Kindred Spirits Pt 1

There are few things I hate more than the times when emotion overrides common sense. If only everyone would just use their reason before acting. Ah, but then I'd never be in this situation in the first place now, would I? In another world, facing off against humanoid monsters… how did my life, or rather, my continued existence, come to this?

Am I doing something wrong? I can't help but wonder.

It's not like I'm the same person I was in my first world. No, that salaryman would not have survived the way I did. Stagnation is akin to death, especially in the world at war I'd found myself in previously. So, I adapted.

I must continue to adapt.

-=-

Late Morning

Forest Clearing Near Sealed Cave

Jura Forest, Jura Tempest Alliance

Tanya dropped backwards, narrowly dodging a horizontal swing from her purple-clad foe.

She landed on her shoulders, quickly twisting her hips to sweep Purple's feet out from under her.

Then, she rolled backwards onto her stomach to avoid a vertical sword slash from Red.

Too close!

Tanya pushed up off the ground with her arms, intending to get enough air to land on her feet with the help of a weak enhancement spell.

But that wasn't what happened.

Instead of popping up just enough to regain her footing, Tanya found herself in the air, her waist at the eyelevel of her Red opponent.

Huh?

Red looked almost as surprised as she felt, but he clearly wasn't letting it get to him. He brought his sword up from the ground in an instant.

Without thinking, Tanya triggered her active barrier. The sword glanced off, metallic and magical sparks flying. Red's surprised expression then became more so, as Tanya twisted in midair and booted him across the face.

He flew across the clearing, narrowly missing a tree and disappearing into the forest. Tanya dropped to the ground, staring after him with wide eyes.

I tried to use a flight spell instinctually... and it worked? Not only that, but my enhancement spell was way stronger than it should have been, and my active barrier deflected that strike easily. My Type 97 and Type 95 are nowhere to be seen, so that means…

Tanya refocused as Purple moved to strike, having finally gotten back to her feet.

She sidestepped a sword swing, swaying left and right to avoid the follow ups.

…when I reincarnated here, I must have lost the need for a computation orb to perform complex formulae.

She ducked another swing, the wind pressure from the missed strike rustling her hair.

Or rather, I gained the ability to do more magic without an orb.

Yet another strike came, this one cleaving down vertically. Instead of dodging, Tanya activated a mage blade and a reinforcement spell over both arms.

Then, she caught the sword.

The ground cracked under her feet, wind rushing by at gale-force speeds.

I can still see the formulae in my head. But I don't even have to think about them. In fact, it feels similar to how using a computation orb felt back in that other world. That's one of my… "Skills", was it? Right. Unique Skill: Formulaic Casting. That must be it.

The blade trembled between her hands, as Purple tried desperately to pull it away. Tanya quickly layered an enhancement spell with her other active spells.

The sword stopped moving for a few seconds, before it quickly resumed it's escape attempt.

Fuck, even with her enhancement, it was slowly escaping her grip. Purple's raw strength was truly monstrous to behold.

Now, Tanya could tell that her Purple foe wanted her sword back. It was written all over her face. The frustration, desperation both mixed with the slightest bit of surprise and anxiety painting a clear picture in Tanya's mind.

And Tanya, being the good Samaritan that she was, decided that, yes, Purple could have her sword back. Tanya wasn't an unreasonable being. This sword clearly had some value to Purple, so there was no reason not to return it.

With some caveats, of course. She was not unreasonable. She was also not an idiot.

Tanya inhaled, quickly boosting the strength of her enhancement spell several times over.

Once again, the sword stopped dead in place. But this time, before Purple could adjust her strength, Tanya turned her hands over, twisting it out of her opponent's grip.

Then, she flung it off to the side. With her boosted enhancement spell, the massive weapon rocketed over the trees lining the clearing and disappeared in the distance.

…Did not mean to throw it that far.

Tanya looked back to her opponent, her hands readied and spells still active.

She blinked. There was no one there.

"Herculessssss!!!"

Tanya turned her head, then sweatdropped as she saw her Purple opponent frantically running off.

Ah, I guess the sword meant more to her than I thought. It even has a name, which I assume is the "Hercules" she yelled about.

She glanced around the clearing again. Now that one of her foes had been dealt with, it was the others' turn.

And given that "Hercules" is Roman, that implies the existence of reincarnates other than me in this world, an issue I didn't run into in my previous one. That, or it's an extreme coincidence, but I doubt that. Everything points to this world resembling a much more typical "isekai" world. Plus, the blue one mentioned the appearance of another large mana signature- no, he said "magical auras". That only adds credence too-

Tanya did a double take. There was no one else in the clearing.

Fuck, the blue one! Where-!?

She activated Magic Sense again, her eyes widening as a presence made itself known.

Several meters behind her.

In an instant, countless white threads snapped into being, surrounding and entrapping her in a huge cocoon.

"Arcane Thread Fetters!" She could hear a male voice call from outside her prison. "Do it now, Benimaru!"

A named special attack? And they're teaming up on me, too. This is bad.

Another voice, "Benimaru", apparently, yelled the name of his own attack next.

"Hell Flare!"

-=-

Black flames engulfed Souei's silk cocoon in a dome, burning them and everything inside them with the full force of Benimaru's strongest magical attack.

"That should be it." Benimaru said, as the flames began to die down. "Then again, that's what I thought about the Orc Disaster."

His statement became self-fulfilling just a few seconds later. The blonde woman they'd been fighting walked almost casually out of the remnants of Souei's Arcane Thread Fetters and Benimaru's Hell Flare, her blue-colored magical barrier shielding her from view.

"Okay, I think I've got it now." The woman wiped sweat off her forehead, her barrier flickering away into nonexistence. "Magic is stronger in this world."

"In this world?" Souei narrowed his eyes, "Are you an Otherworlder?"

"Now that I've gotten a feel for it…" The woman ignored him entirely. "This fight should go more smoothly."

She held up her right arm, pointing her open hand directly at the two of them.

"This is self-defense, by the way. You attacked me. Anything after that is just a reasonable level of retaliation. In other words…"

Her palm glowed bright blue. A ball of magical energy of the same color formed in front of it, with a ring of magic encircling the ball.

-=-

Art by (@tanjaded)

-=-

"Don't blame me for what happens next."

Her aura intensified, allowing no misunderstandings as to the seriousness behind this attack. Whatever spell or piece of magic this was, it would be no joke.

They didn't need Magic Sense to know that.

The air electrified, time itself seeming to slow as she prepared to fire.

Souei and Benimaru braced themselves, ready to act however necessary.

"STOP! STOOOPPPP!!!"

"Huh?" The woman paused.

The two Kijin glanced up at the familiar voice.

"Lord Rimuru!" Benimaru exclaimed.

"Why is it always fighting with you guys?" Rimuru descended in an instant, their wings seamlessly disappearing into their back.

"Lord Rimuru, you shouldn't be here right now." Souei remarked, keeping his eyes locked their blonde opponent.

She hadn't lowered her arm, and thus whatever spell she'd been planning on using, but now her expression bore curiosity, rather than hostility. Even so, her eyes remained calculating, and Souei got the distinct impression that this woman was not someone they could let things slip around.

She appeared far too sharp for that.

"This woman is a formidable opponent. It isn't safe." Benimaru said, nodding in agreement. At the same time, he attempted to push Rimuru back behind the two of them.

Unsuccessfully, as Rimuru simply swapped into slime form to duck under his arm, then swapped back to stride forward.

"I'll be fine. I'm your boss, remember? So just let me handle this."

Rimuru kept moving, stopping only a few meters from the woman that was giving his subordinates so much trouble.

"So, you're the source of one of those new magical auras we felt." Rimuru glanced around. "It looks like you gave my subordinates some trouble. Did you not want to talk it out first or…?"

The woman gave Rimuru an incredulous look at that, and the slime found himself with an unfortunately familiar sinking feeling in his gut.

"I was perfectly willing to talk things out." She began, with one of the most deadpan expressions Rimuru had ever personally seen in either of his lives, "Until your purple-clad friend decided to try and cleave me in half."