112 - Rematch of the self 4

*

She jumps a step back, summoning her sword with her magic. It was better to make some distance and retrieve her weapon later than to fall to a surprise attack. The Remnant stands there blankly, she looked down and covered the chest wound with her palm, feeling the sensation in her smooth pale skin. The viscous blood spilling out, the warmth seeping through her body, the pain crying out.

All sensations that made her feel alive. She almost looked human, her features were humanoid. If not for her deathly pale skin, she might have been able to disguise herself into the human population. Perhaps she had been doing just that, adjusting vibrational frequencies and bending light to have a normal skin tone. It was hard to tell where she has been, the fact that she hasn't been hunted down by another group of magical girls spoke volumes.

Her disguise must have been sufficient. Even if she had spent that time recuperating her magic from the previous battle... She must have briefly lived in human society, that's why her linguistics have become so good. She could speak and communicate fluently, and her thoughts were as hostile as ever.

"Oddly enough, a Trace having a fully magic formed body is more fragile than a Remnant, who has a body composition that's only partially magic and partially matter.

Traces if they were strong enough, could survive any attack. Even decapitation. At the same time if enough damage accrues, their regeneration halts and they die on the spot. " (Remnant)

Remnants wouldn't be able to survive decapitation, but their necks would simply compensate by being too hard to slice through. The threshold for the accumulation of damage to lead to death is far lower for Traces than to a Remnant's simple toughness that helps resist attacks. At the same time, it meant that a Trace's weakness only entails to them receiving more damage. This could possibly lead to their early defeat, but it also meant that any other part of their body is liable to be used to soak up attacks until they die.

There was no need for complex tactics, battle compatibility, or a particular need to target their 'weak spots'. Like hunting a wild animal, dealing a single vital blow and waiting for it to bleed out was natural. Only that it may not just require a single blow, but it leads to the same effect. By expending magic to regenerate their body, they have less magic capital in their body and that leads to more sluggish movements and weaker attacks. Enough of these small 'blood letting' attacks that force their magic expenditure, and they would die from a lack of magic like animals do to blood loss.

A Remnant won't have that weakness. Their base abilities wouldn't decrease, their absorption of magic is on par with magical girls, so their regeneration wouldn't slow down or halt from a lack of magic energy. They wouldn't die from a lack of magic or blood loss. Lastly, they are intelligent. All of this was to say, she was one hell of an opponent.

Stepping closer, The Remnant moves so quickly it was as if Lastia was placed in front of her by the universe. In one swift motion, she spun her knee and shot a heavy kick into her abdomen. Lastia intercepted with her blade, but The Remnant's shoes tore through the blade and successfully connected, shattering Yggdrasil's aura surrounding her body. The dark scarlet light converging on the air around her was no longer seen, and she flew rapidly with her body in a 'C' shape.

Sariel shifted The Remnant's position with {Swap}, causing a change in her scenery, with beyond quick reflexes she struck Sariel with the back of her hand and then with the back of her elbow. Sariel didn't fly because she crashed into a wall immediately, a copious volume of blood spilled out of her lips like a bucket of ketchup. There was a massive indentation in her chest, her heart, lungs and ribs had been compressed into a sandwich with her sternum and spine.

Her body had no time to register the injury, a massive amount of cells simply burst apart and were ejected out of her mouth in the form of blood. Her body was so thoroughly damaged that it was having trouble utilising the much boasted regeneration that magical girls possess. {Anxiety} had left vibrations inside Sariel's body to persistently damage her body and leave it irrecoverable. She was down for the count.

The remaining threat left standing was Arin. She had been suspicious for a while now, but the very fact that Arin was still spotless right now... It reaffirmed some of her assumptions. Arin was undoubtedly strong, at the minimum, an A grade of the old system. In other words, she was the same as The Remnant is now. Yet, why hasn't she defeated The Remnant? With Lastia and Sariel, even if they wouldn't contribute substantially, they would still severely impede The Remnant and leave wide openings for Arin to exploit.

Truthfully, The Remnant wasn't using everything she had. Lastia's technique to exceed her own limits had a time limit, and The Remnant simply shattered the technique itself and the vestigial shock waves was enough to knock her out. Even then... Her technique only boosts her own pool of magical energy, she can channel it into {Feed} more and overpower any energy attack or magic barrier with it...

But that's it. It doesn't take into account physicality. While {Feed} does enhance her strength and speed, surpassing her body's natural limit caused that enhancement to quickly hit a limit of its own. One that is inherent to her magic itself, the enhancement does not stack indefinitely. Only its core function of energy conversion and output can be boosted indefinitely as long as more magical energy is used as input. It brings her to just about B grade.

The Remnant fought on equal grounds, solely to see what cards Lastia and the others had up their sleeves. Their secret techniques, fail safes, trump cards, she wanted to exhaust them all before showing her true strength to end it swiftly. She can then ascertain whether they truly posed a threat. Fighting not only requires power and skill, even luck or the foresight and ability to utilise this luck was vital. Another way to describe this luck is coincidence.

Arin being the last person standing is a coincidence, but it's a coincidence that was prepared by environmental factors and a little planning. Arin was also saving her strength to gauge the enemy's, hoping Lastia could defeat The Remnant on her own and make her job easer.