"I don't suppose - " she begins, and hesitates.  "I have a vague ethical-injunction sorta sense that it would probably end up being a bad idea to just - try to - run our own private magical girl prison.  Even if we had the resources."

"Probably, yes."

She sighs, heavily.  "Maybe - at least some of them could be persuaded to stop, if they had an alternative option like the League.  But."

"I think our best bet's going to be making it an unattractive option. Most of them are selfish, not outright evil."

"Just breaking up the farms wherever we find them could do that," Kaylee says.  She leans back.  "We - probably can't do much on that front yet, though.  There's still only six of us."

"Yes, unfortunately."

"Anyway.  We mentioned practicing more girl versus girl.  We should probably get to that soon."

"Yes. Everyone good to head out?" The others nod; Taylor says she can join them, since it's so early, which Mallory reluctantly agrees to. (She'll need practice in case she runs into a hostile nomad, after all.)

And they head out.

And off to practice. 

Mallory tells them to sort themselves into pairs to practice fighting each other. She'll pair with Taylor initially, to get her caught up on training.

Kaylee will pair with Lianne again, if she's up for it.

She is.

Kaylee is as enthusiastic about sparring as ever.

Lianne makes a special point of practicing her barriers and bindings, trying to improve her speed.

She'll likely ensnare Kaylee a couple of times, then!

Kaylee mostly practices dodging attacks and doing things with ribbons - she still hasn't come up with a barrier technique she likes.

Lianne also needs to practice dodging or countering the ribbons, so that works out. 

Much fun is had.

Eventually it's time for them to reorganize, in order to practice fighting in groups against a single, stronger enemy.

Mal acts as the stronger enemy.

She's not all that powerful, but she's good, and hard to beat.

Ooh, this is fun.  Other magical girls are less predictable than witches and familiars, she's gotta think more on the fly.

Mallory has a lot of tricks up her sleeve, too.

She's blindsided by a few of them!  But she keeps up with the others okay.

After a while Mal calls a halt to the fight. "I'm running low on energy. Good job, girls."

"Thanks," says Kaylee.  Grief seeds are passed around.

"Over time you'll develop a sense for how much raw power your opponent has. Someone like me will be aiming to end a fight as soon as possible, using very little energy - best strategy would be trying to tire me out. Someone like Taylor has capacity to spare for large attacks. Depending on the person, this might make a war of attrition easier or harder - if she uses a lot of high powered attacks she might drop faster than me, but if she conserves her magic she'll be able to outlast you."

Nod nod.  "And if we're being outlasted, that's when to focus on stuff like bindings?"