*(Evaria)
Damn! That scared me half to death! If I hadn't prepared to deflect before hand, my waist would have been sliced clean off. What a monster! Is this what they call an S rank?
The pinnacle of magical girls, the most that people achieved after accruing experience and training is B rank. Maybe A if they were a little talented. There exists an insurmountable gap between the tip of normalcy of A rank, and the ever elusive S rank.
To bridge that gap, only someone with a little talent like me, who after much effort managed to get A rank after years of training and finding enlightenment. And a skill, {Calamity}, that was made to produce tricks could somewhat manage. Those specs were ridiculous! She was actively exerting more strength and speed as she went along, meanwhile that was the full output of {Calamity}. It might sound cool, but it wasn't that strong.
The reason she felt so much resistance, was because I stood ready and gathered plenty of magic, in a precisely curated stance for deflecting blade slashes. If she simply tried to thrust instead, I might have been done for, hahaha... What {Calamity} did was to bend light rays and create physical illusion to make myself look strong and confident. Big and intimidating, it was akin to the tactics that a prey in nature would use...
Things will remain magical as long as the underlying mechanism is concealed. As long as Taneda doesn't unravel that concept to its fullest, Evaria will not take damage. Though Evaria has to put full effort into avoiding attacks, reality will subtly bend in a way that makes it borderline possible. The world supports her lies, her facades, she'll abuse it to the full extent to achieve her goals.
Taneda turned around, sword in hand. Steam rose out of her breath, glistening beads sliding down her temples. Even then, it wasn't her full exertion. Her figure vanished once more, showing the difference in strength. It was so drastic that it practically felt unfair. Evaria's figure side steps, it wasn't enough. Taneda flashes through Evaria's stature, her body explodes into smoke. Before the smoke obscures everything in sight, Taneda swings her sword, creating pressurised wind that swept it away.
Just as she swung, an invisible fist crashes into her face. Evaria's strength could never match Taneda's, but it was jsut enough to do some damage if Taneda completely let her guard down. Taneda regained her footing and turned towards Evaria, only to see that she was quite some distance away. It felt like a fist, but Evaria shouldn't be able to pull off moving that fast before Taneda did. A long range attack?
"Tch, {Calamity}... How troublesome." (Taneda)
With a single shift in her foot, her body flashes forward without a single pause. She was irritated enough to put all of her power into it this time, her blade thrusts in a straight line reminiscent of a bullet. In the fast velocity, the blade of pure azure hue pierces the elusive flesh... Only for it to fade into floating ash. A smile on the false Evaria mocks her.
Swiftly, Taneda brings the flat of her blade behind her, blocking an attack. A moderate pressure impacts her sword, relatively straining Taneda's wrist.
"{Fated ones evanescent dream} core function, auto block. Attacks are detected, and defence multiplies by making use of brute strength through blocking or parrying. " (Taneda)
She didn't reveal this feature of her skill for nothing, it was a threat. To tell Evaria that whatever tricks she employed, it would all be futile as long as she could not pierce this blade. Even without her sword, Taneda would still pose as an absolute threat to her life. With her strength, she could rip people apart like children do with toys.
Evaria's figure walks closer, a display of blatantly ignoring Taneda's last warning. Why S rank? Why was the sentinel so overwhelmingly powerful? How were there enough of them for every zone? Taneda was in charge of every zone ending with an 'A'. Theoretically there are 26 series of these zones, each ending with a different letter. However, it wouldn't be surprising if the actual number was drastically different, each residential zone was large enough to house 3-6 million people, not to mention the commercial zones that aren't included in this figure.
For every series of zones, there's up to 2000 magical girls, with less than 4 S ranks. Usually there is only 1, but geographic distribution isn't always accurate. It depended on how much danger the zones were facing from threats outside of humanity.
Evaria's figure closes the distance, without any time to react her neck was pierced by Taneda's azure blade, a large hole blew into her flesh before it vanishes into smoke. From outside the smoke, the real Evaria thrusts a normal steel blade, reminiscent of the material used to make kitchen knives. Taneda's wrist bends drastically and serves into the air below Evaria's arm, striking her waist. This time, there was real blood dripping onto the ground, indicating that this wasn't an illusion.
Blood gushes up her gullet and spills out of her throat, staining her cherry lips with crimson roses. Her left hand grasps the wound tightly as she stares intently at Taneda. Not once did her widened bloodshot eyes leave its target, stressing her mind by pushing its vigilance to the max.
"Core function 2, auto-attack. Within a certain radius your presence will be detected and coutnerattacked." (Taneda)
"PFT! Yeah, yeah. Keep showing off, who do you think those two will side with?" (Evaria)
She spat the blood gathering at the back of her jaw. Her lips reddened by the blood, she sneered in derision.
"... I've already said, I don't need their sympathises. If they fought me, I'll defeat all of you." (Taneda)
The worst part was that she had the strength to do the part, Evaria exercised caution and still caught a large gash into her arm, the illusion made it look like the blade had pierced her hip when Evaria felt something was off and stepped to the side.
Her situation was precarious and she didn't want to reveal too many cards. Even these illusion based tricks was still scratching the surface. She was willing to risk her life, but not to bare everything she had.
Perhaps it was time to really risk her life... No, what was she thinking? Simply being here was lethal enough, Taneda could punch a hold through her flesh with her knuckles alone. From the start she had been using all of strength even if she kept a lid over her other tricks. She had to accept that she was far weaker compared to Taneda even if she had been training for years.
Long had she vacated from her spot, after spitting blood to draw Taneda's attention, only a light illusion was left in her place.