Waking Mind

A heavy atmosphere pervaded the plains of a late Atlantean morning. The sense of imminent danger almost felt like it created an audible deep thud across the entire battlefield. Lines already drew up with Yuki, Yori’s sister and Seiji isolated from the others. Surrounded by soldiers, with no intention of being merciful, they forced their friends to face their immediate problem. No aid would be coming.

While the others stood on edge with unease about their situation, Chiharu glanced around lazily noting all of the soldiers. ‘All of these soldiers are just normal humans. The special ones divided up the weaklings. A standard divide and conquer tactic, but the enemy doesn’t understand the capabilities of those that they’ve surrounded.’ She had seen enough of Saki’s strength to know that the soldiers stood no chance. A sense of annoyance for being taken as weak went buried by her, not wishing to admit to it. “This is boring,” Chiharu lightly commented, “There’s not anyone strong enough to hold my interest.” She stepped away from the circle before vanishing from sight.

Saki and Fumiko turned around only just realizing what she said. They were too late. Once five a moment before, they became four. Abandoned, Saki clinched her fist in frustration. “This isn’t about fighting strong opponents!” Slight movement from one soldier slammed her hair trigger. In an instant, the man laid on the ground and Saki back at her spot. She laid into all of them with a fierce stare making them hesitate.

Chapter 114 – Waking Mind

Arching through the air with dust trailing from the ends of her clothes, Yumi sped away uncontrollably. Her mind didn’t notice when she was reaching the edge of the Field generated by the woman and the weapons that attacked her disappeared. Even without the force, she was careening away from everyone. The cold blistering wind beat against her skin, chilling her. ‘…it bites deep…’ Her eyes refused to open. ‘What’s happening to me?’ Yumi was fighting to move, but found herself weighed down. ‘Why do I feel so numb?’

Sailing in the sky had to end, gravity saw to that fact. Cast like a forgotten doll, Yumi slammed into the grass sparking a green flash briefly before bouncing back into the air. Left behind from the impact, dirt and grass broke into the air from the force. A second bounce soon came with a smaller cloud of debris along with two flashes of green.

Her body still had speed to it and the ground gave her rotation. Flipping carelessly across the earth, Yumi left sparks and dirt clouds in her wake. Finally, her body slid along the ground losing enough momentum making it impossible to return to the air. Scrapping along the grass threw up green sparks all around her carving out a lengthy path of destruction.

Still having to run under her own strength, Photine couldn’t help her own surprise at the scene. Had she not watched everything with her eyes she never would have believed it. ‘I figured I caught her by surprise, but I shouldn’t have knocked her back with that much force. Even the most skilled Meso Prosecho couldn’t have survived such a fall!’ While reeling through her disbelief, part of her mind worked through all of the details. She knew that a normal human would have died, yet what she saw told her that Yumi remained very much alive. A worrisome fact, that Photine struggled to explain.

Replaying through the fall, Photine noted something strange. She remembered the flashes of green light that appeared every time Yumi collided with the ground. ‘The barrier she created was colored green as well. It looks similar…’ When her weapons attacked her after shattering the barrier something blocked them from getting through. ‘…I saw a green light then as well… Was that an automatic defensive Law in her Field? Could that be the light I saw?’ The distance between them closed quickly, Yumi’s body starting to return to clarity in her sight. ‘Is that how she survived? Using the barrier to dampen the blow?’

Wind carved stone pillars and dried cracked earth swallowed up the grass around Yumi. Thick streams of dust blew through filling the air with a tan haze. No movement came from Yumi the longer that Photine closed. She continued to play cautious as the strength of the child remained unknown to them. Rushing in for the kill could have triggered a trap. The fight had to be smart. ‘Is she unable to move perhaps?’ Still air and silence left her questioning what she saw and wondering if the first strike succeeded more than she hoped.

Her numb feeling from before felt as though it had managed to increase twofold, something that she still struggled to figure out. Only her mind seemed to be functioning at a normal speed. Her sight blurred and slowly failed to give her any clue to her surroundings or condition. Movement from her body lost all connection. ‘Is this another dream?’

If she dreamed, she knew that something more would be happening. Nothing seemed to be occurring to her. All was still. ‘What’s wrong with me? What happened?’ Yumi rolled through her mind remembering the desperation that she felt only a minute before. The tugging she was feeling before no longer weighed on her. She sought out what happened in the last instance before she felt numb. ‘It happened so fast… Something…someone?’ A vague image of a woman crossed her vision briefly.

‘A woman? She…attacked me…attacked?’ Pieces began to fall into place for Yumi. She recalled the force of something breaking through and the shattering. Weapons came for her with such force that she thought she should have died or maybe she had. ‘Am I dying? I can’t feel anything because I’m on the verge of death?’ Fearful confusions built up for Yumi as she was wanting to know why she felt so numb.

That fear caused her to stir and ignite life back into her body. It took her a few seconds to understand that she needed to fear no more. Her eyes finally opened once more, giving her a gaze at the blue sky. Yumi laid on her back in the dried dirt. Her clothes appeared dirty, but unharmed as did her body. Pulling herself up quickly in surprise, Yumi was examining her body, not certain why she had no injuries from what happened.

A glance away from her took in deeply how far away her friends stood. The distance she covered and her condition quickly became clear to her. ‘I was thrown more than five hundred meters?! How is this possible?’ Still confused, Yumi slowly started to stand up, not realizing the danger that closed upon her.

Through the haze Photine took sight of Yumi recovering. Her eyes widened a bit, finally getting a look at Yumi. ‘Unharmed?! Can her defenses be that perfectly timed to have protected her? I must be careful…’ She made her approach with caution.

Out of the air the brisk dirt-filled wind spun in increasingly tighter spirals. More dirt pulled in making it denser until it seemed to become solid. Forming a short cylindrical shape first, the wind grew in form building out until the shape became clear. A wide bladed sword, a meter in length, solidified from the dirt.

Cast away particles fell from the sword revealing well polished steel and an edge that nearly hummed. Accompanying the sword, another sword materialized quickly, but took on a different shape than the last. This weapon had a visible thin serrated edge. Its length came up only to two-thirds of the other. Both hovered in the air gleaming with eagerness. ‘Let’s test that barrier…’

Yumi was still trying to get her footing and balance back so she didn’t notice the weapons prepared for her. The weapons launched through the air with tremendous speed. A slight jab in her side like someone trying to get her attention knocked into her. It pulled her eyes away and towards the two swords. Having to take the time to process what she saw delayed her reactions. Fear snapped into place forcing her eyes closed. In a reactionary move, her hands came out in front of her crossing over as a futile effort to protect her body.

A loud pounding clang reverberated around her to crushing effect. Yumi felt the weapons pierce her for a moment in tune with the impact. She was staggering back reflexively responding. However, as the seconds slipped on she realized that she remained unharmed. Cautiously opening her eyes she saw the weapons rattling against a pale green wall standing between them. ‘What’s going on? Why’d they stop?’

‘Fast reaction, but something feels off…’ Watching Yumi made her question some of the things she took for granted from another MP user. ‘If it’s as strong as before it’ll take more than that to break. Need to find the right amount of force…’ A flick of her eyes summoned four more weapons ranging from rapiers to pikes.

Rattling on her barrier, the two swords began to sound like chainsaws pressed against a brick wall trying to cut through. Rising to a discordant symphony, Yumi was thinking that the noise couldn’t become any worse. Photine’s four newly created weapons joined the assault. Sound turned to utter chaos made amplified by the dome. Yumi was feeling the sound waves creaking through her bones making her knees shake. ‘Make it stop! I can’t take it any longer!’

‘Then do something about it!’ shouted a voice from within.

She turned around in her mind trying to face the direction of the voice. However, nowhere that she looked could the person be found. The space remained empty. ‘Am I hearing things?’ Gripping pressure slammed into Yumi’s chest, suddenly making her weaken further. She knew that she could resist no more.

‘Stop closing your eyes!’

‘Who are you?’

‘Face your reality!’

‘My reality?’

Taken in by distraction, the barrier holding back the weapons weakened. The blades of the weapons broke through so fast that the sound of the wall cracking didn’t make it to her in time. Slowed down only by passing through the crumbling green field, the weapons disappeared in a streaking flash through Yumi too fast for her eyes to follow.

Yumi staggered back, not completely sure what happened. She was thinking everything had passed and nothing wrong happened, but a feeling inside her told her otherwise. Looking down at her body, she caught the delayed release of thin trails of blood arcing through the air in the wake of the weapons. Small shallow wounds opened up on both of her shoulders, outer sides of both upper thighs and sides of her waist. Yumi bit through the sudden pain she felt, though not deep the feeling of being injured was not familiar to her. ‘It hurts…so much…’

“Damn…” cursed Phontine, monitoring her success from a distance. “I made it through, but a secondary defense split up my weapons at the last moment. Only managed a glancing blow.” She had only seen it for a second, but a flash of green light alerted her in the middle of her strike. ‘I haven’t seen her other techniques used yet… Is she holding them in reserve for a more desperate situation?’

Wanting time to nurse her wounds, Yumi was stepping away from the woman. Fear built up thick inside Yumi finally realizing wholly that she found herself in a real battle. ‘…I’m all alone…’ None of her friends could help her, trapped in their own battles too far away from her.

Those seconds of peace granted to her ended in a punctuated moment feeling something ominous behind her. Something told her to fall. Acting upon the urge, an instant later a spear whizzed over her shoulder. Yumi caught herself on one knee staring wide eyed in shock at the spear embedded in the ground, the wooden shaft shaking a little from the leftover force being bled off. ‘…if I hadn’t…’

‘I had her blind spot and I still missed!? What powers does she have?’ Shaking off the uncertainty, Photine straightened up and concentrated back on Yumi. She knew giving Yumi a moment's reprieve was too long. New weapons appeared in the air ready for the next strike. ‘I’ll have to attack from multiple sides to get a shot in…’

Yumi caught the spear dispersed into the haze. It suddenly vanished from sight making her startle. ‘…this woman…’ She was fighting to keep her shaking under control as she strained to see through the thick wind at the Atlantean. ‘She’s like Yuki… Not a normal human… But I’m just a regular high school girl… What can I do!?’

‘Damn it! Stop thinking that way!’ yelled the voice in her head, nearly feeling as though her brain rattled in her skull from the volume.

‘Who are you?’

‘Focus on yourself! Fight to live!’

‘But I can’t…’

‘Stop it! You’re going to get your ass handed to you thinking like that!’

The harsh voice made Yumi shrink in its invisible presence. She didn’t dare to think her own thoughts to herself for fear that the voice would snap at her. Little made sense to her already and the voice only complicated matters. Yumi feared that she was going insane.

‘Pay attention! She’s coming for you again!’

‘Huh?!’

‘Fight back this time! Prove your worth to him that you’re so desperate for!’

The voice’s words triggered a revival in Yumi’s heart. Clarity came to her mind. “…I have to do this for Yuki…” Yumi turned her head up and straightened up her back. Blood that slowly trickled down her clothes sat ignored with the dull pain that accompanied it. “…I…have to…fight?”

‘Damn, right! Use your powers!’

“Powers? I have…powers…abilities…” Her words turned into a chant that strengthened her body and mind. Yumi took a slow sluggish step forward into the tan haze. Another step rang out in the ground. Then another as well, each became stronger and more resolute. Her eyes narrowed slightly, feeling the boldness of determination that swelled in her heart.

‘Yes! Fight!’

Thick soup-like wind rolled in, nearly obscuring the woman from Yumi’s view. Grayed silhouettes multiplied in the space around them. The count seemed to grow beyond the numbers used previously. A fierce attack leaned on the edge as streaks of shadows flew about. Photine’s weapons lined up all around the unaware Yumi.

‘Trust yourself!’

“Yes!” shouted Yumi, as a battle cry to herself in preparation. The tension of the imminent moment tried to taunt her again, but she held fast. As though realizing its futility, the weapons released from their hold. Loud clanging and massive impacts shook through the dust cloud. Allowing the cloud to thin, more than twenty weapons surrounded her. Each appeared as though randomly ripped from a weapon smith’s shelves. So closely knit, in the low visibility Yumi appeared pierced by all of the weapons in a horrific sight.

Yumi’s soft brown eyes still held a strong defiant look. A patchwork of three barriers layered upon each other protected her. Blades sat held in place pierced through the layers within centimeters of her body. “Yuki will see my strength!” The barriers disappeared suddenly and the weapons rapidly shrank crushed under massive forces. All the finely made instruments turned to small balls of metal in mere moments. “I will end this now!”