The calendar listened, but it still took three days.
Filia, Ashley, and I were once again standing in the wide-open wilderness, in the same place where Ashley and I had fought a week prior. Filia and I walked out onto the battleground, which was sparsely covered with withered, thin, yellow-ish vegetation, and stood facing one another.
“I never thought the day would come when I’d fight you, Filia,” I said.
I’d had her blast me with her magic before, but that had just been training. Today wasn’t a training session. This was real combat. Of course, this wasn’t the kind of fight where we’d be taking each other’s lives or anything. Still, I had no intention of holding back.
“Do your best, Filia!” called Ashley.
Filia nodded. “Yeah, I’ll do my best for you!”
Wait, had they become friends during their training or something? Ashley was cheering for Filia, and Filia was responding with a big smile.
Well, whatever. I didn’t really care, but it still kinda felt like I was playing the part of the bad guy.
“Get a good look, Yuri! Filia is going to work you over!”
“Yep!” Filia added. “I’m seriously going to pop you one!”
“What does ‘pop me one’ even mean?” Huh, that was curious. When Ashley looked over to me, she had a smile of satisfaction on her face. Her red twin tails looked nice against the setting sun.
“Heh! You’ve fallen for it, Yuri. The onomatopoeia we’ve used, ‘pop,’ is part of a strategy we’ve been agonizing over for the past week, so that we can keep you from being able to focus on battle!” said Ashley, pointing at me enthusiastically.
Filia groaned. “Ashley, it doesn’t work if you tell him.”
Ashley blinked. “J-just…forget about that last part, okay?!”
“Talk about sloppy,” I muttered.
Then again, if their strategy was to break my concentration, they were kinda doing that right now. A little bit. But once we actually started to fight, it wouldn’t matter at all. I’d just toss all of those distracting thoughts right out of my mind.
“Phew.”
I let out a deep breath. I exhaled the air out of my lungs, sucked in fresh air, and turned all my attention toward the battle. In battle mode, my mind was clear and sharp. My thoughts were focused only on achieving victory. I released my muscles, and now, standing there with my much larger body, I looked over at Filia, who was just about ten feet away.
“Filia, you ready? I’m all set.”
“Yes. I’m ready whenever you are.” Filia returned my gaze with her own, looking straight at me with her silver eyes. I sensed no speck of fear in her gaze, none whatsoever. All I could sense reflected in her glittering gaze was a powerful sense of determination.
I couldn’t help but smile at that. This was great. This was super great! It was impossible for me not to smile when I had someone so strong looking right at me like that.
We faced each other.
In the next instant, as the heavenly bodies of generations looked down upon us from above the thin cloud cover, Filia made her move.
“I’m not going to hold back!” shouted Filia.
A giant made of winds enveloped her body: the Wind God. Filia played her hand, suddenly using the best ability she had at her disposal. The Wind God threw a punch at me with swiftness that belied its massive size.
“That’s it!” I roared. “Come at me!”
I countered the oncoming wind fist with my Pistol Punch. The figure of the giant shuddered for a moment, but my attack wasn’t enough to cancel it out. Its fist came closer and closer to me. Yeah, this was the stuff. This was the kind of moment that made fighting worth it.
“Take this!” I threw a direct punch at the giant. The titan collided with my well-trained fist, and one of its arms dissipated.
“Wh-wha?!”
Filia let out a cry of surprise, but I was even more shocked. I couldn’t believe that the Wind God was so tough that I couldn’t destroy its whole body even after a direct punch. On top of that, the wind rushing out from the collapse of the giant’s arm knocked me off balance.
No way was Filia going to let that chance pass her by. She cast fire magic at me.
“Hrgh!” I took the blast head-on. My clothes were burned up, but my body wasn’t damaged. “Is that it?”
“Jeez, you really aren’t human at all,” Filia grumbled. “Maybe you could go a little easy on me?”
I took a step to the side and gave Filia a look. In the next instant, lightning struck the spot where I’d just stood. “Nice try, but I’m not gonna let my guard down so easily.”
It was clever of her to prepare that spell while talking to me, but I wasn’t gonna be done in by something so trivial. She’d probably poured all of her might into that attack.
Filia looked on with a tight smile, her cheeks twitching. “How did you know? That I was preparing to cast my magic, I mean?”
“Intuition.”
“That’s so not fair!” Filia moaned.
“More importantly, though, you okay? Because I can see that you’re wide open right now,” I replied, plotting how to get in closer. The giant had already reformed its arm, but once I got within arm’s reach, it would be difficult for it to use any powerful attacks. Filia knew that if she carelessly let the giant throw a punch too soon, she might become collateral damage.
“Wait! Don’t come any closer!” Filia cast fire and wind magic at me, but I ignored the damage and charged straight at her.
“Somethin’ like that’s not gonna stop me!” I went straight for Filia and smacked the wind giant enveloping her. For a moment, my fist was pushed back by the wind giant’s body—but it soon broke through and reached Filia.
“Ugh!”
Filia went flying, and I chased after her. She’d collapsed on the ground. I straddled her chest now, my fist at the ready.
“You still wanna do this, Filia?”
“I still do! I’m…not…going to lose!”
Filia still wasn’t giving up? I was a little surprised at that. If this had been the old Filia, we would’ve been done right then and there. There had been some kind of change in her mental state or something. Or maybe Ashley’s training had had a positive effect on her?
But if we kept going from here, I was gonna have to actually hurt Filia. I really wanted to avoid that. I was glad Filia was so determined now, but I was somewhat less than stoked about it at a time like this.