Chapter 71: Battle Witches (2) (1/2)
”D-did we go overboard?” Katrin said in a panic as she watched the explosion of flames consume Gigi. She walked towards Agni pensively, her hands clasped against her bosom as she moved. Her eyes were transfixed on a large mass of swirling flames six meters away (roughly 18ft).
”No. I don't think so anyway..” Agni said.
”When I got hit with her magic earlier it didn't hurt. I just felt pressure and then a sense of mana loss. I almost blacked out. That's probably what happened. We should check on her though…” Agi expounded as she began walking towards the spot of the explosion. Throughout the short but fierce battle the landscape of the training room remained unchanged, Agni could only admire the rules of Adventia.
”Wait. Something's not right.” Katrin said as she stared into the flames of the explosion. They should have dissipated within moments but instead they began to form a sphere. The energy was hollow in the center and waves of flame cycled along the surface of the magical construct. Soon a rush of air filtered outwards, strong enough to give Agni pause as Gigi stood unharmed in the center of the sphere.
”Whew. That was really unexpected. I didn't imagine you two to catch onto magical combat so quickly. And I only gave you a few pointers too.” Gigi's voice was relaxed, calm even as if their attacks had been shrugged off altogether.
Agni couldn't help but grit her teeth, biting her lip in the process as Gigi released her magic, the sphere of flames must have been created at the last moment in order to negate the damage of Agni's fire attack.
It was the same sort of trick that Agni regularly pulled against Fulger Stags who often used lightning element to great effect. Rather than taking the full brunt of the magical attack head on, Agni would fill her body with as much lightning as she could safely muster. This would oftentimes half or even cancel out completely the energy directed towards her. Gigi's application of this principle was on a much higher level, however.
”But I'm glad. It's been a while since I had a good sparring session. The power of a Specialist class is nothing to sneeze at, and you even combined both Inner and Outer techniques in that last strike. Agni, you're amazing!”
The praise filtering from Gigi's lips was somehow tinged in Agni's mind. Once again the young woman's words didn't match the energy Agni was perceiving. She felt like she was facing a wild beast and when the flames subsided she soon understood why.
Gigi's body had undergone several changes, the most prominent were her eyes and her hair. Thick magical lines appeared along her cheeks and forehead, these were Gigi's magic veins and they glowed with red energy. Her eyes were also aglow with a flaming red energy, so much so that it looked like her pupils were on fire. Her hair, on the other hand, had actually taken on the appearance of flames. Gigi's ginger colored hair was infused with fire element, causing her strands of red hair to catch alight and defy gravity. It gave the appearance that her entire head was on fire. For a moment Agni felt as if she was staring at a goddess from some sort of fairy tail. What she was witnessing was amazing and it defied the logic of everything she knew up until that point.
*Magic is really capable of something like this?* Agni found herself subconsciously taking a step backwards, she felt unsure of what to do next. Meanwhile Katrin was having a similar dilemma. In order to compensate for the speed of conjuring earth element, she needed to use additional mana to quicken the process. Firing so many blasts for so long had depleted over half of her mana. While she was relieved that Gigi wasn't injured, she felt a sudden shift in the woman's demeanor. In a word, it was intimidating. She got the distinct impression that Gigi wasn't taking the battle very seriously before now, but that just might change.
While this wasn't a battle for life and death, Katrin resigned to pushing herself at all times after her First Death experience. The most prominent thought which came to mind is that she didn't want to be seen as useless. Despite coming to fetch her after the battle, Agni had never directly asked her about her death experience. In a way it bothered Katrin, she knew Agni cared but she could also tell that Agni was somewhat perceptive of Katrin's complex. This in turn made her feel somewhat insecure. In order to combat this Katrin had been feverishly attempting to study magic and make plans for contingencies in combat. This shift in her own combat style was definitely a step in the right direction, but she was currently ill equipped to handle such an opponent. Her lack of experience as well as her lack of spells didn't give Katrin very many options and even with Agni she doubted that they would be able to successfully defeat Gigi based on the display before them.
She didn't really have an effective way of conveying all of these thoughts, so instead she simply pushed them away.
*Winning or losing doesn't really matter in this instance.*
Katrin thought to herself as she formed her resolve. She lifted both her right and left hands, calling forth earth and air element masses of magic. These were the two specialties Katrin chose after much consideration, partially because they were plentiful and easier to manipulate for her.
*The important thing is to get some experience, as much as possible.*