Electric discharges were bouncing confined within three long metal rods connected by small metal bridges in a triangular spiral formation, like a cage designed to contain a violent force of nature building inside. With a finger releasing a trigger, this energy lunged forward forming intertwined lightning arches.

As if hitting an invisible barrier, they then continued their way, bending around their target, a girl in an elegant blue dress with golden edging, its upper part following the lines of her gentle physique. Her grey hair, almost white at the roots and dull emerald at the tips, with three thin braids hanging along the left temple, seemed to be undisturbed by occasional blows of wind.

Here, in the middle of a pedestrian roadworks, where puddles carpeted the dismantled part after a recent rainfall, she stood extending her arm with an open palm facing her opponents: three girls several meters away from her.

All three wore light-blue uniforms with white edging, though each attire was slightly different. The one in the front had a long below-knee coat with open quarters revealing an above-knee plain skirt. The colour of the uniform was contrasted by her long carrot-orange hair done in a ponytail and dark-red eyes, both expressive of her emotional state. A rifle-like contraption in her hands still had residual energy sparking between the rods of a cage-like barrel after the last attack. A girl in the back to her left wore a similar uniform, but with trousers instead of a skirt, her dark-hair with marine lustre were flowing down her back all the way to the shoulder blades except for a single lock hanging between dull-green eyes. The third member with wavy bronze-brown hair slightly below her shoulders and deep black eyes looked the most distinguished due to unfastened hip-length coat revealing a black skin-tight undershirt.

Despite the three girls obviously being on the same side, only the one in the front appeared aggressive. Still, the grey-haired girl could not hide some nervousness.

“How long do you think you can stay defensive?”

The fiery-haired girl’s voice expressed irritation by her opponent’s behaviour.

How does she deflect my invocations so easily? No, she’s not deflecting them. It’s like they—

Her chain of thought was interrupted by the girl to her left.

“Aeri, calm down!”

“I told you already, don’t try to stop me!”

Whilst the two girls were arguing, the third one stood with her arms folded above two metal-encased tubes forming a cross over her abdomen as they connected from a waist-bag on her back to a sword-like and a shield-like contraptions on the belt holding her trousers. Despite her body language making her seem relaxed, her eyes cautiously observed both her fellow witches and their opponent.

The grey-haired girl hesitantly made a few steps back, which was immediately noticed by the hot-blooded witch.

“I’m not done with you!”

She pointed the weapon at the girl again and pressed down on the trigger, building up another charge. Seeing how her direct attacks had no effect, she scanned over her, looking for anything that could expose the opponent’s weakness. Her eyes eventually stopped at the girl’s feet, one of which was soaking in a puddle.

If I can’t hit her directly…

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With a slight incline, she pointed her weapon at the ground where the puddle stretched outside the supposedly shielded area around her opponent and released the trigger. A discharge hit the water and found its way to the target.

The girl’s body convulsed momentarily with a following fall to her knees. She started breathing heavily bowing to the ground, but just for a few seconds. As she raised the head, her facial expression morphed from composed to uncontained anger as her green-tinted grey irises dimmed to blackness, revealing glowing patterns: one in the form of an octagon with enigmatic symbols on the inside and the other being an octagram with similar symbols between the points.

The black-eyed girl tensed momentarily, her hands instinctively reaching the opposite sides of her waist to grab the weapons.

“Finally taking it seriously, huh?”

From the hot-headed girl’s bag emerged a strange contraption: two long metal pieces held together by an invisible force detached as electric discharges started dancing back and forth between them, forming distinct patterns that looked like some kind of symbols. A feeling of fatigue washing over her with increasing intensity, forcing her to kneel and hyperventilate.

Her friend on the right was experiencing similar sensation, having a half-visible spherical object surrounded by an iridescent mist appear floating beside her. It then expanded into two hemispheres revealing a telescopic tube connecting them as a thin sheet of ice formed beneath it. Same with the dark-haired girl, who had a large glass plate with glowing writings within appear in a similar manner.

The girl in the dress rose, extending her hand towards the group again. Faint trails of light started stretching from the objects beside the assailants in an uneven path towards the girl’s open palm where they converged, forming a rapidly growing ball of violent energy. It was swirling like an iridescent cloud of fire accompanied by lightning discharges within.

“Is this… what you did to…”

The girl in the front had a hard time speaking with her heavy breath getting in the way. She tried to process what was happening and how to fight it, but any chain of thought she tried to build would fall apart under the pressure of building fatigue. Fortunately, she didn’t have to come up with anything due to an unexpected intervention.

“What is going on here?!”

The Magister’s voice rang loud and clear, and the question was meant not to be answered but to announce his presence and attract attention before someone could get badly hurt. Unfortunately, it was his getting the attention that would cause the events to go awry.

As the grey-haired girl got distracted, her eyes losing the glow and returning to normal, she lost the control over the accumulated energy. The blazing ball thrusted towards the group, but the orange-haired girl’s focus was shifted away for her to see the imminent threat. Her peripheral sight was hit by the incoming light to warn her of the danger when it was already too late.

“Aeri! Look out!”

The dark-haired girl forcefully pushed her friend away from the path of the energy ball, but in doing so she placed herself in her stead. The other girl jumped in front of her, bringing the hand with a shield-like contraption up. As if following the motion, a wall of spiky ice appeared in front of her but to no avail: just as the bright light pierced through the crystalline matter, the swirling ball melted through the wall as if it hadn’t been there. It then passed both girls, engulfing them in agonizing flames, as it continued its way before disappearing in a burst a dozen meters away.

“Sumi! Minali!”

Both the surviving girl and the Magister rushed to the victims. The Magister lifted one of them from the ground, holding the badly burnt body of the dark-haired girl who was struggling to breathe in pain.

This sight left Hane paralyzed with shock. Not only her. The culprit, the one responsible for inflicting these injuries, seemed to be in even more shocked state, staring blankly at the site of the incident.

“Hane! Flares!”

Hane snapped out hearing the Magister’s call and rushed back to the carriage. About a minute later, a clap shook the air followed by a bright red flare soaring upwards with a whistle leaving a red trail of smoke in its path, and a second later, a blue flare followed.

It didn’t take long for help to arrive, but by that time, both girls had already drawn their last breaths.