Ugh... I should have worn a tighter shirt; these bouncing breasts are a nightmare right now.
Still love them, logically.
I stop running and decide on ranged attacks. There aren't many more cries of pain, more like war cries. Might as well take the opportunity and try out my new skills.
Let's see... What can you do with darkness? Let's try.
Drowning them by covering their heads. Seems to be much easier to use the magic darkness coming out of my hand than the one around. Cool, but... eh, nothing happens.
Pierce their heads. They die instantly.
Pierce their torsos. They die quickly.
Crush them. It is very hard, but they die after a while.
Cut off their heads. They die instantly.
Let's try something more unusual. I concentrate a little more while I see a group of three climbing the tower of a small temple. Maybe someone is hiding at the top. Let's cut off their claws first, along with the rest of their limbs to make them fall.
After a little effort on my part and some screams of pain on theirs, they fall.
Let's continue the experiments! I pull the darkness inside one of them hard into the ground, greatly accelerating their fall, leaving a crater and a lot of their blood behind. 'It's not acid... Why did I think their blood would be acid? More strange thoughts. I should go to a temple to get checked out later.' Its body looks relatively intact, though. Now-
'Oh, someone stole my prey... Wait, wait, wait, prey?'
That thought leaves me a bit cold… Why am I playing with them? I should be using the time to help people, not testing my new skills...
Well, uh, I guess I helped a lot with the large number I killed, but at some point, I stopped paying attention to the whole emergency situation and started having fun... That's not like me. How scary. I definitely need to think about that.
I'll ask Nicole later. For now, let's continue with the purge, this time getting closer to where there's more noise.
Back to the present, they're more fragile than I thought. How are the guards doing?
I thought after a few minutes of hunting. Let's see, mmm, over there. I follow the sound of the next battle… Five minutes later, I arrive at a small square to see, eh, corpses.
W-wow...
So that's why there were fewer cries of pain. I previously focused too much and ignored what most of my senses were telling me, as I'm used to, but... now that I'm here, I'm assaulted by the strong metallic stench of blood.
But before I can even hold my nose, I'm pulled out of my thoughts by the distinctive roar I'm getting accustomed to.
On the other side of the square, I see several knights fighting one creature, much larger than the others. Maybe fifteen feet tall and almost twice as long. Instead of an elongated head, it has a kind of crown of black antlers, blacker than coal, and several arms and tails.
SNAP!
Just as earlier, I move before I can think of anything, as I see one of the thing's tails shatter a knight's shield, along with its arms, making the distinctive and unpleasant crack of breaking bones. And before the giant claws of one of its arms finish the job, I arrive.
I must have been more mentally tired than I thought I was, because I just use my magic-enhanced shoulder to push the creature a few feet instead of using an actual attack, which gave the injured guy time to be dragged away by his companions. But even though I push the monster a little, it reminds me that it's a bad idea to get within range of huge, multi-limbed monsters with sharp teeth and claws. This one is all four things and more, and I'm right next to it.
As soon as I could see two of the tails almost reaching for me, I managed to create a shield of darkness that kept it from stabbing me, but I still shot out into the street.
"AAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
I feel an intense pain in my chest, which only gets worse as I roll down the street.
'THIS IS NO TIME TO TEST HAND TO HAND, IDIOT!'
The sudden turn of events, the pain in my chest, the powerful smells and sounds that I suddenly became painfully aware of, make me act on instinct again. Following the movement of my hand, my mind comes back to clarity as I see dozens of spears of darkness shoot out of the ground, impaling the creature all over its body.
But with no time to observe the situation, I have to force my body to move, for although it is dead, the momentum it had when it came at me at full speed still has its extremely heavy body about to fall on me.
I manage to throw myself aside in time, but...
"AAAHH DAMN IT! AAaah-! Ugh..."
The sudden movement forces me to scream again from the pain, which is not very kind to the fracture in my chest. As I remain on my knees, bearing the pain and trying not to move much while breathing, one knight appears beside me.
"Miss, are you alright? Let me take a look," he says as he tries to turn me around by the shoulder, causing me to groan even more in pain.
"Argh... I think that thing broke my sternum, I can heal it, don't touch me!" I yell back.
"Ster- what? Never mind, do you need help?"
The guy says, pulling his hand back. Uh... now I feel bad for yelling at him. His metal armor looks pretty heavy, so maybe he couldn't help being so rough earlier.
"Wait... Can I heal myself? Why did I say that?" Surprised, I open my eyes wide. Just like when I awakened my darkness, I feel confidence and clarity enter me. I point my hand at my chest and throw some darkness at it. In my mind, I recreate the image of the same magic numbing my nerves and picking up the scattered bone shards. I catch the broken and cracked pieces of my sunken breastbone and tie them back to my ribs.
I put the bone back in place and repair the muscles, nerves, veins, and tissue. I connect it all back together, knowing that I have left it much stronger than it ever could have been.
""Wow,"" I think, a little shocked, at the same time as the knight from earlier says the same thing, still looking at my chest... Looking at my chest too much, actually, 'hey, I don't know how the hell I did this myself, but stop staring at my breasts.'
"Coff, coff," I cough a little as I slowly stand up, checking for pain. The guy comes out of his daze and quickly looks away from my slightly torn clothes, remembering where the hell we are. Seeing several bodies strewn about brings him back to duty.
"Miss, please help my wounded comrades, at least enough to get them out of danger, I beg you!"
He says, lowering his head and dropping to one knee.
Eh…
I've never been very interested in social ranks, but I'm pretty sure a knight is at least one or two steps above a commoner like me. Sometimes they are nobles themselves. While I would normally be paralyzed by someone like that bowing to me, I don't even answer him this time as I run over to the rest of the group. Two knights are holding a man with a severed arm while another knight presses hard on the wound. Several others are inspecting the fallen, while the man with the broken arm just sits on the sidelines, trying to hold back his grunts.
'Mmm... I feel like I could make it grow back, but I shouldn't experiment too much now. And I guess there will be a lot of injured people out there. Sorry sir, but I'll save my strength and do the minimum.'
"Let me see!"
I ask for space so I can see properly... There's a clean cut on the forearm near the elbow with a lot of blood. Good, uh, I mean, not good at all, but not as bad as his screams make it sound. I push the knight, who is trying to stop the bleeding, completely out of the way as I move the darkness into his arm and stop the bleeding. They must have heard me earlier or been watching me because none of them say anything; they just watch me work.
Huh... It's just like before. It's as if my body is moving on its own. But it's not like I'm possessed or anything. It's just me directing the magic, as if I've done it before but forgotten, or something... 'For the thousandth time today, this is no time to be distracted, Seina.'
Here, for quick treatment and without the rest of the arm in sight, maybe it's best to cut even a little more of the arm. This time from the junction at the elbow, leaving some skin I can use to close the wound. I repeat the same as before, moving nerves, vessels, tissue. Then glue. Then strengthen.
"Phew..." I let out a sigh when I'm done.
It's kind of annoying and stressful, but very satisfying at the same time! To see that he's no longer bleeding and screaming. Though he still looks very disturbed. I wish I had regular healing magic, they say you just cast a preset spell and it'll heal on its own...
But something inside me tells me that my method is more accurate, versatile, and useful overall.
"Um, sorry," I say.
"H-huh?"
"Oh, uh, I think you could have put it back together, but there's no time. I hear Mara's church can regrow limbs, if you can afford it." I say absentmindedly, looking around for any other major injuries.
"That's more than enough. You have my thanks." A voice behind me says. It's the knight from before. He seems to have finished analyzing the big xeno, I guess the guy I treated isn't in the mood for conversation.
I walk over to the knight with the broken arms to do the same to him as I did to myself, while the others continue the conversation.
"Marcus! Report."
"Captain! Eight survivors relatively unharmed, seventeen casualties, red flare over there."
We look in the direction he is pointing.
And indeed, there is a trail of red smoke rising into the sky. Red being an emergency signal, if I remember correctly? I help the young knight to his feet, this time only healing his broken bones together as they would have done naturally, to save energy. Although I don't feel my magic diminishing in the slightest.
Curious.
"We will honor the fallen when the battle is over. Move!"
"YES CAPTAIN!"
He looks at me, "Miss, I shouldn't ask a civilian to fight too, but your skills will be very useful, you will be rewarded if-"
"Lead the way," I reply, daring to interrupt him.
"Right."
As we hurry through the deserted streets, I notice that this time I didn't mind interrupting someone while they were talking. Adrenaline, maybe? Even I can tell this is no time to worry about manners.
A few blocks later, we find a large group surrounding… perhaps a hundred creatures, encircling them in a very large circle of blue fire.
"Ah," I look around, and the knights I came with are gone. Mm, I guess they joined the many wizards, knights, soldiers, and other people whose jobs I don't understand.
Anyway... They're keeping the monsters at bay, but they don't seem to be harming them much. I can also make out some of the bigger monsters, like the one who beat me up, among the black mass of hellish creatures.
"Seina!?" I turn around and see Nicole running towards me as she hustles several people away. That's rude.
"Nico- OW OW OW OW! STOP!" I reply as she suddenly tugs my ear a little, even though I say it's only a little, fox ears are very sensitive. Imagine someone tugging your nipples; well, it's something like that.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!!!?"
"Calm down! And let me go! I can kill them, look." I say, showing her a ball of darkness I create in the palm of my hand. While with the other hand I rub my poor battered ear... which she lets go at the sight of my hand. It's been ages since I've heard her scream. I guess she was worried to see me here. Which warms my heart, but makes me a little scared by her very unusually loud voice.
"You awakened another magic!?"
"Yes! I can also use it to heal, somehow." I say, reassured by her expression, which suddenly changed from a frown to an excited one.
That brings her back to her senses.
"You've been hurt," she states, rather than asks, seeing my disheveled hair and fur and torn, dirty clothes.
"Yes... Sorry, I got careless and one of the big ones hit me. I managed to protect myself, but it still sent me flying. But I healed myself! Look!"
I lift up my sweatshirt and shirt, or what's left of them.
My pink bra is a little frayed in the middle, but otherwise my skin is flawless, save for a bit of dirt at worst.
"We're outside."
"AAAH!" Damn it! I was so relieved to see Nicole that I forgot we were in the middle of the main street; I guess most of the attention is on the creatures trapped in the fire, but there are still people around.
"No! Let me see properly," my cousin says as she lifts my clothes again and looks closely at my skin, 'a... a.. a.. aaaAAAAAAAHHH', drawn by our screams, I can now see several people looking at me!!! Many of them go on their way or look away, but some of them are clearly looking...
"I'M FINE, THAT'S ENOUGH!" Luckily, she lets me go after a few seconds, but my red face won't return to its normal color anytime soon.
"Huh. I don't remember the last time I heard you scream… Whatever, I have to make sure. My aunt will kill me if something happens to you," she slowly regains her lazy look.
"I told you I'm healed, right!?"
"Well, yes, but you're the type to hide your problems behind a smile,"
"... What are you all waiting for here, anyway?" I look away and change the subject.
"There are too many of them to kill all at once, but at least we found out that they are afraid of the hottest fire. That's why the blue flames. We managed to corner them, but keeping this up is very tiring, so to avoid deaths, we mages will take turns keeping the flames going until more help arrives,"
We both look at the black mass of death writhing in the circle of fire.
"Uh, from the rooftops, I killed all the ones I could see, but there might be more out there; I'll help." I tell her.
"Oh? I need to see that." She says, following me closer to get an unobstructed view.
Mmm... That's quite a lot. I feel like I have a plenty of magic left. When I use natural darkness, though, I don't feel any depletion. I guess I'll save some more.
I reach out my hand towards the mass of xeno-whatever-they-are-called and picture a sharp sword in my mind... Hm, I think that should work, but I've never held a sword before, so the magic might not be as sharp and strong as it should be.
Let's focus on something more familiar, then.
I picture the sharpest thing I've ever seen. A concertina wire. The cut scars on my dad's and brother's hands were a constant reminder never to go near that devil's wire covered in razors. Who could have come up with something so evil? Regular barbed wire is more than enough.
Remembering the time I helped bandage my brother's blood-dripping hand, I see a very thin blade of dark magic appear. It's about... I don't know, about thirty feet long? Well, like a colossal scythe at knee level, yeah. When I decide it's solid enough, I throw it at the creatures' legs.
And... it works like a charm. Ignoring the roar, which changes from anger to pain, I focus one half of my mind on pushing as hard as I can and the other half on keeping the magic within the circle of fire. With the blade being so long, it would be easy for me to cut someone standing too close to the fire.
After a few seconds or minutes, I cut off the legs of all the monsters and killed a few unlucky ones that had their heads too close to the ground.
Success! Well, not yet. But at least that will make them much more vulnerable. I'll rest for a bit and then go help the wounded.
"Haa..." I sigh and decide to sit down on the ground.
"... That was amazing. I saw a steel sword bounce off their skin earlier." Nicole says as we watch everyone shooting at the monsters.
Wait, that really wasn't too hard; should I have cut higher and killed them? Mm, well, never mind.
"It's cool, isn't it?"
"But what did you have in mind when you made the sword? It certainly had a strange shape."
"The razor wire from the barnyard at home." I explain.
She doesn't answer me. Instead, she gives me a look of understanding, turns around a bit, pulls down her clothes and shows me her bare shoulder, where you can see a small old scar, just under an inch long.
"I see what you mean; I got this when I was a kid."
"Huh, wow… At least it's barely visible, so don't worry."
"Wait, we've bathed together countless times. You've never seen it before?" She asks.
"... I-I got distracted every time." I answer, unable to look her in the eye anymore.
"..."
"I mean, um, I almost always turn my back to you in the shower." I try to reply, but-
"If you've already lost, you should stop fighting. You'll only embarrass yourself more"
"Never mind. I'll go to help. See you later."
I walk away before she can speak.