The Dream Shifter

Chapter 70

Yuki turned his head down knowing how much that what she was saying was true. He had gone rushing in to try to save Ayumi, but only looked like a fool in the end having to be rescued by her. Even now he did not even understand what he had done. "You don't understand. It's not that simple. All I'd be doing next to her is weakening her strength."

"I know I don't understand what's going on, but that fire was you right?"

"I guess so…"

"Then you can do that again from here right?"

"Maybe, but if I did it I don't know how. I don't even know what I gave myself this time."

"It all looks like magic to me…"

"…magic…" Yuki had been trying to think back to what he was thinking when he probably had created the field, but nothing was coming to him. If Ayumi was correct and it was him, then it meant that he had long ranged attacks like Fumiko was suggesting. However, it was not a sword or anything physically. So he did not know how to control it or what he should even try to use. It was all set in stone already what he could and could not do, but he did not know what it was. This was so beyond what he was used to doing. '…magic…' The word echoed through him making him think about what was happening.

The forest around him looked like any ordinary forest with a clearing, but he had to think knowing that it was from him. 'If this is me, then it means something. It came from me, so I should recognize it as something…' It was not coming to him, but he could not get his mind off of the word. '…magic…'

He was brought to stop as he heard the clashing of weapons in front of him. Ayumi and the assassin had resumed their fighting making Yuki feel the rush of urgency to figure out what he could do to help her. '…Ayumi… I've got to figure this out. Magic…why do I keep coming back to that?' He stared at the forest around him feeling the sweat beading down his face. His hands were shaking from nerves knowing that time was running out for them. '…forest…magic…'

"That's it!" Yuki turned his head up finally putting things together and realizing why this was so familiar to him. It should be familiar; it was a stereotypical cliché that he saw all the time. The forest was just like out of a fantasy story. "Which means that the fire must have been real magic." He looked forward towards the fighting knowing that he still do not know what he could, but figuring that if it was him then he should already know it all.

Ayumi threw out a wave of ice from her field keeping the assassin back from the attack that she had tried to make. It was all buying time for her until she could take the opportunity that she needed. 'I can't let her get close to me. Her field is…' She prepared to throw her chakram as the woman came to a landing, but there was suddenly a large lightning bolt that struck down nearby the woman searing the ground. The strike was enough to take the woman off balance, but Ayumi as well. In the moments that she wasted before throwing her chakram, the woman was already rolling out of the way.

"I missed…" Yuki said twitching as he saw that the strike had been nowhere near to the woman. He was going to have to do a lot better if he stood a chance of hitting her.

The woman's hand dug through the multi-colored pool as the liquid substance was drawn up her hand covering it completely up to the wrist. She came to a stop and ran her soaked hand straight down her clothes. The red skirt and shirt that she was wearing vanished to dust as yellow poured out from her hand draining away from her hand into her gray body suit. The yellow liquid covered her body turning into new clothes that hung long like a dress at her legs, but with several slits up to the waist. The top became like wide ribbons along her shoulders attached to a low cut folded shirt.

Yuki stared in surprise at the change in the woman no longer certain what it was that the woman was doing with the costume change. He had thought that the pool of liquid was meaningless, but it did something to her. "What's going on?"

"Keep out of this! She's not like the other's we've face!" Ayumi was glad to know that he was figuring out how to use his powers and something like that would be useful if he had accuracy. However, there was a problem that Yuki did not realize. 'He might have unnatural field strength, but without the concentration he's not going to be able to use ranged attacks on this foe.' She caught the puzzled look from Yuki forcing herself to remember that he was not thinking at her level of awareness. "Look at your field and her's, Yuki!"

"What?" Yuki did not know what Ayumi was getting at. He knew what both of the fields were already. It did not make any different if he looked at them again, but Ayumi was insistent. 'What's she getting at? It's just our fields out there… Nothing strange.' When he looked he could see much of the assassin's field while Ayumi's field looked surprisingly small and his covered around both of them. It took him another moment to put things together finally and realize what she was getting at. He had to think back to the fights he had with the other assassins. 'Whenever I've fought with anyone their fields would almost completely disappear except for around them, but this assassin… I can still see much of her field even with my field on and Ayumi's is almost gone. The field is a supposed to be a sign of a Kasou-ryoko users strength. The fact that the assassin's still hold against mine must mean they are really strong.' It made him second guess himself as he was no longer certain how much of an effort that he would have on her. He shook his head getting the doubt out of his mind and focusing in on what he had to do. If Ayumi was having trouble with this assassin it only meant that he had to do everything to assist her.

"Lightning!" he shouted pointing his hand at the assassin where she rested. The bolt came down from the sky striking at the ground near to the woman again missing, but forcing her back. Another bolt came down this time much closer to her. The assassin jumped to her feet and quickly evaded the next series of increasingly more accurate strikes, but each time the woman was able to dodge. It was getting on Yuki nerves that he was getting better, but still missing her. Each movement from the woman seemed more fluid than before. He could not explain it, but she seemed to be more graceful with her steps than she had been when she was fighting Ayumi.

Yuki lowered his hand back to his side seeing that he was not getting anywhere with this plan. The woman came to a rest sliding across her pool of liquid not even disturbing its surface. She held her sword close at her side in a defensive stance monitoring both of them. However, Yuki was not done with his attack as he knew that he had to do something about the woman's defenses. 'If I can get her off her feet then I should be able to get a strike she can't avoid.' He raised up both of his hands focusing on the woman once more. "Wind!" A gust from behind him ran through the clearing gaining force sending Ayumi off her feet as well as the assassin.

'Damn! Yuki…' Ayumi threw out her chakram to the ground below her catching it in ice that grew up from her disappearing field. The ice clamped on to the chakram holding it in a solid frozen mass keeping her from being flung away as she held on to her sword with the chain that attached to the two keeping anchored.

The assassin was knocked off her feet sent into the air by the gale force winds, but her hand was soaked in a green liquid this time that she raised up in an arc around her creating a solid material she pushed back on to get herself just into reach of the ground. She dug her sword into the pool catching it as a bolt of lightning came down. The bolt struck on her this time as everyone watched momentarily blinded back the lightning bolt. When the light faded with the bolt Yuki stepped back as his eyes widened in shock seeing the woman unaffected. The material above her was disintegrated to dust falling away having taken the full force of the strike. "No way! How could she react that fast!"