Chapter 7: First Battle II
Kawamura took Jun's full powered, Magic Burst enhanced fist to his stomach while Jun took a sword slash to his right collarbone.
Following this exchange, the two stepped back with speed before evaluating their respective opponent.
Jun's reinforced shirt had softened the blow so despite having a showy cut between his shoulder and neck, it was actually quite shallow and, with the Reinforcement magecraft enhancing his body, the wound did not affect his fighting strength.
On the other hand, Kawamura's situation was much the same, having been able to enhance himself with holy energy and expecting to get hit, this punch didn't hurt him all that much but it definitely worsened his previous injuries.
'That evil brat's wound is shallow, his toughness was greater than expected.' Kawamura thought.
'At this rate, my injuries will make me run out of energy faster than him. A battle of attrition will only work in that brat's favor so I need to end this fast. I can't imagine the brat is going to let me rest and recover but I can try . . .' He evaluated the situation.
Meanwhile, Jun was also making his own evaluation.
'Although I have no weapon, I certainly got the better end of that exchange but only because that idiot was injured from my surprise attack.' Jun thought.
'There is no need to charge in, he's going to burn himself out if I just manage to hold on so no need to take big risks. I might lack power currently but I do have quite a big amount of magical energy to spend and I also recover it fast, not mention the efficiency of my Magic Circuit.'
'I just need to keep him at a distance with my Magic Bullet magecraft and back away with a use of Magic Burst if he gets too close. When he finally runs out of juice, I can deal a decisive blow with my full powered Magic Bullet. Even if he is tough, it will at least put him out of commision' Jun decided on his battle plan.
And so, Jun restarted combat, after all, he could not let Kawamura recover and thus lose his biggest advantage.
Making two fingered finger guns with both hands and pointing them at his opponent, Jun opened fire with the speed of a machine gun, planning to suppress Kawamura with a high rate of fire rather than raw power which would be save to finish the battle.
The exorcist zigzagged at high speed while approaching jun dodging most of the bullets but still taking a few hits but handling them with his holy energy enhancement.
Jun continuously stepped back, using the speed provided by his reinforced body to maintain his distance with Kawamura.
'Shit! That brat has caught on to me weakness and has no intention of directly engaging again.' Kawamura realized.
In his exorcist training, Kawamura and specialized in body enhancement with his holy energy, which is precisely what kept him alive after being struck twice by Jun but in doing so, the only means of ranged attack that he possessed was his pistol which he had lost.
This left the exorcist's hands tied when it came to fighting back and there was only one way to bring this battle back into his favor, but it was an all or nothing risky move.
'I've got no choice . . . Let's do this!' Kawamura amped himself up.
He brought his self enhancement to the maximum he could handle while paying no mind to energy expenditure and charged straight at Jun at high speed while tankning all of the boy's Magic Bullets.
'Too predictable buddy.' Jun internally smirked while his expression remained the same as Kawamura closed in while taking significant damage.
And, just when the exorcist was about to reach him, Jun used Magic Burst to flash backwards at extreme speed, opening up the distance again and, taking advantage of Kawamura's faltering when he saw this he moved for the kill.
Extending all of the fingers in his left hand, his whole arm straight, Jun braced it by holding it with his right hand and fired his maximum firepower. The surge of magic energy tore his entire sleeve apart as Magic Circuits were illuminated on his skin.
A Magic Bullet, far stronger and faster than the previous ones, barreled through the air towards Kawamura who already was on his last legs due to his failed final charge and struck him full on center mass.
A normal person would have been torn to pieces but owing to the special exorcist's uniform and the holy energy enhancement that had yet to run out, Kawamura was just sent flying with numerous internal injuries and most of his bones shattered as he tumbled across the ground like a broken doll.
Jun was not unscathed either though. The recoil of his Magic Cannon so to speak had cause his shoulder to pot out of place with a violent pop and his whole arm was paralyzed due to the overloading of magical energy.
'Even though my Magic Circuits handled the burden supremely well, my body has yet to get used to such abuse.' Jun lamented but still, he had won his first battle.
Unfortunately, he didn't have much time to celebrate. Shidou Touji or Mr. Shido, Irina's father arrived out of nowhere.
He was shocked to see his young subordinate he had left behind to watch over his daughter crumpled on the ground, unconscious with serious injuries and one of the boys his daughter always played with holding an injured left arm with a slash wound inflicted by a light sword on his ring collarbone.
And lastly his daughter, staring at said boy with an indecipherable look of what seemed to be awe. Touji could understand it as well.
He knew the boy called Haikami Jun had some measure of skill but to think a boy only one year older than his daughter managed to take out one of his exorcists . . .
"What happened here?" Touji asked.
Jun just looked at Touji while thinking.
'Ahsaka ready the Akashic Gate for transport to the emergency location and time I set just in case.' He mentally communicated.
'Understood.' Ahsaka dutifully replied.
Then, just as he was about to talk with Touji to try and sort out the situation peacefully, Irina snapped out of and ran towards her father while recounting everything that had happened.
Meanwhile, the other exorcists arrived at the scene and Jun now realized they were all quite banged up.
'Looks like they scrapped with the lovers . . .' He rightly deduced.
Finishing hearing his daughter's accounting of the events, touji just sighed looking at his subordinate before talking.
"Take care of Kawamura and bring him to the chapel to patch him up. As for you Jun-kun, I deeply apologize for my subordinate's actions. If you come with me I can get your injuries treated." Touji said.
"Thanks for your kind intentions but I think I'll go my own way if that's fine with you." Jun refused.
Touji sighed but admired the boy's caution.
"Ju-kun!" Irina called out with worry but her father signaled her to be quiet and she stopped.
"Of course you can leave Jun-kun and you will always be welcome at my house. I sincerely hope you'll let me make it up to you." Touji said.
Jun looked at him and said.
"I'll think about it." And then left.
'All things considered, the resolution was not that bad.' Jun thought as he turned to leave.
'Still, my strenght still leaves much to be desired . . .' He pondered.
After he left, Irina turned to her father and asked.
"Will Ju-kun be angry at me?" The little girl was full with worry.
"I'm sure he won't sweety, I'm sure he won't." Touji reassured his daughter patting her in her head.
'I'm not quite sure if he won't be angry at the church though . . .' He worriedly added in his mind.
Arriving back at the orphanage, Jun used simple misdirection magecraft so that no one noticed his injuries and just went to his room.
With a hard smack on his left shoulder, he snapped it back into place before starting to heal by practicing his Breathing Method and reinforcing his body's natural healing specifically with Reinforcement magecraft.
'That wasn't bad for my first battle eh Ahsaka?' Jun commented in his mind.
'There were multiple inefficiencies, If you made full use of your abilities in the correct way, you could have won without suffering any injury.' Ahsaka disagreed with him.
'I guess you're right.' Jun acquiesced and used his enhanced mental faculties to visualize the battle and simulating various other possible ways to win the fight in a better shape.
The ability to realistically fight the same battle multiple times in his mind was a great tool for Jun to both learn from his mistakes and simulate battles with opponents he had yet to face based on information he obtains.
A few hours later, Jun was fully healed and had a good understanding of what he did wrong in his first battle and how he could do better. For now though, it was time to resume training.
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