"You guys aren't that bad, honestly if you weren't you know evil we might have got along." Gwen felt sad when she fought strong people. Strength was meant to be used to help people!
She bobbed and weaved between sword strikes and claw slashes. Strong winds kissed her cheeks each time she evaded.
"A simple solution is simply you dying!" The man, she assumed from the deep voice and the muscular arm she saw sticking out from beneath his white cloak.
She gave his suggestion a thought for a few moments then shook her head. The action was appropriate as the masked hunched back woman, she assumed from the witch like voice. Her claws aimed for her eyes and then her jugular.
"Sorry, but that's kind of impossible." Death. For a while she feared it, however after she met her grandmother, learned of her true nature she coveted the idea of dying. The idea of living while her loved ones died one after another made her want to tear out her own heart.
Her mana construct blades met claws, she stared at the pure white mask of the hunchback.
"You don't talk much do you?"
She knew it was redundant to ask, no response came in the form of words instead small balls of slimy green energy formed at the tips of the masked woman's claw tips.
"Well that's my cue." Gwen felt a tingling sensation pull at the back of her head. She disengaged her mana pad beneath her feet and began to free fall.
A sword slash and blast of energy struck the air.
"Elemos." She recited the incantation of her electromagnetism spell, and she began to fly without any support. She felt nostalgic, in the past she would have had to weave together several spells in order to do that.
Being an Anodite was a really unfair advantage when it came to being a mage.
"Huh, now that I think about it Charmy cheats since she's not human."
"You dare look away!" The cloaked man slashed in her direction the speed and power behind the slash caused a sonic boom to be born then the air became a projectile.
"Impressive." She nearly forgot to put up a defense, she snapped her fingers and a wall made of blue hexagons formed and blocked the attack.
"How?!" He was filled with rage, this woman merely toyed with them! They were the Fracción of Espada, they were the retainers of demi-gods to be toyed like this, it was as if they were disrespecting their lords!
"Hmm, oh all it is a multilayered barrier made from small hexagons, not my best work, but it does the job." Gwen felt very smug as she spoke.
Rule number 1 of hero work piss off the enemy, and makes fall.
"How...Interesting..." The hunchback spoke as she flew next to her shield.
"What-" Gwen's heart nearly skipped a beat and her eyes nearly bugged out of her eyes. The hunchback's mask broke apart and a green gas escaped the now jagged appearing mouth of the short being.
The gas made its way to Gwen's shield and it began to melt.
Terror filled her heart as she dismissed the shield and flew away.
"Come back-!" The man was cut off as the bright blue sky above them became blocked out by an unnatural veil of black clouds as they all felt like the gravity increased and their breathing became strained.
The hunchback became distracted as off in the distance dark purple flashes spawned.
"...Lord...nine..." The hunchback's raspy voice seemed saddened by the light.
"Stop it Bruja! Lord Aaroniero will be alright, our foe stands before us, that is what requires your attention!"
"Sure...thing...Cabal." The hunchback calmed down and seemed to stare at Gwen with a new desire to kill her as the man next to her Cabal removed his hood.
His left face was covered by a white mask that reminded Gwen of half a knight helmet, and his right was scarred with burn marks; he lacked any hair. His steel grey eyes only spoke of rage directed towards the orange haired woman.
"So...are you two open towards having a discussion on how you can change your ways and turn to the side of good?" Her response came in the form of two large blasts of green and violet energy which she narrowly evaded.
"So no." Gwen was dejected a tiny bit, but then steeled herself.
"Don't blame me for whatever happens alright! Radius Ardens!" In front of her opponents three circles with similar glyphs formed, and then each symbol lit up with red light and fired beams of scorching energy, the attack was too fast for the duo. A cloud of ash was left after the impact with the two white clad people.
The air temperature rose dramatically for instance as a result of the act. Gwen looked down; she did not pack too much mana into that attack because she wanted to conserve her mana supply.
For as large as her reserves are, she could not gather ambient mana from the environment; this universe used a different energy as its building blocks.
"Damn...you!" Gwen's heart nearly stopped as from the depths of the black smoke cloud the hunchback lashed out her hand and dissipated the cloud. She cleared away the cloud with her right as within her left was the burnt face man.
Currently unconscious.
"You...will...pay!" The hunchback was left unscathed by her attack, but the back of the man looked like a fresher version of his face. Gwen could smell burnt flesh and nearly emptied her stomach.
The woman then turned her claws to herself! She smashed her clawed hand into her masked face, the fingers dug into her skull and the bones of her face shattered.
"Are you crazy?!" A blue mana tendril lashed out towards the woman, but a gust of wind and the disgusting green spiritual energy radiated out and stopped her tendril.
"Blight, Mal Final!" A gurgled voice came from her throat as her spiritual energy rose Gwen created a bubble around herself.
'I think I might actually have to kill these guys.' Gwen felt sick not from her foes actions but the very thought she had killed was too much, her power was drawn from life taking life was like destroying her most cherished possesion.
The woman's body elongated, her torso rose to the clouds, her arms became as long as some of the oldest trees of Earth. Her skull split into six segments and then flower petals constructed from muscle and grey matter. Her bottom half fell to the ground, her legs then twisted and entered the soil.
The forest began to rot and decay as her extended torso became similar as strong as oak, as bones enlarged and tore the scabbed flesh.
"Oh, now that's just wrong." Gwen felt sorry for the hunchback she's seen horror beyond what most could even comprehend. Hell she fought a beast straight out of Lovecraft in a war between ninja cultists and futuristic knights!
"RAAAAAHHH!!" A roar came from the flower that pointed towards the dark clouds: tornados, thunder, rain and twisted vegetation were born. The forest if not before then was now no longer able to be saved.
Then two twisters wrapped in lightning rushed towards her laced with killing intent, before she even spoke a syllable a blue light shined in front of her.
A tall man with dark hair and skin was in free fall, but before he struck the ground he pulled back his strange right arm and shouted:
"El Directo!" A shockwave filled with spiritual energy launched forward and then destroyed the incoming attack. Gwen then gasped not at the strength of the stranger, instead at the fact he was falling directly after.
"Oh no!" Her hand moved with pure instinct as she formed a mana disk which caught the stranger and levitated him up to her level. Using this technique felt weird when she did it with people she was not familiar with.
"Thanks. My name's Sato or Chad." The stranger or Chad said.
'He's not the talkative type I see.' Gwen commented internally she saw his manner of dress being a simple sweater with loose fitting jeans.
"Ok, you're going to need to change." Chad snapped his head back towards her then away again due to obvious embarrassment. Gwen grinded her teeth as she felt a vein on her head bulge out as the rain poured down.
"Not like that you idiot!" The young mage snapped her fingers then several small portals formed around the tall young man. Pieces of stone fell through, then they scurried about over Chad's body like insects and then broke apart. The young man now stood in armor of magical stone, neon blue sigils and glyphs line every inch of him.
His blue visor was set towards the vile tree before them, the young Sato felt power radiate through his body.
He looked at his right hand and wondered:
'Could I have defeated Captain Shunsui if I had this with me?' He casted away those thoughts as he asked his technical partner.
"Are you going to be okay?" Chad saw the woman break out into a wide smile.
"Oh, look at you so concerned about me. But... I promise you that you don't have to be concerned about me." Gwen slammed her fits together and then a wave of white sparks shrouded her body and her entire form changed.
Pale human flesh was replaced with star speckled dark matter; her auburn hair became as blue as the clearest seas and tangled and weaved like the tentacles of the eight legged animals that called it home.
Her modern clothing was replaced with purple and white robes protected by carapace-like armor shoulder pads, gauntlets, as well as her lower half.
"Now let's rock!" Gwen opened her hand to the sky and soon a portal the size of a stadium opened and then something seemed to exist.
"Oh." The less than chatty young man was shocked as he saw a massive shark-like creature exit the portal and then crash onto the destroyed forest. A torrent of water followed behind the beast and drowned out the now controlled vegetation of the evil. The creature had a transparent body with dark scales and three sets of eyes of varying colors.
The creature looked around and squinted and then spoke up.
"Eh? Where am I? Did I take a snooze on da' bad part of da' reverse again?" The shark spoke with an odd accent and seemed to not understand the situation.
"Hey Levi! Over here!" Gwen yelled at the shark-like creature, who turned and seemed quite pleased to notice the woman.
"Gweny, why'd ya' not tell me?" The shark then leaped up like a fish pointed its nose to the ground and dived in soon next to Sato and the mage the shark reappeared.
"Whatcha doin!?" The creature asked with baited anticipation. Gwen merely pointed at the giant tree-flower construct in the distance that manipulated the weather and the creature nodded then noticed the man in the stone armor.
"Oh, new guy! Nice to meet cha' name's Kelly." The creature's friendliness caught the stoic Sado off guard for a moment, before he responded.
"Sado or Chad, nice to meet you too." The young man gave an awkward wave as the shark began to focus and sensed something.
"Get down! She's going to blow!" The shark yelled as he then swallowed both Gwen and Chad. He was careful to keep them in his mouth, then he dived into the ground.
The odd form of plant life that was once Bruja gathered energy and from the environment funneled it into the flower atop of itself and launched a barrage of Ceros of immense power.
The impact of this attack could be felt at the other battlefields.
However the trio were safe as they moved underground, inside Kelly's mouth Gwen made a light source and could feel the confusion that came from her partner.
"That is Kelly's power, he's a very special type of spirit found in this place filled to the brim with mana, he can basically turn anything into a form of water for him to swim in. You don't have to worry about breathing in here though that armor has spell glyphs that will help with that." The two heard the sound of ruin taking place above them, and they knew that thanks to the monster's connection to nature it could vaguely sense their location.
"We just gotta hit it hard enough don't we?" He slammed his hands together to punctuate his point.