The air was filled with the frosty mists that blessed the Witch's Forest at every daybreak. It had been eight hours since the ambassador was suffocated at dinner, and his captors were waiting to interrogate him with bated breath.
Magna Swing awoke in a cage, slowly but surely stirring as morning light trickled like honey between cold metal bars. Checking around with bleary eyes, the man could see his cell wasn't as cramped or inhospitable as one would expect from a prison; he could feel a plush bed beneath him, and to his side stood a nightstand. At least, it was probably a nightstand, he was too close to tell.
Picking his glasses up so he could stop squinting, Magna saw an entire collection of opulent furniture decorating the cage's interior, and that any evidence of the wine spilled on his jacket had vanished— as if the drink had simply never touched his suit. But more surprising to the unlucky bastard than the cushy furnishings that surrounded him was his lack of a throbbing headache. Even back home he usually got more roughed up before (or after) blacking out for the night. Whoever spirited him to this cage must've actually bothered not banging his head on the walls.
Not seeing a living soul in the vicinity, the man stepped off of his bed with a massive yawn. Regardless of the circumstances around his forced slumber, God did he need that rest. But when Magna stretched to get the last morsel of sleep out of his bones, a dark presence seeped into the room; one that made the diplomat's hairs stand on end.
It was almost like an apparition crossing the threshold, but now that his eyes had finished adjusting, Magna could recognize the silhouette of a woman in the far corner of the tower. An enormous woman. She approached in the same way a phantom draws nearer, stalking towards the caged man with malice dripping off her person and forming metaphoric puddles on the red carpet stretched across the floor.
Looking up at the giant lady, he saw that she hardly dressed like the other witches: With an open trench coat, wallet chain and ankle length skirt, she took up more space than any regular person could. Though she easily exceeded six feet in height, seeing that she was in fact a human quelled the spitfire's nerves in an instant.
Okay, so it was more like her not being the Queen calmed him down.
"Who in the Hel- er, heck are you?" Magna demanded as the newcomer pulled up a chair next to his cell.
Adjusting the hem of her flattened witch hat to reveal a strand of black hair, the giant woman replied, "Commander Boo. General of the Queen's guard." seemingly unbothered by his accusatory tone aside from her scowl.
"Oh. Well, it's a pleasure to meetcha, Boo." He replied precisely as he was trained to, smiling and extending a hand to the cage wall. "Wait! You're just gonna answer me!?"
"It's a basic question. Besides, Magnus, we already know quite a bit about you. You're a member of the magic knights… or more specifically, the Black Bulls." She leaned forward in her seat to continue her assessment closer to the hostage, expression neutral, "And judging by the magic power I can sense from you, I'd guess at the lowest possible rank."
A twitch of his face gave away more than Magna wanted, but his mouth stayed resolutely shut despite the intense woman staring him down. That intel was too specific for guessing.
"Yeah, there's no need for you to reply yet; I'll just take that silence for a yes. The Queen's coming for your interrogation, and she will make you talk."
Magna's knuckles blanched as he gripped the bars separating him from the outside world, and his gesture didn't go unnoticed by the general. Anything would be preferable to another audience with that monarch.
"Scared, huh?" Boo asked, leaning in towards his scowling face; recognizing the grave fear behind his expression, she had a deal to propose, "Tell you what, Magnus. If you can beat me in a fight, I'll just let you go."
Her scowl abated in an instant, a dark grin taking its place. "The Queen doesn't interrogate you, and you're home free. Just know that a weakling like you could never win."
Knocking the concept of freedom around in his head for a few seconds, the yankee conceded that he really didn't have a choice. He peeled his fingers off the cage wall and said, "I'll take you up on that offer. Anything to get out of here."
Standing his ground in the most gentlemanly way possible, Magna extended a hand to the general, "Madam, I challenge you to a duel."
A simple nod was the general's tacit acceptance to their fight, and not even her crooked smile could break the man's nerve. Bolting upright from her seat, Boo tore her jacket sleeves off to reveal that in addition to being massive, she was freaking jacked. Her biceps, triceps and deltoids looked like they were knit from cable, and she stood an easy eight inches taller than Magna.
The lady took a few steps back, cracked her neck, then her knuckles, and fell silent. The two irascible mages stood off, staring the other down as they waited for the 'fun' to begin. Magna watched her hands, and saw that she wouldn't be budging an inch until he'd made his first move.
Heh. How considerate.
Not bothering to wait until her concentration broke, the street punk crashed the cage open in one giant hit; curling the bars outward while he charged at Boo, his fist drawn back like a cocked gun. The giant witch assumed a stance to catch Magnus' punch, but he feinted at the point of impact, using the opportunity to slide past her. On his skid across the glossy marble, he pitched a half-dozen fireballs at Boo; smirking that he'd gotten the drop on someone with the title of General.
If only it had been so easy.
Not even needing to face the real attack, the massive witch threw a barrier behind herself to catch every one of her opponent's pitches. She said, "Ghost magic: Ectoplasmic sheet." as each fireball dissolved into embers, and then nothing at all.
Magna's face fell upon recognizing that she hadn't even put effort into the spell, but was impressed enough to find a new smile on his face, "One of those fancy-pants defensive spells, huh? I've got just the trick for that."
Turning casually around to stare down her much smaller foe, Boo put up her barrier again, telling him, "Trust me when I say those weak-ass fireballs don't stand a chance of breaking through."
"Well you ain't seen nothin' yet!" Magna shouted as he pitched a gout of flames right at his opponent's face, nearly overbalancing himself with the weight of the throw.
Boo rolled her eyes as the ambassador tried the same exact technique again, and she practically yawned from behind her shield as the fireball arced towards her; dead-certain her opponent was as good as defeated. Then, her eyes went wide.
Where did his attack go? Boo searched the air frantically in the fraction of a second she had before impact, but found nothing— not even sensing the magic of his attack. She was dumbfounded.
Popping back into existence behind her barrier, the fireball crashed straight into her face, and the explosive shot sent the muscular witch flying. Magna watched in awe of himself as she arced across the tower, half-limp and leaving cracks in her wake.
"Hmmph, to think a junior magic knight could knock me down." Wiping the blood from her nose, Boo stood back up; an almost imperceptible smirk on her lips. "I haven't had a real fight in weeks. I can't believe you're forcing me to bring out my ultimate offensive spell."
"Ultimate? Wait— you're skipping straight to 'ultimate'!?" Magna panicked, as the woman dusted herself off from his own 'ultimate' attack.
Flicking a spot of blood from her nose to the ground, Boo pointed flamboyantly at her prisoner and shouted, "Ghost Summoning Magic:「Wuthering Heights」!"
Before the diplomat's eyes, a second, feminine figure appeared beside Boo; a muscular phantom striking the same dramatic pose as her summoner. With a single finger jabbed directly at Magna, the witch stated, "There's no way for you to beat me anymore. A little punk like you doesn't stand a chance!"
"I can take you up on that. It's just a two-on-one, right? I'm always fightin' the odds!" Magna said as a fiery bat appeared between his mitts, crackling like a yule log and ready to smack someone's shit. He primed himself into a batters stance, raising the weapon up beside his head to strike when a giant fist cracked across his jaw— making the ambassador kiss the marble as his head spun.
What the hell just happened?
Though platinum stars were the only thing he could focus on from his position on the floor, all six feet, two hundred pounds of the general were sprinting straight at where Magna fell, moving like a freight train at the reeling man while he gathered his legs beneath himself.
Magna dove out of Boo's path before she could reach him, but she reacted quickly to his dash, ripping part of the room's carpet up and throwing it into his path.
"Don't you realize running is pointless? You should give up now, before I hurt you too bad."
A soft "no" left Magna's mouth as he continued on his escape route through the rug, not even bothering to use his magic to run away. The ambassador thought he was home free until the ghostly figure of「Wuthering Heights」popped out of the red carpet and punched him like a sledgehammer to the stomach.
The force of the attack was so immense he doubled over the phantom's fist, and could hear the bones of his corset crack as he was sent flying back at the giant witch.
Ouch. Is this what happened last time too? Ouch
On the room's far side, Boo was already primed to break the ambassador in half, drawing her arm back like a pissed-off street brawler as he careened towards her fist. But at the last moment before impact, Magna—without thinking—threw another fireball to hurl himself into the ground rather than Boo's backbreaking haymaker.
Rolling back to his feet with a loud, painful skid, Magna clutched at the bruise already forming on his midsection, but followed the trajectory of his warden's fist as it arced through empty space. Boo was fully aware she'd just missed the easiest attack possible, so the general crashed her hand into the back wall in frustration; leaving a deep indentation of her knuckles behind, with cracks spreading out from the epicenter like a spiderweb.
She shook her head while extricating her fist from the stone, and brought the bizarre ghost back to her side. "Good grief. I really can't go easy on you, can I?"
Panting, Magna said, "Nottachnce,bbbs." though he meant, 'Not a chance, Babes.'
"You're a fun one." As the stone tower crumbled behind Boo, she started throwing the detritus at the ambassador like jagged bullets. "Let's see you get out of this."
Magna ducked the first several attacks before he saw them coming, but Boo was pitching them fast enough that bruises were beaten into him by the sheer number of rocks thrown the his way.
Just like his fight with Yami, although he was starting to sense attacks before they happened, he wasn't fast enough to stop them.
To save his poor body from further injury, Magna threw a salvo of fireballs back at her attack to match— risking another of that bizarre ghost's punches to save his own skin. While his spell did eradicate Boo's horizontal rockslide, the only thing Magna could see in the dissipating smoke was another fist careening straight at him; it struck the fire mage in the chest with so much force he could almost hear his ribs give out.
The young man collapsed back and wheezed, tears welling up behind his glasses as his lungs refused to draw anything in. Though he could barely breathe, and his eyes were bleary, Magna scrutinized the tower wall behind his warden and had a terrible idea.
He rose back to his boots, and started hobbling closer to Boo.
"Oh? You're approaching me?" She asked as the man took another heavy step, "Instead of running away, you're coming straight here?"
"Of course. I can't run away from you without getting closer."
"What? That doesn't make any sense. Either way, any attack you use, 「Wuthering Heights」 can counter effortlessly."
That's what I'm counting on! Magna thought as he threw a fireball behind himself, closing both his eyes to focus completely on predicting Boo's next move. Like the last two times, the phantom emerged from the fire to destroy him; unlike the last two times, the young mage punched back. Successfully catching the ghost's fist on his knuckles, Magna winced, but then「Wuthering Heights」second hand came crashing into the boy's corset, and he was launched away with a 'crack'.
All according to plan.
Breaking into a dead sprint the instant he touched the ground, the yankee escaped the chamber through Boo's broken wall, rushing straight past the ghost witch and fleeing the castle tower by using her own attack as a very, very painful boost.
The general stood aghast as the prisoner slipped past, appalled that the most important diplomat in the nation could escape her watch. She gazed out at the sunlight pouring into the room, and punched the wall again. Just as I suspected… that boy is a genius. He's way smarter than he looks.
Not realizing the irony of her thoughts, Boo leapt through the crumbled ruins after the escaped hostage.
—
Despite the pained clutching at his injuries, Magna was grateful for even a second's respite from that struggle as he sank into the impenetrable fog of the forest below. It was a hazard that left him half-blind, but that was preferable to being in Boo's sightline even when it meant getting slapped by a dozen errant branches.
The young man hit the unseen ground with a soft crunch, but took off in a dead run without making so much as a peep from the pain; he'd already heard Boo in pursuit too close behind him, so he opted for the classic 'swearing under one's breath' instead of his favored 'irate screaming' in reaction to that new potential injury.
Sprinting past a collection of houses, Magna was amazed to see that he hadn't actually reached the forest floor, and was making his retreat across branches as wide as cobblestone roads. He almost got caught up enough in the breathtaking sights to forget the woman chasing him, but the thunderous stomping behind him was a convenient reminder that someone wanted him dead.
When a rock embedded itself into the wood beside his head, Magna dove deeper down into the village below, hoping he could slip past the sundry tree limbs easier than his massive pursuer.
Though he was glad to see her decelerate, it was only by like, three percent.
They tore through the lower forest town, crashing themselves through branches and leaves, and bowling over witches who had no idea what was going on. When the pair reached a clearing in the town, the dearth of obstacles let Boo gain a lotground on her target; carving closer to him faster than anyone that big should be capable of.
He let out a decidedly unmanly shriek, and boosted ahead of her with his fire boot spell—leaving a scorched trail behind himself, as Boo fell into the distance.
"Hahaha! Try and catch me now, ya craz— Wait! Did I just start a fire?" Magna shouted as he skidded to a stop; turning on a dime, he saw a path of wreckage through the village. Sheepishly beginning to stamp out the flames he lit, he chanced a look up, and saw Boo doing the same thing.
She stopped quelling the fire when their eyes met and blushed, then composed herself to scream, "Stop running you bastard! I challenged you to a fight, not a race!"
"Only if you stop using that weird ghost, and fight me like a real man!" Magna demanded as he retraced his path to the general.
"No. And I'm a woman anyway." She said, stepping up close enough to see his irises, "I'll use whatever spells I damn well please."
"Then don't blame me for fightin' dirty!" Magna warned, before he spat blood in Boo's eyes and kicked her in the abs.
She grunted as she was knocked backwards, but stood her ground when the ambassador's fist struck across her jaw; rolling with the punch despite her blindness, the giant woman caught Magna's arm in the followthrough and slammed him overhead with her own strength. Boo laid him flat onto the hard-packed dirt of the village, as「Wuthering Heights」emerged from the blood on her eyes to destroy him.
Fighting back airlessly while a flurry of punches made craters in the earth beside his head, Magna slammed his boot into the phantom somewhere he'd prefer not to mention— sending both it, and its summoner to the ground in an instant.
"Heh… I've figured out your spell's secret." Magna huffed as he scraped himself off the bloodied dirt, "The wine, the carpet, my fire, even blood— it can enter anything that's red! And you feel everything that dumb ghost does!"
"Pft, like knowing that's going to help you." Boo replied, wiping the ichor from her face. She took a step closer, cracked him across the nose, and continued their brawl with neither party playing fair.
Now that the morning rays finally pierced through the mists of the forest, and word of carnage had swept through town, other members of the Witch's guard had begun gathering near the combatants; grimoires at the ready.
A young woman with coke-bottle glasses swooped in close to Boo, asking if their leader needed them to recapture the ambassador, "General! Shouldn't we help you with this?!"
"We could get him easily." Added an elderly witch, who hopped down from her broom to meet the general on the ground.
Boo, with a little blood dripping down her forehead, yelled at the convened guard, "Don't interfere! This fight is between Magnus, and me."
"Sir Wing? But I don't see him…" the youngest said, before screaming, "Wait! The ambassador's gone!" at their hostage's sudden absence.
"Do you at least want us to search for him?" begged the older woman, knowing too well how the ghost mage liked running things.
"No need. He left a trail." Boo said, pointing at a series of bloodied bootprints that led into a more residential area of the trees. "Just wait here, I'll get him myself."
—
Three minutes had passed. Three blessed minutes in which Magna hadn't seen hide or hair of his relentless pursuer, or had his bones broken by the monstrous woman.
There was an elderly woman occupying the house until she saw the pile of battered magic knight shamble inside. She'd fled in a hurry, and Magna was left alone to dread his immediate future.
You can't die here Magna— You made a promise.
The fire mage's heart palpitated when the building's door was ripped off its hinges. Boo walked quite casually past the threshold and regarded her target without a trace of emotion in her eyes. The floorboards creaked underneath her, and she stayed silent until her teeth ground audibly.
"What the Hell are you doing in my house. I don't give a shit if you're the ambassador, if you laid a finger on my mom or spouse, I'll turn you into a thin. Red. Paste."
"Of course I didn't, that would be super unmanly of me. I'd rather die than attack an innocent old lady." He huffed in response, slumping against the back wall, wincing in pain. "I swear, I haven't hurt anyone but you since the duel began."
"That's a relief…" Boo said, unflexing slightly as she approached him, "But don't flatter yourself, you haven't even hurt me yet. Just turn yourself in already, you little maniac."
"Ne… never."
Cornered, bleeding, bruised, and short of breath, Magna raised his arms again; staring down the general with fire in his eyes. Three minutes was enough time for his brain to have cooked up another hare-brained gambit, and Magna was resolute that his new plan would work. After all, the alternative was his capture and inevitable torture by the Witch Queen.
"Like Hell I'd lose here."
Even though the man was struggling to keep his eyes open, he channeled every last ounce of mana in his battered body into his most basic spell. A flaming bat appeared between his hands, but he focused as hard as he could on his weapon rather than the figure of「Wuthering Heights」reaching through the fire towards his neck.
Ghostly fingers encircled clear around Magna's throat, and he began to suffocate him as each digit squeezed like a vise. His crimson weapon heated up with the last iota of concentration in him, and just before the man collapsed from oxygen deprivation, a pained shout boomed from across the building.
Boo clutched at her arm, nursing a fresh burn wound as her phantom dissipated.
A proud, toothy smile decorated Magna's face, and in the punk's hands was an incandescent, white-hot bat, "Must burn, touching something hotter than hot. Looks like I've finally found my way through your 「Wuthering Heights」. If red fire ain't strong enough, I'll just go beyond, and break all my limits!"
"Good grief… do you even understand that you're beaten?" Was the only response he received for all his boasting, "Maybe my arm burns, but you're out of mana— I'd bet you can't keep that spell up for even five more seconds."
"Probably not…" Magna agreed as one of his legs gave out, sending him down to a knee, "but I can always try."
The fire mage's other leg soon hit the floor, and he nursed the torturous ache in his ribs, but still held his weapon proud as Boo stomped closer. "You should've given up a while ago. I'm not even hurt, but you…" the giant woman lifted him by the ascot, "you look like death warmed over."
Magna's last spell faded away in his hand, and his arms finally gave out; meaning his only weapon left against the general was an intense stare. Adamantly refusing to admit defeat, the boy hung limp from Boo's hold as she drew back her fist for the knockout.
Before she could finish their duel in earnest, pure magic energy ripped the wall behind Boo into splinters, and into the ensuing breach strutted the most powerful known woman.
Magna gagged on air at the sight of her: The Witch Queen. It was as if she took up the entire room, looming even next to the massive figure of Boo.
"That is enough." Her voice was calm and regal, but the maleficent presence accompanying it made Magna tremble. Staring down at the bloodied figures before her, the Witch Queen sneered, "Step aside, General, I shall deal with this whelp myself."