Happy New Year, everyone :D

Hope you like fight scenes, wahaha! Enjoy!

No words were spoken between the two enemies. The fighting began again as Kana charged Aya, fists sparkling with lightning spells waiting to be released into Aya's body. Kana clumsily swung a fist at Aya's head. Aya ducked, letting out a sigh of relief. Kana took another swing, and Aya swung backward, her hands landing on the ground, as she held herself propped in a bridge. She swung her legs up, kicking Kana in the sternum, and was back on her feet. She lit her own fists up with fire, and the two continued exchanging blows.

Kana was fast. It was nearly impossible to hit her, especially when she was trying to punch with fire. Kana soon could no longer hold the lightning at her hands anymore, and instead blasted it at Aya, while really trying to get away from having to fight physically. All the missed blows had tired her slightly. She shot several fire spells, each going off like a gunshot and ringing in Aya's ear as she rolled out of the way of one. From her back, she fired a huge blizzard spell through the ground. An enormous string of icicles shot up from the ground in a long line, all the way to Kana, who hurriedly blocked them.

Aya tried to silence Kana, only to have it deflected. Kana ran a few steps forward and let off a huge demi spell. Aya flew backward, but managed to land more or less on her feet. She scrambled from her crouching position back into a fully upright one, taking another shot with a blizzard spell.

As before, Kana blocked. Aya decided it would be best to try to initiate physical combat again, since blocked spell after blocked spell was nearly as tedious as dodged punch after dodged punch. She ran forward, casting spells as she went, just to keep Kana busy blocking. Just before reaching Kana, she fired a huge fire spell right in her face, and then baseball slided into her legs, knocking her completely down. Aya slammed her hand on the ground, causing ice crystals to shoot up from seemingly nowhere. Aya saw with satisfaction that Kana was unable to block at least some of the attack—she saw very bad gashes on the left side of Kana's body.

Kana pulled herself up from that surprisingly fast, wasting no time in healing her injuries. "That was good… you're like your mother. Stubborn, resourceful, powerful… and yet, you get frustrated so easily!" Kana launched an enormous flare at Aya, who blocked it, but felt the light burning at her eyes as she was engulfed in it. She tightened her stance as the spell's fury increased, and felt her feet begin to slide backward…

She knew that it would be taking a big chance, but she wasn't sure how much longer she'd be able to hold the shield. All she knew was that this had to be wiping Kana's magic points. In a split second, she released her shield and fired a particularly powerful water spell to fend off the flare. She held both hands out in front of her, quivering with the power and strength it took to sustain the spell. It seemed to be working, the flare spell was being pushed violently back toward its caster.

Kana made basically no effort to fight the water spell. She let down her flare, and immediately administered an ether to herself. Aya had been right—that spell had wiped her clean of magic points, or at least put her below her comfort level. She fired a few successive lightning spells at Aya, each going off with a powerful crack and ending in a thunderous roar. Aya blocked each one, but with a bit of difficulty—Kana was, obviously, a force to be reckoned with, and her spells reflected that. It seemed that as the fight went on, she only got stronger.

Aya let down her shield and fired a flare spell of her own. It flew out of her hands with a deafening roar, and shot towards Kana in a violent fashion. While Kana was undoubtedly blinded by the spell, Aya slipped herself an ether, just to stay safe. Kana wouldn't even know she had done it, either, which made it even better.

As the enormous spell subsided, Kana came barreling out of the smoke, shield still up, towards Aya. She took a swing at her, which Aya dodged easily. Aya turned to her side and smashed her elbow into Kana's back. Kana landed face-first on the rock-solid ground, and Aya swore she heard a crunching noise. She swung her leg back and placed a kick right at Kana's ribcage. Kana flipped over onto her back, moaning, as blood drained from her nose, which was obviously broken.

She began hastily healing herself the best she could. Aya was in shock—every time she had hurt something, the blood had been minimal—she used magic, so it mostly disintegrated. Never had she injured a person to the point of bleeding as badly as Kana currently was. She stood, with her hand over her mouth, looking extremely pale.

Kana pulled herself to her feet. "What, afraid to cause a little damage?" she asked, wiping her face with her sleeve.

"N-no, I just…"

Kana didn't let Aya finish. Quicker than lightning, she teleported next to Aya, and sunk her fist right into Aya's jaw. Aya's hands immediately rushed to cover the injured spot… she was certain she had felt a distinct pop…

Her whole jaw area was stinging, and Kana stood some ten feet away from Aya, looking smug. Aya bent over, hands still over her mouth, eyes tightly shut. A few tears managed to squeeze their way out, much to Aya's embarrassment—her eyes had now begun to water furiously. She wiped the corner of her mouth with her hand, only to find that she too was bleeding. She quickly came to her senses, and cured her jaw, though nothing was really wrong with it, other than the stinging.

"Had enough?" Kana asked with a sneer.

"No," Aya answered simply. "I won't have had enough until you're dead."

"Then, little girl, you will be waiting awhile."

"No. I won't wait anymore for my mother's killer to be dead. I will kill you before this battle is over."

Kana cackled. "You're nothing. You couldn't even stand it when you broke my nose. How are you expecting to kill me?"

With the most powerful spell ever, ultima, at her disposal, the answer was obvious.

"Are you expecting to hit me with ultima? Why, I doubt someone like you could even manage to cast that without killing yourself. You're nothing compared to me. And even if you did, whether it would penetrate my shield or not is questionable."

Aya clenched her fists. She had never killed a person before, it was true… but she had killed plenty of fiends. And she considered that fine practice. All of a sudden, Aya had a very peculiar feeling in her stomach… a sudden lurch of wanting to know where she was. It took her a moment to realize… Lulu wasn't dead or knocked out at all. She was trying to communicate with Aya.

Aya tried to put 'fighting' into a feeling, and sent it back to Lulu before Kana could realize. Just to cover it up, she fired a quick fire spell in Kana's direction. Lulu responded relatively fast. She had a feeling of looking for herself, followed by a feeling of following her own magic. In a few short minutes, Lulu would surely find her, and she would be saved. Two on one would be a sure victory.

Kana seemed to take offense to the puny, impromptu spell. "That was extremely weak," she pointed out. "You can do better than THAT!" she launched an enormous fire spell at Aya.

Aya swore, and crossed her forearms into an X, thus activating her shield. She could feel the relentless flames pounding at her shield, and her feet were sliding several feet backward with every pulse of the flames. She tried unsuccessfully to anchor herself to the ground. She suddenly felt her arms tickling a little—then stinging—then, finally, she was sure that the fire was burning them. When the flames finally ceased, Aya, feeling relieved, put down her shield to have a quick inspection of her arms before Kana's next attack.

Unfortunately, with all the smoke to mask Kana's next move, one of her extremely powerful wind spells raged through the scorched area between Aya and Kana, hitting Aya pretty much square on. She was whipped around in a tornado, and left in a heap on the ground some thirty feet from where she'd started. Aya moved a little, mostly to get a better look at a deep, stinging cut on her wrist. She tried to lift her other arm to cure it, but found it was nearly impossible. The instant soreness that had come along with the spell was suddenly causing her whole body to throb. She knew she'd be dead meat if she couldn't heal herself…

As she lay there, lame and helpless, she could hear shuffling footsteps that sounded very close, and perhaps the faint dragging of material on the stone floor… A familiar voice… and suddenly, a wave of welcome relief. Lulu had appeared, out of seemingly nowhere, and healed her.

Lulu looked a little worse for the wear—she, too, was covered in cuts and gashes of all sizes. They took a quiet moment to heal themselves, before Aya explained the situation.

"She gets more powerful as the battle goes on," Aya explained. "So the spells she'll release will be… catastrophic… if they hit."

Lulu nodded. "I expect that."

Aya peered up at her expectantly. "Aren't you… you know… afraid?"

"Oh, of course," Lulu said in a hushed voice. "But… somehow, I feel like we'll be okay."

"Everyone else is knocked out. So it's just us," Aya said, eyes focusing on Kana, who was now visible.

"Lulu, I see you awoke!" Kana said. "Perfect, now I can destroy both of you at once."

Aya glared. She mumbled something to Lulu, who nodded in reply. Lulu shot an enormous water spell at Kana, which she easily blocked. She didn't notice, however, that Aya had hidden a blizzard spell inside of the water. She was pelted with the enormous, sharp hunks of ice, causing her to scream in pain.

She fell to the ground, motionless. Lulu set her on fire, but she put it out before it could do serious damage. She still seemed as though she couldn't move. Aya and Lulu combined thunder spells. She managed to block the worst of it, but still had a few battle scars.

Before they could do any more damage, she found a moment to heal herself, and was back on her feet before either of them knew it. She used something to the effect of a smoke bomb, and charged the two girls.

It seemed to be harder on her to be challenging them physically, but she soon proved that she could handle it. As both Lulu and Aya threw punches, she blocked one of Aya's and thrust the palm of her hand straight into Lulu's face. Lulu was blasted backward, and Aya noticed that Kana had pulled gravity magic to her hand to help strengthen the blow. Lulu crashed into the wall, nose bleeding heavily.

Aya ducked anything Kana threw at her. She at last blocked a kick with her forearm, and socked Kana right in the face. She went reeling backward in pain, and Aya kicked her right in the ribs. She fell to her knees. Aya jumped on the opportunity, and her knee quickly made contact with Kana's face. Aya put her hand on Kana's head and cast both bio and paralysis. Kana lay there in shock, unable to move, though still feeling the pain of poison.

"And you thought you could beat me," Aya said mockingly.

Kana broke the paralysis spell at that. She quickly healed herself, and shot upward like a rocket at Aya. She shot a spell right in Aya's face, which she nearly failed to block. After Aya had let down her shield, Kana caught her off guard, and kicked her in the stomach. Aya gasped, and keeled over. Kana wound up and took a shot at Aya's face.

Aya had never experienced a black eye, but she was certain that she had one now. Kana took another shot to Aya's midsection, knocking the wind out of her. Aya toppled over, and Kana placed a kick to her stomach, making her feel as though she was about to be sick. She tried to move, but with her whole ribcage feeling as though it had been shattered, it was awfully hard to remove her arms from covering her midsection.

Kana slowly walked toward her. "Not two minutes ago, you taunted me," she said, sounding offended and angry. "You TAUNTED ME! Now we'll see who's really the best. Everyone else will be a snap to kill, I'm glad I chose to get rid of you first…"

"You'll never win, Kana," Aya said weakly, feeling the pain of broken ribs with every syllable she spoke. "Not really."

"Oh, but I believe that I already have," she said. "Here you are, lying on the ground, running low on magic… one move and you die, do you realize?"

"Yes," Aya said quietly. "No matter what, I will take you with me."

"Your mother said that, too," Kana said. "When she was certain she had lost. She begged and begged for her life, you know… she begged for yours, as well. I suppose that's where you differ."

"Damn right," Aya said. "I'm different from mom. I actually will take you with me if I die."

"You won't die," came Lulu's voice from behind Aya. "Not if I can help it."

It seemed she had healed herself, and taken an ether as well. She healed Aya, slipped her an ether, and they had a quiet discussion.

"She's running low," Aya murmured. "We have to continuously pound her, then the shield will suck her dry of magic. She'll be defenseless, and I can do ultima, and she'll be gone."

"The incantation for that is the Mage's Prayer, isn't it?" Lulu asked quietly.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"My mother taught me the prayer to use whenever I was in a bad position… I never knew it was a spell until your brother told me."

"Then we'll combine," Aya said, gaze shifting back to Kana, who was searching her pockets for an ether.

She and Lulu began, firing spell after spell. They didn't stop for nearly ten minutes, before hearing a shriek—a lightning spell had hit her. She lay there, crumpled on the ground, whimpering.

Lulu turned towards Aya. They joined hands, and began the prayer.

Oh oh, cliffhanger! Will Kana finally be finished, or will the fight drag on even longer? Keep an eye out for chapter 26!

Thank you for reading,

Lulala