Refusing to waste any of her valuable time, Ciara instantly resorted to her Original Magic.
It had been very effective on the other Shadow Demons and it was basically a One-Shot ability. Once she had her aim on the target, she fired off her energy in the form of waves.
>VWUUUSSSHHH!!!<
**********
"W—what?!" Kahn was taken by surprise.
Who was this girl?
Why did she just attack out of the blue?
Were all the students on campus like her?
Sure, he was the one who invaded the Academy, but… she was being too impatient for a human. The wave she released had quite the danger lurking within, but Kahn's reaction time had been too stunted to respond to it.
'How bad could it be?' He thought to himself and decided to tank the attack.
The wave approached him, and then hit his whole body—bombarding the Shadow Demon with its power.
Kahn felt stings all over himself as his body rejected the Mana that spread across him, and his brain fuzzed a bit. He expected something else to assail him, but… that was it!
The wave dissipated and the attack ended.
Nothing out of the ordinary occurred.
'What the—? Did I overestimate her?' Kahn thought to himself.
Perhaps there was an effect that would take place the moment he let his guard down. Magic was unpredictable and had numerous effects. There was no such thing as being 'too careful.'
However, as soon as he saw the surprised look on Ciara's face, he realized he truly had nothing to fear.
"Uh? How are you still standing?" Her voice sounded perplexed.
Kahn was equally confused.
"Uh?" He responded in kind.
Was that weak attack really meant to do him in? Was this girl an idiot? Did he mistake her for another? Then where was the person who took care of all those other Demons at the same time?
Surely, it couldn't be this dunce.
"Hey, I can hear your thoughts, you know? You just thought I was a dunce, right? That's rude!" Her voice surprised him.
"W—what?!"
Kahn was flustered. The girl in front of him had guessed right. He really did think she was an idiot…
"Hey!" Her disapproving voice shook him once more.
… B—but his opinion on that was slowly changing. For someone to be capable of reading his mind… just how skilled was she?
"That's more like it! Hehe!" She chuckled.
'H—hold on! How can she even understand me?!'
Could she also understand Demon Tongue? Thoughts spiraled in his head as he tried to make sense of the whole thing. Ultimately, he couldn't.
Kahn swallowed hard. He had to be careful now. He needed to think carefully—no, he couldn't even think—about this!
Finally, after trying his best to fathom the strange girl's abilities, he gave up and decided to ask her directly.
"What did you do?"
*************
Ciara was baffled.
Why hadn't her Spell worked as intended?
[Phantom Link] was Magic that affected the mind, and the ability she used had been to sever his neural link. That would make him lose absolute control over himself.
In the case of the other Shadows, they died instantly, but this one didn't even seem to feel it.
That said, [Phantom Link] also connected her mind with her target's, allowing Ciara to basically hear their thoughts.
Truth be told, she developed this technique solely for Jerry.
Ciara wanted to get closer to him, so she used her extraordinary abilities to nurture a mind-based power. Still, the poor girl had never used it once on him. She never had the resolve!
'It will be too much for me to bear… seeing just what kind of thoughts Jerry has of me!'
That was her excuse, and before long, she had another application of the technique. She would simply read the minds of those around him. If any of them turned out to be threats—physically or romantically—it was her duty to eliminate them.
Back to topic, Ciara didn't understand why her initial attack didn't work on him, but her Mind Reading ability was functioning quite well.
Unknown to the girl, the minds of Shadow Demons were fundamentally different from humans. So, she couldn't sever the neural links of independent bodies since they had a structure that was too different from her equation.
The previous enemies she fought only went down because she unintentionally severed their links with the original. Unlike them, each Kahn version was an Original in a sense.
Her Mind Reading ability was a simpler—more direct Spell—so it worked well. The Demon had thought of something along the lines of how she could understand his language, but Ciara wasn't relying on language.
She simply has access to the frequency Kahn emitted. So, by tuning in, she could essentially read his thoughts.
But, Ciara knew it would soon be a matter of time before she lost connection with the Demon before her. Understanding Kahn after that would be impossible.
Before that happened, she had to conclude things.
"Well, there's no use overthinking things, right? I'll end this quickly!" Ciara declared.
*********
"Keh! You can't beat me, human!" Kahn declared with pride.
He was 10 percent of the complete version. That meant his power was well beyond anything these pesky humans could handle.
Unlike the clones, Kahn retained his intelligence. Not only that, but he could also use Magic. His arsenal consisted of stuff that no human girl like Ciara would be able to bear.
He had taken his time to size up his prey. He was fully assured of victory.
Unfortunately for him, those thoughts were being relayed to the enemy he was meant to defeat.
He had committed a fatal error!
********
Once she realized her disadvantage, it didn't take Ciara very long to brandish yet another one of her Trump Cards.
So far, she had displayed her Original Magic.
Other than that, she still had Mage Mode in her arsenal, but the transformation took too long. While fully calcifying her Mana, there was a chance she could be attacked. Since that was a glaring weakness of that state, the girl had to abandon it too.
With those two out of the way, Ciara selected her third option.
"Bond Magic."
"W—wha—?!"
A brilliant gleam of light enveloped Ciara and her vicinity. Energy coursed through her, and the silhouette of something magnificent—her Familiar—manifested.
"Like I said…"
Kahn shuddered in the presence of one of his opposing elements.
"… Let's end this fast!"
