*
"Urgh!!" (Lastia)
"...?!" (Arin)
"Kuhagh!!" (Taneda)
"What's going on!?" (Christine)
Two agonising groans resounded as an unimaginable pressure bore on them. They immediately stopped what they were doing to clasped their heads. Arin and Christine were a little further away, so they weren't affected. There was a range limit, this was the first thing Christine noted while keeping her distance. Unfortunately what happened to Lastia and Taneda couldn't be helped, it was way better than getting wiped out and having this entity set loose outside this zone.
The monumental number of casualties would make it inexcusable to compromise here. They had bad positioning, while they meant to keep The Fragment away from Taneda while she charged up, it got closer to her by busting through their assault. It evaded the next attack from Lastia while enduring Christine's debuffs, then it attacked Arin and knocked her away, before closing in on Taneda. Christine and Lastia were heading to intercept, sensing the magic in the air Lastia kicked Christine away from the range of the current predicament.
"Damn... That hurt... Couldn't you have been more delicate with a maiden." (Christine)
Working up the strength through the noise assaulting and tearing at her mind, she walked closer towards Taneda. With shock, The Fragment was about to head towards Lastia before being shot at in the face by Arin.
"You're not getting close." (Arin)
She spoke coldly with no hint of warmth in her voice. She continued to fire with her dual magic pistols, firing shots that could vaporise a small building.
Lastia's vision flashes between a hazy grey and black with reality. Patches of white block out her vision, but she would never mistake the silhouette of someone that needed help. She walked toward Taneda without pause. Taneda herself sensed that Lastia had a plan and began walking towards her herself. Dark red fills her sight, painting the world in an every doom as no living souls were found, the stench of sulfur and ammonia in the air assaults her olfactory senses.
A hallucination, her mind was about to melt. She should... Around here. Lastia swings her fist at the front...
Punching Taneda out of the Dragonoid'd magic skill's range. If it was a skill, why would it only be limited to magical girls? Of course the enemy could do it too... Traces had skills, Remnants did too. Why wouldn't this Fragment have one?
"CHRISTINE!!! SHUT OUT THE NOISE!" (Lastia)
In a horrifying manner, a laser beam swallows Lastia, leaving behind scorched earth and zero trace of her. Arin stares at The Fragment in contempt, her shock was blatant for all to see. The other two didn't know how to comfort her, not that there was any practical way to do so in the midst of battle. It was everyone for themselves in battle, and Lastia was simply the one to pay the price. And... She offered a final hint before she left...
"Noise... Air manipulation...?" (Christine)
Was that how the laser beam was formed? It shot the air at high speeds and caused friction and heat emitted as a blinding beam... Then, why did it come down to Christine to contend with it. They didn't even know each other, but Lastia was sure that Christine could deal with it... A simple explanation was that Lastia's conjecture was wrong...
Arin looked towards the other two, they stared back in bewilderment. Arin was unnaturally composed, shouldn't she be freaking out about her friend's death? Her gaze didn't seem any different, only slightly. She simply looked more determined to eliminate the enemy.
"We... We have to continue without her... Arin, she handles energy conversion a lot... Right?
Then she shouldn't be done in an energy attack. It was simply unlikely." (Taneda)
"You're right. Let's kill it. Christine did you get what you needed to do?" (Arin)
"... Put a debuff on the air molecules that prevents friction or travel?" (Christine)
The Dragonoid attacks, forcing the three to split up into different directions. They continue as they were before, with Taneda taking front as Arin and Christine support her.
" Close... I think it's because Lastia handles energy frequently as Taneda said...
Look at what the earth's defence mechanism, the law of magical girls is doing to this residential zone." (Arin)
"The... The barrier! It's airtight! The air pressure is different on both sides, even a normal human could feel the change, like going up a fast traveling elevator or exiting a plane...!" (Christine)
Arin said her guess was close, was it something that travels by air...? Lastia was sure she could do it... Maybe because Christine was already doing it with her camera...? Preventing the laser from firing, it had nothing to do with the air. Her skill disabling mechanism was a debuff, but on a smaller level it was the prevention of magic energy transmission into the opponent's skill.
Air... Transmission... Radio waves. The enemy's ability was to manipulate radio waves, it created a frequency that could incapacitate Taneda and Lastia. The barrier surrounding them not only stops air, it was stopping radio waves too. Rather stopping air is just a side effect, the barrier was made to stop everything, soastonotletthedestructionleakoutsideresidential zone. How would Christine stop a radiowave?
As a whole this has to come down to the peculiarities of her magic skill, the mystics of her camera. Ancient reports have stated that long back in the past, people believed that cameras could capture a person's soul or visualise the spectre of the wandering dead. It's a medium that challenges the mysticism of another medium. Right, it's merely an exaggerative rivalry, but perhaps it's enough.
"Full power, {Fleeting light won't stop for you}." (Christine)
The debuffing mechanism worked on the same principle no matter what debuff she was throwing. It was all on the premise of halting or ceasing something. She ceased the transmission of the radio waves, which likely is what the dragonoid Frament's avatar is made of. The large laser attack it fired wasn't the instantaneous eruption of air particles with heat and light as a side effect. It was a straight forward electric beam attack by converging electromagnetic fields, or radio waves.
The Fragment stops moving for a short moment. That was enough.
"Face your end. {Fated ones evanescent dream}." (Taneda)
Full power, the ambitions of a knight pierced the stars. A single blinding light caused the world to go dark for a moment, in the shaped of a sword it swung at speeds no one here could perceive. Effortlessly, it thrusts into The Frament's neck and melts into its face, swinging upwards and disintegrating its head. Even a magical girl who boasts mind bending regeneration would die if they were to lose their brain. The loss of thought is the end for all things material.
Distant footsteps echoe behind them, for a moment they put up their guard, believing that The Fragment might defy death and attack from behind. Until she spoke.
"The barrier hasn't been let up. What we defeated was its avatar, the main body is in space..." (Lastia)