Seiji barely had a ce to react before it all finished. “Fumiko!” he shouted, turning to the fming mass where Fumiko used to be. He began to move his legs, thinking that he could reach her. However, something collided with him while in motion. The force was enough to set him off band slide on his bato a pile of debris. His impact kicked up a small cloud, hardly providing any cover for him.

  The hit did little to hurt him, but the dust in the air made him cough. “The hell?” Seiji rubbed his head in fusion as he pulled himself up. He searched around, distracted from Fumiko. “What hit me?” His eyes sed the area trying to locate what knocked him over, but saw nothing in the immediate area. Yet again, something came barreling at him near his blind side, but he caught a fsh of light off the moon. It alerted him and told him to dodge.

  A momehe ground where he used to sit exploded into a ky cloud of earth. Seiji slid away from the bst with his hands scraping along the dirt along with his feet to keep his banbsp; “Again? What the hell’s going on?” His head tilted up from his all-fours position to make out his attacker. He kwo ces didn’t happen in such a pce.

  Standing up from the thin cloud, a dark gray figure rose to their full height. He couldn’t see them clearly through the veil, but they were tall. Seiji felt certain they were at least his height, if not more so. “So it’s you. I’m not fighting a woman.”

  Some force suddenly bsted the cloud surrounding the figure away roughly. The ed towards Seiji trailing the particles of dirt off her body. Seiji tried to stand up, but fouo move faster thahought possible. Iween the seds of the strike, the woman calmly spoke to him, “Yes, you will.” Following her words, a loud percussive bst from her attack rang through the camp.

  Seiji only had enough time to block with his arms crossed in front. However, he felt some surprise when he realized that he uood the woman and that the voice sounded almost child-like from her. “You knoanese?!”

  “No.” She didn’t let his surprise slow her down, even for her reply. Her eyes narrowed, notig the resistahat she received fr to press her advantage. Not finding progress, she wound up unleashing a heavy barrage on him. Each strike pounded out expanding waves from the points of impact.

  Even after the assault of more than a dozen strikes, Seiji remained unmoved. His arms trailed thin streams of smoke in the wake of the attabsp; He started to lower his arms down hoping it would prove that it was futile. “Finished?”

  “Hardly…” The woman took half a step bad lifted her arms up. Seiji hadn’t focused otacks too much, but he finally uood something about her. C up all of her forearm, seamless metal formed a shape much like cestus. Cloth extended from underh the metal ing up to the elbow. Despite the simple on, the metal had a plex and intricate design woven throughout the surfabsp; However, the ons didn’t remain for long.

  A light fshed from her ons blurring them out. Through the white gre, a dark shape expanded and grew from her arms. It tio increase in size until it seemed impossible to hold. Wiping away with a sharp cut, the light faded and revealed the neons. Her ons increased in size and thiess, at least tenfold, dwarfing her frame. The neearance had that of a lion’s face with the mouth set in front of her fists.

  She pulled her arms back with not even her bance broken by the sheer mass. Her fluid motions didn’t even make the neons appear unwieldy, despite their size. “I’m just getting started!”

  Seiji blinked and thehe smashing blow of the on against his chest as it broke through his arms’ defense. His eyes caught a bit of surprise as it echoed deeply through his body before ung through the air.

  The woman watched him disappear from her immediate sight, but didn’t feel finished. She brought the other blunt on to bear on the ground. Crag the earth from the crater-creating force, she flew up into the air in response.

  Once more the ons ged, but to a smaller size and design. They only covered up her fists like a glove. She threw out her fist turning around to punch the air. Bsting out a rge ring of dispced air, it sped her towards her target. Her body arced through the sky ing to a fast-untrolled dest to the ground.

  When she saw herself nearing the ground, she threw her arms in opposite dires vertically creating rings again in the air. It brought her to a sudden halt in speed, ag like a brake. Two meters away from the toug down, she pulled her arms ba and dropped down.

  She ged her ons again to yet another neon. The woman took a fighting stance waiting for Seiji to stand up.

  Chapter 143 – The Caged Inferno

  The Atntean bathed in dark foreboding fire threw out her hand and arced it to cut through the air. Her fmes set upon Fumiko immediately exhausted themselves. She took a few steps towards the scarred earth to iigate her oppo. A crack of red-hot wood she silenbsp; It made her flinch with caution.

  Out of the ash-covered mound broke a darkened figure. The ctter of metal rang out with the rising of a defiant staff. Fumiko swept away the ash that stuck to her. She let out a relieved sigh. ‘I guess I should be grateful that they use fire…’

  “Still alive…” the woman ented, upon seeing Fumiko’s dition.

  Fumiko turowards the voice startled a little by them addressing her. Her earring gift from Yuki worked as she expected in transting the Atntean Greek for her. ‘She probably expected it to take me out in one shot…’

  “You won’t succeed.” She raised her hand towards Fumiko once again. “You’re already cssified as traitors. Judgment or death are your only options.”

  Tightening her hold oaff, Fumiko felt the seriousness of the woman’s words. She khat they faced su ominous fate, but it still made her hesitate. Her hesitation was enough wasted time for a response from the Atntean woman. Hungry fire erupted around Fumiko, pletely enclosing her.

  Fumiko gritted her teeth, feeling the scorg heat ing from the ing fmes. ‘It’s hotter than before…’ She closed her eyes trying to calm her poundi enough to trate. The st time she fought scared her, but there was something else. She couldn’t grasp in words. All she knew was that she hated it. It leeched onto her skin and crawled into her pores. Fumiko ed her arms over her chest trying to eject the fear.

  The fight she had with the moo save Mieko felt just as life threatening, but Fumiko k was different. Evehe two Atntean soldiers ered her and she thought she might die didn’t have the same feeling as the monster. It felt simir. There was something more frightening about humans.

  ‘I’ve got to get a hold of myself! I have to find Chiharu!’ Fumiko tightened her grip oaff bravely. The heat began to reach bothersome levels for her. It burned off the sweat from her skin before it had much of a ce to drip. ‘…Chiharu…’

  e-red threads wove down Fumiko’s arm into her staff. It made the metal glow, building into an aura. ‘trate…focus…’ Fumiko lifted the staff from rest and swung with a firm hand through the fire. A visible cut appeared in the wall of fire that stretched around until it closed the loop. The loop grew in size bsting away the binding fire. Out of the fmes, Fumiko stepped out with galnt bravado, the metal ringing with her step.

  Exhaling slowly, Fumikled to maintain her posure. ‘…have to keep trol…’ She blinked back images that threatened her stability.

  The misguided woman narrowed her eyes questioning what occurred. ‘Twice she’s survived my fire…what sort of Field is she using?’ She took a step forward tthen the area of the Field Fumiko stood. Motioning with her hands, new fmes burst up from the ground ao aowards her.

  Fumiko tried to run out of the haunting path, but it ged course again. ‘…seeking me!’ She couldn’t avoid it. Ign futility, Fumiko tio try to evade the stream of fire. Her attempts only deyed the iable. It came closer. While still dodging the fmes Fumiko raised her staff returning the glow back to it.

  Catg the fmes on the headpiece of the staff, the stream came to a stop. It furrowed out barely held babsp; Vibrations from the resistance shook dowaff into Fumiko’s hand. She didn’t think she could hold back the foruch longer. Strength wasn’t what she excelled in and she k. Fumiko’s eyes looked around at all of the unscious soldiers. ‘…there’s so many people around here…’ She needed a solution.

  Struggling with the weight pounding on her, Fumiko gripped her staff with both hands. She stepped into the ford pushed again. ‘…’t lose it…’ The shaking began to make her hands numb. Fumiko fought with the fmes summoning up the strength to swiaff. It deflected the fire away into the earth. Dirt and debris bsted outward kig up a cloud that blew through their battlefield.

  Taking pause, the two stared at each other waiting for a move by the other. Around them, the shouting of fused soldiers running about surrouhem. Distant shockwaves from Seiji’s fight blended into the background.

  Fumiko clutched her staff to feel her reality. Images from the past night began to haunt her inner eye again. The inferno that bzed without e perma reminders on her body. She still could feel the seari from it. She still could hear the bloody screams from it. It peed her being pletely. ‘…I ’t…not again…’

  The woman ered her. She knew she came in needing to fight babsp; In small doses, she found it acceptable. But she already saw what the woman could do with her power. She was barely able to hold her babsp; ‘If I don’t do something…but I…’ Fumiko looked down at her hand sidering her fme. Fshbacks of the vilge blew through her. Ss of the out of trol fire that nearly burned down the vilge collided with her.

  She shook her head hoping to remove the past. It already held her back from helping out her friends when they were attacked the st time. It paralyzed her. Nothing happened. She desperately wao help them, but she could not risk it. Fumiko didn‘t want to let it happen again. ‘…what am I supposed…to do…’

  Her hand held open staring back at her face, tilted down gazing. The rational part of the mind told her what she o do. It already knew a yelling at her. Yet, it didn’t matter how much she uood her situation. She couldn’t stop the shaking. In fact, she already tried before. ‘I ’t use my fire…not like before… This is the limit that I do…’ She thought that her fire magic might ter the woman’s fire, but it failed her on all attempts. She could only el it.

  Doubt sapped her magic.

  Her hesitatioed the cycle anew. The enemy could see weakness in Fumiko and took advantage. ns of fmes and walls of fire sprouted up. Fumiko could only run away and block with her staff. She couldn’t evehat she maintained a stalemate. Her body only grew worse with each dodge and defle. The numbness spread deeper into her arms.

  Fumiko didn’t know how much lohat she could st. All of the running around tired her out. Her breathing quickly became haggard. When she was trying not to be hit by the fire, she was bent over rec. ‘She doesn’t stop…ing…’

  A bst of fire knocked Fumiko off the ground, still trying to recover. The fmes quickly went out as she colpsed to the ground. Fumiko hit the ground dazed. She didn’t see the domineering woman’s approatil she was already almost on top of her.

  The viliness woman aimed her hand down at Fumiko. “At this ra won’t matter. My fme will be at its stro.” In respoo the woman, a new fme burst up, but held back from attag. It hovered an imposier away from Fumiko. “Accept your fate. Resist and I’ll kill you now for disrupting the peace of Atntis!”

  She didn’t doubt the woman’s dark words. Fumiko stared at the inferno that looked eager to taste her flesh. Surreurned into a sideration for her. She didn’t knotions she had. ‘…what would happen to me? They think I’m just another one like Yuki…’ Her mind divided on her.

  sideration filled part of her ahe other. She wanted an answer. She couldn’t let herself use her fme. The risk was too mubsp; It could hurt everyone, even her friends. However, Chiharu and the others struggled to rescue Yori. ‘I promised myself that I’d get serious. I failed them before… I o be part of the team for them.’ The thought to vince herself made her want to ugh at herself. It proved how far her resolve carried her.

  She watched Yumi sway between doubt aainty, but e out ahead. When it mattered, she knew Yumi would absp; ‘But none of them came as close as I did… I thought with this magic I could protect her. …yet now it scares me so much!’ The screaming echoed in her mind. It had stayed in her ear always ringing without end sihe previous night. Sometimes it was softer and other times crushingly loud. Regardless, it remained with her, always a reminder. She didn’t want to hear another one. ‘I wish I was deaf…so I didn’t have to hear it anymore…’

  Suddenly, a fsh of a familiar image went through Fumiko's mind. Her eyes widened in shobsp; ‘Kimiko!’ Her body flihinking about her little sister. ‘…I failed…’ Chiharu appeared to her at the end of her thought. Fumiko jerked forward realizing her mistake. She heroically smmed her hand into the fire that threatened her, startling the woman. ‘I failed you Kimiko, but if I did nothing again I’d fail her too. I’d be repeating my mistake! The one mistake that I wish I could undo, but never ! I won’t make that same mistake again!’