It took Yuriko and the others about half an hour to pack up camp. The horses whinnied as they were saddled, stubbornly reaching for the scraggly tufts of grass they grazed at. Sheamus and the twins had fed them using bags that contained some mixture of oats and other grains, and even though water was scarce, they were given more than enough out of the condenser canteens.

“The air is a bit dry,” Gwendith admitted even as she used her Anima to gather as much moisture as she could. They were leagues away from the River Caradec after all. Perhaps tomorrow Yuriko would need to convert a mote of distilled Chaos to water, but there wasn’t a need yet.

They prodded the horses into a quick trot to make up for lost time, and it didn’t take more than an hour to catch up with the convoy. The plan hastily concocted was to wait until night and attack when they encamped. Perhaps they could catch at least half of their guards sleeping.

They followed no road, this time. The terrain was relatively flat. But she supposed that was just how things were in a savannah. They kept at least a couple of longstrides behind the convoy, but there were few other travellers and she worried that they would stand out enough to alarm them. Still, there were more than a hundred guards while there were only nine of them. If they didn’t have a Master level warrior, then Yuriko’s team would outmatch them.

Unfortunately, Saki was unable to confirm the Anima levels of the guards. Well, most of them were Intermediate Binders, or Journeymen level, with about a dozen Adepts. That was why she hoped to ambush them later rather than confront them now.

The day’s travel was relatively uneventful. The convoy didn’t pause for lunch, but Yuriko and the others did. It would seem too unusual if they didn’t. The horses were faster than the wagons, so they could catch up quickly. Except, apparently they had been deemed too suspicious as half an hour later, a group of horsemen from the convoy rode towards them.

They slowed as the horsemen approached. She let Sheamus, as the oldest member of the group, take the lead. The convoy of horsemen headed their way numbered twenty in total. Intuition told her that at least two of them were Adept level, maybe higher. It wasn’t anything overt or certain, just the way both of the lead riders acted. Calm, certain, confident. She could see the arrogance oozing out of them by the way they looked down their noses. Then, there was the natural way they compensated for the horse’s movements, though it was possible they had specialised Animus techniques for horse-riding.

Yuriko and the others reined their mounts to a halt as the riders spread out in front of them. The lead rider, who was a youngish-looking man with a moustache and closed-cropped dark hair under a beige cap, raked them with his eyes, lingering on Yuriko’s hooded face, before settling on Sheamus, who idly patted his horse’s mane.

“Hail, travellers. What brings you on this road?” he asked, voice heavy with suspicion. Yuriko noted that his henchmen had their hands on the hilts of their sidearms, a curved one-handed sword.

“Travelling.” Sheamus grunted.

“Why follow our convoy?” the man asked sharply.

Sheamus gestured to the ground. “The road, or lack of it. I assume you’re headed to the city of Uaran? I’m unfamiliar with the route, but I’m looking to head back to my home in Chelda.”

“Chelda, you say?” The moustache man frowned. “The plane?”

“Of course. Chelda is both a nation and planar name.” Sheamus shrugged. “My countrymen prefer to consolidate their home rather than push to expand.”

“Then what are you doing on Rumiga?”

“I travel. I’m an Adventurer.” Sheamus shrugged, then reached under his poncho and pulled out a hexagonal badge that was as wide as his palm. There were several pins on it, but she didn’t understand what they meant. “You recognise the official badge?”

The man shook his head. “Can’t say that I have.”

“You yokels, always in ignorance,” Sheamus grunted in a condescending tone.

The man glared at Sheamus and stroked the pommel of his cavalry sabre. “Watch your tongue, stranger.”

“Or what?” Sheamus sneered. “You accost us as we travel on a public road. I and my charges only wish to return home.”

“Your charges, huh?” The man swept his gaze at Yuriko and the others. “Mighty young for adventurers, and what are you hiding?” He pointed at Yuriko, “Don’t try to avoid the question, girl. How can you even see with that hood over your eyes?” He returned his glare at Sheamus, “And you follow my caravan so closely.” It wasn’t a question.

“Then what do you want us to do?” Sheamus returned.

“I would ask you to wait, or go by a different route, but your companions intrigue me. What are you hiding?” He drew his sabre and laid it across his knees, tapping the blade with a finger. Animus coalesced over the weapon, and an aura edge formed along the blade.

Sheamus stared at the man for a moment, then snorted a laugh. “You wish to create trouble, friend?”

The man frowned. “I think you are trouble. And I think I will take all of you to question. Disarm yourselves and do not resist.”

“You will threaten a member of the Adventurers’ Society?” Sheamus growled. “Baseless accusations. I am well within my rights to defend myself.”

“Your society holds no power over the Federation of City-States of Rumiga.”

“Why? Do you intend to ignore the treaties?”

The man snorted. “You’re hardly in a position to report it. Last chance, disarm.”

“Or what?”

“Then we will resort to force.”

Sheamus grinned widely. “Oh, I don’t think you’re ready to know what force truly is.”

“Wha-?”

Yuriko’s sunshards struck even as the moustachioed man gaped. He didn’t die, though, as he managed to bring his sabre up on time. Instead, the sunshards deflected off his weapon and his horse reared and neighed. As for his companions…a dozen of them were pierced by the shards, while the remaining seven reacted fast enough to deflect the others’ attack.

A flash of light, red and darklight, came from the twins. Their lightning crossed in the middle of the crowd, even as those struck by Yuriko’s sunshards moaned and clawed at their shoulders of guts. She hadn’t aimed the shards at their heads, after all, thinking of interrogating them after the skirmish, if they survived. The lightning crossed, combined into an orb of swirling red and black, collapsed into a dot then exploded. It knocked everyone off their feet, horses included.

It was deafeningly loud, the screams from the injured mounts, not the lightning explosion. Their horses reared up, too, but it was easy enough for Yuriko to jump out of the saddle. She drew her arming sword. The blade left the sheath silently, courtesy of the cloth lining the mouth. Animus gathered within the Arclight Blade, and she released with a horizontal slash.

Moustachio jumped to his feet, his eyes widening in alarm as the arclight flew towards his neck. Yuriko thought he would have parried it with his sabre, but instead, he ducked under the light, which swooshed over his head and chopped into one of his subordinates. He launched himself at her as soon as the arclight passed, sabre slashing fiercely at her arm.

Yuriko stepped back just enough to let the tip of the blade pass a fraction of an inch from her poncho, then she stepped in, far faster than he could react. The pommel of her Arclight blade slammed into his cheek. Blood and spittle sprayed in the opposite direction as his eyes rolled up. But before he could collapse, something quivered within him.

The blood, spittle, and broken teeth flew back into his mouth, as if time rewound. Even his movements went in reverse and when Yuriko tried to stab him, the tip of the blade rebounded off a barrier.

His rewinding time stopped him at the position just before he launched his attack, and when the barrier dissipated, he looked around in confusion.

Shwing! Crack!

Fragments of metal fell from his collar, and a pendant Yuriko didn’t notice shatter. He looked at it with more confusion which quickly turned to anger. He directed it to her, of course, and with a wordless roar, he did the same attack.

Wordlessly, Yuriko stepped back, and at the same time, raised her arming sword above her head, tip pointed at Moustachio. Then she reached over and stabbed the arming sword at his head, aimed just below his cap. Her reach was just above his, by a couple of inches or so, and because of that, his sabre missed, while her arming sword poked his forehead. His head snapped back, then he collapsed bonelessly to the ground.

Was he not an Adept? Yuriko wondered. That had been too easy. He was still breathing, but the blade had poked into his skull, and probably into his brain. He would die without healing, no doubt.

With her Anima perception spread out, she had oversight over the entire battle. Heron had conjured up his Facet’s hardened air shields, except he didn’t use them like he normally did. Six hexagonal shields were created, angled upwards, then he braced himself and rammed it against six opponents. His body shook as the impact against each shield returned to him, but thanks to his Body Forging, he was tough and strong enough that it didn’t do more than make him shake. The same couldn’t be said for the targets. Six warriors struck in the midsection doubled over and flew back, even those who managed to block with their own shields.

Gwendith flung a dagger made out of ice, which struck another warrior and froze him solid. Asami hung back, eyes dancing across all the combatants, but didn’t do anything else. Sheamus knocked down a couple of warriors with his fists. And just like that, the entire scout force had been subdued.

But the thing was, the actual convoy was only a couple of longstrides away. And the blast from the twins’ combined lightning was incredibly loud. Even as she watched, the convoy burst into furious activity. Animus lights gleaned and illuminated several strikers. She saw a couple of people run towards them, bodies alight and moving as fast as Knights.

“Do we engage or retreat?” Asami’s voice whispered in Yuriko’s ear.

There were too many to fight at once, not without losses, on their side, but she was loath to leave their prisoners behind.

“Retreat,” Yuriko said after a moment. “Go back a few longstrides, I’ll catch up with you after holding them off. We’ll strike again at midnight.” She looked at the subdued warriors and pointed at a couple of them. “Take those with you.”

“Yuri, do you need help?” Gwendith asked worriedly.

Yuriko nodded. “You, Heron, and Asami act as the rearguard. Sheamus, covering fire.”

“Aye,” Sheamus acknowledged. They didn’t bring any plasma projection weapons, but Sheamus was proficient with crossbows.

“The rest of you, go!”

Yuriko’s kinesis scooped up rocks and pebbles from the barren earth and infused them with Animus. As the two Adepts ran closer, she aimed at the leading figure, then let loose.

Wheeee! Thwack!

The lead Adept dodged the attack, but Yuriko had aimed it so that it would strike the ground behind him. The Animus protected the pebble from the extreme speed she managed to throw it at, and it impacted the ground and exploded. The shrapnel from the broken rocks, sand, and dirt struck the lead and the follower, knocking them off their feet.

Yuriko readied another pebble, grinning to herself, “Come, come. I can do this the entire day.”

Wheee! Boom!

She aimed at the Adepts following behind. They huddled into a shield formation and took the blow, which knocked a few of them back.

Wheeee! Boom!

A third pebble, back at the leading two. The first warrior actively intercepted the pebble and neutralised it.

Yuriko aimed the next one at the ground in front of the man, where he couldn’t intercept it, but the blast would still affect them. He dove forward and somehow managed it anyway.

But her attacks had slowed them down significantly. Instead of rushing towards them, they were moving at a slow pace, to protect themselves. The standoff lasted a few minutes. The scouting party was still down, and about half of them were alive. Mustachio looked to be on his last legs though.

She briefly contemplated finishing them off, but even as she considered it, a burst of revulsion welled up from within her. They had been defeated, and there was no honour in killing helpless enemies.

However, she knew that to leave them alive would only invite more trouble, at least the way they were now. But if she killed them…

The second incarnation’s life path bloomed in her mind and she shivered. Too risky. Instead, she enfolded them within her Radiance, trusting in the sun’s light to hide her obvious glow.

“Don’t talk about me and what happened here,” she commanded.

Each of the survivors turned to look at her, then shuddered. She saw the light of Aspiration in their eyes, and she felt nauseated by her action. However, this was better than violating her instincts and risking the second incarnation’s path.

The others were off in the distance, nearly a league away, probably. Still visible in the flat ground. Couldn’t be helped.

She expelled a few more pebbles and forced their pursuers to the ground. Then she spun on her heels and left.