Their footsteps echoed as they ran up the short hill. This close to the mountain settlements, the plains had long given way to valleys and hills. It was just that the valley, the road that led to the settlement Yuriko and the others had been headed to was relatively flat.

“We can lose them after we go over the ridges,” Riley grunted even as he kept his Plasma Caster at the ready, though the muzzle was aimed at the ground.

“You don’t want to fight?” Yuriko asked idly.

“Hmph! No,” Riley grunted, “fighting armies is the last thing I want to do.”

The townspeople spread out along the valley and it looked like the entire populace had come out in force. From her vantage, and with judicious use of Enhanced Sight, Yuriko could see over the walls and the streets looked deserted. The townspeople wore the same grey robe as those from Euphoril. The crimson moon gave their clothes the same hue. Was it just her imagination when she saw the red flames they had for eyes? She certainly didn’t see it again as they climbed the hill.

Where were they going anyway? They moved like a mob with no discernible formation whatsoever. They were clumped in groups of at least a dozen, with the bigger ones numbering nearly a hundred. At least they kept those with melee weapons in front, while those with bows, crossbows, and…were those Plasma Casters? Anyway, the ranged warriors stayed near the back, but even then, that wasn’t the ideal position. After all, if they faced an enemy in front, the melee warriors would be in the way.

They were walking towards the other side of the valley, towards the plains that she and the others had come from. Ah, there was a small group headed towards the hills. They were pointing at her and from their hurried step and the way they brandished their polearms, quite eager to fight.

“It looks like we’ll have to fight anyway,” Reinhardt said drily.

Yuriko started the process of summoning a new sunblade.

Huh? Her Radiant energy reserves were three-quarters full. That was odd; it normally took a third to summon a sunblade. Ah, it was still a third that she used up. So where did the extra come from?

She glanced at the Blood Moon before she shook her head. It can’t be. The light didn’t feel Radiant at all. It was…angry. But how could the light from the Luminous Moon have such emotion? Mysteries upon mysteries, with no answer in sight.

Riley went down on one knee and aimed.

“Nearly five hundred paces away.” He clicked his tongue. “Too far to be accurate.”

“Eh, but even I can shoot that far,” Yuriko muttered. “My accuracy drops to about half though.”

“I’m focused on shorter ranges,” Riley said. “Penetrative blasts. Not all Davars focus on extreme range.”

“Are we really going to fight them off here, in the open?” Reinhardt protested. They were outnumbered five to one.

“I don’t think we have a choice. At least we’ve the high ground here,” Aidan said as he drew his Plasma Lancet. He pressed the trigger five times and caught the plasma bolts within a net of Animus that spread out from his fingertips. Each covered the plasma balls and remained tethered to his fingertips, but they were so thin that it was nearly impossible to make out.

Hmm, for that matter, how was she able to see this? She stared hard at the plasma balls orbiting around Aidan. The plasma was a light purple, but so were the netting and tether. With a twitch of his fingers and a pulse that went up the tethers, Aidan set the orbs farther away, hovering a couple of paces above their heads. The tethers stretched out and thinned but it looked like her cousin could still control the orbs easily.

Devion carefully lowered Tiernan on the ground, making sure to lay him on his side. Then he drew his falchion from the sheath on his waist. The weapon was wider near the tip, curved and single-edged. She didn’t see him use it much, since it was practically useless against the stone creatures, but with flesh and blood foes… the edge gleamed wickedly.

Reinhardt snapped his fingers and half a dozen diamond shards materialized above his palms. His lips were set in a grim line and he glared down the hill. Michi and Shara stood just in front of him, with their weapons set to protect.

It took less than a minute for the townspeople to come close.

“What are you doing?” Yuriko yelled at them, but there was no answer forthcoming. Instead, they charged.

A wordless roar hit them like a physical wave, and Yuriko stepped back reflexively. Reinhardt’s diamonds shattered and fell to his knees with his bodyguards nearly collapsing. A physical projection of rage and hunger.

Yuriko gritted her teeth and stepped forward, weapon held low and ready. She circulated the sword dances, hoping that she wouldn’t have to kill anyone today. It looked like a futile hope though.

Whoosh! Swish!

Riley’s shot was deflected with a deft twist of his target’s glaive.

“Hmph!” Riley smirked, and the bolt curved to strike at another unsuspecting warrior. He followed it with another shot, and another, and the lead warrior couldn’t deflect the bolts quickly enough. The third shot smashed into his shoulder and burnt a hole clean through.

“Argh!” The warrior howled.

Yuriko expected him to either fall back or drop to his knees, instead, the wounded one kept rushing forward. Riley cursed and peppered him with bolts, and it wasn’t until her cousin blasted both knees off that the townsman went down. Even so, he eerily kept crawling, dragging his glaive with him.

That was only one down, and it occupied Riley so much that the others were already within striking distance. Aidan’s orbs burned through legs and knees, causing the orbs to dissipate. He formed more even as he dashed within the warriors’ midst.

Yuriko dodged a downwards slash by a hair’s breadth. The wind of its passage made her fringe flutter, but her eyes remained focused on her assailant. She kicked the man in the face right after, snapping his head back and causing him to stumble. The slope was nearly thirty degrees, and quite easy to lose their footing. The warrior tripped over his robes and tumbled back, taking with him a couple more warriors.

Yuriko didn’t watch them. Instead, she swayed to the side to avoid a fierce spear thrust, then swatted away another from the opposite side. So she was somewhat blindsided when someone behind her attackers shot her with superheated plasma. Somehow, she never expected anyone but the Empire to field plasma weapons!

The bluish bolt splashed against her Anima, making her flinch. But it was ineffectual since the user didn’t manage to infuse it with enough Animus. Still, the bright explosion hampered her vision and she soon found herself fending off more than her share of warriors. Not that it did them any good.

The weapons laden with enough Animus to harm her stood out against her nonvisual senses and she always thickened her Anima against such blows. Minute cracks formed from the impact zones but that was manageable.

Annoyed at the light show that left sparkles in her eyes, she tossed her sunblade at the shooter, even if she suspected him to be too far away.

“Argh!”

Imagine her surprise when the blade struck true. She caught a spear by the blade, letting her Anima protect her palm against the kinetic force. But once she had a firm grip, as long as the blade didn’t slide, she had effectively neutralised the weapon. She yanked the spear to her, but the warrior on the opposite end didn’t let go. Bad move.

As soon as the sunblade returned to her hand, she swept it at his belly. The sharp stench of cauterized flesh and blood assailed her nose, but she kicked the man away and rounded on another warrior.

In short order, she incapacitated three more, killed another when the warrior managed to avoid her kick but not the thrust from the sunblade, and occupied another dozen’s attention.

Diamond shards flew from the side, passing only a couple of inches from her arm, and cracked the haft of a glaive that was about to strike. More shards danced around her, striking at weapons and flesh. Spurts of blood rolled off the surface of her Anima, and sent small rivulets dribbling down the slope.

A quick glance behind her showed the Isgeri in a triangle formation around Tiernan and Reinhardt. The bodyguards didn’t press the attackers and only fended them off. Riley and Aidan were practically back to back, with the older brother fending off melee fighters while the younger blasted any within reach.

Five to one odds weren’t a problem. If Yuriko were alone, she could have taken a hundred, maybe even a thousand to one. But something was odd. They should have broken by now.

She caught sight of the ones she’d kicked off the hill and they were climbing back up. Worse, they brought reinforcements with them. The entire mob had turned towards their hilltop and were maneuvering to cut them off from escape. Like she would let them!

“Aidan, Riley! We have to go!” she yelled as she cut another of the warriors down.

“Right!” Aidan yelled back.

He combined several plasma orbs into a bigger one then threw into the ground, causing an explosion of dust and plasma fragments to shower the townspeople.

Devion flicked his falchion to get rid of the blood at the tip. There were several bodies littered in the ground around them. Michi wiped the blade of her light glaive off the robe of one of the fallen. Devion grabbed Tiernan off the ground and threw the insensate cadet officer over his shoulder, then nodded at Yuriko.

Reinhardt looked ill at ease but he followed his bodyguard’s lead. Yuriko disengaged from the warriors by throwing her sunblade at one then she slapped another strong enough that he crashed into his comrades. Ah, from how his head twisted, she probably broke his neck too.

The fight was still eerily silent, and even when she wounded one, they didn’t utter a sound. They didn’t falter and they didn’t show any kind of fear. At one point, she managed to get the hood off one of them, and it revealed a snarling face. Human, male. Grey eyes, blue hair. And even when her blade cut his cheek, he showed absolutely no change in expression.

It felt almost as if she fought one of the blood warriors. But they didn’t dissolve into blood puddles when killed. They remained flesh, albeit ones that bled.

Yuriko ran towards her cousins while calling the sunblade to her hand. The surviving townspeople shuffled after them, limping from broken limbs while using polearms and spears as walking sticks. Blue plasma bolts shot out from the few Casters remaining, but Riley’s plasma bolts met them head on. The weaker bolts simply burst and Riley’s projectiles continued the trajectory to destroy the weapons.

Once they were over the ridge, they continued running with barely a look back. It was only when they crossed another ridge that Aidan led them towards a ravine that cut across a couple more hills. The natural trench wasn’t that deep, the sides were just a tiny bit taller than her, which meant that her cousins’ heads poked out if they stood straight. So they walked in an uncomfortably looking stoop, at least until they reached the other end.

The ravine bottom was dry. She had expected water at the bottom, for what else could have cut a furrow in the stone? Once they were out of it, Riley climbed up to the hilltop, dropping to a crawl to avoid skylining himself. Yuriko followed behind him, and they both poked their heads over the ridge.

The mob had given up on following them and were headed back down the valley. Yuriko looked to where they were heading, and with Enhanced Sight, she could just make out the silhouettes of another mob, from another town.

Were they going to fight? A mob of undisciplined warriors pretending to be an army? What was the point? They also didn’t look sane, so maybe…maybe the voice that had tried to infiltrate her Anima had theirs in a firm grip.

Yuriko stiffened.

“Look!” she whispered fiercely.

“I see it,” Riley answered with a voice held tightly in control. But it still betrayed his unease.

Floating above the other mob, was a flying island. The pirates just wouldn’t leave them alone.