Absolute Zero
"Absolute Zero. A technique I developed with the help of Yuri. Using a water spell combined with defensive magic sequences, I can create a zone in which all magic and attacks are slowed down to the point of harmlessness, as if under water. Rendering their effect, an absolute zero."
Suijin made her introduction to the battlefield, and at the perfect time. Me and Homuras strategy had been faulty, we made a miscalculation, and we nearly paid with our lives for it. Turning around to face where the student council president was standing, we ran over to her side.
"Thank you!'
We both said at the same time, as we tackled Suijin.
However, Suijin caught us in her strong arms and smiled down at us.
"No problem. I have to thank the two of you as well. For not only being smart enough to take the battle with this girl somewhere secluded, but also for saving lives, and..... surviving." Her eyes held a well of hurt and pain in them. It was clear to see why.
The seen outside was something straight out of a horror movie. Blood, limbs and corpses were everywhere. For someone like Suijin, the president, who took her role very seriously, it would probably be devastating for her to see students massacred in such a manner.
There was also anger in her eyes. Most likely for the way that those students were mistreated, how their bodies were violated and disrespected.
With the culprit right in front of her eyes, I was surprised that she didn't seem angrier. "Anyways, would you too like to catch me up to speed on exactly what kind of opponent were facing?"
Me and Homura obliged. We explained everything about our opponent, like her three level of attack strengths, and how they were activated, as well as her surprising ability to launch these blasts through her mouth. We also explained the strategy that we took in trying to defeat her.
"And that was the point when I had arrived. I have to admit, it was a smart plan, although you made a massive oversight. All though, I', sure you two already realized it." She turned to face us, with a look similar to an instructor on her face.
I was already kicking myself for my idiocy. My plan almost led Homura to her death, and she had placed her faith in me-
I noticed Homura's glare and immediately stopped the negative spiral of my thoughts.
"What about everything inside the magic academy? Where are the teachers? Headmaster? How close are the mages association? What about Raiden?"
I rapidly fired a multitude of questions at Suijin, hoping she knew the answer. The truth was, I knew that she was probably just as in the dark as we were, however she was the Suijin. The strong and capable student council president. She had to know something.
Suijin placed a strong arm down on my shoulder, looking me in the eyes. "Calm down Kami, deep breathes." I complied, taking two or three deep breathes. "Firstly, everyone inside was caught off guard by a Suprise attack from Wrath."
My blood ran cold.
"You couldn't mean-" Homura began.
"Yes, the Wrath." Suijin cut her off.
There was no way. The person who had gone toe to toe with the greatest knight, strongest magic knight in all of Europe, was here.
He was one of the people launching the siege on Theta Magic Academy. Along with this girl, and the men in Python tattoos.
"Just what the hell is going on here?"
What was their goal? Why here, why kill students, why why why why-
"Breathe Kami. One thing at a time."
I nodded, forcing myself to take deep breathes again.
"A trusted student is currently fighting against Wrath, I'm sure he'll be able to hold his own." Suijin said those words confidently. "As for Raiden, I sent him to go check on the P.A system. He may have run into his own challenges, but I believe he can push through. Don't you?"
I had a lot of doubts and worries about Raiden, but they all pertained to his emotions. Him calling himself a worthless piece of shit was at the top of my list. However, when it came to combat prowess, to raw ability, I had 100% faith that Raiden would prevail. He was a prodigy, he couldn't lose.
"If it's my brother, he won't lose. I'm sure of it." I said, with just as much confidence as Suijin. I felt my own confidence returning.
Suijin smiled. "Well then, this is now our battle. We will finish this as quickly as possible and make it back to support the others!"
With newfound determination, we returned to the battle.
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With Suijin now added unto the battlefield, or battle strategy changed a lot. In terms of fighting techniques, Suijin was similar to me. She was very powerful at using water magic, as shown by her ability, "Absolute zero." She wasn't that much of an up-close fighter, preferring to rely on magic instead of physical prowess.
She supported Homura's dueling fighting style from afar.
She expertly weaved spells of water with other magic sequence that lowered and raised temperatures, in order to create powerful attacks of boiling hot, or frozen water.
Her attacks were powerful enough to clash with those belonging to the girl in the blue hoodie, neutralizing them. It was impressive to watch. Relentless. Powerful. Calm. Smooth.
Just like water.
She was not only limited to water, however. She could use wind and fire, and she primarily mixed lightning with her attacks, creating a deadly reaction of water and lightning.
I was amazed as I watched her technique. It was everything that I could have ever wanted to achieve. And she did it all calmly, with a smirk on her face.
With my help, Homura's advanced met no resistance. All of the girl's attacks were neutralized.
And so, Homura got in close, and-
Her strike was intercepted, by two pairs of blades. Two new players in this battle.
One was a blade of lightning, wielded by a dark-skinned girl with white hair. She wore a black outfit. Her eyes seemed to glow the very color of the lightning that surrounded her. It flickered and pulsed strongly.
The other, was a blade of flame, constructed by a tall middle-aged man with black hair.
These two pushed Homura backwards, protecting the girl in the center.
For the first time, the girl in the blue hoodie showed a sort of emotion. A slight shock on her face, as she took in her two new protectors. "Eve..." She muttered. She shook her head.
"No need to worry, Aergia. We were sent by Eve to assist you."
However the girl had quickly lost her interest, turning her eyes back to the floor and yawning. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do whatever you please. Just leave the one in the center for me.
"Who are they?" I whispered to my allies.
Suijin muttered a curse under her breath, and Homura angrily stopped her foot.
"I was right there too! Inches away from taking her head."
"Keep calm. These two, I don't know where they came from, but there not on our side." Suijin spoke calmly, although I was beginning to hear cracks in her demeanor. Her voice was slightly strained, and her eyes held a glint of frustration in them. As always, she looked tired.
"So, obviously a change of plans is needed. They weren't exactly subtle in discussing their plans, so we know the girl in the centers name is Aergia, and she want's to fight Suijin 1 on 1. Those two, are reinforcement s sent by a girl named Eve, and they want to distract us."
That new tidbit of information didn't help much, as it was just adding more names, and no context. Who was Eve? However, it was a start.
"Kami, Homura." Suijin spoke without looking at us, as she took a step forward, allowing her blazer to slide off and fall to the ground.
"The two new ones, their strong, however, I believe you two can deal with them." She turned back and gave us a smile. "I'll go up against the one in the center. Finish up your battles, and join me, so we can finish this.
Without even another thought, Suijin began to launch a series of magical attacks at Aergia, and Aergia fired back. A clash between two utter titans had commenced. Magical energy and aura were off the charts, and the Ice palace was quickly being destroyed by the relentlessness and power of their attacks.
I turned to face Homura.
"Save the apology. So, we almost died, but we survived. Your strategy was still good."
Homura immediately shot down the words that were going to come from my mouth.
"Just focus on your fight. Remember what I said. Win this."
I nodded at her, surprised by the faith that she had placed in me despite what happened.
"I'll take the fire sword dude on the right." She pointed to her side, where half of her shirt was burned completely off, exposing bare skin and parts of her undershirt. "He's going to pay for this."
"You better not die." I told her.
"Same to you." She replied.
And we returned to battle. Once again, the circumstances had changed.
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CRACKK!
A lightning bolt smashed straight through the ground in front of me, as I dodged backwards.
CRACK!
CRACK!
CRACK!
CRACK!
Quickly, four more followed the first in quick succession, and I continued to move backwards to avoid them.
I fired back iciles of my own, which my opponent dodged. Flying through the air with the grace of a bird.
Flipping over, she fired off another sizzling bolt of lightning, which I blocked with an Ice shield I constructed.
Just like me, my opponent preferred to rely on magic, zoning me away with her expert flying and using of lightning magic.
Stomping my foot on the ice ground, causing it to crack a bit. Two ice dragon heads were summoned from the ground and launched at the girl. She dodged gracefully, her white hair whipping wildly in the wind created by her flying. I continued to control the ice dragons, bringing them up and around, and back, creating new ones to keep up the pressure.
While my opponent was distracted, I activated an acceleration spell, combined with a wind spell, layered on top of a flame spell.
I jumped up into the air, jumping atop the many heads and bodies of my ince dragons to reach my opponent, she noticed my approach, and turned around firing off too lightning bolts, that I dodged using flames to blast me out of the way.
Getting close, I launched a punch that she blocked. Quickly, I grabbed her, and we began sliding down the body of an ice dragon, as another head came flying towards us.
Two follow up jabs that she just barely reacted too, and I let go of her, allowing for the ice dragon to hit.
She crashed into the wall of the ice palace. I directed the dragon made of ice to drag her body all the way across, before bringing it back into the air, and letting it fall towards me.
Then, I pointed my hands upward.
"Reverse Ice Rain!"
Launching a deadly rain of icicles at my falling opponent, I pressed my advantage.
SIZZLE!
BOOOOM!
However, my opponent simply charged up their mana, before letting off a massive explosion of lightning. Obliterating all of the icicles and ice dragons.
Overhead, at the same time, Homura And her opponent flew by, in an intense clash where they were both making use of flame spells to mauver their way through the air. Her opponent however, had transformed, his entire body now made of flame. He was flying using his flames as jet boosters, much faster than Homura was.
In the center the incomprehensible standoff between Suijin and Aegria continued, a deadly rain of attacks constantly clashing, shaking the ice palace.
Everyone was holding their own, I couldn't lose, I couldn't let them down-
BANG!
In my train of thought, I wasn't paying attention to my opponent, so I was caught with a lightning bolt to the face, and a follow-up kick to the gut.
Sliding backwards, I barely avoided another kick to the head. I moved back in a back handspring and wiped the blood coming from my nose.
Great work, Kami.
I told myself sarcastically.
Keep this up, and maybe you'll be able to disappoint everyone, not just those here!"
Dodging another lightning bolt, I began to prepare a counterattack. My opponent was clearly weaker when it came to hand to hand, so that was the advantage I needed to press.
Despite the fact that I knew my win condition, despite the fact that my opponent was not stronger than me, I couldn't make any progress.
Again and again I was kicked down.
Another lightning attack caught me, and I was sent crashing into the ground.
"Kami!"
Homura shouted out worried, casuing her to get caught of guard, and nearly burnt alive.
Suijin was distracted momentarily, and she got a cut along her shoulder for it.
My own weakness was causing others to be hurt to.
Gripping my own arm tightly, I chided myself.
Get a grip Kami!
However, I still couldn't break through. Trying to dodge back, I tripped over my dress, and was hit by another bolt.
This one burnt deep, leaving a scar in my arm.
Breathing heavily, I was brought to my knees in front of this girl, who was floating above me.
Why couldn't I break through.
I was just as strong as her.
Better at hand to hand.
Knew my strategy.
What was I missing?
"Don't let your confidence fall."
Suijin's words from before, they returned to me now.
"If you fear letting somebody down, then instead of worrying about it, make sure it doesn't happen!"
Homuras words also returned to me.
Was that what I was doing? I was letting my confidence fall.
Yes, that was exactly it.
Just because I made a single mistake, I allowed the walls of my confidence to crack. It was showing in real life. The ice palace surrounding me and begun to show cracks and seams. It had been happening from the beginning.
The opponent in front of me, did not have any magical or physical advantage over me. No, but they did have something more important than that.
They had an advantage in confidence. They were absolutely confident in what they could do. They didn't trap themselves worrying about letting others down. They simply focused on themselves, and executed at the level they knew they were capable.
That was the missing piece. My confidence.
However, it was easier said than done to fix that.
"Kami, you probably have more potential for magical energy than me."
"Really? I find that hard to believe. Someone as strong as you, brother?"
Raiden shook his head. "Me, I'm not all that, really. You have to much faith."
"What did we talk about? Stop with the downplaying yourself! Your great Raiden and don't forget it!"
"And your great too!" He leaned in, flicking my forehead. "A powerful magician. In fact, I believe that you would never lose to anyone!"
The push that I needed, came in the form of a memory of a conversation I had had with Raiden walking to school. He had expressed his own confidence in me in his own self-deprecating way. he had said that he believed I wouldn't lose to anyone.
And so, I wouldn't lose.
"You really are an unknowingly selfish brother. When you hold expectation like that, I can't lose." I spoke.
With a smiled, I summoned an ice dagger, and cut my dress, turning it into a makeshift skirt, with more breathing room. Although, I cut it much higher than I intended.
Probably nerves. I laughed at myself in my mind.
I had an idea. From the moment Suijin arrived and revealed her ability, I had an idea.
Getting into a fighting stance, I faced my opponent with a smile. Then, I said to myself:
"Absolute Zero."