Asami was nervous the entire time they waited to launch the ambush. Miss Saki Mishala had come with a warning that was thankfully early enough to capitalise on. Her Wind Whisper and Wind Scour techniques, honed by long use as well as dozens of flashes of insight during last Season’s battles, had just expanded enough to encompass most of the ex-guardsmen.

She could feel her Facet at the edge of advancing. She wouldn’t be able to reach Knighthood yet, of that there was little doubt. Her Animus density hadn’t reached the required level, sitting at merely fog-like levels. What she, and the others aspiring to reach Knighthood, needed was to condense their Animus density to the state of water. Mist was the default level for Journeyman as it was a natural occurrence as their inlays began to constrict their Animus. But reaching the greater density from there either required a ruinous amount of inlays, a prodigious Animus cap, or the strength of an Ennoia. The last was not taught to lower-level students in the Academy, as there was a big chance that it would distract the kids and hamper their progress more than anything else.

The first and second methods were used together, more often than not. Inlays lowered Animus cap, leaving less for one to use, but the lower volume also meant an easier time to condense the Animus, and denser Animus went further than the less dense version. Still, having only fifty lumens to use instead of the hundred fifty or so that was the recommended reserve was a huge handicap and unless their Facets didn’t use up a lot of Animus during use, that didn’t make much sense.

As for herself, Asami, as a scion of House Devi, she had been given as much Zoi Elixirs as her Anima could take. The higher tier Journeyman level elixirs allowed her to compress her reserves ever so slightly even if she had not been at Sollus state, which gave her a little bit of a headstart compared to others.

Her Facets techniques of the winds were closely inlaid, meaning there was a great probability they would merge into a broader technique, such as Aerokinesis or Wind Manipulation. The former was more intuitive while the latter required more concentration, but either would free up a Facet slot, too, allowing her to inlay another aspect of her Heritage.

She’d always thought that she was ahead of the curve for her age group, discounting obvious monsters such as Yuriko Mishala Davar. And then, she found out her cousin, Gwendith, had touched upon an Ennoia.

It was both inspiring and disheartening at the same time. Gwendith had suffered under the hands of those disgusting barbarians, but that also led her to reaching, and touching, the Ennoia of Cold. Asami didn’t know if she was willing to put herself at risk for a chance at power. It didn’t help that she knew that Gwendith would rather not have experienced that. And, of course, their discussion that her cousin would abandon her Heritage, and the Imperial Path, for another. It was inconceivable.

So, she jumped at the chance to watch both her cousin and the monstrously talented Miss Davar, er, Knight Davar. If one could still be called that and be a nascent Sorceress, while also possessing the strength to match against Knight Captains.

The fact that Heron, her potential husband, who had admitted that he was smitten with Yuriko, was joining the team on a mission that would probably last Seasons…well, the choice was really no choice. She had to go.

And so, she found herself leading an ambush against their enemies. A group of Chaos Lords, powerful viscounts, and a bunch of nameless who were still stronger than everyone but the Knights.

She needed to keep calm. She took deep breaths, in the pattern that Miss Davar taught them, to settle their nerves and centre their thoughts. She could do this.

Their target followed the trail down the valley. Her command was on top of the rise, above a sheer cliff nearly twenty paces high. That really wasn’t much deterrence to the Chaos Lords, but the two stronger ones were Knight Yuriko’s responsibility. The nameless were hers. As the enemy came close, she stretched her Wind Whisper technique to encompass her team. She linked to the team leaders more than the rank and file, since she couldn’t form fifty connections at once. She did keep a tendril connected to Heron’s ear, and he was so used to the sensation that he barely flinched. Her technique made it seem as if she was whispering directly into their ears, which either tickled them or gave a rather unpleasant, skin-crawling experience.

And when the signal to attack came, that of Yuriko casting her spell of total annihilation, she waited until the surviving nameless broke formation, and then, “Strike!” her command was relayed to every leader, and in turn, they commanded their team to attack.

All of them, save for Yuriko, had the higher ground, and they were around two to three hundred paces from the nameless, a difficult shot for the unawakened and lower-tiered Spirit Binders. Ancestors, it wasn’t an easy shot for her team either, but nevertheless, the rain of arrows, crossbow bolts, Animus constructs and blasts, went towards the enemy. Even if only a fraction struck, that was more than enough.

Yuriko’s blast was followed by her charge. An aerial attack accompanied by her artefact weapon and those incredible Animus constructs that were both beautiful and lethal.

As they predicted, the nameless were torn between reinforcing the viscounts and attacking up the cliff face. Their hesitation allowed her forces to let loose another volley, and she watched with gratification as a handful of the nameless were overwhelmed.

They hesitated for a few more seconds but abruptly charged towards the cliff. Chains of red and black lightning flew from the Foster twins’ fingers, and each strand twisted with the other colour, creating more formidable bolts. The twenty or so strands entangled until there were merely five, and each touched one of the nameless. Their Protective Field bursts as the energies ripped through, flesh scorched and bodies twitched as the lightning hit.

But it seemed that the powerful blows were all that the twins could manage as both of them staggered and paled. Heron pulled them away from the front before taking his place at her side. Hexagonal shields of hardened air formed around him, and with a twitch of his fingers, he sent them to hover across the front, angled downwards.

They crossed the intervening distance in less than a minute, but climbing the twenty-pace high cliff put them in a rather precarious position, as well as the fact that Yuriko killed half of them in her alpha strike. The first one reached the bottom, crouched, then propelled himself up the rock. He grabbed the stone, dug his fingers in it, and pulled himself upwards. His second bound was arrested by Heron’s shield, which bashed the nameless in the face right as he was about to leap.

Heron braced himself and his body shook as the shield transmitted the impact back into his body despite the fact that there was absolutely no physical connection between himself and the construct. A two-inch furrow was dug when he pushed the nameless off the cliff face. The creature didn't even scream as he fell, but there was a rather sickening crunch when he landed. Before he could stagger back to his feet, a glistening dagger made out of crystalline ice shot from Gwndith’s hands. It sank into the nameless’ forehead before Asami could blink.

That was faster than she expected. Not quite at the level Yuriko manipulated her glowing golden swords, but definitely faster than Asami could send her wind cutters. A cold shiver went up her spine. Her cousin hadn’t shown such a technique back in Faron’s Crossing.

The ice knife pulled out of the nameless’ head with a spray of blue blood. The dagger drew some of the droplets out of the air and seemed to absorb them. A Wyldling blood knife?

Wrenching her attention back to the skirmish, Asami noted that the nameless shrugged off attacks from the unawakened guards, at least until one of the awakened sheared their Protective Fields off. Then the mundane weapons dealt damage.

Her Animus reserves dribbled out as she maintained her awareness sphere, as well as her communication lines. Her wind cutter technique was the only Facet she had that could be used to directly attack, but the Animus spent was inefficient. She was better off leaving it as a last resort and using her reserves to position her troops and point out weaknesses.

She didn’t let Gwendith distract her for long. The nameless needed but a couple of seconds to ascend the cliff, and she’d been highlighting to the team leaders where to focus fire. Before the ambush, they had a little bit of time to create a low wall but edge, allowing for some form of cover. Nothing too overt from a distance, but enough so that their lower bodies were covered. It helped when the first nameless managed to get to the top, only to present a clear and unmistakable target. Several fire blasts, and an odd rock bullet, slammed into the nameless and careened her off the cliff. But a blink of an eye later, another came up. Then another, and another.

“Back up.” She gave the command even as Heron bashed two of them off the cliff.

The guards took a couple of steps back and used their varied polearms to attack. The Intermediate Binders at the front rank while the unawakened were behind. Using the same pattern, the binders struck and punctured the Protective Field, while the unawakened tried to give the nameless wounds or to knock them off the edge.

It worked for a time until it didn’t. One of the stronger nameless’ Protective Fields resisted the Animus-empowered stab and unhesitatingly charged into the close quarters. Grasping hands took hold of the weapon near the base, ripped it off the Binder’s hands, and a follow-up swipe gutted the poor man. He slumped over with a gurgled scream, and the nameless swatted at his head.

Asami blasted him with her Wind Cutter, but the creature twisted out of the way, and by the time she managed to curve the cutter back, the guard had his throat ripped out.

Hands pulled the man back, even as shields, spears, blasts, and halberds obliterated the nameless. Blood hung in the air, a mix of red and blue. Asami felt sick to her stomach, but it wasn’t the first time she’d lost people. Some of the nameless, upon reaching the top, attacked immediately, but those that didn’t were the more troubling. They held the wall and fended off the group’s attacks. It took lightning from a barely invigorated Orrin to push one-off. Heron had his hands full protecting as many people as he could, though he prioritized his teammates, as he should.

The twenty or so nameless seemed far too many, especially since those who got thrown off weren’t out of the fight yet. Absently, Asami glanced at Yuriko’s battlefield, but immediately averted her eyes as the bright light from her and her enemy was blinding. It was a wonder she hadn’t noticed until she looked, and from how the others reacted, none of them observed that battle. Except for Heron and Gwendith, anyway. She noticed them looking, frowning, then focused back on the skirmish.

Asami used her offensive techniques now that they were in melee. Every attack that landed on a nameless didn’t quite kill them, but every injury mattered. Even if they healed back up, it would have still drained their Chaos reserves. But by the end of the skirmish half an hour later, nearly a quarter of the guards lay dead, and the remaining half were wounded. Asami's face was pale as her Animus reserves were barely at the level where she could remain conscious.

And the battle between the three monsters continued unabated.