Sumi gracefully landed upon one of the Jukai's many roots with a slight thud, materializing her bow and assuming a ready stance to bombard the Vertex with arrows and provide cover to her teammates. This battle was certainly unlike anything the Heroes had faced before, and considering how the last one had gone, Sumi couldn't fully dispel the apprehension that gripped her mind. But, she had to trust her friends. All three of them had new training and tools under their belt that would surely help, even if they were still beginners in respect to magic.
Seeing both Gin and Sonoko fail to connect with the humanoid Vertex, Sumi raised her bow and pulled her hand back to materialize an arrow, but halfway through the motion, she paused, uncertainty staying her hand. This enemy was the fastest foe encountered yet, a much smaller target than the usual 30 meter Vertex, and directly running across various roots. What if she missed and damaged the Jukai like in one of their previous battles? There was no controlling her arrows after they left her bow, unlike her companion's melee weapons.
No, she didn't need to take the risk. Negi and Fate had stayed back exactly for this reason, to provide cover if any Vertex slipped past them. Sumi had to remember she was part of a team, not a solo unit that had to carry the group. She may not have personally liked the two enough to consider them close friends with unshakable trust, like Sonoko and Gin, but they had helped enough for her to believe in them here.
With a huff, Sumi directed her attention away from the charging Vertex and back toward the approaching hoard of smaller ones. They were starting to catch up and engage her friends now, with the largest Vertex still keeping a distance behind them. One of the Vertex surrounded by arrows, fired a blast of energy from its body that slammed into the shield form of Sonoko's weapon, while a few others started maneuvering in from the sides.
Pulling back her translucent bowstring, Sumi fired off two arrows, the first striking the Vertex firing at Sonoko's shield and destroying it in a fireball, while her second projectile impaled another of the same type that was moving into a firing position to Sonoko's side, causing it to meet a similar fate.
Gin responded to the opening by rocketing off to Sonoko's side, cleanly carving through a few of the monster's approaching the side Sumi hadn't shot. One of the snake like Vertex swung its whip at the red Hero and stuck her dead on, but the impact seemed to do little than briefly make her momentarily flinch, a far cry from the immense force the blows of the larger Vertex contained.
By now, a few of the Vertex had made their way closer toward her, and Sumi raised her bow to defend herself. But, a nagging feeling again gave her brief pause. Based on what she'd seen of the mage's in battle, they weren't exactly… Subtle. Surely, she should've heard some kind of explosion from them dealing with the human like Vertex and some of the lesser ones that flew past her. Yet, she hadn't heard anything.
Giving into the curiosity pricking at her brain, Sumi sparred a moment and glanced back in the direction of the duo.
What she saw, sent a chill through her body.
The Vertex was just standing there, inspecting Negi and Fate, while being inspected in turn. What was going on? Why hadn't they engaged the Vertex yet? Better yet, why hadn't it tried to attack them? Was this all some kind of trick to let the Vertex just waltz up to the Shinju uncontested?
The sound of rushing wind brought Sumi's attention back to her front, just in time to experience one of the snake Vertex slam its whip into her right arm, forcing a pained cry out of her mouth and staggering the girl back several paces. Even if they weren't anywhere near the strength of the largest ones, it didn't mean their blows couldn't still hurt. That one strike felt like someone had struck her with a bat, nothing serious and survivable, but still painful.
Jumping back, Sumi avoided another swing by the beast. Readying her bow, Sumi embedded an arrow through the torso of her target, though slightly off center from her throbbing arm, destroying its upper body in a small explosion, the lower half crumpling to the ground. Oddly, the smaller Vertex didn't seem to possess quite the same unreal regenerative abilities of the larger ones
Desummoning her bow, Sumi placed a hand over her injured limb, a soft green glow appearing around her palm while a healing spell mended the damage, slowly dulling most of the pain coming from it. Using magic still felt like it drained more energy than it should've, but at least she could mend simple wounds like this without collapsing in her transformed state. But, there was a far more pressing matter on her mind than her own injuries.
Spinning her head back toward the mages, more questions sprung up in her mind at what she saw. There was now a cloud of dissipating smoke in front of Negi, but no sign of the humanoid Vertex from earlier, and Fate was rushing at the remaining Vertex near them, all likewise diving toward him to meet the charge, at blinding speed. They were fighting the Vertex now, so it didn't seem like this was a trick, but then what in the world was that behavior?
Never mind, she couldn't dwell on this. They were fighting the Vertex now and had no intent of letting the monsters through. She would have much to talk about, but Sumi had to focus on her own battle, before another creature took advantage of the opening to attack.
And, just as that thought entered her head, Sumi heard crackling energy off to her side. Not even bothering to lay eyes on the attack, Sumi leaped to her side, an explosion sounding where she had been a second later.
Rematerializing her bow in tandem with her body's motion, Sumi aligned herself to face the enemy. One of the spiked Vertex rested behind a few of the other types, preparing another blast while its teammates advanced on her. It was eerily like the support Sonoko and Gin provided her. Just what were the Vertex really?
Pulling back her bowstring, Sumi readied another arrow and prepared for combat once more.
Sonoko leaped to the side, avoiding a blast of energy by mere inches and firmly landing atop another root. Yet, just as she did, she spotted an egg shaped projectile in the corner of her eye. Unable to transform her spear in time, Sonoko threw out her free hand and tried forming a barrier in front of her, a circular see through shape barely appearing in front of her before the projectile slammed into it, erupting in an explosion that shattered the construct like glass and sent Sonoko tumbling back from the force, several cuts opening themselves on her hand in the process.
Before she could even rise from her back, one of the orb shaped Vertex dove at her from above with its stinger. Reaching out with her injured palm, Sonoko grabbed the sides of its appendage with an iron grip, ignoring the searing pain coming from her bleeding hand, and thrust her spear forward with her right, cleanly impaling the monster through its body and breaking it apart. Interesting to her, was that these forms didn't seem to trigger the Flower Calming Ceremony
Quickly, Sonoko leaped to her feet before any other attacks could happen. This fight was unlike anything they'd experienced before. The smaller Vertex were far less deadly and even a few hits wouldn't cause serious injury, like what had happened with getting slammed by Scorpio's tail, but they couldn't be ignored. Their speed and numbers meaning they could relentlessly attack from all angles. Yet, worse still, the largest Vertex was waiting in the background, well behind the enemy lines, barraging them with its far more powerful bombs. Both worked together in tandem to create an opening to exploit, something Sonoko would've even called tactical. They would need a new strategy and had to regroup.
"Mino-san!" Calling for Gin, Sonoko once more took to the skies while avoiding a bomb. Transforming her weapon into its shielded form, she blocked two of the snake Vertex's whip like tails, again gritting her teeth through the flash of fire shooting up her left hand, angling her shield to protect from further attacks while she landed closer toward Gin.
As expected, Gin landed a short distance behind her, before jumping a second time and sailing over Sonoko, cutting the Vertex attacking her shield to pieces. "You got another idea?" Gin asked, head darting around for any further approaching Vertex. As expected from the strongest of her group, the weaker Vertex seemed barely able to do even superficial damage
"I do." Raising her shield to the side, Sonoko blocked another brief blast of lighting from the spiked Vertex. One of the centipede ones rushed her side, but Sonoko swung her shield around and slammed the outer edge of it into the beast's midsection, severing it cleanly in half. Her shield form may have been unrivaled in defense and useless for offense against the larger Vertex, but just as she thought, their defensive power was similarly far lower, letting this instrument for defense be nearly as deadly as her spear form against them.
"Let's move back to Wasshi and help her out. Try and take care of any on the way, but don't let them separate you." Sonoko instructed. The largest and most deadly Vertex was waiting behind the enemies, slowly advancing forward like a predator closing in for the kill. There were too many smaller ones to safely approach and take it out, but if they slowly fell back while dealing with the smaller ones as they retreated to Sumi, perhaps enough would charge ahead of the big one's line of fire their numbers could be whittled down to a safer level and away from the powerful explosives. If it really came down to it, they could fall back to the mages for help, but she didn't want that if it could be helped. Fate was right, they had a duty as the Shinju's protectors to be prepared for the Vertex, no matter what happened. And, as the leader, Sonoko had an extra responsibility on her shoulders. She wouldn't let something like the last battle happen. Not ever again.
"Got it, let's go!" Gin responded, leaping in a low arc just a hair before Sonoko followed, both avoiding another lance of energy from the Vertex.
Landing over a few hundred meters away, the duo barely had time to collect their bearings before another wave of the monsters descended upon them like sharks tasting blood in the water. Energy rained from above, whips and horns closed in from all around them at once. What their current enemies lacked in raw strength, they made up for with ferocity and sheer numbers.
Sonoko raised her shield upward, blocking two strikes and forcing any Vertex to funnel toward the sides. Every nerve in her arm was screaming at her from the pain shooting up her hand, but she wouldn't let it stop her. She couldn't let it stop her.
Covering another side, Gin responded by using the broad side of her left axe to stop one of the snake's dead in its tracks, bashing it with the flat side to send it crashing into one of its allies.
Eyes constantly watching for threats, Sonoko saw one of the orb like Vertex charging in from the opposite side Gin covered. She wasn't going to be able to cover this one, the top of her shield was still being bombarded with attacks! "Behind us!" She quickly warned, angling her body to avoid the thin stinger of the enemy and trusting Gin to respond in time.
Gin's head whipped to her other side, giving her just enough to raise her other axe and block the pointed weapon, a slight clang echoing on impact with the metal. "Gonna have to hit harder than that!"
Not letting it make another move, Sonoko kicked her foe's body where the stinger and orb met, caving in most of the sphere and sending the Vertex flying outside the protective shadow of her shield.
Before Sonoko could decide upon her next course of action, an explosion sounded over toward Sumi's direction and drew her attention. A thin, enough to barely see through it, cloud of smoke was slowly dissipating in the air, creating a gap between the Vertex closing toward them. Sumi must've cleared an opening for her and Gin!
"Let's go, Mino-san!" Sonoko ordered, shifting her shield to the pair's front side for additional cover, launching into the air with Gin, this time with significantly more force, now that they had a clearer path to Sumi.
And not a moment too soon had they taken off, plowing through and dispersing the remains of the smoke cloud. Sonoko saw several of the smaller Vertex closing in on Sumi. With a battle cry, she transformed her weapon into its longer reaching spear form, running one of the centipede like ones through before it could attack Sumi. Gin followed suit an instant later, cleaving one of the snake's in two with one powerful swing, while another shared the first's fate a second afterward.
"Thanks for clearing the way, Wasshi~." Sonoko said with a grin toward her friend, letting Gin handle the single remaining foe. Sumi had a few injuries across her body, but thankfully nothing too severe looking, some small cuts in various places and a light bruise over most of her upper arm seemingly being the worst. "Are you okay?" They had a few moments to catch their breath and plan before more enemies would arrive.
"I'm alright, Sonocchi." Sumi replied, letting out a relieved sigh, tension easing out of her body. "What about you and Gin-" Sumi's words died and her eyes instantly shot toward Sonoko's hand, a sharp gasp of horror escaping her mouth.
"Woah, Sumi. What's wrong?" Gin worriedly asked, rushing over to her side at the sound, quickly scanning over her for injuries.
"Y-Your hand." Sumi stuttered with concern, pointing toward Sonoko's injured hand. The injury had already been damaging from the initial impact, but after all the further abuse Sonoko had it endure, her palm and fingers looked like she'd tried to handle the sharp end of a razor blade. Nearly that entire part of her body was covered in blood, some of the lacerations looking as deep as they were painful. "I think I can take care of that." Sumi stated, though the confidence in her voice was shaky.
"I'm sure you can, Wasshi~." Sonoko stated supportively, holding up her hand toward Sumi to let the other work her magic.
Dematerializing her bow, Sumi placed both hands around Sonoko's own, muttering a brief chant with almost none of the hesitation she held when first demonstrating the magic, a soft green glow forming around them.
Sonoko slowly felt the injuries of her hand start knitting themselves together, a mild tingling resonating through it like when a limb fell asleep. Blood stopped gushing out of the lacerations, skin reattached itself and started scarring over, and the and the pain started thankfully ebbing away, tension slowly leaving her body with it.
Soon, Sumi ended the spell, relaxing her hands with a heavy sigh. "There… I think that's as much as I'm capable of." The Hero commented between short breaths.
Sonoko wiped the drying blood away with her uninjured hand, flexing it a few times to test it. It wasn't as smooth or rapid as when the mages had healed them, her hand still felt a little stiff and some of the deeper cuts looked half healed. However, she still felt worlds better already and confident she could fight again without gritting her teeth through every impact of her shield. "Thanks Wasshi, I feel much better. Magic like this is a huge help." The girl smiled warmly at her friend.
"Thanks... Sonocchi." Sumi responded, hear features relaxing into a relieved smile between her tired words.
"You gonna be okay there, Sumi?" Gin voiced with concern, a small frown on her lips. "Looks like that took a lot out of you."
"I can still fight." Sumi protested with a shake of her head, having finally seemed to catch her breath. "I don't fight at melee range, it shouldn't be an issue. We still have plenty of Vertex to finish."
Glancing backwards with her friends, Sonoko noticed the Vertex had expectedly gotten significantly closer. Unfortunately, not as many had broken formation as she was hoping. There weren't too many left, but most of the Vertex were still clumped somewhat tightly together and her team didn't have many options in respect to more wide reaching attacks, like the mages did. Sumi could cover quite a bit of ground with her arrow explosions, but these targets were small and nimble, she could easily miss and damage the Jukai. If only she could keep them still for a moment…
Sonoko's eyes went wide as inspiration stuck her like a lightning bolt from the thought. "I have an idea!" She proudly declared with a wide grin, earning curious looks from her friends. "I've been practicing a bit with shadow magic. I'll need Mino-san to protect me for a few moments, but I think I can use it to hold the Vertex in place for a moment, and then Wasshi can use her arrows~. That should take care of most of them. Wasshi should then shoot the big one while Mino-san rushes it. I bet it can't block both of them~."
Sumi's mouth curved into an unsure frown. "Sonocchi, are you sure you can manage that? There's a lot of them and we've been mainly practicing defensive magic..."
"I'll be fine, Wasshi." Sonoko reassured with a confident nod. "They're pretty weak next to the big Vertex, so I think I can hold them in place for a second~. Even if a few survive, they should be easy to handle. The Vertex are getting pretty close now anyway, so we need to move fast."
Looking toward their enemies, Sumi could see Sonoko was right. The hoard had gotten quite close now and some of them would be in attacking range soon. "Alright." The archer returned the nod after a quick sigh, materializing her bow and several arrows with it in tandem. "I'll do my best to provide covering fire!"
"We know you can do it, Sumi. Let's go, Sonoko!" Leading the charge Gin soared through the air to draw the most attention, effortlessly cutting through one of the Vertex that tried to attack her while landing.
Landing right behind her, Sonoko shifted her weapon into its shield form and held it upward to provide the most cover. "Go ahead and do whatever you're gonna do, I've got you!" Gin confidently reassured Sonoko, falling into a defensive position around her.
With complete faith in her friend protecting her, Sonoko began concentrating and working her magic. The sounds of battles echoed all around her, the rushing of air from everyone's rapid movies, Gin's battle cries as she cut through their foes, chaos surrounded her, but Sonoko only paid the bare minimum attention to all those occurrences, she had another task to do. She focused her senses on all of the shadows around her, the mostly still ones cast by herself and Gin, to the much more frantic and active ones of the Vertex. The former was easy to focus on, but the latter was far more difficult, even if some of them stayed at range, always dancing around and making it trying to properly sense it, but Sonoko refused to let it pull her attention too thin to accomplish her task.
She remembered he attempts at making a line of pure shadows, along with how painfully hard it had been to land on it, even without being transformed, twisting and binding its movement to her will, stretching her control over the area. She may not have been experienced in offensive magic and had to substitute using a proper named spell for a less powerful unnamed one to do this, but her raw power was boosted to such an extent while transformed, it should've been enough to compensate If she could form a line of shadow beneath the Vertex, it would be enough to pierce their bodies and turn the battlefield into a shooting gallery for Sumi.
Finished channeling the energy together for her spell, Sonoko took a deep breath and slightly raised her weapon. It was now or never! "Mino-san, get near me!"
Slamming down the base of her weapon in sync with her cast and Gin retreating next to her, lines of shadow rippled outward and erupted from the ground like a shockwave. Like spears, the shadow constructs effortlessly pierced through the Vertex, ripping through them despite being blunt tipped from the sheer force they rose with. Some were lucky and were only stuck once, but others were skewered at multiple points on their body. Nearly all the remaining ones had been firmly locked in place, with the lucky ones avoiding the dangerous spikes all together countable on one hand.
Without even needing to receive a command, Sumi's arrows flew through the air in almost the same instant, every single projectile cleanly hitting its mark, a bright blue glow briefly enveloping the struck Vertex, before a thunderous series of explosions split the air. Each fireball rapidly expanded outward, swallowing up any nearby Vertex that hadn't been damaged by Sumi's arrows, shattering the shadows binding them like fragile glass from their destructive shockwaves and blanketing much of the area in smoke. The fog made it somewhat difficult to tell for Sonoko, but there didn't even seem to be 5 of the small Vertex left after their coordinated attack.
"Mi-" Sonoko had to pause for a moment to collect herself, nearly feeling her legs give out from under her and mind starting to fade from the wave of exhaustion caused by her spell that threatened to crush her consciousness outright. "Mino-san, I've got the rest here!" Speaking with as much strength in her words as possible, Sonoko urged her friend onward. They didn't have time to stop and worry for her.
"On it! Watch yourself Sonoko!" Gin quickly warned by leaping through the air toward the largest of the Vertex. Now, Sonoko just had to deal with the stragglers while she had energy left.
Seeing one of the snake's approach her from the right, Sonoko bashed the creature's body in with her shield, the normal momentum of her weapon nearly dragging her to the floor with it in her tired state. Every moment made her body scream at her for rest, that spell had taken far more out of her than she'd expected, but she refused to obey the demand. There were only two more for her to deal with!
The next one, one of the orb shaped Vertex, dove at Sonoko with stinger ready, only to strike air as she weaved her body inches to the right and narrowing avoiding it stabbing her. Countering, Sonoko slammed her shield down on the extended stinger, splitting it from the body, before thrusting her shield forward and caving in the monster's orb body. That only left one of the monsters.
Turning to face her last enemy, one of the ranged Vertex, Sonoko shifted her shield to her front, blocking a blast of energy, the impact causing her legs to start trembling. She had to end this and quick. Even keeping her eyes open was a struggle.
Mustering up her remaining strength, Sonoko jumped into the air and plowed through the Vertex's beam, parts of the attack splintering across her shield while she surged through it, till she reached her target and crashed into it, falling to the ground with a dull thud and tumbling a few times from the impact.
Struggling to push herself upright, Sonoko quickly glanced around for any more of her enemies. There was still some last remnants of smoke, but she didn't see anymore of her enemies. With her job done, she focused toward their last foe.
Sailing through the air and a small cloud, Gin pulled back an axe to strike the Vertex. The Heroes' opponent wasn't going to be easy prey though and moved the flowing scarf around its 'neck' like a whip towards Gin, but, the girl was ready. Tossing a single axe, Gin severed the defense at nearly the base of the Vertex's body, causing it to sail right past it and toward the Jukai.
"I've got more for you!" Gin declared with fire in her voice. Using magic, her axe abruptly changed direction with no visible force, flying back into Gin's waiting palm, both her weapons then igniting with flames while she spun with the momentum of her previously thrown weapon, creating a deadly flaming vortex that slammed into her target with such incredible force, it nearly crashed the Vertex to the ground on impact. Massive cuts and gashes appeared on the beast while the raging inferno danced over its body, throwing pieces and chunks of it to the wind and burning them to nothingness while they fell to the Jukai's roots.
Seeing her friend cleanly slicing up the last Vertex, Sonoko let out a relieved sigh, shoulders slumping from her sitting position. That was the last enemy her team had to deal with, and the mages were surely more than fine. They could-
A sense of danger and movement flashed in the corner of her vision.
Sonoko flipped her head in the direction of it and her eyes went wide. One of the orb like Vertex was coming right for her, she'd somehow missed one between the smoke and her exhaustion!
Barely able to react, Sonoko felt the sharp stinger tear into her side, forcing a pained shout out of her mouth. Mustering up what little remained of her strength, Sonoko grabbed and removed the stinger with one hand, while swinging her weapon around with her other and bashing the Vertex with its blunt end, sending it crashing to the floor, unmoving.
Taking one last glancing around, Sonoko saw the battlefield was finally clear and the familiar Flower Calming Ceremony was beginning. With things concluded, she gently placed a hand onto her injured side, wincing briefly, to access the damage. Thankfully, it seemed like her reflexes didn't fail her and she'd managed to dodge just enough for the attack to end up a rather large gash over full impalement, not too deep as well.
Hearing both of her friends calling out to her, brought Sonoko out of her daze, making her briefly glance at them. "I'm fiiiine~!" Sonoko called out for some reassurance, not having the energy for anything else, as her last action before the light of the world changing overtook her
When the light faded, Sumi saw the world around them had returned to the same ordinary scenery of their modest town, same ordinary clothes, a far cry from the fantastical landscape of the Jukai and outfits worn when fighting. Though, the Great Seto Bridge they were transported near at the end of their battles was still very impressive. However, there was one element missing, or rather two specifically…
"Where'd Negi-san and Fate-san go?" Sumi cautiously voiced, glancing around with narrowed eyes, yet seeing no signs of the two. She needed to clear up any confusion over what in the world had happened with the Vertex ignoring them. But, that could wait for the moment. If they weren't around to tend to it, then Sumi had a job to do.
"Gin, do you think you could contact them?" Sumi asked, briefly switching her focus to Gin.
"Yeah, sure. See how Sonoko's doing while I do that." Gin responded, a concerned frown on her face while looking toward their leader, rummaging through her pocket to find her phone.
Leaned against one of the walls surrounding the shrine in a sitting position, Sonoko looked like she had seen better days. The blonde looked utterly exhausted. She usually liked to nap at various times during the day and sometimes looked sleepy, but that was different from this expression, which looked more like she'd just gone through another one of their training camps without any rest. Somewhat worryingly, she seemed to be breathing a bit heavily and looked a little pale, made worse by the hand covering the large cut Sumi had seen the last of the small Vertex give her. She hoped her friend was just exhausted, her display of magic had been incredible for the near non-existent training they'd had in offensive spells, but Sumi couldn't shake the feeling something was deeply wrong.
"Sonocchi..." Sumi gently said, worry clearly in her words, crouching down on Sonoko's injured side. "Are you alright? Let me see that injury, maybe I can do something..." Looking at the bits of injured flesh visible beneath Sonoko's hand, Sumi continued. She was rather tired herself from the battle and using some magic, but if the mages weren't around to heal it right now, maybe Sumi could at least help ease the pain till they got here. This was why she had focused so much on healing magic, to help her friends.
"Hey Wasshi..." Sonoko weakly responded, her voice devoid of the usual 'cutesy' sleepiness she spoke with when roused from a nap, replaced entirely by very real fatigue. Even still, she forced a small smile onto her face for her friend. "I'm okay. Just a little tired… It doesn't hurt too much now, but sure..." Sonoko lazily lowered her hand.
Sumi couldn't help tensing up a bit when she saw the full extent of the injury. The area around the wound looked extremely red and swollen. Ever since she started specializing in healing magic, Sumi had started doing a little medical research in hopes it might help her understand the wounds she healed and better fix them, even if the magic largely seemed to be conceptually based for 'healing' injuries. She was far from an expert, but with the look of the wound, the still fading color from Sonoko's face, shortness of breath and her comment about it not hurting much now… The sinking feeling only grew by the moment and she had to confirm it.
"Sonocc-" Sumi's words died when she looked back toward Sonoko's face and saw the girl appeared to be drifting in and out of consciousness, head rolling lightly to one side before she raised it back up, but it seemed to be a losing battle and she slipped further and further away with each attempt.
"S-Sonocchi. H-hey!" Panic quickly started rising in Sumi's voice, lightly prodding her leader on the shoulder in the hope some conversation might help bring them back into the waking world.
"What's going on?" Gin, hearing the commotion, quickly rushed over and took a position on Sonoko's other side, her phone forgotten for the moment, Negi's worried voice coming from out of it and echoing Gin's question. "Hey, stay with us, Sonoko!" Her worry starting to match Sumi's, Gin almost shouted the words.
Not even responding, Sonoko suddenly slumped to one side, Sumi quickly catching her before they could hit the hard concrete. However, her panic only rose even further when she felt something wet coming from Sonoko's face, that made her veins turn to ice when she saw what it was on her shirt. Blood.
Sumi's mind raced into overdrive. This was bad, really bad. Whatever struck Sonoko must've been incredibly venomous, but why did it take effect this fast right after forestization ended? Did it have something to do with being transformed or not? But, more importantly, what was she going to do about this?! The mages were obviously going to rush over, she heard Gin say something over the phone she was too preoccupied to make out exactly, but it didn't seem like they could raise the dead! What if they got here too late? Was Sumi really going to be helpless to aid her friends while they inched closer to death till someone else intervened again?
No.
Sumi's hand curled into a determined fist, reaching for her phone. She wasn't going to be powerless this time. She could do something about this, this was what Sumi had been training to prevent. She remembered the warning Negi said, that using healing magic without good enough training could potentially have side effects. But, she also remembered him saying it was still better then leaving the injury unattended and the two mages were going to be here soon. She had some training in healing magic and transforming vastly boosted their powers, so even if fully healing something life threatening might've been beyond her, maybe, just maybe she could buy time to ensure Sonoko was safe.
Gently easing Sonoko onto the ground, Sumi tapped her phone and transformed, feeling power swell through her body. Not wasting a second more, Sumi placed her hands over Sonoko and started chanting a spell, putting every ounce of controlled power into it as she could manage.
"Practe bigi nar, Tui gratia Jupiter gratia sit. Cura!" Green energy started flowing from Sumi's hands around Sonoko. The immediate priority was minimizing the poison's effects and trying to slow the spread or remove it outright. With the minimal supernatural senses she had, Sumi focused on the foreign agent, targeting it with her magic. Unsurprisingly, the task was far from easy. She hadn't deal with something like poison and the cascading damage it caused, let alone from something as powerful as the Vertex, but Sumi refused to let that beat her, fighting with all her willpower.
She heard Gin say something that sounded encouraging beside her, but she couldn't make out what the words were. The previous battle and how much energy she was pouring into this without regard for her well being, was starting to catch up to her. A wave of exhaustion started coming over her, blurring her vision, making her start to wobble from the effort of staying upright, sapping her focus. Even still, she kept up her healing. She could see Sonoko's breathing starting to stabilize and the tiniest trace of color return to her features with it. If Sumi really had to, she'd keep this up till she passed out.
Starting to feel herself slump backwards, Sumi felt a pair of hands firmly grip both her shoulders to help keep her upright. "-umi, hey Sumi!" Gin's voice brought the girl out of the trance she'd worked herself into.
"H-huh, wh-" Sumi stammered in response, barely able to organize her thoughts enough to speak much.
"Washio-san, it's alright, you can relax now. Fate will take over." Negi's voice came from the opposite side Gin's had, carrying a gentleness toward it while he and Gin slowly eased her backwards till she was resting against Gin's arms.
"This was certainly an inexperienced effort." Fate commented, leaning over Sonoko and performing the same job Sumi had been moments ago, but with a far more composed and experienced air surrounding all his actions, each motion of his hands was controlled and precise, knowing exactly how and where to focus the spell for maximum effect.
Gin started opening her mouth, eyebrows scrunching up defensively in her friend's place, but Fate continued speaking and cut her off. "However, you still did well. Far better than I would've expected from someone with your level of practice, even with your circumstances. Your friend's survival might've been in question if you didn't act and contact us so quickly. Nogi-san should be fine shortly." Not taking his eyes off his task, Fate praised. Sumi could barely tell with how close to the edge of falling asleep she was, but the other actually sounded sincere in the words, a rarity from his general disinterest.
Gin's features relaxed into a relieved smile, looking down at Sumi with approving eyes. "Good job Sumi. Get some rest, I ain't going anywhere and you look exhausted."
Sumi felt a tired, but none the less happy, smile works its way onto her face. She still had such a long way to go with this, but she managed to still make good use of her new powers and contributed to her team. Maybe she could finally start pulling more of her weight next to Sonoko and Gin's impressive talents and strength. With enough time to develop it, Sumi was starting to feel like they wouldn't need to worry about another disaster and could stand up to any situation.
But… Those were thoughts for another time. Gin was right, she felt completely and utterly drained after everything, her eyes were already starting to close on their own even. Plus, Gin's arms felt so comfortably warm… They had much to discuss, but she could deal with questioning the mages another time.
Satisfied her friend was safe, Sumi drifted off into sleep.
SPELL TRANSLATIONS:
Cura
Latin: Tui gratia Jupiter gratia sit. Cura!
English: Let the grace of Jupiter be for your sake. Heal!