“Hydro Blast… Now I can use my magic?”

  After all of this time, Kiana is finally successful in using a magic spell. It seems whoever was doing the magic jam, either has left or got bored of messing with her. Well, she still has no clue who did this and she also does not know why either. It does not matter how much she tries to search her memory; she can’t find anyone or any reason for anyone to do this to her. And you can bet everything that you have on you in this precise moment that she's more than annoyed at this situation.

  Blast! Woosh!

  She gently throws the Hydro Blast at the fire wall, creating a massive steam explosion when it makes contact with. Just to get an idea, Hydro Blast is basically a ball made of water, one that when it comes in contact with anything, it explodes, nothing out of this world, depending on the amount of magic on it that is. It’s a C+ rank spell, but in the hands of someone with great amounts of magic energy, it can easily reach higher than B rank. Moving on, a massive steam cloud eats away basically the entire arena, covering Kiana and Alice if she didn’t jump backwards, leaving the steam cloud entirely with it. Just like with the Flame Walls, her instincts and battle experience told her to get away, but by doing so she has lost visual contact with Kiana, and since she does not have the skill Magic Sense, she really has no clue where she might be. There is something in the back of her mind telling her that Kiana is fine and ready to keep on fighting her and with that, she will throw everything she has.

  “Miss Eris! This is the last one! Embrace yourself!”

  She shouts towards the steam cloud with all of her might. This really is the last attack, the last attempt to defeat Kiana and take the win. It has been a blast for her, she never expected that Kiana would be this strong and because of it, she was able to go almost all out. With this simple fact, she readies up. She drags her right foot forward a few centimetres and bends her knee a little bit also leaning forward said bit. Her left foot however, goes all the way backwards as far as she can, fully stretching her leg in the process. For last, with both of her hands embracing tightly the handle of her claymore, she brings it to her left and all the way backwards, until her body is unable to go even further, all of this while slightly bending it sideways to allow said movement, as she ready ups a strong attack. However, with the passing of time, the steam cloud starts to disappear, slowly revealing the familiar figure inside of it, but when that happens, something inside of Alice starts to turn around.

  The silhouette of this figure, a petite one and yet at the same time, it seems she’s the size of the world itself, ready to devour Alice completely. Her beautiful golden eyes, ones that even caught the attention of Alice thanks to their shine, a horrifying shine I must add, at least that is how Alice is seeing it. They are filled with magic, one that is far beyond what Alice can fathom let alone comprehend. Her elegant soft hair, one with the prettiest soft pink-platinum colour, sparkles from time to time thanks to that massive amount of magic. Ah, I more than understand what’s happening to Alice, and I must say, what an unfortunate time to learn that skill.

  A new skill has been learned - Magic Sense.

  The world has spoken to her, and with it, the sight in front of her devours her. A beauty to the viewer, a horror to who is facing her. As if the gods themselves are pranking Alice, what she sees turns her stomach around as she learns the ability to sense magic energy. Mind you, she’s not actually seeing it as this skill does not let the user see it, what she’s seeing is her brain trying to transform the information she’s getting into a concrete visualisation, one that happens to be quite accurate in this case indicating at the same tie that, she can and will learn the skill Magical Eyes. An aura that gently surrounds Kiana, one that is filled with pure magic, one that is the same colour as her golden eyes but with a few “details” with a darker shade of it. In this precise moment she sees just how weak and pathetic she is, but reality is often what one does not want it to be, what I mean is that, she’s a B- rank, acquiring this skill will not allow her to magically see how strong an opponent his if and only if, he’s far stronger than her. Yes, she’s limited to how much she can accurately gauge someone's magic level and consequently strength. This is only a fraction of Kiana's power and yet, it’s already too much for her.

  “Gasp!”

  Air is starting to become scarce somehow, no, she’s having troubles breathing thanks to the suffocation of Kiana magic. Sweat drips down her red cheeks, ones that are like that thanks to the battle, she’s not exhausted but that does not mean she didn’t “exercise” at all. This is all thanks to the skill that she just learned. Ah, why did she have to learn this amazing skill in this manner? Fate is cruel, something so useful for someone like her and yet, in mere instants, she has already experienced its ugly side.

  “Huff… Huff…”

  As her heart beat increases, her breathing does the same trying to keep on pumping oxygen into the heart. The temperature on her body rises well above what normally a human would have and at the same time, her vision starts to get blurry. Is she about to pass out? No, it’s something else.

  Drip!

  The sweat from her forehead happens to descend down into her eyes, blurring them somewhat. Nothing that a quick rub won’t fix. However, the sweat keeps on falling down, making her eyes blurry again and again. All thanks to the anxiety that she’s currently feeling and all of those horrifying feelings behind it. Despair, fear, dread, all of this is caused by the sheer amount of magic that our Kiana has. The sheer pressure said magic is emitting to the world and yet, the crowd is more than oblivious to this fact. Ah, ignorance truly is a blessing.

  “(Who… Who is she?)”

  She asks this question, but to herself only. Her mouth is wide open from the shock, therefore unable to let out what she wanted to ask. Who is she is a good question, all of this magic energy it’s not normal at all, but that is only for someone as “weak” as Alice. From how dense it is, it resembles a strong monster, one that easily is A rank at that.

  “(Is she A rank? Is this the power of an A rank? Am I really this weak compared to them?)”

  Reality often is disappointing and cruel, realising that it can be hurtful for anyone's mental state and wellbeing. This wall, Kiana to be more precise, she has to break it somehow or at the very least climb it. She has to make the first move, not because she thinks she can win, but because the despair is telling her to. Her own instincts are screaming at her to run, to escape, but her pride is keeping her here, standing still with her somewhat broken claymore.

  “(What should I do?)”

  Then, she starts to question herself, Kiana really feels something way too high for her to do something about it.

  “(No, I have to stand strong!)”

  And once again, her pride takes over her own rational thoughts.

  “(I will win!)”

  “Aaaaahhh!!!”

  Fwoosh! Fire noises!

  With her mind made up, with all of her courage gather up, she screams at the top of her lungs and with it, her claymore for one last time is ignited with blazing hot flames, ones that the moment they burst into it, a strong and deep “Fwoosh” sound follows it as the flames itself consume the air around the claymore. These flames are orange with tones of red and a darker shade of said red, just like the colour of her eyes. These flames of course are much hotter than the previous ones, reaching 770 degrees. This is everything that she has and even some more. She powers up for as long as she can, once done, she readies up her final attack, the true final attack, one with everything she has.

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  Yet, our Kiana simply stands still menacingly looking at Alice. What is going through her mind right now? Alice is putting all of her might behind her attack and yet, Kiana's mind is elsewhere. She’s not looking at Alice, no, she’s looking past her to a point where her mind is the only one that can tell what she’s seeing.

  “Unbelievable… How could I let someone do this to me?”

  Now I understand what’s going through her mind. She still is thinking about the magic jam that she suffered. Frustration, annoyance and even a bit of anger, these are her current feelings. For someone to do something like this to her and get away with it, they have to be at least S rank, or that’s what she thinks and even I to some extent. Someone of that calibre was near her and yet, nor I, the Hero and understandable so at my current situation, or her, we were not able to find out who it was. This failure, the anxiety of not knowing who or what is lurking here, with all of these bystanders and innocents is getting on her nerves, and unfortunately Alice is suffering thanks to it. Her Magical Girl persona is making her feel like this, if said person decided to do something, there is nothing that she could do to prevent it and from someone of that rank, it means instant death for everyone here except our Kiana.

  “Inferno Burst!”

  Bam! Fire noises!

  This truly is everything she has. The flames on her claymore burst into even hotter flames, not only that, they double the size of the claymore, half of it is the claymore itself while the rest is from the flames. These flames are now at 785 degrees, a bit above from before but nonetheless, still hot as hell. This Inferno Burst in Alice's hands is a spell that displays more power than her current B- rank, in other words, it is a B rank spell, one capable of doing a tremendous amount of damage and a display of powerful magic. If she wasn’t fighting Kiana that is. This beautiful display of magic power is nothing before Kiana. To a A- rank, a rank “only” two above the spell itself is magnitudes above Alice strength. This Inferno Burst is nothing more than an ant to an A-, now imagine Alice current rank to Kiana possible A rank. A mere dust particle wandering around in the air waiting to be blown away by the softest and gentlest breeze.

  Crack! Shatter!

  The final hit in the nail. A second or so of having those flames on it, her poor claymore breaks into several pieces, the blade of it is more correct. This happened not only thanks to the immense amount of magic energy and the sheer high temperature of the flames, but also thanks to combined damage that Kiana scissor did to it. The moment the claymore breaks, the flames have no place to “reside”, meaning that they disappear with the passing of time, fully gone in a second or so. All of this effort, gone just like this.

  “Wh-What? No way… the claymore broke…”

  Her eyes are wide open, her sharp eyes somewhat watery from this shock, or maybe it’s from the sweat. Her jaw is wide open, filled with disbelief and even despair. Her legs are shaking thanks to the realisation of what just happened. Yes, fear is starting to claw its way into her body and mind. The handle quickly falls from her hands as they lose strength and of course, shake uncontrollably right afterwards. I understand her emotions, if this was a real battle, your weapon breaking like this, it would mean the end for you. Ah, poor Alice, she didn’t deserve this, but unfortunately that’s life.

  “That’s enough!”

  A loud male voice quickly brings her back to reality and coincidently, at the same time the steam cloud clears up, revealing Kiana in the process. It seems Kiana is calmer now, much more so than before, at the very least her magic aura is gone.

  Way to Excited Teacher- Excellent job you two, in fact, fantastic! Brilliant display of swordsmanship and magic control! Shame that your claymore broke into pieces but either way, I would’ve stopped you. You were going way too far for a simple spar. However, I did really enjoy seeing the two of you fight.

  Alice- A-Ah, ye-yes, I got a little too excited... I was having a bit too much fun, Miss Eris really is strong.

  Kiana- I also had fun Miss Florence, but I have to get going. I can’t spend too much time here without at least checking the rest of the classes and such. Really, it was nice sparing with you, we should do it again some other day.

  Way to Excited Teacher- Already? Stay here for a little longer… Alright, if that’s the case then nothing we can do about it. If you change your mind, you’re more than welcome here! I would love to have you with us! And even our Alice-chan feels the same way.

  And so, with a massive and bright smile on his face he bids his goodbyes to Kiana, who before leaving, she walks up to Alice and gives a quick bow, followed by a quiet “sorry”. It seems she noticed Alice state after she let her magic aura go wild for a few moments.

  ........

  ......

  ...

  There are times when silence speaks loudly and this is one of them. Everyone here is in complete disbelief and shock at what they just saw. Alice, the strongest one here, or at least that is what they think, thought, she went toe to toe with a stranger, a complete and utterly stranger. To make it even more unbelievable, this stranger is nothing more than a young lady, one that is so pale that you would think she is sick. A lady that is for the small size, with slender features everywhere, her soft platinum-pink hair seems like the hair from a doll thanks to how soft it seems and from its colour. Her golden eyes are extremely captivating that’s for sure, but not threatening at all, and yet, someone with these features was able to keep up with Alice, a B- rank individual.

  A shock, a massive turn of events that none expected to happen, except for the teacher. He was the only one that seemed to have an inkling of what Kiana's strength could be, but of course, she surpassed all of his wide imagination. The same can be said about Alice to some extent, she trusts him, they have been together from some time now and through some stuff I would guess, but Kiana easily went way above what she was expecting. Experiencing it first-hand however, it’s something that only Alice can talk about it. The despair, fear, horror, all of these negative feelings that she got when sensed Kiana magic energy, what will they do to her? Will she use this experience as motivation to get stronger? Or will she fall into a depression because of it? Only she will tell us the story about it, but I do hope she will get out of here far stronger. She does seem like a good person with good morals so I really hope she can do it.

  Rude Student- Ha! I knew she was this strong! After all, she fought me and won! Only her and Miss Florence could do such a thing! Mhuahaha!

  Warry Student- Wait a second, are you saying that you could do the same thing? Go toe to toe with Miss Florence somehow? Or am I missing something from that amazing self-boast?

  Annoyed Female Student- Of course he couldn’t do it! He got defeated with a single punch! A single punch!

  Rude Student- That’s exactly why I said that! Didn’t you listen to what I said? Are you dumb or what? Whoever can defeat me with a single strike means that they are strong! Duh!

  Warry Student- Ah, is that so? You don’t say it? I couldn’t guess it if you didn’t say it!

  Annoyed Female Student- Argh, stop it! You’re so pathetic that even I could win against you with a single strike.

  Rude Student- Huh!? Wanna go, you bimbo? Think you can win against me?! Haha! Never!

  Annoyed Female Student- You know what? Yes, I will fight you! I will make you eat those words you idiot! Prepare yourself!

  Way to Excited Teacher- Alright! Alright! You can fight all you want in the arena, just calm down until then.

  “Sigh… It seems that I still have a long way to go. Not that I didn’t know that, but experiencing it first-hand sure does something to my confidence and pride of my very own strength.”

  All by herself and with the attention averted to those students, Alice talks to herself with a soft and quiet voice, but one filled with sadness behind it. It’s normal, in a sense her pride was more than humiliated by a fragile looking young lady, it was shattered to pieces as she sees this young lady's power, as she lets the fear crumble her own rational thought in the face of it. It’s more than normal that she would feel this way. In the silence taking everything that has happened mere moments ago, she keeps on staring at the silhouette of this figure getting smaller and smaller as said person walks off into the distance.

  ........

  ......

  ...

  A few minutes of aimless walking, Kiana is still trying to calm down from what just happened, though it seems that it's not going to be easy. She has her eyes almost glued to the tip of her boots, her head because of it, it’s slightly down allowing this to happen and with her eyebrows showing off just how annoyed she is, they are frowning in other words. It seems she put an “act” in front of Alice and those that were there. In reality, her mood is mere moments from exploding and of course, getting out of there was and is the best option. Now, she just needs to let it out, calmly though. At least that’s what I hope she does.

  “How in tarnation did I let something like that happen? I have absolute control of my magic and yet, somehow, they were able to cancel my magic… I think it was Dispel, that could explain a little bit. Right after I activated my spell, something or someone would destabilize it with Dispel, cancelling in the process. Argh! This is so ann-”

  But then fate decides to play with her current emotions, ones that, as I said before, are mere moments from exploding. She was walking around and letting out her frustration into the world when she sees something that quickly grabs her attention. It shut her up in that precise moment, leaving her jaw wide open at the same time. A scene that is so despicable that not only got on her nerves even more, it is also one that disgusts her.

  How come these people never learn?

  ……..

  ……

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