"Oh, now you get mad at me!" Adam shouted.

"I am very mad at you, Chosen! What were you thinking? You could have died, for goodness's sake!" Lucy screamed at the back of Adam's head. She caught him glaring from the broken front mirror. Stars above, had this not been a warzone, she would have taken her mystics and throttled some sense into him!

"Like you were doing well. I saw you through the [War Maidens' Bond], Lucy. Don't talk about me dying when you were one foot in the grave!"

Indeed, Lucy was a complete wreck. The fire had singed her blonde hair, destroying off the lower half and leaving the surviving strands with charcoal trails. Some parts of the skin were gouged through, revealing the tender muscle beneath. She clung to the back of the truck for support. Her burns were the type that made everything hurt, and it was taking good heaping of her endurance training not to break down on the spot. None of this stopped her from giving him an earful.

"Me? Dying? I had it under control. I told you, Chosen, to hang back and leave the fight to me!"

"You're already on this rustbucket, so you better deal with it, miss War Maiden!"

"Chosen, I swear to—"

"Will you two star-crossed lovers shut your damn pipes for a second?" Miriam shouted, "Adam, you first. How did you lure the Witch?"

"Madeline Alcott." Adam said. Lucy stiffened at the name. "The Flame Witch is Saria Alcott, so I sent out a broadcast saying her little sister was here.

Lucy slumped down against the back of the pickup truck, chest rising and falling. Her anger faded, replaced by a tired acceptance.

"Of course. Of course, that would work. It makes so much sense." She said, hand over her face.

"So you lured the Flame Witch. What's your plan? Surely you don't intend to drive in circles forever."

The vehicle shook. The engine let out a wheezing sound, as if on cue. Lucy grabbed the sides of the truck to stabilize herself. Adam snarled and banged his fist on the driver's rest.

"You think I'm stupid?" Adam said.

"Do you want me to answer that question?" Miriam said.

"Oh, fuck off! Look, I put thought into this. I have a plan, so shut up and give me some space, both of you!"

He turned right, skirting around a signpost and heading down the road towards another forest. Then, he told them. Lucy almost dropped her rifle. Miriam smacked herself in the forehead, chugged an entire mug of her drink and slammed her palms on her desk.

"Adam, I told you before, but I think it bears repeating. There are better ways to commit suicide."

"Oh come on, Miriam!"

"Chosen, this is insane! You have no evidence it'll work!" Lucy said.

"I fought the Blast Witch without any of that evidence and I won!" Adam retorted.

"A coincidence! You got lucky. One instance does not make a statistic!" Miriam countered. "Besides, consider other factors. Klavdia might not have enough juice for this!"

"No, I do. I know a technique along the lines of the Chosen's idea. That's not the point here—the sheer recklessness is." Lucy said.

"Best case, my plan works. Worst case, we get some damage in!"

"Or this vehicle crashes and you get blown up, Chosen!" Lucy screamed. "Your driving is already suboptimal as it is!"

"If you have any better ideas, I'd love to hear them, 'cause the Flame Witch is catching up to us!"

Lucy opened her mouth to retort, only for her [Physio-Sixth Sense] to flare up at that terrible corrupted presence. She whirled around and fired. The shot blasted a patch of dirt on the road, scattering up a dust cloud. The Flame Witch burst out of it, howling like a wounded animal.

"Damn it!" Adam shouted. He pressed down on the accelerator. The speed dial slammed towards the right edge of the meter. He heard the engine give another terrifying rumble and ground his teeth. "Come on, you rust bucket! Just a little further! Lucy, Miriam, we're doing this!"

"Fine! Don't blame me if this ends with you going up in smoke!"

"Shut up and tell us where the nearest drop is!"

The vehicle tore through the plains of Grassruin Valley with the Flame Witch in hot pursuit. Fires started wherever she stepped, spreading across the grasses and the trees like an angry swarm of red insects. The forest collapsed behind her. Birds flocked to the skies and tiny critters raced out of the mess, their tails aflame.

A fireball flew past her face. She batted it aside with a quick light blast. Another came, this time aimed lower.

"She's attacking the tires, Chosen!" Lucy said.

"Hold on! I'm gonna shake her off!"

Lucy summoned shackles of light and wrapped them around the sides of the pickup truck, then bound herself on her arms and her legs. The car swerved, sending her body jiggling around. She kept firing potshots at the Flame Witch. The Witch had slowed down somewhat, Lucy thought. Or was it her imagination? She'd ridden faster vehicles before, but none of them were this volatile. The plasma exhaustion wasn't helping.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"How much further, Miriam?" Adam asked.

"You're coming up to it! Half a minute. Both of you, get ready!"

Lucy broke her shackles and retracted her mystic. She popped the rest of her mystic tablets—these weren't meant to be shotgunned in succession—and withdrew her rifle for her pistol. The regenerative solution had worked its way through her body, repairing her torn muscles and fractured bones. It gave her enough strength to cling one-handed to the side of the truck with her enhanced strength, leaving her other to shoot.

The Flame Witch, seeing this, ramped up and lunged forward. Lucy sprayed laser blasts towards the Witch's broken gemstone. They bounced off her skin like tiny hailstones, but that was enough. Lucy didn't expect to kill the Witch this way. All she wanted was a distraction.

It worked.

The Flame Witch batted away the last set of shots with her arm, and jumped on the back of the pickup truck…

…only for the truck to tip over across rocky ground. Lucy jumped off. Adam activated [Perception Acceleration]. He witnessed himself kicking the door open and leaping out. His body stretched out in midair, a pose reminiscent of a footballer making the big catch. Lucy somersaulted off the truck, falling behind the Flame Witch. A single [Photon-Blast] exploded outwards in slow-motion. The Flame Witch bellowed, and time resumed.

He rolled across the rocky edge of the ravine, [Psychokinesis] stabilizing his fall. When he stood up, Lucy already stood at the edge, chanting.

Mystics were a creation by the Goddess of Astraea, intended to succeed the outdated magicks of pre-integrated colonies. Old connections devoted to pagan gods were thrown aside for the connection with Her. Their rituals were streamlined down into mental triggers activatable by a single thought.

However, those thoughts needed fuel. Practice made perfect, reducing the load. When a caster needed to perform a mystic technique far beyond their Attribute median, they used a prayer.

"Bow before the Proselytes and the Apostles, O ruinous of heart, for the consequences of your sin pile upon your back. Swallow the leaf of the First Maiden, abscond the use of your limbs and enter the restraints of the damned, the shell of grey. A cycle, a single point, an infinite line, yet all enacting forever!" The words rolled out in loud succession, hoarse, tired and yet still proud. Clusters of light gathered high above the ravine. One by one, they merged into gigantic polygonal chunks.

Lucy raised her hands, pointed down, and roared. "Let Her Justice press down upon you like a weighty finger, and may you come to understand your sins!"

Twelve pillars of light, each one as thick as a forest tree, crashed down upon the Flame Witch. They smashed her to the bottom of the ravine, spreading spiderweb cracks across the barren stone. The pickup truck landed the very next instant. The Witch was now buried beneath a ton of hot scrap and leaking fumes.

The Flame Witch struggled immediately. She threw herself in all directions, head bashing against the pillar and the truck. Metal chunks fell off, exposing the Witch's disgusting visage. Lucy slammed her hands together. Chains erupted from the pillars' bases and wrapped around the Flame Witch's limbs. Once again, she was brought to the ground.

Observed new mystic technique: [Photon-Seal: Mode Pillar]

Adam crawled across the edge of the ravine. The landform was unnatural; the cliff edges were too smooth to be from the natural process. He didn't care about that. He activated [War Maidens' Bond]. The sight of Lucy summoning more light spears overlaid his vision and throbbed. He looked back, and saw her breaths coming out in shallow pants, her shoulders shaking.

"Come on…" He growled to his own legs, "Move!" He picked up stones with [Psycho-Pull] and flung them down into the ravine one by one. They bounced off the shell of the ruined pickup. He retreated and returned with a small boulder. He tossed it off the cliff. It landed on the Witch's left hand and made her yowl.

The last of Lucy's spears skewered Flame Witch's head. She dropped like a stone. Lucy fell to her knees, her blistered hands grasping at the grass at the edge. One hand supported her, the other fell limp. Adam peered over the ravine, heart pounding. After all this effort, all that contemplation, pushing his companion to her absolute limits…this had to pay off!

One second passed.

The Flame Witch continued to shriek, her mouth being the only organ that could still move.

Five seconds passed. Cracks grew at the corners of the giant pillars. Their tips dissipated into particles of yellow light. The keening of the Witch grew louder and louder, threatening to crush Adam's eardrums as he grabbed his rifle. He aimed down the sights, wrapped his finger on the trigger and the world exploded.

A torrent of heat and air burst out of the ravine. It smashed upwards, an invisible fist punching Adam and Lucy backwards. Adam hit a tree, then rolled to the side as its branches crashed down. Lucy was flung across the path, skidding to a stop into the dirt. Chunks of metal and plastic rained down. Adam ignored the pain up his back, grabbed the chunks with [Psychokinesis] and tossed them in any direction that wasn't aimed at him or Lucy. The scent of oil wafted from the ravine.

The jeep had blown to bits, its various pieces smeared as black marks across the ravine walls. The prone form of the Flame Witch was slumped at the epicenter, twitching, smoke steaming off her body. Embers dotted the surrounding ground.

"Is she done?" Lucy said, "Please tell me she's done."

"She's stopped. The Flame Witch has stopped. By the stars, it worked, Adam!"

"I fucking told you!" Adam howled, pumping his fist, "I told you, god damn it!"

The Flame Witch was fast. There was no doubt about that. She ran circles around Lucy, matching even the War Maiden's [Physio-Dash]. She didn't guard, counter or block. It was an onslaught of fiery offense from start to finish.

Wasn't that strange?

Sure, you didn't want to stand still and let your opponent land a free hit. Stopping wasn't entirely out of the question, though. Adam himself had halted his steps, either to intimidate his foe, or taunt them into attacking. A rifleman had to wait until the enemy stopped firing before emerging from cover. A swordsman locking blades might try to brute force the exchange, which required him to plant his feet and hold on.

Why had the Flame Witch wasted all that energy running around that enclosed environment, when the optimal solution was to focus on Lucy's attacks and respond in turn?

Perhaps she was a wild animal with no impulse control. That matched the descriptions in the stories. Except, if the Flame Witch was as unkillable and ferocious as the stories said, why hadn't Grassruin Valley gone up in smoke yet?

She must have halted her tracks in the past. Not out of free will, rather a tendency beyond her control. Something bad happened to her at those points, resulting in her disappearing from the valley residents' perception. It was more than instinct. It was a law the Witch had to obey, even if she didn't realise it.

"The Blast Witch couldn't go indoors. The Flame Witch can't stop, or she'll overheat and blow up. Two plus two equals four!" Adam said, bearing a triumphant smile.

"What does that… no, never mind. Hurry and get down there!" Miriam said. "She's not dead yet!"

Adam and Lucy scrambled down the sides of the ravine. Lucy, with her burnout, ended up lagging behind Adam. Slowly, Adam approached the monster's body, his tomahawk out. He poked her body with his feet, and recoiled as the Flame Witch's hands curled into grips. She climbed to her feet, using the nearby debris as a support.

The Flame Witch's body was now a dark grey, reeking of seared meat. The gemstone in the center of her head was smashed clean, revealing a tender, fleshy growth beneath. She lumbered forth, extending her claws.

"Christ, you're still alive?" Adam hissed.

"Chosen, get back!" Lucy staggered forward, drawing her sword. "I'll…"

He stood in her path. "Take five, Lucy. I'll deal with this."

"But…"

"You're no good and you know it. Let me finish this. I'm the damn Chosen, remember?"

The Flame Witch let out a low moan, one of her hands appearing to point at him. Adam scoffed and extended his hand in a beckoning gesture.

"Come on, Saria! Let's brawl!"