Blade Over Magic

Sibling’s Fight

Meanwhile, behind interminable layers of space time.

The clash between Mary and her sister was utterly cataclysmic.

Winds of terrifying power swept through the place as two figures flashed around at utterly absurd speeds. All sorts of spells being thrown between them as if a normal person were to find themselves in such an area, their entire body would be erased before they could even register where they were.

Mary crossed her arms as she was smashed downwards by her sister, her body smashing through layers of space as the attack was immediately followed up by the head of a massive eagle forming from wind. Her sister gazed down coldly as the eagle opened its beak, and a horrific attack made from countless rotating rings of wind poured down, the density of each one enough to make a hurricane look weak.

Mary stabilized herself and aimed a hand at the incoming attack. It suddenly halted as though another force had taken hold of it, and Mary clenched her fist as it vibrated before exploding into clouds of wind.

This was the reality of two beings with similar attributes fighting one another. In the end, it came down to who had better control over the element as they could constantly interfere with the spells of the other person.

| Your authority isn’t half bad. | Mary’s expression changed as she leaned back, the talons of her sister swiping at where her head had been, leaving gashes in space. Mary swung her arm, and her sister swung one of her wings, and both clashed before both sides were pushed back, the attacks canceling each other out.

| You’re so much stronger now, so how are you still being controlled?! | The sister screamed as she made a motion of pressing her taloned hands together, and wind coalesced to create two massive talons that aimed to crush Mary between them.

Mary rotated a finger at each of them, and two vortex appeared before they could crush her, the wind carrying a terrifying suction force as the constructs were sucked into them and broken down, their power being assimilated as Mary brought the vortexes together, the suction force inverting to unleash a hyper-compressed beam of wind at her sister.

| Even if there is an Archmage, surely an opportunity to flee must have arose, right? RIGHT?! | The sister screeched, her body moving at blinding speeds, and above her, a majestic gate of wind hundreds of meters tall manifested and began to open.

Mary narrowed her eyes at this scene. Wind coalesced by her side and formed into a clone of her, said clone shooting off towards the opening gate that began to exhibit a terrifying pressure, like something ancient was about to emerge.

| Tell me, what is it? Is it some spell? I can break it for you, I promise. Or maybe they are holding a portion of your soul? Or is it brainwashing? Yes. That has to be it! There’s no way my sister, my sweet sister... | She started crying, but her actions did not reflect that as a massive hurricane bloomed beneath her feet, once more made of those countless spinning rings of wind. The pressure was astounding as the surroundings began to tremble ominously.

The pressure from her sister, the hurricane, and the gate her clone was struggling to keep closed, all of it put a strain on Mary as her eyes narrowed.

This scene felt a bit familiar, if she was being honest.

She remembered it clearly, it was a long time ago, but it was hard to forget.

Her sister, she was always the strong one between the two of them.

Among their siblings, Mary wasn’t very remarkable. Whether it was her natural control over the wind, the size of her true form, her ability to interact with concepts, she just seemed... inferior on all fronts.

It was so bad that the one who formed them. Their parent, paid no attention to her.

None of them did.

But her sister was different.

She would always carry Mary along, bringing her to see things she thought were interesting. Helping her control her own abilities better, and so on.

Back then, Mary thought she felt something close to a bond.

And yet as time passed, something happened.

Mary wasn’t made privy to it, she never was. All she knew was that her sister and the other siblings had met with their parent who told them something.

From that day onward, her sister changed.

Suddenly, she became obsessed with ’protecting’ Mary.

She always kept Mary within her line of sight, never allowing her to stray too far away. Always watching what she did. If Mary did something she did not like, even if it wasn’t inherently bad, she would begin to act up.

When Mary asked her why she suddenly became like that, she only got the same response that she needed to be protected.

This all came to a head when one day, Mary had wandered off on her own.

There really was no danger in doing so. After all, the place they called their home was far removed from any civilization. After all, it was within another dimension entirely. And inside, their parents had absolute sovereignty. So Mary was never truly in any danger.

She just moved farther out than she usually did.

That day, her sister had gone off somewhere to do something, and Mary wanted to explore.

However, it wasn’t long that she had achieved her goal of traveling farther when before she could react, something crashed down on her like a rocket, smashing her into the ground and throwing up a huge plume of dust.

The impact incapacitated her immediately, but she retained consciousness. Hence, she witnessed a sight that etched itself into her memory like a hot branding iron.

Her sister in her true form, a massive eagle with a wingspan that could blot out the sky, the wind mana she gave off so dense that were they not within their parent’s domain, natural disasters would have formed simply from her existing.

And those eyes.

Eyes filled with frantic, boiling rage that threatened to drown everything.

Mary didn’t remember exactly what was said after that, her mind still hazy from the pain. But she knew that she had been roared at before her sister began to weep for some unknown reason.

Then she covered her in her wings as she muttered over and over about how Mary needed to be protected at all costs.

No matter what.

No matter what.

The flashback went as quickly as it came as Mary’s eyes showed no fear, no panic. Only calm determination.

Her sister’s power was stifling. Even more than it had been so long ago, but...

Mary was no longer the same either.

Once again, she inhaled, then exhaled.

Only this time, it was no normal exhale. Instead, the sound seemed to echo throughout the entire space as a shocking scene played out after.

The giant gate above and the massive hurricane below... started to get dispersed!

Mary’s sister immediately turned somber as she felt Mary seamlessly seize control over both attacks and cancel them, and she was then flung backwards by Mary who... began to stretch?

Mary’s sister watched in confusion as the girl she saw as nothing other than someone to be protected... held up her hands in a strange manner, and her body taking on a strange form.

What was she trying to do? Cast a spell? But that made no sense. She was a spirit, they didn’t need to do any strange rituals or long casts to make a spell. They just did.

But... if that’s what she was trying to do...

Her figure blinked as she appeared in front of Mary in the next instant, her talons covered in swirling tendrils of wind as she thrust forward at Mary’s chest.

| I just need to interrupt you! | There was a manic grin on her face as her talons inched closer.

She didn’t need to kill Mary. Just injure her heavily. After all, she was a spirit, she wouldn’t die from simply having her chest impaled. However, she could still feel pain. All she needed to do was make her feel so much pain that she couldn’t resist anymore. It sounded bad, but how did humans say it? Something about a rod?

However, the scene she expected to play out.. did not happen.

Instead, Mary’s hand swiped to the side, but it wasn’t actually forceful. At least not as much forced compared to what was currently barreling towards her.

But amazingly... the thrust got redirected to the side!

Before she could react, Mary suddenly thrust her palm forward, and Mary’s sister reinforced her body with wind to endure the impact.

Yet when Mary’s palm made contact with her chest, her eyes bugged out as she felt her defenses... get bypassed entirely!

The force behind the strike was nothing to write home about, and yet...

The wind was, ironically, knocked out of her as she staggered back, clutching her chest as she looked at Mary with wide eyes.

| Y-You...! | Mary simply looked at her as she maintained her stance.

Yes, stance.

Because Xander hadn’t only taught the trio how to fight. No, Mary participated as well. And the stance she held...

Resembled the Horse Stance of Kung Fu!