*
"Reality... Isn't so kind!" (Sariel)
We lock swords, over and over. Her 'blade' of gravity waves and substitution, and mine of magical energy with makeup unique to {Feed}. I can convert ambient energy to magical energy, and subsequently it changes to a unique type of magical energy that can amplify my parameters. Physical strength, durability, agility, reaction speed, magic quantity, arcane resistance... An all rounder that makes me stronger and faster to recover.
It could even solidify into a blade like this. The blades interweave in the air like an elegant dance, swerving and slicing with unhindered violence. The collisions formed release waves of destruction, pressuring the air into slicing across the ground. As the dance progressed, the battlefield is increasingly riddled with scars. Despite the harshness of battle, her eyes scan the field with immense clarity. Lucid details fly by, barely registering as a blip in her mind, they are quickly processed and disposed to leave only the useful information of battle.
Sparks fly as I pull my blade back against hers, her sword pushes forward and dips lower, while mine rises in opposition. The point where they press against one another is also brought towards me, bringing me closer to where the pressure would erupt. One slip up and either blade could slice into me. Just because I regenerate fast as a magical girl, didn't mean that I couldn't feel pain. I shot my body like an arrow, sending a flying kick towards her.
In one swift motion, I landed on my feet due to her quick evasion and flicked my wrist, slamming my blade towards the right. This time the blades were closer to her, reversing our positions smoothly. I step back, draw my blade with me and swung once more. She reverses her grip, pointing her blade downwards as she run towards me. The blades slid against one another with fierce sparks before she twisted her torso and spun away her sword from mine, swinging from the outside.
My wrist firmly readjusts for an overhead, my life leg strikes her shoulder and my blade swung down, shutting down her maneuvre. Rapidly she jumps back and swings once more with a leap. I meet it head on though her landing begins to pressure me towards the ground. Her right leg makes a clean strike, sending me into the ground. Swiftly, she reverses her grip and was about to thrust it into my neck. I swerve my head to my right and strike with my sword...
She pulls her body back with her spine, barely dodging the strike that would have penetrated her clavicle and severed her lung. I jump back and dissolve my sword, rapidly firing my magic as bullets. I was closer to a long range magical girl than a melee one... Anymore and I might have become careless. She already knocked me down once and barely missed my head, my kicks don't have the skill or strength to do the same.
She swiftly side steps, dodging the magic arrows, leaving them to cause explosions in the ground behind her. One of them grazes her neck, and another strikes the centre of her knee.
"!??" (Sariel)
Taking advantage of her surprise, another hits her shoulder and then the hurt. Multiple arrows batter into her body, the magic lodges in her flesh ready to detonate. Still, she closes the distance with her sword, slicing the next few arrows that come straight at her. Her evasive manuevres were easy for me to read, likewise the trajectory of my arrows weren't any different. They both could be read and adapted to, they weren't unsolvable and insurmountable barriers presented by the heavenly king.
She slips close, radiating interference waves invisible to the naked eye. A sword sticks into my neck, I assumed she had been aiming for my head... For a quick death. Well, ever since I achieved an A grade level of combat potential, it felt like even losing my heart and vital organs would be fine. If it was the 'me' from the very start, she would take months to heal or simply die from being unable to bear the burden of healing.
I am different. Even if we bear the same face, the same body, the same cells. My neck twitches with the deep gash lodged by the sword. A single swift motion and she can cut the ground up along with the rest of my neck, combat between magical girls were never normal. A sword being stuck in a corpse or lodged into the ground? Cleave away any obstacle and unlodge it yourself. Lifting my body with my left arm, I swung my right into her head. A punch reinforced by 'Pandora' is still deadly, even if it was from a disadvantageous position like this.
I am stronger than before. That's no exaggeration, it's a result piled upon the corpses of countless previous Lastias. I could certainly be unique in thinking it in this way, but I don't think any 'me's would ever deride the efforts of the past.
Sariel is thrown backwards by the punch, barely giving me the chance to stand back up. There's no need to beat around the bush, she knows how to counter my attacks, or even fake her own carelessness to lower my guard. Decisively, she will strike and bring me to the ground where I am vulnerable. Magical girls still move like human beings, we still need to use muscles and bones for locomotion. In a dire situation we could use magical energy to substitute chemical energy like ATP, and we can use it to move our limp bodies like puppets...
In the end it's always preferable to stick closer to the concept of a human and fight without injuries. The fact that it's so hard to kill each other should be reassuring, there was a fatal way to resolve the conflict, but we didn't have to die for it. She has a radiowave attack that could paralyse my body, the natural move is to keep some distance and fire from afar.
She can close the distance with {Swap}, but she can't fire off attacks at long range. Her primary weapon is her sword forged from numerous A rank Trace parts. Parts that survive destruction of the main body, persisting in this world. Usually a Trae vanishes after death, remaining meant that it could store magic energy and extend its own life span. Sure enough, Sariel reappeared nearby with both her swords drawn.