Left.
Wait, no, right.
Her training had paid for itself well enough. With sheer instinct alone, Lila narrowly managed to keep track of the rapid action around her. She hadn't even the chance to blink before evading the first assault.
"Calm down," Rena whispered into her mind. "I'll just knock you flat."
Lila wasn't aware of how she looked at that moment. What she could discern, thanks to Rena's moment of pity, was the current state of affairs. Lunae was pitted against Alia, whereas Ivy and Sonera had already clashed with the twins in what could only be described as a dance.
That left Lila with the one girl who clearly didn't want to hurt her.
Not again.
Still, being singled out as the weakling had its problems. Rena, for instance, was fully confident in her ability to down the Earthling with little resistance. She had even requested the opportunity as a sort of privilege.
A fact written on her face.
"You underestimate my power!" Lila winked in a melodramatic voice.
Rena almost chuckled, retrieving her Chakram with a psionic flick. "You're still making fun out of this? Those bloodshot eyes had me worried there. Just, make sure you keep that Ambience up, alright? This will be over soon."
"It's a stress response!" Lila closed the gap, feigning a kick with her new boots. "But don't worry, I'll just clap you too!"
The air wasn't so playful around the rest of the room. Even Lunae had a determined expression as she wove a series of thorns to block Alia's advance. The dancer, although committed to her promise of a non-lethal approach, was highly competitive.
She needed a comeback.
But it was the twins who had Lila worried the most. True to their reputation, Mina and Dina had already engaged in a fierce no-rules battle with a series of identical wrist blades. Not even the fine dresses they wore seemed to slow them down.
"H-hey now," Lila glanced at Rena before ducking under another Chakram. "What about them?"
"They do what they want!" Rena huffed, already a bit annoyed with how evasive Lila was proving to be. "Just stand still, and I can take care of it!"
Alia had a similar idea, albeit with a degree more envy.
She was fully focused on her battle with Lunae, casting a shadow around the princess before unleashing a storm of Psionic daggers. All the while, Alia made sure to pressure her opponent with an offensive from her dancing blade. The combined assault, however, was neatly dispelled by a storm of sand, in which Lunae had already leveled the field of play.
"I do hope you're not angry," Lunae frowned, using her flexibility to bend under the attacks. "No harm must come to you."
"Spare me," Alia cupped a ball of void energy in her palm. "When you're on your knees, worshiping me, I'll be perfectly gentle."
Lunae rolled her eyes. As far as she was concerned, Alia was just an obstacle. Aiding Sonera was her true goal.
"Just die," Mina grunted in a low voice, slashing at Ivy's baton with a frustrated backhand. "Brat."
"Now you speak?" Ivy couldn't resist the urge to spit back. "I don't even know who you are."
The heiress had stared a good deal at the twin with black hair, analyzing her intentions both as a girl and a Mimic. The conclusion Ivy had safely come to inferred a similarity to Rena, only far more tight-lipped and dangerous.
Sonera's end of the exchange was even less verbal, a silent understanding having already been reached with her foe. Even she was surprisingly well matched by Dina, narrowly avoiding her wrist blade as the green-eyed girl refused to relent.
Her fighting style was the issue. Unlike many of Sonera's peers, Dina had evidently received formal training well before she met the Arch-Flayer, a fact she hid most well. Life as a gunrunner was just as brutal as Yrix implied, and the twins had the guts to show for it.
It was then becoming clear how little Sonera could avoid using her Psionic abilities.
All of which were particularly lethal.
What with the incinerating flame she so often relied on.
Lila could see the writing on the wall. At the very least, someone was getting badly injured.
"Not today!" Lila slipped past Rena's defense, managing to land a messy drop kick on her abdomen.
"Huh!" Rena coughed. "Fine then."
Her body became a pink mist just as Lila reached in for another attack, returning to a solid state a second later.
"Oh shit," Lila gulped. "Should have worn my helmet," she thought to herself.
Despite her clumsy mistake, the Earthling was quite durable in her new getup, splashing against the sand in a brief mess before hurling herself back into the fray. Rena was rather taken aback by Lila's newfound strength.
"Hyaa!" Lila pretended to commit herself to a sloppy haymaker, only to pivot into a roundhouse kick that sent Rena flying.
Serix's boots were a weapon all on their own, with advanced repulsors that amplified the impact of Lila's assault. She could finally keep up with her supernatural peers.
"Shit!" Rena ate the dirt, realizing she was actually losing. "No fair!"
Something was on her mind.
Hesitation.
Lila made sure to give her a moment. "Surrender now and-."
Suddenly, Rena transformed into a ball of mist before rolling towards Lunae with blinding speed. In her invulnerable state, there wasn't much the princess could do to halt the approach.
"Now!" Alia screamed at the twins, her voice becoming unsteady against the leaching power of Lunae's Psionic grasp. "We need you girls!"
It was a strategy they had clearly intended to hold in reserve. But with Lila a warrior in her own right, and Alia on the verge of losing to a pacifist, it had become clear there would be no easy victory. The girls had to fight dirty.
Mina extended her palm before unleashing a blizzard of cold air, bypassing Sonera as the assassin skid across the sand.
"Ice?" Ivy stared, her eyes flickering red.
She couldn't quite mimic Dina's ability with just one sample of data. But the strategist in Ivy was more than enough to predict the twins' scheme.
"Lunae!" The heiress cried out, using a copy of Lila's speed to shove Mina aside and rush to the scene.
She was just too late. Rena's mist had absorbed Dina's cold blizzard, and after a moment of coalescence, the rogue girl assailed Lunae with a devastating gale.
"Lunae!" Sonera found herself uncharacteristically distracted.
Yrix had mentioned the destruction of stars to slow down the Infestare. Heat deprivation, as explained to Lila, was evidently a suitable strategy against an otherwise adaptable race.
"Nnngh!" Lunae fell into the fetal position. "H-help."
Her desperation sounded genuine. Even Alia felt guilty, refusing to strike the princess then and there. She had plenty of time for an alternative solution thanks to the protection from Rena's mist.
"One down-," Alia picked a few ribbons off her outfit, intending to tie Lunae down with them. "Three to-."
She was halted by the sudden sting of cold.
Rena's mist was gone.
Alia quivered in pain as she began to succumb to the cold. Realizing her compatriot was at risk, Dina was forced to deactivate the storm, barely spotting the culprit behind her foiled scheme. It was Ivy, of course, using a duplicate of Rena's mist to cancel out the effect and cast the entire group into the cold.
The heiress was built for that environment. In it, she had no trouble throwing Alia and Rena aside with a Psionic push. Yet her efforts were too late for the princess.
"Are you-. Ivy reached down to help her friend. "Just lie there. We can do this."
Lunae was reduced to a shivering wreck, bound by her own limbs.
"Here," Ivy whispered in a soothing voice, providing the princess with Sonera's replicated heat. "I have to get back out there. Lila can watch over you."
The Earthling in question had already arrived, striking a protective stance towards her foe as they began to recover. She was done quipping by then. An unusual silence had fallen over her.
"Ivy," Lila tried to make her case.
"I can't stop Sonera," the heiress growled.
Attacking Lunae came at a risk, even if she was a good target. Put simply, Dina had to contend with a pissed Sonera. That was all it took to abandon the idea of a non-violent resolution.
Much to Lila's dismay.