Rising Shards

“Alright, together then!” I said, readying my bloodsaber.

“Oh, am I part of the fighting now?” Rain asked.

“Yes, everybody help, please!” I said. Iris and Maia weren’t coming over, but the spot we were writing at was far enough away they probably couldn’t hear anything from where we were outside of general fight sounds. I clipped my finger, and my bloodsaber ignited with a satisfying note. It was maybe the healthiest glow I’d seen my girl Minty have so far since I got the sword.

“Zeta, you said weather control is your gift, right?” Amara asked.

“Yep!” I said.

“OK, so don’t use lightning if you can avoid it.” Amara said.

“How come?” I asked.

“Because that’ll just super charge the metal,” Amara said. “You and Rain need to attack it from the side, I’ll distract it for you! Your powers combined should loosen it up for me.”

“What should I do?” Latte asked.

“I don’t know, can you break this thing instead of breaking our stuff?” I asked.

Latte chucked her thermos at the void beast, dinging it in the head. That just seemed to make it angrier. And bigger, somehow, as it seemed to grow a whole void monster size when it screeched in response to the thermos.

“That’s about all I got.” Latte said, shrugging.

“Perfect,” I said. “Maybe go back and stand behind one of the trees then, I guess.”

Latte didn't do as I asked, instead putting on that creepy open mouth smile look again.

“It’s looking our way,” Amara said. “KJ, come over by me to help! Zeta, Rain, go the opposite direction of us!”

“No, screw you, I’m filming!” KJ said, not moving her camera from her face. “Distract it yourself!”

“You can distract and film us!” I said.

“No!” KJ said.

“Fine, Latte!” Amara said.

“Yes?” Latte said with the urgency of someone being asked to answer a question about geography in class.

“Stay with me and help me keep this thing’s attention!” Amara siad.

“Got it!” Latte said, and immediately ran off from us into the woods.

“I genuinely don’t know why I bother.” Amara said. “Fine, I’ll do it on my own I guess!”

Amara fired another laser at the void beast, who smashed the thermos with one of its feet. The goop of the Elka surrounded the thermos and absorbed it.

“Oh, it’s a scavenger kind,” Rain said. “We have to act quickly!”

Rain drew her bloodsaber and ignited it. Hers had a pinkish hue, matching her fur. I hadn’t heard what her powers were, but I prepped myself and tried to focus really hard on just creating a rainstorm so I didn’t lightning up the metal parts of the void beast. Droplets of water began to fall from the sky.

“I actually did it!” I said.

Rain pointed her bloodsaber and a swirling pink beam came from it, aimed at the void beast’s head. It started shaking around, trying to resist whatever Rain’s powers were as it was held in place. My power surged, and the drops of water increased in rate, sizzling against the void monster.

“That’s kinda funny,” I said. “We’re combining our powers, and I have rain control and your name is Rain! Isn’t that interesting? It’d be really funny if your powers were like ‘Zeta control’, but I don’t know what that’d mean unless it was like, mind control or something-”

“Zeta?” Rain asked.

“Y-yes?”

“Please stop talking and keep using your ability.” Rain said.

“Right.” I said.

“That’s perfect, guys!” Amara said. “Now for the grand finale!”

Amara twirled her bloodsaber and threw it into the dirt. She jumped on its hilt and practically flew above the void monster, holding out both her hands. Her fingertips lit up in red, and she fired two volleys of laser blasts from each. I didn’t know if she planned it, but her lasers all bounced off the drops of water I had generated and held for a split second in a gorgeous display of light before all firing down on the void monster. With a final roar, the metal parts of the void monster clanked to the ground, and its Elka energy dissipated.

“Now that…is some Rising Shards school spirit.” Rain said, turning directly into KJ’s camera.

“Wow, yes!” I said. “Did you get that, KJ? That’s a great closing line!”

“Hang on,” KJ said, checking her camera. “It cuts off a bit before the end, but we can just rerecord her saying spirit.”

We all got to celebrate our victory when we huddled behind KJ as she watched the shot we got, and it looked incredible.

“Also, Amara, holy crap?” I said. “That was amazing! Did you know the lasers were going to do that thing there?”

“I had only pulled that trick off once or twice,” Amara said. “But, thank you.”

Amara looked downward. I worried I was being too much with compliments, she didn’t seem to react well to them the more I gave them.

“So do we think we’re good on the fighting parts of this commercial?” I asked.

“Well, we got some shots of Amara fighting, so we might be good there,” KJ said.

“Some shots?” I asked. “We got pretty much everyone fighting. You don’t sound too enthused.”

“I just think it’d have been better if we had more shots of Rain,” KJ said.

“Aw, KJ, you’re too sweet,” Rain said.

“While I agree that every production could use more Rain,” Amara started. “I am decently pleased with how my battle footage turned out. And I’m a pretty tough critic on myself.”

“You were amazing out there, Amara!” Rain said. “Such grace in your combat.”

“R-really!?” Amara asked, her hair practically standing up just from compliments from Rain.

“And Zeta, my apologies I came across as rude during the battle,” Rain said. “My gift requires a lot of focus.”

“Oh, it’s no problem,” I said. “My group has all yelled much worse things my way during void fighting, it happens.”

“It is humorous, though, “Rain said. “My gift is mind control. If I did really want to, I could control you and it would be Zeta control. So we do complement each other in battle.”

“How about that!” I said.

None of us could find Latte afterwards and assumed she had gone back home. I managed to fish out her crumpled thermos from the wreckage in case she wanted it for some reason. I went back to check on Iris and Maia. Iris was hunched over, looking past a bush.

“Zeta…” Iris quietly called over to me when she saw me. Her voice sounded like she’d just seen something to cause wonderment, which was weird. I figured she'd found a moondust stone or something like that. I looked up to see her holding back a giggle. “Look.”

Iris pointed over to Maia, who was sprawled out next to the bush on the grass, sleeping in a sunbeam. My jaw dropped; it really was a sight to cause wonderment. She had her arms out, bent at her wrists as the rest of her swooped in a curve like a crescent moon.

“Don’t say anything,” Iris whispered.

I wondered how Maia slept through all that fighting as Iris desperately tried not to laugh. She let out a bit too much of a snort, though, which startled Maia awake.

“Whuh,” Maia said as she suddenly sat up. “Did I fall asleep?”

“Uh huh,” Iris said.

“Did we finish the thing?” Maia asked.

“We got all the fighting parts done,” I said, as Maia yawned and stretched.

“It usually works that way,” Iris said. “I fall asleep in class, Maia falls asleep outside. We’d probably be doomed if we had to be apart from each other too long.”

“Alright, stop talking about me now," Maia said. "Can we head back already?"