the air and twisting its body out of the way of a fatal hit just in time.
Sumi took aim at the creature briefly, before lowering her bow in frustration, it was hard to tell as Negi could only see her back and some body language from his position. She had to of been worried about damaging the Jukai. This Vertex ran directly along the roots or nearby them, and with the explosive power of her arrows alongside its incredible agility, she could've struck a root and damaged the real world.
For the moment, Negi took his focus off the girls. The battle with the rest of the hoard would begin shortly, but this one had easily made it past the trio and was now approaching them at high speed. It was time to do their part and take care of this one. Yet, as it got closer, Negi felt something peculiar about the creature's signature.
As it approached Fate and his position, he noticed the harmful intent coming from it starting to vanish. What's more, the creature seemed to be slowing down as it neared the two mages. Negi tensely dropped into a relaxed combat stance as his enemy drew closer, preparing for battle if needed. Something was definitely unusual here, something was just wrong, and he didn't like it.
To both Fate and his surprise, the Vertex's movement slowed to a complete stop mere feet in front of them. The beast seemed to be inspecting them. The featureless head of the creature slowly moving around, seemingly scanning the mage's features.
In turn, the mages observed as much of the Vertex as they could. The creature certainly felt weaker than the trio they first encountered and the apparent leader of this assault, but still leaps and bounds ahead of the foes between this and the largest in scale. He wasn't exactly sure what to compare this to, but despite the somewhat humanoid appearance, it certainly felt as far from humanity as one could get.
"Do you think it can communicate…?" Negi cautiously mused aloud to Fate, a pensive look on his features, the ever building tension over this mysterious behavior rendering it impossible to relax. There were more Vertex coming, groups of them moving past the Heroes as expected, but this action was so bizarre based on what he knew thus far. The story about the Vertex being related to a virus from beyond the wall was looking increasingly doubtful.
"It doesn't appear to be capable of it, but that doesn't surprise me. This thing..." Fate responded, briefly pausing while giving the creature in front of them a further once over and stepping into a more serious stance. "… Feels like a construct."
Negi's head immediately whipped to the side to look at face, eyes widening in surprise. "A construct? Are you certain?" The boy's voice was trepidatious, concerned. If this was truthfully a construct, it meant someone had created it. The child had wondered about their enemies and this was a possibility he considered, but to have potential confirmation? While Negi didn't sense anything immediately obvious, Fate was likely vastly more experienced in the art of summoning and creating high level beings. But, now that his companion had pointed out, the child felt what he meant. Even if not the same as he was used to, he could feel some recognizable traces, but it was more along the lines of Fate's nature, that what he felt from a typical construct. More red flags were being raised as Negi's sinking feeling grew.
Before either of them could decide what to do next, the Vertex seemed to decide it had done enough observation and started moving again.
And ignored the mage's entirely.
Negi's stance tensed up, the implications and questions raised from this exchange sending his mind reeling. If Fate was correct, someone or something had created these beings and was attempting to destroy the Shinju with them. Further reinforcing that, was that they seemed to possess some measure of intelligence, enough to use a measure of tactics, distracting the Heroes while others slipped past, along with investigating the new factor that was he and Fate. It didn't seem like they were just acting on instinct. But then… Why ignore them, when it still attacked the Heroes automatically? That was perhaps the most concerning factor to Negi, raising the most questions but no potential answers. He couldn't help his mind flashing to some of the behavior displayed by The Lifemaker's constructs.
Still, he didn't have the time to think on this forever. The humanoid Vertex was moving quite quickly and they had a battle to deal with. "Fate, I'll deal with that one, get ready for the rest." Negi firmly stated, turning toward the now behind them Vertex and preparing to attack.
Lightning briefly exploded in the air around Negi as his body transformed into the element, racing through the air at blinding speed and landing in front of his enemy before they could take a single step more. Pulling his fist back, the child struck with tremendous force, igniting the air into an explosion on impact with the Vertex's body and sending a low rumble across the immediate area. The creature had incredible agility, but Negi was near unmatched in speed while transformed. But, even with his incredible reflexes, the Vertex managed to muster some kind of reaction, a short hop, before it was blasted out of existence.
Instantly, Negi felt a shift in the air around him. The approaching hoard of Vertex, which initially seemed passive toward he and Fate, suddenly radiated a sense of hostility. He could feel much of the approaching hoard shift their focus and rush toward the mages, ready for battle.
"Fate, be careful using anything too powerful!" Spinning around, Negi flew into the air at the advancing hoard with a warning toward his fellow mage, pulling his hand back for another strike at a group advancing at him.
One of the snake like Vertex swung around and whipped its tail toward Negi, striking nothing but air as the child deftly avoided the blow and rushed into its guard, hitting it with another quick and light blow that turned the air around it into a fireball. He could have easily vaporized the entire group if he wanted, but Negi had other plans. If he used too much force, there was the ever present risk of damaging the Jukai and thus real world by proxy, the extent of which damage carried over still being an unknown to him. But secondly, he still wanted to observe the Vertex, perhaps get a glimpse into what this unknown enemy was capable of. The humanoid one had been incredibly quick and a risk to leave alive, but these were far slower and had much less of a chance to reach the Shinju before he or Fate noticed.
Following up its companion's death, one of the horned Vertex dove at Negi, stinger poised to skewer the mage, but like its fallen ally, the attack missed by a mile. But, Negi's enemies pressed the attack, a small glow formed in front of one of the spiked Vertex's center of mass, before firing a crackling blast of energy
This time, Negi refused to dodge, raising a hand and forming a barrier that stopped the blast dead in its tracks. This attack was positioned in a way that, had Negi dodged, it would've struck one of the Jukai's vines, and it couldn't help make the child wonder. Had his foes planned this or was it just happenstance?
No, the mage received an answer that it was far more, when several of the group descended on his now stationary position like voracious piranhas, sending a multitude of blows his way. The tail like whips, stingers, and more energy blasts all converged toward him at once.
Negi raised his other hand, calling forth a volley of spears made from lightning that surrounded him like a sphere, before surging forth with tremendous speed, plowing through the bodies of the Vertex and their attacks like they were air, not even the arrow shaped one's lasers offered much resistance as it riddled them with holes.
Lightning sparking through the air once more, Negi dashed back to gain some distance from further enemies, a frown on his face while his inner thoughts raced like a storm processing all the information that had happened.
Beyond all the current holes in the Taisha's story, Negi could now confirm the Vertex possessed some capacity for intelligence and tactics. A group of them acted as a diversion so they could reach their true goal easier, they had the capacity to judge that he and Fate didn't initially meet whatever requirements meant attack on sight, before trying to lock him in place by throwing an attack he couldn't risk dodging, and then capitalizing on the chance en mass in a coordinated strike. These were no animals acting on instinct. These were intelligent monsters capable of adapting to the situation on the fly. Negi felt an increasing sense of unease over wondering just what further tricks these foes possessed up their sleeves.
Seeing that they were outmatched, a hoard of the Vertex broke off from the fight and flew toward each other, where a most unusual event occurred. The many shapes and sizes all seemed to breakdown and melt together, losing their distinguishing features and blending into a large pulsing white mass that swelled with each Vertex that entered it, inside which Negi felt a rapidly rising energy.
"Negi-kun." Fate said, disengaging and landing next to the child, several large obsidian swords the size of his body circling around him and pointed toward the shifting mass ahead of them, arm raised in a relaxed manner and poised to give his weapons the command to rip into it. "I assume you plan on letting whatever is occurring now to finish?"
Negi starred tensely at the scene, hands at his side and ready to counter any unexpected attack. The smaller Vertex, that weren't joining with the ball, had backed off for the moment to surround the white ball in a defensive formation. On the one hand, perhaps this was dangerous to risk. The enemy was still a large unknown. However, at the same time, perhaps this would give them more information on the enemy, and Negi wanted to see about confirming something. The ball seemed to be taking shape into something now, and he wanted to see if it might've related to the different types of Vertex encountered. Besides, while the rise in strength was meteoric next to the other Vertex, it was still a far cry from he or Fate, but that increase in power itself was also a worrying factor.
"Yes, I want to test something. Stay at the ready to raise a barrier if something happens." Negi finally answered with a firm nod, throwing a quick side glance toward Fate and keeping the enemy in his vision.
Finally, the squirming mass started to coalesce into a shape, one Negi knew right away. The segmented yellow orbs of the tail leading to a pointed stinger, the metal faceplate resting atop a spherical platform that also connected to the tail, the new form taken by the Vertex was unmistakable. They had transformed into an exact replica of Scorpio, the same Vertex that had been destroyed upon the duo's arrival.
"What?" Negi commented with surprise, stepping back a pace. If everything before didn't confirm something bigger was at play, this certainly did. A sea of questions swarmed through Negi's mind without answer. Who created these? Why did they want to destroy the Shinju? How powerful a foe could this person be? All questions he knew would require pursuing later, they had current matters to deal with. But, there were two particular curiosities raised in the child's mind related to the now. The Scorpio here… It felt far weaker than the Vertex he felt upon arriving. Yes, the surge of power it had next to the smaller ones that formed it moments ago, was like comparing a firecracker to a cruise missile, but it still felt… Incomplete next to the 'leader' of this attack force. It wasn't impossible he just didn't get a good 'feel' of the first group, it had all happened quite quickly, but even still it seemed doubtful as the same type of Vertex was among them. Though, at the thought of these creatures able to evolve even further, when they already had leaped orders of magnitude in moments, was a terrifying one indeed. And then there was the question of why did it take this form in particular?
"I knew it." Fate stated with a sour scowl. Snapping his arm to full extension, the blades around him shifted themselves into a formation to slice from several points and blasted forth at incredible velocity toward the Scorpio.
The Vertex's tail reacted almost instantly, swiping through the air with blistering speed that far surpassed any of its allies short of the humanoid one from earlier. Several of the swords were shattered to pieces by the appendage, but one cleanly cut the tail at one of the segments, sending the deadly stinger flailing off to the side and paving the way for the remaining few to cut deep into the Scorpio's body in multiple locations, impacting with enough force to send the injured behemoth crashing to the floor.
Speed… Was that it? The large Vertex seemed to possess a slow main body, but in addition to power, Scorpio's tail was a significant step up in terms of speed. He and Fate were both far too quick for the lesser forms to have a prayer of keeping up with, so did that mean the Vertex could actively adapt to threats by changing their form? Simple tactics were one matter, but this was something else entirely. Far more unsettling. If he let the remaining Vertex combine a second time, perhaps he could see about forcing them to adapt again and confirm his theory or not. Something like this needed confirmation, and who knew when the next attack would come.
"Fate, leave the smaller ones alone for the moment. I need to test something."
"I understand." Fate responded with a dour face, recalling his remaining swords back to his person.
Lightning crackling through the air once more, Negi crossed the distance between him and the regenerating Scorpio in an instant, grabbing and heaving it into the air with one firm punch, before pressing the attack and releasing several hundred arrows of light that all converged into several points of Scorpio's body. The simultaneous impacts sent a shockwave rippling through the air that tore apart what remained of Scorpio's body out of existence, felling the monster.
In nearly the same instant the arrows stuck Scorpio, Negi was back by Fate's side. "And what's your plan now, Negi-kun?" His companion asked with a brief side glance.
"I want to see if they'll form another of the larger Vertex now, see if perhaps they'll try something else to adapt." Negi responded, watching the remaining ones carefully. There seemed to still be enough left to try changing into something else again. The ones attacking the girls didn't seem to try any similar tricks, thankfully. Perhaps it was because, unlike he and Fate, the girls were quite unlikely to let them with the time it took for form.
The remaining Vertex observed the mages for several moments, seemingly trying to judge the next course of action. But, when it became clear neither was going to make a move against them, all the remaining ones slowly started pooling together, just as Negi had hoped for. This time, they took yet another shape, one that was entirely unknown. It possessed a mostly flat, wide pale purple head, connected to a darker colored crescent shaped mid section the size of its head, and a large tentacle jutting out from the forehead. Below the crescent, rested a much narrower torso with two equally thin arms, before opening up to a much wider and translucent cylinder lower body. The only thing it had in common with the higher forms of the Vertex, was the similar scale of 30 meters in height.
"This one is different..." Fate dryly commented, readying his swords for a second assault. "But, it still feels comparable to the one we destroyed moments ago. Let us see if your theory is correct." Without another word, the weapons sprung forth toward their target.
Unlike the first time, however, the new Vertex made absolutely no attempt to avoid the attacks, standing perfectly still as the swords sliced through its body and cut it into several pieces, like it wanted to be eviscerated by the attack. What was it planning now?
A second later, it became terrifying clear.
The severed pieces of the Vertex, instead of collapsing to the ground like before, instead briefly spasmed before each generating an exact duplicate of the original body, but it wasn't simply that. While they felt slightly weaker, all of the Vertex felt identical to each other. Negi and Fate had dealt with duplication techniques many times, but there was always the 'original' body that would take all the copies with it if defeated, such a thing being incredibly difficult to mask from magical senses as developed as the mages. In a moment, the Vertex had managed to shift an attack to their advantage and turned one body into eight identical copies.
"It's just as I feared." Negi muttered in a low voice, body tensing up. This confirmed it without a shadow of a doubt. The Vertex weren't simply adapting tactics based on what they faced, they were becoming something more with each enemy they fought, they were evolving. The initial enemies faced by the mages were incredibly weak, while Negi himself had used his unparalleled speed to outmaneuver them at almost every turn, and Fate himself was also incredibly quick. In response to this, the Vertex had tried to form Scorpio, in hopes of using its dexterous and swift tail to respond to this speed, in addition to increasing their power exponentially. However, that had failed with the Scorpio still hopelessly outclassed by the duo. Unable to keep pace in either power or speed and the force of the mages attacks able to more than make up for the difference in scale, it took a form that could remain safe despite the powerful blows, and instead rely on sheer numbers, which could potentially grow even further by using the mages attacks against them, to win.
However, the chill shooting up Negi's spine didn't stop there. There was still a significant gap in power compared to the Vertex in front of him, and the large one battling the Heroes or he had first sensed upon arriving. Combined with one of them being the same type, this meant the Vertex could logically evolve even further. But, the question was, how far could they go? Negi and Fate were leaps and bounds ahead of their current enemies, but for how long would it stay that way if their foes possessed an ability like this? Perhaps it would reach a limit eventually, but what if that limit, even if below them, was above what the Heroes were capable of? They were strong themselves and also seemed to learn quite quickly, but nothing next to this. Even if they somehow developed the ability to freely travel here, he and Fate could not remain here forever. Perhaps instantly obliterating them before they had a chance to realize what was going on and adapt would work, but they had caught the Vertex entirely by surprise that time. If they used their superior abilities and the Vertex did manage to evolve further from it, past what the Heroes could content with before they had a chance to get stronger themselves… What remained of this world would be doomed. They couldn't take that chance
"Fate..." Negi began, hand clenching into a fist while watching several of the Vertex clones charge forward, ready to counter.
"I know." Fate replied before Negi could finish, recalling his swords and causing them to vanish with one motion of his hand. "We should restrain ourselves and not give them the chance to exploit this ability further."
"Destroy what you can, but try to herd them together if possible and prepare a binding circle. I have a plan to eliminate them all at once, without giving them the chance to adapt or use something too powerful." Negi commanded before dashing off, remaining in his lightning form in the event an emergency happened, but not taking advantage of the heightened speed this time.
The enemies had split into two groups of four to deal with he and Fate. Approaching the Vertex after him at an angle, in order to keep the roots of the Jukai out of the way from any dodged attacks, Negi weaved between several surges of orange lightning the Vertex fired at him from the tentacles on their heads, arriving at the front of the pack and striking the leader with a solid blow to the head, knocking it back and into one of its companions, sending them tumbling to the floor.
Another charged forward toward Negi, intent on slamming the mage against its faceplate. Though the mage could have attempted to dodge, he didn't, letting the rush strike him dead center and send the mage tumbling through the air. Even restraining his magic, Negi still had his immortality to instantly remove any injuries and pain suffered during battle. Perhaps he could exploit this adaptive ability to his advantage somewhat. If he put on a bit of a struggle, perhaps the Vertex would think something like this nearly worked and not grow significantly stronger. Still, he couldn't drag this fight out for long.
Realigning himself in the air, Negi pulled back his fist and began channeling Sagitta Magica around it. The mage shot above another blast of lightning and thrust his hand forward, scattering the many arrows of lightning over the air and impacting the 3rd Vertex all over its body, not enough to break it apart and trigger further duplication, but enough to send it crashing to the floor for the moment.
The 4th Vertex fired another bolt of lightning toward Negi, striking a barrier conjured by the mage, but it refused to let go of the offensive. Continuously firing sparks of electricity at Negi, it used the move as cover to provide a safe method to close the distance to melee range, where the tentacle firing lightning briefly surged with an incredible amount before it whipped the appendage at Negi.
Straightening his hand in a manner to make a chopping motion, Negi's finger surged with his own power as he met the challenge head on. Swinging from the opposite direction of his enemy, a wall of lightning erupted from Negi's finger as he swiped horizontally, crashing into the enemy's limb with a spark and blasting top half of it out of existence entirely, leaving no chance for a stray piece to become another copy.
Undeterred, the Vertex continued forward and rammed toward Negi like one of its companions did. This time, the mage extended his other arm to catch the charging beast, before bringing up his other one to further reinforce his strength. But, even still the beast pushed him back a short distance before he stopped the momentum completely. With a powerful shove, Negi threw the beast backwards and closer to some of its recovering allies.
4 of the 8 Vertex had been thrown onto a pile, Fate having managed to maneuver two of his on top of the duo Negi had initially engaged with. The earth mage was currently dodging several blasts of lightning from his remaining two, masterfully moving through the air and avoiding the blows easily, despite the erratic nature of them.
Moving his hand once, the mage summoned dozens of obsidian swords once more. In a flash, each blade sliced through one of the Vertex an innumerable amount of times, cutting into so many tiny pieces, not a single one remained that was bigger than a person. Just to ensure even that wouldn't be enough to regenerate, were it capable of it, two massive pillars of earth exploded from the ground, snaking through the air and surrounding the remaining pieces, before ramming together at incredible speed, sandwiching the remains between them and crushing them to dust.
Movement near Negi's senses brought the child's attention back to his own foes. The one he'd struck with Sagitta Magica had recovered by now and sent another rod of lightning at him that struck Negi dead center, to slight effect as he staggered himself backwards from the 'damage' of the attack.
Fate only had one left and he still had two, so he had to wrap this up quick before the ones currently in a pile could recover. Charging Sagitta Magica once again, Negi dashed under the Vertex, unleashing another storm of nearly 1000 arrows this time onto the beast. Individually they were quite weak, but when used in this number and spread over the Vertex's whole body, they should have been just strong enough to blow the beast into too small pieces to regenerate and not carry any adaptation worries his upper level abilities would.
As he predicted, the beast was entirely destroyed and he couldn't sense its energy anymore. Which just left the last one, he could sense Fate had already thrown his last one onto the others and was preparing a binding circle. Dashing to its side, Negi grabbed one end of the large crescent on its body, swinging the Vertex around once for momentum, and sending it hurtling through the air and directly onto the large pileup.
"Negi-kun, now!" Fate shouted, a massive circle appearing underneath the moving Vertex pile, erecting a strong barrier all around them to prevent escape.
Dashing up to the barrier, Negi raised a hand and began weaving a spell. Channeling Magia Erebea to merge two spells, Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens for power, and Jaculatio Fulgoris, to concentrate the power into a focused pointed, a colossal spear of lightning appear above Negi. Almost the size of one of the large Vertex on its own, the spear had many lines on it, each crackling with lightning, in a spiral pattern that converged onto the tip of it, almost giving it a drill like appearance. Around each side of the hand guard, two pairs of pure white wings rested. With a thrust forward of his palm, the spear raced forward like a rocket at blistering speeds, impaling two of the now airborne Vertex through the thickest part of their body.
Clenching his open palm into a fist, the stored Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens exploded from the spear, but in a manner unique from the base spell. The magic formed into a deadly vortex of lightning, sending stray strands of shocking electricity flying in all directions and directly into the Vertex, blowing parts of them to pieces, but this was far from the only power held within. To ensure their absolute destruction, the vortex of lightning swelled in size, enveloping and vaporizing the closest Vertex instantly. Those furthest away were sparred instant death, but were far from safe as the tornado like winds of the raging tempest pulled the colossal beings through the air like rag dolls, and directly into the deadly maelstrom at the center of the spell, ripping their bodies apart till not even a speck remained.
Landing slowly on the ground, Negi let out a relieved sigh and let his shoulders slump just a hair more than customary. That was the same spell he'd used in the demonstration a while back, but he purposefully held back the power of it to a level he was confident would be just enough to destroy the Vertex here. But, still, he felt more tired from this fight than he should have been. Was the lack of rest, on top of this sporadic high level magic usage, starting to catch up with him? It had been a few weeks, after all.
"Negi-kun." Fate said with an uncharacteristic touch of concern in his voice, landing next to the mage. "Are you alright?"
"Oh, it's nothing. I'm fine. Everything that's happened… It's a lot to think about." Negi answered dismissively, standing up straight. The amount of revelations just from this one battle were going to be a significant cause for concern and discussion. However, it was best to do that later. The Taisha could still get the recordings of this battle, which itself meant their next talk was going to be quite a long one, and the present concern was ensuring the Heroes were alright. They seemed to be about wrapped up in their battle as well, which was good. Forestization would occur soon and they could check anyone for injuries and tend to them if needed.
But, as soon as everyone's safety was ensured. He and Fate had much to discuss…
SPELL TRANSLATIONS:
Sagitta Magica: Magic Archer
Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens: Thunderous Gale
Jaculatio Fulgoris: Throwing Thunder
AUTHORS NOTES:
Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay. Don't worry, I won't be skipping over the WaSuYu side of this battle. The battle just ended up feeling like far too long for a single chapter, so I thought it'd be better to split them instead of put out a 14k+ word chapter. Their side of this will be coming next chapter, hopefully soon. I also wanted to get something out before I started up college again and got busy with that.