Chapter Fifty: Defending the Forest
The group of Magic Knights and Diamond Fugitives jumped down from the hole in the Queen's Palace and landed on a large and strong root, they all looked forward, seeing the forest before them being set ablaze.
"Holy crap, this is bad," Kenos said aloud.
"Tell me about it, we just got here a few minutes ago, Fana works hella fast," Finral added.
Noelle stepped forward, looking back at her companions. "There are fires everywhere, taking down the opposition won't matter if the forest is burnt to the ground anyway, I'll stay here and use my water magic to extinguish the flames, the rest of you will fight,"
"That's alright with me, okay everyone, move out!" Asta exclaimed as all of them, excluding Noelle, ran forward towards the enemy.
Meanwhile, up in the sky, on the side of the Eye of the Midnight Sun, Fana looked down. "Nice work, Salamander, this forest shall burn, but for some reason, the Queen has yet to show herself, well, that's a good thing, we can obtain the Magic Stone without needing to have a confrontation with her," she said. "I suppose I could've let Annalise come, but I couldn't take the risk,"
Beside the flame mage was Shidan, he too looked down at the blazing forest, but his eyes were focused on something else. "So, this is the Witches' Forest, I've heard a bit about this place, no men are allowed, and there are many beautiful women, although, based on what I can see, none of them compare to Lady Fana's beauty," he thought to himself before he heard something, causing him and the pink-haired woman to look up.
"What are those?" Fana wondered aloud, before her and her group a large number of golems, all of their eyes were flashing red.
"What are we going to do, Lady Fana?" a hooded mage asked.
"I'll destroy them, of course," she replied. "Flame Spirit Magic: Salamander's Breath!"
The larger spirit blasted its signature attack at her call, hitting every single golem, causing them to all combust simultaneously.
"That was easy," Shidan silently commented, the green-haired mage then looked down, watching witches fly away, his eyes full of sadistic lust as they fixed themselves on the younger ones. "They may not be as beautiful as Lady Fana, but they'll do just fine," he took his grimoire out as it flipped through pages. "Plant Magic: Capturing Vines,"
At his call, large vines came out from the sleeves of his robes, they quickly made their way down, ensnaring three witches right off of their brooms, pulling them all towards him, kicking and screaming of course.
"Let us go!" the witches screamed in unison.
The plant mage slowly moved towards one with a disgusting look on his face. "Sorry, but I can't do that, once we're done here, you're going to be coming with me...I'll train you well, soon, you won't even miss this place," he said, licking her.
"AHHH! SOMEONE HELP!" she screamed.
"Hey, you!" a voice exclaimed.
Shidan looked down to see Asta running towards him. "Oh, a Magic Knight, here to get in our way, you'll regret that," he said quite calmly as he extended one of his hands towards the swordsman as the vines from before raced his way.
"You're going to have to do better than that!" Asta exclaimed as he effortlessly cut the vines with his swords.
"Better, aye, that can happen," Shidan stated in the same tone of voice as he looked at the other hooded mages beside him. "Attack!" he shouted.
His allies didn't need to be told twice, they immediately began firing magic bullets and low-level spells, all in hopes of taking down the Black Bull.
"Man, it feels good to be able to fight again, I wasn't even confined to a sling for three whole days, yet it feels like I haven't been to battle in ages," Asta thought as he either dodged, cut, or deflected the attack coming his way, he then quickly jumped into the air, slamming the Demon-Slayer into a hooded mage's head, knocking them out, he then used their airborne broom to boost himself upward.
For the first time, Shidan showed some worry. "What the? He took down one of our mages, and so quickly, and based on where he's going to land, this will be a pattern,"
And sure enough, the plant mage was corrected, Asta began by knocking out a mage with his sword before using either their broom or magical construct to boost himself up to the next enemy, this repeated until all the hooded mages were subdued.
Shidan watched in shocked surprise as the magicless mage thrusted into the air once more, the Demon-Slayer raised high. "Alright there greeny, now it's your turn!" Asta exclaimed, using the Slayer to cut the vines used to constrict the witches, he then quickly spun around, slamming the Demon-Dweller right into the pervert's face, knocking him off of his broom.
Asta, Shidan, and the three witches began free-falling, the swordsman landed masterfully on his feet, the three females landed roughly on their bottoms, but the plant mage had it worst of all as his face was the closest to the ground, making him fall face-first into the ground, knocking him out immediately.
"There we go, I still got it," Asta silently praised himself before he instinctively started running towards the witches. "Hey, are you all okay? None of you broke any-,"
He was interrupted as one of them slapped him right in the face, it didn't hurt, but that didn't stop him from getting pissed. "What was that for?!"
The witch who slapped looked at him with disdain. "We didn't ask for your help,"
"What in the motherfucking hell are you talking about?! The whole reason I came here and kicked the ass of about 10 mages was because you were screaming for help!" Asta protested.
"W-Well, even if we did need help, we weren't going to accept it from you," the witch said back as she took her broom and flew away, the other two gave the swordsman the same look of disdain before flying off as well.
"I'll have to apologize for their stubbornness," Asta turned around to see Domina and the others in the group approaching him. "Remember what I said, the Witches' Forest is a misandrist place with loads of misandrist people, as such, the witches here believe females to be the better gender, and for males to be the equivalent of scum,"
"Well that's stupid," Kenos spoke up. "Gender doesn't matter when you're in the line of danger, you should be grateful to the person that saves you,"
"Unfortunately, they don't see it that way," the vortex mage blatantly told him.
"Well, onto the matter at hand, it appears all the members of the Eye of the Midnight Sun are here," Mariella said. "So where are the forces from the Diamond Kingdom?"
Just as she finished saying this, an explosion was seen kilometers away, right to the group's left.
"I believe that answers your question," Finral told her.
"If the Diamond Kingdom is over there, then I'm going there," Fanzell said as he stepped up. "I was a former instructor, I know all of their moves and how they'll fight,"
His wife walked over to him. "We understand, but of course, you're going to need some help, I won't let my dear Zell fight them all alone,"
The ice mage lazily raised her hand. "I think you already knew I wasn't letting you go without me,"
They smiled. "Of course," Fanzell said. "Now let's get-,"
"Wait," a voice interrupted, Fanzell turned to see the solar mage.
"Something the matter, Kenos?" the wind mage asked.
Kenos clenched his fists. "I...I want to go with you," he replied, his tone showing some hesitation, but then his face became serious. "I have a score to settle, with Brosnan,"
Fanzell knew that name well, causing his eyes to widen. "Are you sure? Brosnan is no joke of a mage, if the two of you are going to fight, it won't be easy,"
"I know, but I still want to do this," Kenos replied, making sure to not reveal the injury Yami suffered at the golden eye mage's hand. "Brosnan got away from us in Kiten, I won't let it happen again, I'm taking him down,"
Fanzell looked at the young noble, and Kenos looked back, their eyes peering straight into the other. "Alright then, but just be careful," he then took his grimoire out. "Wind Creation Magic: Emperor of Slashing Winds - Hovering Swords!" he exclaimed as four swords of wind appeared, the black bull and the fugitives jumping on them.
Kenos turned to Asta, Finral, and Vanessa. "Good luck you three,"
"Good luck, Kenos, and make sure you come back, it's like Asta said, you're one of our good friends, we can't lose you," Vanessa responded.
The solar mage smiled before he turned back to the Diamond trio. "I'm ready," he said as they all flew in the air, towards the other group of enemies.
Asta tightened the grip on his swords. "Okay, that means the rest of the fight over here is up to us,"
"We might need something to give us a hand," Vanessa stated, she turned to the spatial mage. "Hey Finral, can you make a portal to the room of the Queen's palace, the one you all broke into?"
"I can, but what do you need there?" he asked with a confused look.
The thread mage merely winked. "You'll see,"
"Okay then," Finral made a portal as Vanessa sent threads inside, pulling out the two of their brooms.
"Just thought we might need these," she said.
"Awesome, let's get moving," Asta said as he mounted behind Finral on his broom, the three looking forward, seeing the decent number of Midnight Sun mages still left to defeat. "We've got a lot of work to do,"
The two brooms then rose up into the sky and soared towards the enemy, it didn't take long for the hooded mages to spot them.
"Magic Knights! Kill them!" one mage shouted as they all released a wave of magic bullets.
"Split up, we'll be able to divide their numbers and deal with them better!" Vanessa instructed as she flew to the left, Finral and Asta followed her cue, moving to the right, which let them dodge the massive number of attacks.
One of the Midnight Sun mages spotted the spatial mage and the swordsman. "There they are!" she exclaimed as she fired two medium-sized boulders at them.
Finral quickly noticed this and responded. "Spatial Magic: Fallen Angel's Twin Gates!" he declared as he formed four portals simultaneously, two in front of him, and two behind two unknowing hooded mages, the pair of boulders went in through the first portal and came out the second one, pushing the two mages of their means of flight and sent plummeting to the ground.
"Awesome work, Finral," Asta congratulated his senior. "Now it's my turn, do you think you could get me closer?"
"I'll try," he replied as they zoomed forward as the horde of enemy mages, Finral then created a portal directly in front of him as his broom raced through it, appearing directly above the mages.
"Alright, Asta, you're up,"
The magicless mage grinned. "Thanks a bunch!" he exclaimed as he jumped off the broom, his declaration caught the attention of the enemies, causing them all to look up at him, but it was too late, Asta tightened his grip on the Demon-Slayer and slammed it right into the face of the mage below him, sending him on his way to the ground, giving Asta something to stand on as he saw the number of mages that surrounded him.
"Bring it on! I won't lose to any of you!"
"We'll see how confident you are when you're dead," a mage said back, his grimoire flipping to a page, no more firing magical bullets, it was the time for concrete spells. "Glass Magic: Spinning Shard Shootdown!" he called as glass shards of various sizes started appearing around him, the shards then began spinning like a buzzsaw before making their way towards Asta.
"I'm not scared of something like that!" the swordsman yelled with confidence as he used the Demon-Dweller to quickly break the spinning pieces of glass, but then his Ki detection went off, and he felt two more spells coming his way from two different directions behind his back.
"Those won't be a problem, all I have to do is spin around with my swords, then I can cut them both at the same time," he thought, but before he could even execute the plan, two familiar portals appeared, the spells went into them, coming back out as one hit the glass mage from earlier, the other hit another Midnight Sun mage.
"Finral?" Asta muttered.
"Asta!" the magicless mage looked up at the sound of his name, and there Finral was, above him, where'd been the whole time.
"You never left?" Asta asked as he began cutting and dodging spells.
"Nope, after you jumped down, I stayed here and decided to use my portals to provide some backup," he replied. "And it looks like I was right to do so,"
"Awesome, I already knew your spatial magic was cool from the time we fought Vetto together, but I didn't know it had such a capability like this, we can fight and eliminate mages at the same time!"
Finral smiled before quickly looking at his hand. "Looking at myself now, I can't believe there was a time when I didn't want to fight, my magic is turning out to be really useful, I guess it was just me holding myself back, I wonder how'd I do if I ever had to face off with Langris," he thought before quickly redirecting his attention to the battle.
From afar, some Midnight Sun mages watched in confusion. "What's going on over there, I'm just seeing our forces drop, perhaps we should move in and-," he started saying, but was interrupted as something wrapped around his leg and pulled him off of his magical construct.
Other mages turned around at the sound of his sudden scream. "What just happened?" one asked with a bit of fear in her tone.
"I could explain that," a voice said. They all looked forward to see Vanessa, on her broom, looking at them with a calm smile on her face. "Just thought I should give him a little push, or rather, a little pull,"
"Attack, don't let her dodge this time!" a mage exclaimed as they too began to fire spells rather than bullets.
"Getting serious now, are we? Okay, but I can still dodge those just fine," Vanessa said as he flew up and then around, evading the spells before moving closer to them, sending out two strands of her thread, wrapping around the legs of two more mages, and just like before, they were soon on their way to the ground.
"I wonder how Asta and Finral are doing? The number of this horde is significantly going down, so I guess they're doing just fine, I guess I sort of owe my mother something for this, I bet Asta is having the time of his life, it does feel good to be able to fight again," she thought to herself before she noticed a spell coming directly at her.
"Shit!" she yelled as she quickly flew up, just managing to dodge the attack, she gratefully sighed in relief. "That was close," she then noticed a mage was directly below her.
"I better use this chance to do some damage," the thread mage said as she quickly shot threads down, they softly wrapped themselves around him as the Black Bull's grimoire flipped to a different page. "Thread Magic: Dancing Doll,"
Vanessa then began moving the mage's body, much to his surprise. "What the hell, my body's moving on its own," he quickly looked up, seeing the mage. "You, you won't escape this time," he muttered as he raised his hands up to her, a fire growing.
"Ah ah ah, that's not going to work, this spell may be called Dancing Doll, but I'll need you to do something different for me," Vanessa said with a smile and a wink as she pulled on her threads, forcing the man's arms to move right in front of him as the spell was released, the target of his attack changing from the Magic Knight to one of his allies.
Another Midnight Sun mage noticed Vanessa in the air. "There she is, get-," he was going to say, but was knocked off his broom by the fire attack of the previous mage.
The others turned to the flame mage. "He just attacked one of his allies," one said.
"A traitor!" another exclaimed. "Or a spy sent from the Clover Kingdom to infiltrate our forces! Take him down!" they all began firing bullets at him.
"Wait, you don't understand, it was the Magic Knight, she was-," he tried to explain, but to no avail as many of the attack made contact, sending him on his way to the ground.
Vanessa quickly removed the threads on him as he descended, she quickly flew away from the small group of mages, they noticed her, however, and began chasing her.
"Take this!" Asta exclaimed as he deflected a spell right back at the mage who sent it, he then began to breathe heavily. "Damn, this is getting a little tiring, how about you, Finral?"
"I could be better," the spatial mage as he created portals to protect himself and Asta from two incoming attacks. "Their numbers are dwindling, we're doing great,"
"I'll say!"
The sudden declaration caused everyone to look to their left, the two Black Bulls smiled as they saw that it was Vanessa.
"Follow me, I have a way to finish them all at once!" she told them.
"No complaints here, let's go, Asta," Finral said as he formed a portal right next to the swordsman, he jumped into it, appearing behind the spatial mage before they flew away.
"After them!" the remaining Midnight Sun mages exclaimed together, flying after the Magic Knights in hot pursuit.
"So, Vanessa, what's the plan?" Finral asked.
"You'll see, I just have to prepare it first," she replied as he fired two threads at two very faraway trees, her grimoire then flipped to a page and glowed. "There we go,"
"You won't escape!" the voice of a hooded mage cried a good distance behind them, the hooded mage put his hands up, ready to cast a spell.
"Wait, don't," another told him.
"Why not?" he asked.
The other mage pointed at Finral. "They have a spatial mage with them, he uses portals to send our attacks right back at us, or at somebody else, if we try long-range attacks, it'll only decrease our numbers further, the best option is to get up close and personal," she explained.
"Fine then," he said back as he put his arms down, they all then increased their pace.
"They're gaining on us, Vanessa, informing us of your plan would be nice!" Asta exclaimed.
"Don't worry, you'll see in action, you don't need me to tell you," she answered before turning to the spatial mage. "Finral, teleport us about ten feet forward,"
"Okay then," he obeyed and formed the portal as they went into it, coming out 10 feet from where they just were. "Now what?"
For some reason, she stopped. "Now what? Now we just watch,"
"Watch!" her two squadmates exclaimed.
She nodded. "That's right, trust me,"
And trust is exactly what the two boys did as Finral's broom stopped and the two watched as the enemy got closer.
"They've stopped moving, have they completely lost it?!" a Midnight Sun asked aloud.
"I don't know, but this means that killing them will be so much easier, let's not waste this opportunity and-," another one was in the middle of saying, but stopped as every single hooded mage somehow stopped in their tracks, but they didn't intentionally stop, it was if they couldn't move, that they were trapped.
But then, out of nowhere, a large light-purple net became visible, and from the net, smaller threads emerged, wrapping themselves around the enemy, immobilizing them completely.
"Wow, what did you do?" Asta asked, surprised by the outcome.
"I just set a spell for them, my Thread Magic: Arresting Dark Weave, the first thing to make contact with it will be bound in threads," she explained with a grin.
"A perfect way to eliminate the remaining mages," Finral said.
"So, you defeated them all?"
The sudden sound of an unfamiliar voice behind them shocked the three, they quickly turned around, and saw Fana not too far away, standing on top of Salamander.
"Fana, I was wondering where she went," Finral muttered. "She must've broken off on her own when the fight started,"
"It didn't take long for Fana to recognize who her opponents were. "The swords thief, we meet again, and the spatial mage that was with you is here too," she then focused her gaze on Vanessa, but her brow was raised. "Although I don't recognize the bimbo,"
"Bimbo!" Vanessa angrily exclaimed, almost standing up on her broom. "You messed with the wrong witch, sister, those words have just warranted an even worse ass-kicking than you were already going to get,"
"The only ones who will be getting their asses kicked are you, I'm going to make you pay for killing Vetto, burn in the flames of my hatred!" Fana exclaimed as her grimoire flipped to a familiar page. "Flame Spirit Magic: Salamander's Breath!"
The flame spirit reeled its head back before firing its signature attack.
"I got this one," Asta said as he put the Demon-Dweller back in his grimoire and tightly gripped the Demon-Slayer with both hands, he then jumped into the air, and with all of his strength, he deflected the attack right back to its origin.
"How do you like that!" he exclaimed proudly.
Fana, however, didn't look worried in the slightest. "It's of no consequence, Salamander, another one," she commanded, and the spirit growled in response before firing the same attack, the two clashed in the air, creating a shockwave of decent strength.
Fana, Vanessa, and Finral were pushed back a few inches, but were overall fine, however, the same couldn't be said for Asta as he was still in the air, the force of the shockwave was enough to push him feet back before he began plummeting towards the ground, skipping right over his two squadmates.
"Shit, Finral!" Vanessa exclaimed.
"I know!" he exclaimed back as he formed a portal under the falling swordsman, who fell into it, but instead of landing back on Finral's broom, he landed on the ground.
The two Black Bulls flew down to where he was. "Sorry about that, you were falling pretty fast, so I panicked a bit with the portal," Finral apologized.
Asta reached into his grimoire and pulled back out the short sword. "Don't sweat it, it's best if we fight on the ground anyway, as we saw from just a few seconds ago, my mobility is limited in the air, I have to be more careful up there,"
"You're right, we'll fight down here," Vanessa said, they all then turned and saw Fana and Salamander not too far away, the spirit decided to stay in the air.
"So, you decided to stay on the ground like the filthy insects you humans are, it won't change the fact that I'll kill you," Fana said.
"What the hell are you talking about, you're a human too, and don't be so confident, you're going to have to work your butt off in order to kill us!" Asta screamed.
Fana broke her emotionless stare and grit her teeth. "Don't equate me to you, human! Flame Spirit Magic: Salamander's Breath!" she angrily exclaimed as the spirit fired yet another attack.
Asta retaliated by jumping into the air and using both swords to cut the spell in half. "As I said, you'll need to do better!" he exclaimed before running towards her and the spirit, he crouched down, storing up potential energy, the ground cracked under his foot as he boosted himself even further into the air.
"Let me help you!" Finral called as he made a portal above Asta, the swordsman rocketed into it and came out even higher up, above Salamander.
"Let's see how you like this!" he exclaimed as he slashed at the spirit's chest, the spirit roared in pain as Asta landed on its head and started running towards Fana. "Now it's your turn!"
He made multiple attempts to strike her down, but she dodged each one. "It seems you won't go down so easily either,"
"Of course I won't, I won't lose to those that I hate with all my heart!" the flame mage exclaimed.
Asta pointed the Demon-Slayer at her. "Then there's the whole thing about hate, you might not be shouting about hate every five seconds like Vetto was about despair, but I still want to know, why do you hate us so bad?"
The faces on the other mages present contorted in surprise. "No offense, Asta, but I don't think this is the time to start asking those questions!" Finral called.
"I know, but still, I want to understand," he said before looking back at the pink-haired girl. "We don't even know each other that well, but you say you hate us and those of the Clover Kingdom, why?!"
"Why?! You want to know why?! You people and this damn kingdom took everything away from me, all the things I loved, all the people I loved, all of it, and then, you kill Vetto again, so more than anything, I want to see you burn!" she screamed. "Flame Magic: Twisting Inferno!"
Fire grew on her hands as she launched them forward as two streams, the streams collided and fired a united stream, but Asta crossed his two swords to block it.
"Again? What does she mean by that?" he muttered before he then thought about something else. "But her reasoning, it's similar to what Vetto said at the Underwater Temple,"
"You're not the only ones...I had hopes and dreams too, as well as people I cared about, but do you know what happened to it all, they were taken away from me..by stupid humans like you!"
Fana began increasing the strength of her spell. "Die... die...DIE!" she screamed, but then the crystal on her forehead broke, revealing an eye.
"What, another one, AH!" Asta exclaimed as the force was too much and he was pushed off Salamander.
"I got you," Vanessa said as she wrapped threads around him and pulled him towards them.
"Thanks," he said as he stood up and looked forward, from a new perspective, they saw that Fana wasn't the only one to get stronger, Salamander had begun to grow in size, and two hunks of minerals floated at its sides as it radiated strong levels of heat.
"Damn, just when you think Salamander was dangerous as is, now it gets stronger," Finral commented as they all crossed their arms in front of their bodies to protect themselves from the heat, with Asta putting his swords back.
"Let's get on our brooms and fly out of here," Vanessa told the other two, they nodded and mounted the brooms before beginning to fly away.
Fana looked at them as they did so. "You won't escape, Flame Spirit Magic: Salamander's Breath!" she exclaimed as Salamander shot the attack again, but unlike all the other times, it was a lot bigger, moving much faster, and was much more powerful.
"Holy crap, that speed is unreal, I need to make a portal," Finral said, but before he was able to do so, someone else stepped up.
"Make way!"
The three Black Bulls looked up as someone jumped into the air in front of them, and that person was none other than their resident water mage.
"Noelle!"
"Leave this one to me!" she exclaimed as her grimoire flipped to a page. "Water Creation Magic: Sea Dragon's Cradle!" at her call, the orb of water surrounded her and the trio, protecting them from the attack.
"Thanks for the save, Noelle," Vanessa said.
The royal flicked her ponytail. "No problem, I finished taking out the fires a little while ago, I then decided to come help you, and it's a good thing I did,"
"Great, now climb on, we need to establish some distance," the thread mage said as she obeyed and got on before they both flew away.
"So, what's the plan, Salamander got a lot stronger, if we want to beat Fana, we have to beat the spirit first?" Finral wondered aloud.
"I have an idea," Asta said as he turned to Noelle. "Use that awesome spell you did that removed Vetto's arm,"
"Excuse me, what?" Finral and Vanessa both asked in surprise, they weren't present when Noelle used her spell against the beast mage.
"You mean Sea Dragon's Roar...I don't know it couldn't take down Vetto, and it's pretty safe to say that spirit is stronger," she said with some doubt in her voice.
"Don't worry about that, Salamander is a fire spirit, and you use water magic, the attribute advantage should cover it," Vanessa attempted to encourage her.
"I guess, but...am I strong enough?" she asked with the same tone of doubt.
"Of course you are!" Asta exclaimed. "You're amazing, Noelle, you've always been amazing, no matter what people have said about you, I've seen your strength, we've seen your strength, and we know you have what it takes,"
"He's right, we believe in you," Finral added.
"You guys," Noelle said, she couldn't stop herself from making a warm yet goofy smile. "Alright, I can do this,"
The two brooms then turned around and raced towards the mage of the Midnight Sun, Fana saw them fly to her. "So, you've decided to stop running away, I commend your bravery, but that's all you'll get from me,"
"Get ready, Noelle, once we get close enough, it'll be your cue to attack," Vanessa said.
"This will be the end of you, time to give it everything we've got, Flame Spirit Magic: Salamander's Blaze!" Fana exclaimed as Salamander rose its wings while it began glowing a flaming red and a ball of fire started growing in its mouth, it then released a very powerful blast of magic.
"Noelle, now!"
The water mage stood up on the broom, pointing her wand towards the attack nearing as her grimoire flipped to its newest page. "Here I go, Water Creation Magic: Sea's Dragon's Roar!" she exclaimed as the water dragon was unleashed, the two attacks quickly clashed and began struggling.
"You won't defeat me, girl, you can't defeat the flames of my hate!" Fana exclaimed.
"You're wrong, I can defeat the flames of your hatred, because of one thing, and do you want to know what that is!" Noelle exclaimed back as her dragon began winning. "It's the trust my squadmates have in me!"
Her dragon spell then won the struggle and raced towards Salamander, it took a big bite out of the spirit as Salamander roared in pain, the water mage's spell then disappeared as Salamander began to drop down a few feet, but quickly recovered.
"What, that still wasn't enough, but how," Noelle said with shock.
"I don't know, but it's clear you weakened it, that's good," the thread mage told her.
The flame spirit flew back up, albeit slower than usual, Fana was breathing heavily. "I wasn't expecting that to happen, it seems I'll have to take a different approach," her grimoire flipped to a different page, but it had a slight difference from the other spells she had. "Mineral Creation Magic: Harpe!"
At her call, the two hunks of mineral at Salamander's side fashioned themselves into two large blades, they spun around in a buzzsaw-like fashion before being launched towards the Magic Knights.
Finral and Vanessa didn't recognize the spell coming at them, but Asta and Noelle did, regardless, it didn't stop them all from saying the same word. "What?!" they exclaimed before quickly dodging the blades.
"How the hell did she use that kind of spell, that isn't her attribute?!" Finral exclaimed.
"Noelle, you recognize that spell, right?" Asta asked.
She nodded. "Yeah, that's Mars' spell, that Diamond Kingdom mage,"
"She must be a dual mage too, after all, I never really took the time to check her grimoire," the swordsman said. "Hey, Fana! By any means, do you have a brother, spiky hair, grim expression?!" he screamed.
"A brother?" she repeated. "I have no brother, or any other siblings, I don't know why you would ask that question, if you're trying to stall for something, it won't work!"
"Okay then, she's an only child and she doesn't seem to know Mars, either way, we need to finish this fight once and for all," Asta said before clenching his fist. "That means I have to use it...my special move,"
His three squadmates immediately looked at him with deadpan expressions. "Special move?"
Asta chuckled before he held his chin. "Ah yes, my special move, I thought of it while my arms were still in a sling, I speed towards my enemy with both swords extended in front of me and hit them with a large amount of piercing force,"
"Um, how exactly are you planning to develop enough speed to make that useful?" Noelle asked. "No offense, but it doesn't sound like you could pull it off,"
"What?!" Asta whined.
"She's right, you know," Finral said.
Vanessa nodded. "Mhm, there's no way you could ever pull it off…," she and the spatial mage then grinned.
"...At least, not without us," they said together, Asta grinned.
"Finral, form some distance between us," Vanessa instructed as he did so, she then placed two long and strong strands of thread at the ends of their brooms.
"Okay Asta, your turn, jump off the broom," the thread mage continued.
"On it," Asta said as he jumped off, the force of the wind immediately pushed him back, but his back landed right on the thread.
"Now, let's go," the older Black Bulls said together as they raced forward at their max speed.
"Fana, prepare for defeat!" the magicless mage exclaimed.
"That's what I should be saying to you," she said back.
"Get ready, Asta, the rest is now up to you!" Finral and Vanessa exclaimed as their brooms suddenly stopped and the boy was sent flying towards the spirit.
"Thanks, you two, I owe you big time!" Asta screamed as he pulled out his swords and put them in front of him.
"You may have those swords, but even they won't save you, Flame Spirit Magic: Salamander's Blaze!" Fana exclaimed as the spirit released the powerful attack again.
At the speed Asta was moving, he was able to meet the stream head-on safely, the power of his swords protecting him from harm.
"This is it!" Asta exclaimed as he continued to flash forward, and with tremendous force, he crashed right into Salamander's chest, he growled for a few seconds. "I won't lose!"
He then ripped through, tearing the spirit's physical body in half, with still enough force to keep going. "Face the wrath of my special move, Bull Thrust!"
Fana's face showed shock as a pillar of flame erupted from within Salamander's split body. "No way," she seemed to fall in slow motion.
"I'm sorry...Annalise, Licht," she muttered as she and the spirit crashed onto the ground.