In a moments notice, the group was engaged in battle. It would have been simple had the enemy come from the front and remained in the front, but as swiftly as the tide, the barracks were surrounded. With only seven total fighters, the group was doing everything in their power to keep from being completely overrun. Never in their lives had the fought an enemy as diverse and massive as this one. The battle had only been raging for a few minutes when the warriors were forced to abandon their posts on the walls to protect the other three.
The battle was nearly a stalemate and, thanks to Paru's Artifact, the warriors had many golems that were willing to take crucial blows and stall the stronger opponents. With the release of Haruna's most powerful minion, a flying swordsman, the battle seemed to be turning in their favor and they were finally pushing the enemy back, but a stray longsword put an end to that.
Kotaro was sent reeling back into the three non-combatants, blood flowing from his right eye. A sword had managed to get a vertical slash in on Kotaro, and the cut ran through his right eyebrow all the way through to just past his nose. Immediately Yue and Konoka fell back.
"Kotaro!" Yue screamed, grabbing the dog-demon up in her arms.
"I'm…okay," Kotaro managed to gasp out, trying to sit up. Blood was still flowing from his eye socket down his face, his hand covering the central of the wound. Konoka quickly began incanting her healing spell, but was stopped short.
"The damage is too severe for you to heal with a quick spell!" Kotaro scolded, "Get back to the battle…without us the other four are in deep trouble!"
Konoka stared at Kotaro intently and recited a few short words.
"That will stop the bleeding," Konoka stated bluntly, "I'll see if I can fix your eye after the battle."
With that Konoka returned to the front beside Setsuna, launching a devastating spell.
Kotaro struggled to his feet and quickly stumbled.
"This is going to be difficult with just one eye…" he muttered.
He felt himself being hoisted by his right arm and walked forward; he looked to his right. Yue was walking him back towards the battlefield.
"I won't be of much use to you guys…I'll probably just get in the way with my vision as screwed up as it is…" he muttered to her, feeling slightly helpless.
"I have an idea, Kotaro…" Yue replied.
--
"Pactio!" the ermine yelled as Yue kissed Kotaro.
There was a blinding light and a card appeared before Kotaro and he caught it with his left hand. In the picture, he was holding two swords, both slender and sleek in form.
"I realize that this will give me an advantage in battle, Yue," he said as he looked his love in the eyes, "But I'm still incapacitated…I can only see out of my left eye."
"Close your eyes…" Yue whispered to him, and he slowly closed the one eye he could see out of.
Kotaro gasped; he could see everything around him without even really seeing it. With the pactio in full effect, his senses were sharpened beyond belief. With his sense of smell, he could tell where everything was and with his sense of hearing, he could tell how far. With his sense of touch, he could feel the changes in the wind as the people around him made their movements…but all he could taste was the blood left in his mouth after the attack that left him blind in one eye. This thought is that which drove him to make his next move as he heard himself cry, "Adeat!"
Chamo's mouth dropped as he watched a vertical line form in front of him: a line of corpses. Kotaro's eyes were closed tightly, but he no longer seemed to need them. He read the enemies movements with the change of the wind and could tell where he hit with the sounds their bodies made. The only thing that was on Kotaro's mind at the moment was vengeance for his eye…vengeance for the suffering their enemies were causing them. Vengeance for the tears he had seen in Yue's eyes.
The battle had lopsided against the enemy forces. Where once they were dead even and they were pressing the attack, now they were fleeing from a single warrior who was fighting them with his eyes closed. In their worse possible maneuver, they abandoned fighting the members of the group they found weakest. Nodoka took their foolish maneuver and played it against them.
Serene words could be heard coming from her mouth, and all the enemy forces stopped to gaze upon her as she took to the air with her spell, floating with the pure magical energies flowing around her. Only one person hadn't stopped to look at her…and that person was slashing through the demon hoard, several at a time. The enemy had no idea what was happening because Nodoka's spell had forced their minds nearly blank…left to do nothing but stare at her, but she knew that once she stopped speaking, the demons would once again resume their attack.
This was her most intriguing spell. It took several moments to cast and was of little use for one on one, but with numbers as they were, it was perfect. It froze both enemies and allies alike in a trace, emptying their thoughts for as long as she spoke. The key was in the melody of her voice rather than the words, and this was the greatest advantage of the spell. She could cast another, more difficult spell with no interruptions so long as she cast this one first.
The spell had only one drawback: the enemy had to have all their senses in use in order for the spell to work. They couldn't be blind or deaf…or even lack in their sense of smell or the spell would fail on them…in Kotaro's case, his eyes were shut tightly and couldn't see anything, even though the rest of his senses were amplified a thousand fold.
Kotaro recognized the next spell immediately and couldn't help but smile at the prospect. He was about to get a lot more deadly.
When the spell was cast, the enemy regained their senses and Nodoka's comrades quickly inspected to see what she had done. Negi couldn't help but smile when he realized which spell she had chosen.
"How appropriate," he commented as he blasted through a hundred of the enemies at once, "You've doubled our speed."
--
"It's bad…" Konoka stated as she measured the damage done to Kotaro's eye, "You should have let me heal it when it happened."
"If I had we'd all be dead right now," he replied.
The battle hadn't lasted long. After Nodoka cast her spell, the enemy ranks quickly dwindled and a large portion of the enemy force began retreating. Kotaro and Setsuna had chased down the fleeing enemies and quickly dispatched of them while the others eliminated the immediate threat. Now there was nothing remaining of the battlefield other than the slain corpses of their enemies and the large craters left from Negi's and Konoka's spells.
Negi walked over to Yue and sat down beside her.
"You realize that your card has been rendered invalid," he commented more than asked.
"I know, but I figure it was the safest route to go…I did a run on Chisame's artifact before I did a pactio with Kotaro and it turns out that she can connect to the web with it…but more-so, it's still connected to the time we came from, so she can technically surpass the time differential via the internet and get any information we need. While the artifact may take a bit more time to execute than mine, it's just as precise. I figured the alternative beat the inconvenience," Yue replied in her matter-of-factly tone.
"As thorough as ever…but how did you find out about the time differential?"
"While we were in the heat of battle, I withdrew and had her try it."
Negi smacked himself in the forehead, "Shoulda figured as much."
--
Asuna slowly walked away from the group and onto what used to be the battlefield. It had been mostly nighttime when the group was attacked, but strangely it all seemed too lit up…too bright. She could only assume that Negi or Konoka had cast a light spell on the area.
During the fight, it had almost seemed as if the place they were at was born of the anxiety they felt, but now it was peaceful…now that their attackers lay broken, the world seemed to offer them the tranquility they could only pray for.
There were bodies everywhere…fresh in blood, but none alive. In this world, if you left one enemy alive, you had four hundred more wanting you dead. Still, the enemies that lay lifeless seemed happy in a way: at peace. Asuna couldn't help but wonder if one day, when she lay there lifeless, would she too wear a smile of peace…freed from the chaos of this new world of theirs?
Asuna shook her head; it was madness to think thoughts like that. She had to make it home first…to return to her own time…if she even had a time.
A stray glance showed Asuna that Setsuna was making her way to her side. She turned back to her old mentor and gave her a half smile before facing the battlefield once more.
"As warriors, we forget the value of life that every human should know…" Setsuna stated unhappily, taking her place at Asuna's side, "And sometimes it makes me wonder if we deserve to return to our time."
"You shouldn't think that, Setsuna," Asuna responded in the same melancholy tone, "It's because we want to return to our time that we fight. If I had no intention of going home, I doubt I would have bothered."
Setsuna was quiet for a moment and Asuna took this as a chance to answer the question Setsuna had asked in her dream.
"I don't know if we have a time or not to go back to, Set-chan, but we don't have time to think about it. We've just got to go and do it. We might be able to stop us from going back into the past, or we might not…either way I only know one thing," Asuna looked Setsuna in the eyes and fought to hold back her tears, "I just want to go home."
Setsuna looked slightly shocked, but all she could do was take it in stride. She reached out and grabbed Asuna. For several moments the two hugged as Asuna could no longer hold back her tears; for several moments Setsuna wondered how Asuna knew what she had been concerned about since they started their journey.
