Thin lines spread over the cone-shaped Calamity, shining with a faint light as they headed for its sharp tip. Upon connecting, the whole thing snapped, splitting apart into several diamond-like shards arranged into two rings. They spun around a sphere the size of a football, creating torrents of air that blasted away the fire and smoke. It looked like an abstract take on the sun, another nonsensical form taken by one of humanity's greatest enemies.
[I can see the core!] Zero Three's voice came through the comms, prompting Nine to refocus her eyes and prepare her sniper rifle.
[Back away, Three!]
Following Nine's warning, three energy bullets flashed through the sky, creating a chain of explosions. Same as before, the fire and smoke were scattered by the wind the Calamity created as it spun its rings. The diamond-shaped shards then moved into a spiral formation, returning the monster to its original form. No sooner had the parts clicked in place than the whole thing exploded forward, spinning like a drill as it headed straight for the three Valkyries.
Not waiting for its arrival, the three scattered, each going in a different direction. Nine sprayed the monster with energy bullets, drawing its attention as they equipped their weapons. The diamond-shaped shards seemed to block everything without suffering a single scratch, and if the monster's speed didn't decrease each time it tanked a shot, the blonde Valkyrie would have been convinced that her attacks didn't have any effect.
Shrugging off another explosion, the cone-shaped Calamity was about to launch itself at Nine when a shadow fell on it from above. A crescent blade came swinging down, tracing a red line through the sky. The Calamity came to an abrupt stop and detached two shards to block its path, buying itself enough time to get out of the way before the shards were split in half.
Zero Five spun her halberd and followed with another attack, but the monster was already out of reach, having already moved into the path of a different attack. With her twin blades equipped, Zero Three snuck up on the Calamity and stabbed both into its back. The glowing green blades sank into the red plating, cutting through it as they headed for the core. It looked like that was it for a moment there, but the cone shattered, and the shards began spinning, turning into a saw that threatened to split the young Valkyrie in half.
The two rings shifted at the last moment, blocking the brilliant beam Nine shot from a different direction. Zero Three ignited her thrusters, using the diversion to burst forward and sink her blades into the spherical core. All of a sudden, the force moving the shards disappeared. The shield created by the Calamity crumbled, and one after the other, its parts slowly fell to the crimson plains below.
"D class isn't much of a challenge." Zero Three said while watching the dead monster fall. "They can't even hide their cores pro-"
A distant glint halted her words, and she hurriedly crossed her blades in front of her. A second Calamity collided with her, its tip scattering a shower of sparks as it attempted to drill into the glowing green blades. Gritting her teeth, the young Valkyrie increased the output of the Force Field around the blades, causing them to glow brighter. Even then, the Calamity did not retreat, continuing to push her back. That was far from a good sign, and so was the appearance of two Calamities that share the same form.
"This might be a C class, maybe even a B…" Nine grimaced, an anxious look taking over her face. "You two, keep your guard up!"
Zero Five rushed to support Zero Three, but before she could reach her, another cone-shaped Calamity appeared out of nowhere, crashing into her like a long-distance missile. She barely avoided a direct hit, but that left her too busy to back up Zero Three.
[Three! Twenty degrees to the left, please!]
Doing as told, Zero Three found herself facing Nine's direction. The cone was still pushing against her Force Field, so it rotated as well, leaving its back wide open to the blonde Valkyrie. Nine had no trouble shooting its core even in that form. As expected, the base of the cone was the least protected area, with the core being closer to it than the sharp tip.
Without waiting for gravity to do its job, Zero Three left the frozen Calamity behind and went to support her comrade. Her mistake was assuming there were no more enemies, and because of that, she was too late in noticing the lance shooting toward her from an obscure angle, its speed far exceeding that of the other three. The lance collided with her Force Field, but with her too focused on the offensive, trying to help Zero Five, the layer of protection she coated herself in was lacking, allowing the Calamity to tear through it and penetrate her skin.
[THREE!]
"Don't worry." Gritting her teeth, the young Valkyrie turned to engage the new enemy. "It's just a surface wound!"
An enemy capable of piercing through a Valkyrie's Force Field. Just like the others, it split into many diamond-shaped shards, forming the same abstract sun shape. This last one was much larger than the others, having three rings instead of two. Another cone appeared from the red plains below. The one Zero Five was fighting retreated, and each of the cones took a spot beside the larger Calamity before shifting forms as well.
"This... doesn't look good..." Zero Three glanced at her wound and grimaced.
As she turned to face the enemy, the rings created by their shards began to spin faster, the cores they surrounded shining with a brilliant light. The Calamities seemed to sense Zero Three's hate-filled gaze and turned to face her, the light from their cores casting an ominous glow on her petite form. A bullet pierced through one of them, instantly shutting it down, but before the other two could be stopped, beams of light shot out, bending at impossibly sharp angles as they surrounded the young Valkyrie from all directions.
[THREE!!!]