The sunblade flew through the air, back into Yuriko's hand as she ripped out the rest of the vines entangling her ankles. She pulled on it with her other arm and kicked with her legs, but it ultimately took the burning edge of her weapon to cut herself loose.

She had to stop that tigerman before he summoned more vines. The remnants were still giving her trouble.

The darkness of the night and her glowing countenance made sure that she was a target. More and more crossbow bolts impacted her condensed Anima while she had been unable to dodge. She got away from the barrage, but not before several large cracks covered her shell.

“Rotter!” she muttered when she saw the retreating catkin stop a hundred paces away and return to bombarding her. There were no longer any handy body shields nearby. With a grunt of annoyance, she dashed back towards the village, taking shelter behind the low berm. The bolts halted after another volley, though when she peeked, she was greeted with another fusilade.

“Elder Yuriko!” Rhox hissed from inside the house. The snakekin had kept inside, though she sniped at any warriors that came close.

Yuriko hurried back into the house. How many had she killed? She shivered at the thought.

“We need to leave or drive them away.”

“And go where?” Rhox shook her head. “We have shelter here and they seem afraid of coming close. There should be a patrol from Lardel Keep, but I don’t know when they’ll arrive.”

“Lardel Keep?”

“It’s located in Lardel Valley, on the direct route between Vizugmon and Lucenti. It’s one of the easy routes and the Keep has control of the surrounding valleys and hills.”

“How many? To a patrol.” Yuriko added.

“Twenty.”

“There’s hundreds out there.”

“Then we should even out the numbers.” Rhox looked at her grimly. “I think you took out one of their leaders.”

“Well if they come close, I’ll take them on. Those bolts won’t go through the walls.”

“We should head over to the village hall, it’s sturdier.”

“But farther from the berm.” Yuriko shook her head. “Well, go there if you must, I’ll keep watch nearby. See if they’re trying to sneak in.”

With that, she ran out the door and jumped to the roof. The sloped eaves gave her some trouble but she had seen where the support beams were from inside. If only they built their houses like Faron’s Crossing, with flat, stone or cement roofs. She’d have an easier time fighting.

With Enhanced Sight, she saw most of the warriors regrouping nearly two hundred paces away. If only she still had her Plasma Caster!

She wasn’t in a position to observe all around them. The houses were fairly even in height, so she’d have to manoeuvre around to get a better vantage point. From what she saw, they weren’t trying to encircle, perhaps in an effort to concentrate their fire.

Ah, they were pointing at her. Her Anima glow was too strong, though she dared not retract it. Her skin may be tougher than before but she wasn’t willing to bet that it would stop an arrowhead backed by all the kinetic energy from those strings. She could start repairing the cracks though.

No, no, that would take too much of her concentration. Ah, the cracks were already starting to seal anyway. A quick envisioning showed her that her supply of distilled Chaos was dwindling rapidly. She felt as if hot water were running all over her body, bringing comfort. She condensed her Anima further, keeping it as close to her skin as possible. It made the cracks widen, but it also allowed the distilled Chaos to get to it quicker.

For an hour, she stood there, occasionally shifting to the other side of the house to watch in the other directions. The terrain around the village was pretty clear. There were some tree stumps, but most of the south and east of the berm were the rice terraces. To the north and west were untamed trees along the hills. Still, it was clear for more than fifty paces.

The felinekin were keeping a close watch on her. They didn’t recover the corpses and those she had crippled managed to crawl towards the others. Their cries of pain tugged at her. She had wounded them with the intention of questioning them afterwards but with the way things were, she had only prolonged their suffering.

No, they killed helpless children. No mercy.

“Perhaps you should rest, Elder,” Rhox called out. The other woman had crawled back into the house Yuriko used as a vantage point. “I’ll keep watch.”

“No, I’m fine.”

Yuriko said, suppressing a yawn the moment she said it. Rhox just arched a scaly eyebrow at her. The Vizugmonians had retreated further back and were now sheltered by a ridge from her direct sight. There were still a few watchers though, and since she was still glowing, she made their job a lot easier.

“Come down, please. Nothing will happen if you stay up there except tiring yourself out.”

“Ah, fine,” Yuriko grumbled.

She jumped down to the ground, causing not a few of their attackers to jump to their feet. She could try an assault, but she was pretty tired herself, and her reserves had dropped low. She went back inside the house and dissipated the sunblade by drawing the Radiant energy back to herself. If she did that instead of waiting for it to dissolve on its own, she could recover a bit of the remnant. But the Animus was well and truly spent.

“Wake me if they move closer.” She didn’t tell Rhox of the alarm stones.

Yuriko thought it would take her a while to fall asleep but surprisingly, she only closed her eyes and the next thing she knew, she woke up with the Radiant Sun in her eyes.

Rhox was still outside, perched on a tall chair. She looked funny, balanced on her toes.

“Good morning, what news?”

“Oh, good morning, if you could call it that,” Rhox greeted. “No movement; they’re still mostly out of sight. But they might have sent a unit to flank us.”

She gestured to the north and west. The Vizugmonians were arrayed to the south, along the road, and since there was little cover to the east,they were likely to attempt a western assault.

Or they were cooking.

A stream of greyish smoke wafted from behind the ridge and with them being downwind, it carried the tantalizing scent of roasting meat. Yuriko looked at their trail rations. While they weren’t as bad as the Empire’s, nothing was as bad as that, in Yuriko’s opinion, they were hardly appetizing fare.

They were mostly some sort of unleavened bread, packed hard and dense, and mixed in with some kind of nuts and dried, and tasteless, meat. Unlike the Imperial rations, these ones were easy to break off with her teeth. They were still bland though.

For her, a single ration bar wasn’t enough to sate her appetite but they had limited supplies. Habit had forced her to bring some along in her backpack, enough to last her the entire five days. But Rhox didn’t manage to bring her own backpack, so they had to share the limited supply.

“What say we rush over there and steal their food?” Yuriko muttered.

“Better not,” Rhox laughed. “They might expect that.”

“I’d rather not stay here and starve though.”

“We won’t.” Rhox took a deep breath. “I found a few untouched cellars.”

“Oh.”

“I can’t quite bring myself to loot the dead, yet,” Rhox shuddered, “but I know it’s foolish. I’ll gather a few later.”

“You didn’t wake me up to take watch,” Yuriko suddenly pointed out.

“You fought and drove them back.” Her laugh was bitter. “All I did was snipe at a few. I’m not even sure I hit anyone.”

“Either way, take your rest.” Yuriko said decisively. “If they won’t come to us, then we’ll go to them. Or, failing that, leave.”

“Easier said than done.”

After their meal, the two of them gathered all the crossbow bolts that had been fired at them. The majority, nine out of ten, were undamaged, while the remainder were either bent, or sliced in half. Those had edges that had melted and solidified unevenly.

Still no movement on the enemy’s part. Would they just stare at them the entire time?

No, apparently not. By noon, the watchers had pulled back. Yuriko figured they were still there from the smoke as they cooked lunch, but as evening drew near, the smoke dissipated, and the remnants smelt more of pure woodsmoke than anything else. Curious, the two of them slowly made their way down the road and over the ridge. What greeted them were mostly empty campfires. Of the feline-kin, there was no sign.

“I suppose they thought they couldn’t take us on.” Rhox said, “What now, Elder?”

“Much as I’d like to head over to Viterra, I think we’re better off returning.” Yuriko decided.

Ah, so you want to enjoy war a little bit more. Damien’s sardonic voice filled her head.

‘No. It’s just…erm…”

You can just go, you know. Leave the little snake here and head to the bears.

‘What little snake? She’s taller than me!’

But oh so weak and fragile. They use a flawed system to survive the Chaos, you know? Drawing in the Anima of a dying beast will only cause confusion in the self. I wager that these people were completely human dozens of centuries ago, and their continued use of that method transformed them. Hah! You’re only on the second Growth phase and you are already considerably stronger than their Actualisation phase warriors.

‘What’s your point?’

Nothing much, but if you want to play around you better look for a better challenge. Chaos, girl, stop tiptoeing around them. So what if their arrows damage your Anima? That only makes it easier to strain it.

‘Oh, you’re right.’

Well, don’t make things too dull.

“Elder?” Rhox’s voice drew her out of her reverie.

“Yes?”

“I think we have company.”

Yuriko looked to where she pointed at. There was a small dust cloud drifting up in the air. Yuriko started the process of creating her sunblade but before she could do more than channel her Animus to her hand, they walked over a ridge and were now visible to her. Judicious use of Enhanced Sight showed that those marching were warriors from Lucenti.

“Hey!” Rhox yelled as she waved vigorously.

The lead warrior returned the gesture. Yuriko could see Lucenti’s insignia on their leather cuirasses, three reptilian heads set in a triangle.

“The patrol?”

“Yes, I believe so,” Rhox said. “Ah, I recognize the Fang Leader. Akko of the L’tik.”

Yuriko and Rhox waited for the Lucentians to arrive, with Rhox giving a salute that was easily returned by the warriors. They eyed Yuriko strangely and their leader, a lizardkin woman with deep green scales speckled with brown and red, walked up to them.

“Akko of the L’tik, Fang Leader of the 12th Fang, 2nd Talon, 2nd Wing, of Lardel Keep. What’s going on here?”

“Fang Leader Akko, this is Elder Yuriko of the Davar. I am on escort duty and our destination is Viterra City…” Rhox began.

“You’re on the wrong road for that,” Akko said dryly.

“Yes, we were attacked by a contingent of cat-kin and were driven here to Silvershear, but…” Rhox pointed at the village, “We buried all the bodies we could find. There were no survivors.”

“What!” Akko gasped. “We were here just last week! Oh no…”

Troubled murmurs came from the rest of the men. Akko gestured sharply and some of her troops ran towards the village.

“Some of them have kin here,” Akko said glumly. “Who?”

“We suspect Vizugmon,” Rhox began, “but mostly because they were mostly composed of catkin. But they could be from Grieford too.”

“Don’t you have an alliance?” Yuriko interjected.

“Not so much an alliance as a…er, contract.”

“They’re mercenaries?”

“Grieford City is more a collection of thugs than an actual city-state,” Akko replied. “But come, let us get out of the sun. I will need to send a runner to Lardel soon. Excuse me.”

Akko stepped back and called for one of the Buwak. She penned a quick note, sealed it with wax and an insignia ring.

Once she was done, she asked Yuriko, “Elder, may I request you to accompany us to Lardel Keep?”

“I don’t mind. I had intended to return to Lucenti.”

“You’ll miss the off-plane merchant ship,” Rhox remarked.

“I know. But there are some things I can’t let slide.”

Yes, she couldn’t let the perpetrators of this heinous deed go unpunished. If the leadership of Vizugmon had anything to do with this, she would have to do something about it too.

That’s the spirit. Bathe this plane with the blood of your enemies!

She didn’t know what was more unsettling: the fact that Damien had again revealed his bloodthirst, or the fact that she didn’t mind at all.