Blood dripped down and sprayed through the air from the multiple wounds he took to his torso. It was only through Fumiko’s poor aim that he didn’t take an immediate lethal blow. Not that five metal rods rammed through him were any less deadly to him. ‘I’m pretty sure at least one of them has gone through my lung and I can only guess about the rest. I’m not entirely clear how long my body can hold out. Our bodies are different now…all my expectations keep changing… I can’t make any assumptions anymore…’

As he recovered from the stun, he started to test and tug on the magic metal Fumiko used against him. Despite the fluid movement he witnessed from it earlier, it was completely hardened now. He had no chance in just pulling on it. ‘If it had properties close to standard metal, at this thickness my new strength might be enough…’ Haruo gripped the metal to attempt to bend it under his strength. He knew he was stronger than before, even if it wasn’t completely normal through magic he might be able to do something about it.

“You’re a stubborn bastard. All those soldiers died so quickly from this. But that just shows how truly different we are now. This is what we are now.”

Chapter 324 – Misjudged Action

Haruo found that his strength did indeed have enough to fight the metal. It was slow going but he was able to bend them. He didn’t try to remove them, since he knew that was only going to make things worse for him. ‘I’ll bleed out faster. But I need to sever them.’ Summoning his wolf to him, he made use of its sharper claws. A little blunt at first, they sharpened up as it made more attempts somehow transforming as he needed. ‘It was just a guess and a bit of a pointless one, but it seemed to work. But it shouldn’t be able to do something like that. Size aside, its claws aren’t like blades; they're just sharp ends at best. I thought my animals followed the natural laws, but is that not the case anymore? Can my thoughts or needs alter them?’

The thought troubled Haruo a little. ‘If this was Yuki, he’d be a little better at coming up with something more creative than how I’m using them if they are transformed by thought. I don’t know what to do…’ His mind worked logically. Everything he knew was based on the real world. Changing now wasn’t very easy. He wasn’t sure he could do it, especially in the middle of a fight. ‘Against someone like Fumiko, do I stand a chance? I thought based on what little I knew or saw, I could at least delay her long enough until Takako was handled. But I’m not even sure about that anymore. This fight is getting more disadvantageous…’

“So you still have some fight left in you?”

Straightening himself out, he did what he could to ignore the metal sticking out of him. It wasn’t as though he was going to be fighting directly anyway. So it wasn’t going to get too much in his way. ‘I’m going to have to ignore the questions… I need to focus…even for a draw…’ Another wolf stepped up on his left side as a companion to the other. Fumiko had too much at her disposal to hold back. He had to give it a real effort if he was to survive.

“We’ll see how long that lasts.”

‘This whole thing still is strange. She’s got elements of brainwashing, but also seems to be aware. But I’ll have to admit, I’ve never really seen someone brainwashed, so I don’t know if this is how they would be.’ Haruo ordered his wolves forward while he started to get moving again. Unfortunately, the metal rods in him pulled and tore at his insides. His body didn’t agree with moving while they were still left alone. There were no options, he just had to live with the damage and pain.

It had been a while since he experienced this level of pain. He was normally good at minimizing it or at least not having people that hurt him a lot. The Atlantis battles hurt, but he hadn’t been wounded so badly before. So feeling pain to the degree he was now was fresh. It at least kept him awake.

The wolves kept Fumiko off balance just enough that her attacks couldn’t make the same degree of accuracy that she had before. As she hadn’t figured out how they regenerated either, any of her attacks on them proved empty. Fire or metal, nothing stopped them from getting back up after her.

Haruo’s use of cover was proven to be just as fruitless. A strange mound of earth and school desks spread out through the entire campus grounds. Most of the grounds were open, but he still had some places to get behind to watch Fumiko. Her metal, however, pierced the pile with little effort and stabbed him in the arm. He ripped free from it by accident leaving a small gaping hole in his forearm bleeding out.

‘I need a plan. Magic and fantasy is not my realm of understanding. I’m going to pass out before I understand her well enough.’ He grabbed up more random pieces of debris around the grounds as he kept moving. Some of them looked a little more familiar than others. They all came from his school, so it went without saying that he knew some of the pieces. A couple came from a classroom, a number plate and chalkboard.

They quickly became animals, while some he pocketed for later. He needed a more offensive strategy with Fumiko. It was something he understood. Something he knew for any sort of fight. It was why some had trouble understanding him. He was a more passive individual. Even with the need to fight with the changes and tasks he took on it was a slow process for him that he never fully accepted.

He sent off his animals for a direct strike. ‘A direct assault seemed to work pretty well on her before. However, since she can work her magic without her hand, it means that just pinning her is not going to be enough. I’m going to have to actually knock her out to end this. Can I get that close?’ It wasn’t going to be his animals that took her down. Haruo knew that was something he had to handle. Yet with her flame as powerful now along with the metal, he had reservations about being able to achieve it. At least, he knew he wouldn’t be able to do so without taking serious injury. And his body already didn’t fare well.

Tapping her staff, metal jumped out of a magic circle on the ground. Like vines, it wound its way around piercing all of the animals that Haruo sent after Fumiko. Immediately after, flames burned them all away. “You didn’t think numbers would improve your odds against me? You seem to think so little of my magic, Haruo.”

Immediately countering after the animals faded into particles, Haruo was put back on the defensive. The metal magic increased in the speed of attacks. He wasn’t able to simply keep moving. He had to make certain sacrifices to stay in the fight. Certain injuries had to be accepted if he was to stay alive. It seemed contradictory, but she was much better than him. That was becoming clear to him. ‘She’s more committed to this than I. I really wonder what it is that Takako did to them. Hopefully, I survive to find out…’

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Commitment or not, he had determined to be more aggressive, something that didn’t exactly come naturally to him. He had to keep pressure on Fumiko or she would keep injuring him. To save on his fatigue, he used smaller animals to go after Fumiko. ‘I’m still not at my limit. I have a while to go still, but will it be enough…’

Not too unlike the last time, Fumiko countered as he expected. It might have seemed like he was desperate or just stubborn about a straightforward attack, but it had a purpose. He saw that she made the same actions. ‘She did it again. The tapping with her staff. That seems to be the trigger, but only for ground based attacks. And I know I’ve seen her do that before even in the school without triggering attacks. While she moved around she was doing it in a very deliberate manner.’

Even without his attacks, Fumiko continued to slowly walk around the field. It was rare for her to stand still. While inside the school, she restricted her movements during most of their fight. The outside changed that and seemed to open her attacks up more. ‘So that must be it. Now that I’ve made more attacks it makes sense.’

Another attack did all that he needed to confirm it for him. ‘Wherever she touches her staff to the ground it places down a circle. She’s then able to remotely trigger them with another tap. Despite how she has been using her powers to make it seem like she can attack from anywhere, she still has to use herself to set it up. It’s all still from her. It’s the training, all she’s been doing to improve her powers to be able to achieve this. My initial impression of her from the day we met seems to have turned out to be completely wrong.

‘I took her for someone that was observant and protective, but also sheltered and weak. She was doing what she was doing out of a sense of obligations rather than a real desire to fight. Because Yuki was in danger going to Atlantis, she felt she needed to go. But that was the extent of it. She would give it all up once her debt had been cleared.

‘I’m not seeing that from her. This looks to be a woman that would keep fighting even if she did not have a reason to do so. She keeps practicing and working on herself so that she can fight more. This is Fumiko Terauchi…’

Because he knew how her new power worked, it was easier to anticipate now. However, it still didn’t change that he could do nothing to stop her from doing it. She could still set the traps and trigger them at will. There was no ability to get close to her. Even forcing her to use them all up still left her with the versatility of her magic that she could cast from her person.

It didn’t change much for Haruo. He needed to be able to strike against her. Knowledge in this case did little to help him. ‘I might be able to problem solve things, but my mind doesn’t think like a combat strategist. I know what I can do, but not how to actually achieve it.’ It was a very different fight from what he was used to. The Atlanteans he dealt with had the advantage of them not fully understanding how different they were. It wasn’t until his battle with the Titan Teris that he came up against someone that he struggled to be able to fight. And he lost as a result. ‘Simple tactics won’t work against her. Not with her power. She completely negates my standard methods.’

He didn’t know how he was going to manage against her. Everything he knew and understood told him that he didn’t have a chance of winning. ‘It’s strange, but despite everything I know I want to stay here. Certainty doesn’t seem to be a factor. What is it?’ Haruo had no explanation for it.

Haruo retrieved one of the items he stored away in his pocket. The number plate to his classroom. It didn’t look like much anymore. Bent and twisted from the reckless use of the school, it was a sign of the past. And how much the present forced itself upon everything. ‘If plans and strategies won’t work against her, then I’ll have to borrow a page from Seiji it seems.’ Light started to burst from his hand to obscure him from sight completely.

Fumiko covered her eyes with her metal arm trying to see through what Haruo had planned. “Trying something new this late?” She tightened up her grip on her staff to prepare a possible sneak attack. “I’ll crush whatever you have planned.”

“New? Perhaps a bit,” replied Haruo, “A different way.”

“Still leaving out details I see. Well no matter!” Flames started to burn in her crimson arm no longer waiting to see what he had in store for her. She charged up her magic expecting whatever he had planned to be powerful.

Despite her own planning and expectation, what she saw come out of the light left her completely shocked. She didn’t even think to consider it, but there wasn’t anyone that would consider it. Fumiko dropped her mouth open in shock to see a giant elephant standing next to Haruo. “You can’t be serious…”

It had about as much subtlety as Seiji for sure. Though Haruo might have been a little too literal in his interpretation.

“Hey!” complained Seiji off screen.

As it started to charge for Fumiko, she gained back her composure. Her magic had still more time to cast against something so large. “You think that’s going to be enough? Size! I’ll show you how wrong you are!”

She immediately utilized all of her traps to deal with the elephant. However, unlike the other animals that Haruo still after her, it had a slightly less spirit-like appearance to it. It still was semi-transparent, but it was harder to see through. Which had been a sign that it wasn’t to be treated like the others. Her metal vines tore through the legs with little effect. It snapped the metal, not even breaking stride. All the flames did was take out small chunks that came back almost as quickly as they were damaged.

Nothing she had prepared worked against it. All she had left was her flame. She ground her teeth together not looking the same as she had the entire fight. Additional magic circles materialized around her arm strengthened her.

She didn’t have much time to attack with their distance. The elephant covered ground fast. Fumiko began thanking herself for reacting to building up earlier. She wouldn’t have had enough time otherwise.

As the flame she grew into life finally left her hand, it exploded in size dramatically. The elephant was still larger, but the flame did well to come close to engulfing it. The two powers clashed only meters away from Fumiko.

Gusts of wind from the impact brushed against her forcing her to dig her feet in a little. It was closer to her than she wanted, but it seemed to keep the rampaging animal back. She funneled more magic into her flames, feeling it lose power against the elephant. But it suddenly shattered before she could hold it up any longer. “What?!”

Half burned away by her flame, the elephant still charged after her. Had it been a real animal the sight might have been disturbing to witness, as a headless beast charging, but as a spirit animal it didn’t hold such horror. And the regenerative properties were already at work.

Fumiko staggered back, seeing it resume its charge at her. She had run out of spells to cast. Nothing she used worked against it. It was just too big to deal with on short notice. Gritting her teeth for the impact was all she could do.

The elephant smashed into Fumiko from Haruo’s view. But something didn’t seem right, as he expected it to carry through her for a bit. Something had stopped it. A faint light came out from in front of the animal largely masked by its size. He checked through the eyes of the elephant to see that it was Fumiko.

A barrier was completely up around her. He could see cracks forming it. Her last effort to protect herself, but it wasn’t going to hold. Against the physical power of the elephant, her magic wasn’t enough. ‘This should be enough to knock her out…’

However, Fumiko didn’t stay defensive while her barrier broke. Just as it shattered, she dashed forward between the legs of the animal. Armed with a metal crafted dagger, she charged straight for Haruo the source. “Die!” she shouted as she threw down a dagger.

His arm quickly came up, taking the blade through the muscle of his forearm. Blood sprayed back across their faces. She struggled with him to push the blade in towards his heart. He had her up close and saw the look in her eye once more. It made him recall what she said before and his re-evaluation of her. “Did you mean it when you said, that ‘This is what we are now’?”

“Yes! We’re nothing, but weapons. These powers aren’t peaceful. They’re meant for fighting and that’s what we’re supposed to do with them! Embrace it like I have!”