I'm alive! I'm so sorry for the long delay, but I've been swamped with essays and exams. I barley had any free time to think of what to write for this chapter and actually sit down and write it. The next chapter will also be delayed, because I have finals projects to work on and I will not have time to write. But I hope this holds you over until around Christmas.
Some of you have been wondering where the link to the Wiki for this story is. I have the link posted on my profile page.
Lastly, over the month hiatus, my Beta-sama, redscarfninja, had a birthday! If you are looking for a really well written story that does not compromise on details and is taking its time to flesh out characters and world build, then I recommend checking out their story "Holes In The Sky". If you are willing to wait, you are guaranteed very high quality writing that is like eye candy.
One vs. One
July, X781
"Begin!" Kagura shouts.
It was summer time once again in Fiore, and with that came the blistering heat and the suffocating humidity, courtesy of Lake Sirena. Kagura had the sleeves of her shirt rolled up, her red tie was missing, and some of the buttons of her white collared shirt were undone. She was standing in the field by the guild and was staring at her opponent - or rather, her student.
Risley Law.
As soon as Kagura's words left her mouth, Risley rushes towards her, and a golden trail of light follows her at the base of her feet. Risley's acceleration skyrockets, and she lets out an audible "whoop!" as she speeds towards Kagura, who has her arms crossed, expression calm. Risley jumps and thrusts her foot forwards, but Kagura saw the move coming. She ducks and rolls out of the way, avoiding the human missile with ease. Risley lands clumsily from her failed kick, her ankles wobbling from the sudden collision with the ground, but quickly recovers and rebounds with another blitz towards Kagura with her fists raised.
Kagura raises her own fists and intercepts each strike with punches of her own, their knuckles connecting painfully several times. Risley began smirking despite this, causing Kagura to raise a questioning brow. Risley's smirk only grew wider and then suddenly, her body begins to glow and change. It becomes thinner, taking on an hour glass shape and then without warning, the speed of her punches skyrocket, catching Kagura by surprise. Her eyes widen, and before she could even think another thought, Risley lands a solid left hook squarely on her cheek, knocking her head back a few inches from the force.
Risley grins and jumps back a few feet. "It looks like I finally beat you, Shishou!" she proudly boasts.
Kagura slowly moves her head back to its original position, her hand simultaneously coming up to rub her sore cheek. "I admit, that little stunt you pulled just now surprised me, but one punch does not mean you've won." She cracks her neck, wincing, then raises her hands and tauntingly beckons her over with her fingers. "Let's see how you fair when your opponent fights back..." She rips her sheathed katana out of its scabbard and holds it in front of herself threateningly, which brought out a sudden nervousness in Risley. Kagura smirks at her opponent's sudden lack of confidence, but then Risley squares her shoulders, unwilling to back down from this.
With her thinner body, her speed was many times quicker than before, and thus, her charge towards the other girl was more than twice as fast. But even with her greatly increased speed, it still wasn't enough to get past Kagura's defenses as her punch is quickly blocked by Kagura's sword. It was Kagura's turn to smirk, and she grabs Risley by the wrist. Kagura suddenly glows, and the area around her becomes enveloped in an invisible pressure. Immediately, Risley reverts to her original form and Kagura took the opportunity caused by the shock of the other girl to hit her right in the stomach with the pommel of her hilt, knocking the wind out of her and sends her crashing to the ground.
"Never count your victories so early, Risley. You never know when your enemy is holding back." Kagura says while releasing her magic.
"Y-Yes, *wheeze* Shishou…" Risley manages to get out.
"Though, I have to admit that I never thought of using gravity to alter one's appearance like that. I can definitely see that being useful in the future…" Kagura compliments as she helps the other girl off the ground.
"You really think so?" Risley perks up, and is met with a nod.
"I thought it was impressive too." Another voice chimes in.
Both girls look towards the source, to see Rubina standing a few yards away. Her long red hair was put back into a loose pony tail that curled slightly at the bottom and her bangs were out in front of her face. Covering her shoulders were bronze colored armor and a matching chest piece was covering her white, long sleeved blouse. Her lower half was covered by a long red skirt and she was wearing black leggings and brown shoes. Around her waist was a brown leather scabbard with a sheathed katana. Her most noticeable feature, however, was the lack of broken leg.
"Ah, Rubi-chan, how, uh, long were you watching…" Risley trails off in awkward embarrassment, her cheeks slightly red.
"Long enough to see the one mistake in your strategy…" Rubina starts walking over to the duo with a smirk on her face. "Using gravity magic against Kagura isn't really a smart idea. After all…" She stops in front of Kagura, who was confused as to where Rubina was going with her point. "She is the Gravity-Hime…" Rubina suddenly pinches her cheek.
Kagura slaps the offending hand away from her face, clearly not amused by Rubina's antics. "Do you have anything better to do than to disrespect men in front of my student, Rubi?" Her right eye is twitching from annoyance. Risley starts laughing, but is quickly silenced by a glare from Kagura that promised pain if she continued.
Rubina shrugs. "I was bored, and I remembered that we haven't had a spar in a long while, so I figured that I could annoy you into a fight…" She trails off, smirking.
"Well, if you wanted to annoy me, it's working…" Kagura sighs. "But you will have to wait until I am done teaching my student for today." She turns her head back to Risley. "Ok, Risley, let's try that ag-"
"Shishou, I think I'm done for today…" Risley interjects and points to a forming bruise on her stomach, and has a slight grimace on her face. "I think you might have hit me a little too hard, and…" Her grimace becomes a grin. "I kinda want to see you two fight. I don't think I've seen one of your spars…"
Kagura eyes her student seriously for a minute, before sighing in defeat. "Fine. But I expect extra effort tomorrow…" She locks eyes with Risley. "Is that clear?" She says in a deathly serious voice which causes Risley to sweat in panic.
"Yes, Shishou!" Risley yells out, scrambling far away from the two and then sits down on the grass. She then begins to eagerly watch them, waiting for the fireworks to start.
"What's going on here?" Comes the voice of Araña from behind her.
"Shhh! I just convinced Kagura to fight Rubi and I never actually seen them fight before!" Risley whispers excitedly. "So take a seat and enjoy the show! Shame I don't have popcorn…."
"Oh? Kagura-nee and Rubi-nee are fighting!?" Araña says, matching her excitement as she takes a seat next to Risley. "I haven't seen them fight in forever!" She becomes giddy. "I wonder if Rubi will be finally able to tie up the record!"
"Record?" Risley inquires.
Araña grins at the other girl. "Currently, the record stands at 90 wins for Kagura-nee, and 89 wins for Rubi-nee. Rubi-nee has been catching up since they started using magic, but they haven't fought in forever! I wonder what new tricks they got up their sleeve?"
"Well, this just got a whole lot more exciting then. Don't ya agree?" Risley now has a grin that matched the other girl's.
"This is gonna be awesome!" Araña cheers, throwing her arms up in excitement.
Kagura looks to Rubi and sighs. "Well, Rubi, you got your wish. Standard rules?"
Rubina nods. "Yes, Standard Rules. All magic allowed, no cheap shots, and no holding back punches." She then grins and cracks her knuckles. "I can't wait to beat ya into the ground…" Rubina's form becomes surrounded by a bright red aura.
Kagura smirks. "I'd liked to see you try…" A contrasting blue aura suddenly springs to life around her form, and she stares intensely into Rubina's eyes. Without breaking eye contact, she slashes her sheathed sword directly at the other girl's head.
Rubina ducks just as the sword was about to crash into her temple, and immediately launches a high kick that is intercepted by Kagura's forearm. A thunderous clap is created as the two connect, and a visible shock wave races outwards across the grass. Crimson electricity suddenly sparks on Rubina's leg, and Kagura wastes no time disengaging, immediately leaping several feet away as torrent of sparks erupt from Rubina's leg.
"Using the magic already, Rubi?" Kagura inquires as she grips her katana with both hands, and points it towards the redhead.
Rubina lowers her leg and shrugs. "I was just testing your reflexes…" She then draws her sword from its sheathe with one hand. "But if you want a sword fight…" She points the blade out in front her and towards Kagura. "I would be happy to oblige-" She lunges towards Kagura, covering the distance between them in what seems like an instant, creating a vortex behind her that kicks up loose dirt.
Without any time to think, Kagura raises her sword and it clashes with the other girl's. Another shock wave is created as an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. Rubina immediately follows up her lunge with a series of blistering strikes that are countered blow for blow, creating sparks each time their swords connect.
Rubina's sword suddenly becomes enshrouded in a crackling storm of electricity as it connects with Kagura's sheathed blade. Immediately, the sheathe becomes charred black, and caught fire. Kagura's eyes widen in surprise, and a white glow enveloped her as an invisible force erupts from her and slams into Rubina, sending her flying a few feet before landing gracefully on her feet.
"You… You Jerk! Was it really necessary to ruin my sheathe like that!?" Kagura shouts angrily as she inspects the ruined sheathe of her sword, which was no longer on fire, but is still smoldering and crumbling into nothing, revealing the blade underneath. Kagura flicks the broken sheathe off, which brakes in half upon hitting the ground, and inspects her blade for any damage, but finds nothing of concern. She sighs in relief, before glaring at the red head across from her. "You're lucky you didn't ruin my blade, Rubi, because you would have definitely felt my wrath!"
Rubina shrugs, a smirk adorning her face. "With that sheathe gone, you can fight seriously now." She rushes once more, sword glowing bright red, arcs of electricity sparking outwards, giving no time for Kagura to retort.
Kagura's sword glows white as she moves her sword into position to block, and just as they are about to connect, Kagura's sword pulses brightly, and Rubina's sword is suddenly deflected backwards. This leaves Rubina wide open for a split second, and in that split second of stunned confusion, Kagura capitalizes on the opportunity and delivers a painful roundhouse kick to the redhead's face.
Rubina quickly recovers from the kick just in time to dodge a punch aimed straight at her solar plexus. She goes to strike at Kagura once more, but once again, her sword is deflected mysteriously just as it is about to connect with Kagura's. Luckily, the same trick didn't work twice, because Rubina performs multiple back flips to dodge Kagura's vicious slash, and puts several feet between them.
Kagura presses her advantage and rushes towards Rubina, her sword glowing a gleaming white as she jumps into the air and delivers a powerful downward strike. Rubina holds her sword with both hands and puts her sword above her head, and their swords clash, sending a shower of stray magic-power outwards. Rubina feels an unusual amount of weight from the strike, and it feels like she just intercepts a speeding semi-truck with her sword. Her arms burn from the enormous amount of weight she is feeling, and her feet dig into the ground. Rubina grits her teeth as she uses all of her strength to repel Kagura's strike, and leaps backwards.
"You like what I did there?" Kagura asks, her voice exuding sarcasm. "I got the idea from you…"
Rubina was panting lightly and her arms are starting to burn from the strain that was put upon them. "Using gravity to repel my attacks and then increasing the weight of your sword to multiply the force of your strikes… I didn't expect you to actually use that against me…" She takes a deep breath and then smirks. "Hey Kagura, I think it's time we stop holding back…" Her magical aura suddenly flares to life around her form, engulfing her in a transparent crimson shroud.
"Heh, I was wondering when you were gonna say that…" Her aura then flares in response, engulfing, her form in blue.
The two stare each other down silently, both waiting for the first move and all that could be heard is the sound of the air being displaced by the sheer magic power radiating from the two teens.
Rubina is the first to move as she suddenly steps forward and extends her arm with two fingers pointed forward. In a blink of an eye, arcs of electricity spark along her arm, and a massive bolt of crimson lightning explode from her finger tips.
Kagura acts on pure reflex and raises her sword just in time for the bolt to reach her. Instead of hitting the blade of her sword dead on, the bolt warps around her gravity enhanced blade, and it carries on until it hits the forest behind her, causing a tree to explode into splinters. Unfortunately, Kagura has no time to retaliate as she suddenly finds Rubina above her with a massive hammer constructed out of pure electricity gripped with both of her hands.
"Mjölnir!" Rubina shouts as the hammer collides directly with the sword. A bright flash followed by a concussive force is the result, and the ground underneath Kagura's feet cracks before exploding from the immense amount of energy being released into it, and a crater is formed.
Kagura, still standing and muscles screaming, is gritting her teeth as her gravity enhanced sword struggles to repulse Rubina's hammer of electrical death.
Rubina dissolves the hammer unexpectedly, which creates a shower of sparks, catching Kagura off guard. Rubina suddenly appears behind her in what seems like an instant to deliver a brutal kick to the center of her back.
Kagura grunts painfully as she is propelled many feet away, but manages to land in a roll and steadies herself. Rubina is suddenly in her face again and delivers nasty left hook across the face, and then feels a hit to her stomach before she could retaliate, causing her to gasp as the air leaves her lungs. Kagura's magic explodes outwards and her red-haired assailant is once again launched away from her, giving Kagura a moment to recover from the brutal hits she had just endured.
Painting heavily, Kagura sees Rubina dust herself off and then blitz towards her at blistering speeds once more. Kagura pumps magic power into body and goes into Shield Form, barley blocking Rubina's charge. Immediately, Rubina's uses her speed to her advantage and unleashes a furious onslaught of sword strikes mixed with electrically charged punches.
It was purely by Kagura's sword skills that most of what was thrown at her is deflected, but a few strikes manage to pass through her once thought impregnable defensive form, and she was soon starting to be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of strikes being thrown at her.
Thankfully for Kagura, Rubina relents with her bombardment and leaps back, and a brief, relieved sigh escapes Kagura, only for her to go on edge as Rubina starts sparking with electrical energy. Rubina then starts sprinting, but oddly, not straight at Kagura, but rather around her. The purple haired teen grew confused as she starts tracking the Rubina with her eyes, and she becomes faster and faster, leaving a line of lighting in her wake. Her eyes then grow wide in realization. "Damn!" She curses under her breath as she hastily reengages her Shield Form.
Rubina saw her get into her form and smirks as she increases her speed to as fast as she could go. Dust starts to pick up and the lightning trail behind Rubina forms a bright glowing ring around Kagura. Her form becomes blurred, and Kagura is relying purely on her senses, which are struggling to keep track of the redhead.
Rubina lunges, her sword out in front, towards Kagura at speeds that no normal human could track, leaving a trail of electricity behind her. Kagura is barely able to get her sword up in time as the two blades clashed in a explosion of sparks. Rubina leaps back into the ring of lighting she had created around Kagura, and then lunges once more from behind, scoring a direct hit.
Kagura yelps in pain and slashes her sword behind her, but was is met with nothing but air. She is then struck repeatedly from all directions, the only thing that her attacker is leaving behind is a line of red, crackling, lightning. For a few moments, her world is pain. If it weren't for the passive magic barrier all mages had, and Rubina buffering her sword with magic so that it wouldn't cut her skin, Kagura would be a bloody mess full of cuts and holes.
'I've got to slow her down! I can't take this much longer!' She thinks desperately as more and more painful hits make their mark. A frantic idea pops into her head, and her magic flares to life once more.
A giant, dark pink magic circle appears above Kagura's head and an intense, crushing pressure assaults the area underneath.
Rubina, who was just about to hit Kagura, stumbles under sudden change of gravity, and lost most of her speed. Kagura capitalizes on this opportunity.
"AHHHH!" She yells as she charges towards her opponent, her body burning and screaming from all the punishment it has endured.
Rubina, who is now wide eyed, is powerless as the intense gravity slows her down to normal speeds. Kagura is immune to her own gravity change, and her speed is much faster and her fist connects with an audible crack across the redhead's face, knocking her painfully to the ground. To prevent anymore shenanigans from the lightning mage, Kagura increases the gravity once more, effectively pinning Rubina to the ground.
Said red head is struggling against her invisible prison, but stops all movement as soon as Kagura's sword is pointed straight at her neck.
"Surre- Surrender!" Kagura pants out, her breath ragged from the amount of magic power she had consumed.
Rubina, who's cheek is starting to turn red from the vicious punch she took, smirks. "I'm not done just yet!" She yells defiantly before pumping all her magic power into her right arm, and grits her teeth as her magically enhanced muscles overcome the oppressive gravity acting upon them. With a sudden swiftness that Kagura thought impossible in this gravity, Rubina grips the sword blade at her throat, and sends a massive amount of electrical power through it.
The result is immediate as the current flows right into Kagura. The purple-nette screams in agony as a massive amount voltage shakes her body violently, and her hair goes wild, it's long strands sticking outward and forming a giant purple afro.
The shock only lasted for a moment, but that's it took for Kagura to release the gravity and collapse to the ground in excruciating pain. Her limbs were twitching and her recently acquired afro was now smoking. "Owww…Was it really necessary to do that so hard, Rubi…?" She groans.
"Heh." Rubina's cheeks flush a little. "I didn't realize how much power I put into that attack because your gravity was so strong…" She says as she extends her arm to Kagura, who shakily accepts.
Kagura is pulled up, and she starts sluggishly dusting herself off while fixing her afrofied hair. "I think I felt my heart burst out of my chest…" She whines as she starts rubbing her chest, which is still hurting immensely. She then sighs. "I concede. Thanks to you, I'm tired, sweaty, in pain, and my clothes are ruined." She deadpans.
Rubina grins. "You almost had me there with the gravity and if I wasn't so much faster than you, then I would never would have landed a strike on you."
Kagura smirks. "Well, it looks like I have been slacking on my speed training…" Her smirk grows bigger. "I think I found a new exercise for Risley and I…" She pauses and her expression becomes confused. "Speaking of Risley, where did she run off to?"
Rubina looks around before spotting said girl, who is sitting next to Araña, slack jawed and wide eyed. Frozen like a stone. Rubina starts snickering, and then lost control as she breaks out into a full-blown belly laugh.
Kagura raises a brow in confusion and turns around, and she too starts giggling.
XXX
Later that Night…
"Did you hear about the attempted invasion from Alvarez?" Rubina asks Kagura as they walks into their dorm.
Kagura shakes her head. "No, I don't know much about countries from the western continent…" Kagura says as she opens her dresser to find her night clothes. "Why did they invade? Or should I say, try to invade?"
Rubina shrugs. "I don't know, maybe conquest, maybe just because they wanted to. But thanks to the Magic Council using their giant magic space laser, we are not going out to war, so I guess we don't have to worry."
"They actually used Etherion!?" Kagura exclaims. "Wow, it must have been serious... I'm glad it is on our side. I don't want to know what it's like to be disintegrated."
"Well, I've read that Alvarez is retreating back to where they came from, so I'm not worried…" Rubina then requipes into her underwear and starts walking towards the bathroom. "Since I won our duel, I get bath first!" She says over shoulder, cocky grin on her face, and she closes the door behind her.
What Rubina failed to notice was the slight reddening of Kagura's cheeks. Said girl rapidly shakes her head. "Damn Risley implanting these perverted thoughts in my head…" She then scowls. "Me having a crush on Rubi? Ridiculous!" She scoffs before the image of Rubi walking into the bathroom in her underwear enters her head, causing her to momentarily blush. She swiftly slaps her cheek. "Stupid, sexy, Rubi!" She then sighs, and becomes bored, her eyes wonder the room aimlessly, before spotting something under the pillow on Rubina's bed. She grew curious, and before she knew it, found herself in conflict on whether to investigate. To respect Rubina's privacy or not…
…
Kagura cannot take the boredom and walks over the other girl's bed and picks up the object underneath the pillow.
In her hand is a black book that has golden letters that read Fifty Spells of Magic. Kagura quirks a brow at the title. "I've never seen this book before…" She notices a bookmark and opens the book to page that was marked. Slowly, her eyes scan over the contents of the book, and each passing moment, her eyes become wider and wider, and her face becomes redder and redder.
Kagura snaps the book shut, beat red, and frantically hides the book back under the pillow. She wipes her nose and found a small amount of blood on her finger. "Rubi… where… where did you find this… And why in the heck are you reading such… Filth…"
XXX
Celia was in the back of the library, looking frantically through the bookshelf. "Where is it!? I know I hid it back here somewhere…" She became even more frantic. "It was a first edition! I know I didn't put it anywhere else!"
XXX
Kagura was still red as a tomato. "I didn't even know that could be done with water magic…" Her eyes snap to the bathroom door, the sound of the shower still going strong. Her eyes, almost against her will, drift back to the pillow. Every second she stares at it, the more the desire to read the book grew and grew, until it became completely unbearable. "What else can you do with magic…" Kagura says as she reaches under pillow, and retrieves the book. Immediately, it is opened, and Kagura's eyes scan the it greedily. Kagura becomes so engrossed in the "novel", she doesn't notice the bathroom door open.
"Wow, Kagura, I didn't know you enjoyed such things…" Comes the voice of Rubina.
Kagura yelps in surprise and flings the book on the bed. "I-I certainly do not!" She indignantly yells back in embarrassment, her checks flushed.
Rubina has a teasing look on her face. "My favorite part is where Satomi uses the seduction magic to-"
"RUBI!" Kagura hastily interrupts.
Rubina, grinning brightly, walks towards Kagura and puts a hand on her shoulder. "Welcome to world of Adult literature, Kagura!" She exclaims cheerfully.
"That smut is not literature. It's filth, and it was not enjoyable to read at all!" Kagura yells in denial.
"Your face says otherwise…" Rubina refutes.
"T-That doesn't prove anything!" Kagura says in angry embarrassment and throws her hands up in frustration. "Ugh! I'm going to take my bath! I can't deal with you right now!" She rushes towards the bathroom and slams the door shut.
Rubina stares at the door, grinning like a madman. "Yep, she totally liked it…"
XXX
That was my first "true" third person fight scene. I feel as though it could of been better, but that's the best I could do. I will try to work on my fight choreography, as I feel it is lacking in general.
Rubi has a new outfit, and I have the link to her outfit posted on my profile page.
The manga said that Alvarez tried to invade in X781, so I wanted to at least mention it, even if it was brief. I don't think something like that could of been ignored.
Rubi really is Erza's sister. She just isn't afraid to admit that she reads "adult novels" in front of her friends. Kagura will never admit to liking those sort of things.
I hope someone got my Simpsons reference with the "Stupid, sexy, Rubi!" line.