Quirks and magic

Chapter 15: Opening Salvo

Ikiji let out an agonizing yell as the lightning collided with his backside. The force of the spell's impact sent him skidding to the floor, momentarily stunning him as his forehead hit the ground. Shakily picking himself up, Ikiji turned his head to assess the damage: his golden and brown robes were completely singed off his backside and his skin was blistered and burnt, smoking slightly from the heat of Strange's furious bolt of energy.

Even though I managed to plate my entire backside under a thick layer of bone at the last second, his lightning still seared right through it! Ikiji thought incredulously, wincing in pain as he turned to face Strange. Damn him...!

Strange was kneeling over Izuku's bloodied body, his fingers pressed against the boy's neck and checking for a pulse. A wave of relief washed over the man's visage, though it was short-lived. The indomitable fury returned with a vengeance and Strange hovered ominously in the air before Ikiji. His scarred hands pulsed with what had to be powerful eldritch energies.

The deadly focus in Strange's eyes made it absolutely clear: there was no more room for words, no monologues to be had, no rights to be read, no pleas to be heard. Izuku's sprawled, dazed body on the ground was all the motivation Strange needed.

"Feel the searing sagacity of the Seven Suns of Cinnibus...!" Strange placed his fingers together before slamming them to the ground. Streams of crimson heat and plasma violently erupted from the stone tiles and spiraled straight towards Ikiji.

No...! Ikiji defiantly steeled himself as he flexed his hands to mount a defense. I've come too far to fall now!

Yanking his hands up, Ikiji caused the ground between him and Strange to bend upward, directly in the path of Strange's incinerating spell. To Ikiji's shock, the rushing bolt of plasma collided with the curved ground and ricocheted right off. Strange curved his fingers, as if guiding the path of the spell, as it bounded off the room's walls, floor, and ceiling. The plasma blast suddenly bounded to the wall behind Ikiji and he could see where its trajectory would lead to next.

No time...! Ikiji raised his right arm in front of his body to shield himself as best he could. "Ivory Aegis!" Ikiji shouted as the skin of his arm, shoulder, and upper torso sprouted thick, whitened layers of bone.

The rushing plasma enveloped its target and Ikiji let out a gut wrenching scream as Strange's mystical might burned straight through the bone plating on his arm and shoulder—his Ivory Aegis, his strongest defensive technique. The blast propelled Ikiji across the room and the young man thrashed in agony as the spell's fizzling embers dug into his skin, littering his arm with horrific third-degree burns that exposed his body's shifting flesh and bone.

Strange gave him little time to further inspect his injuries. In the span of a single blink, Ikiji found himself waylaid by a dozen copies of the Sorcerer Supreme, each one ensnaring a portion of his body with the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak.

The Images of Ikonn...! Ikiji recalled that there was such a spell that could allow a Master of the Mystic Arts to create temporary mystical duplicates of themselves to stymie an adversary.

His body thoroughly encased in a thick cocoon of crimson bands, Strange and his duplicates heaved and lifted Ikiji into the air before slamming him against the ceiling and ground repeatedly.

Ikiji grunted in pain after the seventh pummel, gritting his teeth in frustration. With his hands bound by his side, he could not manipulate magic or the space around him to his advantage. But he still had his Quirk, he realized.

Tightening his focus and digging in deep, Ikiji could feel every bone in his body rattle, the muscles and tissues layered above them instinctively parting for the coming eruption.