Mei Ruan May 1st, 20XX

“ Little sister. did you miss me?”

An odd smell wafted off her and I got a bad feeling as she approached me. She wavered like she couldn't trust her own feet and eventually took to flight; the harsh sound of her wings beating against one another assaulted my ears.

She was...contaminated.

Even the bronze magic that usually trailed behind her had taken on a sickening rust tinge.

“ Jaya.. what did you do to yourself.”

I pulled my sword to the front and prepared to strike but she showed no signs of registering that and instead just maintained her bizarre smile.

“ What do you mean Mei? I feel Fantastic!”

She suddenly burst into a sprint and came at me with a knife in hand, aiming for my eye. I dodged and took to the air. not intending to fight an aerial battle on the ground.

I flew at her, who had stopped to change direction and plunged my sword downwards but she dodged.

Jaya has always been better than me in terms of raw physical ability but due to years of training, I was able to bridge the gap and even overtake her with skill. But in her current state, I wasn't sure if I would be able to do anything except killing her in a moment of inattention.

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The rotten smell of contamination drifted off her and made me sick to my stomach, but I didn't dare take a moment to dwell on it.

Who, or rather what had she killed to descend into this state?

she took another swing at me, this time aiming for my heart but I quickly dodged and used the force between our weapons to push her off me. Regardless of base stats, I was still a general of an army. There was only so much someone that sat at her desk for years at a time could do to me.

She hadn’t even done her mandatory military service, choosing me as her proxy to do it instead.

I tried to cast a spell to restrain her but found it harder to move magic than usual.

The prince was close.

I began to panic.

She was after me because our magic was compatible and absorbing my own would return her to ‘normal’ and she would be even stronger than before but I could defend myself at least.

Was she to absorb even a bit of the prince’s magic..she would become a total monster.

I ditched the sword form while flying further and further away from her, goading her into chasing me and changed it into a Glaive. My true weapon of choice.

As a precaution towards any of my enemies I rarely used it. The theory was that they would have been trained to fight against a sword user and would, therefore, be less experienced with fighting a long-ranged weapon like the glaive.

I wanted to lead her far enough that I would have the restriction on my magic lifted and would be able to kill her without any distractions.

Or at least that was the plan until I heard an explosion. I instinctively looked towards the direction it had originated from and received a nasty gash on my cheek.

It hurt but I didn't have the leisure to dwell on it.

That was the direction Cai was in.