"You don't have to do this," Lunae whispered into the Vesper's mind, speaking in its native tongue.
The Vesper acknowledged her with a respectful nod. "Oh, but I do, little moon. Prepare yourself."
The girls hesitated, unsure of what to do first. Apparently, Yrix's promise of a weapon was a convenient lie meant to get her students all into position. From where they stood, the final act of the trial had officially begun.
Lila was the first to act, using her speed to get behind the Vesper with the hopes of distracting it.
"Scrap." Lila put her fists up playfully, knowing full well she had no chance of dealing any significant damage. "Run them hands. Run 'em up. Let me see them paws."
The Vesper whirled around, using its tail to swipe at Lila. She ducked. After so many close encounters, the girl was beginning to get the hang of her powers, or at the very least their evasive potential.
"Ooh, catch these hands." Lila giggled, trying to ignore how easily she could be slaughtered. "Catch 'em if you can."
The young girl struck a rather unserious pose, raising her fists to her mouth. She hadn't a clue if the enemy would react to human culture in the same way Yrix did. But it was frankly worth a shot.
Sonera took note of Lila's efforts. Summoning a radiant blade into her hands, she attempted to pierce the Vesper's exposed side, only to find its shields resistant to her efforts. Ivy made a similar attempt to no avail, smashing her baton onto the Vesper's head from a safe distance. Something was clearly missing in their strategy.
Surrounded on all sides, the Vesper kept its composure, waiting for the right time to strike. It reacted to Lila's movements, and after grabbing her by the throat, used her as a weapon to hurl at Sonera. It would have been so easy to just allow Lila to sail through the air and hit the rough stone. But Sonera took one glance at Lunae before making up her mind.
*She needed that stupid girl.*
Lila's momentum came to a halt as Sonera caught her with some difficulty, her heels sliding against the sand.
"Oh shit." Lila opened one eye. "Thank you."
Sonera didn't respond, dropping Lila on her rear before rushing at the Vesper. She didn't intend to be so reckless, but the thought of boring the Vesper limited her options. If it couldn't maintain the challenge it so desperately pursued, nothing would stop it from targeting easier prey like Lunae and Lila.
"Idiots." Ivy groaned, using her Psionic powers to throw the Vesper off balance by pushing its leg into the sand. "Use your heads."
Having improved her technique, much of the heiress's abilities had begun to manifest into a glowing sigil that appeared at both her hands and the location she sought to manipulate. It was a tesselation of sorts, guided by her Psionic powers to create angular projections wherever she needed. Using these projections, she was able to restrain the Vesper if only for a brief moment.
*She didn't know whether to hate or love her family's influence on her power.*
Ivy called her baton to her hand, rushing in to slash at the Vesper while flipping it over its head. Sonera attacked in tandem, conducting a spinning cut onto the enemy that sent sparks sailing across the room. Their hope was that such a combined attack would be enough to break the shields.
"Talented, but toothless." The Vesper whispered to Lunae.
The armored alien kicked at Ivy, destroying the Psionic barrier she had formed to protect herself before using its tail to bludgeon her in the gut. At the same time, the Vesper managed to free itself from the projections, dashing backwards to catch Sonera with its large forearm before she could react. It was like getting hit by a tree trunk, sending both girls flying backwards.
"This isn't working," Lila mumbled to Lunae, who stood paralyzed with fear. "Yrix wouldn't just let us win so easily. We've got to think of something.
The Vesper was like an elegant dancer, meanuvering around its prey with merciless precision. It was as if the creature had eyes on the back of its head. As if to prove that point, it swiveled itself around just in time to catch Rena's knife sailing through the air. She, however, was not phased, using her ability to walk through the Vesper, claim her knife back from its hand, and dig it into its eye socket.
"Yea!" Lila cheered.
The Vesper seemed uninjured; however, its helmet flickered for a brief moment before it lashed out at Rena with every appendage it had available. Rena phased through each attack, trying her best to gain some distance, knowing full well she could not stay an apparition forever. As with all Psionic abilities, her tricks cost energy.
Lila stumbled over to Ivy and Sonera as they picked themselves off the floor. "Plan. Plan time!"
Lunae was quick in tow, placing her hand on Lila's shoulder as she continued to tremble.
"Yes?" Sonera muttered, collecting herself far faster than the heiress.
Before Lila could speak, she felt herself become pulled into a different space, not so different from the one Yrix had already absconded her to. It was a much smaller plane, dominated by a soft blue glow and an invisible ground. And far off in the distance, Lila could almost swear she heard a heartbeat.
"Hello." Lunae smiled, appearing in front of Lila in a flash of blue light.
Lila stumbled backwards, falling onto her bottom. "Oh-my-goodness."
Lunae giggled. "I thought we needed time to plan."
"Just us?" Lila shrugged.
"Just us, I can't bear the load of more than one person, not in my own realm. Yrix is far stronger in that regard, I'm afraid."
The outside world began moving much more slowly, as if time were enslaved to Lunae's will. It was her finest technique yet. She may not have been a warrior, but she would still devote herself to helping the other students as much as she could. Projecting a pocket dimension was indeed not an easy task.
"So then...what's the idea?" Lila raised an eyebrow.
Lunae took a graceful step towards her friend, her face becoming uncomfortably close.
"Uh..." Lila averted her eyes. "Lunae?"
If she weren't such a quaint gal, Lila might have slapped Lunae for her brash behavior. The thought did cross her mind. But she was running out of options.
"I have faith that with the right push, and some private information, you can formulate a plan," Lunae whispered, closing her eyes as she grasped Lila's head with both hands. "Look within, Lila."
Lunae pressed their foreheads togethor, and in a flash of blinding light, the vision was over.
"Oh." Lila gasped. "I see."
Back in the real world, Sonera was still waiting for a response. Lila took only a brief moment before she began to rant. It wasn't easy, but she had come up with something thanks to Lunae.
"That Vesper's armor keeps deflecting kinetic force and energy. But its grenade was...something else. I don't know, I'm not a scientist, but it was a different type of energy." Lila sputtered. "The last time we tried to give it a piece of its own medicine, it actually staggered. I was thinking...if we can modify the grenade and amplify it using our skill sets, I could stick it directly to the Vesper. At least we can disable its shields."
"And what makes you think we can modify it!?" Ivy sneered. "Even assuming I get another grenade? Who's going to do that? You?"
"Actually," Lila shrugged. "I was thinking you would."
"What?!" Ivy's eyes widened with shock, as her face became the slightest tint of red. "H-how."
"Lunae told me you're good with tech. Some kind of...repressed talent?"
"You tell that little witch to get out of my head!"
Lila placed a hand on her temple. "Not the point, Ivy. Can you do it or not?"
"Get me that grenade and I'll find out." Ivy nodded reluctantly.
"Great, Lunae said she can do the rest before it's my turn to...not blow myself up." Lila chuckled. "As for you, Sonera...you're the best fighter. Can you keep the Vesper's mind on something while we pull this off? I don't think Rena will last much longer."
Sonera locked her fingers around her knife. "With this strategy? Yes."
Ivy ignored the comment about "best fighter" and focused her mind on the task at hand. Both girls were, at the end of the day, adept at collecting the necessary data they needed to adapt. The next time the Vesper swung at them, it came even faster than before, its tail brushing against Sonera's hair as she slid beneath its tail.
"Pfft." Ivy blew a bit of air at her own bangs, staring directly at a violent blade of energy as it came screaming towards her face. She had something to prove.
*Her legs split with ease.*
The evasion was as elegant as it was reckless, filling the Vesper with admiration. It was exactly the diversion Lila needed.
"Hey Rena!" Lila waved at her new friend, whose Psionic transformation was beginning to wear off. "Grab its grenade! Right in the booty pouch!"
Rena was not a moment too soon in phasing through the Vesper to pull out its equipment, her form being no longer sustainable. Lila bolted to the girl's side, retrieving both her and the grenade as she panted from exhaustion. She was just in time.
"You come up with something?" Rena wheezed as she limped over to Lunae.
"Yeah, me dying part two, the sequel." Lila smiled ecstatically.
"Let's hope it's better than the first one." Rena laughed. "You didn't actually die on Earth."
Lila dropped her demeanor for only a second, clutching the large globe-shaped grenade in her hand. "There's nothing left for them to take away from me."