Nagisa was carefully walking back to Karma's mansion with Kaede sleeping peacefully like a little child on his back.
Kaede had tired herself out from crying in just a few minutes. After waiting for a while and realizing that she wasn't going to wake up anytime soon, Nagisa decided to take her back to his room.
After gently placing her on his bed, Nagisa quietly left the room and went back downstairs and sat down on the couch.
Now that he was calm again, Nagisa remembered that Kaede had said that she was looking for Karma's roommate. So the chance that Karma or Karasuma would come looking for them soon was pretty high.
As expected, the door soon opened after Nagisa had sat down and tended his wrinkly clothes for a bit. "Jo, Nagisa?" Karma's voice entered Nagisa's ears as soon as the door has opened.
"What's up? Took you quite a while." Nagisa shrugged and yawned.
"Ehmm, Karasuma did send someone to get you, but I guess she couldn't find this place?" Karma said rather unsurely. He could not picture Kaede not being able to find a single house.
"Ah no, she did come, but she's currently sleeping in my room." Nagisa explained briefly, not realizing how wrong his sentence sounded and how Karma had an expression on his face as if he had just swallowed a fly.
"Uhh, making your move Shiota?" Karma raised his eyebrows a bit and teased, "Can't you just wake her up?"
"Not sure about that, she overexerted herself and had a mental breakdown." Nagisa said with a straight face.
"Wait what?" the expression on Karma's face turned weird. That was not the reaction he had in mind, "How the hell did she have a mental breakdown?"
"… It's complicated." Nagisa scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
"I bet." Karma rolled his eyes but didn't pry any further, "Just find a way to explain this to Karasuma, now that you did this the chances of you joining us just got slim."
"Huh? Why?" Nagisa wondered with confusion, "I actually thought I'd have a better chance now since I know both of the members." Nagisa held his chin and thought aloud.
"Know both… dude, that kind of relationship does not count as knowing!" Karma finally lost it and yelled.
"Huh? You know about it?" Nagisa was really surprised now, "And why the heck not? We're basically family?"
"Family…" Karma felt like this view of the world was crumbling. Nagisa was only 13 years old not to mention Kaede who was still 12! "Didn't take you for that kind of person."
"… Well, neither did I. But I guess I could say we were under extreme circumstances." Nagisa said a bit shyly while both of them were completely talking past each other.
"Extreme… that's so messed up." Karma was getting a headache from all the information he thought he was getting.
"Yeah it was pretty messed up." Nagisa only nodded and agreed with a straight face, which made Karma flinch even harder, "But I'm glad she became my sister."
"Wait sister?" Karma was about to say something else when someone was knocking at the door again. Quickly getting on his feet, Nagisa walked towards the door and opened it.
"Good morning Shiota-san." It was Karasuma, "What is going on? And where is Kayano-san" He turned his sight to Karma who was still sitting on the couch rather dissatisfied.
"Ehm, it's better if Nagisa explained this, I don't think I understand what's going on myself." Karma just shook his head and said.
"Hmm?" Karasuma looked back at Nagisa with a raised eyebrow.
"Ehm, Kaede is in my room resting right now." Nagisa started awkwardly, "I'm not sure if she'll be in the shape for training today." This sentence made Karma who had just recovered spit his drink.
"You know Kayano-san?" Karasuma wondered while looking at Karma with a confused expression.
"Yes, she's my sister, sort of?" Nagisa wasn't sure how to explain this and said.
"She's from the wind tribe." Karasuma deadpanned, "You're from the water tribe."
"Well, that's why I said sort of… we met each other 2 years ago." Nagisa started but decided to stop, "I'm not sure how comfortable Kaede is with talking about this, do you mind if we wait till she wakes up Karasuma-Sensei?" Nagisa shook his head and asked.
"… I suppose." Karasuma frowned but nodded, "But instead of waiting, let's use this chance to see what you can do Shiota-san."
.
"On your left Karma!" Nagisa yelled as he released his Bullet Rain in combination with his Status Control shooting out a bunch of icicles and quickly moved away.
"Keep shooting!" Karma yelled back as a huge cloud of black smoke exploded and started to expand from his body, it was the spell Smokescreen.
After quickly taking cover behind a rock, Nagisa quickly started to use his second Unique Skill, Reflect.
Smokescreen was a spell that was meant for distraction, at least if you don't count Karma and Nagisa's self-made smoke bullets. The spell would create a large amount of smoke that could not only block the opponents' vision, but also disturb their other senses. But the most important part was, it had no effect on the caster.
Knowing that, Nagisa just kept casting and throwing icicles into the smoke while quickly changing his position to have a better view on the situation.
While Smokescreen was a very convenient spell, it also consumed mana for every second the spell was in effect. Barely seconds later, Nagisa saw a silhouette emerge out of the smoke while pulling a long trail along with him.
Karasuma was sighing heavily while blocking and dodging the icicles while his entire vision was being limited by Karma's Smokescreen. He had been and still was hesitant about taking Nagisa into his class. He had given him a chance since it was Karma who suggested him but to be frank, Nagisa wasn't up to Karasuma's standards.
Reaching stage 3 with 13 years old was above average, but Karasuma didn't look for students above average, he wanted students that were extraordinary, who were better than the best.
Both Karma and Kaede met these requirements with excellence, but it was as if the gods just wanted to mess around with him, the two of them didn't get along at all, their teamwork was horrifyingly bad. And this had bothered Karasuma for the entire day already.
But what he was seeing now almost drove him crazy! Just spontaneously, Karasuma decided to spar against Karma and Nagisa. He said it was to see what Nagisa was capable of, but initially he was mostly focused on Karma to check his progress, Nagisa was more of an extra.
Once they got out of the mansion and into the garden, Karasuma told Nagisa and Karma that he would limit his strength to equal Karma's level and started the spar, without weapons of course.
The fight started as Karasuma had expected. While Karma and he were going head to head, Nagisa was more or less just standing at the sideline and observing which made Karasuma even more determined to not take Nagisa into his class.
But soon, Nagisa started get himself involved into the fight. A few minutes in, Nagisa started to throw in a couple of assisting spells into the fight, but they were mere distractions for Karasuma.
As the fight went on, Nagisa's distractions became more and more frequent until the point where Karasuma started to feel the pressure. It wasn't that Nagisa's spell had the power and force to injure him, but the timing and positioning of his spells were so accurate, that they started to mess up Karasuma's rhythm.
Nagisa would cast spells to cut off Karasuma's only route to dodge, force him into situations where he was surrounded by spells and had to choose to take a hit head on, or sometimes even force him to lose his footing.
Before Karasuma had realized, Nagisa's involvement in the fight was already on par, if not greater than Karma's. He started to communicate with Karma with words, then soon switched to signs and a few minutes later they were even starting to communicate through merely eye contact.
By the time Karma had cast his Smokescreen, the two of them were already working as one. They were chaining or sometimes even synchronizing their attacks while constantly switching their position without getting in the way of each other.
On the surface, it looked like Karma was still the main attacker while Nagisa was talking the role of an assistant, but Karasuma knew better, and this knowledge was disturbing him on more than one level.
In this combination, Nagisa was the lead. He was the one setting their rhythm and guiding their approaches. Nagisa had the talent to read people, not just his enemies, but also his allies. He was perfectly combining his attacks with Karma's without making Karma slow down or change his attack pattern, while also predicting and guiding Karma's next move to match his own.
For Karma, it didn't feel any different to when he was fighting alone, he made the decisions he would always make even if some are subconsciously forced by Nagisa, the only difference was that the effect of his attacks was several times better.
Karasuma couldn't help but to nod in approval when the smoke finally dispersed, Nagisa and Karma were standing right in front of him both with a spell ready to be released in their hands. But that wasn't all. Around Karasuma there were another 5 Nagisa's surrounding him each with his own spell ready. "Is that one of your Unique Skills?" Karasuma asked while also preparing himself. Karasuma was a combatant, and before a combatant reaches the fifth stage to turn their gas-like aura into a liquid form, combatants can't make their aura leave their body.
In short, combatants usually don't have any ranged attacks prior to stage 5. And even after they reach stage 5, they will never have the same range as mages who used their mana to control the elements in the atmosphere.
This was also the reason why battles between mages and combatants are easily decided by one factor, whether the combatant would get into range to attack the mage or be blown into pieces before getting close enough. This simple law made Nagisa's second Unique Skill a brilliant skill against combatants.
"Hey, Karma…" Nagisa whispered quickly while the three of them were still in a deadlock, "How long can you handle Sensei in close combat?"
"…2 minutes? But I would rather not, and we're doing pretty well keeping him away so why bother." Karma answered.
"Hmm, I want you to let him get into range and fight him." Nagisa decided after thinking for a split second, "But try not to let him realize that you did it on purpose."
"Heh… I like where this is going." Karma smirked a bit nervously, "How sure are you?"
"… Honestly, 50/50, and that's only if he doesn't cheat." Nagisa shrugged honestly, "And we'll only have 1 shot. If we keep going like this he's going to outlast us."
Even though the fight until now seemed pretty even, Karasuma was still a stage 7 combatant. His recovery speed and pool size weren't on the same level!
"That's good enough, better than 0%." Karma smirked as even more mana started to leak from his body.
"Hehe." Nagisa just chuckled a bit nervously, this fight was way more taxing for Nagisa than Karma. Don't forget that Nagisa's mana level was currently more than an entire stage beneath both Karma and Karasuma.
The fight continued the second the Nagisa's released their spells, and a huge water pillar started to well up right under Karasuma. With a heavy stomp on the ground, Karasuma shot out of his position and went straight for Karma who was now covered in 4 flame rings rapidly spinning around his body. It was the spell Explosive armor an evolving spell.
Since Karma was a stage 4 mage currently, the maximum amount of rings he could summon around himself were 4. But once he would turn into a stage 5 mage, the rings would melt into a ball covering his entire body, and at stage 7 where his mana would solidify, the spell would actually cover his body like a suit of armor.
For Karasuma, going for Karma was the most natural decision. He didn't have enough information on Nagisa to know the exact details of his Unique Skill, and he wasn't able to identify the real Nagisa. On top of that, Nagisa's rank 3 spells weren't much of a threat to Karasuma. Only Karma's spells would be able to penetrate the defense of a stage 4 earth combatant.
With a plan in his head, Karasuma charged straight at Karma, this time ignoring Nagisa's spells trying to hinder him and jumping over the fan-shaped flame from Karma.
Seeing that Karasuma was getting too close, Nagisa and Karma quickly split up and started to retreat. But this time things didn't go as they wanted. As a light brown glow appeared on both of Karasuma's legs, his speed has suddenly increased and his entire body shot at Karma like a bullet.
Karma's pupils rapidly shrunk as Karasuma's body quickly became bigger in his eyes. Quickly swinging his arm as if he was throwing something at Karasuma, one of the flame rings around his body quickly started to expand and crashed into Karasuma's fist that was covered by the same light brow glow as his legs before. Karasuma was going all out for a last attempt!
Technically, there was absolutely no need for Karasuma to go for this desperate move. Compared to Nagisa and Karma's mana supply, his aura pool was indefinitely larger. So all he had to do to win is to continue the even fight until both of them run out of juice.
But that was not the point of this spar, Karasuma wanted them to gain experience against enemies just as or only a bit stronger than them. And for that, simply limiting his aura output wasn't enough. He also limited the amount of aura he would use in this battle and after heavily underestimating Nagisa's function in this battle, Karasuma was getting close to the limit he had set for this fight.
So if Karasuma was actually a stage 4 combatant and a real enemy, the only choice he had right now was to finish the enemy stage 4 with an all-out attack completely ignoring the stage 3, since the stage 3 on his own wouldn't be a threat once the stage 4 was down.
With Karasuma attacking Karma like a mad man while ignoring and taking all the hit coming from Nagisa, 3 out of Karma's protective flame rings were quickly shattered by Karasuma's barrage.
"Damn it…" Nagisa cussed as Karma's last flame ring started to look like it would disappear any second and dispersed his Unique Skill to focus on an all-out attack spell to help Karma out of his pinch.
But a cold sweat ran down Nagisa's spine as he saw Karasuma instantly switching his target as soon as Nagisa had released his Unique Skill and revealed himself.
Without Nagisa even being able to react, Karasuma's fist instantly reached him… and went right through his shoulder! This scene confused Karasuma for a split second, as he had no feeling of making contact with anything. Karasuma quickly took on a defensive stance as the Nagisa he had punched instantly dissolved like he was made out of fog but it was too late.
In the short time Karasuma hesitated, a large amount of water shot out right under Karasuma's feet and enveloped his entire body as if it was swallowing him, it was the spell Prison Sphere! Quickly realizing that it was getting impossible to breathe, Karasuma tried to escape the range of the spell but was surprised again when a bubble suddenly appeared right outside of the ball-shaped Prison.
But this bubble did not behave like usual bubbles, it was as if the bubble was made out of rubber, no matter how hard Karasuma would try to punch it, it would simply stretch and return into its original shape.
It was Nagisa's third Unique Skill, Irregular bubble. A very interesting skill that would create a bubble with two extreme sides. While one side would react like a wall of rubber that could stretch and take hits, the other one would be like any normal bubble and pop at the smallest contact with anything.
Right now, Nagisa had made the bubble so that the inside of the bubble would react like rubber, while the outside was fragile like any other bubble.
With Nagisa only being a stage 3 mage, his Irregular bubble normally would only be able to imprison another stage 3 enemy. A stage 4 combatant like Karasuma currently was should be able to break out of it rather easily with brute force.
But by combining his Unique Skill with his new spell Prison Sphere that could trap his enemies in a ball of water, the bubble was able to hold back even the current Karasuma for a good amount of time with the help of the water resistance that weakened the punches inside the prison.
"Karma!" Nagisa yelled the second the trap was completed as he came out of his hiding spot. Using the cover of Karma's smokescreen, Nagisa had used his Reflect to create 6 illusions of himself and spread them around the smokescreen while his original remained hidden behind a rock.
Just as he expected, Karasuma decided to go for Karma after seeing Nagisa's Unique Skill. What Karasuma didn't expect was that Karma would put everything he had into his defense while completely giving up on attacking because of Nagisa request.
Without the element of surprise, Karasuma suddenly had a hard time breaking through Karma's defenses since he was only using the same amount of power as Karma. That was also why he instantly switched his target when he saw Nagisa releasing 5 of his illusions, leaving only 1 on the field.
All of this resulted in Karasuma now being trapped between Nagisa and Karma while being inside of Nagisa's Prison Sphere while the duo had all the time to chant their strongest spells using all of their remaining mana.
Karasuma had given up on escaping the prison the second Karma had finished his chanting and focused all of his remaining aura allowances into his defense. Out of all elements, earth types had the strongest defenses.
It was already obvious that both Nagisa and Karma were going all out on this last attack. That also meant that both of them would end up exhausting their mana supply after this attack.
If Karasuma could manage to withstand this final attack with his entire aura, the battle would turn into a physical brawl with no energy involved. In that case, it was quite obvious who would have the advantage, even if it were 2 mages against 1 combatant.
New chapter :D been a while again. Sadly vacations always go by so fast :/ now that I'm back to working, I don't have the time and energy to write like the last few weeks again.
Writing combat scenes have always been my weak point and I'm trying to change that. I mean with the genre of this story, combat will be an inevitable part of the story after all. But at the same time I'm not sure how detailed the combat scenes should be. I don't know if you guys and girls would enjoy multiple chapters (around 3000 words per chapter) that only describe one single fight.
So what do you think? Keep it more generic like in this chapter? Or add more details to the fights? Please tell me in the reviews!
And as always, I hope you enjoy the chapter, thank you for your support and I'll see you in the next chapter! ;)