Chapter 5: Their First Battle Together!

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The continuation of the last chapter! Remember to comment what you think and like it if you like it!
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The sky cracked as soon as Tsubaki formed the barrier around them.

The Existence Barrier—as explained before—transforms the area around them into another similar dimension, a shadow of its former self. When the situation is under control, the user can dispel the barrier and return it to its proper dimension.

The barrier is also the perfect place to hide oneself from others as every other person can just pass through the barrier—where all the action is taking place—without even noticing what was going on as nothing is actually happening in reality.

There are rare cases, such as Yuki, who can somehow ignore such a barrier. But that is for another time and place.

The sky cracked apart. An object broke through the sky glass, the pieces falling apart and shattering into oblivion.

GRAAAH!

The deafening sounds of an otherworldly creature filled the air, making the students cover their ears. Tsubaki remained idle as they watched in awe, with Yuki in shock, to see a creature slithering out of the hole it created in the sky.

Wings black as night fluttered open, slicing the wind with its speed, and a body trying to get out of the hole as it struggled. Eventually, the ghoul released itself from its hole, revealing it to be some form of a bat with wings resembling a devil’s.

Tsubaki remained still. Touyo furrowed his eyes. It has been a while since he last met a ghoul, and he recalled the feeling of meeting his first one firmly within his mind.

The creature made its cry again which reverberated through the air. Touyo turned to Yuki to see how she is.

As he expected, she was shocked.

“W-What is that thing…? A monster?!” Yuki, despite her earlier excitement, trembled at the sight of the otherworldly creature staring right at them with its blue crystalline eyes.

She stepped back but found herself stumbling backward and fall right on her butt. She continued to tremble as she lay there in terror.

“Yuki, that’s a ghoul!” Touyo figured that he should inform Yuki of this phenomenon. “They come out and attack mages with magic, so we need to fight it!”

“And if you let it be,” Tsubaki added in. “It’ll come and eat you alive.”

“W-What?!”

“Tsubaki! Did you had to say it like that?!”

An angry vein formed on his forehead as Touyo admonished Tsubaki for her blunt response. Yuki became more terrified by the look of her widened eyes.

They noticed that the creature spread its wings wide, their length practically reaching to the roof’s edges.

It flapped its wings once and charged forward like a speeding missile, opening its mouth to reveal encircled fangs to aim at one of the magus there.

It turns out to be Yuki.

“Yuki!”

Touyo shouted after the ghoul aimed straight for Yuki, but she was left still from it coming closer. Touyo had no choice and lunged at Yuki, tackling her to the ground. They were barely grazed from the ghoul’s fangs as it swooped right beside them and flew back up in the air, the sounds of its wings flapping filled their ears.

“Yuki! Stay focused!” Touyo shouted to her as he stood up from their collision.

Yuki stood up on her butt, but her limbs were still trembling, “T-That’s… but that’s a monster! It’s going to kill us, isn’t it?!”

“That’s why we’re going to fight it and kill it ourselves!”

Touyo made his statement to the terrified Yuki, surprising her. Touyo stood up from the ground, both feet planted on the floor. He furrowed his brows at the creature who looked like it was mocking them from above as its mouth formed a giant smile, sounds of laughter could be heard emanating from it.

“That stupid thing is making fun of us! Come on, Yuki!”

Touyo became angered after a non-intelligent creature laughed at them. While Yuki remained on the floor, Touyo figured that he should be at the same level as the ghoul.

He lifted his hands and after focusing, his black broom appeared in a red puff of smoke. Going through the customs, he balanced on the broom after jumping onto it and flew upwards with his brows wrinkled and his teeth bearing.

Yuki watched in awe at how brave Touyo was to go after the creature by himself. Then, she moved her sight onto Tsubaki who remained idle in the air watching the fight.

“M-Master Tsubaki! Aren’t you going to kill it?!”

Yuki knew that as a master, she would have an easy job of defeating a creature like this. Tsubaki only turned back with a smile.

“It wouldn’t be much of a lesson if I did everything myself. Yuki, I know this is your first time, but you’re going to need to face one by yourself if you ever plan on becoming a great magical girl.”

Tsubaki moved her index finger and thumb to touch together to go along with her smile. However, it only made Yuki open her mouth.

“E-Eh?!”

Yuki was shocked, but it wasn’t as if she didn’t understand what she meant by that. The creature hanging over her head, her hands were still trembling to even consider fighting that monstrosity.

Flying up in the air, the cool wave of wind brush against him as he faced off against the flying bat that kept flapping its wings.

The bat snickered as Touyo got up, making him snarl. He could only do one thing which is to use his battle spells.

But he only knew of one.

“Fire!”

Lifting his hand, he activated the only spell he knew of to fight. The red magic circle appeared in front of his hand, where his arcana was channeled to it, and then fire spews forth in a projectile blaze at the bat.

The fire was heading towards the bat, but it evaded as soon as it was about to make contact. It flapped its wings which brought its small body to twirl around and head straight for Touyo.

“W-What?!”

His only attacking spell missing, his heart beat faster than before from the bat flying with its white fangs aimed at him.

His body instinctively moved the broom aside, making his own fluid movement as he barely evaded the ghoul’s tackle.

The strong gusts of its wings hit him hard, nearly making him wobble on his broom. But he quickly took control of the broom’s balance and aimed his glare at the ghoul that was making a round trip back to him.

“Not yet! Fire!”

He took on a straighter pose as his anger fueled his magic, causing his hand to burst forth another fire spell. However, rather than going straight at the ghoul, Touyo quickly flew back. He shot his fire directly below where he just was and right where the ghoul was heading towards next.

(So he picked out the spot where the ghoul was heading to next? Impressive…)

Tsubaki smiled as the fire from below headed straight towards the bat.

The fire approached the bat, and then, opening its mouth—

GRAAAH!

An ear-splitting screech resounded, causing Touyo’s ears to ache in pain. More importantly, the flame that was heading towards it dissipated from the airwave the mouth produced, rendering it useless.

In a quick succession, the bat flapped its wings once again and twirled around before it speeds right at Touyo who was too distracted by his aching ears.

A powerful impact hit him square on his torso. The bat, fortunately, did not open its mouth and instead tackled Touyo with its small body.

However, with the speed of its flight, the impact rendered Touyo to be stunned by the pain. He let a breath out of his afflicted stomach as his body flew away from the force of the tackle, making him fly outside the rails of the roof.

“T-Touyo!” Yuki ran up to the railings of the roof in horror to spot out Touyo who was free-falling to the ground alongside his broom.

On Touyo’s side, his body ached in pain. Contradictory to what he thought before, it didn’t hurt that badly. It was just that his stomach was aching from getting hit.

Alive and kicking, he bared through the pain and grabbed hold of the falling broom. With his right eye closed thanks to the wind pressure on his face, he gritted his teeth as he put his feet back on the broom, and willed it to move him upward.

The broom did as he commanded, and stopped falling midway.

“Whoo…”

Yuki, spectating the amazing save on his part, let out a sigh of relief as Touyo flew slowly back up to where the roof was.

In the meanwhile, Touyo glanced upwards. He gave a furious glare to the bat flapping its wings in the air, snickering to itself at his failure.

“B-Bastard…” Touyo couldn’t properly pronounce his words since his stomach was still hurting, but he could feel the hatred festering within it,. His glare could melt the ghoul right there.

Touyo showed anger, but to Yuki, he was having trouble since he could only use one magic spell.

“Yuki, facing a ghoul is usually a team effort. He can’t do it by himself.”

Yuki turned around to see Tsubaki floating harmlessly near her, a smile on her face as she put her hand underneath her chin like a cat in wonderland.

“B-But…”

Yuki understood what her master was saying. But after turning towards the ghoul, which in turn looked at her back with its sneering smile, it caused her body to freeze up and took step back.

The bat screeched loudly, proclaiming that it was coming after her next. It caused her to shiver.

“Are you planning on becoming its lunch, Yuki?” Tsubaki practically whispered in her ear as she shivered, similar to a temptress. “Would Magical Girl Miyuri cower like this when there’s someone needed to be saved?”

Then, something inside of Yuki split apart. Widening her eyes, she looked back at Touyo, the only person whom she has made friends with in class. Holding his stomach in pain, it was clear that he needed help.

Then, she turned to herself in her mind to see the image she holds deep in her heart more than anyone—Magical Girl Miyuri. Miyuri herself stood in front of her as Yuki was kneeling down, looking back at where Touyo was with furrowed eyes.

An expression that showed that she’s willing to sacrifice her life to save the people around her.

Yuki closed her eyes shut. She didn’t want to be so useless when compared to Miyuri. She wanted to be like her so much, yet she couldn’t even do the one thing Miyuri does best.

Furrowing her brows, she opened her eyes. Yuki spotted the ghoul coming after her with frightening speed.

“Yuki! Take cover!”

The ghoul flew in high speed towards Yuki. Touyo opened his mouth in horror as he shouted, but the pain turned out to be a lot worse than he originally thought as he held his stomach tightly to alleviate.

But after another closer look, Yuki faced the ghoul straight on with an unchanging furrowed look. In Touyo’s mind, she was different somehow.

She lifted both her hands, a surge of arcana flowed out of her as she now was unleashing all of her power rather than holding it back like Touyo said.

Why would she hold back against an enemy that hurt Touyo and nearly killed him? Having there’s no reason for mercy, Yuki let out all of her vast arcana. It fueled her hands and eventually created a vibrantly bright azure magic circle.

She steeled her gaze towards the monster.

“Get frozen!”

The magic circle glows brighter, and eventually, a vast torrent of air burst forth. The sound of the air chilling traveled everywhere, especially towards to the fast ghoul reaching towards her. The cold air hits the bat directly, unaware that she would be counter-attacking, and slowed it down.

Its speed was lowering, and its small round body slowed to the point of ice forming on it. Its wings that were flapping like mad were now just slow flaps as the base of its wings became frozen in ice.

Touyo couldn’t believe it if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. Yuki was freezing the ghoul instantly from the massive cold air she was emitting. It has to be so cold to the point of reaching in the negative hundred degrees.

But he couldn’t stay there and be mesmerized. He willed his broom forward which flew him right to where the ghoul was entering into the rooftop space.

Yuki stepped back as she still kept her cold air going at it as it was trying to reach to her. But thanks to its frozen body, it fell on the roof’s floor and became unable to even move a muscle.

The ghoul becoming frozen stiff, Touyo arrived in time for him to prepare his own spell.

“Fire!”

Touyo shouted, his hands put up straight and blasting another fire ball right at the ghoul.

The bat could only turn its beady crystalline eyes at the fire going at it, and it could not do a single thing about it.

A powerful explosion took place, the fire making contact with its frozen body and making it combust into flames.

The body burned within its blazing inferno, and the screech that followed along with it was ear-splitting at first, but soon it lowered its volume to the point of becoming silent.

The ghoul was no more.

The body burned away, and the only thing that remained was a small spherical object left behind as proof of its defeat.

“You… You did it…” Yuki slowly said as Touyo landed on the rooftop with ease, the scorched floor and the orb of the ghoul resting there in her sight.

“Nah, if it weren’t for you,” Touyo reinstated. “I couldn’t have caught it. That was awesome, Yuki!”

Touyo was truly honest when he said those words. If it weren’t for her, he would have been in serious trouble. Yuki could see the honesty in his eyes, getting her to smile bashfully.

“Good job, my adorable students!”

As if on cue, Tsubaki floated towards them. More specifically towards the small orb on the floor, and grabbed it within her dainty hands. Holding the orb up in the air, she held it in front of the very sun settling down to the sky, causing it to shine in its sparkling light.

“This is proof of your first fight, you two. I say this was a successful hunt.”

Tsubaki then pushed the orb into some kind of hole in space she created, something that caught both of her students’ attention as the orb disappeared from her hand.

“Hey, Master Tsubaki, what’s with that orb…?” Yuki tilted her head to see something so strange that she just put away into some extra-dimensional space.

“Ah, it’s something you get from defeating the ghoul,” Tsubaki explained as easily as she could.

“Oh! So it’s like a power source from where you’re from? Or is it like one of those items in games where you can sell it for money?”

Yuki only made assumptions, those of which Touyo believed was ridiculous, but Tsubaki only made a smirk.

“Something like that!”

It made Touyo widened his eyes.

“Then, you’re using us like we’re cash cows?!”

Touyo snapped as he scowled at his master, though Tsubaki took on that glare like it was from a little kitten.

“Hehe, you’re receiving lessons from me, aren’t you? You get stronger, and we get some cash in return. I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

“T-That’s…”

Touyo couldn’t honestly give any more arguments on that point since he actually believed that it was a good strategy.

“Well, that concludes our day! Good job, Black Witches!”

Tsubaki said as she released the barrier by snapping her fingers, once again making the two students feel the entire atmosphere change. They noticed that the scorched mark on the floor from before has disappeared, erasing any trace of the ghoul’s existence.

“Wow… that’s so cool! I wanna learn what you just did, Master Tsubaki!”

Yuki ran up to the floating Tsubaki with a sparkle in her eyes, once again leaving Touyo behind as he just let out another breath of exhaustion.

This was just another day for the Black Witches.