Koinos Litai, Azavi, and Galad quickly overtook Yuriko’s position, their four-pace high frames combined with focused Animus was more than enough to provide a speed boost that allowed them to cover the intervening longstride in half a minute. The hills blocking the Federation encampment were no barrier and actually turned into a springboard as the Colossi climbed the hill in several large steps. As soon as they reached the crest, as one, they all leapt off.

Brakoom!

A thunderous sound that made the earth shake. Yuriko’s sense of balance was more than enough to compensate, and it didn’t take her more than a couple of seconds to arrive at the hilltop and witness what happened below.

“They’ve been forewarned,” Finan’s voice whispered in her ear, nearly making her jump in surprise. The flower, of course.

He wasn’t wrong either. The Implacable Jade’s attack was loud and obvious enough that only the dead would have missed it. The camp was quite similar to the Frozen Camp in that it had a wooden palisade atop an earthen wall. A wide ditch was dug before it, and the bottom had sharp stakes made out of hardened stone and earth. The Koinos slammed into the wood at three points and were in the process of pulling it apart.

Litai used his large hands to pull and tear, and managed to topple several posts. He used it to create a bridge across several paces wide ditch. Azavi, on the other hand, blasted the wall with a wide gout of flame. The green fires clung to the wood and merrily devoured them. Galad used his battle axe to chop at the posts near the roots. The resulting logs were too short to span the gap though.

The Federation army was visible through the gap, and they looked like chickens in a henhouse that had a foxy intruder. But the seeming disarray belied their true coordination. Less than a minute after the Colossi breached the wall, they had already formed battle lines. Warriors armed with hand cannons made use of it to pepper the large wooden constructs, while those with polearms darted in to prod and smash the plates.

Just those measures wouldn’t have been enough to overcome, or even inconvenience them much, but Adepts already moved to engage.

Yuriko had killed the archer Adept, but a replacement had already been sent. This particular one had bonded with his steam hand cannon and was using it to blast Animus-empowered bullets with dreadful penetrating power or kinetic impacts. One of the shots actually staggered Koinos Azavi when it slammed into one of her greaves.

Of even greater concern was the horde of nameless Chaos barons that emerged from one of the longhouses. She recognized merely a fifth of the creatures, those she had fought before. Those that managed to survive her blade, and those that were smart enough not to throw their lives away. All of them rushed towards the Colossi.

“Yuri, you have to intercept,” Finan said urgently. “Divert them away from the entry points!”

“Got it.”

Yuriko hadn’t been idle while watching the Colossi’s assault. She soared over the sharp points of the palisade and landed on an observation tower. Her sunshards stabbed down into the guard, easily dispatching the young man. Then, she funnelled Radiant energy and Animus into her Sorcerous Implement.

Sense. Gather. Alter. Shape. Set. Release.

The six steps to Sorcery. By using an implement, the third to fifth steps were condensed into transferring the gathered energies, ambient Chaos and Radiant energy in her case, into the implement. They lowered both the amount of time needed to shape the spell, but also lowered its potency and flexibility.

However, even using an implement took time, and it was painfully obvious to anyone nearby. Which was why she didn’t actually intend to cast the spell. However, her enemies didn’t know that.

As the ambient Chaos and the Radiant energy coalesced into a spear’s shape, the nameless, as one, turned towards her and charged. Nearly two hundred Chaos barons were a formidable force, one capable of overcoming a small nation. Their nameless status weakened them considerably, however, so they were actually akin to a Third Order Journeymen that were at the threshold of Knighthood. That small crucial step was a wide divide.

As they charged, Yuriko discarded the energies she funnelled, letting it dissipate into thin air as bright sparkles and bursts of flames. As she didn’t have a tight grip on them in the first place, the backlash was practically nothing. Instead, she levered her artefact, revolved her sunshards and threw herself into battle. Her position had pulled them from attacking the Colossi and the Imperial warriors.

She didn’t engage directly, however, as that would only mire her in their battle formation. Instead, she ran at a tangent, sending her sunshards to harry the nearby nameless, while she used her Fri’Avgi and the Arclight blade on targets of opportunity. As such, she burned and cut to pieces, tents, wooden buildings, and occasional warriors that got in her way. Most didn’t as the mere touch of her Anima perception triggered her Terror Mien.

Actually, just the sight of her seemed to do the trick as anyone who did either froze stiff or wet themselves and ran.

She used her sunshards to block the nameless’ ranged attacks, the chaos shrapnel or direct blasts of energy, either heat or unnerving cold. Wind blades were also thrown at her, as well as shards of crystal and rock, but she easily spotted the attacks when they crossed her perception aura, which reached more than eight paces away. The farther her Anima reached, the easier it was to react to ranged attacks. Even when she fought in melee, there were no blind spots. She could easily perceive what an adversary tried to conceal behind his back or behind a shield. Even worse for them, her kinesis could trip them up, deflect their blows, or attack at the same time. She had already reached the limits of condensing her Anima for defence, so she had more than enough to use her kinesis at the same time.

One of the nameless, a muscular brute that was larger and wider than she was, closed in and slammed down on her head with a club. The weapon looked nothing more than an uprooted tree, and from the bits of bark clinging to its side, that was probably the truth. Another came at her from the opposite side, this one wielding a chopping sword. A third nameless attacked at the same time, using another sword, and at the same time, several projectiles slipped past her sunshard defences.

Instead of avoiding the attacks by dodging, she stepped into the reach of the club baron, caught his wrist with her hand, and twisted the poor creature to intercept the other two assailants. Only then did she swat away the shrapnel shards and the firebolts with Fri’Avgi. In retaliation, she chopped a Radiant arclight towards them, but those sly nameless used their own brethren as meat shields.

“Tsk.”

She clicked her tongue. By now, she had crossed half of the encampment, by her own reckoning, and the nameless had tried to head her off and encircle her. She paused to consider which direction she should go.

“Left. Supplies area,” came Finan’s helpful voice.

She didn’t hesitate and turned, then bull-rushed her way through the nameless, managing to decapitate one in the process. She stabbed Fri’Avgi into the Corpus and left the artefact to feast, intending to call her to hand later.

She controlled a dozen sunshards and formed them loosely into a sunblade. It was a bit short, but the idea just came to her. Anyway, with the Arclight blade on her other hand, she cut through and sliced past the others, and then used her kinesis and the sunshards to continue attacking. She avoided using her perfected attacks, which fused the three dances and truly used them as one since it ate up too much Animus. The nameless also weren’t worth it.

She came upon a couple of buildings that looked like they were full of supplies and debated whether to destroy them or claim them for the town. Well, since nobody was carting it away, she supposed she could save them.

But there were still the Chaos barons. They seemed to be drawn to her. By her quick count, and Finan’s acknowledgement, all of them were after her. It would be easier for them to attack the weaker warriors or even the other Knights, and truly, there was no reason they wouldn’t shift their attack if she proved too elusive. So, she brought the fight to them. She changed her methodology and charged straight into the standoffish nameless.

Her defences were incredibly advanced for someone of her apparent Anima strength. That meant that she could go on an all-out offensive without worrying about herself, at least, for a time. While it was much more troublesome to repair her fractured Anima due to lacking sufficient distilled Chaos, there were bags of that resource right here!

Her change in direction took the encircling nameless by surprise, so much so that she managed to carve one up before it could react. She paused only long enough to summon Fri’Avgi and stab it into the Corpus. Afterwards, she ducked, dodged, bypassed, or straight-up slaughtered the ones who got in her way.

The ranged nameless started to pull back, but she focused her kinesis on propelling herself forward.

Whoosh!

Swish!

Thunk!

Got one!

She pivoted and launched herself at another, slaughtering them when they came to her reach. The sunshards, once she focused them on the attack, allowed her to kill anyone within twenty-four paces. She could send them farther away and still retain control, but the lethality took a hit. One. Ten. Twenty. Fifty dead.

The remaining nameless pulled back. Flames rose from the nearby buildings and tents, where her shards had landed or the enemies’ blasts struck. Thick smoke hung in the air, while a light drizzling rain slowly strengthened into a downpour. Only the nameless had attacked her, even after so long. She half expected Zagara to come out of the shadows or something, but there had been nothing.

“Fin, what’s happening?”

“Cillian is fighting off a Federation Master. Centurion Jake, Armsmaster Byrne, and Swordmaster Kinohara are engaged with the Federation Adepts. Chainbreaker Century is pushing the enemy forces. Uh, Kadracki Rangers, I think. Militia and reserves clashed with Federation conscripts but the fight’s pretty even. Reinforcements from town pushed through, but it was minimal. I’m watching for enemy reinforcements from the east… Ah, if you can break away from the Chaos Lords, your help in the front would be appreciated.”

“There’s still more than a hundred here,” Yuriko said mildly.

“Ah, in that case, please keep them off our backs. There are many that have fallen on both sides, but final tallies can’t be ascertained yet.”

“...Krystal, Mikel, Gwen, and my other friends?”

“Safe. So far. Keep the Chaos Lords off us.”

“Alright.”

Fri’Avgi floated to Yuriko’s hand, her red gem gleaming. The fires within were stronger but still hadn’t matched what was there before her rampage. Still, she didn’t regret what she did, especially since Marron was still disabled.

Her jaw tightened and her fists clenched. Reddish sparks rose from her Anima and danced between her sunshards. A nearly palpable wave of fury rolled off from her and swirled around the nameless, who, as one, stepped back.

“Where did all of you come from?” she muttered, not really expecting a response, so she practically froze when they did.

“Home.”

“Eh?’

“We are home,” the voices of all of them joined and blended so that she was unable to determine which one spoke.

“Home. We are home. Leave.”

“Invader.”

“Invader.”

“Die.”

“Leave.”

What was worse was that none of the voices had any emotion at all. Yuriko gritted her teeth. “You speak nonsense. You belong in the Chaos Sea! Not here!”

“Home.”

As they spoke, the monotone changed ever so slightly. A hint of emotion bled through, but Yuriko couldn’t quite tell what it was. But she shook her head and pushed her errant thoughts away. Once again, she charged into their midst and slaughtered all she could reach.

She didn’t know how long she fought, but she managed to kill another fifty or so. Then, the rest of them retreated.

Yuriko stood amidst the carnage, Fri’Avgi still absorbing each Corpus and Anima she could reach.

“Victory,” Finan said through the flower on her ear. “We’ve driven them away.”

Yuriko sighed. What pleasure she took from fighting and defeating her foes had melted away after they spoke so eerily. She could shake it from her thoughts, their voices.

Home.