"Are you sure about what you're doing?" Saki asks the bat,
"I'm seriously doubting whether or not you really like Nyra..." The bat grumbles unhappily, "Stop being such a wussy... You won't even need to be around, the circles are gonna do all the work!"
Saki sighs in defeat, "Just don't set the entire forest ablaze, that'd be too much shit to explain."
The bat ignores her, as she takes over, turning the black hair white. "Alright..." She takes a small breath, placing one hand over the grassy soil, a pure white aura flows from her muscled arm and onto the grass.
The air around her contorts, little by little, a circle written in an unreadable language. In a matter of minutes, the circle is complete. While still in the same spot, she extends her hand and replicates the circle in a different spot.
She marks several more locations before exhaling, "Alright... This was slower than I'd like but it's done,"
The hair turns black as the bat relinquishes control to Saki. "This was slow!? It was like ten minutes!"
"Yes it was... Nobody needs ten minutes to set all of that up."
"I've seen Mages take twice longer for such an area."
"Then, they suck at making circles. Let's go to your spar now,"
"Right," Saki nods as she walks out of the forest and into the village. The sun has risen, warming the air. "... I might be late," She says with a sigh.
***
And late she is. Though, the distance between the forest and the village is not big, but the creepling pain forces her to take slow steps, extremely slow steps. Any action is just too painful to perform, she is lucky to be able to walk at that moment.
Organized in a circles on top of a hill are several figures— Humans, Beastmen, Dwarves, Elven—wearing leather armor. In the middle of that circle is a human girl barely one hundred and fifty-nine centimeters tall with long fan-like blonde pigtails.
"Alright, time to see how bad I'll do..." Saki thinks as she approaches the circle.
"Hmm... Oh! There she is!" A Dwarf with short brown hair and a long brown beard shouts, pointing toward Saki. Everyone turn their faces at her with a somewhat annoyed expression. "Geez, where were you!? You missed the entire training session!"
"Sorry, sorry, Darren. I was dealing with a few unexpected circumstances... But I'm here now."
"Unexpected circumstances? Pfff, I knew demons were liar but making excuses? You disappoint me, dear." The comment belongs to the human.
Saki rolls her eyes as she slips into the circle, grabbing a wooden spear off the hand of another trainee's hands. "Wipe that smirk off your face already, you midget."
"Hmph." The human girl's smirk grows wider, "Why don't you make me, demon?"
Saki takes a deep breath as she takes her stance, holding her spear forward with her two hands. The human grabs a spear out of a trainee's hand as well, resting her weapon on her shoulders
Darren the Dwarf positions himself to the front of the crowd. "Are you ready?" He inquires, raising a hand. When two participants nod, he violently launches his hand while shouting, "BEGIN!"
The human is first to make her move, she lunges forward fast, stabbing with her spear while still smirking. The attacks grazes Saki's side as she leans out of the way, but it gives her the opportunity to strike at the small girl, who launches herself back, avoiding the retaliation thrust.
Gritting her teeth to make sure not to grunt out loud. "... Yep, evasive maneuvers are also not an option, I'm a sitting duck."
Saki doesn't use spears usually, but her current predicament... Swords are out of the picture as they require movement she doesn't have access to. But the spear gives her chance—a small one—to fight back. Somewhat.
The human rushes back, this time with a swing instead of a thrust. Saki takes one step back and thrusts her spear, which the girl avoids easily. A subtle orange glow envelopes the spear's head as the human swings once more, but faster.
The increase in speed surprises Saki, "You motherf—" Her thought is interrupted by a strike to the jaw, carrying such strength that it sends her flying out of the circle, and into a tree, rendering her unconscious on impact.
***
"... To be expected," The Cloaked Woman remarks as she chows down popcorn.
"Well, you didn't explain her anything." The second Cloaked Woman says, "but I guess it's not your goal to simply empower her,"
"You're stating the obvious, batsy." The first says, "I don't need to explain something you already know,"
"No, not to me, but what about them?"
"Them? Oh, the viewers. I guess I could tell a little bit."
"No shit," The second woman shakes her head, taking the bucket of popcorn away.
"You better not finish it all!" The Cloaked Woman clears her throat. "So, I'm guessing some of you are wondering what's happening to silly ol'me. I opened all of her Mana channels at once. Usually, one is born with them, which skips the painful stage...
But I'm a special case. You see, demons don't have channels like elves or beastmen, their body is constantly filled with life force, and while it gives them to render Mana unusable for anyone around them, it also stops them casting spells."
The Cloaked Woman summons a bottle of soda and a glass. "It's a troublesome feature of demons, you could say. Technically angels as well, but I'll elaborate on them another time. This technique my younger self used is a fix to that, it modifies her current channel as well as digging a second set for later use.
That's all I'm telling you for now. Now back to the story."
***
"Ugh..." Saki grunts, opening her eyes. "What the hell happened?"
"You got knocked the fuck out! Sarla used her Aura,"
Saki lays on the grassy soil while gazing at the darkening sky, "Of course she did, that's not a surprise... One hit, though."
"Well, you slept through the entire day, but I guess the sky is already giving it away. Nyra came to check on you a few minutes. "
"Did she?" Saki chuckles, straightening herself up with a groan, using the tree as support. "Ain't she a sweetheart."
"Yeah," The bat agrees, then her tone becomes more serious, "why are you so distant? You care a lot about her, and that's not friendship."
"...Been a mercenary for the last five years, almost six. Most of whatever I got went to her, clothes, food, bills, school... And all of that came from low paying jobs. Can't ask for better since, you know, no magic, and for whatever fucking reason, anytime I get my hands on something that pays decently, something always—and I mean ALWAYS—go wrong.
So yeah, I think it's better she stays away from my cursed ass, even though I don't like that myself."
"Pfff..." The bat struggles to hold her laughter, "that's plain stupid!"
"... Whatever, gotta go to—"
BOOOOOOOOOMMMM
Just before Saki gets to finish her sentence, a massive explosion erupts below the hill, flames rise into the darkening sky. "Fuck!" Using the tree, she stands up and tries to run but, "Ack!" The pain refuses to let up, "OH FUCK OFF ALREADY!"
With a roar, she forces her legs to go faster despite feeling like they are going to shatter. Minutes later, she is standing into the street, stall burning and shops ruined. People can be seen dragging others out of the rubbles, the sudden explosion already made a lot of injured, but it is the least of their worries.
Tens of magic circles form overhead, "SHIT!" Saki exclaims as she hurries to help the injured, but before she can reach the two nearest to her, crystalline spears surge forward, impaling the two alongside many other, killing them on the spot.
Saki stands there, frozen but only for an instant. Her few years of experience as a mercenary kick in, prompting her to dodge a volley of a earthen spears from above. While she manages to avoid most, a lot more get lodged into her body.
"Argh!" Saki groans, the pain almost makes her black out as it is amplified by a hundredfold, but she manages to escape the volley by hiding into a building. "Fucking hell... It hurts like a bitch!"
She groans, ripping out the spears out of her torso, arms, shoulders and legs. Black blood flows out of the gaping holes, but besides making her slightly light headed, she is fine.
"That's demonic resilience for ya..." The bat comments, to which Saki rolls her eyes.
"As long as it's not the brain and the heart, I'll survive... Can you do something about it though? The pain still doesn't let up."
"That I can, stand still." The bat orders, white and gold magic circles appear over each hole as Mana pours into them. "... Gonna take a while, however."
"Eh, good enough I guess. Gotta find Nyra, and get the hell out of here..."
"Well, well, well... If it isn't the demon's friend," A voice Saki knows too well announces.
Saki peeks through a broken window to make sure the blood loss isn't playing tricks on her mind, and sure enough it does not. In the middle of the blazing street are two people, the one Saki lost to earlier today, "... Sarla and..."
Her heart sinks into her stomach as she recognizes who the other person is. A hundred and sixty-three meters woman with straight long, brown and blonde hair and long ears wearing a green dress.
"Ah shit!"
"... Nyra!"
Sarla walks slowly toward the half elf, a menacing grin on her lips and murderous eyes, "You know, I was actually looking for you. I needed something to bring that bitch out and you are that something!"
Sarla summons a magic circle near her shoulder, and shoots a crystalline spear that glow with a sickening orange and black.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!" The spells easily penetrates Nyra's shoulder as the human girl lifts her a meters from the ground.
Saki rushes out, her emotions getting the better of her. "LET HER GO!" She screams, hurling pieces of stone she took off the ground.
A clear aura forms around Sarla's face, and as soon as the piece of rubble hit it, it explodes into hundred of pieces. Sarla, clearly not amused, slams the half elf into Saki, and both into a collapsing building.