The ibex Cruelty moved faster than Ami remembered from the last time she’d fought one. Or maybe it only seemed faster, given she was purposefully standing right in its path. Either way, the monster’s horns were in her face a second later, whirling like a chainsaw. Prepping all her spells ahead of time had been the right idea.

  She was thankful the ibex had a one-dimensional battle plan. Someone like Adah was better suited for fighting Cruelties that liked to mix up their attacks, but when it came to contests of raw strength or speed, Ami felt unmatched. That’s why she had been so confident fighting that water strider yesterday. If all she had to do was outmaneuver a monster, then she’d make quick work of it.

  The ibex fell into the same category of Cruelty as the water strider, though it focused on power instead of agility. All it wanted to do was plow straight ahead with as much force as possible. All Ami had to do to defeat it was prove that she was stronger.

  The first impact of the beast’s horns against her shield was like an ice pick into a glacial wall. The whirling blades of the horns carved into the water, spraying it about, but ultimately could not pierce Ami’s defense.

  Even though she poured all her energy into hovering in place, the force of the ibex’s charge sent her hurtling backward. Her outer ring of protection, the spinning spears of her [Cryo Celestics], shattered like glass as soon as they made contact with the monster. Luckily, the hardened shell of her [Aspis Meniscus] repelled the jagged shards that poked out from the Cruelty’s horns. Water sprayed about as the horns tried to carve through her shield, but ultimately the barrier held firm. All that reached Ami herself was the momentum of the charge.

  The impact sent her back the length of a couple of storefronts. She managed to maintain her balance in the air, staying upright and keeping her shield held in front of herself. That was a relief. In the moments before the ibex charged, she had kept telling herself she was stronger than it, but actually feeling her spells and body hold up against a direct hit had dispelled any lingering doubts she may have had.

  The problem was that she needed to do more than merely withstand the beast’s attacks.

  If she let the ibex continue to crash into her, it was only a matter of time before she slipped up or ran out of energy. Even worse, it may realize attacking her was a waste of time and start looking for a new target. Would it figure out it could break through the doors or windows of these shops? That wasn’t a question Ami wanted to gamble on.

  She needed to get her hands on the beast or, more specifically, attach her weapon to it. Poseidon’s Pugni had a secondary function beyond blasting her opponents with punches—the wrappings could also latch onto a target. She hadn’t had much reason to use this function in her recent missions, but it was the perfect way to lock down today’s Cruelty.

  The ibex could rush forward with immense speed and power, but it lacked the same capabilities when moving backward. If Ami could grab hold of the monster, chances were it wouldn’t be able to break free.

  Once she’d brought herself to a stop, Ami flew higher in the air to buy herself a few moments to think.

  She’d noticed something right before the ibex crashed into her. While its horns had smashed through her icy spears with ease, it wasn’t as though they had no effect on the beast. The ice had provided some resistance, slowing down the beast’s charge minimally, but slowing it down nonetheless. If Ami could throw more layers of defense in front of the ibex, maybe she could slow it down enough to hold her ground against it. At least enough to latch onto it.

  She flew even farther back now, placing herself about the same distance from the Cruelty as she had been before its first charge. That was the distance she had learned the timing of. Granted, it was only a second’s worth of timing, but she wanted to keep it consistent anyway. It was like she’d told Grace: she was good at memorizing things quickly. That was true for taking tests and fighting Cruelties.

  Ami dropped down to the ibex’s level and taunted it once more, “Are we playing bumper cars? Why don’t you make it fucking hurt?”

  This was good. The more she talked, the less her brain thought about the details better left to her body. Timings and angles and all that minutia—she didn’t see any of that shit laid out like diagrams in her mind. She had memorized all of that in her nerves and muscles. Her mind was always trying to get in the way. It was her biggest doubter, undermining the trust she’d built up with her arms and legs.

  Talking was a great way to shut it up. And if talking wasn’t enough, she would scream and roar until her own voice drowned out the voice in her head.

  The Cruelty seemed to accept her challenge yet again. The ibex kicked up on its hind legs and took a few bipedal steps forward as if returning her taunt.

  Ami replenished the spears of her [Cryo Celestics] and made sure her watery shield was hardened once more.

  “Yeah, come at me like that,” she said. “Two legs or four, I’m killing you either way.”

  No such luck. The Cruelty dropped back down to its normal position and lowered its head like it had before its first charge. It put one of its front legs forward as it prepared to plow ahead again. Ami shifted her right hand forward as well, but not to attack.

  Like last time, the ibex gave no warning before it charged, but Ami was prepared. All she needed to see was a twitch in the Cruelty’s body, then she knew it was time. She entrusted all the rest to her own body.

  Water sprayed out from her right hand in a jet toward the ibex. As soon as she felt the water release, Ami clenched her fist, activating the stream into a chain of ice with her [Frigid Fetter]. The Cruelty’s horns smashed through the chain with no trouble, just as they had shattered her spears last time. Yet, the chain was long. Ami had constructed it straight along the path of the monster’s charge, and the ibex would have to break through all of that ice before it reached Ami.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  When it finally did reach her, it crashed into yet another barrier of ice in her orbiting spears. These, too, provided only a slight resistance. Their icy forms were obliterated by the beast’s horns, sending shards flying in all directions that sparkled in the sunlight.

  All of these little layers of resistance added up, or so Ami hoped.

  After creating her chain of ice, she had braced herself for another impact. She trusted in her spells to do their work, much like she trusted her body to execute this plan. The rest of her energy went into hardening her [Aspis Meniscus] and stabilizing her flight. In addition to this strength, there was one last piece of reflex she’d need to rely on to succeed.

  The ibex rammed into her shield, the teeth-like blades on its horns biting into the watery barrier again. Ami felt her position shift, but she wasn’t flung backward like she had been. In the next moment, she’d find out if her reactions had been quick enough.

  Right before the Cruelty had made contact with her shield—as close as her eyes could capture—Ami had unleashed the wrappings of Poseidon’s Pugni. The water flowed out from her hands, like a dozen rivulets stretching toward the ibex’s head. The tiny streams coiled around the beast’s neck, up the back of its head, and around the base of each horn. The aquamarine water wrapped the Cruelty’s head up like the bandaged jaw of a Victorian with a toothache.

  The rivulets tightened, flowing so close to the monster’s hide that they could nearly slice it open. Ami’s weapon had latched onto the beast, and she used that grip to subdue her backward momentum as she clung to its horns.

  Steady in the air once more, she said, “This is good. Now I don’t have to raise my voice!”

  As expected, the ibex began to buck once it realized it had been ensnared. It thrashed its head around in attempt to break free and, failing that, tried to retreat backward. Ami was ready for all of this resistance, and poured a steady flow of magic essence into maintaining her hold on the beast. As if to remind it who was in control, she threw down her arms, thereby slamming the trapped head of the Cruelty into the brick path of the promenade.

  “Be a good boy!” she yelled to the ibex. “I forgot earlier, but this is personal. You interrupted my day off!”

  The monster groaned, a noise which echoed as if they were deep inside a cave. For the moment, it seemed to have accepted its predicament.

  “Selichi!” Ami called to the witch girl again. “Now’s your time to shine! Hit it with everything you’ve got, and don’t stop—”

  “—until it stops!” the girl finished. She swooped in from the far end of the shopping center and hovered to the side of Ami and the Cruelty. She stared at them both wide-eyed, then cranked her arm back in preparation to cast her spell.

  “[Skybound Spear]!” Seliah yelled as her thrust her arm forward. Ami smiled—Adah and Rika had teased her for something similar when she first started as a magical girl. Newbies always yelled their spells so loud, like they weren’t sure if their magic would work otherwise.

  Seliah’s worked just fine. A pale yellow lightning bolt zigzagged from her palm and struck the ibex directly where a normal animal’s ribs would be. A similarly colored light flared off the Cruelty’s hide when the bolt made contact. Although the beast still stood, Seliah’s spell was definitely doing damage. She just had to keep up the assault.

  Now that it understood it was being attacked in addition to trapped, the Cruelty groaned even louder. It set to thrashing about once more, but Ami only tightened her hold on its head and horns. She would make this as easy a shot for Seliah as possible.

  The ibex seemed to realize that, as well. If it couldn’t escape Ami by retreating, it would try powering through her instead. The Cruelty steadied its legs, gathered its strength, and rammed forward.

  “Do you think I’m stupid?” Ami said to it.

  Her [Aspis Meniscus] repelled the horns yet again, but the monster wouldn’t give up. It continued to force its way forward, pushing its horns into the watery wall with all its might. The jagged edges of the horns whirled and tore at the water, but couldn’t break through. Ami had plenty of energy in reserve, and neither her grip on the ibex nor her protective spell weakened.

  Seliah fired another lightning bolt into the same spot on the Cruelty’s body as before, and the monster thrust forward like a cow that had been prodded. Ami shielded herself from this attack as easily as the last.

  “I told you to be good!” she yelled, and reminded the ibex of who was in charge with another face-slam into the bricks below.

  Another spell came from Seliah. And another.

  The Cruelty was getting tired—Ami could feel it. She controlled it without much effort now, and it hadn’t bucked at all in response to Seliah’s latest attack. A couple more hits and the witch would break through.

  “I see the core!” Seliah said to Ami after firing another bolt.

  “Then do the honors!” Ami said. “My arms are cramping up!”

  In reality, Ami could probably keep this up for another hour. It was fun to make Seliah feel like she needed bailing out, though. Every rookie deserved to feel like a hero now and then.

  A moment later, Seliah delivered the finishing blow to the ibex, cracking its core with a final lightning strike. The Cruelty slowly dematerialized just a few inches in front of Ami.

  She saw nothing like pain or sorrow in its face. She saw nothing there at all.

  With the Cruelty fully vanished, she stopped the flow of magic to her shield and stored her weapon. Then she took a deep breath and shook her head. For the second day in a row, her hair had gotten soaked. Yet another good reason not to wear it too long.

  Seliah flew down and landed next to Ami. She looked at Ami wide-eyed from under her oversized hat, though her current expression didn’t come from fear.

  “We did it,” she said. “We really killed a D-Rank! Er, well, you did most of the work, but my spell… I didn’t think it would be enough to break the core.”

  “Let this be a lesson to you, then,” Ami said. “Never doubt your spells! Even if you get new ones that sound like they suck! Your fans gave those to you, so you better make ‘em work.”

  She hadn’t really thought through anything she was saying. Her mouth was just spouting whatever words sounded right. She’d taken a little inspiration from Ketzia and a little from Adah. Whatever she said seemed to resonate with Seliah though, since the girl nodded vigorously.

  Then Ami did something she’d been wanting to do since she first laid eyes on this witch girl.

  She grabbed Seliah’s hat by its pointy top and lifted it off her head. Underneath, the girl’s black hair was simple and unstyled. It fell down a couple of inches below her shoulders.

  Ami wasn’t that interested in the girl’s hair, though. She raised her hand that gripped the hat, lifting it far above the tiny girl’s head, and held it there.

  Seliah looked up at her hat, over at Ami, then up at her hat again. She started jumping up and down, trying to snatch it back. It was like the fluster of losing the most iconic piece of her outfit had caused her to forget that she could fly.

  Ami started laughing from deep in her belly. She enjoyed teasing Seliah for a few more seconds before placing the hat back on the girl’s head.

  “We’re gonna get along just fine, Selichi,” Ami said.

  Seliah held her hat down with both hands and said with a pout, “Is ‘Selichi’ supposed to be a nickname?”

  “You like it?”

  The girl said nothing and hid her eyes behind the brim of her hat. After a moment, she nodded again.

  “All right,” Ami said, “I’d better finish…”

  She never finished her sentence, for as soon as she turned to walk back to the boutique she’d been browsing earlier, a crowd surrounded her and Seliah.