Hyperdimension Neptunia

Third Sister; Darkness

Chapter 14.2 POV-Theresa

Fusion of Bonds.

Hng…I feel something warm on my face. I open my eyes and see the clouds have gone their ways. Was I asleep? What happened. Last thing I remembered was…
I got knocked out? We were in a fight…Is Sili-san okay?
First, I try to get back up, but everything hurts, so I almost fall back down. I claw my hand through the snow to get my chest off the ground whilst also grabbing my staff. Maybe I can push myself up that way. It hurts. I hate it. But I have to get up.

I see… I hear noises…Sili-san is still fighting. That girl and her frog machine started a battle with us. We defeated the frog machine…Then they combined. I feel a shiver.
She got too strong… Her new abilities surprised us. Both of us were in pain…And I got smacked in the head. Right. That smack in the head had placed me on top of a hill a bit further away. Her speed increased so much as well. The fight is moving away from the plane, even if it is still in sight.

I can see clearly now that Sili-san is desperately fighting that girl. He tosses himself around her explosive attacks and creates barriers of string to tank attacks he can't avoid. In the end, he is hit by her explosion move. I don't know what it is, but every time the rubber ball of the Kendama hits the right cup, an explosion is generated at any location she wishes. Sili-san is not getting back up. He is still moving his fingers, so he is still alive. If I don't do something soon, it would be the end.

We thought we could take her 2vs1, but in the end, with her teleporting, exploding, absorbing spells and rebounding them, using an infinite amount of elemental attacks and her great speed on top of that, it became hopeless. Still…Leader wouldn't give up.
I remember the time I convinced her to fight me for real. I knew the risks when joining, but everyone saw me as a child to protect anyway. Our fight showed me how far off I was, but also how much I could do when going all out.

But in the end, it wasn't a true experience. In a real fight, you get hurt. If you can't take it, you'll lose. Leader always gets hurt, but in the end, she stands back up and wins. Pain may bother me more than her, but…She must have experienced a lot before she got so good. It's not enough to go all out, do a bunch of spells, use all strategies…I have to grit my teeth and take the pain to get close to her.

Leader…My Goddess wouldn't give up no matter what. I am scared… But knowing my Goddess would never abandon me, I can't be a burden to her or my friends. So, it's time to get serious. I can't be the protected anymore. I must get hurt, and win!
I drink the healing potions and Charger 2s Enma gave us. I only have 10 of these left, I think Sili-san may have the same amount…

I may be tired, but at full health and SP, I can fight.
Let's set up a teleportation circle… Okay. I have drawn a small one. It's only for me.
Now, I cast short distance teleport to get close to her. When I do, I will cast "Great Explosion" to get her attention. I don't want her to attack Sili-san further.
She is so fast, she just moved away from it with a jump…But I knew that was going to happen. I walk closer to her, now she looks my way.

"I won't let you hurt my friend anymore…", I say.
She looks at me like I am pathetic.
"You don't stand a chance together. What makes you think you fare better? I don't understand.", she says. Her personality changed when they fused. Honestly, she sounds bored and lifeless now. All that power, and now she is just arrogant and boring.
I don't talk back, I just clutch my staff tighter and await her next move.

She runs towards me. She will be here within two seconds. I cast "Giant Fire Wall!", protecting me from any of her physical attacks. I blinked once and saw her smile. She knows I will make it a fire beam, something she can absorb. In between, I made a teleportation magical circle. The inscriptions make it a teleportal for living beings only. I throw it past her behind the plane without her noticing. She had jumped back and lets me cast Giant Fire Beam. Whilst she is absorbing the attack in her left cup, I cast a wind blast that sends me flying to the clouds whilst her eyes are blinded by flames.

She's looking for me. I dive down towards her, shooting an array of small spells her way to get her attention. She can't notice the teleporting circle I've drawn behind my hand. It's linked to the one in the plane. She shoots my own fire beam back at me. After being fused, she can now perfectly replicate the spell after absorbing it, unlike before where only the residue is bounced back.

The flame hits me for a little bit, but I throw the teleportation portal in front of me and go through it. She ends her counter-attack by creating an explosion where I was. It doesn't matter, I am already gone. I prepare another set of linked portals, this time the inscription only allows it to pass magic through. I send one portal flying like a disc until it gets stuck in the air next to her vertically.

"Giant Green Tornado.", I summon a tornado that shoots through the portal, aimed at her. She dodges it easily, but I wasn't aiming for her. The tornado hits the ground and scatters the snow all around. The slight cover will help me as I appear from behind the plane. I see her look to my direction.
I see the ball go into her left suction cup. This is what she does before teleporting. The moment it makes a clicking noise, she appears behind me…No she doesn't I used light to make a shadow that appears on the snow blasted in the air by the tornado. She simply attacked a fake me.

Before she can do anything else, I cast another, "Giant Explosion!", and hurt her badly.
She still gets back up. Now knowing where I am, she can teleport next to me and hit me with her Kendama, but that is when I activate my teleport spell that sends me to my previously designated circle. Now I am back on the hill, pretty far away.

"Archive of Elements!", I shout, this SP move starts with an explosion from my side and hers. Right after, two walls of magic circles appear between me and her, all of them do different elemental attacks. She doesn't need to fly through them or escape. She absorbs one element into her Kendama and teleports to me after. But my short distance Teleport is usable again, so I cast that on myself to flee from her. The wall of circles turns around to barrage her with spells as I use another charger 2 on myself to restore my SP.

I am directly below the hill. I look over my shoulder as I walk away and watch the pretty lights from my magic showering that girl with explosions.
Now that I have time to think, her Kendama is odd. I know it is a magical weapon. But it gains functions when she fused? I don't understand that. How does the weapon fuse with them? Did the robot frog ninja have magic technology that fused with it? Did it change shape? I must pay attention next time.

I hear her voice as she jumps out of the cloud of spells. I turn around to see her about to return a spell to me. But I have been preparing a long-distance teleport. Even if the short one is in cooldown doesn't mean the long one isn't. She hits the ground with lightning without me being there. Now she runs towards me…But why doesn't she teleport? Her weapon does look different… Did she make the robot frog with parts of the Kendama? Dismantling a magic weapon and have it partially work whilst the other parts still stay active inside a machine, that is crazy.

She is getting closer to me. I am standing in the middle of the caved in circle the plane is rested at.
"Giant Green Tornado!", I shout, sending it her way. Then I cast, "Light Meteor Shower!", my own EX finisher close to comet shower, it does light damage but has bigger and tougher projectiles. I shot it into the tornado, allowing them to be cast along with it.

She absorbs the tornado in the Kendama, but the meteor shower hasn't lost its energy, now it will fly at her at insane speeds, she can't absorb two spells at once, so this will hit her. I can see her close one eye as her body is riddled with painful projectiles. I don't think it otherwise does much damage. It is just to hold her back.
Why doesn't she teleport? Why not cast an instant explosion?

It is bothering me more. This magic tool must have a limit, but it isn't SP, it's not a cooldown either…
I see her shoot my tornado back at me, it is easily blown away by a tornado spinning in reverse. The two cancel each other out. She runs forward, still not teleporting…
This was one of the few times I see her absorb wind magic. She usually dodges it….But only wind magic…
I see her now about to make her ball click inside a cup, I cast Air Blast on the top suction cup.

This startles her, but even more so, despite the suction cup making a clicking noise with the ball inside it, no spell was cast.
It's oxygen! Her tool breaths to generate magical energy! It's not quite like how a person breathes, the circulation is different. It takes more time to generate energy, so it stocks up on oxygen or another form of gas to generate energy. That is how she can teleport or explode something 5 times in a row with no cooldown. Wind magic can take the oxygen out of this magical weapon, making her unable to quickly teleport or explode things.

"You insolent brat. You will regret your actions soon enough.", she says scary things. She talks like an old lady? Did she age up when she fused with the frog robot?
She places the ball on the top of her Kendama. I've seen her power up to some extend whenever it is placed on top. That is when she can use short range spells to temporarily turn the Kendama into any weapon. I can tell this uses her actual SP as opposed to oxygen.

She runs towards me at increased speed with an aura surrounding her. But I have no need to fear yet, I've been preparing a few spells. First the wide range teleport spell. Second, I have drawn a heat based magical circle and an ice based one in the air. On the ground is the spell for Ice coffin, which I amplify with SP by drawing a few generic ice magic circles around them.
"Ice Coffin!", I shout, creating a giant bed of spikes made of ice that shoot their way up towards her.

She scoffs at me as she easily evades it, jumping on and off the spikes like a true ninja.
The heat magical circle to my left was made to melt the ice into boiling water, so the moment she stands on top of a foothold, she would sink into it.
Despite her being on top of boiling water, she maneuvers over the waves that I am controlling. I failed to capture her inside the boiling body, she talks down to me, "You foolishly thought a ninja would be effected by nature? It's our job to be one with it. Heat or water, it matters not, I shall walk."

I know, ninjas are cool. That is why I have to become cooler. The moment she has to make a slightly rougher landing, she will have her feet just a little below the water. I am watching for that moment…And…Freeze.
Now her feet are stuck in ice as frozen waves surround her. I see her look down, moving her torso around to try and wiggle out of it. Now she tries to set her Kendama's ball aflame to get herself out.

But I was waiting for her to move in a way that would upset her balance, right now, she has her whole weapon raised leaning herself backwards. I unfreeze the water, to her surprise, she falls into the body of boiling water. I don't know if it hurts her. My plan for the water is to use it for my next spell.

"Tenchi Raigeki!", I shout, shooting lighting into the sky, it then raining down from teleportation and lightning magical circles above her. Lightning strikes the waters she's in with her no way to absorb any of it, taking the full damage…I can see her bones….Hehe, like a carto-No no. I need to stay focused. The water spreads thin over the snow land, only leaving a steam cloud behind whilst she's dragging herself up forcing her back upwards.

She looks at me with Blood-shot eyes, it's creepy because the rest of her face still looks stiff.
Within the blink of her eyes, she returns to normal.
"For your information, heating up water like that helped collect oxygen.", she says casually holding out her Kendama. Is she threatening me, or it she just mad I struck her?
Either way, she teleports to me. I avoid a teleport kick by teleporting myself thanks to the magic circle I've placed beforehand.

She follows me around, but for the second time, I teleport away using Short Distance Teleport.
This time, she casts explosion, which I can see coming thanks to her ball being swung to the other cup. I jump up and hold my staff below to cast a Barrier directly below me, the explosion is squashed between my barrier and the ground.
Both the explosion and teleportation is done through oxygen. The cups have a release and expel function. The right cup expunges oxygen, mixing fire magic with gas to create an explosion in any area. The left cup absorbs oxygen, swapping any oxygen in the area with the user.

The top cup sucks in the oxygen, when the ball is on top, SP is used for its magical function instead. Maybe it draws on the user's oxygen at that point. Maybe the top part stands for the mediator. Which is both the person and oxygen itself.
I will never get to analyze this weapon. Thinking about it made me sad…OH! I have to keep fighting!
"Great Fire Wall!", I shout, letting her teleport near my fire wall. She absorbs it, but in the process of that, I smack her in the face with my staff.

She only gets set back by two to three meters, but she somehow showed more pain to that than my magic. Either her physical defense is lower than her mental stat, or she was just too surprised that I would attack her physically…But I hit her before? Does she just keep thinking I can't fight her without magic?
I have to move away again, she casts another explosion. This time I move to a preset circle. Now I have run out of teleports and need to set up two new circles.

She has to draw in oxygen again.
"Great Ice Wall!", this time I summon a big wall of ice in front of me.
I shoot a big beam of light at it, my unique SP move, "Prism Rain!", shooting both icicles and light beams that reflect out of the ice at her simultaneously.
She can't absorb this combination move. Since it is made of weaker projectiles, she can easily swing around her ball, set ablaze, she effortlessly melts the ice and dodges the lasers.

"Your tricks are losing their luster.", she says before teleporting to me and kicking me in the side. It hurts a lot, I feel like something bend inside of me… But I must resist falling. I barely stand tall, I aim my want at her.
"Great Explosion!", just as I shout that, she created an explosion next to me, we both get hit by them. In sync, we fall to the ground on our sides. I struggle to get back up, but somehow, I feel little pain.

She teleports to me, the odd part is, she's not right next to me. She took two meters of space to get the ball in the top of the Kendama to turn it into a flaming sword. It isn't real fire, it's just that the orange aura looks like it.
It's tricky, but I can hold my staff up between my thumbs, compressing a barrier over it to block her sword. I don't have enough strength to stay strong against it…Oh, she doesn't think I can fight physically anyway. Let me trick her then.

I move to my right, she follows me to push her sword against my staff, but with my turn, the staff tilted around her sword, the orb on my staff is now aimed at her face.
"Explosion!", with just a regular explosion spell, I hit her in the face to knock her back.
She almost falls, only barely managing to push her head forward to only slide away from me.
I see her about to teleport again, so I cast Air-blast to take her oxygen away.

"Why you little…Fine. Have it your way. I will overcome you by other means.", she says before putting the ball on the top. She turns her Kendama into an axe. With one swing, she uses a lot of fire magic to spin around at high speed as she moves forward. I cast the short distance teleportation spell to get away from her.

This time, she shoots the Kendama ball at me, extending the string it is attached to, I deflect the ball to my right, where it gets suspended in motion as it gets used as an air grappling hook. She flies to me by letting the cord pull her. I do a back flip under her kick, she moved past me. Then, I turn around to shoot a small beam of light at her.
She hops to the left of the beam whilst placing the ball back on the top, creating a spear this time. With her better speed, I can only avoid it enough so that it only grazes my left side. Even worse, she easily kicks me away right after. The kick alone makes me gag.

But even after I drop to my left knee, I have the urge to puke. I shake it off, she is still coming after me, doing the spin attack with an axe again.
I dodge roll to my right to avoid it, no, she comes after me doing a single twist to swing her axe to my left. I could only block it, and that still has me launched over the caved in area.

She's too strong. Leader fights strong people like this all the time. My goddess uses many tricks with weak spells to overcome her enemies…I thought I couldn't do the same with my big magics. But I have done so multiple times…Just once more…
Since she has separated us with her last blow, I decide to shoot a Great fire beam her way. I know she will absorb it. I draw a teleportation circle for the future. After she's done absorbing it, I drop to one knee. I am sweaty and out of breath, I can still keep going, I have prepared a trick. I exaggerate my movements as I pretend to struggle to stay up, leaning on my staff.

Thinking I won't be able to do anything, she shoots back the giant fire beam at me.
That is when I aim my staff forward, "Holy Beam!", shooting a giant white beam of light magic her way. With it being denser than the fire beam, it easily penetrates through it, with her having no way to cancel her spell and flee. A direct hit should damage her greatly. Sadly, it is not enough to knock her down.

I don't think she has more than half her health left…That is how it works in games, right? I think. Sili-san told me so.
While my weakness was faked, my exhaustion is not. She had regained oxygen after my fire spell and uses it to teleport next to me. I block a few swings of her weapons, but she has hit me at least three times before knocking me over.
She is about to teleport again, I cast "Air Blast!", but I miss as she places her Kendama behind her back with a slight of hand. I can't see it, but she easily uses it to teleport to me and kick me away. While still airborne, she hits me with an explosion…Not directly, her aim is messed up because I am still flying.

I try to get back up after landing, she still comes after me, but this time, her attack gets interrupted. A string catches her arm before she is thrown against the plane.
I look to my left…Huh? I was this close to Sili-san. He must've just woken up. He is hurt and struggling to get back up. Then I see him drink some healing potion.
"Sili-san.", I call out his name.
"Sorry for the wait Theresa.", he says.

"Never mind me. I figured out her magical weapon! It uses oxygen as fuel.", I tell him.
"Oxygen?", he asks. He sounds grumpy. I better ignore it.
"She transfers oxygen into energy and uses it to explode any area or teleport. It can be interrupted by wind magic.", I explain to him.
"Unfortunately, I don't have any wind-based move. Not even Wind Edge.", he says.
That is troublesome. I thought because Sili-san is an adult that he would be able to figure something out.

In the meantime, that ninja girl is walking in front of us. It feels like we can't attack her.
"Theresa. Get your items out.", Sili-san says.
"Hn, I was going to.", I reply to him. We feel the same way. An enemy like this will use a move we can't avoid that hurts a lot, we need to be at full HP. This I've learned from the quests we've done up till now. I down two charger 2s and a great healing item…We're running low on SP healing items and our other healing items are starting to run out too.

"You two have made a mockery of us ninja…For that, thou must be judged.", she says, what is that weird word she's using at the end? Sounds like how some books about magic is written…
"EXE Drive Skill!", she calls out whilst holding up her Kendama like it is a holy cross.
As expected, her ultimate attack has us almost stuck in motion. We have to endure it.
"Gadget Judgement!", she says, the Kendama flashing a light. In the blink of an eye, it's like we're in a different dimension.

It is dark. I see some blue wavy fog around us? It kind of glows…Around the ninja girl and us are a bunch of children covered in shadow playing with toys. Then they turn their heads to look at us with glowing yellow eyes. Suddenly. Their toys shoot into us. It wouldn't hurt as much, but they have the strength of a bullet or something. Or is it their speed? I don't understand. But it gets worse. Suddenly, the children get surrounded by their toys, an in a flash, they have all become giant humanoid mecha.

Laser beams and giant fists rain down upon us until they vanish, leaving only the ninja girl who has encased herself in armor through her aura. Like a holy knight, she cuts past us…After, she jumps into the air, a holy cross is emitted from her Kendama, turned into a giant light that rains arrows onto us.
After an explosion of yellow light, both me and Sili-san are on the ground.

"Damn…It's good those healing items came in handy.", Sili-san says as he is trying to get back up.
I drag myself to my feet, using my staff for support. I look at the ninja girl, she looks displeased.
"How come insects like you refuse to die? Even after that, you're still going to struggle?", she says.
Either way, I managed to hold her off on my own before. With Sili-san, I don't see how we're losing. I just need to lower her health a little bit for one combination attack.

"Sili-san…Will you let me hold her off?", I ask him.
"Huh? But you are… I don't know if Leader would allow me to let you fight alone.", he says. He looks awfully concerned at me. Well, I will stare back at him!
After a bit of staring I say, "I think we can win…Just help me out."
"You mean you have a plan…", he says before closing his eyes. Is he thinking about it? Please, I can't wait any longer…Oh, he says something, "I understand. But tell me what you're thinking first."

I share my plan with Sili-san.
"I understand…Hey. Don't go dying on me. I'm only allowing this because…We've both come far, haven't we?", he says to me.
Sili-san…He also must be worried he's not good enough for this group…Like me…
I nod. "No matter my age or experience…We are friends…We fight for each other."
After a nod and smile to me, I turn around and walk over to the ninja girl.
"Are you done? I've concluded no chance of you two winning. Your items are running out.", she says.

"Even so…We have learned to fight. It isn't about being weak or strong…", I say.
Bios kept fighting even when there was no hope. I must give my entire life to a fight…I think I understand.
She starts with a teleportation. So I will use the long-distance teleport to dodge an attack. I reappear above high in the sky.
She teleports to me from there. I use short distance teleport to get back towards the ground. While she is up there, I cast "Great Thunderbolt". on her. With her in the sky, she has little reaction time.

After getting hit by it, she casts explosion on me, which I avoid by dodge rolling away…Although, I am still close enough to be hurt by it anyway. She teleports down to me next, I cast short distance teleport to get away from her.
"Giant Green Tornado!", I shout shooting a green tornado at her, she teleports behind me, eluding the spell entirely.
She kicks me in the side, flinging me over the ground. She leaps after me turning her Kendama into a sword.

I know I can't trick her into letting my staff reach her face twice.
Instead, I hold my staff vertically above my head, only slightly crooked to my right shoulder.
"Explosion!", I cast explosion from it so I can slide under her sword fast, my staff may get damaged a bit from it, but it allows me to headbutt her. Like before, she recoils. I jump after her to make her block my staff strike, that is when I kick her as hard as I can. It's not as effective this time. She looks more annoyed then anything. She kicks me in my belly. It hurts a lot as she sends me flying…The pain is gone?

It was only there for a little bit…
She goes after me with a spear, even if I block it, it's strength hurts my hands and sends me flying out of the caved in circle.
Being at a distance works better for me. I barrage her with combo spells. Flame, Blast, Thunder, Cold, every rush spell I use for lucky shots. Power combo attacks like Extension and Thunderbolt I use to force her to zigzag. Then I try to break her guard with Ice Storm or Thunder Storm. It's slightly halting her, but this won't stall too much time.

Eventually she gets close, and no matter how I dodge roll, she's faster than me and hits me into the air with a swing of a hammer.
I won't fall…I don't feel like losing at all! Right now, no one can bring me down!
What is this feeling? I think as I shoot out a long array of ice pillars shooting horizontally at her. She dodges it, I teleport away and shoot flames her way.
There is no pain…I feel excited? I shoot lightning down at her before using my premade magical circle to teleport to.
I am fighting for my life…Why do I feel happy? I shoot beams of light and tornadoes at her.

It's that adrenaline again. But it feels so much stronger? Like I feel I can't die? I am on my own, but I feel no fear? I don't know if I really enjoy this…But this sense of fighting for my friends…No. I am also fighting for myself. The only time I felt this alive was when I first went out with my Goddess…
The battlefield is colored in magical spells of every element. It should be a sight of the scariest place. But it looks beautiful instead. I teleport around to avoid her teleportation. She can do it more often, so she hits me from time to time. I know I can't take too much…Yet I feel nothing but thrills.

My heart is pounding, but if I didn't hold my hand on my chest, I don't think I would realize it.
This is it…My strongest and most alive self…I hate fighting…But this is fun…
"EXE Drive Skill!", I shout.
Triple layered magical circles of all four elements float around me, with a triple layer of light below my feet. This time, I send them one by one to the ninja girl. She barely evades the flames, rolling over the ground, then she jumps away from ice, making her movement sluggish. She teleports away from lightning, and then gets hit by the wind orb.

The triple layer light magical circle teleports above her and shoots a beam down at her that stops her in her tracks.
The elements combine together into an explosion, a precursor to my move's final attack. A giant meteor strikes as I shout, "Extinction Meteor!"
I must have damaged her a lot. She still stands up, even with her clothes tattered. But she still isn't done. She jumps over to me as fast as she can and knocks me down. She almost stabs my face into the ground with a sword, but I remember how Leader escapes these situations.

I cast explosion from my left hand, it hurts a lot. I squealed. My tears almost block my vision, but I can do it. I flutter to her left, the staff in my right hand aimed at her. I blow her away with a powerful wind spell.
However, she has the string from her Kendama wrapped around my waist. I can't escape her. She swings me around, turning and turning, my head spins… At last, she lets go and sends me flying a little close to Sili-san.

It feels like my throat is filled with air. I can't breathe. But I will get back up. We're so close after all…Sili-san? I look at him. He looks back to me. Is he done? I see him move out. That gives me a little hope. I cast multiple comet spells to let light comets fly down at the female ninja. This is to keep her occupied. I need to draw a flaming magical circle and teleport it.

It's done.

I flash light from my staff, giving Sili-san the signal.
The female ninja, focused on me for angering her, she doesn't see Sili-san coming…I hope.
No. She actually doesn't see him coming. Carrying the whole plane with his many strings, Sili-san jumped to her, about to swing the whole plane down at her. She only sees it too late, I cast my spell, the fire circle floating in the hole in its rear, blasting out flames like a giant jet engine. She manages to jump away from a direct hit, but that is fine. My explosion magic helps the plane blow up to pieces, only the cockpit remains whole.

The explosion itself hurts her, but what Sili-san really was doing all this time was putting a bunch of string machine thingies inside the plane. They all spread out and create a web that gets her entangled inside of.
"This again? I will just burn it a-", she cuts herself off, stopping herself from using any fire technique with her Kendama. Oil is dripping on her. She knows, right? That all these stings are meant to be burned with oil. It would hurt her a lot.

We know she can cut the threads, so we must force her into a different action.
I cast "Great Fire Beam!" at her, holding the staff in my left hand, hiding my right hand. She looks worried for a second, but then she just simply absorbs the flame…But we kept her Kendama wielding arm free on purpose. It is all to surprise her. In the midst of her fire absorption, she can't do a second action. Sili-san sneaks in a shot of his string that wraps around her Kendama. He almost pulls it out of her hands, but her grasp on it is quite strong.

Even so, she looks panicked, her focus has to shift from absorbing the flames to holding onto that weapon. That is when I cast explosion from my right hand held over my left arm.
The explosion hits her hand, now we have taken her Kendama from her. She could still escape the string, but greater strength or not, without her weapon, both me and Sili-san have won this already.

"Well then, Lion. Are you ready?", Sili-san says with a smile.
"Let's do it…", I answer strongly.
"Formation EXE Drive Skill!", we shout in unison.
This is it. A combination of two Exe Drive skills.
Sili-san weaves and throws string around like whips, it's almost like they have gained sentience as they slither around and create a dimension of their own, they aren't even attached to anything but air.

I shoot icicles and comets into the web, the string bouncing the magical projectiles all around so they all go through the ninja multiple times whilst Sili-San joins in and cuts her a consecutively. After that, I set the oiled-up string aflame, creating a big fire. Sili-san comes back to me, he prepares an elastic catapult with his string. I use wind magic to pull him extremely far back whilst using support magic to make sure his threads don't snap. Then I cast explosion magic so Sili-san breaks the sound barrier when he stabs through the ninja, creating a big explosion, all the while we both shout, "Magic Show: Explosion Stinger!"

I am not done yet.
"I'll leave the rest to you, Lion!", he says.
"Hn!", I make a noise back before creating my new spell.
A flaming head of a lion surrounds me, from the earth I pull up what looks like a gate.
"Lion's Gate!", I call this, shooting the burning Lion at the ninja. Despite being gnawed at, she holds on. She shouts as she tries to march through my magic. Holding her down, my arms feel heavy. The adrenaline from before has worn out. It hurts just to push my arms down… But after this one final push…

I lean back a bit before using my back to throw my whole front over, one final push with my arms as I scream. That is when the flaming lion head fully explodes on her.
"Finale…", I say, as the gate I made opens, shooting a huge beam of light that pushes her far away until it collides with something and blows up into a giant pillar of white.
We did it… We won!
I can barely get any air into my mouth. I fall to my knees, holding onto my staff…
I…I fought hard! Winning does feel good…But I am so tired.

"Lion! Barrier! Now!", Sili-san shouts. My vision is blurry, I can't see what is coming at me.
I trust him, so I pulled up a barrier and hear a clanking noise.
Something was thrown against it. Before I knew it, Sili-san has come to me, and held me up before bringing us both to safety, swinging around with his string. The area I was in ends up getting hit by some kind of lightning.

Once landed, Sili-san slowly lowers me. I sit on the ground, I feel dazed. Nothing feels real to me. He crouches down to me and gives me a healing item and half of his SP items. I use the healing item and two charger 2s. My vision returns to me, but it's like I'm holding up two cars when I stand.
In the distance, on top of the leftover cockpit is another female ninja.
"Hey, you don't think it is another special ninja, do you.", Sili-san says in between nervous chuckles.

"I don't know.", I say. I can't think straight I am too tired to think about anything.
This woman with purple hair and black garbs catches two metal rings. Her black cloak flows in the wind.
"You two, of the Phantom Crusaders, I recommend your surrender.", she speaks out to us.
We stare at her for a bit. Sili-san asks me, "Leader told us of a user of Rings…Her name was Maone, wasn't it?", Sili-san asks.
"I think so…?", I respond slowly.

It is another special ninja. It took us everything to defeat these two. This one may be stronger if Leader knows her…
Our healing items are running low. And we only have eight Charger 2s left… I don't think we can win another fight. It would make sense to surrender…But…
"I prefer more merciful solutions…So please. Give up now. Don't make me eliminate you.", she gives us this choice.
We could let ourselves get captured and be freed by Leader later…But…

"Sorry, I have to refuse. It would be uncool for a group of phantoms to be captured, wouldn't it? Besides, we can't trust you. Nor do we want to be unmasked by you.", Sili-san says with false bravado. He isn't as stupid as he sounds…He knows we're not at our best. Yet, he props himself up for another fight. It is admirable…It gets me going too.
I stand back up.
"Win or lose. We fight to keep you from hurting our friends.", I say.
"That is your answer then…", she says coldly.

She closes her eyes for a few seconds. Once she opens them, she talks with a lower tone and says, "Then prepare to meet your ends!"
Her agility is above average. She got to us within seconds, we had to shield ourselves from her thrusting one ring at us each. She may not be as fast as our previous enemy, but her dexterity and skill are different. I couldn't follow her movements, both me and Sili-san end up getting kicked at the same time.

I have never seen such a double kick before. How does she not stumble and fall after lifting both feet like that? I bet Leader would figure it out.
"Great Holy Beam!", I think of nothing but quickly hitting her with a powerful spell.
But her rings get in front of her and make some kind of barrier. Despite pushing, I didn't have the strength to break through her barrier…I did break it, but I was too tired and the beam petered out right after.

Sili-san went around us, his strings having increased his speed as his feet glide over the snow. Then he shoots himself at her and is about to strike her with his sword. She blocks him, only slightly nudged back. Sili-san keeps pushing, but in the end, she lets go with one ring, then she escapes as the ring that held Sili-san back suddenly collapses in pieces. But it seems these rings are special. The pieces float around Sili-san and suddenly electrocuted him.

Within that time, Maone runs towards me with the other ring in hand.
She held her right hand over her left shoulder, so I thought to block a swing of that ring, but instead, she jumps above my staff, she kicks it down with a turn from her right leg. I can feel she used some kind of wind magic to guide her other leg into my back, pushing me with a light kick. This allows her to send me flying with a swing of her ring.

I think we are about five meters apart. She isn't physically as strong as the previous ninja, but she has better techniques benefiting a ninja. We are also exhausted. I have trouble getting back up. I can only watch her stroll over slowly.
Sili-san flies over here, letting the string accelerate him towards Maone.
But he had to stop when Maone throws a ring at him, the ring was set ablaze with the words, "Katon!", becoming a wheel of flame.

Knowing his string can't handle fire, Sili-san escapes shooting string elsewhere letting himself get pulled out of harms way. Now I have been given the time to recollect myself to attack Maone. She is rather close, so I limit myself by only using combo moves.
The Stealth Speed skill is still annoying. Explosion, ice, fire, wind, lightning or even comets, she avoids all of it. She does look kind of pretty that way…Ah, she's next to me.

I try to jump away, but she still hits me back with a kick, even if her leg hit my Staff I held between her and me. Her other ring that electrocuted Sili-san now flies behind me. I cast a quick-teleport spell to move out of the way.
I see her catch it, handling its force by turning the direction she caught it in. After, she immediately dashes towards me.
Sili-san ambushes her from her left shoulder, swinging his blade towards her neck.

She is slowly getting pushes back with her one ring. But she looks so calm. Looking to my left, I see the flaming wheel flying back to them.
Sili-san just noticed it and jumps before the flame can hit him, his string getting melted.
He doesn't give up and tried to strike her with his sword, shooting string under him so his sword gets pulled further, but she blocks it. Their arms are wobbly, they must be struggling. Actually, Maone uses the two rings she now wields to tilt Sili-san's blade out of the way so she can land a hard kick against him, getting him to drop to his back.

I hear Maone sigh. She doesn't even finish him off immediately. But I can't wait for her either.
"Ice Coffin!", I shout, encasing Maone in ice. Won't do much damage, before it can shatter, her rings are burning up with fire. She melts herself out of the ice. She looks to me, not that she can hurt me now. Sili-san is already back up and is about to wave his sword around.
"String Cutter!", he shouts, trying to cut her with his string flying out his sword like a whip.

She suddenly disappeared? No, she jumped away before the whip hit her. I see her in the air. Sili-san tries to catch her in a web of string. Even I have trouble seeing every string. So I am amazed to see her use Stealth Speed and dance around all the threads. Sili-san keeps shooting more and more string, only to never catch her as she sneaks behind him.
The two hold their bladed weapons against each other. But this time, Maone wraps her legs around Sili-san's arms, I can see him gasp. She twists her legs around with jump, which in turn twists Sili-san's arm. She then lands on her hands still holding onto his arms before pulling him down the ground with her legs.

She steps on his back, I don't know what she's planning, but I won't let that woman hurt him.
"Great Explosion!", shouting that has her look over to me with wide open eyes.
If he's going to be hurt, it better be by a friend's hand!
She wasn't expecting it and took the full hit of that explosion. She almost fell over the ground…like a feather? Is she that light?
she may not have thought I would risk hurting Sili-san, but we have healing items and Sili-san gets accidentally hurt by us all the time, he is used by it…I hope…

Maone gets up and quickly comes for me. Halfway, she trips over…Oh. No it was Sili-san, he used string to entangle her legs.
"Sp Move… Tenchi Raigeki!", I use my special teleporting lighting bolt move, but she turned both rings in a bunch of different pieces. They formed an L shape as the lightning strikes the top part, and is then redirected to me.
I thought I'd get hit, but Sili-san shoots a barrier of string that absorbs the lightning instead.

Maone turns around, I can hear her breath loudly, staring at Sili-san's smug face.
"You know, a guardian always has everything prepared to protect his children.", he says.
"A child that can create giant explosions? Your job must be tough…", Maone replies with a dry voice. I don't think she knows what I look like, so she probably thinks Sili-san is speaking nonsense…Um…Well he says things that doesn't make sense, I think.

She throws a ring at his legs. She quickly turns to run over to me. Sili-san jumps over the ring, but then the ring stops and summons a lightning bolt down at him by Maone saying, "Raiton!" Electrocuted, Sili-san falls to the ground again.
"Suiton! Hydro Saw!", she shouts tossing her other ring towards me, it spouts water around itself at high pressure, turning it into a water saw that also freezes the environment using the weather.

I use another teleport spell to move away from it. She might be thinking that I would move far away from her, but I actually positioned myself behind her. When she turned around, it was too late, I blasted her a dozen meters away with "Great Fire Beam!"
Once she gets back up, her rings fly back towards her. This time, Sili-san comes from above. He pressures her by letting his string launch a bunch of the plane's rubble towards her, then he tries to smash his sword down on her whilst also trying to overwhelm her with string.

"Futon! Whirlwind Dance.", she says, spinning around, cutting through his string with her rings and legs with wind magic until she reaches him, avoiding the rubble underneath her. Their blades clash, and then Sili-san gets kicked onto the ground again. This time he rolled back up the second he hit the ground. He still tried to entangle her within his string, she only has her free herself by setting one ring aflame. She follows that up by throwing it at Sili-san.

Sili-san attempts to jump away from the ring, but the moment he did, it stopped to turn vertically, the hole aimed at him.
"Holy Beam!", Maone shouts as a pure white beam shoots Sili-san into the leftover wing of the plane.
"Futon!", she shouts when she throws her other ring at me, the wind magic blasting it towards me at high speed. I teleport again, this time she predicted I'd be somewhat close to her, she jabs me, thrusting her arm over my staff, then she kicks me away.

With my left elbow on the ground behind my back and my heels holding me off the ground, I aim my staff forward as she approaches.
"Giant Green Tornado!", my wind attack blasts her into the sky. In the end, she rotates with it, using wind magic to combust the tornado, sending the many winds into multiple directions. Sili-san took this opportunity to wrap his string around her and quickly smash her into a hill.

Sili-san walks closer to me. We both take a healing item. We only have about fifteen left total.
The sound of a stomp has our attention. Maone jumped back into this arena. She walks over to us, unamused.
She tosses her rings next to her, it's like they grow in size as they widen their holes.
"Double Holy Beam!", she shouts, shooting two beams at us. We both dodge it without much trouble.

"Giant Explosion!", I shout, trying to catch her in another explosion, but she jumps far away from it. Sili-san tries catching her with strings whilst she is in the air, but she starts stepping on top of the string. She uses them as footholds, same as Sili-san.
"You know, we Jonin are trained with and against string, right?", she asks us.
She jumps on top of the cockpit that was broken off the plane. Back to the starting point.
"I really think you two should give up. There is little you can do with someone of my skills.", she doesn't sound arrogant in tone, she sounds more concerned than anything.

She may sound a little tough, though.
Sili-san ignores her and just swings by her. She blocks his attack with one ring, whilst she looks over to me as I shoot another huge fire beam at her.
"Holy Beam!", she says as she lets the other ring shoot a white beam my way, it can easily penetrate through the flames. I have no choice to roll out of the way.
She looks at Sili-san and says, "I feel disappointed.", then she kicks him down.

I see her cross her arms. She's standing still. We gather together as we hear her speak, "Your leader left a great impression. I thought the Phantom Crusaders were better than this…No. I must apologize. Perhaps you were too tired after Yatterman. I wish I could be considerate, I prefer fighting someone as special as you two whilst you have your strength. But I am a ninja and must do as I am tasked. However, I do wish not to fight you."

"If you don't want to fight, you can just leave. It is not like we want to do anything bad.", Sili-san says.
He holds his sword in front of him and says, "But your leader is in the wrong. That is all."
"I told you already. I can't turn my back on my lord…My father. You two will not surrender? No matter what? I can tell, you two are too exhausted to continue.", she says.
"You don't understand. We fight because we believe in what we do. Someone half-hearted like you don't get to talk us down! Either you're a badass ninja, or you leave!", Sili-san argues.

"Fine then. That was the last offer. I will have to kill both of you.", Maone holds out her rings once more.
The sun casts her shadow over us. She feels way larger, on top of a taller spot.
"Sorry, Lion. I should've negotiated to fight her on my own.", Sili-san says.
I shake my head. "We're together. Leader will definitely win. We must save each other until then.", I tell him.
"Now that's what I like to hear!", he shouts, grinning over at Maone.
Our battle for survival has begun. I hope we last long enough…

To Be Continued…