Someone had to stop Elyliyah, and right now, Homura was the only one who still had the strength left to do it. She hadn’t meant to punch Elyliyah like that, but her mind was made up. She was ready. Deep down, she already knew what she needed to do.
“A fight? Punishment? You don’t get it…,” said Elyliyah, standing up slowly. The burn on her cheek had already healed. “This is about to be an execution.”
Homura did not flinch. The two squared off, creating distance between themselves.
“I, Elyliyah, use bloodtempering magic. Do you know what that is? I manipulate spilled blood, using it to create iron weapons and armor,” she explained dryly, her words laced with venom.
“I think I figured that out already…”
After watching the fight earlier, Homura didn’t need Elyliyah to explain how her powers worked. But that wasn’t the point Elyliyah was trying to make.
“And just how much blood do you think was spilled in Aurerich today…?”
“Hold on a second…”
A trickle of cold sweat ran down the side of Homura’s face.
Elyliyah forcefully stabbed her needle-mitts, already coated with her own blood, into the stone tiles at her feet. The ground began to pulsate, centered on the point where Elyliyah’s fist met the ground.
“This looks bad… Everybody, run!” shouted Torreque as he began to hightail it. The priestess, who had healed him, followed hot on his heels, as did the other soldiers in the area. Psycho and the other girls, however, stopped once they were outside the plaza, taking up positions to watch the fight.
The pulse spread beyond the plaza, soon engulfing the entire town.
“Oh shoot, oh shoot, oh shoot…!” said Homura.
“Gouge! Rip! Crush! Tear! Rend them to pieces!”
Slowly, gravely, Elyliyah began to withdraw her needle-mitts from the ground. As the long spikes rose out of the ground, bloody pillars of mist began to rise throughout town in tandem to the movement of her fist, like liquid being drawn through a pump. The pillars drew closer, converging on the plaza.
“Hurricane…”
As Elyliyah loudly chanted her spell, the torrent of blood began to swirl into a circle, creating a massive spinning wheel of blood mist.
“…chainclaw…!!!”
Large, sharp metal fragments began to form along the outer edge of the bloody whirlwind, transforming it into a gigantic circular saw—or perhaps a chainsaw.
The enormous, fearsome wheel reminded Homura of a piece of ultra-large heavy machinery known as a bucket-wheel excavator.
“………”
As Homura stared at Elyliyah’s creation, slack-jawed, all her extra rage and fire promptly sputtered out.
“Um, guys…maybe we should fight this one together?”
For a huge enemy like this, wasn’t it better to join hands and work as a group?
“Hey, you started this fight!”
“I’m rooting for you!”
“Good luck!”
“Good luck…Homura…!”
Unfortunately, none of the others seemed particularly interested in holding Homura’s hand right now. Homura’s friends continued to watch from positions of safety outside the plaza.
“Come on, you guyyys… Whoaaaaa!!”
Homura’s first act of battle was to dive blindly out of the way as the chainsaw hurtled toward her, chewing through the stone pavement as it passed. She had really messed up this time!
“In case you were wondering, I don’t plan on killing you quickly,” said Elyliyah.
But if that was the case, she should probably put that chainsaw away. Homura would be lucky to survive even a nick from that thing!
Whenever Elyliyah thrust her needle-mitts forward through the air, the chainsaw hurtled across the ground as if it was being pushed. The thing was fast. However, it moved mostly in a straight line, and after each strike, there was a pause before she could redirect it again.
A counterattack—that’s what was needed! Homura spouted flames as she ran away. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough strength behind her fire. The chainsaw was circulating at such high speeds that it had created its own sheath of wind, preventing Homura’s half-hearted flames from reaching the metal claws inside.
Homura’s eyes darted back and forth. She needed to find a weak point. Just then, she realized there was something strange about Elyliyah, the caster of the spell. Elyliyah hadn’t moved one step from where she stood when she had first cast the spell. In fact, she looked a little wobbly on her feet. Perhaps using such an enormous spell had made her woozy.
“I’ve got it! A direct attack!”
Before the chainsaw could come her way again, Homura began running. After getting torn up by so many passes of the chainsaw, the ground was now littered with rubble, and the footing was poor. Homura nearly tripped several times, but she ran like her life depended on it.
If Elyliyah was woozy, that meant she was open. Attacking her now was Homura’s best bet.
“I’ve got you—!!”
Homura charged her staff with flames, drawing close enough to ensure she would flambé Elyliyah even if she fired randomly.
Elyliyah showed no signs of trying to get out of the way. Just as Homura suspected, using such powerful magic seemed to have divided her attention.
But something wasn’t right. Just as Homura was about to release her flames, she began to wonder why Elyliyah would even use such a spell in the first place if it left her defenses wide-open. She must have something else up her sleeve.
But it was too late. Elyliyah had already kicked, her foot centimeters from the side of Homura’s face.
The kick hit Homura hard and sent her flying. Her staff clattered loudly against the stone pavement.
“What, did you think I couldn’t use martial arts while in this state? I could kill a talentless worm like you while half asleep,” Elyliyah said, sneering at Homura, who was sprawled on the ground. For Elyliyah, mere reflexes were enough against someone so unskilled in close combat.