3 Chapter One - 2 || Magic Within

Every inch of her body pricked like a thousands needles, the cells themselves seeming to jumpstart in fright and flight.

Her body twisted instinctively in the direction of the forest behind her. The first rule of escaping giant bears: climb a tree.

However, the trees had bark too smooth to climb and were so enormously tall with no low lying branches.

In distress, she glanced behind her, and seeing the monster a few bounds away from her, she felt as if her soul had left her once more.

The demonic bear had crossed the distance between them in mere seconds, and she was stuck on the ground like a lame duck.

Sensing capture, the beast hurtled at her at a frightening acceleration. There was no means of escape. The girl's heart dropped.

'I thought this was a beautiful dream, but it became a nightmare instead?!' Her thoughts shrieked. 'I'm not even here ten minutes and I'm going to die?! What the heck?! I don't want to die young~!!!'

The demonic bear loomed over her, crashing down upon—

…

'Asdfjkl;?!?!!!'

'I'm alive?!!'

The girl inhaled sharply. A translucent lavender barrier glimmered between her forearm and the bear's forepaw.

'Did I just create that?'

Just as that thought passed her mind in astonishment, the demon-bear was unexpectedly flung backward, upheaving grass shoots and dirt in its wake.

The wall had not only protected her, it shoved her attacker back by an intense invisible force.

As the bear staggered up from the ground, the girl noticed glinting lavender flecks surrounding it. She wondered if those particles of light were connected to the transparent shield that appeared a second before.

Still astounded by the turn of events, she stared dazedly at her right arm where the pale purple shield had been centered around.

Slowly, her mind pieced the events together,and she gripped her fist, willing the shield to appear again. This spurred a faint warmth that began flooding her entire arm.

However, before she could process this reaction, the monster bellowed its ire with glowing red eyes more hostile than ever.

Trepidation arose in her gut, but as if it was the most natural action to do in the world, she intuitively directed her hand at the monster, releasing a flurry of lavender light streaking towards its chest.

A glimmer of panic flared in the beast's eyes before the light struck it dead on, singeing its chest fur and causing it to crumple inwards. The monster made a strangled, sputtering sound, as if knocked out of air. It glowered at the gaping girl and took a step back.

The black tendrils arising from its body grew larger and more numerous. They circled the body in agitation. The monster's eyes radiated a garish scarlet, the color leaking out in tendrils just like its shaggy fur. It was as if the beast was creating a black tornado with trailing threads of blood.

Despite seeing the coming storm, the girl felt strangely calm. Everything clicked. She was no longer in the earthly world. She was in an ancient woodland with soaring trees, spirits and demons. She had magical power. A monster stood before her. A furious monster.

She smirked.

'Ha.'

The beast charged forward, and the girl swiped her hand in the air across its incoming, barreling body. An inscrutable expression suffused her face as vivid, lavender light like a knife sprang centimeters from her palm straight toward the demon.

It slashed the monstrous bear, leaving a horizontal slit that glowed blood red. Its body was cut, and yet despite the cut's red color, it didn't bleed. Even so, the attack was obviously felt as the demon roared in pain and rage.

Pondering upon this, the girl deduced that the biology of this world was different. The injury was simple and neat, nothing messy like spilled blood or ripped flesh.

'Just like a video game…?' She wondered. 'Would it be the same for me?'

She lightly shook her head. Now was not the time to think about this. She had a monster to beat.

Usually, she hated hurting any kind of creature—except some certain, previously named bugs—but this beast was the exception. It was no animal; more than a monster, it was a demon. This, she was sure.

Flexing her wrist, she forcefully waved her hand several times, creating waves of arcs directed at the demon. It tried to dodge them, but even with its incredible speed, the large beast wasn't agile enough to escape every one.

In every direction it dodged, the girl sent another curve of magic careening towards the demon. But despite the obstruction and pain, the demon kept racing towards her.

Determining that this method of attack wasn't going to beat the beast in the few seconds she had left before it reached her, the girl stopped her onslaught.

Focusing her mind, she gathered power in her hand. She could just shove some massive amount of magical energy at the demon while covering herself with a barrier, but she wondered if she could shape the magic into another form.

With her eyes focused on the demon, she readied her body and felt the magic take form in her palm. Just before the demon reached a few meters away, the magic form finalized.

She leapt forward, a sword of lavender light firmly grasped in her right hand, the point extended at the demon's heart.

The force of the sword splitting into the demon almost unbalanced her. Instead of cutting hard flesh as expected, the blade sunk easily into the body, causing black mass to come hurtling at her face.

She dug her boots into the ground, dragging the sword leftward and up across the body before leaping backwards to avoid collision. She wasn't ready to know firsthand just what made up a demon body.

But as soon as the sword left the demon's upper chest, the beast froze in position, its teeth still bared, a wide diagonal red gash across its underbelly.

Confused, the girl watched its body disperse into drifting black billows. As the smoky clouds began dissipating into the air, a low voice rumbled from the receding demon.

"Sal myo."

The girl wrinkled her face in perplexity. This was a different language, even from Earth. Perhaps it was one of the demons. She hoped it wasn't the language of this world for that would be rather vexing while exploring it. Even so, she wondered what the demon had said.

As the black masses finally disappeared, something which was also black caught her eye in the grass. It was a large claw, possibly leftover from the beast demon.

She picked it up and rotated it with her fingers; it was nearly the size of her palm. She was puzzled why it hadn't dissipated like the rest of the body.

Regardless, she decided to keep it and put it in her back pocket. The event had happened so suddenly and finished so quickly that she felt she had imagined it. But this claw was physical proof that it had indeed occurred.

But surely even then, everything here must still be her imagination.

She took a sharp breath and gripped her hand in resolution, staring at her fist. No. This wasn't her imagination.

She opened her fist, releasing a ball of magic whirring in the air above her palm. She tossed it lightly in the air, passed it between her hands, encircled and rubbed it in her palms like a fortune teller's magic ball. It was as light as air and shouldn't have been slung around so casually and easily as a ball with weight.

Some form of gravity existed here, that was apparent by her as well as the fauna and flora remaining firmly on the ground.

But, the magic ball deceived all laws of physics. Surely, this world was governed by some natural law or order. Or was magic simply an exception? Or perhaps it was the law…

As she mused upon this, she was suddenly struck by a crazy scheme. If the magic ball she created could defy physics, couldn't she?

Grinning giddily to herself, she ceased the magic flow from her hands. The ball disappeared, and locating the closest tree, she sprinted towards it.

When she reached a few paces from the tree's base, she shifted as much power into her legs as possible and leapt into the air.

Half in disbelief and wonderment, she was vaulted into the air at an inhuman height. The bark of the tree came within arms distance, and extending a foot out out, she sprung off the trunk, flying… backwards?!