“I guess that finally answers a question,” Yuki replied as Takako let slip a rather importaail about her power.

  “Knowing doesn’t give you an advantage.”

  “You’re right.” The p of the situation with Takako’s power made him pensive. ‘This is even worse than even I anticipated from my theory. I expected that her mind powers were an off variant from the standard fare, if she was really using other powers. However, I expected her to fall within the normal logic of not being versed in the power and that being a weakness I could exploit.

  ‘This is even worse since I ’t even anticipate her powers now. It seems I was right that what Takako was using was stolen powers from Fumiko, but to make a forest from magibsp; This far exceeds what Fumiko’s current power is. The scale as well… with an army of hundreds or thousands, the number of powers she has to use has suddenly made this fight my worst nightmare.’

  Chapter 355 – Mind Over Matter

  Barely hanging on to a branch high up in the opy of the forest id Hiroshi. When the forest was created, he lost his support to rest on. Takako rudely ripped that away from him. His body didn’t enjoy the ride that he took up further into the sky. While Yuki patched him up, rough movement still shot pain through his body. “Damn, Takako…who knew she could do this…”

  He held tightly onto the branch struggling with his body to keep banbsp; It seemed that the threat to his life or at least health forced his body to start responding to him again. It wasn’t perfect, but he could manage himself.

  “This is just insane,” he ented, staring down at the two. They seemed less impressed with what happehan him. Just that fact alo him a little unnerved.

  Yuki panned around the forest getting a judge on the scale. The density of it wasn’t so thick that he couldn’t see betweerees. They were thick, gigantic trees, but not spaced too closely. It was easy enough to see the weak lights of the city around them, though it suddenly felt very weird seeing it through such a view. The sky however ainted out pletely.

  Yet he could still see in the forest. Part of it had to e from him already being a little adjusted to the night. But it was clear that there seemed to be a very soft glow ing off the green life Takak out. ‘Glow of magibsp; It was the only guess that he had for the reason. However, it made things simpler for him. A backup Law Set wasn’t o keep fighting.

  “Fumiko seems to have a lot more potential than we realized.”

  Takako smirked a little, feeling the fidence of being in trol of everything. “This isn’t her limit. There’s plenty in her powers that I’ve yet to show.”

  “Figured as much.”

  “Fumiko?” asked Hiroshi, to himself, “That name’s familiar. Yuki seems to know her. Wait, the way they’re talking…Takako use that girl’s power? Then that means…” It all finally started to e together for him. He cked the same sort of i uanding of powers in the way that Yuki did. His mind didn’t work like that, though he doubted most people’s minds thought the same way that he did.

  So the pieces didn’t all fit together for him pletely. But it started to make seo him now that he listeo them in Yuki’s stalling tactibsp; “Does that mean Takako’s power isn’t mind trol, but the ability to steal other powers and use them better than the owner? But that doesn’t expin her army. What is it about her powers that I don’t uand?”

  Hiroshi still felt lost when it came to Takako. She had thrown several different powers at him in their fight. None of it he saw ing. His power could do nothing against her. “I guess I at least now have an ao why she had so many powers. But we’re still missing a very important piece to the puzzle that makes this whole thing make sense.” Hope was all he had to rest on finding that answer before Takako’s new power.

  Even hope seemed a strahing to bet on. He felt like he was being shallow and fickle waffling on Yuki’s ce to beat Takako. It ged bad forth betweewo as the battle carried on. And as he learned more about Takako there was less hope to pass around. It worried him more than he cared to admit.

  “With the ability to master any power and use it at will, she’s the worst sort of person for Yuki. She do simir things that he , but is superhuman and immuo his powers. This situation just keeps getting worse and worse…”

  Jumping to the bran front of her, Takako looked to be taking on a ao resume the fighting. “Enough of your deying. It’s time that we put ao you.”

  “It’s going to take more than what you’ve shown to do that.”

  “The’s get started!” Several magic arrays appeared in the air around Takako, rapidly finishing their casts. “I’ve been taking it easy on you until now!”

  “Is that so?” Even while he spoke, he saw her attacks unched. ‘Metal? That’s an ued magic power. It’s pretty rare for any fi to sider metal a. But it makes sense, like fire or water, metal es from nature as well. It’s more natural than the fire only used in fi.’ While he took a moment half admiring and half analyzing it, hardened metal rods flew at him.

  Mist still hung to his legs and pulled him away into the air to dodge the attabsp; Where he stood the metal ran straight through the wood pletely ued by the thiess of more than a meter of wood. ‘I don’t know how dehat wood is, but that’s a little worrisome it has that much forbsp; Any sort of direct hit is going to be near lethal with blood loss…’

  Flying around the forest, Takako kept up the assault. Yet none of them hit him. Yuki started to question the seriousness of her i. It cked the same sort of iy as the fire. But his dete system suddenly alerted him to an attack from a different dire. He dodged it without too much trouble, but it was the fact of where it came from that bothered him.

  Yuki gnced ba the dire trying to uand what happened. ‘She’s not in that dire… So far I’ve only seen attacks e from her. It appeared that was her limit. However, she trol the magic at will even after release. Is that at work? She stopped doing that with the metal magic, treating it like a projectile.’

  As he analyzed the situation more, Takako didn’t give him time to pause. Most of her attacks came from the same dire that he came to expect, but every so ofteossed in aray that didn’t act like the others.

  The fact he kept avoiding her sneak attacks began to show visibly on her fabsp; She didn’t like that he seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. Her attempts were getting nowhere. fiden her own cleverness revealed her inexperienbsp; She immediately jumped to more dired less disguised attacks.

  It began to give Yuki all of the data he o uand what was happening. While it was faint and gone almost immediately after it finished, he saw it long enough, a magic array. Ohat was nowhere o where she stood. ‘I see…that expins that then…’ The more he dodged, the easier it became to see firmation of it. ‘Well that’s going to make things even more plicated… In the hands of someone more experienced, I’d probably be in a lot more dahan I feel…’

  What she cked in experiehough she made up in sheer power. The vast reserves that she seemed to have to mahe magic had to give her credit to her natural talent. And to make things worse for Yuki, she was only more annoyed with him dodging everything. Arrays rapidly began to increase until it felt like there was a mini sun with how much light the magierated around him.

  All Yuki could do was keep moving. ‘The moment I stop is the moment I get surrounded… I ’t do anything about this…’ Below or above, left ht, he already nearly was surrounded by her attacks. Behind him, he left a wake of destru as shards of wood exploded and rained down.

  ‘There’s nothing I do but evade right now. I’m back again with the fire… I o turn this around…’ Yet, Takako was already thinking of other things for Yuki. A brighter light than all of the magic arrays suddenly filled Yuki’s vision. “…damn…” He reized it and it was an even worse threat.

  She forced him to fly down to avoid the massive pilr of fmes ing at him. Fire aal made the bination even worse for him. And now that he had to ge his dire away from what he had been driving, he went straight into a trap.

  Yuki paused in the air, seeing all of his exits closed. A sphere of arrays surrounded him. “Dammit!” His eyes sed the area looking for any point of weakness. ‘Didn’t expect her to actually y a good trap. She’s getting smarter in the middle of the battle… Her inexperience was my one major advantage…’

  Deyitack, Takako jumped around to get closer to Yuki. She grinned with satisfa. “’t talk your way out of this.” The magi the arrays grew brighter as she taunted him with his death.

  Not givihe look that she wanted, Yuki held a determined expression. Harsher lines painted around his mouth and eyes watg her. “Only a plete amateur gloats about having victory without actually having it.”

  “Is that right?!” Anger surfaced quickly on her fabsp; She lifted up her arm wanting to execute him with her own hand, as unnecessary as it was. “Let’s see if you even speak after I’ve reduced you to nothing but bloody holes!”

  ‘She’s firing soon… She should have not made it clear when she was attag…’ Yuki watched her hand slowly move for the a.

  Just before she fired, a thick mist spread out through the entire space all the way out to the arrays. It pletely blocked out Yuki from Takako’s sight. “I don’t o see you to kill you!” She fired everything that she had gathered shooting through the mist.

  Ill-ome sounds escaped from the uain void taining Yuki. “Yuki!” shouted Hiroshi from far above, uo do anything to stop his friend from being killed.

  Blood dripped out of the air from the bottom of the sphere of mist. Despite everything, the mist seemed to still hang around making it very clear to Takako that Yuki still lived. A rge array appeared over her head pletely eclipsing her in size. “Die, you bastard!”

  A teer thin of fme erupted out of the array in a straight line for the mist. It pletely engulfed the mist pung straight through with nothing stopping it. The massive amount of magic couldn’t be maintained for long as it faded out. But the mist couldn’t be seen.

  Crag sounds of wood breaking echoed through the forest. Several of the giant trees had been pletely cut through with the upper parts falling while rge holes bore through trunks of those that remaianding. The earth rumbled heavily like ahquake as the forest began to settle from Takako’s attack.

  Takako grinned with delight to see that Yuki had been pletely obliterated by the attabsp; “He’s gone! No one stop me now!” She ughed with her victory secured now.

  A low cough came from a short distance away from Takako interrupting her. “Yetting ahead of yourself,” Yuki corrected.

  “What?!” Takako’s grin quickly disappeared as her reality was shattered. She looked around, narrowing in on Yuki’s location. He id up against a tree with blood dripping from several shallow cuts along his arms and legs.

  Anger surfaced again as she repeated her pattern. “How?! How are you alive?!”

  “…luck…” he answered with a slight mog grin.

  tless arrays appeared behind Takako. She shouted like a crazed person at the sight of Yuki. “See if luck will save you from this!” Metal rods fired out of the arrays repeatedly no longer closing up after their discharge.

  Yuki’s mist pulled him away from the target zone as the tree he left shuttered uhe pressure of hundreds of quarter-meter long rods pung through it. The mist alo him out of harm’s way. But it only aakako more.

  All of the arrays merged into a single array and their magic shifted. Fire roared forth, but couldn’t touch Yuki. Takakht in more arrays from different ahough smaller. She moved the arrays around while keeping up with Yuki. She pushed him closer into arap. “Luck won’t save you!”

  The fires verged on his position as Yuki came to a stop further up the tree. As it moved in on him, he no longer looked to be dodging. Takako grinned, looking like she had him pihis time. However, something suddenly flew i moment, stopping the fire and turning it away as it could make it through.

  “Impossible!”

  Yuki whipped his arm around, throwing off all of the magic fmes as tiny embers hung in the air. A surprise appearance of a metallic gau covered up his right hand and forearm. “I won’t need lubsp; I have my mind! Now I’ll show you what real experience means!”