Chapter 53:

Strengths and Weaknesses

The Wind Calls the Flowers


I could see him taking a deep breath and exhaling it out a moment later. Why was he doing that? Could he be planning something? Maybe he’s planning to use his magic crystal now. If that is the case, then I know how to combat it. I think I got the general strength of the crystals down from the last people I fought.

I don’t want to waste too much magic power right now. I need to be able to conserve enough power in case I need it later, so for this attack I’ll just use the minimum power I need. I have to make sure I don’t kill him right away. I have to make sure he suffers for what he’s done.

I saw him aim his shot from across the room. Putting up a wall of ice, I prepared to stop his attack with a great defense. The ice wall was at least 60 centimeters thick, if not more. This should definitely be enough to stop his attack. With this amount of magic, it should stop even two of the attacks I had seen before.

I could no longer see him, but I was quite sure he was still planning to shoot. It would be a little disappointing not being able to see his fearful face after he sees his failure. But at least I’ll get to see the remains of it after I have blocked it. Hopefully it’s as pleasant as I imagine it to be.

Finally I heard the noise of the shot from the odd weapon and waited in anticipation to let the wall down. However, as it hit my perfect wall, I watched as it burst open in front of me, launching me away. The entirety of the wall collapsed, spreading ice shards and mist into the air.

Landing on my feet and using wind magic to steady myself from falling over, I slid backwards until all my momentum had stopped. While I wasn’t really injured from the blast, it had caught me off guard. This attack was way stronger than the other ones I had seen. This might have been because of the ring. How could he use Fae against me?

What was worse was that now there was dust all over the room. During that explosion, part of the roof had caved in causing dust to rise from the debris. Now there was no visibility in the room and I couldn’t tell where Hibiki had gone. Where was he? I’m going to kill him for this.

I heard the familiar noise of the weapon again shooting off multiple times, each time being spaced apart. I couldn’t see what he was firing at, but in all likelihood it was me. With all this dust it would be impossible for me to dodge in time.

I’ll just have to blow all of this away with wind magic so that I don’t get caught off guard anymore. With a quick gust of wind I removed the distraction from my vicinity so that I could see better. But reaching right into the side of my face was the end of his strange weapon.

Seeing he was about to fire it off, I quickly attempted to dodge by letting myself fall backwards to avoid the shot. However, I wasn’t fast enough and it fired at an angle where it hit my left eye, destroying it completely.

“Damn you!” I cried out at the pain as I hit the ground.



“I’m going to end this right here and now!” I called out to her as I brought my gun towards her body.

I had done it! Using the strength of the explosion, I was able to create enough dust and debris to distract her. If I shot randomly into the dust, there was a chance I would hit her. But relying on chance wasn’t going to be my best bet. The dust idea at least had the benefit of scaring her into using wind magic.

In that time I was able to close the gap I had between her and was able to get a proper shot on. As soon as she used wind magic, victory was mine. With this final shot I should be able to finish it. I took my aim as she writhed in pain from the bullet on the ground and cursed my name.

As I went to pull the trigger, a burst of flames emerged from her. Seeing as I had lost the opportunity to shoot, I quickly jumped back in an attempt to avoid being burned to cinders. I wasn’t able to get back with fast enough reactions and had burns all over my body. The pain made it more and more difficult to move as they were slowly cooled by the air.

She still had fire magic! Damn it! If I knew that I could’ve accounted for it, but now I’ve lost my chance. I can’t even see her anymore, that’s how much fire was surrounding her. Even at this distance I could still feel the heat.

With that kind of heat there was no chance my shots were going to get through. I could go for another shot using the magic crystal but the barrel of my gun was still hot. The next one might fail and kill me instead.

The flames began disappearing and in their place stood Celestia who had managed to stop the bleeding from my shot, but she hadn’t been able to repair her eye. I wonder why she didn’t go and repair it right away. Could it be that she was worried I could have taken the shot through her fire and got her during that time?

It was an accurate thing to be afraid of, but if she had more knowledge about how this rifle worked, this wouldn’t have happened. In that way I guess I had been slightly lucky to have avoided her being fully healed after all the work I had put in. But now I’ll have to think of more plans to get more hits on her.

There was no simple way I could go about it. I knew that she had five different magic types at her disposal and an indescribable mastery and power to go along with each of them. This meant I was once again at a disadvantage. At the very least my rifle was cooling down so I could finally start using it once again.

I knew one more thing which had caused me to be slightly mad. I could tell she was holding back on her power. She wasn’t aiming to kill me. it seemed most of her attacks had been aimed to hurt me. Could this be mercy? No way. This was the Mad Mage that I was fighting. In reality it was more likely that she wanted to take her time killing me.

But right now she has a certain look on her face. It’s one filled with rage rather than cockiness like when we had first started this battle. It seems I had managed to anger her enough to want to kill me. I could tell from the way she was grinding her teeth and the intense glint in her eyes.

The roof had been cleared and I could see that the crimson sky was starting to fade to black. My clothing would be coming in handy soon. I’d be able to avoid her attacks easier, but the only issue was that she could light up the area easily now that I knew she had fire magic.

Still, hopefully I enraged her enough for her to stop thinking clearly. If that was the case, then maybe I’d be able to avoid the worst situation. However, if she wanted me dead that badly now, she’d probably also start mixing in all her magic together. Even if she didn’t intend to, she would light up the area with fire magic regardless.



“I’ll kill you!” I screamed out in fury at Hibiki.

“You’re welcome to try, but by the looks of it, it doesn't seem like you'll succeed.” He responded.

“You insolent worm!” I respond to his goading.

I can’t get too angry at him. If I do that then my magic will become more and more lazy and I’ll make more mistakes. With my injury I can no longer afford to make anymore mistakes. This time I’ll dispose of him for good. I can’t go easy on him anymore, my lack of knowledge for his tricks were far too great of a disadvantage.

With a flash, a bolt of lightning struck right next to him, barely missing. The sight of this caused him to take a step back in fear. His reaction wasn't bad, but lightning was still too fast for even him. I had slightly misaimed this time for some reason, but I wouldn’t be missing again.

He quickly took off, trying his best to avoid any possible strike which would hit him. I knew that if I tried to hit him with a strike right now it would likely miss and I would waste what was now precious energy. With this knowledge I’ll have to use other magic to back him into a corner.

Right now the glow which I had once admired would take too long to show up. I needed to prioritize efficiency, anything else would be a waste of my currently dwindling stamina. Fighting all day has left me exhausted and all his tricks were starting to pile up.

He aimed his strange bow for me once again, this time I saw him tap the crystal ahead of time. This was likely how they activated the power of the gem. This time I knew of the power he was about to unleash, but I also knew blocking it would be a great waste of energy. However, if it was to make contact with the walls or floor, he could destroy this whole place.

If he was to do that, then there’s a chance I could die from a surprise attack or something of that nature. Not to mention even if I survive and make my way to the bottom of the castle, there was always a possibility that more of his members were waiting down there for me. If they were there, it would only serve to be more of an issue.

The only real option I had was to block it. Right now I wished I had bothered to learn water magic, that way I could easily extinguish his shot before it ever reached me. But for now I’ll just have to make do with wind.

As he fired off his shot, I summoned forth a great wind to compete against the force of the blast. The wind roared loudly, echoing around the continent. The noise of the wind and the projectile clashing against one another must have made such a great sound it might have been heard all around the world.

The projectile imploded and using the great wind I pushed the force of the explosion out of the damaged roof so that its blast could be contained. I needed to stop him before he could use that again. He was getting harder to see now. Where did he go?



It seems she can’t see where I went. That shot was able to distract her long enough for me to go into hiding. Using the shadows I should be able to sneak up on her undetected. With this I can hopefully get a finishing blow on her.

I watched as she frantically looked around for me. It seemed my assessment of the situation was correct then, I had made her mad enough to forget to use fire magic. This may be my last chance to get the drop on her before she starts unleashing magic like crazy. When she starts doing that, then that means my previous thought about her accidentally using fire magic would be proven true.

Using the moment where she wasn’t looking in my direction, I quietly snuck around, keeping my presence hidden from her. She had started pacing around trying to get a better view, but by the time she started doing that, I had already gotten out of the area she was viewing. She stopped pacing after being unable to find me.

Her face still showed signs of worry at my disappearance. She was currently on guard which would make this maneuver far more risky. But since she was so wound up as well, it meant that if I threw something in a completely different direction it would divert her attention long enough for me to get my attack off.

Good thing there was a ton of debris for me to use. Picking up a fairly small stone beside me, I prepared to throw it.

As she started to relax her shoulders ever so slightly, I sent the stone flying towards a corner not in her immediate gaze. Hearing the noise of the stone connecting with the floor, she quickly diverted her attention towards where the sound had come from. Taking this opportunity, I ran up behind her, ready to plunge the knife at the end of my gun in her back.

As I reached out to deliver the final blow, I saw as my left forearm separated from my body and fell behind where I was running. Wha-what happened! As the blood came spewing out of my opened wound, Celestia turned around with what seemed to be a fireball in her hand.

Thinking quickly, I directed my stump to her, causing the blood to go flying out in her direction. Reacting quickly, the fireball disappeared from her hand and instead a great wind blew away the blood from connecting with her. Using that time I was able to get away from her.



“You really thought you could get the drop on me again! No more sneak attacks.” I held my victory in that situation over his head.

“I’ll make you pay for that!” He replied, still bleeding from my attack.

To think the so-called ‘demon’ would decide to use another surprise attack. After the first one, I made sure I would be aware of surprise attacks. When I used that wind to stop his initial attack, that was the perfect opportunity to lay my trap.

With the wind at my disposal I was able to tell when someone or something would disrupt the wind around me. Using that, it was easy for me to tell when he would attack me. After that, it was just a matter of hitting him. I didn’t think he’d be desperate enough to use his own blood against me, however.

Taking this opportunity, I quickly shot fireballs at him. All of them were missing, and he wasn’t even moving that fast anymore. What was going on? My aim was just far worse than it was before and compared to what it normally was.

Putting the pieces together, I realized my vision was off. When I was shooting before I had both my eyes, but now with only one, my depth perception was entirely off. There was no way I could possibly hit him from afar now!

Shoot, what do I do now? The best I could do was use attacks which would cover a larger area, but that would waste even more stamina now. Whatever, I have no choice but to do that then. Wait, what was he doing?

I watched as Hibiki took the end of his weapon and heated it using one of my missed shots. Heating it until it turned red, he finally pulled it out of the fire. Was he planning to throw it at me and burn me? But at this distance, what was he possibly trying to do? I watched as he brought it to the missing section of his arm and burned the area, stopping the blood.

“AAAAAA!” He screamed out in pain.

The sight even made me shudder a little. I had heard of this technique for closing wounds but I had never seen it be used before. I always had healing magic when there were these types of issues.

I didn’t have time to be in shock however, I had to get on with my attack before he recovered any more. Raising both my hands, I knew I required them to pull something like this off. Around Hibiki formed three ice domes, each being progressively bigger than the other.

Using my other hand, I used fire magic inside the domes. This should ensure that he burns and doesn’t have time to get away. I’ll just need to wait a minute to make sure he’s actually dead.



Damn it! I’m completely trapped and missing an arm. She caught me off guard for sure and what’s worse is that these flames are gonna burn me to ash. How did she manage to tell I was sneaking up behind her? Wait, I don’t have time to think about that. I’ll have to do something in order to get out of here before I melt.

I had to use the power of the crystal to break my way out, it was the only way. There was a chance that being in the range of the explosion could kill me, but if I didn’t do anything I would die either way. The least bit of solace I had was that the dome I was trapped in was at least fairly large so it increased my chance to survive by a bit.

Bringing the barrel of my gun against the ice to cool it down, I tapped the crystal in preparation. Aiming for the opposite side of where I was standing, I quickly fired off the gun before it could overheat again. As it made contact with the dome, the ice was destroyed, but the force of the blast launched me off my feet, sending me through the side of the dome and into the wall.

It hurt for sure, but at least I had made it out of there. But with all these wounds it didn’t look likely I could even try for another strategy. As the dust settled in front of me I could see Celestia was out of breath. That’s right, by now her ‘M’ must have started to deplete. Her stamina would be going as well.

The playing field wasn’t as uneven anymore as it originally was. With this I had a chance at winning. With this I had a chance at getting revenge for everyone!

“Are you…..suicidal or something? Who would…….use an attack…..like that...in there!” She spoke, breathing heavily in between.

“It was *cough* the only way.” I responded.



“I’m…



...going…



...to…



“...kill…



...you!” We spoke in unison.

Taylor Victoria
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