A sequence of events, unprompted, happened without warning.
Ciel's eyes narrowed. Selvara's waist bent further, a raging bull in the making.
Her clench on the sheathed katana was firm. The other palm embraced the black sheath, near the metal guard that wrapped around the red grip.
And within the gaps between the blade and sheath, lightning surged-
As Selvara lunged with her blade shot forth.
Quia summoned her wing. Swish, and the feathery shield scattered away in two bloodied halves.
A gasp escaped Ciel, but the Witch's eyes snapped. Yet as they turned, they only met the cold gaze from Selvara.
The swordsman dug her sword into the water. It then flashed, and water erupted like a curtain between them.
Ciel's eyes, undeterred, only flickered right.
Her staff adjusted. Then fired.
And as the wall of water fell, it revealed to Ciel the calm Selvara, now with a burning red gap scathed onto her right shoulder.
The aura from the mana armament lingered, protecting her arm from being chopped clean off.
But Ciel had a more important observation.
'Was her body paralysed after that move?'
The rules of mana existed not just in formulas and instincts.
In the end, they were all manipulations against a 'biological phenomenon' inside that body.
Like blood cells, fluids, or even a sneeze, mana was naturally a part of us that could be exhausted.
'And Selvara was undergoing 'overheat' after using such a fast technique, which likely slowed her down.'
The analysis took Ciel a mere second, and Selvara didn't waste it.
Her figure disappeared in Ciel's vision. Then blinked alive as her foot almost stepped onto the shoreline-
Then a large paw intercepted her landing. It caved into her cheek, then flung her back into the river in a splash.
Selvara tumbled and recovered in the same motion, head reeling as blood trickled down her lips.
"Forget someone?"
Quia's low groan, as her knees shifted in the blood-red river, seethed in Ciel's ears.
Ciel caught a breath. The red stump returned to Quia's right arm again, pooling down to feed the river current a vile red.
The elf's breath had gone shallow. Her eyelids slumped yet held on stubbornly, as her left hand gripped into a tight, stubborn fist.
In a distance, Selvara blinked dazedly, then narrated as if impressed.
"Your summon tilted at the last moment, redirecting my strike to your useless right arm."
Moonlight cascaded down their skins, a serene light that gave grace to the grave scenario.
"Wrong," Quia chuckled. "It's me who redirected Stella's wing. Don't mix it up."
Her head held back, revealing a menacing glare.
"Stella's wing got chopped in half coz I'm weak."
The elf then pointed. "Your arm. I'm taking it in exchange."
Her threat merely tired Selvara.
If Ciel was the unpredictable force to prioritise killing, the elf was just a 'slightly more unnatural warrior' that could summon.
The elf's fighting style, mixing in martial arts with the summon's strike, was impressive but cut short by her own superior sword skill.
As such, Quia was not much of a threat but rather a 'capable' nuisance that could get through her mana armament defense.
"Let the next count, then."
And Selvara, against this opponent, loved to use a swift, boring strike to end it.
The catgirl sheathed her sword again.
"Quia-"
"Ciel."
The elf, despite trembling in rage and exhaustion, cast a firm glance behind as she shielded Ciel.
"Watch closely."
Ciel's lips pursed.
She regretted not giving proper support fire for Quia, but they could discuss all regrets later.
Rather, there was a much, much simpler puzzle she must solve.
'How could my moonblast reach her?'
She searched her skirt pocket. A clink echoed, and Ciel's mind realigned.
There were two tools at her disposal.
First, her prior experience as a monster.
Up until now, she had been treating moonblast as a 'System-given' ability, but not varying its application.
Then what if she could make her next strike more volatile?
Keeping her second tool, Ciel took out and bit down on the two crystals to enhance her first two strikes.
"Let the next count."
Ciel's confident voice drew a chuckle from Quia.
"Of course."
The elf narrowed her gaze. Selvara, as the aura retreated into her suit like tendrils, bent forward with an aggressive arc, accentuating her curve.
Lightning exploded. Her figure blurred.
But Quia's smirk remained. This time, no summon, no punch strike.
The elf's finger merely pointed down.
"Gust. Breath."
Every human on Lethandiel was limited to one Elemental mastery, and Quia's was
Yet how was the elf's body capable of Wind magic?
As Selvara's figure reappeared and struck at Quia's neck, the blade ended just short of the skin-
Before a wind blasted and grazed the catgirl's ear.
"Huh?"
And a deadpan gasp escaped the catgirl as her figure flew high up, her front facing the sky.
Before she could blink, Selvara's figure was ten feet above her enemies.
The spell circle, spinning before Quia's foot while hidden beneath the river's running water, was the answer to her predicament.
Quia's third and last summon, imbued and connected to the elf's body closely, was a being made of pure wind.
In other words, it was an elemental, one that could boost her other summons' speed, no less.
Ciel, unaware of what happened, raised her staff skyward.
Mana was mass. And her moonlight magic was the lightest of them all.
Yet its volatile nature made for a deadly weapon. Thus, Ciel wondered:
"What if I could compress it?"
Like particles of a bomb tightly squeezed together into a single ray-
She fired a thinner, more deadly moonblast.
This was an application that would have taken five years to learn for a mage, one so attuned to mana that even basic spells could kill a Queen.
But the monster inside Ciel was alive long enough to realise this feat.
And the blue ray of moonlight answered.
It met Selvara's shoulder straight on. Crunch, and it plucked away the left arm, now separated from the catgirl's aura.
Ciel smiled. The head from afar seemed small and distant compared to Selvara's broad shoulder, a perfect target for her first compressed Moonblast, more uncontrollable to aim than her normal one.
Even better, now Selvara couldn't use the earlier technique that required both of her functioning hands.
A visible wince came from Selvara as she bled.
As if mirroring Ciel's affirmation, the sheath failed Selvara as it released itself with a loose click, accompanying her clumsy fall.
Normally it would have ended there, but-
As Selvara descended chest-first, her neck tilted at a precise angle, aiming at Quia.
With a hand still clung to the grip, her teeth clenched onto the katana's blade.
'Don't tell me-'
Ciel shouted to Quia, who wore a victorious, bleeding grin.
"Quia! Dodg-"
Too late. Lightning exploded within Quia's mouth as Selvara's figure blurred.
And Quia's face turned grave.
"Crazy bastard-"
Her words were cut short with a swish.
Water rippled as Selvara landed and kneeled right behind Quia. Or what remained of her.
As the elf's waist slowly fell with a plop. Her legs, separated from her body, soon followed as it smashed into the river.
Ciel froze, her lips agape at the gruesome sight.
Then, she gritted her teeth.
Meanwhile, Selvara mustered up every last bit of strength, even as her feet gave out under the paralysis in the aftermath.
Rainbow spire arose behind her, announcing her success.
But the terrible state she was in demanded her attention more, having just used her mouth as a literal sheath.
Her tongue spilled a flood of blood. Her teeth were every bit shattered into bits and cracks, a fitting consequence of the intense friction just now.
But the mana armament sprang from her body stubbornly, as she let out a crazed chuckle.
Just as she was assured of her victory, however-
Her hearing, muddled after undergoing extreme pain, briefly heard a plop beside her.
Selvara's head turned. Even with her back exposed, her senses and mana armament remained intact, fully confident to guard against Ciel's strike.
But a scowl soon spread across her face as her eyes caught a glint of glass, thrown onto the running water just now.
'A mana potion?'
She thought belatedly.
Then, her exhausted face sprang alive urgently. But even as she tried to leap away, the blue ray caught the potion first, blasting Shire's last 'gift' into pieces.
And as both blues met-
A loud, familiar explosion boomed.