Elaina was happy that Tira had seemingly taken to her class quite naturally, but it still wasn’t going to be enough to take down Myriala, apparently. Elaina had thought it would be a fair fight in a melee, but the woman’s propensity to ranged attack with stones wasn’t something she’d accounted for. Still, with the plan she’d whispered to the System, that the System had in turn relayed to Tira, she knew they could win.

As long as her theory was right, anyway.

Theories probably were better tested outside of life and death combat, but that was a luxury that Elaina couldn’t afford right now. It did suck a little that she’d have to rely on Tira to do the heavy lifting, but she supposed that was her role in all this. She could corral Myriala, and that would have to be enough.

And corral she did, stretching her Flexible Restraints out, thinning the chain links to get more length while preserving mass. They were made of crystal anyway, so they wouldn’t be breaking regardless if the durability of Tira’s whip was any indicator. She begun snaking it through the air, chasing after their opponent while keeping a trail of crystal in the sky, a net that Myriala couldn’t go near without being snared.

That wasn’t going to happen of course, Elaina knew, not yet anyway. Myriala was too fast, too practiced in combat to let herself get caught again, not after knowing about Elaina’s trick with morphing the chains around her earlier, but it did force her to venture nearer and nearer to Tira and her whip. Each crack of the weapon heralded the dripping of blood, blue ichor spilling out, sometimes with a drop of ruby red in the midst.

And that red drop was the key, not blood, but crystal, the various adornments across Myriala’s skin slowly being flayed off of her body. She healed the wounds, small as the were, but that was fine, because what came back was flesh alone, just like how when her right hand had grown back it didn’t have those red crystal claws, but regular old fingernails. With Tira’s whip and sword combined she was shearing those crystals off, one by one.

It was just a theory, but Elaina thought now they were more than just ornamentation. The claws and arm-blades were weapons too, obviously, but they had to be more besides that. “Earn your crystals,” the male Red Order had told his underlings before, the only one besides Myriala and the corpse in the woods that had any crystals on him besides claws or fangs. It could have been a coincidence, but so far the more crystals on one of their bodies meant the more human they seemed to look, the more sentience they seemed to have, the more powerful they were.

“What are you doing, you bitch!” Myriala shouted, lunging at Tira. 

Tira’s response was wordless, but not quiet, as the thunder of her whip rang out, sliding under Myriala’s guard and rending the flesh of her left arm, just above the elbow, cutting clean through skin and bone alike. Myriala still charged forward though, slicing through Tira’s side with her right elbow-blade as her left arm collapsed to the ground and Tira cried out in pain, dropping both of her weapons. She was just a moment too late trying to dive out of the slash’s path.

“Tira!” Elaina shouted, instinctively running over to her just as Myriala turned heel, skidding across the ground. She jumped at Elaina before she had made even a full step, remaining blade trained on her throat. Myriala’s speed would be too great, and Elaina would finally meet her end.

That was the thought that ran through Elaina’s head as she froze herself with [Personal Restraint] at least, the thought that it was pointless to try as she tried anyway, pulling her crystal chains toward Myriala and intercepting her, wrapping them around the woman’s body and stopping her in place. Myriala had been too slow, far slower than she was just a moment before while lunging at Tira.

And she was looking decidedly less human, more grotesque with each passing moment as her face contorted, not looking quite like the full monsters Elaina had fought earlier, but certainly without the level of humanity she had before.

“It worked,” Elaina muttered, releasing [Personal Restraint] as she gawked. She could feel Myriala resisting, but she didn’t even need the skill to hold back the weakened monster in front of her. 

Myriala was clawing at the chains with her right arm now, a desperate attempt. “Give them back,” she hissed, voice sounding more guttural, the mature elegance from before gone the same way her physical form had morphed. “You fucking bitch, give back my crystals!”

“Tira” Elaina said, turning her back on Myriala. She didn’t even need to be watched over in this state. “Are you okay?”

A groan first, then, “Yeah, I’ll be fine, after some healing anyway. Probably’ll need some help walking back though.”

“Right, I gotcha.” Elaina turned back to Myriala, the animal still struggling in her trap. Her arm wasn’t growing back, she noticed, and the last few wounds Tira had inflicted still littered her body, almost all of the crystals gone save the one remaining blade on her right arm and a handful of other scattered crystals. “You’re out of mana?”

“Fuck you!” she said, lunging forward with her teeth bared, unable to move the chains even an inch. 

“Fuck you too.” Elaina sighed, both in relief and annoyance. Myriala would bleed out at this rate, but Elaina had hoped to take her in alive so they could question her. “I might be able to get you to Carline, you know. She could probably save your life.”

Myriala growled, snarling as she tried to reach out for Elaina with her weaponless hand. “I’m not going to live inside these chains, you brat. Go ahead and kill me; you’ll get what’s coming to you when the rest of the Order finds out.”

A chance? “Find’s out what?” 

“What your people have done.” She spit, saliva falling just short of Elaina’s feet.

Elaina had to be careful. The woman was angry, acting irrational, but she probably wouldn’t just spill everything just because Elaina asked. “We didn’t do anything wrong; you’re the ones who attacked us first, both back then and now.”

“Ha, an animal lecturing me on morality in my final moments.” Myriala shook her head, and Elaina thought she saw her eyes watering. “I may be the victim of hubris for coming alone, but once I go missing they’ll investigate, and when they find out that you went back on your word, that you’ve been holding this much extra crystal, your people will be done for. There will be no mercy like last time.”

“Elaina,” the System said, voice still haggard, “we need to know what she’s talking about.”

No need to tell me twice. It was a small blessing that Myriala couldn’t hear the System herself, but it wasn’t like Elaina could have a full on conversation without her hearing her side at least. “I’m the Administrator, and I don’t think we’ve broken our word at all. Maybe you’re the one who’s misinformed.”

“Liar… Befitting of an animal that can talk.” Myriala’s voice was growing faint now, her eyelids drooping. “But you can tell all the lies you like. Once the rest of the Order finds out that your Stormshines broke their pact with us and held onto extra crystal, no amount of words will be able spare your planet.”

“The Stormshines…” Elaina said, mind turning over in her head. “That can’t be right…” Headmaster Alonse?