“What’s that?” Yuriko muttered as she saw something move in the distance. She had to look hard at it to make sure she could believe her sight, and that took a few moments of focus. No, she wasn’t mistaken. It was another metallic being, though one that was barely shaped like a human. It had four arachnid, or insectile she supposed, legs, and a squashed, boxy head. But there was no mistaking the weapons on its upper limbs. Plasma Casters, or something similar.

It was skittering closer to them. The squashed head had eyes of similar style to the metal man they encountered before, mere points of light on a featureless face. She wondered if it was hostile, though from how it aggressively pointed the arm-barrels at them, there was little doubt.

“It’s—” Marron barely got a word in–a warning perhaps, or a question–when it became a moot point. The greenish metal skitterer attacked at a hundred paces away, both muzzles flashed and something impacted her condensed aura before she could even blink. Two somethings, that had squished themselves into discs and fell with a thud to the ground. A bit of her aura had fractured, tiny things that immediately repaired themselves by the next blink.

“Take cover!” Marron yelled as he ducked behind a tree trunk. Desire had been one step ahead of him and had already positioned herself behind a stone stub wall next to a set of stairs up the entrance of a building. The wall was barely tall enough to cover the girl as she crouched behind it. A soft hymn drifted from her and Yuriko’s thoughts felt ever so slightly clearer.

The moment she felt the blows strike her condensed aura, and how much Animus it contained, her kinesis drew and flung the ball bearings from her ammunition pouch, investing three lumens each to test the waters. Putting more than that took just a bit longer than the time it took to pull the balls from the pouch and launch it.

The metal shooter didn’t react to the shots which reached it in the blink of an eye. It had released a couple more shots at her, which she sidestepped, though one grazed her Anima anyway. It deflected away and ricocheted against the road. Like the wall, the boulevard was made of seamless stone, as if it had been melded that way or it was all one thing. She wondered how it handled changes in temperature since according to Natural Sciences, things expand when hot and shrink when cooled down. The absence of cracks along the pavement meant the material had a way to deal with it or was repaired constantly.

Her attack pinged off its torso, leaving shallow dents where she hit near the centre of mass. It also threw off the thing’s aim and the next two shots had flown wide. After a couple more pellets, Yuriko invested double the amount of lumens in her next shot, and the resulting dent was deeper. She was practised enough to hit in the same general area, but couldn’t hit the exact same spot. The shooter staggered back but having four legs allowed it to stabilize itself faster than she thought. It went right back to shooting at her, though she mostly ignored the attacks, letting them strike her condensed aura with impunity. Dodging simply threw off her aim, but then again, her ranged attacks were barely doing anything.

Ptang! Ptang! Ptang!

The sounds of her pellets striking the thing’s metal body was quite loud, and she had the sinking feeling that the noise wasn’t a good thing at all.

Vwooohm!

Marron’s combined crescent attack sheared through the metal body, cutting deep inside. It was a bit off centre though, since it sidestepped at the last moment. Its left arm fell nervelessly to its side, but it continued to shoot with its remaining weapon. Its attacks didn't make a sound, just a small flash of light.

Yuriko’s metal pellets were limited though, and she’d already shot a dozen in as many seconds. Not much damage to their assailant but suppressive fire was more about keeping the targets off balance anyway. She kicked off from her position, crossing several dozen paces in a single beat of her heart. She went in an arc rather than straight, giving Marron and Gwendith a clear shot. Her blond friend fired a couple of shots from her Plasma Lancet but missed when the bolts fizzled out. The Lancet wasn’t rated for that range after all.

The creature turned to keep her within target, and at the same time, it started to retreat. Or rather, it tried to keep her at its optimal distance, since when she hesitated, it stopped and kept attacking.

Still, she was faster than it was, and in another blink of an eye, she was right within striking distance. She slashed with the sunblade while sidestepping a point-blank shot. The projectile smashed into her aura, near her shoulder, though if it hadn’t been flared, the attack would have missed completely.

The thing was as tall as she was, standing as it did, but with how the insectile legs were bent, it could gain as much as a pace on her if it straightened it out. The Radiant blade slashed across the front left leg, and cut deep into the material. It was barely thicker than her wrist after all, but tougher than it looked.

The Radiant nature of her weapon allowed her to retrieve it easily as the thing retreated with a high-pitched squeal, the first time it actually made noise. She stepped closer to the left, forcing it to swivel its body if it wanted to attack her. Her follow-up blow sheared through the already damaged portion and cut off the limb. It lurched to one side but quickly caught its balance.

Before she could follow up, she heard a scream of warning, and the next moment, she felt a blade enter her perception range from behind.

She ducked and rolled to her right, barely avoiding the attack. She kept her Anima contained, not wanting to lose her protective aura, and a quick glance showed her another of the creatures, though this one had a sword blade on one appendage and an axehead on another in lieu of the barrels.

It was also quicker on its feet. A crescent bolt knocked it on its side before it could attack her again and she sprang to her feet. Her sunshards spun and struck, and unlike the metal man from the valley outside, this time, they had an effect.

The metal plating on their bodies bent and melted a bit when her shards struck. And just like that, the two enemies were on the back foot. Not that there had been any doubt, Yuriko decided. The shooter was slower than she and the one with blades for hands weren’t much faster. The way it attacked her used different weapon forms, but ultimately, it was by an upright opponent with two attacking limbs. Predicting its attack patterns was laughably easy.

She stepped back just out of reach and watched the sword blade pass less than an inch from the edge of her aura. She stabbed with her sunblade, aimed at the head, and used her parrying sundagger to deflect the axehead. The thing was strong, though, and she felt the reverberation of its attack run down the blade and her arm.

The sunshards harried the shooter, and in less than a minute, she’d disabled the other arm and melted part of the torso. Unfortunately, beneath the initial armour was more armour. But she had to settle to disable. The shooter hobbled away, leaving the bladewarrior to fight her alone. Huh, why wasn’t Maru backing her up?

She glanced back and her eyes widened in surprise. Another blade warrior tangled with Gwendith, who looked a bit worse for wear. The other girl used her side-blade to attack and defend, and a few of the thing’s joints were covered in frost. Another was prone, with Saki stabbing its head and torso with a blade wreathed in shadow and lightning. Marron was trading shots with another shooter from down a side road, while Desire used her Chaos to project a field blocking bullets from hitting her or Gwendith.

Not the time to take it slow.

With the shooter mostly disabled, she sent the shards at the blade warrior, and in short order, had reduced it to a smouldering heap. She spun around and ran towards her team, but she only got a couple of steps in before she skidded to a halt, just in time to let a fusillade of bullets pass in front of her.

Down the side street, which was quite wide actually, so maybe she should call it an avenue. There was a dozen of the metal beings. Four of them were the shooters, another four were the blade warriors, and the last four had tower shields on their right arms, and a large cube with spikes on each face on another.

And, down the other avenue were even more of the things. Where had they come from and why were they popping out of the stonework?

No reason to hold back, and since the last metal man backed down when she brandished Fri’Avgi, perhaps something similar would happen here.

The artefact appeared on her hand as she channelled her Animus and fed Radiant energy into the metal. More sunshards appeared around her, and for a timeless instant, she harboured the hope that it would be enough of a display.

And the next moment, another fusillade of bullets shattered on Fri’Avgi’s side. Growling in anger, she infused the third dance and Roaring Volcano and charged at their midst. The first shielder blocked her horizontal blow, and with a thunderous clang, it skidded back a couple of paces and the tower shield had caved in.

After the strike, she spun Fri’Avgi over her head and struck at the shielder closing in. At the same time, she sent her sunblade, dagger, and shards at the blade warriors while she danced around the other melee fighters. The shooters still fired at her, however, even if most of their bullets ricocheted off the other. They weren’t damaged, and some of the ricochets struck her body, making her curse soundly.

“Yuri! Come back!” Marron yelled.

She spun and struck, crushed and melted the assailants. But aside from the first blade warrior, she hadn’t been able to finish any of them off, even with Fri’Avgi’s might. As soon as one got heavily damaged, they quickly pulled away. There were more than enough reinforcements to keep her occupied.

“Yuri!”

She drove the shielders and bladers back with a wide sweep, then boosted herself and jumped. She kicked off a building’s wall and landed next to the boulevard’s island. She found her team closer to the exit tunnel, and she hurried after them, ignoring the bullets that struck her back. Her condensed aura was more than enough to protect her. In fact, if she had been alone, she was sure she could have wiped out the entire lot. They couldn’t harm her, and even if it took a while, she was sure to land a devastating blow. But she wasn’t alone now, and her focus was to make sure everyone survived unharmed. Shaking her head, she slammed Fri’Avgi into the blader that harried Gwendith, and this time, because of the other girl’s ice, it wasn’t able to retreat.

Another slam caved in its head and rent the torso in twain. Blue sparks fizzled from the wound, and she caught a glimpse of the insides. It was…hollow. She thought she saw runescript lines in the interior, but nothing else other than some scrap metal.

“Here!” Marron yelled from a side road. Why there?

A look down the boulevard towards the exit tunnel showed her why. There was an entire troop of the things, at least a hundred. The shooters were up front, but they hadn't unleashed their attacks yet. They were still shy of two hundred paces away.

The avenue Marron was at looked clear. So far. The Radiant Sun shone overhead now. Noon. Gwendith had a wound on her leg. Her trousers were ripped and blood ran down her leg. Desire looked pale and wan, and she stared hungrily at Yuriko, her Chaos well depleted.

Saki had a deep frown on her face, but she was unharmed, and Marron gritted his teeth audibly. They managed to destroy five of the things, but at the rate they were going, they would be overwhelmed.

Yuriko’s thoughts raced as they ran. They could try to barricade themselves in a building, but that would mean they were trapped. They could try to circle around the things, but… how many were they? Even now she could hear the staccato tapping of their pointed legs against the road coming from the northeast, and south. So far, nothing from the west.

But as they rounded a corner, all of them ground to a halt. A metal man stood in the middle of the road, its red eyes set in a rictus of anger.