Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 48: The Intellect of Wind & Sound! The Richness of Water! Kūkiatsu & Kusabue vs. Kaisui & Kōsui!
After waking up and getting information on the fun winter activities that would have some prominence on this third day of the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, Lucy went out of the inn to go all the way into the frosty tundra that was located north of Seigan Town. The town of Seigan seemed to be close to what was once an adjacent town in the tundra, and Lucy noticed how the snow-covered buildings were coated with glacial ice that was in the shade of light blue. The light blue ice was quite dense, the falling piles of snow not even making the ice seem to budge.
The strong ice was perfect for Lucy's training session that she decided to create for Kaze's Feather Dance, which was a spell that strangely made her running speed be reduced when she inhaled icy winds. Lucy felt like she needed to boost her running speed in these harsh conditions, effectively overcoming this new disadvantage that affected her Wind Magic, and she quickly inhaled a high amount of cold winds that passed through the tundra. The tundra's frigid winds were perfect for Lucy, due to how they could boost the power of her Wind Magic.
She proceeded to use the Kaze's Feather Dance spell, making a mint green aura surround her body right before two large feathers appeared in front of her waist. The feathers fell down to gently touch Lucy's emerald green flat shoes that she had gotten from Kogane Town after going back there yesterday evening for a bit of shopping for more clothes, and the moment that the feathers touched Lucy's feet was when her body felt as light as a feather. She tried to run quite fast on the ice, only to feel her body be weighed down by the immense amount of wind in her body.
Lucy ended up running slower while having to glide straight ahead on the ice to make herself gain much more speed, and trying to run in a different direction to avoid crashing into a rock only made Lucy move at a slower pace when her feet shifted from one direction to another on the icy surface. The fact that Lucy was moving slower on the ice really made her feel upset, as no enhancements to her Wind Magic involved how running fast could make her lose her balance on the ice, and that contrasted with how enhancing her Wind Magic with heavy winds of coldness made her move too slow. Her slow movements were sped up by gliding straight across the ice, but needing to always do that made Lucy groan in frustration.
"If I keep moving at such a slow level of speed, how can I quickly defeat Emiria or anyone else on the ice in a very harsh fight?!" Lucy silently asked herself with a frustrated facial expression, after continuously trying to make herself move very fast on the ice.
Lucy heard a familiar female's voice ask in a curious tone, "It's great that you want to train, but do you really need to expend magical power before you possibly get into another fight?"
That prompted Lucy to respond with irritation in her voice, as she now ran straight ahead at high speeds without caring for balancing on the ice, "Risa, it's important for me to get my running speed up to a very high level for me to defeat Emiria! That cold rival may have dense attacks and strong defenses, but I know that my Wind Magic's speed can defeat her!"
Despite having so much confidence in the speed of her Wind Magic, Lucy found herself to soon fall over after losing her footing on the ice. Lucy landed on her back, groaning in pain as she felt the density of the ground that had been coated in Ice Magic to seem denser than normal. As Lucy slammed one of her fists against the ice in pure frustration, the rest of her teammates watched her start to stand up. Sting was about to go on to the ice and help Lucy with the training to make her running speed be drastically improved, but everyone was surprised by the sudden sight of Suzuna quietly walking through the snow to get on to the ice.
She easily walked across the ice without any problems, and Suzuna helped Lucy stand back up without saying a single word. Suzuna's quietness caused Lucy to merely glance at her sapphire blue tuxedo shirt that had six cyan blue buttons designed at the bottom in two horizontal rows, each row containing three buttons, and Suzuna wore a cobalt blue skirt that had some ocean blue ruffles shaped like ocean waves at the very bottom of her skirt. Below her skirt and down past her legs, Suzuna wore some mint blue snow boots.
She wasted no time with inhaling a high amount of cold air, not minding how she even inhaled falling snowflakes that had frost on them because of how the air nearly froze them, and Suzuna made a dark blue aura engulf her body. She appeared to be building up a high amount of magical power, almost like she was preparing to fight, but Suzuna slowly raised her left hand. She pointed her index finger at Risa, before motioning for her to come on to the ice. Risa came on to the ice to see Suzuna making gestures for her to start launching attacks, which initially confused Risa. However, Risa softly smiled at this interesting form of training.
"Let's see how you like dealing with Esper Ball!" Risa shouted fiercely, as she quickly charged up a pink sphere in her right hand.
"Suzuna, watch out!" Lucy shouted with a concerned look on her face, not wanting the older woman to get hurt.
Suzuna ended up being struck by the attack, which created a large pink blast that sent Lucy sliding backwards on the ice at high speeds with its winds, and Suzuna was caught in the blast. She didn't let out any screams or even groan in pain, ignoring how the spell's aftereffect levitated her in midair while she would be immobilized. Being unable to move left Suzuna vulnerable to getting hit by Risa's next spell, which was known as Extrasensory Psychic Soul Destruction, and Risa fired the sphere from her left hand.
It had light pink outer rims while the sphere itself was in a regular shade of pink, and bubblegum pink beams of Psychic Magic swirled around it. Those beams complimented the pink thin beams that shined from the sphere, and Risa fired the attack up at Suzuna. It immediately struck her to create a very large light pink blast, the aftereffect making Suzuna levitate around in a circle at high speeds right before she harshly fell down to the ground, and Suzuna simply got up without even seeming wounded. That made Risa assume that her own attacks were weak, prompting her to build up more magical power for her next attacks.
Risa chose to strike Suzuna multiple times with the Esper Ball spell, sliding on the ice to strike her opponent with the spheres at close-range, and she watched the consecutive blasts occur. Their high level of power caused some of the thick ice to loudly shatter like glass windows being blown out by extremely heavy winds for them to break into many pieces, and Risa used the Stellar Psi spell to levitate some of the pink flames that resulted from all of the blasts. She didn't lift Suzuna into the air, as Risa remained shocked at how Suzuna simply kept her feet firmly on the ice.
The fact that Suzuna decided to just stand on the ice without unleashing any attacks against Risa really made Lucy seem perplexed, wondering what Suzuna's strategy could possibly be. She was merely inhaling the winds after every single blast while building up magical power, not even minding that Risa's attacks were powerful enough to smash through ice, and Suzuna just stood on the ice without even flinching. Lucy watched Risa use Stellar Psi to gather up some flames into the air for them to form a large ring, and Risa made the ring come down to the ground.
She grabbed some of the flames with her hands for the purpose of throwing them at Suzuna, before quickly using Stellar Psi to push them forward even faster with a high amount of Psychic Magic hitting them from behind, and Risa watched the pink flames violently burst in front of Suzuna to create pink explosions! The explosive attacks left behind high amounts of fire that were quite hot, but they weren't hot enough to melt the ice. Risa understood that these flames were only in a lower-leveled shade of pink, not as strong as her magenta-colored spells of Psychic Magic or any spells that were cerise pink, but this was still part of Lucy's crucial training.
Lucy and Risa watched the pink clouds of smoke clear up to reveal that Suzuna was still standing on the ice, not even moving while the dark blue aura still remained around her body, and that prompted Risa to use a new spell called Psychic Blazing Soul. She built up a high amount of Psychic Magic, before focusing her magical power to make the aura be cerise pink, and Risa aimed her left hand at some of the pink flames for them to become cerise pink. Those particular flames formed a ring around Suzuna, before the pink flames formed a much larger circle behind them, and the psychic energy of those flames ended up bursting outward to push the cerise pink towards Suzuna while Risa got repelled several feet backwards.
Risa pushed her right hand forward in an aggressive manner while the cerise pink flames ended up bursting when they struck Suzuna, and Risa was making her light pink flames jump into the cerise pink blasts. The cerise pink explosions' bursts of fire increased the power of the remaining flames, causing them to create light pink blasts that were large when they touched Suzuna, making Risa think that this new fusion spell of hers was successful with taking down an enemy during training, but all of the heat in the area wasn't a problem for Suzuna. In fact, she was still standing while Risa began to pant a bit from expending more magical power than necessary. Despite how this felt like a battle, Kusabue felt very puzzled from seeing Suzuna's inaction.
"Is Suzuna-san glued down to the ground? Why can't she dodge Risa-san's attacks at all?" Kusabue asked with a confused look on her face.
That prompted Kūkiatsu to explain with a calm facial expression, as he observed the situation, "She can dodge, but she just doesn't want to."
"What kind of strategy is that?" Kusabue asked her older brother with a curious look appearing on her face.
Suzuna demonstrated her strategy by sending a high amount of magical power into her hands, before she created a dark blue sphere in between her palms, and she aggressively threw the attack at Risa. The pink-haired girl's moments of fatigue prevented her from dodging the attack quickly enough to evade it, causing her to be engulfed in a dark blue blast that had beams of water coming down to drill through the ice around Risa, and Risa screamed in immense pain from having to endure such a powerful attack.
The spell had a tremendous amount of density to it, causing Risa to be heavily bruised while she nearly felt her body start to get crushed. As Risa coughed up some blood and fell through the ice to be in some cold water, she was in too much pain to move. That prompted Kūkiatsu to activate a spell called Windy Tempests, and he aimed his right hand at the dark blue blast. Some mint green winds began to surround the fading blast while the winds absorbed the air to become somewhat heavier, and the tornado that quickly formed was directed at where Risa had been standing.
The heavy winds carried Risa up out of the water, and she used Stellar Psi to float down on to the ice. Risa couldn't recover fast enough to even unleash the Esper Ball spell against Suzuna, who wasted no time with making the dark blue aura of her magic engulf her feet to where she could run towards Risa at high speeds to deliver the finishing attack that would end this fight, and getting up close to Risa made Suzuna engulf her left fist in the dark blue aura. She moved her fist straight towards Risa's face, causing the pink-haired girl to close her eyes in a worried manner. However, not feeling any impact of a spell against her face caused Risa to curiously open her eyes. She got to see Suzuna's aura fade away while she pulled her fist backwards, and she merely turned around to smile at Lucy.
"Do you now see that there's a great way to use your magic when your body feels very heavy?" Suzuna asked her in a calm manner, as she began to slightly frown.
Lucy responded with a kind smile on her face, realizing Suzuna's strategy, "Yeah, I understand. Basically, I have to increase my body's durability and wait for the perfect moment to use an attack with the maximum amount of power."
"That's exactly right. It shouldn't be hard for you to use that speed spell of yours in better ways now, Kotomi Takeuchi. Enjoy the rest of the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour's festival, or I can give you more training in this hour of my free time." Suzuna explained to Lucy in a stern tone, hoping she wouldn't keep having difficulties during icy battles.
"Wasn't it unnecessary for you to make Risa be your opponent, since the hostesses of this whole event could challenge her at any time?" Rogue asked Suzuna in a very stern manner, as he narrowed his eyes at her and went over to Risa.
Suzuna merely gave Rogue a stoic look, almost like she saw no reason to worry about that situation possibly happening today. She actually had the schedules of Emiria and Hiyasu memorized for the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour event, and Suzuna recalled how this was the day where they would be battling against Juvia Lockser in the morning hours. Juvia's abilities with Water Magic made her seem like the perfect opponent for Emiria to simply freeze with some glacial ice, but Suzuna did recall her personal suggestion to Hiyasu last night about using her opponent's skills to power up her own attacks.
She started to wonder if the hostess of Cerulean Frost took her advice, only to suddenly hear the sound of a blast occurring on the other side of Seigan Town, and Suzuna stared past the Sabertooth mages to see an area of the town's theme park being occupied by a battle. Suzuna watched an azure blue blast occur in that certain area of the theme park, before seeing waves of blue water go in the opposite direction to create blasts in the plain shade of blue when they crashed into the snow to make heaps of it fly into the air, and Suzuna could sense that Hiyasu had activated her magic.
Since Hiyasu was unleashing her magical power and helping Emiria find some suitable recruits to help them with their plan of unfreezing a statue, that made Suzuna start to faintly smirk at the idea of helping Rogue increase his own level of power. Suzuna had thought about helping him yesterday, due to sensing his magic seeming like it could be improved while she also felt like it would be a good idea to have a contingency plan for any unexpected or unfavorable circumstances that would occur. Battling Rogue wouldn't be unfavorable, however, and Suzuna felt ready to fight him. As Rogue watched Suzuna's body become engulfed in a dark blue aura again, Kūkiatsu noticed how Kusabue's hands were stretched forward with the shamrock green aura surrounding them, letting him see that she was continuing to absorb sound waves to power up her own magic, but the fact that Kusabue was doing this particular activity so excessively caused Kūkiatsu to gently grab his younger sister's left hand. He proceeded to walk away with Kusabue, hoping that the people in the somewhat faraway fight wouldn't sense her high level of magical power.
50 minutes later, in the northeastern part of Seigan Town...
Even though Kusabue listened to Kūkiatsu's order of walking away from the group while trying not to unleash her magical power, she did notice how some of the slave masters and slave mistresses began to look at her like she was a very strong foe. Kusabue wondered if it was a good idea for her and her older brother to separate from the rest of the group, since he didn't want her absorbing anymore huge sound waves, and she decided to just keep absorbing them. The sounds of footsteps and people chatting were providing sound waves that enhanced Kusabue's magic even more, and she smiled in a calm manner.
As Kusabue smiled and currently walked down a street with Kūkiatsu on her left side, she noticed how a new concession stand was situated near the fashion store. It seemed a bit weird to Kūkiatsu that a small business would be allowed to be in close proximity of the fashion store, which was selling green hair bows at fifty percent off of their normal price, and Kusabue noticed how the business wasn't being operated by anyone right now. With no one around to sell the bows, Kusabue couldn't give her money to the concession stand.
That prompted her to walk into the fashion store, which had the wallpaper pattern of ocean blue diamonds forming squares on the cyan blue walls, and the floor of the store was in the pattern of ocean blue waves shifting in different directions on the sea. The shifting waves appropriately represented how fashion trends could shift for a town, especially in a place where fashion models were making certain trends have flair while others became outdated. One trend that didn't become outdated was green bows, which seemed odd to Kūkiatsu because of how green wasn't exactly the color associated with this town.
The fashion of Seigan Town was partially influenced by the news of Team Sabertooth's fame, however, and there were some green clothes in this store. They weren't as plentiful as the blue clothes, but Kusabue was happy to see that some turquoise green bows were being sold on a cyan blue bookcase that was somewhat small. Kusabue retrieved a bow from the bookcase, before walking up to the light blue counter where the cashier was located, and she pulled out five-thousand jewels from the left pocket of her pants after glancing at the bow's pale green price tag. As Kusabue handed the bow and the money to the cashier, Kūkiatsu started to look a bit concerned.
"Even though Kusabue buying a bow is nothing major, something just feels a bit weird." Kūkiatsu thought to himself in a slightly worried manner, as he noticed that the store was only selling six green bows.
Kūkiatsu thought to himself in a slightly calmer manner, observing the situation, "It's very awkward that a fashion store selling low quantities of a product would choose to make the green hair bows specifically be the item that's being sold at a discounted price."
As Kūkiatsu stepped away from the front door for some more customers to come into the fashion store, he turned around for a moment to see that a certain blue-haired woman who wore an elegant-looking dress was merely glancing into the store. She peeked through the window to have her eyes fixated on Kusabue, seeing her pick up the shopping bag that was in a cyan shade of blue, and Kaisui started to smirk in a devious manner. Kūkiatsu noticed the woman's smirk, prompting him to run out of the store. He noticed that she was tightly holding on to her slave's chain while she turned to face him in an annoyed manner, and Kūkiatsu hoped that this woman wasn't going to make that icy collar explode near Kusabue.
The fact that this woman was the mistress of a slave caused Kūkiatsu to wonder if this was the same woman who had issues with Kusabue two days ago because of some ice cream, and Kūkiatsu unleashed a spell of Wind Magic from his left hand. He simply used a spell called Windy Cloud Burst, which made a mint green cloud quickly appear in front of the woman, and it ended up bursting instantly to create a high amount of winds that blew her backwards! She ended up crashing into a concession stand where blue raspberry tea was being sold, the impact wrecking the stand, and tea got on her dress.
The sight of her dress being ruined, along with a cup of hot tea spilling on to her hair, caused the woman to scream in anger. She screamed loud, but not loud enough to overshadow a different fight that was currently going on. Kaisui could sense that the battle was involving people who had high amounts of magical power, but that wouldn't stop her from fighting Kūkiatsu. He watched her create an ocean blue orb in her right hand, and Kaisui ran towards Kūkiatsu while she wanted to strike him with her attack. She was soon interrupted by the sound of a certain little girl loudly clapping her hands in Kaisui's direction, and an average-sized shamrock green blast occurred around the woman! As the blast's sound was loud enough to get the attention of several people and get the attention of others who perceived it as being something pretty, Kusabue let go of the shopping bag's handles that she held in her mouth for her to now be able to talk with Kūkiatsu.
"Onii-chan, are you okay?!" Kusabue asked Kūkiatsu with a concerned look on her face, before glaring at the fading blast and recognizing Kaisui.
Kūkiatsu replied to his younger sister with a calm facial expression, "Yeah, I'm fine. Anyway, it's logical to assume that you two have met."
"Yeah, that's Kaisui. She hated me because of my accident with my ice cream, and she also hates my hair color." Kusabue told Kūkiatsu in a stern tone, disliking Kaisui for the newest reason of trying to attack Kūkiatsu.
Kaisui stated in an extremely irked manner, glaring at Kusabue as the smoke cleared up, "You're just asking for my full wrath to be unleashed, you little brat."
Kaisui shot out several crescent-shaped bullets of Water Magic from her mouth, liking how they were part of a spell called Aqua Ocean Slice, and Kaisui watched her projectiles strike the icy ground. They created miniature ocean blue explosions, which had their waves of sound quickly absorbed by Kusabue, but those bursting explosions quickly became average-sized ocean waves that headed straight for the siblings! Kūkiatsu wasted no time with dodging the waves that moved in various directions pertaining to how Kaisui moved her hands, and he was able to easily analyze her attack.
In fact, Kūkiatsu analyzed the attack precisely enough to where he made silent hand motions for Kusabue to send her Sound Magic down into her feet. She followed his instructions for the aura to engulf her feet, and Kusabue made some of Kaisui's waves crash into each other. The waves of water slammed each other to create more sound waves that Kusabue absorbed into her palms, and she released a cannon shot of her Sound Magic after placing her hands next to each other. Kusabue activated a spell called Melody Beam, and she simply fired a thin shamrock green beam from the space in between her hands.
The thin beam had circular sound waves around five different parts of it while the sound waves grew larger to spread outward with each passing second, but an immensely large blast soon occurred! Its power sent Kusabue flying backwards while Kaisui's Water Magic only amplified Kusabue's spell, but the intensity of the attack also sent Kūkiatsu flying high into the air. He ended up being flung to a different part of the town, which made Kaisui widen her eyes in a satisfied manner at how Kūkiatsu seemed to be heading towards a certain part of the theme park, and Kaisui ran off at high speeds to get to his location. She left Kusabue on the street, ignoring how her large attack struck several waves to make ocean blue blasts occur, and Kaisui felt like Kūkiatsu was an opponent who needed to be eliminated before getting her revenge on Kusabue.
10 minutes later...
Kūkiatsu was sent flying into the air, but applying a dense amount of Wind Magic to his feet allowed the teenager to jump on the air like it was a solid floor. Regaining his footing for jumping did take a few seconds of time, but jumping high off of the air to be above the town made Kūkiatsu see that Seigan Town had several wintery blue streets while the theme park had different areas. He needed to take this fight to an area where people weren't really around, since he didn't want innocent civilians to get hurt, and Kūkiatsu could care less if he was fighting one of Seigan's nobles.
To Kūkiatsu, he was merely fighting against someone who tried to harm his younger sister when he wasn't around. Even if Kusabue could handle herself in a fight, Kūkiatsu wondered if his younger sister could've had any chance of dealing with the consequences if Suzuna hadn't shown up to stop that fight. There was no one stopping this newest fight involving a feud that could escalate into a rivalry, but Kūkiatsu would gladly assist his sister in taking down someone who was harassing her over a very petty incident involving an icy treat.
The thought of iciness made Kūkiatsu's eyes widen in a pleased manner from seeing an icy field that was near a wall of glacial ice. He jumped on the air to go to that location as fast as he could, and Kūkiatsu liked how no innocent bystanders seemed to be in the area. With no one around to get hurt, Kūkiatsu simply smiled at the idea of fighting Kaisui in that place. He hopped on the air at quite fast, getting the attention of several amazed people who noticed him when they looked up at the grey sky, and even a certain sword-wielding mage with purple hair glanced up for a moment to see Kūkiatsu.
Kagura wondered why someone would be jumping on the air so quickly, and she was about to jump up high to follow Kūkiatsu. However, that plan was interrupted by Kaisui running past her at very high speeds to where she merely blew Kagura away with a large passing breeze. Kagura kept her black boots firmly on the icy ground, however, and she proceeded to run after Kaisui. She could sense that woman's magic to be quite strong, which made Kagura recall how the hostesses were going to fight certain people at different times in different locations. If different methods were used for luring people to different locations, then Kagura wouldn't waste this chance.
"If she's trying to make me follow her, then I'll be glad to prove that Mermaid Heel has a mage who can rival any of those people from Sabertooth." Kagura thought to herself in a calm manner, as she looked quite stern.
Kagura ran quite fast to follow Kaisui all the way down the street, before seeing her to turn to the right, and Kagura watched the blue-haired woman run towards an icy field. Kagura could feel the frosty winds coming from that field, and she wondered why those mages were meeting at that place. She chose to stay away from the situation right now, merely hiding behind the side of a building, and Kagura could sense that something was probably going to happen soon. She got to hear Kūkiatsu attempt to balance on the icy ground while the woman laughed, and Kagura wondered what the fight was about.
She started to have a thought about this situation possibly being related to some explosions that recently occurred on a nearby street, and Kagura had seen the shamrock green blast from a distance. If that was related in any way to yesterday's massive emerald green blast that oddly occurred while the hostesses were away to handle a different fight, then Kagura would still stay around to see if any other mages were worthy of being her rivals. If they weren't strong enough to defeat her, then their lives would be in her hands.
She could gladly kill anyone who deserved to be killed, but Kagura would just stay in the shadows for now. She observed the sight of Kūkiatsu and Kaisui both sliding around the ice to be on opposing sides, Kūkiatsu now being near the entrance to what appeared to be the area for a hangout that was entirely covered in white snow, and Kagura soon heard the footsteps of Kusabue running past her to get involved in what would seem like a two-on-one fight. Kagura felt a vibration of magical power as Kusabue ran past her, causing the older mage to widen her eyes with a bit of shock, and she felt like this fight would be very interesting.
"Onii-chan, it's two against one! We have the advantage, and I won't let her attacks send you flying away again!" Kusabue loudly stated to her brother with a fierce facial expression, as she entered the icy field.
Kūkiatsu responded with a serious look on his face, seeing an ocean blue aura engulf Kaisui's body, "Let's just make sure that neither of us gets too arrogant, Kusabue. This is going to be a very frosty fight."
"You're right about that, kid! Let's see if you can deal with my skills when I'm very serious!" Kaisui replied with a miffed look on her face, not holding back her strength.
She unleashed a spell called Scalding Ocean, which made Kaisui aim straight up at the sky before spitting out a large bubble of ocean blue water, and Kaisui watched the bubble quickly burst to send down ocean blue rain. The rain made loud sounds during its downpour, prompting Kusabue to try absorbing the rain, but she screamed in pain from how the rain was scalding hot like water that finished boiling in a very hot kettle. She slid back on the ground, which was now wet, and Kusabue felt like she had to fight back.
Kusabue fired a spell from her mouth, and it was known as Melodic Ring. She shot out a shamrock green ring of musical notes that made very cute sounds when the raindrops touched them, the sound in the area causing the ring to start expanding, and Kusabue loudly screamed towards the ring to make sound waves push it towards Kaisui. The ring quickly detonated, creating a powerful shamrock green blast that repelled the falling rain to melt other areas of this part of the town, and the blast's winds were absorbed when Kūkiatsu made a mint green aura surround his hands for him to absorb the heavy winds.
He felt his body become heavier from taking in the winds, but Kūkiatsu watched Kusabue engulf her hands in a shamrock green aura. That allowed her to pick up Kūkiatsu, and Kusabue aggressively threw him towards Kaisui. Kūkiatsu could see her very clearly while the blast's light began to fade away, ignoring the shamrock green clouds of smoke, and Kūkiatsu made two mint green tornadoes of wind heavily engulf his fists. He was ready to attack Kaisui from the front while Kusabue ran fast on the ice to strike her from behind, but Kaisui quickly grabbed Kūkiatsu's wrists while Kusabue surprisingly saw a foot emerge from Kaisui's back to block one of her powerful kicks.
She looked quite startled to see another person's head slowly emerge from the raindrops that were in Kaisui's hair, and Kusabue noticed how the person looked exactly like Kaisui while she wore a cyan blue rose in her hair. The rose really complimented her elegant dress, which was a cyan blue and ebony corset dress that had cyan blue ruffled sleeves, and she wore four cyan blue bracelets that resembled circular ocean waves that were forming vortexes. The bracelets went well with her neon blue snow boots, too, and her eyes were in the color of neon blue.
Those neon blue eyes definitely made Kaisui's twin stand out from her, as Kaisui had dark blue eyes, but both of the women who appeared to be conjoined twins were now grappling with the siblings. Kūkiatsu couldn't get his wrists free from Kaisui, which only prompted him to infuse more Wind Magic into the mint green tornadoes for them to grow large enough to nearly touch Kaisui's body, and Kūkiatsu really wished that he had learned a fusion spell for this type of situation. That didn't stop Kusabue, however, and she simply let out a loud scream to make an explosive sound wave occur at close-range.
The shamrock green explosion sent the twins towards Kūkiatsu, who struck Kaisui in the chest with the mint green tornadoes for them to unleash explosive bursts of wind, and the mint green blasts that occurred were quite large. They sent Kūkiatsu flying backwards while the twins were pushed forward, and Kusabue absorbed the sound waves of the blasts. She also briefly put her hands on the ground to take in the vibrations from the blasts, gaining more energy for her Sound Magic, and she watched the twins stand up at the same time as Kūkiatsu.
He also got to see the twins get up to brush themselves off with their different pairs of arms, even moving their limbs through each other's bodies to wipe off certain specks of dust or ice. They both seemed cold as ice while glaring at their opponents, not wanting Kūkiatsu and Kusabue to think that they had the superior amount of teamwork. Kaisui and her twin sister both applied auras of magic to their feet, respectively in the colors of ocean blue and cyan blue. Those enhancements allowed the women to move quite fast, and they harshly struck Kūkiatsu in the chest with a combination of punches!
"How do you like Aqua Barrage from my sister and I, you fool? Kōsui and I get along quite well, especially when she can move her arms or legs from anywhere in my body to dish out powerful attacks." Kaisui asked Kūkiatsu with an arrogant smirk on her face, before explaining her sister's abilities in a somewhat rude manner.
Upon seeing Kūkiatsu get sent flying several feet backwards by those punches while Kōsui stepped into some puddles of hot water to apply the magic to her feet, Kusabue angrily shouted, "You won't be unleashing anymore powerful attacks after dealing with my next spell!"
Kōsui told Kusabue with an evil look in her eyes, speaking with a somewhat deeper voice than her twin sister as she quickly spun around and readied her legs for an attack, "That's where you're wrong, you little punk!"
Kōsui proceeded to strike Kusabue with a spell called Cyan Triple Kick, which simply involved both of her legs aggressively striking Kusabue in the chest while Kaisui added her left leg into the attack for it to be a harsh three-legged kick, and Kōsui watched Kusabue be sent flying several feet away. She rolled across the icy and frigid ground, before crashing into an icy pillar, and Kusabue groaned in pain. That wouldn't stop her from retaliating, however. She jumped up high into the air, and Kusabue activated a spell called Melody Whistle.
The spell made a shamrock green aura surround Kusabue's body while she aimed her head down at her opponents, and Kusabue inhaled a high amount of air. She let it all out in the form of a peaceful whistle that was part of a melody, causing the aura around her body to start healing her own injuries, and the spell came with an added effect. When Kusabue purposely aimed her body down at her opponents to strike Kōsui in the head, her body started to feel denser like she had become tempered steel. That was because of the sound waves bouncing off of the dense ice, and they reflected its density back at her.
Kusabue began to throw several punches at Kaisui's body while infusing more Sound Magic into them, making her fists hit quite hard, and she struck Kaisui harshly enough for her to start coughing up blood. After twenty more seconds of throwing many punches to damage Kaisui, Kusabue's density began to fade away. She had been able to notice that absorbing sound waves was impossible during the usage of that spell, meaning that it would have to be charged up to a much higher level before unleashing it in a close-combat situation, and Kusabue noticed how her opponents weren't standing very steady. Still, that wouldn't stop Kōsui from angrily scowling at the circumstances.
"Kaisui, it's time that we stopped playing around with these brats." Kōsui sternly told her sister, as she made a cyan blue aura heavily engulf her body.
That prompted Kaisui to reply in a calm manner, after sighing with some annoyance in her voice while she looked bored, "You're always so impatient, Kōsui. Oh, well. Let's unleash our full power."
Kūkiatsu told Kusabue with a worried facial expression, "Be careful, Kusabue! They're going to use a lethal technique!"
The spell that the sisters chose to use would certainly be lethal, and it was known as Watery Frigid Sunburst. The spell required Kaisui and Kōsui to stretch their arms out in opposite directions, and the two auras surrounded their bodies. The two sisters unleashed enough magical power for them to separate from each other, and Kōsui jumped quite high into the air. That action was followed by Kaisui firing ten dark blue spheres of Water Magic from her hands for them to go into the sky, before sending the aura upward for them to start becoming ocean blue.
The ocean blue spheres soon floated around Kōsui, surrounding her as she slowly unleashed a cyan blue vortex of water from some water droplets that formed on her hands. The cyan blue vortex shined brightly with the bubbles around it starting to glow with thin beams of ocean blue light shining outward, which made the spell have the appearance of a sunburst that interestingly involved blue water. Kōsui aimed her hands down at Kusabue and Kūkiatsu, sending a large vortex of cyan blue water towards them while the immense pressure of the rotating vortex made the ocean blue bubbles start to burst, and several falling beams headed towards the siblings.
Kūkiatsu watched Kusabue attempt to unleash a powerful spell of Sound Magic to have her attack be amplified by the water while also countering the sisters' fusion spell, but Kūkiatsu decided that he was more suited to handle this attack. He activated a spell of Wind Magic called Typhoon Tempest Arcwind, and Kūkiatsu fired a large mint green cloud from his left hand. The cloud quickly went upward to shield him and Kusabue from the beams, causing several heavy gusts of air to emerge from the ground while ocean blue blasts occurred on it, and the winds were powerful enough to create four large tornadoes around the cloud. One of the tornadoes went up high to collide with the vortex, creating a mint green blast in midair while the cold winds added more density to the other tornadoes, and the mint green winds ended up bursting in the form of a spiraling triple helix to smash into the falling beams.
As the winds smashed into the beams to make mint green blasts occur, Kūkiatsu activated a spell called Aerial Wind Pulse. He fired a mint green vortex from his mouth while the vortex swirled around in a clockwise direction, and the back end of the vortex had a mint green orb floating in midair. The orb absorbed the winds of the blasts, before Kūkiatsu raised his right hand to make the winds go upward to strike Kōsui directly, before putting his hands together and separating them twice to make his large attack split into two smaller ones.
Kūkiatsu lowered his right hand down to his side to make one of the vortexes go down towards Kaisui, and he exhaled a large amount of wind from his mouth to boost the power of the tornadoes. They gained more strength to where their actions of crashing into the twins caused large mint green blasts to occur while all of the Wind Magic caused the orb to brightly emanate thin beams of mint green light, and Kūkiatsu watched the orb stay in midair. He planned on utilizing it for his next spell, since the battle was far from over.
The battle definitely didn't end yet, as he saw his opponents fall to the ground after having to endure the powerful amounts of energy in his attacks. Kūkiatsu narrowed his green eyes at the sight of the twin sisters getting up, but Kūkiatsu was soon startled at how the tearing winds were strong enough to make the sisters deal with sounds of their limbs starting to tear off like they were paper-thin. Kaisui's left arm and left leg tore off from her body to hit the ground while Kōsui lost her right arm and right leg, but what happened next was quite a surprise.
Kaisui and Kōsui stunned Kūkiatsu and Kusabue by making gushes of dark blue and cyan blue water respectively emerge from the areas where they were missing limbs, causing the sisters to now have blue limbs that had spikes protruding from them, and Kaisui gently touched her left leg to feel that its properties were like tempered steel. That didn't seem to be powerful enough for her, however, and Kaisui made a dark blue aura heavily engulf her body. She began to have fanged teeth while her hair grew somewhat longer, before her hair and the flower in it became ocean blue.
"You're advancing to the highest level of power, Kaisui? Well, that's fine with me." Kōsui asked Kaisui with a devilish smirk on her face, before speaking and grinning with a confident facial expression.
As Kōsui made a cyan blue aura heavily engulf her body to where her hair became pale blue and grew somewhat longer, she calmly asked Kaisui as her own flower became pale blue, "What are you in the mood to do to that filthy little brat, sis?"
Kaisui replied in a menacing way, noticing how Kōsui also had fanged teeth while she started to sadistically glare at Kusabue, "I'm in the mood to tear her apart."
Upon seeing her opponents boost their own magical power, Kusabue sternly stated while getting her body into a certain stance, "If you're going to try and kill me, then let's just see if you can do that! You won't be able to lay a finger on my brother again after I use this technique, and it's called Melodic Harmony of-"
Kusabue was interrupted by Kūkiatsu grabbing her from behind by the hood of her green winter jacket, and he sternly glared at his younger sister. She watched him look quite uncomfortable with the idea of how she almost used that technique, and Kūkiatsu was fully aware of its severe consequences. Not only would Kusabue be taking an enormous risk by using a spell that was said to come with dangerous side effects, but Kūkiatsu's spell for that particular combination was quite destructive to where it would leave him with far less magical power than what he currently had.
Absorbing the winds of Seigan Town for energy would come with the drawback of how his body would be heavier and denser, but those winds would probably not be sufficient enough to replenish a high amount of magical power. That would leave Kūkiatsu defenseless in a situation where that combination attack failed to defeat the twin sisters, and that would obviously leave him at a massive disadvantage. He felt like it wouldn't be a very logical decision to use that combination technique at this point in the battle, especially with no allies around as backup.
Without Lucy or any of their other allies here right now to help them out in this fight, Kūkiatsu and Kusabue were definitely in a very tough situation. Kūkiatsu started to look a bit hesitant about what to do next, and Kusabue took notice of her brother starting to have an anxious facial expression about using a combination spell that could have drawbacks. The sight of Kūkiatsu starting to take a step back only made Kusabue narrow her eyes in frustration, before making her teeth chomp down on his left hand with a bit of Sound Magic making waves come from the bite to make him focus on the pain instead of his anxiety.
"Kusabue!" Kūkiatsu shouted with an annoyed look on his face, as he winced in pain.
She replied to him in a stern manner, still having her eyes narrowed, "Onii-chan, we have to beat these twin sisters! If they ever encounter our friends, then these girls could be trouble for them! Yukino-san and the others don't need to handle anymore of our problems, and it's important for them to put their time into finding the next ring!"
Upon taking in Kusabue's words and calming down, Kūkiatsu thought to himself with a small smile of understanding on his face, "Kusabue, I must be a terrible older brother for you to bite me like that. If you're certain that we have to use some powerful techniques, then let's go for it."
Kūkiatsu proceeded to make a fanged mouth with his hands while letting his attack seem somewhat reminiscent of Lucy's first spell involving Wind Magic, but Kūkiatsu had learned an advanced version called Aerial Bursting Zephyr Gust. The spell required Kūkiatsu to let the fanged mouth open up for it to absorb a high amount of winds, and he swung his arms upward. Kūkiatsu aimed the winds at the sky while releasing a high amount of magical power to increase the strength and density of the winds in his hands, and he let the large burst of winds go up high to reach its highest point.
As that attack was going towards its highest point before it would come back down upon Kōsui and Kaisui, Kusabue quickly aimed her eyes down at the ground. She kept looking down while building up magical power in her mouth, and Kusabue screamed loudly to unleash a powerful sound wave that created a large shamrock green blast! Its power sent her flying quite high into the air, but she screamed again to create another blast that propelled her even higher. Kusabue was soon above Kūkiatsu's attack, and she unleashed a spell known as Destructive Decibels. The spell caused ten shamrock green bells to be in Kusabue's hands while the bells were attached to shamrock green strings that were wrapped around her fingers, and Kusabue quickly moved all of her fingers around to start making the bells chime.
The chiming of the bells grew louder with all of the sound waves that were being generated down towards the battlefield, and the sound waves even struck Kūkiatsu's attack to make it burst into several mint green beams that were being propelled down towards the siblings' foes at much faster speeds! The sound waves were also being propelled downward at faster speeds because of the winds going in the same direction for the sound to be on the same path as them, and the barrage of sound waves merged with the beams to create several enormous shamrock green and mint green blasts that seemed to drill through the ice. The debris of snow and ice chunks ended up bursting across the battlefield, causing Kūkiatsu and Kusabue to jump upward.
Despite jumping upward and applying Wind Magic to his hands as a way to punch through the nearby ice chunks to create a smokescreen in preparation for the next combination attack, Kūkiatsu's idea actually worked against him. He could no longer see the ground, which allowed Kaisui to jump up out of the hole with Kōsui aggressively jumping upward by her side, and the loud sounds of the cracking ice also created several waves of sound that Kusabue absorbed into her hands. She only focused on that task for a few moments, though.
After quickly absorbing the sound waves, Kusabue widened her eyes in shock from hearing the twin sisters emerge from the smoke. They were now positioned on opposite sides of Kūkiatsu and Kusabue, prompting Kūkiatsu to activate a spell called Arcwind Typhoon Mirage. Kūkiatsu shot out a large typhoon of mint green winds from his left hand, firing it at Kōsui, and the sounds of the typhoon's winds were hastily absorbed into Kusabue's hands. She softly screamed down at the ground, unleashing a sound wave that propelled her a few feet upward in midair for Kaisui to be distracted.
When Kaisui wasn't paying attention to Kūkiatsu, he wasted no time with making a mint green aura of Wind Magic heavily engulf his left hand. He aggressively threw the aura at the typhoon, which was currently making Kōsui spin around in midair at high speeds while the winds had a high amount of density, and Kūkiatsu watched the typhoon immediately burst into several mint green arrows of wind. They all quickly surrounded Kōsui, who was unable to move at the moment after dealing with the typhoon's heavy winds, and Kōsui was struck with a barrage of arrows!
The arrows of Wind Magic created powerful mint green blasts in midair, bursting to be reminiscent of fireworks being set off during the daytime, and the winds aggressively blew through Seigan Town. Kusabue inhaled the sound of the wind, before exhaling it to make herself fly higher, and she watched Kūkiatsu turn to face Kaisui while Kōsui screamed in pain. Kūkiatsu moved his hands towards Kaisui as a way to redirect the winds towards her, and the winds aggressively took the shape of eight large wind arrows. The projectiles proceeded to strike Kaisui from eight different directions, creating eight mint green blasts in midair, and Kūkiatsu started to smile in a confident manner.
"It looks like those attacks managed to defeat them, Kusabue. By far, that's our best victory." Kūkiatsu calmly stated with a proud smile on his face, as he started to descend to the ground with Kusabue quickly descending after him.
Kusabue suddenly exclaimed with a stunned facial expression, as she could hear the sounds of their foes still breathing, "Wait, onii-chan! I'm not so sure about that!"
Kūkiatsu and Kusabue got to hear Kaisui and Kōsui exclaim simultaneously, both women looking quite angry as they emerged from the mint green smoke with different blue auras engulfing their bodies, "This is the end for you two brats!"
The sisters were approaching the siblings at high speeds while Kūkiatsu panted slightly, disliking how he chose to use multiple strong spells in this fight, and he couldn't move as fast as Kusabue. Kusabue noticed that Kōsui was lunging down towards Kūkiatsu with a cyan blue aura engulfing her right fist, seeing her go for a punch right before she was about to make a strong attack of Water Magic be infused with that harsh punch, and Kusabue noticed that her brother couldn't build up magical power fast enough to easily counter Kōsui's attack.
Therefore, Kōsui's attack would have to be intercepted. Kusabue unleashed a large sound wave up at Kōsui's fist by loudly screaming up at the enemy, causing a shamrock green explosion to surround Kōsui's fist, and Kusabue could hear how she only slowed her opponent's movement down by a slight amount. Kōsui charged down towards the siblings, prompting Kusabue to quickly build up power in her legs to quickly kick Kūkiatsu several feet away from the situation as a way to shield him from harm, and Kusabue couldn't react fast enough to the sight of Kōsui brutally punching her in the face!
The sound of Kusabue letting out a scream of pain while seeing her also cough up blood caused Kūkiatsu to have an extremely startled look on his face, his eyes displaying feelings of concern as they widened in a very worried manner. He saw Kusabue roll across the icy ground to end up crashing into some cyan blue plants, her body softly touching some cyan blue leaves, and Kūkiatsu could see some blood slowly emerging from what seemed to be a harsh wound that came from Kusabu being damaged after initially hitting the icy ground.
"Kusabue!" Kūkiatsu shouted with worry in his voice, noticing how the young girl was motionless while he noticed that a scrape on her arm was bleeding.
Kaisui harshly told him while charging up an attack, smirking evilly as she aimed it in Kusabue's direction, "It's that little brat's own fault that she'll die here. She never should've dirtied my dress, and the fact that such a dirty subhuman attacked me today just puts me in the mood to end her life."
Kūkiatsu stated aloud with his fists clenched, angrily glaring at Kaisui and building up as much magical power as he could for an attack that could hopefully knock Kaisui off-balance, "As long as I'm still around, you're not going to end my sister's life! We're mages from Sabertooth, and we'll definitely take you down!"
A feminine voice spoke from behind Kūkiatsu, walking up to the situation in a calm manner, "In your current position, it looks like you're more suited for a backup role instead of taking the lead."
The person who had entered the situation was Kagura Mikazuchi, the strongest mage from the guild known as Mermaid Heel, and she easily walked across the ice to be standing next to Kūkiatsu. He recalled seeing the Grand Magic Games that had taken place several months ago, noticing Kagura to be the same woman who defeated Yukino quite easily while even slicing up the Celestial Spirit known as Ophiucus, and the purple-haired woman remained quite calm. She merely turned to face Kūkiatsu with her sword still sheathed, making him wonder if she'd slice the air to push him away from the fight.
Instead, the woman who wore a white blazer with gold lining merely closed her eyes while aiming her left hand at Kaisui. The snobbish woman quickly felt an intense amount of gravity come down on her, causing her body to be pinned down against the ice, and Kagura quickly aimed her hand at Kōsui to make the other antagonist feel the same amount of pressure coming down on her body. The twin sisters were now immobilized, making Kūkiatsu start to open his mouth in a shocked manner at how one mage was so powerful to take on two mages with no hesitation, and he simply stared at Kagura.
She merely frowned at him in a disapproving manner, noticing how his eyes were starting to look at her black leggings that matched her white skirt and white knee-high boots. Kūkiatsu's focus towards her fashion only made Kagura point towards Kusabue, who needed medical attention, and Kūkiatsu turned to see Kusabue stand up in a dazed manner. She seemed to have just woken up, but her nose had inhaled the aroma of the plants that she had landed on. Kusabue seemed to be stumbling around in a drunken state, causing Kūkiatsu to slightly smile at how he knew this could be advantageous, and Kagura remained calm as she thought about how saving the rookies from harm meant that their lives were in her hands when Yukino wasn't around to aid them in a fight.
How was Chapter 48? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Sorry for the long and unannounced hiatus. Several real-life things kept me from uploading. Kūkiatsu and Kusabue are now facing off against some powerful twin sisters, but it seems like Kūkiatsu needs to get stronger. Kagura may be the one to help Kūkiatsu be the one to try protecting Kusabue, instead of it usually being the other way around. Kūkiatsu may learn some new spells, too. As for Lucy, she and the others are training with Suzuna while the battle is going on. Still, will they show up in time to see the battle? Let's see how the story goes. Also, this is the fifth part of the Azure Ice Arc! I'll update soon. :)
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