Childish Growth

Something was wrong. That became very clear quickly. Fumiko hesitated with her flame pulling back. The delay was enough for Glykeria to push back. An invisible force blasted Fumiko off Glykeria. She fell on her back a few meters away, still trying to understand what happened. ‘What was it that I saw?’ The sight of the blue hair originally seemed like something caused by the light of her blue fire, but she realized that wasn’t the case. Something changed.

Smoke surrounded the area around Glykeria, keeping her hidden. “I really hate waking up like this. So rude.” The tone in her voice had deepened a little. It was still very young, but the signs of the childish almost innocent carefree higher pitch disappeared completely. There was no happiness or innocence in the voice.

Standing back up, Fumiko stared into the smoke wondering what was going to come out of it. ‘Is this their true appearance?’

Glykeria’s figure appeared as a silhouette through the smoke initially. It hardly gave her a judge of her appearance. However, wind quickly blew away the hovering clouds to give a look at her face first. It became certain that she was no longer the same person. Blue hair stood out as the immediate clue, but her face wasn’t even the same as the child. She had a very thin and angular shape, almost harsh like her features were chipped away rather than smoothed out. Equally deep blue eyes matched with her short spiky hair.

The child was gone.

As she stepped out of the smoke, the missing child became clear. While certainly not an adult as Fumiko thought might appear, they were older than the nine year old. She appeared to be closer to a teenager, but probably still just a little younger. Extra height and the loss of the baby fat-like chubbiness pushed her age. She seemed more mature.

‘This isn’t the real one either, is it? What’s the point of hiding like this?’

Chapter 248 – Childish Growth

The new child brushed through her hair with her fingers, removing the last embers of Fumiko’s flame. “That burned a little, but I guess it’s really no less than I deserve.” A small toy appeared in her hand. It had a cute and child-like appearance that went in contrast with the villain’s new look in tight blue jeans and multi-layered shirts. The toy had a human shape dressed completely in black leather.

The toy jumped up her arm running the length up to her shoulder and leapt into the air. Using its tiny fists, it punched her in the head. “What’s the matter with you, you moron? You really are an idiot! What did you think you were doing? Getting caught like that! Stupid! Worthless! Worm!”

Fumiko wasn’t sure what to make of the sudden change. It seemed like she no longer had any control of her power, attacking her physically and verbally. ‘This is nothing like what I was dealing with before. What’s going on?’

“I am. Sorry.”

“Damn straight! You’re just going to screw up again!” The toy jumped into the air, hovering in front of her. “So I better handle this.”

The whole exchange left her off balance, but the hero quickly forced herself to prepare for the next attack. She didn’t notice it before, but she realized something that sank into her heart. ‘I hit her point blank with my strongest flame and she wasn’t even singed by it. How am I going to beat something that strong?’

Flying too quickly at Fumiko to react in time, the toy’s tiny fist landed the first hit. The blow to her stomach felt like a pile driver fired off. Saliva escaped her mouth as Fumiko flew backwards. She tumbled over a few times before sliding over the grass, eventually coming to a stop.

“Damn…that hurt…” she moaned, working to get herself to her feet. Far in the distance, she could see Glykeria. The girl was tiny, giving her a sense of how far she went. “Well I guess I’m at least outside of her Field for now. It’ll give me a little bit to figure out what to do about her.” However, it wasn’t accurate. The toy showed up in her face wielding a bat too long for it to hold realistically. “Can’t be—“ The bat cracked over her head, interrupting her and sending her tumbling off once more.

Face down in the dirt, Fumiko felt her head aching and pulsing in pain. Ringing still polluted her head making hearing almost impossible. “…damn…” She touched her temple where it struck her, feeling the slow stream of blood. Her eyesight was completely shot with everything being a blur. Dazed and blind, Fumiko started to stand up only to be knocked off her feet again.

Sliding over the ground, Fumiko felt the deep scraping from the earth into her back. ‘I can’t even defend myself…’ Everything seemed to be against her the moment the evil Glykeria changed.

Less dazed, recovery began to come to Fumiko, but not before the toy threw her around a few more times. She started to wonder how she remained alive. ‘I’m strong enough to survive, but not to fight back. I can’t let…’ Finally seeing straight again, Fumiko started to summon her magic, but the toy was too fast for her. She managed to catch the bat before it hit her and threw him down.

The toy down, Fumiko attempted to take it out again with her fire, but needed her hand for it. It meant the toy escaped before she finished the cast. The pattern repeated for her again and again in her attempts. ‘It’s too slow. Even when I try to factor in the time, I’m still unable to hit it. I need to find a way to speed up the casting time on the spell.’ Fumiko started forcibly altering her spells in ways to try to get the speed she needed, but it produced more failure than success. ‘Is there a way to cut out steps and still keep it together?’

All while Fumiko and Glykeria’s toy fought it out, the villain remained on the sideline too far away to even see the fight herself. She seemed to want to crawl away with the look on her face. A great pain fell upon her from all appearances. Yet she did nothing.

Fumiko in her failures, took advantage of one of the collapsing spells to detonate it when the toy reached her. It wasn’t a direct hit, but it was the only victory she had since the new girl showed up. Unfortunately, it also meant that she took the backlash from the blast.

On her back again with smoke trailing off her, Fumiko quickly learned it did nothing to really stop the toy. It landed several more blows on her before knocking her into another part of the Field.

Coughing, every part of her body hurt. She couldn’t remember any of her previous fights being so one-sided against her. ‘I’ve got to think of something!’ Fumiko pulled herself back up, knowing the annoying toy wouldn’t stop coming after her. The only thing keeping her alive was the toughness of her body, something she started to regret a little with her inability to do anything.

Foregoing magic, Fumiko did the only thing that made any sense at the moment. She struck out with her fist. It was a little awkward trying to fight something that was hardly more than ten centimeters. Her hand could crush it, if it were weaker. However, it gave her more ground than it had before. She was hardly a physical fighter, but it was the only thing she had left with her spells unable to finish.

The regained stance provided her some defense against the toy. She still missed more than hit anything. When she did hit, nothing really seemed to happen. It went flying, but returned immediately with no signs of damage. The power of Glykeria prevented it from taking any permanent damage.

‘If I can keep this up, maybe I can weave in my spells. It kept breaking my concentration before with how much I was being knocked around. But if I can keep on my feet like this, I should be able to split my tasks.’ Thin threads of magic started to move down her shoulder into her arm. The toy seemed to understand what it meant, its attacks increased in strength and intensity. Splitting her attention, left her more open than she expected. Fumiko couldn’t maintain her stance.

Knocked back, Fumiko struggled to keep from falling over. The sacred magic already started to disperse as she lost her focus. ‘It’s harder than I thought to do both at the same time, but it’s the only way it’s going to work!’ She charged back in for the toy grabbing for it.

Dancing around, the two exchanged strikes with Fumiko still less than successful. However, she was able to get more of her magic funneled into her spell before it broke. Each attempt worked a little better. She eventually managed to make it finally work, landing a flaming fist on the toy. It went bouncing around as a ball of fire.

Fumiko held out her hand, pleased with the results. ‘I’ve got a better feel for it now. I know where I can work it.’ The flame remained surrounding her hand. She didn’t plan to let it release, as she normally would have. It was her only weapon.

The toy was back like expected. However, now that she had the fire, the side of the fight turned against it. It couldn’t keep from burning frequently. Fumiko reached out taking a hold of it. The fire burned stronger with it in her hand. She looked back to where Glykeria remained the entire time. ‘I have to deal with her. The way things are going, I won’t be able to hold out and the same thing that happened to Saki will happen to me.’ Fumiko tightened her hand around the toy before winding up to pitch it back at Glykeria. ‘This far away, I doubt she’ll know what’s going on until it’s too late…’

As planned, the toy slammed into Glykeria’s head taking her off her feet. She fell back several meters to land on her back unmoving. Fumiko felt good about it. However, she wanted to be sure about it. While she ran the distance, she completed casting her divine spell, throwing out several fireballs on her motionless body.

Fumiko stopped a few meters away, waiting for the smoke to clear. The stop in the fight made her realize how much pain her body held back. She felt her legs wanting to give out. Panting heavily, the crushing sound of her heartbeat ran through her ears. It was so invisible to her before. Her body was screaming to her to stop. She was deaf to it. Completely absorbed by the fight. ‘Is it over now?’

Nothing so lucky as it being finished.

Initially, it was just the sound of something cracking. Probably just the earth, but it became more clear that it was caused by something rather than just the fire from Fumiko. The evil was still alive. It became a certainty. “I really hate this. It’s awful. Why can’t it all just end?” She surfaced from the clouds soon after, no more worse from the hit. In fact, she seemed perfectly healthy, untouched.

‘How is that possible?!’ Fumiko stared in confusion. She knew she hit her, but nothing happened. It didn’t make any sense.

“You idiot! You weren’t paying attention again. Dumbass!”

“Sorry. But you hit me.”

“Did you talk back? I’m doing all of your fighting for you. You pathetic sack of shit think you can speak to me?”

“I’m sorry. I was wrong.”

The toy floated away from Glykeria after the round of verbal abuse. It looked at Fumiko. “Getting a little cheeky there. That won’t be happening again.” Suddenly, three more toys appeared coming out from behind it. They all had different appearances, but remained the same cute-dark theme of the first.

‘More! Again… I could barely handle one of them!’ Fumiko didn’t really have time to complain as they all charged at her. They each had a different way to attack. The bat made its appearance again, but a box cutter also showed up, a swirling mass of light and shield too big for the toy.

The attacks came in almost too numerous for her to even see. Any sort of defense she had seemed pointless. Fumiko fell back once again. All of her gained ground disappeared quickly. ‘The constant flame is going to be the only way I stand any chance…’ She started her slow continuous cast while defending against the four toys. Even knocked down, she learned how to keep her progress. It took too long for her, but she succeeded with the spell. Yet it did little to improve her odds. They still outnumbered her and out flanked her.

Her options quickly started to shrink on her. The hero kept fueling the fire with her magic, but she didn’t know how long her body would hold out. Even amidst the fighting, she felt her fatigue creeping on her. ‘I can’t last like this…’ More magic arrays drew over her arm. The threads wove thicker around her arm as she pumped as much as she could into her arm. Flames from her hand grew back consuming her wrist and then forearm.

In the middle of the process, Fumiko realized what was happening. ‘This again?! Why is it happening now? I wanted it earlier, but it didn’t come. What am I missing?’ Finally, her entire arm became flame. The magic infused arm from her battle in the Atlantean camp returned. ‘I can use this, I remember what it can do!’ She channeled her blue flame into it immediately to strengthen the fire.

Fumiko immediately quick cast a fireball at the incoming toy. It blew up less than a meter from her face throwing smoke and debris over her. She leaned forward to see through the mess and find her next target. Rapidly firing her spells, the remaining three went down with little effort. However, more appeared to replace the lost ones, the numbers increased as well. She could only keep up the attack.

The spells were small, but she didn’t stop casting. It was almost too late when she saw the transparency in her arm starting to disappear. ‘It’s going away?! Did I over use it?’ Fumiko ground her teeth seeing that the toys took advantage of her hesitation. She fell back from their unison strike, collapsed on the ground panting heavily.

‘…dammit…I can’t hold back…’ The toys didn’t stop even with her on the ground. Fumiko tried to block with her flame arm, but it had no substance, a fact she forgot from the last fight. The toys went straight through to strike her chest. She coughed painfully, nearly certain she heard bones breaking. ‘I’ve got no defense like this. It’s purely an offensive spell…’ Fumiko directed a blast at her feet with more incoming. It kicked up enough clouds to give her a spare moment.

Leaping back to her feet, she prepared her arm to attack anything that came through the smoke. It didn’t take long for the first couple of toys to burst through and be shot down. However, no more came afterward. They all seemed to remain hidden. ‘What are they doing?’ Fumiko looked around trying to see if they wanted to flank her.

Nothing.

Then the smoke started to clear, revealing even greater numbers. Most of them looked the same to her, but it didn’t make any difference. ‘I’ll take them all out. They’re close enough.’ Fumiko had the advantage of her arm to increase the power of her spell quickly with almost no cast time needed. She could react sooner than they would know what happened.

A large blue swirling mass of fire grew from her hand. In less than a second, it reached critical mass. Flung at the toys, the sphere was ten times the size of any of the toys easily. Many of the toys moved around behind the speeding mass, but some remained still as though paralyzed in fear.

However, it wasn’t fear. It was a plan. Fumiko realized too late. All of the same type of toy remained behind, the one using the strange light. The flames slammed into the toys, but didn’t burn them. Rather, it seemed to be channeled through their hands guided by them. They stole her attack, but it didn’t end by negating the damage. It arched around coming back at her.

Fumiko was so surprised by the act that she couldn’t react in time. She barely moved before her magic was transformed into a massive wave of energy that engulfed her. “No!”

It was all over. Her body laid face forward in the dirt smoking painfully. Nothing wanted to move, nothing could move. She had lost.

“Please hear me, everyone! You must listen!”

‘…Yori…I must be dreaming or something if I’m hearing your voice…’

“Everyone please stop with the questions…I barely have any strength, just listen… I know the truth finally. I know what Ayumi’s goal is.”