Chapter 70: Battle Witches (1)

*Seems like she's been anticipating this from the beginning.* Agni thought as she watched Gigi bounce on her toes with excitement.

As she glanced downwards in the dimming light, Agni noticed what appeared to be faint threads of light embedded in her clothing. She quickly realized that these were threads allowing magic to freely course through her equipment. She wondered if all Magical gear had the same thin threads of mana flowing through them.

"I don't really have a proper weapon.." Agni said, wishing to avoid combat for a completely different reason. The two-piece of magically infused gear was a bit embarrassing for her. Logically she knew it didn't make sense as she had been placed in many situations much worse already but she was beginning to feel "exposed". For mana to flow freely it was important for all magic users to expose their skin to a degree, but even Agni felt like this might be a bit much. Even her light armor covered more skin!

*These boots are also somewhat constricting, I won't be able to use the full range of my agility in these..* She thought this as she tugged at the bottom of her witch's coat, trying in vain to pull it further down.

"That's not a problem! Many magic wielders don't use weapons. And now that you have a few pointers you should be able to do the same as well."

"Besides," Gigi said, her words of excitement lingering in her throat, "this will be a very valuable experience for you. I'll make sure to educate you well."

*And by educate she probably means to thoroughly trounce us.* Agni sighed.

"Let's give it a go… I'm curious how we measure against a trained magician." Katrin added. Given that she was interested Agni was hard pressed to weasel her way out of it. She hopped on the balls of her toes a few times and flexed her legs to better gauge the range of motion in her knee high boots. It wasn't as bad as she originally believed so finally she shook her head in agreement, thus winning a bubbling smile from Gigi.

Gigi then turned and walked several meters in the opposite direction. The training room was rather large, providing ample space in all directions with the three of them standing near the center. Since the area looked like a forest, all save the wooden door serving as the entry point, the borders of the room were covered in trees with thick trunks, bushes and brush and tall grasses.

The time of day in the room was deceiving as well, when they entered it was midday, if one were to look up at the ceiling they would gain the impression of a bright sunny day. After just half an hour the sky favored twilight and various creatures began to stir. Agni could see fireflies in the distance hovering around in various places. Despite the lack of "sunlight" various plants began to glow giving off enough light to function despite the change. This was apparently normal to Gigi who ignored it entirely while both Agni and Katrin gazed around in wonderment.

"We'll take it slow at the start. And don't worry too much about getting hurt --- or hurting me." She said as she held her unusual sword at the ready. The weapon reminded Agni of martial arts films she'd seen in a past life. She instantly recognized a design that favored Han-style chinese swords. What made the blade different were the large magical runes that lined the blade's length. Agni noticed it before the first time she and Gigi met, but now in the dim light she noticed the runes beginning to glow, no doubt Gigi was flowing her mana into the blade.

"Well… I'll get started, I guess." Gigi said with a cheer that did not match her appearance. Her eyes, though nearly squinted shut seemed focused and her smile seemed anything but nice. Agni could feel a quiet sense of pressure coming from the Spellsword. This suggested that Gigi was strong in her own right.

Agni lifted her hands, a bit unsure of what to do at this point, so she simply created a fireball and waited while Katrin began tracing Scribe script letters into the air before her. Since she had a Grimoire she didn't need to have paper or another surface nearby, she could direct the magic to the pages of her book. She didn't need to capture the spells, just cast them -- thus the pages in her magical book stayed empty unless she wished to purposely add the spell.

"I'll go first." Katrin said, mostly to alert Agni to her intentions, but Gigi simply nodded and began to slowly walk towards the pair. There were roughly 6 meters between them at this point which was why neither Katrin or Agni expected Gigi to bridge the distance in a few seconds. Gigi leaned forward, almost as if she was about to fall face forward, Agni could feel a shifting in the air as wind magic swirled about Gigi's feet. With a single step she bounded 2 meters, and with another she bridged the remainder of the distance, hopping upwards into the air as she did so.

In mid air Gigi lifted her blade across her chest to prepare for a cross slash, her eyes glowing with flaming red energy as wind element coalesced around the blade within her grip. Agni was, for a moment, struck with awe at the fluid movements of her opponent. It wasn't until she could feel the pressure from Gigi's impending attack that she felt the need to act. Agni lifted her hand and directed it towards her opponent, forcing a burst of lightning to shoot forth. This wasn't enough. Gigi used her free hand to swat the lightning bolt away and swung her weapon in a cross slash motion. Though she was still in the air a strong gust of wind pressure pushed both Katrin and Agni backwards effortlessly. Agni's hood flew upwards as she covered her face and Katrin was forced to hold onto her hat, or else it would have been gone as well.

The wind blast was heavy and dense, as if dozens of hands were pressing against Agni with a constant pressure. This lasted for at least five seconds and when the pressure died down and the whistling winds ceased Agni found Gigi standing motionless several meters away.

She couldn't help but feel amazed as a sensation of being windswept tingled against her exposed flesh. She gazed upon Gigi's countenance as she stood motionlessly, confidently with her weapon at her side. The runes on Gigi's weapon were now glowing orange, pulsing as the blade swirled with fire.

Agni couldn't help but be impressed. In one fluid strike Gigi had managed to put them on guard and exude enough pressure to drive them back.

*Interesting.* Agni thought to herself as she mentally accepted the challenge, her tail swishing back and forth as she called forth a fireball. Agni glanced at Katrin, a signal that the two were ready to battle in earnest now.

Katrin pointed at Gigi, her Grimoire flashed for a moment with a green glow as the power of earth erupted near Gigi's feet. It was a trivial matter for her to leap to the side, avoiding the large rectangular mass of earth energy that jutted upwards. Agni was waiting for this moment and willed the fireball in her possession to fly forward while Gigi was moving through the air. The attack would have worked, had Gigi not used the power of wind to push herself away. She easily avoided their attacks as a girlish smile curled around her lips. Her eyes glowed in the dimming twilight as she once more stepped forward to mount an offense.

Agni created two more fireballs, one hovering in each palm as she stepped forward to continue pressing her attack. Based on Gigi's explanation of Inner and Outer magic, her strikes would be the quickest while Katrin's might require more time to activate. As she moved forward Agni continually fired new blasts of fiery magic. With her new advances in magic she could easily keep up the pace infinitely, but she soon realized that the same was true for her opponent.

Gigi would simply wave her flaming sword, swatting away each orb of fire as they moved towards her. With a flaming sword in one hand and her free hand conjuring wind element, Agni could sense that another wind blast would soon be headed her way. She decided to press the attack in the hopes that Gigi would lose track of Katrin's motions even for a split second. Thus she ran forward and engaged in hand to hand striking. It wasn't her forte, but considering the fight against the snatchers merely a week ago she felt much better at it than before. She gave up on tossing fireballs as she neared Gigi and instead attempted to ram them directly into her. Magic could be affixed to any point the caster desired, within reason. The easiest locations were ones near to them. In this case Agni created them at a point near her fists. Much like Agni expected, Gigi was very skilled in combat. The blows she attempted to rain down were easily avoided simply by the swaying of Gigi's body. Furthermore any unpredictable strikes were swatted away with Gigi's flaming runeblade.

No more than ten seconds had elapsed before Agni found herself being pushed back. It wasn't due to Gigi's strikes or even overwhelming force --rather she was simply too agile and quick. Soon Gigi began flourishing her blade towards Agni's incoming strikes, negating them completely. Finally Gigi lifted her free hand and released a tunnel of wind that literally took Agni off of her feet and sent her flying half a dozen meters backwards in the process.

Katrin stepped up at this moment, firing off several small fragments of earth element. She created many of them in the hopes that an opponent of superior nimbleness would have difficulty evading them. They numbered nine in total and fired in rapid succession, Katrin both fired and created them two at a time, her current limit. This technique was done using free-form magic, thus it wasn't a spell. Every step of the process required her focus and Katrin was pushing herself to the limits in order to suppress Gigi's movements.

It worked surprisingly, partially because Gigi was rooted in place from using the wind blast. The first three earth shards struck her, shattering into pieces as the heavy pelting blows smashed into her side and sternum. Gigi raised both her free hand and her sword in order to avoid some of the pellets. In response to this Katrin began to vary the size of the earth bullets, making some smaller and others more dense. The result was that Gigi was soon forced to dash in order to avoid a trail of gatling like attacks.

Agni on the other hand was coming to her senses. She realized now just how the sparring room worked. Rather than dealing physical damage, mana would be removed in its place. In addition, the mental effect was like having a black out. Agni could feel her senses dull somewhat as her vision faded slightly. She could tell that absorbing too much damage would cause her to pass out. Realizing this she gritted her teeth and got to her feet. Though physically she was fine, she suddenly felt annoyed at having been flung like a human sack.

As she got to her feet she could feel her magical veins flowing with energy, her eyes took on a familiar pink hue as deep purple lines which resembled tattoos more than anything appeared on her cheeks and forehead. They extended downward across her chest, arms, abdomen and all the way down to her toes -- she could feel the magic power coursing through her like the rushing warmth of a steamy bath. Agni then placed her hands in front of her chest, pushing her fingertips together, for some reason this felt "right" to her.

In an instant she called forth a large ball of flames which lingered less than a meter before her chest and hands. In the dimness of twilight the orange light shone against her features, illuminating the intense focus with which she began to construct her attack.

With her own intent she reshaped it several times and each time it grew she would further condense it by half, pushing the energy within the sphere to its limits. She repeated this process four separate times before finally feeling resistance against her own intent. The strike was ready, and she had only used a quarter of her mana to conjure it.

Agni then willed the magic orb of fire to fly forth, pushing it with a moderate pace. Since it was about the size of a beach ball it didn't move as quickly but that was okay, she had something else in mind. With the amount of mana infused in the technique she was confident that she could sustain it for quite some time, she waited for the technique to near Gigi who was currently circling towards her to avoid Katrin's pelting blasts. Agni purposely fired the magic to force Gigi to move closer towards Katrin, as the blast was easily avoided by Gigi her opponent picked up speed. Gigi dashed towards her, blade at the ready but Agni wasn't concerned -- she released the impromptu hand seal as she willed the traveling orb of flames to redirect itself. The rebound required another half of her current mana but in exchange she tripled the speed and instantly changed the direction of the blast.

Sensing errant mana behind her Gigi's face morphed once she realized that she would not be able to avoid the furious flame attack of the succubus. This slight moment was all Katrin needed to pour on the pressure, pelting Gigi in the thigh and lower leg with several shots as the ball of flame smashed into Gigi from behind and exploded at Agni's behest.