Blood dripped down and sprayed through the air from the multiple wounds he took to his torso. It was only through Fumiko’s poor aim that he didn’t take an immediate lethal blow. Not that five metal rods rammed through him were any less deadly to him. ‘I’m pretty sure at least one of them has gohrough my lung and I only guess about the rest. I’m irely clear how long my body hold out. Our bodies are different now…all my expectations keep ging… I ’t make any assumptions anymore…’

  As he recovered from the stuarted to test and tug on the magic metal Fumiko used against him. Despite the fluid movemenessed from it earlier, it was pletely hardened now. He had no just pulling on it. ‘If it had properties close to standard metal, at this thiess my rength might be enough…’ Haruo gripped the metal to attempt to bend it under his strength. He knew he was strohan before, even if it wasn’t pletely normal through magic he might be able to do something about it.

  “You’re a stubborn bastard. All those soldiers died so quickly from this. But that just shows how truly different we are now. This is what we are now.”

  Chapter 324 – Misjudged A

  Haruo found that his strength did indeed have enough to fight the metal. It was slow going but he was able to bend them. He didn’t try to remove them, since he khat was only going to make things worse for him. ‘I’ll bleed out faster. But I o sever them.’ Summoning his wolf to him, he made use of its sharper cws. A little blunt at first, they sharpened up as it made more attempts somehow transf as he needed. ‘It was just a guess and a bit of a pointless one, but it seemed to work. But it shouldn’t be able to do something like that. Size aside, its cws aren’t like bdes; they're just sharp ends at best. I thought my animals followed the natural ws, but is that not the case anymore? my thoughts or needs alter them?’

  The thought troubled Haruo a little. ‘If this was Yuki, he’d be a little better at ing up with something more creative than how I’m using them if they are transformed by thought. I don’t know what to do…’ His mind worked logically. Everything he knew was based on the real world. ging now wasn’t very easy. He wasn’t sure he could do it, especially in the middle of a fight. ‘Against someone like Fumiko, do I stand a bsp; I thought based on what little I knew or saw, I could at least dey her long enough until Takako was handled. But I’m not even sure about that anymore. This fight is getting more disadvantageous…’

  “So you still have some fight left in you?”

  Straightening himself out, he did what he could to ighe metal stig out of him. It wasn’t as though he was going to be fighting directly anyway. So it wasn’t going to get too mu his way. ‘I’m going to have to ighe questions… I o focus…even for a draw…’ Another wolf stepped up on his left side as a panion to the other. Fumiko had too much at her disposal to hold babsp; He had to give it a real effort if he was to survive.

  “We’ll see how long that sts.”

  ‘This whole thing still is strange. She’s got elements of brainwashing, but also seems to be aware. But I’ll have to admit, I’ve never really seen someone brainwashed, so I don’t know if this is how they would be.’ Haruo ordered his wolves forward while he started to get moving again. Unfortunately, the metal rods in him pulled and tore at his insides. His body didn’t agree with moving while they were still left alone. There were no options, he just had to live with the damage and pain.

  It had been a while since he experiehis level of pain. He was normally good at minimizing it or at least not having people that hurt him a lot. The Atntis battles hurt, but he hadn’t been wounded so badly before. So feeling pain to the degree he was now was fresh. It at least kept him awake.

  The wolves kept Fumiko off bance just enough that her attacks couldn’t make the same degree of accuracy that she had before. As she hadn’t figured out how they regeed either, any of her attacks on them proved empty. Fire or metal, nothing stopped them from getting back up after her.

  Haruo’s use of cover roven to be just as fruitless. A strange mound of earth and school desks spread out through the entire campus grounds. Most of the grounds were open, but he still had some pces to get behind to watch Fumiko. Her metal, however, pierced the pile with little effort and stabbed him in the arm. He ripped free from it by act leaving a small gaping hole in his forearm bleeding out.

  ‘I need a pn. Magid fantasy is not my realm of uanding. I’m going to pass out before I uand her well enough.’ He grabbed up more random pieces of debris around the grounds as he kept moving. Some of them looked a little more familiar than others. They all came from his school, so it went without saying that he knew some of the pieces. A couple came from a , a e and chalkboard.

  They quickly became animals, while some he pocketed for ter. He needed a more offerategy with Fumiko. It was something he uood. Something he knew for any sort of fight. It was why some had trouble uanding him. He was a more passive individual. Even with the o fight with the ges and tasks he took on it was a slow process for him that he never fully accepted.

  He sent off his animals for a direct strike. ‘A direct assault seemed to work pretty well on her before. However, since she work her magic without her hand, it means that just pinning her is not going to be enough. I’m going to have to actually knock her out to end this. I get that close?’ It wasn’t going to be his animals that took her down. Haruo khat was something he had to handle. Yet with her fme as powerful now along with the metal, he had reservations about being able to achieve it. At least, he knew he wouldn’t be able to do so without taking serious injury. And his body already didn’t fare well.

  Tappiaff, metal jumped out of a magic circle on the ground. Like vines, it wound its way around pierg all of the animals that Haruo sent after Fumiko. Immediately after, fmes burhem all away. “You didn’t think numbers would improve your odds against me? You seem to think so little of my magic, Haruo.”

  Immediately tering after the animals faded into particles, Haruo ut ba the defensive. The metal magicreased in the speed of attacks. He wasn’t able to simply keep moving. He had to make certain sacrifices to stay in the fight. Certain injuries had to be accepted if he was to stay alive. It seemed tradictory, but she was much better than him. That was being clear to him. ‘She’s more itted to this than I. I really wonder what it is that Takako did to them. Hopefully, I survive to find out…’

  itment or not, he had determio be mgressive, something that didly e naturally to him. He had to keep pressure on Fumiko or she would keep injuring him. To save on his fatigue, he used smaller animals to go after Fumiko. ‘I’m still not at my limit. I have a while to go still, but will it be enough…’

  Not too uhe st time, Fumiko tered as he expected. It might have seemed like he was desperate or just stubborn about a straightforward attack, but it had a purpose. He saw that she made the same as. ‘She did it again. The tapping with her staff. That seems to be the trigger, but only fround based attacks. And I know I’ve seen her do that before even in the school without triggering attacks. While she moved around she was doing it in a very deliberate manner.’

  Even without his attacks, Fumiko tio slowly walk around the field. It was rare for her to stand still. While ihe school, she restricted her movements during most of their fight. The outside ged that and seemed to opetacks up more. ‘So that must be it. Now that I’ve made more attacks it makes sense.’

  Atack did all that he o firm it for him. ‘Wherever she touches her staff to the ground it pces down a circle. She’s then able to remotely trigger them with aap. Despite how she has been using her powers to make it seem like she attack from anywhere, she still has to use herself to set it up. It’s all still from her. It’s the training, all she’s been doing to improve her powers to be able to achieve this. My initial impression of her from the day we met seems to have turned out to be pletely wrong.

  ‘I took her for someohat was observant and protective, but also sheltered and weak. She was doing what she was doing out of a sense of obligations rather than a real desire to fight. Because Yuki was in danger going to Atntis, she felt she o go. But that was the extent of it. She would give it all up once her debt had been cleared.

  ‘I’m not seeing that from her. This looks to be a woman that would keep fighting even if she did not have a reason to do so. She keeps practig and w on herself so that she fight more. This is Fumiko Terauchi…’

  Because he knew how her neorked, it was easier to anticipate now. However, it still didn’t ge that he could do nothing to stop her from doing it. She could still set the traps and trigger them at will. There was no ability to get close to her. Even f her to use them all up still left her with the versatility of her magic that she could cast from her person.

  It didn’t ge much for Haruo. He o be able to strike against her. Knowledge in this case did little to help him. ‘I might be able to problem solve things, but my mind doesn’t think like a bat strategist. I know what I do, but not how to actually achieve it.’ It was a very different fight from what he was used to. The Atnteans he dealt with had the advantage of them not fully uanding how different they were. It wasn’t until his battle with the Titan Teris that he came up against someohat he struggled to be able to fight. And he lost as a result. ‘Simple tactics won’t wainst her. Not with her power. She pletely es my standard methods.’

  He didn’t know how he was going to manage against her. Everything he knew and uood told him that he didn’t have a ce of winning. ‘It’s strange, but despite everything I know I want to stay here. Certainty doesn’t seem to be a factor. What is it?’ Haruo had no expnation for it.

  Haruo retrieved one of the items he stored away in his pocket. The e to his . It didn’t look like muymore. Bent and twisted from the reckless use of the school, it was a sign of the past. And how much the present forced itself upohing. ‘If pns and strategies won’t wainst her, then I’ll have to borroage from Seiji it seems.’ Light started to burst from his hand to obscure him from sight pletely.

  Fumiko covered her eyes with her metal arm trying to see through what Haruo had pnned. “Trying somethihis te?” She tightened up her grip oaff to prepare a possible sneak attabsp; “I’ll crush whatever you have pnned.”

  “New? Perhaps a bit,” replied Haruo, “A different way.”

  “Still leaving out details I see. Well no matter!” Fmes started to burn in her crimson arm no longer waiting to see what he had in store for her. She charged up her magic expeg whatever he had po be powerful.

  Despite her own pnning and expectation, what she saw e out of the light left her pletely shocked. She didn’t even think to sider it, but there wasn’t ahat would sider it. Fumiko dropped her mouth open in shock to see a giant elephant standio Haruo. “You ’t be serious…”

  It had about as much subtlety as Seiji for sure. Though Haruo might have been a little too literal in his interpretation.

  “Hey!” pined Seiji off s.

  As it started to charge for Fumiko, she gained back her posure. Her magic had still more time to cast against something se. “You think that’s going to be enough? Size! I’ll show you h you are!”

  She immediately utilized all of her traps to deal with the elephant. However, uhe other animals that Haruo still after her, it had a slightly less spirit-like appearao it. It still was semi-transparent, but it was harder to see through. Which had been a sign that it wasn’t to be treated like the others. Her metal viore through the legs with little effebsp; It she metal, not even breaking stride. All the fmes did was take out small ks that came back almost as quickly as they were damaged.

  Nothing she had prepared worked against it. All she had left was her fme. She groueeth together not looking the same as she had the entire fight. Additional magic circles materialized around her arm strengthened her.

  She didn’t have much time to attack with their distanbsp; The elephant cround fast. Fumiko began thanking herself for reag to building up earlier. She wouldn’t have had enough time otherwise.

  As the fme she grew into life finally left her hand, it exploded in size dramatically. The elephant was still rger, but the fme did well to e close to engulfing it. The two powers cshed only meters away from Fumikusts of wind from the impact brushed against her f her to dig her feet in a little. It was closer to her than she wanted, but it seemed to keep the rampaging animal babsp; She funneled more magito her fmes, feeling it lose painst the elephant. But it suddenly shattered before she could hold it up any longer. “What?!”

  Half burned away by her fme, the elephant still charged after her. Had it been a real animal the sight might have been disturbing to witness, as a headless beast charging, but as a spirit animal it didn’t hold such horror. And the regeive properties were already at work.

  Fumiko staggered back, seeing it resume its charge at her. She had run out of spells to cast. Nothing she used worked against it. It was just too big to deal with on short notibsp; Grittieeth for the impact was all she could do.

  The elephant smashed into Fumiko from Haruo’s view. But something didn’t seem right, as he expected it to carry through her for a bit. Something had stopped it. A faint light came out from in front of the animal rgely masked by its size. He checked through the eyes of the elephant to see that it was Fumiko.

  A barrier was pletely up around her. He could see cracks f it. Her st effort to protect herself, but it wasn’t going to hold. Against the physical power of the elephant, her magic wasn’t enough. ‘This should be enough to knock her out…’

  However, Fumiko didn’t stay defensive while her barrier broke. Just as it shattered, she dashed forward between the legs of the animal. Armed with a metal crafted dagger, she charged straight for Haruo the sourbsp; “Die!” she shouted as she threw down a dagger.

  His arm quickly came up, taking the bde through the muscle of his forearm. Blood sprayed back across their faces. She struggled with him to push the bde in towards his heart. He had her up close and saw the look in her eye once more. It made him recall what she said before and his re-evaluation of her. “Did you mean it when you said, that ‘This is what we are now’?”

  “Yes! We’re nothing, but ons. These powers aren’t peaceful. They’re meant fhting and that’s what we’re supposed to do with them! Embrace it like I have!”