Chapter 30 – Messing up with magic

Sophia had taken a bath, got new clothes, and looked presentable again after the fight with the griphon. She and Fen then met up with Maya, Chiyo, and the rest of her group inside the bar they went to the day before already.

"Ah, there they are! Hmm?" Maya spotted the two first and immediately noticed something confusing when she looked at Sophia. "You're pretty again?!"

"T-Thanks…?" She had no idea how to react to something like that.

"No, you were all bloody and stuff, but now you don't even have a single scratch left! Your skin's completely spotless!" She sounded just a tiny bit jealous while she looked at Sophia's exposed arms and legs.

"Again, t-thanks…? Well, I took a long bath, so-"

"Nonono! You were cut up pretty badly, you know? Wounds that had bled so much don't simply disappear with just a bath!"

"Ahh," Sophia finally understood what Maya was going on about. "My body heals up really fast, so it's no problem~. I told you that I was fine after I got attacked, right?" Though, she had no idea about her self-healing abilities back then.

"You're really one source of amazement after another…" Rashk marveled at this high-spec girl.

"Ehehe~." She took it as a compliment.

"You should've told me sooner!" Maya got angry instead. "You've made me worry way too much!"

"I'm sorry, I forgot to mention it." Not so much as forgot, she didn't know either, after all.

"Hmph!" The cat-girl wasn't happy with her answer and turned her head away with a pout. Coincidentally, the tip of her tail made the same motion.

"…" Sophia barely but successfully managed to hold back a comment of her observation.

"W-Well, isn't it fine that no one got seriously hurt?" Rashk tried to mediate between the two.

"I guess so…" Maya let it slide in the end.

"I'm still wondering what a griphon was doing here in the first place, though." It was a mystery to the lizardman.

"Ahh, it seems that was my fault. When Fen and I were traveling through the, uhh, what did Maya call it again? Ah, right, the monster country, I ended up getting lost and ran into another griphon and killed it… I think these two were related or something.

"She said monster country right now, did she not…?" The lizardman pretended to clean his ears. "I-, I shouldn't have asked…" His migraine came back.

"It's not as bad as the name implies, right, Fen?" She looked at her companion for support.

"If anything, that place was really boring."

"Yeah, I think so, too." Both of them were high-spec idiots and far from a good example.

"Was it really a good choice to go traveling with those two?" Maya slightly doubted her plans.

"You can still change your decision, you know?" Sophia wasn't going to force her.

"No, of course not! While it sounds a bit ridiculous, it also seems fun! Besides, now that I've passed your test, Sophia, there's nothing that can stop me anymore!"

"E-Eh?" Chiyo sounded confused. "You… passed? Already? You actually managed to do it? You're going together with her…?" She seemed to know what Maya was talking about.

"Yes, she let me pass the test earlier, or actually, she made me pass! Sophia wanted me to come with her so bad that she even cheated~." She exaggerated a bit.

"H-Hey, that's not… exactly what happened." She tried to deny it, but it was mostly the truth. "I-, I just helped out a bit, nothing more!"

"Someone just can't be honest, huh?" Maya looked smug as she took a sip from her drink.

"Oh?" Sophia reacted to that grin, as being teased often seemed to trigger something in her. "Who was the one that got so happy that she ruined all her clothes because she couldn't contain herself and hugged the bloody girl without thinking?"

"I-, I, uh, want to retract my earlier statement."

"Good." Sophia was the one with the smug expression now.

"I see… so that's how it is… Congratulations, Maya…" Despite her words, Chiyo didn't seem too happy.

"Yeah, thanks…" Her reaction was lukewarm as well.

"What test?" Masi felt like he missed something somewhere.

"Oh, I didn't tell you, right?" Maya faced him. "As a condition to accompany Fen and Sophia on their travels, I had to learn a third type of magic. Earlier today, Sophia successfully taught me chantless water magic."

"Ahh… Is that so…?" His dead-looking eyes stared off into the far distance, and he didn't say another word.

"Well then, congratulations Maya." Fen decided to also say some words. "Welcome to our little group. I can't say what's in it for the future as our unpredictable oddball here does whatever she wants. Still, I can guarantee you that it's going to be interesting, at least."

"I'm being insulted right now, am I not?" The oddball didn't feel like these were kind words.

"Of course not." Fen and Maya were already in sync.

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The group stayed for a long time in the bar, drinking quite a lot, and were having a great time, though Chiyo got completely smashed for some reason. Sophia also got confirmation on her theory that Fen indeed becomes rather talkative when he's drunk. Thanks to that, she was rather busy during the evening by stopping him from saying things that would embarrass her to death.

On the following morning, Sophia, out of all people, was the only one who was fit and energetic because she couldn't get drunk thanks to her boosts. Feeling bored from being all alone, she went outside the city to play around a bit.

"Let's see," She was back at the lake where she went with Maya before. "I need to get better at reacting and dodging! That griphon wasn't a serious threat in the end, but it still hurt, and I can do without that. Not to mention that I made others worry… How to train that, though? I'm already super-fast, so that's not the problem… Hmm," She was trying to find a way to react faster. "Teleportation would be cool! Ahaha! Wait, could I actually do that? This world's magic's completely ridiculous, after all." She seriously thought about it for a moment. "It sounds cool, but… what if I were to mess up my destination and end up teleporting into something?! Nope, way too scary!" Sophia gave up on the idea for the time being.

"Maybe a permanent shield made of magic around me? That sounds like overkill, though. It could also trigger when friends come too close on accident… I wouldn't want that! Preemptively killing every enemy that I find with detection magic? Wasn't I just talking about overkill?" The girl complained to herself. "Wow, it's actually tough to find a fitting strategy for my problem." Tilting her head to the side, Sophia tried to think of some more ways how magic could help with her reaction time.

"Let's see… Fire magic? Nope… Water? Another nope. Air? Not really. I can only think of ways to boost my speed even more with some wind… Nature magic? No idea how that could help… Light? Hmm, I could blind the enemy, but that wouldn't help if they launch their attack before me… Dark magic? Probably the same? Robbing the enemy's sight by turning everything black would only work before it attacks… I do have the feeling I could, uhh, absorb attacks with dark magic. Like, letting it disappear into the nothingness of my blackness or something like that… This magic does give you the feeling you could do it, but I have not the slightest idea of how that's supposed to work. Let's ask Fen about it the next time." She thought dark magic is promising. Still, as Sophia couldn't form a proper image of her idea, it was impossible to use right now.

"What's left? Ah, earth magic… Hmm…" She looked at her feet and the ground around them. "I could launch myself like a… catapult, or a cannonball? Instantly getting away from the location the enemy's attack was aimed at? Oh…? That could… actually work, I think? Launching some sort of pedestals out of the ground below my feet would net me some tremendous forwards acceleration. Okay, let's give that a try!"

Not wasting any time to get second thoughts about her idea, Sophia got down in a crouching-start position, just like in a sprint while preparing her magic. A moment later, the pedestals she had thought of shot out of the ground and pushed away her feet. This action launched Sophia forwards, the way she was facing, making her test successful at first glance. The girl accelerated from nothing to top speed in an instant.

Unfortunately, she had used way too much power. She was flying above the ground with a speed far beyond what she had imagined with no means to stop. "A-Ah!" Looking in front of her, the girl noticed a huge tree coming closer at an alarming rate. "Stop! Stoop! Stooop! Time-out! I want a time-out! Please give me a timeEEoOOout!" Bracing herself for the inevitable crash, Sophia closed her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her face to protect herself. A moment passed, and then some more, but the feeling of a hard impact never came. Slowly opening her right eye, she tried to find out what was going on by glancing at the situation.

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"Err…" Sophia quickly became aware of what was going on. Nothing at all was going on anymore. With her eyes now wide open in shock, she looked around again. She noticed that everything in the area had stopped moving altogether. The wind was gone as neither the trees nor the water of the lake was moving anymore. No sounds of animals and the likes could be heard. The sky stood still, and even her momentum had been killed. "I… uuhhh, okay…" The girl needed a moment.

"I-It's great that I don't move anymore and got the time out I wanted, but... I stopped time, didn't I? I officially broke this world for good, huh?" Cold sweat, almost like a waterfall, was running down her spine. "W-What do I do now? How do I turn it back on?! W-What if I can't? I-If I have to stay like that…" She panicked in an instant. "Err, calm down, me!" Sophia slapped her cheeks to get a clear mind. "What happened, anyway…? Okay, I'm an idiot who launched herself into a tree and wished for a time-out… Yep, I definitely got that one, but it would've been great if only my movement stopped, okay?! No need to overdo it, me... I didn't need time to actually stop on top of that! So, uh, time-out stop…?" She awkwardly looked around once more, but nothing happened. "Uh-oh…"

Beads of sweat also appeared on her forehead as well, while her face turned blue. "T-That's bad! Super bad! W-What do I do now…? Seriously?! Okay! Concentrate. Concentrate, Sophia!" She was trying her best to psyche herself up in this situation to not lose herself to the panic which was creeping up inside the back of her head.

"Time… Time… out… Resume… Resuming time… get it flowing again…" Closing her eyes once more, the girl focused all of her attention on the problem. A couple of moments of absolute concentration later, she gingerly opened her eyes again, only to see that nothing changed.

"N-No…" She sank to her knees, about to lose to the despair that filled her mind. "T-That can't be… I-I don't want this! I really don't want this! Let it end already!" Sophia screamed with all her might. "T-This is way too scary… Uuh…" Tears formed in the corners of her eyes. "Think! This can't be it…" She tried to keep herself going.

"D-Did I do something wrong…? Let's give it another try!" Closing her eyes once more, the girl ramped up her concentration even more and focused on it with all her might again. "Resume already! Time… like a clock… start ticking again… Move! Flow! Whatever! Do your thing, idiot!" While she was concentrating and complaining simultaneously, Sophia started to pour her magic power into her feelings. A minute or so passed, and she finally began to feel like something was happening. After giving it some more time, Sophia opened her eyes very slowly and fearfully glanced around. Bit by bit, she became aware that the leaves on the trees started moving again or how the grass was fluttering in the wind before a breeze gently hit her face.

"T-T-Thank goodness…" With tears streaming down her face, which still was as white as a sheet, though with some blue mixed in, Sophia's upper body fell forward while she barely managed to catch herself with her arms as she was on her knees. "I-I made it… I actually made it back… Uuh…" More tears fell.

"Scary! Sooo scary! I've never been so frightened before!" No matter how much her ego was boosted, it was impossible to compensate for such an experience. "Haaa…" She let out a relieved sigh while she wiped away her tears. Beginning to calm down, she did not move for at least half an hour. Her mind was utterly drained from the experience.

"Ah… S-Stopping time would be perfect for evading attacks… but… but… Nope, not happening! I'm not going to use that ever again! It's waaay toooo scaaaaryyy! No, nope, nu-uh, nai-wa, never! Not only that… I feel like I shouldn't use it-, it feels wrong… way too overpowered… I think I surpassed the rank of a demon lord candidate already… Scary!" She repeated herself one more time.

"Okay! Enough magic for today!" There was no way she could continue to train after such an event. "Let's go back! I either need Fen for some serious fluff right now… or maybe observe Maya's cute tail! I don't care as long as I get some healing right now!"

A little bit broken after the incident, Sophia slowly made her way back to the beastfolk city, enjoying every passing second and minute it took.

"Wait!" She suddenly yelled out on the way back. "I punched a tree into splinters using just my fist before! Even if I did crash into it, I probably wouldn't have gotten as much as a scratch!" Feeling even worse now, she hung her head in shame.