Carrot and Stick: How to Practice Responsible Witchcraft in a High-Crime Neighborhood - Chapter XII

Chapter XII

Hmm, trying to write fights in a new way? More like the... manga-style battle shounen fights? idk what that's called. Anyway, lemme know what you think!

***

The doe slammed a hoof into the ground, and the paint bottles on her back rose up, then exploded.

Carrot pulled the brim of her hat down to protect her face as paint and glass flew everywhere. UV lamps and little table-top decorations fell off tables and one of the stools tipped over. When she raised her hat again, she found that the room was covered in streaks of paint, all of them originating from the doe and spreading out in more or less straight lines.

“Well, that was messy,” she said.

“Anti-attention shield is up,” Silas said.

She glanced back, then nodded. Silas was by the entrance, he’d taken cover behind the desk over there, so he wasn’t covered in any amount of paint.

She couldn’t say the same for herself. There was a sticky wetness along the hem of her skirt, and when she looked down, she noticed a splotch of neon-green paint riding up her mary janes and staining the edge of her skirt.

“It’s over, puny human,” the doe said. 

“Is it?” Carrot asked. “I mean, sure, that’ll be a pain in the butt to clean out, but I think we have some detergent at home that can do the job.”

The doe twitched, lips peeling back to reveal teeth that looked just a little too pointy for a herbivore. “You have been touched by my Cursed Seal Art. It’s over.”

“I don’t know, it doesn’t feel very over,” Carrot said. She raised a hand, palm out towards the daemon. “How about we just talk, first? I really want to know what you’ve been doing to the people that visit this shop, and who your master is. I have the feeling that they haven’t been a very nice person.”

“Why talk, then you could scream?” the doe asked.

One of her hooves came down and twisted in the paint. A wave of magic rushed out from there, making the nail polish along the floor glow. When the glow passed over Carrot, she felt like there was a connection of sorts between her and the doe. Specifically, between the paint on her skirt and the daemon.

The doe scoffed. “Try this one; Cursed Seal Art: Painting the World of Pain.”

Carrot ‘s grin disappeared with a gasp and she doubled over, her new hat almost flying off of her head. It felt, in that instant, as if someone had just poked her all over with a thousand red-hot irons. 

“Carrot?” Silas asked.

“I’m... I’m okay!” she grunted, even if she didn’t feel all that okay. Looking down at herself, she couldn’t see any wounds. It wasn’t real. It was hard to pay any attention, but there was a spell pushing into her from her leg.

“Enjoying it?” the doe asked, its voice sickly-sweet. “This is the natural consequence of defying the Master.”

“Not really enjoying it, no,” Carrot said. “But hey, at least it gives me an excuse to use this... From darkness grown, and by moonlight sustained, rise from--”

“Pain.”

Carrot closed her mouth so hard her teeth clacked together, and the spell she’d been forming burst apart into a lot of nothing. 

“Did you think I’d let you cast? Ah, but the fact that you can... Yes, Master will be very pleased with me.”

“B-born from darkness and moonlight sus--”

“Pain!” the doe shouted as she stomped her hoof down again.

“Carrot? Let’s retreat,” Silas suggested. 

The doe laughed. “You’ll be next, foolish human! And if you think you can simply run... as long as my paints are on you, you are within my range!”

Carrot swallowed. “Silas... do you trust me?”

“A little,” he said.

“Close your eyes, please!”

She had to trust that he was doing his part. Thinking fast, she raised her hand then shouted the incantation for her newest spell. “Darkness, moonlight! Black Thorn Petal!”

What she summoned was a single petal, anemic and weak and barely holding together, but it shot up and then curved over towards the doe with a whistle.

The doe scoffed and with a flick of her head a bottle of nail polish flew up and intercepted the spell, exploding in mid-air and splashing paint on the floor. “Idiot. Pain.”

Carrot grunted again, but this time, she had a plan. Her hands wrapped around her middle, as if she was dealing with the worst cramps ever. Her fingers, meanwhile, quickly undid a button. “I’m not that weak!” Carrot said. “Special Magical Girl Technique: Tactical Undressing!” She raised a foot, then kicked out towards the doe.

Her left Mary Jane flew out ahead of her, the shoe spinning in the air and entirely missing the doe. Then Carrot’s skirt fell, leaving her in her winter tights. 

“You’d better have your eyes closed, Silas,” she warned. 

“Uh, yeah, very closed,” Silas said.

“Are you an idiot?” the doe daemon asked. “Maybe I should increase the punishment until you are nothing but a puddle of pain on the ground? Pain!”

Nothing happened.

“Hehe!” Carrot chuckled.

If the doe’s spell required that there be paint on her, then all she needed to do was remove any paint that might be on her! Simple!

“Now it’s my turn! Forged in shadow and embraced by moonlight, I call forth the thorns of the abyss! Black Thorn Petals!”

She flung her hand forward and a five-petaled spell formed in the air between them. The doe’s eyes went wide, and for the first time since the battle had begun, it moved. Five bottles of nail polish flew out to meet the incoming petals, but only three of them were intercepted.

Her new petals were sleeker and a little faster, and now she could cast five in one spell, rather than the three of before.

Carrot didn’t just stand there herself, she dodged to the side, feeling a little unbalanced as she walked on one shoe. She muttered her way through the same incantation, then cast another Black Thorn Petals. This time, without line of sight to the doe, it was a little harder to aim, but she didn’t care. Five more petals flew out, and when she peeked over the edge of the table she was using as cover, she found that they had had an effect.

The doe was a little tipsy, with a few small wounds dotted its flanks. “Horrid little human!” the doe shouted. “Fine, then! Cursed Seal Art: Dazzling Burst!”

A dozen bottles flew in from stands across the room, then exploded, the paints within turning into a fine, colourful mist.

Carrot blinked. It was pretty, but not that impressive. Then she noticed Silas stumbling forwards, his eyes locked on the bursts of paint hanging in the air for far longer than they should have.

“Silas! Get to cover!” she shouted, but he just hesitated for a moment before he continued towards the daemon. 

She had a hard time not focusing on the bursts as well, and it clicked. A spell designed to grab attention? 

“Dang it!” She bit her lower lip, then cast something else. Woven from gloom and sealed with dread, ensnare my enemy... Chains of Darkness!” 

Black chains whipped out of the shadows in the far end of the room, and the doe squawked as they wrapped around her.

Carrot leapt over the table, then sprinted across the room, even as she raised a hand before her and focused. “Black Petal Thorns!”

Without an incantation, the spell was a little anemic, but three black petals formed and flicked out towards the doe all the same. Its eyes went wide and it struggled against the chains binding it even as more paint bottles flew up to intercept.

Then Carrot landed on her knees and slid across the floor, aware of the mess she was making of her thights as she slipped over some paint.

“Back off!” the doe shouted. “The Master will suck you dry of your magic and--”

The doe clamped up as Carrot wrapped her hand around its mouth. “Sorry,” she said before she focused hard. “Through sacred darkness and purging night, I wash away the stain... Dark Magical Girl Special Technique! Rite of Dark Purification!”

***

Silas didn’t so much come back as he felt the hypnotizing effect of whatever mind magic the daemon had used fade away. He had already been doing what he could to resist it--there were tricks a wizard could employ for that, and he was certain that he would be free in a moment--but it didn’t matter anymore. Without the doe daemon feeding its magic into the spell, it simply fell apart.

“Carrot! Are you okay?” he asked.

“Don’t look!” Carrot shouted.

He blinked, then slowly spun around. What he’d seen had hardly been immodest, women walked around in thights all the time, but his sister had long ago taught him not to question that kind of thing. 

The daemon was laying on its side, a... daemon no longer. Instead, it was a small doe, with white speckles and a strange, now-undersized, vest on. “Are you hurt?” he asked.

“No? I mean, I’m covered in nail polish, and that pain spell did hurt, but I can’t feel it any more?”

“Good, good,” he said. The hat would have provided some protection, but it wasn’t made for that kind of direct-contact spell explicitly. At best, it would soften the edges of the attack, blunting it a little. 

That daemon had been... stronger than he expected. It was still only a Rank IV. Physically, it seemed weak. Its mastery of mind-affecting spells, however, was concerning, to say the least.

Carrot slipped by, and was soon dressed again, though she was grumbling about not having cleaning magic, whatever that meant, and about how hard it was going to be to wash the stains out. 

He kept the device keeping people away on for the moment, even as he started to search the place. 

“From what I can piece together,” he said, testing his idea by speaking it aloud. “I think this is a... front, of sorts. The daemon could probably confuse people with a spell that would make them forget it was ever here, and maybe another to suggest that people return?”

“And the nail polish makes it so that people’s life energy is sucked away, right?” Carrot asked. She shifted the... former daemon, making it a little more comfortable.

“From what I can piece together, yes,” he said. He still had that notebook filled with spells tucked away. That would need to be handed in. The Ordo Cognitio et Mutatio would want to have a look at it. They probably wouldn’t gain anything from it, but he’d maybe gain some goodwill for bringing it to their attention.

Carrot’s face twisted. “I don’t like that. It’s exploitative. Wait, is it dangerous?” 

“In the short term, no. I think most of the affected are just going to be more tired. How long does nail polish stay on for?”

“I dunno, a few days? It really depends.”

“The spell can’t afford to be scratched too much, so if it’s not resistant to wear and tear, then it’ll fail in a short time. And it wasn’t that potent. Like I said, people would just be tired.”

“And tired people make mistakes,” Carrot countered. “They might drive sleepy, or make mistakes at work.”

Silas reached up and rubbed at his neck. “True. I hadn’t considered that. Still, I don’t know if there’s very much we can do?”

Carrot grumbled, but nodded. “Fine. Let me leave this poor deer out. I’m pretty sure someone will notice a deer in the middle of the city and I can call animal control.”

He left her to it, though he didn’t like the idea of the ex-daemon being let loose. Suggesting that they kill it would probably not fly with Carrot, and he needed her help more than he liked to admit.

That fight had been... a little slow, actually, but sometimes magical duels were like that. Carrot had done surprisingly well, all things considered, but if this ‘master’ had stronger daemons serving under him, then her current skills wouldn’t be enough.

The fact that she’d improved one of her spells in just a day was impressive, however. Could she become strong enough for it to matter?

“Hey, want to grab a bite to eat?” he asked. “And... we can go over your spells a little. I think I might be able to help you improve them.”

***