For as effective as her attacks were, they came back five-fold at her new allies, who still couldn’t see anything or attack fast enough. She heard the whizzing of energy, their cries of pain, and her mounting panic increased. With Chalybs only able to point at one target at a time, they could not tackle this challenge as a group in a way that was effective. And if she kept this up, she might run out of magic eventually.

Then she heard that the enemies were retreating. Venus paused, hoping that meant they wouldn’t still attack. But if they were going in the same direction… would they encounter each other again? Or hurt anyone in Zhi’s planet—if there were even still people there at all? She hated the idea of letting an enemy get away, but she also understood the importance of fighting in an ideal environment.

“If they’re leaving, let’s wait until they get out of range,” she said at last. “We’re at a disadvantage fighting them head on here.”

She might be able to evade their attacks, but the group would not, and she did not want to risk losing all of them before they even reached their destination.

Hadley watched until she could no longer see her attack - there was no way to know if she had actually hit anything, so she didn't bother to worry about it. Either it hit, or it didn't. There was no time to waste on wondering about it.

She didn't notice another attack heading her way until it collided into Ari's barrier. She recoiled away, and felt guilty as the hit meant for her shattered the barrier completely. More bursts of energy made their way to her now-unprotected allies, and she winced as the attacks found their mark. She wanted to apologize but couldn't find the words. Instead, she placed a hand on Ari's arm, to make sure her friend was okay, and glanced at the others in turn.

SAM mentioned that the enemies were retreating, but that did nothing to make Hadley feel any better - in fact, it made her feel even more on edge. Why were they retreating? Didn't they have the upper hand? Perhaps the attacks had found their way to the enemies after all.

Hadley remained next to Ari as the other girl brought up another barrier. She hoped she wouldn't singularly be the reason why it was depleted this time around.

As Venus gave a means of strategy, calling for everyone to wait, Hadley nodded - she had nothing to add, and believed Venus to be much more capable than herself to come up with an idea. It wasn't as if she had much else to offer, anyway.

Hadley glanced again to Ari, looking for any signs of open wounds. "Are you okay?" she asked in a quiet voice.

Another attack - as Bastet's barrier pulsed and disappeared in absorbing an attack, she kept alert for signs of the dark beams hitting her allies; the energy seemed to crackle off of and around Gabriel's shield and he hissed in either surprise or pain; Bastet flinched, but otherwise made no noise, instead concentrating in a way that suggested she was working on casting her barrier yet again. 

Gabriel, then. 

Using her wings she gently reoriented herself to be directly behind him, her hands gently taking his shoulders to help her realignment, the metal of his right-hand guard cold to the touch, and quickly kissed his left shoulder to heal and thank him for standing in the way of danger for her; she listened to the conversations going on around her, uneasy with the notion that their invisible foes were getting away, free and able to surprise them again, but with the disadvantage Venus spoke of, what else could they do? 

She didn't have enough experience to offer any solutions - the enemy wouldn't let itself be lured closer to a star, would it? And then jumped when another unexpected volley hit Xtal, who was outside the barrier that popped into place scant seconds later. 

"Hex!" cried out in alarm, reaching out for her with one hand and hoping the girl would realize what she meant. 

Battle wrote:

6  Aegle uses Aegle Kiss on  Amarachius
----5 HP restored

Enemies wrote:

The enemies, faded into the darkness, are able to attempt another sneak attack!
A sneak attack heads towards  Venus 
Perception Check: 10; Valdis Perception: 14
Venus senses the attack coming and avoids it!

A sneak attack heads towards  Xtal-Diamante
Perception Check: 10; Xtal-Diamante: 3+4=7 the attack goes through
How much damage?
--5
--CTRL 5
--ARM -5
----Total of 5 points of damage

A sneak attack heads towards  Xtal-Diamante 
Perception Check: 10; Xtal-Diamante: 3+4=7 the attack goes through!
How much damage?
--3
--CTRL 5
--ARM -5
----Total of 3 points of damage


A sneak attack heads towards  Venus 
Perception Check: 10; Valdis Perception: 14
Venus senses the attack coming and avoids it!

A sneak attack heads towards  Xtal-Diamante 
Perception Check: 10; Xtal-Diamante: 3+4=7 the attack goes through!
How much damage?
--4
--CTRL 5
--ARM -5
----Total of 4 points of damage

4  Bastet uses Energy Barrier (4MP)
--5
--CTRL 6
--MP 2
----Total of 13 points of defense

battle order round 3:

The fact that they were retreating put Ari at unease. The last time enemies retreated on Destore... Her thoughts were interrupted when Hadley asked if she was ok. Ari gave her a smile and nodded.

"It was just a scratch--" before she could continue another barrage of attacks came through towards Venus. Ari was amazed at how easily Venus could avoid the attacks. However, Crysdal's cry made her realize Hex had not gotten within range of her shield and had been hit.

"Crysdal, I'm going to get her in range of my shield. She might be too injured to move!"

With a gentle flap of her wings, Ari floated her way just close enough to where Hex would be within her purple barrier. Crysdal could then hopefully be able to heal her.

Evidently they weren’t just leaving; they were still attacking. Venus was able to dodge them, but the unknown senshi got hit three times, and Crysdal screamed what must be her name. “Everyone get within the shield!” she instructed, feeling helpless and frustrated.

She then looked at Chalybs. “Are they still going further away from us?”

What if their range of attack was really far? Then Chalybs wouldn’t be able to track them and the senshi would be sitting ducks. If only Venus could see them…

"Yes, but I'm losing sight of them, they're moving out of my range!" Chalybs could only watch as they blinked off her radar. Xtal-Diamante had caught the brunt of the next round of attacks, but they still couldn't really retaliate. Why were they still being shot at?

Chalybs moved closer to the rest of the group, trying to cover them better from another unseen attack.

"Should we still stay in one place?" She could go after them, but even if she could see the enemies, that didn't mean she wouldn't get overwhelmed by their superior numbers. Her suit couldn't take all of that damage.

“No, we should keep moving. But let’s try to keep close to stars so that they could illuminate any enemies hiding in the dark.”

Venus turned to make sure everyone was protected by a shield of some sort, then began flying toward the nearest star, trying not to stray too far from their destination’s path, but close enough to the star that it would illuminate their way so that no enemy can hide behind the darkness. She then continued along the new path toward the planet they intended to reach.

Her attack followed Venus', but the enemies were too well-concealed to gauge the effect. The enemies did not take too long to retaliate, either. One single attack popped Bastet's barrier - it was quite impressive how weak it was, really - and several more attacks landed on the rest of the team.

Nyx continued considering their strategic possibilities, when Gabriel added his suggestion.

How would you say our chances are to hit something if we fired in everything direction around us?

Why, of course. Why not just exhaust their powers shooting blindly everywhere in hopes of hitting something, perhaps. Maybe they'd hit the enemies, maybe they'd hit random space rocks, whatever. Totally sensible.

But what else can you expect from him?

Venus proceeded to add her own suggestion, which sounded equally stupid initially. Stay put? And then do what? Drift aimlessly within space? They'd have to move eventually, and based on their direction, they'd come across them again sooner or later. But she amended her strategy to suggest they follow a different path around stronger light sources.

She was probably the smartest of the rest of the team, she'd give her that much.

Hadley remained mostly quiet. Her earlier concern about Ari's injuries had been dissuaded though she continued to keep a close eye on the other girl. She kept close to her as well, making sure to remain inside of the barrier as it moved closer towards Xtal-Diamante. Hadley hoped that the nearly silent senshi was alright. She knew just how much those attacks could hurt.

Listening as Eternal Sailor Venus continued to give ideas and orders, Hadley glanced towards Ari to make sure that she and everyone else within the barrier were moving as well, before following the older senshi's flight path.

The idea of invisible enemies still left her ill at ease. She had a hard enough time effectively attacking an enemy she could see, and did not like her odds in hitting one she couldn't. And she didn't believe that this fight was over even if the enemies were retreating at the moment.

All she could do was to stay alert and make sure she was ready to help in whatever way possible. She kept telling herself that so that she didn't get lost in her own shortcomings.

Follow Venus, stay protected behind this shield. It was all she could do and it made her feel useless. Fighting the enemies, whatever they were, in space was difficult enough as it is and then now they retreated. SAM couldn't even pick them up anymore.

Ari kept up with Venus's pace; flying closer to the light of the stars was a good idea, but how close could they get to them? She vaguely remembered something about the immense size of stars and how they functioned. Wouldn't gravity pull them in or did their powers somehow prevent that?

As they travelled, Ari made sure to be careful to not let anyone out of range of her shield as best she could. She wished it was larger, stronger and able to withstand more attacks. She eyed everyone individually as they continued on. At least no one was majorly hurt and was able to be healed quickly by Crysdal.

"Venus...do you have any idea how close we are to Queen Zhi's planet?"

She hoped it wasn't much longer. Being wide open in space was certainly not ideal.

Venus heard Bastet's question, and bit her lip. The truth was, they were still very far away from it. But she wondered if telling the truth would discourage everyone and lower their morale. They weren't even halfway there and already so many people had gotten hurt...

Was she wrong to take these people with her? Should she have told them to either go home or... or what? What else could they do? They deserved the chance to fight for their home as much as any other senshi. But what if... what if by taking them with her she only got them killed that much sooner? When they could have at least reunited with their families had they gone home. Maybe say important things that need to be said. Or just be with each other in the end. Even that was better than dying alone in the middle of space, right?

What would she choose? To die out here, fighting for justice, or back home with Serenity and the others, doing nothing?

Venus already knew the answer.

But it didn't make it any easier.

"We're still quite a long way from there," she said at last, knowing that if she lied, they would discover it pretty soon anyway, and then would they even trust her? No, if she wanted their help, she was going to have to go for the hard truth.

These senshi deserved no less, after everything they had been through.

Battle wrote:

6  Aegle uses AegleKiss (1MP) on  Xtal-Diamante
How much healed?
--5
--CTRL 11
--Affection -3
----Total of 13 points restored

battle order round 3:

EXP:
 Venus gains 38 EXP
Venus is level 2!
 Chalybs gains 5 EXP
 Amarachius gains 3 EXP
 Aegle gains 33 EXP
 Nyx gains 1 EXP
 Chalybs gains 5 EXP
 Bastet gains 12 EXP

 Valdis gains 1 EXP

Crysdal had nodded and drifted with the others towards Hex, took the hard-skinned girl and quickly but firmly kissed her on her cheek to heal her, her mind on the conversation between Sam, Venus, and Ari. As they steered closer to a nearby star system, their bodies thrown into slightly higher relief with the increase in brightness, she couldn't help searching the dark ahead of them, made tense with the knowledge that whatever had attacked them was still out there. The enemy had had the upper hand, by retreating were they just taking advantage of their situation again? Luring them in further? Would being closer to another star system help? 

As they neared a star she glanced over, wondering how many planets were in orbit around it and if those planets were infested with Chaos like Destore or Cipiere had been. What happened to a planet if Chaos won? She didn't think she wanted to know. 

Weaving in their path, aiming for the next closest star system, a knot formed in the pit of her stomach with Venus's They were still a long way away? ... as much as she didn't want to get ambushed again, how much time would they spend veering closer to stars around their path? Would being safe now mean losing the Tapestry Crystal in the long run? ... would not being safe guarantee it was lost? Her brows furrowed with worry, but she remained quiet, having nothing to offer.

Xtal-Diamante stared blankly at the strange sight ahead of them. What was this in their path? She could feel it humming softly in her core, oscillating through patterns of deeper vibrations, pulsating with the stellar winds that swirled dust and gases. It reflected almost endlessly in her crystalline eyes, multiplied to fractal patterns. This was where the things that had sent those beams of darkness in the previous ambush seemed to have come from, yet the source itself seemed almost as lovely as the streak of light she had seen from the Destore. How strange this universe was.

She felt better now—much better, thanks to the work of Sailor Aegle. She had thanked the blonde (or, at least, she intended to do so) for the restoration she had felt before their unseen adversaries retreated. Now, she turned towards the newcomer who had illuminated the skies in their battle, wondering what Sailor Venus would lead them towards now. This time, hopefully, she could be of use.

The rest of their journey so far had been pretty uneventful, but all of Venus’ senses were on alert even as they traveled through the brighter area near the stars. Now that she knew they weren’t safe even during their journey—that the planet wouldn’t be the only hostile territory—she was growing increasingly worried for the others.

And then they came upon a nebula. Venus looked toward the bright yet difficult path and the long way around that guaranteed no less safety. She paused and turned toward the others. “This way will be much faster,” she explained, “but potentially dangerous considering all the energy and gas around this nebula. The winds might be too strong for some of you… We might have difficulty maintaining the shield and the group in one place. We could go around… it will take longer, but should be easier. Does anyone have any preference one way or the other?” she asked.

Normally, she would choose, but this wasn’t the inner senshi—this wasn’t her team to command.

Quite a long way from there... Ari withheld frowning. There wasn't much they could do about the situation. The flight grew tougher as they continued on. It was as if the very essence of chaos was trying to prevent them from reaching their destination.

They continued on with no further surprise attacks, thought that did little to ease the tension. When they came upon a beautiful yet terrifying nebula, Venus gave them two options: go through or around. Ari watched the swirling energy and solar winds of the nebula and glanced at Hadley. She always struggled with flying and Ari wasn't exactly confident enough in her flying either. The conditions didn't look very promising, but...

"I don't know if I can make it through there but...if we take longer doesn't that mean there's a higher chance for the Tapestry Crystal to get taken before we can get to it?"

A nebula... 

It was gorgeous. The colors were remarkable, especially stunning against the stark backdrop of space - it made her feel peaceful, and yet so excited - in a good way - but hearing that it was dangerous saddened her; she weighed Venus's information carefully, and glanced at Ari for her question and reasons; she worried for them - for Ari and Hadley - and while she halfway felt like they could help each other through the nebula to save some time, she had to know what Venus thought about one other thing before casting her vote.

"Do you think those - those chaos things would be in there?" she asked, feeling ridiculous for not having anything more descriptive to call them by, "The old woman said there wasn't much time, but that we had to succeed - going around would take longer," her shoulders cringed at the thought of flying through more of the heavy dark space, "but if we choose to go through and we're having to deal with wind - " what kind of wind was in space, anyway? "and enemies we may want to choose the longer option."

“Yes, there is,” she answered Bastet’s question. “But if something happened to us in there, it would get taken anyway.” There were no good options here and that was the truth. There was only which risk was more worth taking.

She turned to Crysdal and smiled ruefully. “I don’t know,” she said honestly, “but this territory feels hostile. I think that there is no guaranteed safe space anywhere right now in this sector. The longer way may not necessarily be safer from enemies, even though it might be easier to fight them there.”

Then something occurred to her. “Sailor Chalybs,” she addressed the strange one in a robot suit. “Do you think you can check if there are any hostiles within the nebula?”

The sense of foreboding as they approached the system's center only increased, and SAM was finding it hard to concentrate on the conversations around her as she focused on just moving forward. She couldn't run away now, no matter how scary it was getting, or how much she was probably shivering under her suit from the pressure. They had all stopped at the nebula in front of them, in between here and their destination, and were now deciding if they should waste more time by going around, or try to push through.

Venus calling her name startled her back to reality.

"H-huh? Um, sure! Sorry!" Now Venus probably thought she wasn't paying attention... SAM didn't even bother fighting her embarrassment as she used her Energy Scanner, trying to see through the nebula. No one could see her face anyway.

Quote :

Energy readings from within the nebula are off the charts. No information is gained, but it is apparent that attempting to use the energy scanner within the nebula would yield no useful information.

Her eyes tried and failed to catch up with the stream of numbers the nebula was giving off. If there was anything inside it, it was impossible to tell. She should have known it was silly to try, nebula were the remains of dead stars, after all. The leftover energy would be enough to obscure anything else.

"It's too bright inside, my scanners are blinded! If we go in there, we'll be easy to ambush..." SAM said. "But if we want to take that risk in exchange for speed..." Which was rose, getting there too late to do anything, or getting there faster but injured? And there was the possibility of not arriving at all... She couldn't think about that now, they weren't going to die. "Maybe we're overthinking this..."

Hadley remained quiet as she listened to everyone speaking. She focused mostly on trying to keep herself steady and staring at the nebula - never had she seen anything quite like it before. It was beautiful.

But eventually she pulled herself away and focused on the conversation at hand.

She frowned, uncertain as to what she personally thought was best. Both had their good points and their bad points. But she remembered the urgency of their mission, and the way that the Crone had said that they had to get to the crystal first. Could they really afford to waste time going around?

She was worried, too, about having to fly. Already she had some extra difficulty in moving forward, would she be able to keep up if there was even more resistance?

But no, she told herself, straightening her posture. It didn't really matter which one they chose - there was always an enemy lurking behind every corner, wanting to hurt and kill. Always another obstacle trying to bar their way from reaching their destination. So, it mattered little which one they chose. Might as well chose the faster option, in that case. Right?

The sheer bitterness of her thoughts caught Hadley by surprise. Her frown deepened a little, before she pushed past it and decided to speak up. "We should continue forward as fast as possible. We don't have time to waste." She paused, adjusting her position, holding her arms closely to her body, and then continued. "That would be through it, wouldn't it? We've faced difficult things before. We'll be okay."

She hoped so, anyway.

No guarantee of safe space. Crysdal frowned, looking once more to the nebula before them, the small hope that it was simply too bright for chaos to enter dying before it had fully formed. Venus's sudden address of Chalybs caught her attention, grateful for something to rely on and wondering why it was she always seemed to forget that Sam could scan for enemies -- but the result was more concerning than helpful. ... if it were too bright for Sam's scanners, how could they expect to see anything in there? ... but if it were too bright for Sam's scanners, would that mean it was especially too bright for Chaos, assuming Chaos had an affinity for darkness instead of light?

'Maybe we're overthinking this...'

She silently agreed with Sam, but what else was there for them to do? There was no clear best option - they had to try to choose the lesser of two unknowns without anything to go on - if someone thought of something, even with overthinking, maybe they could figure out which direction would tip the scales one way or another... or maybe they'd just waste time agonizing over the decision. Nervous, she wanted to hold someone's hand, but they were too spread out to do that without making some big deal out of it, so instead she worried her fingers with her thumb. 

Hadley's sudden declaration drew her attention quickly, just as being suddenly blasted with cold water might; she could barely believe that it was Hadley speaking, and soon after she finished, Crysdal diverted her gaze again. 'We've faced difficult things before. We'll be okay.' ... but they all weren't okay. Cosima, Aldrin, Hemera and Elysande weren't okay. She appreciated her quick decision making, but surely she knew that logic was false -- 

Which meant Hadley knew full well that there was a chance they all wouldn't be okay and was choosing to go through with the more difficult thing anyway, despite knowing that she, Hadley, was not the best flyer. Which either meant that she truly believed that they would somehow make it through, or that she truly believed speed was of the essence for their mission and was willing to sacrifice herself if need be, to save time. Were they all ready for that possibility? 

Was she?

... She didn't want to die. She looked back at the nebula, its bright colors and fluffy appearance apparently hiding a storm within, and just knew it was the riskier choice. ... but also felt that the time they could waste going around made it the right choice for the mission. She wasn't strong - if the winds were as bad as Venus suggested, she may need help, but she felt she could rely on her friends, Gabriel and Sam, to help her. 

"I agree," she said, tearing her gaze away from the colorful mass ahead of them to look at Venus, shaking her head slightly, "We don't have time to waste."

She tried to still her elevated breathing rate, but she couldn't shake the feeling that not everyone would be making it out of the nebula.

She didn't feel the same unease that plagued the others, despite all that had happened only moments before during the previous attack. Sailor Xtal-Diamante's clear eyes looked over the assembled group, surveying those who flew easily and those who would need support. Could she assist with that? Her own abilities were not especially skilled, but she had been able to hold her own, perhaps relating to her relative density. Did that matter, now that they were in space, buffered by the stellar wind?

Xtal-Diamante was not the right one to answer that question, but she would do her best. They had work to do, and if it involved passing through this brilliant and unknown territory, she would be alongside them.

He was glad his comment had gone ignored since he hadn't planned on the enemy leaving as soon as he had said the words. The fact this group didn't collect data before doing stuff was not the most useful, but he wasn't their leader and he didn't want to be. Questions brought answers, no matter if they could be weird for them or not.

Then they traveled and Amarachius couldn't help but find everything... big... overwhelmingly big. Too big for him. Two planets with creatures he never saw, travels through the stars... there was an uncomfortable feeling, like a rock in his stomach. He was made for the defense of his planet, not the defense of the universe. He was made for the monsters of his planet, not the darkness hiding in these dimensions' pockets.

Maybe those girls were made for it, but he wasn't. He had a sword, and a shield. And that was useless out here.

When they arrived to the Nebula, he said nothing. He would just follow. He thought his body was strong, after all he trained, he fought, but what did he know? The strain in his wings was real, this Nebula seemed hostile, felt hostile and his hands closed more firmly against his weapon and shield.

If they chose to cross it, if he saw he was strong enough to move by himself, he would see and help out someone else. He was worried by Venus' words, that some of them wouldn't be strong enough. He didn't want to lose another one in a bloody light show.

He needed to focus.

The group continued to discuss their options with Sam giving more dismaying news. Not only would they be as vulnerable in there as out here, the nebula messed with her scanners giving no readings. Wonderful.

It was when Hadley spoke up making Ari jerk towards her, opening her mouth to protest. They were right that it was the fastest direction but what about...She closed her mouth, forming a tight line with her lips.

They didn't have time to waste. It was the fastest way to get to the crystal, at the risk of their lives. Those were the facts. Hadley knew the risk and she still wanted to take that route. If Hadley was going, there was no way in hell Ari wasn't going either. If they didn't get to the crystal in time, everyone they knew would die. Bastet. Mom. Dad. And those who had died would have died in vain.

She looked towards the spiraling nebula with determined eyes.

"Let's do it. I'll summon my barrier again and strengthen it ten fold if I can! That should give us some form of protection."

She tried not to feel dread as Chalybs announced that the scanner was useless, that they’d be easy to ambush in there… She wished Mercury were here, to tell her the best option based on her analysis, or Mars… to tell her to just go with her gut... gods, she missed Mars… her Rei—

Venus shook herself out of her momentary lapse into wistfulness and yearning, knowing it would only ruin her focus. It was much easier deciding had she been alone, had she not been responsible for a group of newbie senshi she just met who had already lost their people and might not survive this, had she been with her team… but there was no use wishing for easier days now, not when Chaos was threatening around every corner, closer to winning the war since she’d been alive.

Sailor Valdis—Hadley—spoke then, pulling her ever more firmly to the present, and she couldn’t help but feel pride for these determined senshi, new as they were, already tested beyond their limits and much too soon. She wondered if she could have been like them, if shortly after awakening she had to face a war in a galaxy, forced to travel to new and unknown planets with strangers, and watch them die…

Crysdal and Bastet chimed in to agree with going through, and not for the first time Venus wondered how they maintained that optimism, even if it might not be sincere, how they chose to risk their lives even after everything they’d been through. She could only hope their effort wouldn’t be futile. It was the least the universe could give them at this point.

“Okay,” she nodded, giving them her best, most winning smile. “We’ll go straight through it, and we’ll try to stick together. Hold each other’s hands if you must, and try not to get separated from the group. Be very careful and don’t hesitate to yell for help the moment you need it.”

Venus turned to face the colorful lights once more, wondering if she would make it past, if she needed to hold anyone's hand, and waited until everyone got ready.

After quite some time flying, they arrived at the nebula. It was quite too bright for Nyx's taste, but that mattered little. The group debated whether they should go through or around it - Nyx herself wasn't entirely sure, honestly. She was a good flyer as she generally had an affinity for magic, but it was not like she had tried something like that before. Nor would it do her any good to make it through it alone. She continued with those people for a reason, after all.

Eventually, Valdis spoke up, suggesting it's best they go through. Nyx was quite surprised - it was very unlike of that girl to be so decisive. Maybe that itself was a bad omen, really. But if they wanted to go for it, might as well...

Bastet also chimed in, proposing to use her barrier to protect them, and Nyx wondered if it would pop even faster than last time. Well, no hurt in trying, right? With a slight nod, she prepared herself for the rest of the journey.

So it was settled then. Everyone agreed, even though most were silent in their agreement. She glanced at the quiet ones in the group. Nyx...Gabriel...Hex. Well, Hex probably agreed and they just couldn't understand her or something. She always seemed willing to go with whatever they did as long as she could help.

Ari took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself. She hoped, prayed to the goddess Bastet, that her barrier would hold this time. How quickly it fell in the last battle, she didn't want that to happen again. With a flap of her wings, Ari moved herself to the center of everyone and closed her eyes concentrating. They could do this.

"Bastet Energy Barrier." She didn't shout it. Just a simple statement as she concentrated all her energy into her barrier, attempting to make it stronger than normal.

OOC:

Thinking on the words that Sailor Bastet had said, pledging to use her barrier as a shield for the group, the cloud-haired silent soldier remembered how soft and vulnerable these creatures were. That's not to say that she was unable to be damaged—particularly considering how their encounter not so long ago with the unseen enemies had gone—but as the crystal eyes surveyed the assorted figures around her, she wondered if they could manage to do the things they projected resonance stating. There were already so few remaining. They could not afford to lose more, if it could be prevented.

A bright light flashed across her eyes, temporarily illuminating the small dark space around her. Their gaze remained on Sailor Bastet.

Attack: