"Ow." Lila picked herself off the sandy floor.
The girl's eyes darted around hurriedly, her panic swelling in her chest. Never before had she felt so pointless in her existence. Even with Psionic power, Lila had no power, nor a concept of fighting. The best she could do was think about all the entertainment she had watched on Earth, where the heroes were able to overcome any obstacle.
"I know you can hear me," Lila complained, looking through an opening in sandy walls with a careful eye. "What exactly can I do here, even if I were the perfect student?"
"Do you humans not possess an imagination?" Yrix responded bluntly. "Psionic abilities have nearly endless application. Think about what you WOULD do, given you were a mighty warrior."
A large Daregen stomping through the dust appeared before Lila, its worn eye-slits beaming with light. She couldn't read its expression, yet she knew full well it had sensed her. The Daregen heaved its large rifle into place, firing a metal rod at Lila's face without hesitation.
A pink hue enveloped the girl as she shut her eyes, expecting her fate. But it was not to be.
"What?" Lila's eyes widened in disbelief, realizing she had zipped out of the way at the last second.
"Do you see now. Your reflexes have already enhanced themselves. Did you really think Psionic abilities were so mundane?" Yrix laughed.
"Well, no, I just didn't think I had all that in me." Lila panted as the Daregen roared in frustration, charging at her like an oversized bull.
"Most don't. But most haven't been chosen and awoken by me."
Lila leaped over the lumbering beast as it demolished its surroundings, clinging onto its back with all her might. What little the girl could offer in the way of a strike only gave the alien soldier time to collect itself before it threw Lila off. She hadn't had the chance to recover before it slammed its rifle into her, sending the girl flying through another wall.
"Another barrier, this time around yourself to avoid death," Yrix advised. "You only need to practice your offense."
"You won't kill me if I run to figure this out, right?" Lila coughed, her body reeling from the impact as she felt the heat of a laser pointer against her skin, its directing ray attatched to the Deregen's scope.
"There are no more rules down here, little girl."
Lila sped off, barely avoiding another rifle shot. She felt impressed at how quickly her body was able to slip through the dark maze. But without a means of defeating her enemies, she was little more than a scared rabbit darting around the farmer's garden.
"If only I had someone." Lila wheezed. "Sonera or...Lunae. Where are they?"
Rounding the corner, she suddenly bumped into something soft and warm, falling to the floor with a thud. She felt relieved for all of a second before realizing who she had encountered.
"Not you again!" Both Ivy and Lila screamed in frustration.
Ivy was the first to pick herself up, glaring down at Lila with intense condemnation.
"Pathetic. Are you running away?" Ivy hissed.
"Oh, just do it already. Kill me. The damn elephant-sized aliens are more polite than you." Lila groaned.
"And why would I do that? You think I would stoop to your level?"
"You already did bitch," the Earthling smiled as she pointed to her cheek. "Or did you forget, O violent ape?"
"Why you!" Ivy screamed.
Bringing an end to their argument, the enraged Daregen smashed through a nearby wall, pointing its rifle at Ivy's head due to her height over Lila. But the Heiress was prepared, using her baton to plug the barrel of the alien's weapon, causing it to explode in the process. Using her opening, Ivy used her baton to strike the alien's knees, bringing it to the ground as it struggled with the sharpnel stuck in its rebreather. The daregen's helmet depicted a haunting face of a pained creature, and combined with its own blood, Lila couldn't even watch as it glared at Ivy with unyielding bloodlust.
"Hmph!" Ivy brought her left clogger down, transforming her footwear into a glossy white heel, and at the same time, crushing the enemy with a chunk of the ceiling that fell onto its head. "Lightwork. This is what you were fleeing from?"
"Huh?" Lila's eyebrows were raised. "Did you just...change your outfit?"
"What don't you understand about I'm better than you?" Ivy taunted.
The heiress then strutted away, using her newfound ability to warp her entire outfit into something more familiar from her home on Callisto.
"Whoa." Lila gasped in amazement at the Heiress's white dress, its exposed shoulders showing her delicate skin. "Yrix wasn't kidding about applications. Hey, why don't you change your outfit?"
"She's being ridiculous," Yrix responded, focusing her voice on the Earthling. "That could have been armor she made."
"Yeah, well...you got a bunch of human girls, what did you expect. If I could do that, I'd put on a cardigan. It's cold in here."
Lila then zipped over to Ivy, her eyes beaming with curiosity that almost made her forget how much she hated the heiress.
"Thanks, by the way." Lila grinned. "Nice outfit."
"I didn't do it for you." Ivy groaned. "Now go away."
"Mmm...nah."
"You can and you will!"
"Yeah, but...no."
"Agh!" Ivy pulled on her hair. "Who raised you!"
"A loving mother. What, we don't have those on your planet?" Lila retorted.
Ivy's hand came swinging at the girl's face, only this time, she ducked out of the way.
"Oop, sorry, try again." Lila giggled.
"Are you a child! We are in the middle of a warzone and you're playing games!" Ivy fumed.
Lila poked the heiress's pendant, its star-shaped jewels resembling a pattern of tessellations.
"I'm not the one who just tried to hit a teammate."
"Oh, don't be preposterous! You will NEVER be my teammate!"
Reaching the height of their argument, the girls began to lose concentration, wandering into a large open pit where a beam of light shone down onto its dusty surface. It was then that Lila felt Yrix's gaze more intensely than ever. She stopped in her tracks, allowing the heiress to wander ahead.
"Ivy. Ivy, shut up." Lila whispered. "Something's in here with us."
Even for someone as arrogant as the heiress, she felt herself freeze in place as well, her eyes scanning the room for movement. Unlike the Daregen, whatever was lurking in the shadows had the common sense not to charge into the girl's Psionic grasp. It wasn't until Ivy heard a mechanical shiver behind her that she performed a nimble cartwheel, narrowly avoiding a spiked tip that grazed her heels.
"Yrix." Lila pleaded as she watched on helplessly. "Exposition, please."
"Oh, I think the heiress will be fine." Yrix retorted in a demeaning tone. "Let her handle it."
Ivy looked around, panicked, unable to identify what had attacked her. Only when she whipped up a cloud of dust was she able to spot a hunched figure, its body concealed in a shimmering mirror of light that flickered against the air partciels. The alien wasn't quite as bulky as the Daregen, but was most certainly more cunning, deactivating its cloaking device with an audible hiss before redirecting the power of its suit into an electric kick. Ivy was barely able to block in time, her baton shattering into gleaming fragments as she tumbled to the ground.
"They are Vesper." Yrix chortled. "An unfortunately rare species with a tendency to stalk their prey like glamorous hunters."
"Ivy's got this right?" Lila frowned, her mind racing for a way to help that didn't involve getting herself splattered.
"Perhaps. But this is a Prelate."
The tall Vesper was covered head to toe in a tight-fitting red combat harness, its black mesh in between the armor's joints revealing its bulging muscles. The creature barely made any noise, its snake-like head focusing on Ivy in silent concentration. Only when the heiress began to pick herself off the floor did it move, gesturing with its claw-like hand for her to approach.
"Fine then," Ivy growled, wiping a bit of blood off her brow as she pointed another baton at the hunched creature. "Let's play."
The two combatants traded blows using their distanced attacks, focusing primarily on their footwork as they danced around the arena. Ivy thought it would be rather easy to use a second attack from behind to overwhelm the Vesper, just as she had on Castillo. But upon tossing a shard of rock at its rear, the creature's left arm cut the attack in half with a blade of energy emitting from its wrist.
"Shit." Lila gasped. "It's playing with her. We don't even know its full arsenal."
The Vesper then swiped low, attempting to melt through Ivy's legs like butter. Thankfully, the heiress somersaulted over the attack, using the opening to strike at its head. Unfortunately, the creature's tail came back into play, parrying the attack with ease. But Ivy had learned by then, using a projected barrier from her hand to avoid a follow-up from the creature's wrist blade. Whether she liked it or not, a tertiary appendage meant the creature could often take two turns in any given exchange, frustrating the heiress to no end.
"You're telling me this guy got benched!" Lila complained. "How!?"
"Not all exiles are incompetent as far as skill is concerned," Yrix explained. "This one was disgruntled with the empire."
"Don't tell me there's more of these."
"In your first trial? With that rank? I'm not cruel," the Arch-Flayer giggled.
"You are, but thanks anyway." Lila shrugged. "Got any weaknesses you'd like to tell me about?'
"Anyone can be outnumbered. Can you perchance help your friend?"
"She's not my friend," Lila growled.
The heiress and the Vesper continued their duel, in which the intensity and speed were greatly increasing. Ivy concentrated as hard as she could, reinforcing her baton while holding back her enemy's tail as well as she could. Finally, in a flurry so quick that the air around her began to trail, Ivy managed to work her way around the Vesper's wrist blade and strike it on the chestplate.
"Holy shit." Lila cheered, watching as Ivy managed to scrape togethor at least four more strikes. "There's no way."
The Vesper reeled backwards, the sheer force of Ivy's attack causing the sand beneath it to give way. But instead of registering pain, the Vesper just looked at Ivy with subtle amusement, its glowing eyeballs squinting as an energy field appeared around its entire body. Ivy had no words. For all her effort, she had merely discovered the alien was encased in a strong layer of electric shielding.
By then, she was out of breath, leaving her wide open for the creature's extended tail. Ivy could only block with her own fleshy hands, falling backwards as she cried out in pain. Luckily for her, the Vesper seemed in no hurry to finish her off.
"Don't worry, it was very impressed," Yrix reassured Lila as the Vesper strolled leisurely towards Ivy's fallen body. "It will give her an honorable death. A fast one. No trophy."
But just before the Vesper could reach down and squash Ivy's head, Lila came flying in, dropkicking the alien with as much speed as she could muster. A shockwave caused the pit to shudder as the Vesper stumbled backwards. It grumbled in audible frustration, before unveiling an arm cannon attatched to its forearm.
"Oh." Lila smiled sheepishly, staring at the tongs of blue plasma that began to glow hot with energy within the Vesper's cannon. "I'm cooked."
Much to the girl's surprise, she managed to dart across the room, her speed allowing her to run up the side of a steep wall as a trail of plasma fire pursued her. Realizing its current arsenal was largely ineffective, the Vesper unfolded a small orb before tossing it towards the Earthling. Without needing any explanation, Lila slid under the orb before making a wild dash for the opposite side of the chamber, just narrowly avoiding the Vesper's tail as it tried to behead her.
The explosion that followed engulfed the room in flame, causing Lila to raise her hands in a desperate attempt to shield herself. By the time the smoke cleared, her burnt fingers were practically numb, engulfing her in a feeling of despair as she watched the Vesper emerge unharmed. The creature raised its arm cannon towards the girl, its attention now primarily fixated on her potential to escape. It was only then that a large stone came hurling out of the smoke, pushing the Vesper's aim away from Lila.
"Got you," Ivy muttered, trembling on her knees as she reached out towards the Vesper with a more delicate grasp.
The alien was visibly suprised to see another orb appear from behind it, this time stolen by Ivy before being remotely activated. Using the last of their strength, both Lila and Ivy pushed against the Vesper, sending it back into a dark corner of the chamber before an explosion buried it in stone.
"That still won't do it." Lila panted. "We need to run."
"With you!?" Ivy scoffed. "I think that's hardly-."
"Girl, shut up." Lila rolled her eyes before grabbing onto Ivy's wrist.
The Earthling girl pulled on the heiress with all her might, tugging her away from the chamber just as the rubble beneath the vesper began to stir violently.
"Let go!" Ivy protested as she tried in vain to pull away from Lila. "You bafoon!"
Neither of the girls could muster any Psionic power, exhausted by their fight and barely able to move their own physical bodies. Ivy wanted nothing more than to send Lila tumbling through a wall. But after her injury, she felt rather powerless to stop the Earthling from pulling her along.
"Stop." Ivy gasped for air, her feet beginning to drag.
"No." Lila retorted, pushing onwards as the girls dissapeared into the maze of stone. "Not yet."
"Why are you doing this?!"
"We're all human. It doesn't matter how much of a bitch you are, it's us or them."
"I'm not..." Ivy panted. "I'm not one of you."
"Oh really!" Lila nearly crashed into a wall out of frustration. "The giant seven-foot aliens have more in common with you than me! Are we being serious?"
"You wouldn't understand your a-."
"No, I do! You're afraid! Just admit it!" Lila screamed. "You're scared you're going to die horribly and never see your loved ones again like the rest of us!"
Ivy had nothing to say, her sultry rage turning into a cold monotone expression. She was so utterly furious at Lila, and even more so at herself for being unable to explain to the stupid girl what she felt. It was almost relieving for the heiress to fight that monster mere moments ago. Even during her failure to achieve victory, she felt honest and forthcoming.
"Don't you have anything to say for yourself!" Lila raised her arms in protest.
"It doesn't matter," Ivy muttered. "Talking to you is pointless."
"I saved your life!"
"Pointless."
Ivy turned away from Lila, lying on the ground as she caught her breath.
"I should have just gotten squished by that truck." Lila frowned, feeling rather insecure about herself. "Whatever."
The Earthling then began to wander off, dragging her sore feet into the darkness. Upon hearing a footstep from the rear, she became almost certain the Vesper had come to finish her off. She almost wished that was the case.
"Seriously." Lila turned to see Ivy, who appeared to be following her. "You can't just let the ol primitive monkey girl die alone. Got to annoy me in my final death throes, yeah?"
"Shut up and keep moving," Ivy grunted.