“Foolish little creature…” Lilyia’s voice became a woman’s again as the critical stage was reached. Her eyes began to glow as she threw the rose clearly at the creature. Her back now was exploding with light on it. What was worst was the fact it was mixed with her own blood. Lilyia’s eyes would remain narrowed as she looked at the smaller creature. “Foolish being indeed…never charge someone reaching critical stage…things…blow up.”

Lilyia didn’t mince words in fact they were exactly her warning to the foolish being without a right mind for charging her as she waited for the first rose to hit its mark. Her body might have been letting blood spill, but it was due to the after effects of being in critical stages. Lilyia knew the dangers when she entered it and what it would mean. The appearance of the winged scars would be ever more present on her back almost like a symbol of someone who had been attacked once in their life, left for dead, only to fuse their own energy into living plants to be used as weapons.

“Might want to get distance from the smaller creature, if the rose hits I give it ten seconds before the rose activates and my will behind the rose take affect; we should get a nice explosion from it.”

The monster that had selected Lilyia as a target would suddenly change: the slightly sluggish, boorish nature in which it moved did a complete one-eighty as its body bent low to the ground, dropping to all fours and lurching backwards, as though it were an entirely different creature than before. If observant, Liliya would find that Circe’s enemy had turned to face away from the red-haired girl and instead seemed considerably focused on what was happening with its brood, the smaller thing.

As though inaudible orders were being given to the thing, it would bolt to the right, moving at incredible speeds, and attempting to circle around Lilyia, intending to hit her from behind with as much might as it could muster and, considering the ferocity it was now displaying, could very well be lethal.

Not one to not take advantage of the situation, however, Circe, who had already started to swing the weighted end of her scythe’s chain, cast forwards, and knocked the larger figure in its chest, though it didn’t budge, even despite the pure concussive force of the attack, did turn its attention back to girl, and would no doubt make Lilyia’s life a bit easier, at least for now.

Displaying a considerable degree of acrobatic skill, Circe kicked off from the ground and cleared a good ten feet between her and the monster, which stumbled forwards, though Circe had no doubt it was an act, and that it merely disguised a cunning, though perhaps slightly repressed, intellect.

The smaller of the two attackers had managed to avoid Lilyia’s rose, part in due to the speed it now moved, and the fact that it had leapt backwards, such a maneuver would no longer be an option, as it moved considerably faster than before, but in place of that weakness, it was obviously quite a bit more dangerous than before. If Lilyia induced an explosion at close proximity, she’d no doubt at least be harmed by the resulting shock-wave, if not the actual blast, and not to mention the creature’s own attack.

“Dodge it!”

Circe’s voice rose to that of a shout, as she ducked under an incoming blow from her own opponent, but made no effort to counter attack, despite the opening: she was paying more attention to Lilyia’s fight than her own, it would seem. An evaluation, perhaps.

Lilyia had a simple smile on her face as it seemed she managed to jump high enough up into the air to at least do as instructed and that was to dodge despite the losing of blood obviously falling from the two opened scars on her back. The likely-hood of these being normal scars were not certain. No one knew the reasoning behind them or the story. Lilyia knew of course. It was the very curse that stunted her growth in the first place, but not the why. She never knew why they appeared in the first place. All she ever knew is that she had been induced with the scars at a young age. Her voice, mind, and soul had developed into a mature woman’s but her body remained that of a teenager’s enabling her to actually turn her voice into that or a child’s if she wished it. Lilyia wasn’t afraid however. This might have been dangerous. Lilyia knew the current percentile of the stage she was in while still being connected to her roses. The problem was, the stage was increasing in that very percentile, thus making the blood-flow stronger.

“Ten-percent into critical stage, time to change tactics with these.” Lilyia threw at least three roses this time at the creature that showed a lick of intelligence thanks to the other creature. She’d eventually back-flip while in the air and land right square upon a barrel far enough away to put distance between explosion, after-shock, and the two roses she threw. “I would not be in the vicinity of those three roses Circe. They won’t just explode like the last one, they’ll grab onto the targets once hitting the target. These are the second form of the exploding roses I experimented with. It’s the after-shock these creatures must fear.”

The creature’s sprint came to a halt as its arms launched forwards, its fists firmly placed against one another, but thanks to Lilyia’s jump, she would be safe from the sledge-like force of the blow; however, the creature seemed to no longer acknowledge her, rather, it did not quite know where she had gone, and so it stood there in a stupor, for a moment.

By the time Circe’s opponent would find a moment to shift its attention to the other, it would be too late, and one of Lilya’s roses would have latched itself on the thing’s right arm; however, after the first rose, it had moved to the left, sluggishly, but quick enough to avoid the other two roses. It was reactive, but only to an extent.

The creature looked at its limb, now with the added decoration of a rose, but seemed unable to intelligently decide on what to do, if its creator hadn’t been busy, it might have been directed to do away with the limb, it no doubt had the strength and inhibited pain-receptors to perform the feat, but for now, with Circe managing to keep her opponent occupied, it could only disregard its predicament.

Instead of a sprint, this time, showing even more ferocity, the creature would leap from its position, without any forward momentum, and still manage to carry itself into the air, flinging itself towards Lilyia’s barrel with a preternatural strength.

If Lilyia was going to detonate that rose now would be the time.

Showing herself as capable as ever, Circe had managed to draw her opponent away from Lilyia and hers, though still within a good range of perception, allowing her to monitor both situations, but not quite overwhelmed by either.

Following each hit from the weight attached to the end of her weapon’s chain, Circe had taken to sending jolts of electricity, induced by her reaper’s ability, but refrained from doing anything more than slowing it down; she was specifically avoiding prematurely ending the skirmish.

“Let’s end this shall we pathetic beast.” Lilyia simply snapped her fingers and again would jump high enough into the air to avoid not only the explosion, aftershock, but her attacker as well finding herself a nice little niche of a hiding spot. It would be opportunistic for her to stay here and let her opponent think it did away with her for the time it would take for the receptors in the rose to activate. It would only take a few seconds, at most five. Lilyia wouldn’t even count it down as she stayed hidden in her little spot. Her own blood now halting as she would make sure not to give away where she was hiding, Circe for all she knew would have to find her own hiding spot because if Lilyia’s own calculations were correct. The shockwave of the explosion itself would be on a massive scale enough to even reach Circe’s opponent.

“Thirty-five percent into critical stage, primary cut-off stage must occur at fifty percent to sustain survival.” Lilyia was already calculating both vocally in whisper within her head the amount of time she had left to remain connected to her roses.

The dangers were already becoming quite noticeable to her. The bleeding was only halted because she bandaged up the scars so as to not give away her position to the one she was fighting, but she was still bleeding from those same scars the more she remained connected to her roses. Her own breathing status was beginning to be effected, same for visual status. She knew the more she went on like this, the higher the chances her opponent might get a lucky break to land a mortal wound upon her.

“Wait--”

Circe was cut off by the detonating rose, the sound of an explosion, and the resulting shock-wave; there was no need for her to find shelter, however. Having been actively leading her own opponent away, the shock-wave’s intensity would only lessen as it traveled from the epicenter of the explosion, making it more of an incredibly strong gust of wind, than anything deadly, or too forceful.

Bracing herself, she firmly planted her feet into the ground, sliding them forwards and backwards, and bending her knees ever so slightly, ready to absorb the impact.

Luckily, her opponent stood directly in front of her, and as the shock-wave hit, it, too, refused to budge, and simply--momentarily--paused in movement, but would continue forwards after the pyrotechnics were over.

“T-too much power for such a small threat,” she stuttered and continued her increasingly repetitive dance with her opponent: stepping back, dodging, striking, and repeating. Mentally, Circe was forced to make a note of informing Lilyia that her power should be scaled to the level of her opponent, risking normal people--civilians, as it were--in a skirmish was absolutely intolerable, and it could lead to disciplinary action from her superiors. A more localized explosion would have been much better and more effective.

Regardless, at the center of where the explosion had taken place, after the smoke, and dust cleared, Lilyia would find her opponent still ‘living’--albeit not quite at its peak form--and shambling forwards.

It was missing the majority of the limb that the rose had attached itself to, its skin was burned black, spots of crimson meat, still sizzling, decorated its chest and legs, and the glint of bone could be seen under the (now leathery) skin. By any definition of the word, the thing should have been dead, but, like when it had first raised from the ground, it moved forwards, but not to find Lilyia; in fact, it seemed to only be moving out of habit, now, and only occasional seemed to look around for something to do.

“Scheisse!-- Stop,” Circe’s voice rose well beyond a shout, but the creature that had been facing her, disregarded her, and, instead, looked to its creation, and then seemed to take in a long, hard breath.

Circe knew what it was doing even before it reacted, but Lilyia wouldn’t. It was feeling about the area, the more experienced Dirige agent could feel it, as it searched, and it was a disgusting, almost invasive feeling.

Both it and the other would fall to the ground, a collective mass of meat and bone, and without any life what-so-ever inhabiting the remains of what had been their bodies.

Circe seemed flustered at first, angry, and disappointed all rolled together.

“Stupid, … “

She cursed under her breath and kicked at the ground, walking over to what remained of her opponent, and rummaged through it, ripping and throwing the odd article of clothing aside, and completely unaffected by what was essentially a human corpse.

In a far off place, disconnected from the real world, but mirroring it in most ways, the girls’ handler sat, leaned back in his chair, and monitoring both of their conditions; alongside that, though, he seemed to dutifully search through files strewn about his desk.

‘Brandt!? Lilyia!? Can you hear me,” his voice, though sharp, wasn’t panicked, but he had lost contact with them for a moment, a large amount of explosive power could do that. Their equipment wasn’t perfect, after all.
“Hello--hello?”

“Limit…reached…” Lilyia knew she had reached her limits, but could not leave the damage she had done there. She took a single rose and knew that it was one she saved only to repair damages done to surrounding area as she let it float from her hand just as unconsciousness set it. She’d see her creation at work begin to float away from where she hid to where her opponent was and then burst into a gentle healing light. It was meant not to feel like a harmful energy, but one of calm and love. Lilyia on the other hand had already cut off her connection to the roses she carried and looked like she was in a calm sleep behind a bunch of barrels. The bandages she wore that covered her backside clearly marked what she tried desperately to hide from everyone.

Her only problem was she would eventually slump forwards until lying on her side upon the ground. Circe would surely see her then. The rose she sent out to at least heal some of the damage she did with the exploding roses would be fixed, but not perfect. The extent of that rose’s power would be limited as Lilyia slept. It always happened. Anytime that Lilyia entered critical stages beyond where she should be, she would be in a dangerous position. Her mind often was the victim of this occurrence.

Lilyia at that time seemed to be caught in a world of dreams, mostly her memories as a child of when her back was struck leaving the wing-like scars on her back. That was when she found out she held the power to use roses to her ability through connecting her energies to them and altering their properties based off her necessity. However, this dream wasn’t of being good. It was of horror, because that was also a time of when she didn’t know anything about what she was to become, what she was to do, instead a time of wandering alone holding a bouquet of roses, filthy and dirty in ragged clothing. Lilyia’s eyes at that time having a look of defiance against anything that came upon her path.

When Lilyia finally awoke again, her arms held in them dead roses, but she knew she couldn’t move at that time. She went beyond the time limit. She knew well past it, beyond was she should have. She went over fifty percent just to heal the area with the other rose she released. Her muscles felt heavy as did her legs. ‘I’m here, unfortunately I went beyond the time limit allowed to me with connecting to my roses. I used one more rose I shouldn’t to try and repair the damage to the area and heal the wounds of any innocent bystanders. I hit a percentage of seventy in connection with my roses when I should have stopped at fifty. My muscles and body won’t move for a time period.”

A metallic clank and a heavy thud came as Circe removed the breastplate from her former opponent; she ran her hand down the front of the thing, feeling the indention of the symbol at its chest, and she bitterly smiled, biting on her bottom lip in nervous tension. Her mind was completely off of her partner and charge, at the moment, as she was pretty sure Lilyia didn’t need any immediate medical attention, and there were more important things at hand.

“T-that’s good, I, uh, guess?”

Truthfully, if there had been bystanders in the area and she had directly interfered with them, she’d have still been in trouble, whether it was healing, or inflicting damage on them. She was an agent of the Dirige and compounding infractions on their code was not the wisest of career moves, but she was a rookie and she’d learn with experience; luckily, for her and the surviving members of the village of Hetzer, there were no bystanders, and all she had really done was heal the land, which was mostly fine.

“So long as you’re alive, but you shouldn’t push it. Brandt didn’t request backup, so I’m guessing they were low-class Voleurs, but I take it the fighting is over--”

“--Yes,” the feminine, although comparatively small, voice belonging to the senior Dirige agent interrupted Tau as he spoke, “and I wasn’t seeing things. This is definitely their handiwork,” Circe stood up from her kneeling position, lifting the breastplate as she did so, and hefted it over her shoulder, clutching at its neck as it hung loosely off her back.

“An eclipse, a pentacle, and fire; whose calling card is that, Tau?”

“Nobody good,” he commented half-heartedly, the beginnings of a sigh forming at the back of his throat, but he pushed onwards; “it definitely isn’t a great development, but I’ll forward all the information and see if we can’t get Lilyia reassigned and have you investigate. If what we think is right,” almost laughing, one could practically feel the man’s smile, “ you might have one heck of a promotion coming to you! This might be big, Brandt. War-with-Cizok-big.”

Neither Circe nor Tau explained what was happening to Lilyia and she honestly would have no idea what either of them was talking about, aside from the key words they used. One thing was certain though: the insignia on the breastplate was noteworthy and had given both the rookie’s handler and her senior partner pause.

“Anyways,” he jumped from his previous topic, realizing he had more important questions to ask: “H-eh, uh, did you do away with them, by the way? Mission accomplished and such?”

“No, … “ anger flashed over Circe for a moment as she headed towards where Lilyia lay, the breastplate tapping lightly against her as she walked, but never becoming anything more than a minor annoyance. “It was only one Voleur, I think. The other one was just a doll, their usual M.O., but I felt the first one escaping. Nasty, too. -- It was my fault, though. I wanted to see how Lilyia handled the situation and she didn’t do too badly, she just has to refine some things, and she could be field ready soon.”

“Ha! That’s great,” the cheerful noise of his scribbling would be audible over the comm-line. “You hear that, Lilyia? You might not be a trainee for much longer, happy day, right?”

Reaching Lilyia, Circe would stand over her and, smiling warmly, would look the older woman over, and nod in approval.

“You go too out,” she commented. “But if you hold back long enough and get some formal weapon training, you won’t do too bad out there, but you definitely can’t complete every combat mission in this state,” she gestured towards the woman and crouched down. “How’re you feeling?”

“Like every bone in my body is ready to break. I pushed it with the connection. I needed to break it sooner, but couldn’t knowing the damage that was done. The connections I make with the roses I use…isn’t to be taken as a light factor. Unfortunately, this drenched up painful memories for me. Ones I wished would stay buried.” Lilyia had almost an acid sense to her voice, despite having survived a seventy percent connection in critical stage. Her eyes even showed that, by the fact if she were to attempt standing up now. It’d probably be likely she’d fall right back down.

“I doubt anyone knows of my past, let alone the marks I hide upon my body…” Circe probably would find that slowly Lilyia was hinting to things that might be of importance about her. Things to know, a past that is filled with scars, and a deeper meaning behind why Lilyia can’t mature bodily; Lilyia would however manage to stand up by steadying her body against a wall. It’d be all she could muster to stay standing, despite the re-opening of the scars on her back.

“I’m going to have to tweak out the stasis of power about the roses. They could do so much, but I held back what they could truly do without me reaching critical stage as fast. These were mere prototypes, a hybrid of sorts. They weren’t even tested as mentioned before the mission. These are actually the babies of the roses I’ll be using from now on. How I’ll interact with those, will determine how fast they use energy, enter into stages, and how my body doesn’t deteriorate with time.”

“Just remember,” Circe hardened her voice, instinctively, and--momentarily--played the role of superior perfectly; “it won’t do any of us good if you get yourself killed, though. I’m still going to ask that you take up a weapon proficiency class or something, but it isn’t required and you won’t always be on combat missions.”

“Eh! R&D’s gotta have somethin’ to help; I’ll put in a request later, alright, Brandt?”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” she gave a cursory glance over Lilyia for a moment, inspecting the woman’s condition, but only to the point of making sure she was well enough for travel; after all, they didn’t have time to waste in the Real World and there were penalties for taking too long, as well.

“All kinds join the organization,” she told Lilyia, but it wasn’t entirely reassuring. “Might be someone who can help you or even someone you can just talk to,” she smiled; “okay? There’s no need to worry about it right now.”

As Lilyia stood, Circe would walk away from the woman, knowing full well that she couldn’t follow, and begin talking to her handler; their conversation was a private one, but it wasn’t specifically about Lilyia; indeed, Circe was informing Tau--in great detail--about what had happened, in its entirety, and making sure his report was as close to perfect as possible.

By the time Circe had finished her oral report and taken to walking back to Lilyia, the older woman would no doubt have been rested enough move on, and that was probably the goal, to begin with.

"Alright!" She enthusiastically announced, grinning enough to show the glint of her teeth, and raising an arm in emphasis, "time to head back!"

Hetzer's ruined,
A reaper's training