"Eep!" Makoto slowed time and quickly reached for a small pouch she carried tied to her tail. "Can't believe I have to do this..." She considered healing her wounds with her artifact, but decided against it considering what she was planning to do. In the pouch lay several dozen coins of various types, most notably magical coins, and several acorns. She began drawing mana from Causality's Mana Font and triggered her signature spell, targeting the moment the fight began with her magic. As she did, she put two of the acorns, which were glowing, into her cheeks.

She kept a tight hold on the knife as she was run down.

---

Sonia scoffed as she glanced at the two before they disappeared, and her eyes then moved down to squint at Makoto, who shimmered slightly as if emanating a heat haze.

"Vandals are to be punished with death. Iron Maiden!"

She threw a knife with a red gem at the hilt of it. The gem glowed once Sonia finished her incantation, and suddenly knives replicated at an alarming rate from the original knife. They formed a complete sphere around Makoto, their bladed ends pointed right at her as they stayed still in the air for just a millisecond before they launched, leaving her no room to dodge.

Unfortunately for Sonia, a millisecond is all Makoto needed as an experienced Time mage. She was already speeding herself up with her magic, and thanks to her Awareness it didn't take much to let her respond. She let herself spend the little extra magic needed to take things slowly and at to her what was a normal pace, but to the rest of the world was nigh-instantaneous, she carefully plucked the original knife out of the air and with it in hand turned all of the other knives to face Sonia, biting into an acorn, breaking it to release the mana it was full of.

"Let's see what your power is all about..." Her words were lost to the minute slice of time they existed in as Makoto realigned with the normal flow of time and created a gravity well just behind Sonia's head, strong enough to pull in the floating knives.

She'd decide from there what the best course of action was.

Sonia was not prepared for her spell being used against her, and shrieked as the knives were shot at her, covering her front with her arms; two knives embedded themselves on her left arm, one on her shoulder, and one on each of her legs before she teleported away. However, Makoto was not left unscathed; three knives behind her were unaffected by being turned towards Sonia, and struck into her body; one above her tail, one on her shoulder, and one between her shoulder blades. Makoto saw her reappear much farther away, about 500 meters in distance.

"Both gravity and time? You indecent vermin!"

She spat out as she magically ejected the knives out, and held her bloody arm with a vicious glare.

"My knives are useless, it seems..." She spoke, but then grinned with uncharacteristic glee.
"I did not imagine I would need to use my ultimate attack, but it seems nothing less will be enough for such a festering infestation."
With those bitter words, she held her arms before her with open palms, and a massive magic circle appeared.

"High-Impact Hell!"

She triggered another spell. Then, Makoto saw it; a bullet train came charging at her at full speed from the circle, filling the corridor entirely.

"Eep!"

---

Makoto's corpse hit the ground with a thud. Sonia likely didn't notice the slight shimmer around Makoto's body, or how her mana seemed to be depleted twice as much as it should be, before a voice resounded through the air.

"A true hero will never fall to evil!"

Makoto's corpse flipped its legs into the air, using them to swing forward and jump into a crouching position. As it stood back up, Sonia would probably notice that it was in the exact same state it had been in at the very start of the battle.



Makoto bit into the other acorn, replenishing her mana to near full. Biting through the acorns, which she'd poured mana into for years in case of situations like this, had refilled her mana and a large chunk of her patron's mana font as well.

"Roar!" Makoto seemed to split into three, one at ground level spinning like a top towards Sonia while the second and third flew through the air, jumping the length between Makoto and Sonia to reach her, the second slightly above her head and the third several feet higher than the second. As it turned out, it was the middle one that was solid, the others being an afterimage from her magic-enhanced speed, and its fist crashed into Sonia's forehead as it landed. "My mighty fist!"

Makoto quickly threw several more punches at Sonia, Impact striking at her target with each successful hit. "And now, special move! PLANET-" Using her absurd speed she struck several dozen times nearly simultaniously, each hit boosted by her redirected magic and her gravity magic causing a strong pull between Impact and Sonia. "CRUSHER!" With all of her strength, boosted by the maximum force she could create with her gravity magic, she struck Sonia with an uppercut, counteracting the effect of gravity on Sonia as she did, sending her through the ceiling with her Killing Blow.

"I call that spell 'Savestate,' bitch."