Chapter 89: Sparring Match with a Shadow.

Today marked the third day since the blood moon. It was also the day I was supposed to be meeting Éclair and that lesser magical girl she had taken in. I had the week off from work, so, time was running out to do what needed to be done.

A quick confirmation text was sent to Grim last night, regarding the magical girl from the blood moon. Her processing was going smoothly, and that she would be finished by the week’s end. When that happens, I’d have to work out how I was going to pay her and where she was going to live.

I had two ideas. First, I planned for her to stay in the warehouse, where I was currently living. Having turned the upper office into a living area, she could easily live here. Which put me in an awkward spot. I wasn’t inclined to stay here, and not just that, but the office was only outfitted for a single occupant.

I did not want to go back to my old apartment either, which meant, it was time to get a new place to live. With the combined bronze coins I had, from both the blood moon and what Grim had paid me for keeping her officers alive, I had more than enough to move.

Calls had to be made, and a place found. Hopefully somewhere safer, but not too expensive. Somewhere in one of the two residential districts. Last night, I had done some quick research and looked through the phone book to find a few places. Hopefully, when I get back from my training session with Éclair, I could get some calls in and start the process.

Now, as for paying my new employee. With me providing a place to stay, I just needed to pay her enough so that she could get food and build her own finances. After all, she won’t be paying rent. As for what I’ll be paying her for, well, her main job was going to be maintaining the production line. Filling containers with water, sticking them in the cold storage and refilling the containers when the water freezes up.

She was also going to be on top of making sure my surviving mannequins were properly juiced up with magical power and elevated, though, that added to my number of issues.

Before heading to sleep last night, I had put a mannequin into the charging circle, so that it could absorb magical energy. Despite having been charged overnight, the mannequin was nowhere near reaching its limit. Which boded ill for my grander plans…

Still, I headed out, grabbed a quick breakfast for myself, some groceries for Éclair and her new roommate, and arrived rather early. Both of them were prepared when I arrived, the lesser magical girl was ecstatic at the sight of proper food. Which was to be expected.

Together we left for the Wizard Gang base, and well…

It was a mess. Buildings were wrecked. Medical tents were scattered everywhere. Destroyed vehicles and weapons littered the grounds. Everyone in some form or another sported wounds of varying severity. The roads were covered in claw marks, filled with craters from explosions or whatever else. The air was still acrid, thick with the smell of gunpowder and blood. Even then, everyone moved with purpose, smiles on their faces as they cheered for having survived another blood moon.

“Is it always like this?” I had to ask our escort, a familiar face.

“Just about. The lower quarter has a lot of entrances into the city depths. Monsters tend to congregate at the edges of the district, and when a blood moon comes out, we tend to be the hardest hit.”

“That sounds difficult.”

“It is, but… it means we have plenty of access to coins and materials. Which is why we can even hold down this fort. Well, that and that we have some really strong members that help hold the line.”

I nodded along and expressed my admiration while keeping my eye out. Shortly after entering the main base, we headed to a destination I often saw but never approached. The stadium. It was half-built. Almost like, no, exactly like an abandoned building project.

The underground portion of the stadium had been expanded into a network of gyms and sparring areas. With the main floor of the stadium being set aside for advertised matches between members of the gang. There was nobody in the stands for the time being, with the main floor filled with people doing light sparring.

We avoided the main area, though we did pass by it. Eventually we reached a secluded sparring area, one that Éclair seemed to have set aside for her own personal use. It wasn’t hard to imagine that Éclair must have taken part in the official matches since she arrived. Making quite the spectacle in the process.

“Alright, so this is our sparring room. The floor is reinforced magically, and it should self-repair, to an extent. It has a decent size and well, it’s alright for the kind of sparring I expect to happen today. So, both of you transform and take up position.” Éclair announced. “and keep in min everything I told you yesterday.”

I took heed of her words, but instead of immediately transforming, I went ahead and took my position first, giving me the chance to witness the other magical girl’s transformation. Her body began to blacken, chip away and drift into the wind. Scattering and fading, until the motes of her being began to weave and bend, linking together into threads that came back to their origin. Slowly, the threads of darkness twined and reformed her, with a few flourishes, the darkness came into form revealing her uniform.

First… she had ears. A tail. Like a cat, or perhaps a panther. Sleek and black. Twitching and moving like real limbs. She got down on all fours and did a full body stretch. The clothing, she wore rippled as if alive shifting and changing. Revealing her lithe form. With a snap of her fingers, clawed weapons appeared in her hands, wicked, curved, and glittering white.

“Well, you going to change?” The girl asked, with a clack of her claws.

Without response, I went through my own transformation. With a spin, a clack of my heels and stamp, I was now in uniform. With a snap, a crack, a gun formed in my hands. She eyed my rifle and considered.

“Do you need a moment?”

I considered that and reached for the satchel on my belt. Inside, a clip of standard bullets awaited me. I slammed it in and chambered a round. “My satchel produces bullets for me.” I said, and without experimentation I knew it was true. My satchel produced rounds up to a point, with a thought I could change what kind of rounds are made, if they are singular or on a clip. On top of that, I could even choose what goes on a clip individually, the order, the type, everything. Though, there was a negligible draw of magic to maintain the effect.

However, just having my uniform up was… exhausting. I could feel my magic burning away, almost like I was running a sports car at full power.

“Best get started!” Éclair announced and the lesser magical girl moved first. One second she was before me, the next she was gone. Even then, I felt something. The frost hanging in the air, the curtain of rime felt a disturbance, a shift.

I moved, narrowly dodging a clawed hand that shot for my side, with a twirl, my rifle butt surged for the girl’s body, but with a twist, her body once again dispersed, resulting in my rifle hitting a cloud of darkness.

Then it happened again, a disturbance in the rime, another shift, another whiff. She kept coming at odd angles, literally surging out of shadows and darkness. With every attempt, her movements grew sharper. Her claws scratched thin lines on my body, cutting through my uniform and skin with ease.

It quickly became apparent I wasn’t getting anywhere. I could just barely avoid her attacks in time, and she came at every possible angle with no rhyme nor reason. I only moved in time with her movements due to the heads up I received from my cloud of frost. Every second, my magical energy was being burned. I had to do something, if not, I would lose.

With another failed strike, I grit my teeth and made a change. The moment I felt my rime shiver, I snapped my fingers. I felt it, heard it, as the rime exploded into crystals of frost. A pained grunt was all the answer I needed as my rifle swung, crashing into her ribs with a crack, and sent her flying. Without hesitation, I aimed and fired a round towards where she went.

She hit the ground with a roll, pushed herself back, just before the bullet soared into where she had just been. Frost covered her, and it seemed to be preventing her from just surging back into the darkness. But, with a thought, the frost melted away from her body, like she was shedding her skin, and before I could react, she was once again gone and once again back on me.

In my peripheral vision, I saw Éclair watching with a small smile. Hammer out and ready, to intervene if needed… or at least, I hoped.

I felt the rime vibrate again, and again I snapped, but this time, she avoided the explosion. She moved within the cloud giving me perfect, almost omnipotent awareness of where she was. My rifle surged out, a glittering bayonet forming at the end. It slashed at her, but her form grew hazy, the blade slid through her being, yet, it was odd, I felt like the blade had cut through something, like a cloth.

“Silver, really?” The girl hissed. Her hazy form stitched itself back together, she looked fine, but I could tell, it had done something. She surged forward, but wherever my silver bayonet pointed she moved to avoid, even when she dived and struck, she made sure to keep clear of my bayonet.

She was constantly hovering at the edge of my curtain of rime. Like a hungering wolf, or a prowling cat. Waiting for chances to strike, to cut lines along my body.

The problem was, she was outranging me. She was in a frustrating place, just close enough that I couldn’t reliably shoot at her without opening myself to an attack and just far enough that I couldn’t just smack or stab her.

I needed an answer.

An answer came to me, I swept out, more out of frustration than with an actual plan. I imagined the blade going further out, stretching according to my will. The blade itself didn’t stretch, but the rime responded, forming into a blade, and cut into her, leaving a bloody gash.

“Really!?” She shouted in growing annoyance, the wound, covered in frost prevented her from vanishing, giving me the chance to dash forward while shooting and go in for a thrust of my bayonet. It took a few moments as I put her on the backfoot before her wound sloughed away, along with the frost once again allowing her to fade away.

She came again, but I began to experiment. The rime responded to my will. A wall, a push manifested punching into her shadow’s form, forcing her into a corporeal state. Spears formed with a few jabs, forcing her to dodge and weave through them.

The rime responded to my will, acted according to my will…

Only…

It was atrociously expensive. Already, my energy was running low. Each attempt drained huge portions of my energy. It wasn’t cost effective. Not only that, but using my rime exhausted it, making the area it covered smaller and smaller. It felt like I was winning though. In fact, despite the atrocious cost, I was whittling the other girl down. Little by little, I would come out on top.

I could see that realization dawn on her, she gnashed her teeth in frustration. I could hear them grinding as she took her distance.

“You should stop holding back.” Éclair called out. “She maybe a newbie, but she is talented.” Hearing Éclair say that, well, it felt good, but also… was she holding back?

The answer was, most definitely. With an animalistic growl, the darkness surrounding her surged and rumbled. Her claws elongated. Growing into long, wicked sickles that gleamed. She moved, but less like she had been, and her form blurred, turning into a literal storm of white slashes, a very literal blender of death.

I moved, but I was a tad slow, her form screamed past, numerous cuts crashed into my side, leaving bloodless gashes that revealed bone. Pain didn’t stop me. No, I felt it, but I felt something else surge and bubble. She vanished again, dispersing into nothing, I felt her come from below as I leapt away, a white maw, filled with whirring teeth surged past, shearing off my right leg, just below the knee, leaving a bloody mist in its wake. The additional wounds made that bubbling intensify. My heart began to beat, my ice-cold blood began to warm.

A blade formed at the bottom of my one foot. I crashed down, the silver blade cut through the floor with ease, giving me the speed I needed. Just where I landed, she came again, like a living beast made of shadow. With a spin, I adjusted my center of gravity, pointed my rifle and shot. The world slowed as I dumped what I could in, The bullets, for the most part slammed into the white claws, shattering and breaking apart with little effect. Those that hit the darkness exploded into frost, making the beast wince in anger and hatred.

Underneath it all, I could see her eyes gleaming blood-red.

She came at me with all she had. I loaded new bullets, they sang high and low. Bursting, eating into her form. More wounds found themselves on my body, my skate slicing through the floor as I danced and moved through her strikes.

It felt right, the rhythm, the rhyme. As more of my rime filled the room, the more my movements sharpened, the less I was hit…

However…

Just in the midst, as the scales began to shift in my favor. I felt it. A sputter. A cough. Like an engine out of fuel. Gasping for its last breath. My uniform began to glitter and fade. Breaking apart like ice. Along with it, the blade on my boot cracked apart like brittle glass sending me to the floor.

I hit the ground. Panting. Gasping for air. I felt completely and wholly wrung out. I tried to stand, getting on my knees…

Knees?

I looked down. My missing leg was back. Though, it felt odd. No, moreso, I felt something else. Like something was missing, something vital. I tried to reach for my uniform, for that sensation, but it was locked away, unreachable.

“Good work!” Éclair’s shout broke me out of my fugue. “I have to say, you have an interesting combination.”

“It’s a pain is what it is, no offense.” The lesser magical girl said.

“None taken, I say with a rasp. As I stand up, Éclair tosses me a water bottle, which I catch. “Thank you.” I down the whole thing with a series of chugs. Only stopping to breathe once done. I tried to parse everything together, but it all happened so fast. It felt like we had fought for ages, but in reality, it had only been a minute or so…

“You good?” Éclair asks. I think.

“Yeah… I’m good.”

“So, watching you fight has been enlightening.” Éclair said. “First, we need to work on your efficiency. Your wasting way too much energy.”

I nodded along, I knew she was right. My mileage wasn’t great. I had so much power flowing through me, that I didn’t know how to properly wrangle it.

“You also seem to be a hybrid type.”

“Hybrid?”

“Yeah, so, magical girl’s uniforms come in various classifications. Not all magical girls are the same after all. They can be divided according to video game terms, like tank, damage dealer, supporter, and such.”

“Honestly, I’ve never really played games, so I don’t know what those mean. Though, I have heard the terms before.”

Éclair looked at me with a mix of astonishment and what must have been pity. “Well, maybe I can introduce you to them someday, for now… you can consider tanks as frontliners. They take damage and are good at mitigating damage. Damage dealers are good at taking targets out, though they tend to die if something gives them an odd look. Supporters are good at supporting the party, like healing, or strengthening, but tend to be bad at taking damage or dealing damage.

“And what exactly am I?”

“I would say you’re a tank, with a bit of support. Though, that is just a guess. That cloud of yours, the rime, you probably didn’t notice, but it was accumulating on you, further strengthening your defense.”

Did it?

“It seems like a passive kind of aura buff, but that would need more testing. If possible, I’d like you to bring a familiar or two with you next time we spar. So I can have more data to work with.”

“I can do that.” I said, my rapidly beating heart slowing. Also, only now did I realize just how soaked in sweat I was. “Are we going again?”

“Probably not, you lost your leg, so it’ll take some time for your uniform to get back up. We’ll probably have to stop here today with the spars.”

“Then, can I take a quick shower or something before we continue?”

“I’d like that too.” The magical girl said, she too was covered in sweat, but unlike me, she didn’t look like she ran a marathon, only that she had gone through a good warmup.

“Yeah, you can do that and we’ll reconvene. I don’t suppose either of you brought a change of clothes?” Éclair asks us, and we shake our head. “I’ll see if I can find any… Mm… meanwhile, you two hit the showers.”

The lesser magical girl led the way to the showers, they weren’t busy. It was a typical shower room found in a gym, with shower stalls and all in an open area. We both stripped, neither of us spoke, but as the hot water ran over my body, easing my tensed muscles, I spoke.

“Say, how about Nyx.”

“Yeah?” The girl said from the neighboring stall.

“For your name. I keep calling you, magical girl, or lesser magical girl and honestly, it’s getting rather annoying.”

“Heh, I get ya, though, Nyx, huh, what’s it mean?”

“It was the name of a Greek goddess, I believe. A goddess of night. It seems fitting.” Even now, I remember how she became a beast of primordial darkness.

“Mm… I like it. Why not.”

“Well, it was a pleasure sparring with you Nyx.”

“And you too Prima, though… You really are a pain.”

“How so?”

“Your tanky, for one. If you didn’t realize, I am classified as a hunting dog. Though, I’m not focused on strength, but agility. I’m good at maneuvering and getting out of trouble. My weapons are made to be incomparably sharp and get sharper when I focus my magic in them. Your uniform’s tough, as is your skin, but the ice that started to cover you was able to resist my blades to a degree, which is wild.”

She took a moment to sigh loudly.

“Then there was that frost mist. It kept nipping at me, making it hard to stay in my shadow form, your silver blade made it worse, and on top of that, your ability to blast me with magic and force me out of my shadow state. You really are the worst matchup for me. Let’s not mention how aware you were, and just how flexible you got as the fighting went. Though, how were you able to sense me?”

“The rime.” I answered easily. “I can sense through it.”

“Ugh, so unfair. Though, you’re not as broken as Éclair, frankly, I don’t even know why a monster like that’s here.”

I considered her words and thought. In a way, she was right. Why was Éclair here? Especially when she has stated that she doesn’t like staying in one place too long. Could there be more to it? Especially since, it sounds like she knows how to leave the city.

Occupied by those thoughts, gurgling in my mind like a boiling soup, I finished my shower in silence.