Ikki

"That's our Natasha! Go! Kick her ass!"

Cordelia cheered, pumping her fists in the air. Laurel smiled up at her as she came to join us in the crowd.

Caroline and Natasha stood up from their clash and began speaking as Chelsea screamed in the distance.

"Rai-chan. What the hell happened there?! What did she do?" I asked mentally.

"Huh. Neat trick. It was simple in theory, but very complex in application. Natasha disrupted her spell formation by matching the oscillations of the mana she'd gathered. You know how waves can cancel out, or increase if timed properly?"

"I've got a basic idea, yeah. Resonance?"

"Well, it was something like that, but she matched it in three dimensions," she said. "She knew exactly when and where the spell was forming and sent a pulse to match its formation, canceling it out. A wave resonance effect that would be nearly impossible without perfect timing, and even then it's something you wouldn't expect to see from a student."

I blinked, glancing back at the slender, and petite Natasha who was now talking to Caroline.

She looked... ordinary. Sure, if I had to admit it, she was cute in an unassuming, girl next door way. Sure, Natasha had a strong aura about her, but nothing that made her stand out in a crowd. It was hard to believe that someone so small and quiet could do something that sounded borderline superhuman.

"That's... crazy," I mumbled.

"Her mana senses are truly exceptional. As are her instincts and reaction times." Rai-chan chimed.

I nodded, watching Natasha and Caroline circle each other, as Chelsea screamed at the sidelines to do... something.

Probably kill each other, I thought to myself.

But instead, Caroline paused and began to give an explanation similar to what Rai-chan had just told me, while the crowd murmured in shock. I didn't know all that much about Terran magic, but from their reactions, it seemed like Natasha's feat was even more impressive than I had thought. And it sounded plenty ridiculous enough to a layperson like me.

I noticed Natasha's eyes grow distant and distracted, and a small frown crossed her lips. I zoomed in with Rai-chan's HUD as her lips moved ever so slightly.

And then Caroline lost it.

In the blink of an eye, the girl had rushed at Natasha in a blur. The ground shattered under her feet and her fists slammed into Natasha's stomach with the speed of a bullet, ending her crashing to the ground in a spray of dirt and dust.

I felt my heart clench as I saw her cough up blood, laying in a small crater in the ground. Caroline quickly pulled her fist back for another punch, levitating Natasha in the air.

"Is this going to be okay? Should we be stopping this?" I whispered anxiously to Cordelia.

"She's reinforced her body with magic, otherwise her organs would have ruptured and she would have been dead already. They both are," Cordelia said with a frown.

"Oh, well that's comforting... I suppose," I muttered, feeling the color drain from my face.

Natasha suddenly shot forward from her levitated position, launching herself towards Caroline in a flash, kicking her across the jaw and then spun in mid-air to kick her in chest like it was a wire-fu film.

Caroline staggered back and Natasha's hands blurred as a series of sharp distortions of air slashed outwards. I didn't even know that was a thing.

Was that some kind of magic? It didn't glow, so it couldn't have been right?

I glanced at Cordelia and Laurel.

Laurel's eyes were fixed on Natasha and Caroline, her eyes narrowed as she analyzed the battle.

Caroline jumped to the side in a supernatural burst of speed, launching herself into the air with a gust of wind, dodging the attack.

Natasha's eyes narrowed and suddenly an eruption of multiple wind blades flew after Caroline. I could see the blades curve unnaturally through the air and home in on her.

Caroline waved a hand and the ground itself tore itself up, forming a wall of rock that was sliced through and shattered like a hot knife through butter by Natasha's wind blades. They arced around her, following Caroline as she jumped and weaved through the air in a deadly dance.

The students near me had all gone speechless, watching in shock at the display of destruction. Cordelia's face had grown visibly pensive.

I heard someone whisper, "I'm sorry, I thought this was a schoolyard brawl... n-not a deathmatch?!"

"When a noble issues a formal duel to settle grievances, things can get... extreme," someone else said.

I swallowed, feeling a knot of anxiety twist in my stomach.

This... wasn't what I'd expected when I came here. To say it was a bit of culture shock was an understatement.

Caroline suddenly landed on the ground with a heavy stomp, the earth cracking beneath her. She flickered, moving in a shadowy blur towards Natasha who'd just finished firing off her barrage of wind blades. The moment Caroline appeared next to her, her body blurred again, moving like a shadow.

She spun and kicked out, striking at Natasha as she jumped back to dodge. Her fists flashed in a combination of straights, and Natasha ducked under her arm, sliding to the side to avoid a blow to her head. She raised her arm and parried a follow-up kick, but her arm buckled under the impact.

Caroline's hand flashed and caught Natasha's arm in an iron grip, pulling her off-balance as her foot came up again.

And Natasha dropped her hands, sinking low before a golden light flared around her body. Caroline let out a shout of pain as the light struck her, and Natasha's knee rose, smashing into her stomach.

Natasha then twisted her body, throwing a spinning back kick into Caroline's solar plexus and sending her flying. She quickly followed up by bracing herself in a horse stance, launching a torrent of golden arcing beams that slammed into the flying girl.

I could see her body contorting in the air, before she crashed into the ground, creating a crater in the field and a plume of smoke and dust. The crowd erupted in shouts of surprise, and a few girls started clapping.

Cordelia's eyes widened in shock, before a small frown tugged at her lips.

I nodded. "She's... she's a tough cookie," I said. "She's still going, despite that rough opening."

Rai-chan suddenly spoke in my ear. "I don't know how long she can keep this up. Look at her eyes."

I glanced at Natasha. Her eyes seemed to be focused on Caroline's position, but her pupils were slightly unfocused. I could see the slight dilation and a hint of a wobble to them as her eyelid twitched. Rai-chan's HUD quickly lit up, highlighting the damage to her body.

"Natasha has taken quite a beating. Her body is covered in bruises, and I suspect she has a mild concussion," Rai-chan stated. "I don't know if it's a wise idea to continue. I think her stamina and concentration are fading."

"She's got a concussion," I muttered, causing Cordelia to look at me from my peripheral vision.

"What?!" Cordelia asked.

"The signs are there," I replied. "It seems like Natasha was flash KO'd in one of those exchanges."

The pink-haired girl's brows furrowed in thought, but before she could speak, a figure burst out of the dust, and the earth shook.

Caroline came out swinging, spamming her own wind blades as she charged at Natasha in a flurry. Natasha dodged them smoothly, pulling off some acrobatics to roll out of the way, and then fired her own wind blades in a counterattack.

It slammed against Caroline's chest, and she staggered, before firing a blast of her own at Natasha. The blast sent a wave of force that caused Natasha's clothes to ripple from the pressure.

I couldn't follow most of what was going on. But I could see rocks and pebbles swirling in the air at speeds that made my head hurt just thinking about, as they formed into small meteors and hurtled at Natasha. She tried to dodge, but was too slow, taking a glancing hit to her shoulder and stomach as they exploded with purple mana on contact, and sending her flying.

Caroline's body blurred again in that inhuman speed of hers, and her fist flew through the air in the most telegraphed punch I'd ever seen, which Natasha slipped. But instead, the dark haired girl struck with a vicious palm strike to the stomach. The force of the blow seemed to ripple through her body and then the ground cracked under her feet. The ground shook and the grass swayed violently, as the earth around her turned dark.

Natasha fell to her knees, coughing up blood, but she held onto Caroline's arm with an overhook on her arm, and pulled her in as she fell to her back. The two seemed to struggle with Caroline standing over Natasha for a few seconds before a loud whistling noise tore through the air. I couldn't see it, but the HUD flashed red and highlighted something in the air behind them.

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A second later, Caroline's back exploded.

Her uniform was shredded into ribbons as she screamed in pain.

The crowd fell into silence as she twitched, gasping in pain and shock as her body was battered by a series of wind blades that were curving back around, cutting into her back over and over again. Blood splattered on the ground, and the crowd gasped.

Natasha quickly rolled to the side and kipped up. But just as I was starting to feel relief, Caroline, with a sudden burst of speed and mana, leapt up and slammed her heel into the ground with a burst of wind, crushing Natasha's knee with a sickening crack.

She let out a blood-curdling shout as she collapsed, clutching her knee in agony.

My heart clenched at the sight of Natasha writhing on the ground, and the crowd was silent. Cordelia had gone white as a sheet and Laurel looked sick. Chelsea and her crew looked practically gleeful.

Caroline started talking. Inaudibly from where we were. I couldn't make out the words, but Natasha's lips moved, and a frown crossed Caroline's lips.

The dark-haired beauty's face twisted into a scowl, and her eyes seemed to flash purple as her body pulsed with a dark light.

As Caroline started chanting, a red magic circle expanded her, covered in Taoist geometries and characters. The circle seemed to spread and grow, before forming a dome of translucent gray that enveloped the entire battlefield. The air inside it seemed to shimmer, like a heatwave, before everything in the dome turned into a monochrome black and white. Natasha and Caroline were nothing more than a pair of black silhouettes within it.

I glanced around nervously. "What the heck is that?!" I asked, looking at Laurel and Cordelia, and then at the crowd.

They seemed just as confused and nervous as I was, with Laurel's expression turning serious, and Cordelia looking sick.

"Amitabha. The Void Clan's famous technique. The greatest barrier known to conventional magic. She's really serious," Laurel whispered. "It encloses the user and their opponent in a sealed boundary with infinite light between the void and the outside world. No attacks, spells, or sound can penetrate it from within or without. It is a staple of the family, but usually requires four casters, a circle of mana, and a ritual. It's not supposed to be a one-person casting..."

"And it's meant to be used against m-monsters," Cordelia stated. "Not people. Even a barely above-average mage like me knows about it. T-This... this isn't going to end well."

I felt my blood turn cold as I heard those words.

"Then stop it! We can't just stand here!" I said, turning to look at her.

Cordelia swallowed, her expression torn, before shaking her head. "It's not that easy, Ikki. There's a... code. An etiquette to these things."

"Fuck the etiquette," I snapped.

Her expression wavered, but then her jaw clenched. "There are some rules we have to follow. It's a public place, and we're not the ones that challenged her. It's a duel, and it was agreed to. Plus, only a first-rate master mage or a Magical Girl with powers that have greater conceptual weight can break something like the Amitabha."

I glanced back at the two shadows in the dome. I saw the silhouette of Natasha crawl to her feet, settling into a fighting stance, despite her injury.

Caroline's silhouette blurred forward, her arms striking out at Natasha's shadow. Natasha threw a kick to push her back, and then the two of them circled around each other, before clashing together in a series of fast, hard-to-follow punches, blocks, and kicks.

I swallowed as I watched, trying to keep up. I really hadn't expected the girl I'd been hanging out with to be... well, be such a ridiculous martial artist. That violent encounter we had with Chelsea had been so rough and anticlimactic, it hadn't prepared me for this at all.

I saw Natasha throw a punch and a burst of white light erupted. Caroline countered with a dark pulse, but the gold seemed to overwhelm and swallow up her purple flare, slamming against her in an explosion.

But then I noticed something. Something... off. I couldn't put my finger on it. The golden light pulsed out again, and then Caroline's mana seemed to spike as Natasha's golden mana was snuffed out in an instant.

Natasha staggered, her silhouette flickering as the ground around her seemed to grow black and she seemed to stumble and flinch back in surprise.

Caroline's mana spiked again and she blurred forward, her arm lashing out at Natasha with a vicious punch coated with shadowy flames, but Natasha blocked with a flare of magic in return. It was like the most fantastical shadow puppet show I'd ever seen.

Natasha blocked again and again as Caroline rained down blows, each of them sending her staggering backwards, and I saw the silhouette of Natasha stumble, before catching herself with a flare of mana.

She then launched herself forward and threw a punch of her own, only for it to be deflected easily and a knee slamming into her gut with a flash of shadowy light.

"Ikki. Something's wrong here," Rai-chan suddenly said.

"I know. This whole situation is a nightmare, " I muttered.

"No, I mean something is very, very strange here with how their fight is going," Rai-chan continued. "Natasha's mana signature is dropping drastically, while Caroline's seem to have increased tenfold since they've entered this dome."

"What do you mean?"

"I believe Caroline is putting on a farce," Rai-chan explained. "True regenerative healing magic is rare and closely guarded secrets. Natasha's knee ligaments were definitely sprained from that last kick, but there is no sign of any healing magic being cast. And yet, her body is functioning normally. She shouldn't be able to move at this pace and intensity, much less be able to keep fighting after such an injury."

I watched as the shadow of Natasha seemed to get the better of Caroline, suddenly pushing her back and sending her reeling. There wasn't a sound. The air within the dome seemed to be completely silent.

Caroline blurred, and then the two clashed in a blur of motion and mana. They seemed to trade blow for blow, before Caroline landed a powerful kick that sent Natasha skidding backward. Then Caroline blurred and seemed to appear behind her.

And Natasha spun, throwing a series of wind blades at Caroline. The girl's shadow seemed to flicker and warp, before suddenly splitting into multiple silhouettes. Each one of them dodging a separate wind blade.

"What the fuck..." I muttered.

Rai-chan paused for a moment. "A cloning spell? A sensory-based illusion? Perhaps an afterimage technique? The Void Clan is known for their use of techniques like that."

"Hey, you can sense them beyond the barrier right? What's going on in there?" I asked. "How is she?"

Rai-chan paused. "I can barely sense Natasha. Her signature is fading. I don't like the way her aura is behaving either."

I didn't miss the little fact Rai-chan just dropped either. If the Void Clan was known for illusions, it wasn't out of the realm of possibility this was some kind of deception.

The shadowy clones of Caroline surrounded Natasha and seemed to strike out at her from all angles, their shadows blurring with each attack. Natasha was thrown to the ground over and over, only to be slammed into the ground with a force that made my stomach turn.

I could see her struggling to stand up each time. Her movements seemed slow, weak, and sluggish. The clones blurred, their forms warping and shifting as they seemed to blur and shift in the darkness, before suddenly, they all struck at the same time, and a flare of light surged from Natasha, shattering the shadowy duplicates into fragments.

Caroline's mana spiked once again, and a pulse of power sent the ground beneath them quaking. A glowing sphere suddenly appeared around Natasha's body as a large orb of shadows formed in Caroline's hands. Natasha seemed to stand up and face her.

I felt my breath hitch as I saw Natasha raise her hands, preparing a counterattack.

But the golden light that formed was weak, flickering, and small.

And then the two attacks clashed, like it was straight out of an anime. I saw Natasha's silhouette stagger backwards from the impact, as the golden ball of light slowly began to be swallowed by the black one. Caroline's body was shaking and pulsating, and I could see Natasha struggling, her body shaking as the two clashed. Her body pulsed and quivered as her attack began to falter and break.

But the light emitting from Natasha intensified. It grew stronger. Brighter.

Caroline seemed to flicker and then the two silhouettes disappeared from sight as the dome shifted from a monochrome gray to an intense black and gold, like a battle of wills.

The dome seemed to pulse and shift, and then it shattered. An enormous golden ray of light pierced through the dome, before colliding with the blue barrier separating the audience and the duelists.

And the barrier shattered as well.

The air in the arena was blasted back and the ground shook, sending me staggering.

"Fuck! This isn't a grievance duel anymore, they're going to kill each other!" Cordelia cried out, and I saw her and Laurel's expressions grow worried.

Seconds later, the dust and light began to clear, revealing the two figures in the center of the battlefield.

Both of them... were a mess. Caroline looked like a wreck, her uniform torn, tattered and covered in blood, with her back cut up. Her eyes were half-closed and her face was burned on one side. Her right arm was also bloody and burned, hanging loosely off her side.

Natasha had a face completely covered in welts and bruises, and her eyes were swollen shut. She had blood running from the corner of her mouth. Her right leg was bent unnaturally, and her left hand was limp.

The two girls were staring at each other, panting heavily. The crowd around us was silent, the only sounds coming from the heavy breathing of the combatants, and Caroline's eyes were filled with a maelstrom of emotions as she stared at Natasha.

Natasha on the other hand... looked like she was barely holding onto consciousness.

Caroline sighed, before slowly raising her right arm, wincing from the burns on her right arm as she did so. It looked... pretty painful, honestly.

"I yield. I have nothing left. This is your win," she said loudly and clearly, causing the entire courtyard to erupt into murmurs.

Cordelia's eyes were as wide as saucers, and Laurel was looking between them with her brow furrowed in thought.

I dashed through the fading blue barrier as it collapsed, the magical energy that powered it having dissipated, and rushed to Natasha's side. I reached her just in time to catch her as her legs buckled beneath her, and I cradled her in my arms. She felt so small in my arms. Fragile. I could see the damage done to her body.

She had bruises and welts all over. And she was bleeding from her nose and her ears. Caroline turned, and slowly walked away as Chelsea shouted insults and called her a loser. Amongst other things.

But, what stood out to me was that Caroline may have been seriously injured, but she was still standing.

Something definitely didn't add up.

"Rai-chan. Run an analysis on their injuries. Quickly," I said.

"Ikki... Natasha's in bad condition," Rai-chan replied. "Her right orbital is broken, and her cheekbone and nose are both fractured. She has a concussion, a fractured jaw, and at least three broken ribs. Her left leg is fractured as well and she has a sprained ankle."

I clenched my fists, my knuckles going white. I was furious. "And what about Caroline?"

"Most of her injuries appear to be superficial, and she's likely still suffering the after-effects of the blow she took from the first clash. She has a few bruises and light cuts, but nothing that should impede her ability to fight," Rai-chan said.

I clenched my fists in anger.

Cordelia and Laurel appeared next to me as I carefully lowered her to the ground. Her head lolled to the side as she slipped into unconsciousness. Cordelia knelt down and checked her over, and I saw her frown. Laurel looked on silently, her expression thoughtful, before glancing at me.

"Ikazuchi... We need to get her to the infirmary," she said.

But I wasn't listening.

I saw red.

My fists were clenched as I stared after Caroline's retreating back. As I heard her limping footsteps, and saw her battered and bruised body. But there wasn't a single ounce of remorse in me for what she had done. For what she had inflicted on someone who had shown me nothing but kindness and generosity. I felt a surge of anger and rage.

I didn't understand why she did it. What drove her.

I knew there had to be more than what met the eye here. I didn't care.

My hands were balled into fists at my side. I knew I couldn't do anything, I had no power or authority to make things better.

But still, my body and my mouth moved on its own.

I was angry, and I was tired, and I couldn't stop myself from saying something.

"Caroline!" I said, calling out. "Don't you dare just walk away from this. Not after what you just fucking did!" I shouted.

Time seemed to stretch, the moment slowing to a crawl as all eyes fell upon me.

Cordelia glanced up at me, and I saw Laurel's eyes widen slightly.

Caroline's gait slowed and she stopped in her tracks. The crowd fell silent again and the tension in the air was palpable. I could feel everyone's eyes on us.

She slowly turned and faced me, and her gaze met mine, and she stared at me.

I could see her face twist with a mix of emotions. Pain. Anger. Grief. Rage. But the most prominent was disgust.

Disgust at me or Natasha, I couldn't tell. But it was written all over her tear-streaked, bloody, and sweat-laden face.

"Don't start. What you can't finish, peasant. " She spat the words with an almost casual cruelty, before turning around and limping away. "This matter doesn't concern you. I'm done here."

I didn't know what possessed me, but before I could even think, I was already shouting again. "What the hell does that even mean?!"

But Caroline ignored me, walking away and leaving the courtyard, leaving me and everyone else in the crowd behind.

And I didn't know why I did it.

But I ran after her.

And that was probably the worst mistake I could have ever made.

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