Misjudged Ability

Heat blistered and cracked at the walls. It hadn’t quite started to cause the wood to spontaneously combust, but it glowed red. The school seemed more likely to be engulfed in flames before it went up from the proximity with the way it grew out through the hallway.

Fumiko watched with a thick smirk across her face. Even disappointed it did give her something to do for a few brief moments of time. She just expected more out of the boy. Yet it seemed that she was going to have to look for a more worthy target.

“That should be more than enough to leave him nothing more than a black char.” The flames quickly cut out. Only tiny sparks remained blown around by the wind allowed to spin through the school.

“I overestimated your fire,” replied Haruo’s voice through the smoke.

She stepped back as surprise took her. “What?!” Through the clearing smoke and raining sparks rose Haruo. Steam rose off his upper body from where the flames licked his skin. His shirt completely burned away along with parts of his pants. Sweat covered his skin putting a soft glow around his sharply formed muscles.

Flames immediately leapt up into the air summoned by the tap of Fumiko’s staff to the floor. “I didn’t think you had it in you to mock someone, Mr. Stoic.” Her fire reached out to grab a hold of Haruo once more, throwing him within the pool of flames.

“I’m not mocking you,” he answered, as he walked out of the inferno with little effort. Some of the flames still trailed off him, but they largely couldn’t keep him down. “I’m merely stating a fact.”

“Bastard…” Fumiko bit her lip a little in annoyance as her expression quickly changed. He was proving to give her what she actually wanted. It was a surprise even though she asked for it.

A couple of his wolves appeared by his side larger than their normal selves, even for Haruo’s use. “I’ll have to thank you for reminding me of an important fact.”

“And what’s that?”

“Our physical bodies no longer have the same limitations. It’s hard to change the thoughts of how something will affect us.” It wasn’t something he forgot, but never fully appreciated. ‘I’m used to my body being tough from Katsu’s group. But it’s easy to forget this has given us significantly greater resistances to the elements. Fumiko’s fire only felt like a very hot summer day. I have to stop using my old expectations to evaluate the effects of powers on me. The only problem is that I don’t have a power scale to know the strength or how much of something I can take. This is a new learning experience…’

“So you’re tough.” Composure started to return to Fumiko. She knew well enough that it wasn’t going to end. There was still plenty left in her. “But don’t get cocky. I was just warming up. You haven’t seen me when I’m serious.” The flames around Fumiko suddenly turned blue.

Chapter 323 – Misjudged Ability

‘So this is the blue flame I’ve heard about in passing.’ Like with all things about Fumiko, he only had fragments of information on her powers. Seeing them in action gave him a lot better sense than any sort of talk or rumor could. ‘I recall one of the Titans mentioning it in passing, the little girl. Given how she talks about not being serious, I’m going to assume her blue flame is more powerful than her standard red flame. Scientifically it does make sense, though it surprises me that magic would follow any sort of logic or rules of science. The real question is how much more powerful is this blue flame?’ It wasn’t really something he wanted to test personally, but given their fight he knew eventually he would learn the hard way.

“Getting nervous already? I haven’t even attacked you yet,” she taunted. Fumiko could tell that she knocked some of the wind out of his sail. While Haruo didn’t really display confidence or arrogance on his face, there were slight hints that he had some assured position. It was hard to describe in no other way than it was a feeling that Fumiko had. Calling such a gut feeling came off as almost stupid if not ironic for Haruo lacked any signs of emotions.

Several magic circles grew out in the air while others popped up along the scarred surfaces of the walls. It was quickly another attempt to surround and kill Haruo. However, he had seen it already before from the first attempt she made on him. ‘Repeating herself is a weakness…she swings between straightforward and stealthy attacks…’ Sending his large wolves, nearly the height of him, they broke down the walls that channeled her magic.

Smashed to pieces, she had less points of attack and the reduced cast points left her overall attack with enough holes that he escaped. He did get a good look at her flames though. Unlike before, which just heated up the air a bit and scorched the walls, entire sections of the school immediately melted or just burst into flames from mere proximity.

He didn’t need it to touch him to know the difference. The moisture on his skin from sweating had been sucked away nearly instantly by the intense heat. ‘These blue flames are definitely on a completely different level of power than her red flames. This position is only further disadvantageous for me.’

Giving the signal, a rabbit jumped out of the ceiling falling down on Fumiko’s head. It scratched around on her face and distracted her, not able to notice the wolf smashing through from the adjacent classroom. Just as she crushed the spirit animal with her flame the wolf rammed into her side. “Damn you!” she yelled as she disappeared into a classroom with the sound of things breaking.

Haruo approached the new hole his animal made, seeing Fumiko outside on her back. Her flames were already on the move to deal with the wolf, but he ordered it back. ‘I know what my limits are thanks to my fight with the Atlantean Titan…I need to be careful on my usage against her. She can easily burn through all of my animals and leave me exhausted.’

Shutting out his sight on the classroom, he kept his attention focused on Fumiko as he walked out of the school. The torn up grounds of their school were far worse than he expected, but they served his needs. It was largely a flat area with only a few obstacles around. ‘She’ll have trouble with her tricks out here and I won’t be so easily surrounded or funneled where she wants. And ideally, we won’t damage the school much more fighting outside.’

Fumiko had already recovered from the rough assault and launched her blue flames back at Haruo as he came out of the hole in the wall of the school. He had to jump quickly out of the way just to clear the attack. Unfortunately, the classroom was less than lucky. It immediately exploded in blue light and smoke threw shards of debris in all directions.

He slowly came to his feet as debris bounced off him. ‘Guess the ideal is ruined now…’ Though worse was the fact that several of his animals were caught up in the blast. His mind started running through checks on everything he could still see through their eyes. ‘She do that intentionally to take some of my eyes away from me or that just an emotional response to my last move?’

“You really think that’s going to be enough?” mocked Fumiko. Tapping her staff against the earth, a strange ringing tone went out from the headpiece. The sound echoed and reverberated against itself without any surfaces to bounce off.

‘That staff…she’s been tapping it around frequently during the fight…why?’

Magic circles materialized in the air nearby Haruo. Things hadn’t changed, she just stopped being stealthy about her attacks. Haruo dove down to avoid the ones aimed at his head, while he had his animals dismantle the ones near the ground. ‘Would appear she no longer cares about hiding her tricks…’

“What, you thought getting me outside would put things in your favor? I’m just as mobile out here.”

‘Would seem she’s correct about that…’ Haruo returned to his feet to start moving again. Even while she talked, she didn’t stop putting up her next attack. There was little safety for Haruo. Though the open space gave him significantly more room for evading her.

He kept ahead of most of her attacks, though she continued to cut him off or anticipate his movements. It forced him to keep using his animals to destroy what magic circles he could to give him an opening. ‘The intensity of her attacks seems to have increased…was going outside the right move?’ Haruo didn’t really expect to be doubting his decision, not that it could be changed at the moment.

During his dodging and evading, he did everything he could to keep analyzing Fumiko’s attacks. As his wolf slashed through a circle, he noticed a fine thread of blue blowing through the air. It hadn’t been the first time he noticed it before. They had been hard to see, but he picked up on them throughout the area. ‘Are these connected? I don’t know how much magic follows logic with it being a fictional construct. So I’ve been trying to avoid assumptions, but it may actually be that simple. Trying won’t lose anything and it’ll help to give another answer.’

Haruo felt that a lot of the things that they did defied explanation. It seemed almost a waste of time to try to understand why or how they worked, especially since some existed purely because it was stated to be real. For his rational mind, it made it very difficult to reason with, but if he could apply logic to things then he could manage it.

Now that he looked for them, he could see the threads better. It almost seemed impossible now for him not to see them. They were everywhere. He knew what he was searching for. ‘There’s more than I realized. But I think this is the real path. Everywhere I look they are connected to the circles. Is this the way she controls and feeds them power?’ He felt his plan starting to have some footing.

His animals made their move cutting at the magic threads. Each of the circles cut shattered into particles nearly instantly. It gave him all the proof that he needed. ‘So she’s creating remotely placed circles by extending out her power through the threads of magic.’ He sort of ignored the rest about what the threads were or how they existed, since it was just facts that he had to accept.

“Getting a little smart for yourself, Haruo.”

‘She doesn’t seem bothered by the fact that I’ve hobbled part of her attacks. What is she planning now?’

“You’re continuing to underestimate what I can do.” New threads started to spread out from her shoulder on the side of her missing arm. They quickly began to gather and form multiple inlaid circles.

The new action made Haruo hesitate. He didn;t know what Fumiko was planning and thought attacking would be too risky. It was a complete unknown to him. ‘Is she trying to make an arm out of magic? Is that possible?’

“Allow me to start correcting that fatal thinking of yours, Haruo. Fire is not the only magic I have at my disposal!”

‘A new element? When did she get one?’

“I’ve been largely just toying with you, wondering if you actually have something to challenge me. After you survived, I thought you might have something. But that’s clearly been proving wrong. You’re just a one note fighter. You won’t survive in this new world for long without evolving!”

The magic finished coming together solidifying into a hard metal surface. It shone brightly a soft shade of blue from her flame. Reflections of blue danced around her new metal arm. “If my flames won’t burn you, then let’s see how resistant you are to metal.”

“Metal isn’t considered a magical element within fantasy literature.”

“I don’t make the rules, take it up with Yuki if you have a problem with the logic!” Fumiko slammed her metal hand down against the earth. It sank into the earth submerging partially. “You’re not going to want to be worrying about logic right now!”

Haruo felt a strange sensation under his feet. He didn’t know what to make from it. It felt like it was vibrating, like a quake, but it was too weak. When he looked over at the grinning Fumiko, he knew she made her attack. But he couldn’t see it. ‘Her hand…underground…’ He put it together a little too late.

Metal rods jumped out of the earth around him. He had already started to move, so they missed their initial targets on him. But they were armed with sharp points that pierced his skin. They only grazed his arm, but he felt the warmth of blood flowing down his left arm. ‘It’s fast and malleable…I’m going to have to be even more aware of her attacks if I expect to keep ahead.’

“Seems you can’t count.”

Her warning didn’t give him enough time to even question what she was talking about. The last metal rod jumped out of the earth, being the fifth one. It quickly pierced him through the chest with enough force to drag him back a little as blood sprayed through the air. The other metal rods jumped back into action to pierce a stunned Haruo.

“The only unique thing about you, your defense, is broken. This is it for you, Haruo.”