*
Lastia extended her tendrils into the smoke, as constructs of light their texture was completely smooth. They might look stationary at first glance, but we're constantly extending and spreading into the smoke. This move must kill the Smoke structured Trace, there wasn't much time. If Arin wasn't able to hold on for much longer, the smoke could enter her body and kill her from the inside via suffocation. At the point, a magical girl's body augmentations would be useless.
The smoke hadn't changed colour or shown any changes, it must have taken a second to understand what was happening as tendrils of smoke shot out with frightening sharpness. Like a storm, there was an entire wall's worth of long spikes that grew and flew towards Lastia and Sariel at high speeds. Sariel sliced at the spikes using the longer reach that her sword has, cutting the tendrils approaching her before they could collide with her.
After a couple swings, she slipped into the rhythm and kept slicing them apart. A wall of tendrils got inbetween the two as those that were directly in front of Sariel were eliminated, but those at her peripherals continued extending and got ready to flank her. Lastia shot out more stakes of dark scarlet light, causing head on collisions that absorb the magic energy persisting in the smoke.
These smoke tendrils were far different from its main body, the magical density was starkly lighter, allowing {Feed} to promptly shatter them upon contact. With a couple swings, Lastia breaks past the walls of dark grey, linking up with Sariel at her location. She formed a wall of {Feed}, stopping the flanking spikes in the very next moment. Gradually, the wall turned into a spiky ball that kept expanding, it then begun to roll forward... Towards the smoke Trace.
The ball sped up until the two were flung into the same room where Arin was. Sure enough, in a clear barrier Arin was sat there. It was relieve to see her fine, but they still had an opponent to defeat. The Trace used its smoke body to fully encompass the ball of {Feed}, crushing it with pressure from every direction.
"Ghhgg!!" (Lastia)
Arin was let into the same barrier they were by fusing the 2 shelters they were using. Having to increase the size of her barrier, Lastia was also under more pressure, sapping the magic out of her body to replenish the damage that it was receiving.
"..." (Sariel)
Sariel gripped onto her sword tighter. She knows it was futile, none of her swings would ever reach it. At most, she could shave out a portion of the smoke, what then? It would just rejoin the rest of its body...
"... That's it... Sariel, I know how to beat it. But you... You have to do the hardest part." (Lastia)
Sweat poured out of her pores profusely as she held up the barrier protecting them, without it, they would be crushed into red vapour by the immense pressure. Arin was facing a similar situation earlier, thankfully Lastia was able to break in in time. As things stand, they would continue to be stuck at this standstill until Lastia runs out of magic and perish.
They could attempt to break out, but the pressure crushing them was also keeping them in place. They were essentially trapped. There was a choice to run away with everything they had, if they all ran at once then the barrier could still sustain the escape. But what about after? Would they keep at it with futility?
Her eyes stared blankly into the air, contemplating if she had any other options left. Her iris focused on Lastia, giving a final firm nod.
".. {Swap} the smoke outside with the smoke inside... Do it multiple times at once at the same location, gather the smoke into one fine point...
And my {Feed} would be able to eliminate it in one go. At worse, we'll have Arin support the clean up. This... Hinges all on you. " (Lastia)
" I don't want to doubt you... But, are you sure? There might be a quantifiable limit to how much I can {Swap}, you know?
Not only that... It's difficult to {Swap} targets containing magical energy, because they have to intrinsic ability to resist the displacement of coordinates that I would enact on them. Furthermore, sending multiple targets into the same coordinates...
I won't say it's impossible, but I hadn't tried it before. It's basically 3 big gambles.
Arin, what do you think? " (Sariel)
" I don't... Know... I choose to trust Tia on this. It's not like we have anything else, if we want to defeat it and not just run, we have to try something new. " (Arin)
Her last remaining voice or reason was also deprived. Arin didn't have as much experience as Sariel did, but she should at least be more knowledgeable and reasonable than Lastia...
" Sariel, it's okay. We're not out of options, I can guarantee our safety, though we'd be running away from this Trace... Ugh!!
Rather than... Beating it..." (Lastia)
Was the barrier not holding up well? Lastia wince as if a sharp pain permeated her back. Her body shifted around uncomfortably, it was struggling to adjust how sudden her energy was disappearing to keep up the barrier. There was still enough magic in her for them to attempt an escape... No, it was in fact enough to guarantee the escape. However was that the right thing to do?
"... Then, if I fail and we run out of cards, please get us out of here, Lastia!" (Sariel)
"You got it!" (Lastia)
Lastia stood up once more from her crouching posture, as if reinvigorated by her own loud proclamation. She folded her arms, concentrating her senses on the surroundings outside. They would have to coordinate to the best of their ability to catch it off guard and kill it in one fell swoop.
"On go! 3, 2, 1, go!" (Arin)
Targets containing magic will inevitably resist the pull of Sariel's magic... But it wasn't impossible. She has to surpass her limits and overpower their resistance... And to coordinate her own attempts simultaneously. Select 2 target spaces, teleport them into the same spot... It didn't work, they were {Swapped} around in sequential order, the magic density remains the same... But, now she knows she can overpower its resistance.
Once more, 2 targets!
"Arin! Support Sariel! I can handle the outside!" (Lastia)
Another failure, the Trace is confused by its shifting body parts, but in the end it was homogeneous, if not for the repeated attempts, the first try would have gone unnoticed. Once more!