Yuriko’s entrance into the battle did not go unnoticed. In fact, the bicorn straight up roared and charged towards her, muscling aside the Koinos even at the cost of a couple of strikes to the flank, which managed to draw a bit of blood. The Spear-Koinos’ weapon was coated in dense Animus and the bicorn’s movement had caused its Protective Animus to thin.

For all that, it ignored the cuts as though they didn’t exist. Yuriko landed on the ground barely in time to jump out of the way. The thing was nearly nine paces tall at the shoulder, nearly as high as a three-storey building. She knew that there was a barbarian inside that thing, but she had no idea how to penetrate the thick hide to get at him. Even as she watched, ambient Chaos swirled around its wounds and stitched them back together.

At the last moment, just before the bicorn’s horns could slam into her, ‘Adamant Guardian Seal!’. Her Anima formed the runescript word right in front of her.

BOOM!

The bicorn’s charge stopped dead, all of his momentum absorbed, then deflected by the Seal. Fifty lumens burned. And at that moment, everything stood still.

Swish!

“GRAAAH!”

Fri’Avgi slammed into the bicorn’s beak-like mouth, and the Animus edge dug deep into its cheek. The head slammed to the side, followed closely by the rest of its body. An eruption of ice, snow, and dirt, burst from below Yuriko’s feet as her Anima transmitted the reverberation of her blow down to the earth. The bicorn stumbled to its side, but it was quite evident that even Fri’Avgi’s edge bolstered by the third dance and Roaring Volcano wasn’t enough to penetrate the barbarian’s skull.

Perhaps it wasn’t a transformed body at all, but an Animus projection, rendering whatever blows she gave moot. Even so, if it was a projection, raining enough damage onto its structure should destabilise and dispel it.

The Koinos Colossi didn’t let up on the opportunity. They jumped over to the fallen bicorn and stabbed it with spears and axe, while the last one let loose with a fusillade of plasma bolts.

“Wretched Imperials!”

The words that came out of the bicorn’s mouth were in the Ikash language, and Yuriko barely understood it. It shook its back to throw off the Colossi and got back on its four legs. Each leg was deceptively short, but only because they were so thick with muscle. Those same muscles started to writhe. Loud cracking noises came from its limbs as the creature pushed off, its forelimbs cracked and elongated, its stubby hooves became long twisted fingers tipped with claws.

The quadrupedal body shifted to be more humanoid, shedding much of its bulk. In the end, it condensed down to a size that was only a couple of paces taller than the Colossi and bipedal.

The entire transformation lasted a few seconds, and the creature suffered heavy blows while it was defenceless. But its hide and thick Animus coating was strong enough that it only suffered a few gashes and contusions. The head was still that of a bicorn’s though.

The barbarians who were watching, upon seeing their champion take a beating and probably because of Yuriko’s interference, charged into melee. Unfortunately for them, nearly all of the combatants were too big to notice them underfoot. And they made handy target practice for the marksmen on the walls.

Yuriko huffed and let loose several sunshards to harry the bicorn man. The gleaming crystalline fragments cut into the hide, but couldn’t penetrate deeply enough. She did draw blood, however, a brilliant crimson with bluish flecks.

The creature batted aside the nearest Colossi, knocking it a couple of steps back, then charged at her. Eyes narrowing, Yuriko held Fri’Avgi between them, ducked under the obvious trajectory of his punch, then hacked into his forearm. The blade bounced off, though the jagged Animus and sliced an inch deep into the hide. Unfortunately, the thing’s arm was as wide as she was and her strike barely counted as a scratch.

Thoom!

A shot from the Plasma Carronade slammed into the bicorn man’s chest and set fire to the thick hairy carpet there.

“Argh!” he screamed and batted at the flames.

A spear Colossi tackled the back of the bicorn’s knee causing his leg to fold and for him to topple sideways. Yuriko ran up to his face and stabbed her weapon into a dinner plate sized eye. He blinked and the thick eyelid actually deflected the artefact.

“Yargh!” A barbarian screamed as he hacked at her shoulder with a stone axe.

Yuriko didn’t bother to dodge, letting her Anima take the blow. It stopped the blade an inch from her skin, then she used her kinesis to push against his jaw, snapping his head back. A loud crack came from broken vertebrae, and the barbarian collapsed bonelessly at her feet.

Boom!

The Certus Colossus slammed against the wall. The bear howled and slammed its claw at the back of a Koinos.

Crunch!

Fragments of wood, its runescript lines fading as the Animus ran out of it, scattered all over the snow. The bicorn rounded on another Koinos and swiped with his hand. The claws weren’t as sharp or as tough as the bear’s, but it left thick gashes across the wooden shield.

In the meantime, Yuriko lunged at the bicorn, slamming Fri’Avgi at the back of his other knee, but like the Koinos from before, but it was a largely ineffective strike.

Huffing in strain, Yuriko jumped back, then leapt up at the creature’s back. Its muscles stood out and made fine footholds to propel her up towards his upper back. Then, shoving as much Animus and Radiant energy as she could into the blade, she slammed down on the protruding spine.

Crunch!

“Graaah!”

A roar of pain. Yuriko leapt up to the shoulder and slammed the blade at the base of the neck, aiming for the lighter coloured hide, hoping that it was thinner than anywhere else. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Fri’Avgi cut another inch down into the flesh, but couldn’t sink any deeper. Why?

Twack!

In her distraction, a paw half the size of her body slapped her away.

“Ahh!”

She couldn’t help but scream as she spun in the air. She regained her senses a moment later, tucked into a ball as she slammed into the ground. Her Anima cushioned both the initial strike and the impact from the fall, and she managed to redirect her momentum, and get back to her feet just in time to dodge a follow up kick. Fri’Avgi had fallen from her hand and she had to call the artefact back.

Cracks covered a portion of her Anima, the first time it happened in quite a long while. She could probably take a few more such hits before her protections shattered.

No time to think!

Both of the beasts were after her now. The Certus picked itself off from the wall, staggered and drew a short weapon. Its greatsword was nowhere in sight. The spear-Koinos was a broken heap, and the other one was in bad shape too. The axe-Koinos stomped at the barbarian warriors attempting to trip it.

The gates of the outpost slammed open and several centuries rushed outside. Marksmen shot at the bicorn and the bear, but the plasma bolts barely registered to the gargantuan creatures.

Glaring in anger, Yuriko gathered all of her sunshards around herself. They weren’t effective against the beasts, their penetrative power not enough to bypass their hides. She dodged another blow, briefly entertaining the thought to use Adamant Guardian Seal. But just using it to defend herself seemed a waste when she could easily dodge the obvious strikes.

No, she had to use it when it mattered, and it wouldn’t matter unless she found a way to penetrate the hides, or strike at a vital spot. As for the effects of the Four Phases of the Sword, she wasn’t fluent enough with Resonance to augment her blows in such a chaotic battle.

The centuries of legionnaires swept towards the barbarian hordes, while the Plasma Carronades on the north wall focused fire on the giant bear. The carronadiers switched from the basic superheated plasma into the same kinetic bolts they used to deflect the boulders. The bear staggered back as it lost its footing. It roared furiously while the Koinos it was mauling crawled away.

Then, the last squad of Colossi exited the outpost, and each one bore a mattock or a club. The second Certus Colossus slammed its mattock into the hastily raised arms of the bicorn which made it stagger.

Yuriko took a moment to get a breather. Sheer brute force bypassed the thick hide, but she wondered at how effective it really was. She could see bruises start to form across the bicorn’s limbs, but it was still nimble enough to avoid getting its kneecaps shattered. The bear easily fended off the newcomers while the earlier squad retreated.

The legionnaire centuries mowed down the barbarian horde who were foolishly charging into phalanxes. It didn’t help them that they were outnumbered. Still, that begged the question, where were the other barbarians? There were four tribes right? She assumed the two giants were the chieftains, and from how strong they were, they were probably at the Knight-Captain level.

The barbarians were larger and tougher than she was, though their attacks were slow and somewhat weaker. Er, she was probably the only one who felt that way though. The Colossi were soundly trounced by the bear’s claws and the bicorn’s punches and kicks. Though why didn’t he use his horns?

Of greater concern, the boulders continued to bombard the dome, and it was now starting to crack. How long could they hold? There were too many boulders! The carronades could ease the dome’s burden, but only by so much. There were four tribes, where were the other two champions? If they attacked now then the outpost would be overrun!

Focus fire on the bear.

Huh? Who was that? That wasn’t Damien! All at once, the marksmen, the carronades, and the remaining Colossi attacked the giant bear. Mattocks slammed into its arms, plasma bolts singed its fur, and caronade shots knocked it off its feet. The bicorn roared and attempted rescue, but…

Focus fire on the bicorn,

Everyone slammed into the bipedal giant who wasn’t quite as tough as the bear in its current form. Several carronade bolts and hundreds of plasma shots struck the exact same spot on the creature’s sternum and somehow, the combined force of the blow blasted the thing away. It bounced off the field, squashing dozens of barbarians in the process, before it slammed into a particularly large tree trunk. It snapped and half fell on the prone giant.

Commander Perry.

That was who the voice was from! An Animus technique?

Yuriko had felt a mild compulsion to attack with the others but she easily resisted.

‘I guess that’s why she’s the fort commander,’ she thought idly.

Still, the bear was still very much in the battle. As for the bicorn, well, the barbarians converged around it, and a couple of minutes later, the huge body melted away. She caught a glimpse of someone being carried away, but at that point, she wasn’t in any position to intercept.

The bear, once it stood its ground, managed to weather the carronade shots. As for the Colossi, it made sure to always present its front. By keeping its large beast form, it was significantly tougher, and it proved just enough to render the subsequent attacks ineffective.

The barbarian horde was in full retreat, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. As for the legionnaires, Yuriko could see dozens of wounded, and a few dead. While she wracked her mind on how to defeat the bear, it decided that it had enough. It turned tail and ran back to Ouera Bo.

The survivors let loose a loud cheer but the damage to the first Colossi squad was significant. The third squad was still away, and hopefully would return with a bounty of food. The second squad was undamaged.

As for the other two walls, the swarmlings and other Wyldlings managed to kill a couple dozen militia, but the rest of the Knights kept the walls secure.

That was a problem though. Killing the Wyldlings only meant that they needed to take some time to recover their numbers but with the outpost cut off, there were no reinforcements for them.

A messenger crane fluttered towards her hand, and when she opened it, it was a summons for an emergency meeting. All the while, dozens of boulders slammed into the dome, creating more cracks than could be healed over between volleys. For that matter, just as she was about to enter the keep, the rhythm of the siege changed. Every minute, three to four boulders threatened the outpost’s safety and the interval wasn’t enough to allow the Animus engine to store its valuable load.

“We cannot allow the bombardment to continue,” Commander Perry said as soon as Yuriko entered the conference chamber.

The woman had bloodshot eyes and sunken cheeks, looking for all the world as though she hadn’t slept in days.

“At the rate it’s going, we’ll run out of Animus for the dome in five hours. Set five hundred people to donate to the storage and we’ll be able to hold on for a day or two, but we must sortie to destroy the bombardiers. Who will volunteer?”

“I will,” Yuriko said, though all of the Colossi Core Pilots did as well.

“Just one squad,” the commander said, “and ten Knights. Prepare and leave in an hour.”

“Yes, ma’am!” the others said.

“Miss Davar, a word.”

“Eh, uh sure,” Yuriko answered.

The two of them waited until the conference room cleared, then Adeline Perry said firmly, “I need you to escort the civilians to Rumiga City. We cannot leave unless things become graver, but you are not under the outpost’s command. You should save…”

“No.” Yuriko said with a smile. “I won’t abandon you and others here, not until there’s no other choice. I will join the raid, and if we manage to destroy what we must, then there’s no need to risk evacuation.”

The two of them stared at each other without blinking, until finally, Perry nodded and sighed.

“As you wish.”