After killing the last of the enemy squad, Captain Tiras gave everyone time to bind their wounds before they had to move on. They were fortunate to have gotten the upper hand in the battle, quickly capitalizing on it. It would have been impossible without significant cultivation advantages, except they all practiced Citadel’s Downfall. There were still casulaties, but they’d only lost one more of their squad. However, there was another problem.

One of them was injured, unable to walk. “We can’t afford to move slowly,” Captain Tiras said. He didn’t hesitate, lifting the soldier into his arms and beginning to march.

Aconite began to say something. Chidi was going to translate, but first… “Are you sure you don’t have any lingering… anything? We don’t want to make him worse.”

Aconite shook her head. “I shed all of the poison.”

“Alright. I’ll translate, then.”

Aconite’s words were fairly simple. “I suggest that you place the injured individual on my back, since he will hinder me less.”

Captain Tiras shook his head. “That’s not a good idea. Carrying him like this, I can set him down somewhere safe if combat comes upon us. You won’t be able to do that with someone strapped to you. Nor could you conceal yourself.”

With that, the matter was settled, the squad continuing on its way without really stopping. They left the bodies behind- concealing the battle would be impossible anyway. Though, Aconite said she would provide a bit of a surprise for anyone coming to find them.

The Harmonious Citadel squad would be missed the same day, depending on when they would return to the city. Unless the enemy had been particularly off of their patrol route, the Scarlet Alliance Squad could only expect finding the bodies and beginning to track them down to take a handful of hours. If a stronger enemy group was following after them, they could catch up in the same time or less.

Aconite trailed the squad, doing her best to help with their tracks while Chidi picked a route that would hopefully reveal the least of them. Rocky terrain that was a bit annoying, but would at least require people to search around a bit to keep track of them. As long as their route took less time for them to walk than it did to track them, they could pull away from any potential pursuit.

They would have to sleep eventually, though, and the enemy would know that.

The squad continued to avoid smaller settlements. Though it would be useful for them to have information about what was happening, they also couldn’t be sure if the enemy would control the area, or have spies planted. Maybe they already had them before, and they simply hadn’t been noticed.

If they had been able to move along the road, Sieburn would have been a half day’s travel at best. Now, they had been traveling for a day and could only hope to reach it in the evening. But then… well, that would depend on what they found.

-----

Aconite scampered up a tree, her claws digging into the bark. The branches were insufficient to hold her weight on their own, but she used her energy to spread out between them, letting her perch reasonably high up. From there, the tallest tree in the surroundings, she was able to see Sieburn.

When she scampered back down after a good minute, Chidi could immediately tell something from her posture. “How was it…?” he asked.

Aconite shook her head. “The Harmonious Citadel also holds Sieburn.”

Chidi deflated. How far would they have to go, to find somewhere safe?

Upon informing Captain Tiras, he furrowed his brow. “Do we head for the next city? Can we make it?” He wasn’t really asking anyone, just talking to himself. Chidi only barely heard it.

“I think I should infiltrate the city,” Chidi declared. “We need to know what territory they control and…” his thoughts went vaguely up to the sky, where he felt a vague haze. He had the feeling the response to his message that he was awaiting might never arrive. Some sort of grand scale formation was in place, and he could only vaguely guess it was preventing such messages. If he knew more about formations he might bypass it, but without observing a physical part of it he doubted he could do it at the moment.

“You have the skills to do so?” Tiras confirmed. “Then… you should. Just guessing will leave us tired from running about. If there’s no safe territory… we will simply have to find somewhere in the wilderness we can survive and plan.”

Chidi nodded. “I’ll be going then.” He barely made it two steps before his arm was grabbed between sharp teeth. “What? I can’t…”

“I should go with you. I also learned. And I can do things that you cannot.”

Chidi frowned. Aconite was, as an individual, much worse at infiltration than himself. She was larger and noisier, and she lacked important features like hands. Although… Chidi wasn’t perfect himself. He was missing an important sense that many took for granted, and he couldn’t make up for the distance sight could cover. Aconite could also literally sniff out things he might miss. “Okay. Let’s go together.”

-----

It was getting dark now. Chidi only really understood darkness in relation to the sun not providing warmth, but apparently it was extremely bad for vision. Cultivators could still manage to see in the darkness, but it took more effort. Thus, it was perfect for people who were sneaking around- most of the time.

There were exceptions. Sometimes, being stealthy in high visibility conditions was actually easier because people assumed they would see everything, instead of being focused. That was one thing Velvet had taught him. But Chidi was willing enough to bet on whatever cover night provided.

With some luck, they found a section of the city walls that was relatively unguarded, or perhaps the entire place was sparse. That still meant that a few people might be able to spot them, but there were some spots they could creep towards. Before they approached, Aconite spilled something foul smelling over them, though the scent quickly faded into an unpleasant greasy feeling.

“It will darken us,” she said. “Now roll around on the ground to pick up dirt.”

Chidi couldn’t refuse anything that would improve their chances of success, and honestly the dirt was way more comfortable than the weird thing Aconite dumped on him. He hoped it was only minimally poisonous. It was certainly sticky, whatever it was, and he soon had a nice coating of soil.

They crept forward. As they approached the wall, Chidi realized they hadn’t actually talked about a way to get past it. When Aconite almost touched it, he grabbed her. “Don’t,” he whispered. “Formations.”

Aconite snorted, tilting her head up. “Above?”

Chidi nodded. “There too.” The walls were also around ten meters high, not something they could reach in a single jump. They’d touch the wall formations eventually. It would be nice if they were strong enough to do it, but even then the whole area above might just have a dome over it.

“Below?” Aconite growled next to his ear.

“Yep.”

“How deep?”

“... Maybe five meters? But it probably just…” Chidi bent down to the ground, getting as close as he could. Then he stood up, stretching to the tip of his toes. Down, then up. Eventually, he was satisfied. “... The formation only covers the physical wall.” Awful. Truly awful. Who was responsible for this? Was Koton that bad? No wonder the city had been taken over. Actually, now that he thought about it they should have skirted around and looked for holes. Chances were some of them were busted when the city was taken over.

Aconite had almost dug her whole face under the ground by the time he realized that, and that she was digging. He tapped her to get her attention, then pointed her away. Once they were further, he explained his plan.

As they circled around the city, Chidi felt something strange with the walls. There was a point that was just… not. And somehow, it still felt sharp. “What happened there?” Chidi whispered to Aconite.

“You can sense that?” Aconite asked. “I didn’t know you could feel so far away.”

“It’s super weird. And the formations make it easier to sense things at a difference.”

“My guess… someone cut out a chunk of the wall. Clean slices.”

“Hmm…” Chidi pondered. “They have people guarding the hole, right?”

“They must,” Aconite agreed. “So perhaps it would be better to search for the most secure part, where they will not expect infiltration.”

They eventually found a boring, flat side of the wall where there were no gates. But instead of sneaking closer, Aconite began digging while they were all the way out in the trees, behind a few layers of trees.

“I know you can dig fast but…” Chidi grimaced, “Won’t this take too long?”

“My mother could create this tunnel in an instant,” Aconite said.

“Sure, but she could probably just topple those walls too. Or sink half the city.”

By the time Chidi finished what he was saying, he was convinced of Aconite’s ability to achieve her goal. She was already up to her shoulders in a sloping tunnel, a huge mound of dirt piling up.

“So, I see that you can dig that now. As long as you can keep it up for a few hours. But there’s another problem,” he gestured to it. “What will we do with all of that once were in the tunnel?”

Aconite’s face wrinkled. “If I had trained even a fraction as much as I should have in my mother’s talents…”

Chidi nodded, “Same here. I thought I learned enough.” He had been working hard, but he hadn’t truly taken advantage of his access to a formation grandmaster, instead being content with what he felt was above-average success.

“You will have to ride on my back, close to me. We cannot afford the time to cart it all out, or I will still be digging in the morning.”

“Alright,” Chidi said. “I guess that won’t be so bad.

-----

Chidi was wrong.

Cramped tunnels? He could deal with them. Dirt? Fine. He wasn’t a pampered kid that couldn’t stand bits of decayed organic matter mixed with minerals getting on him.

Being basically wrapped around Aconite’s back, his face pressed into her fur where he could barely breathe or smell anything other than an earthy and sour smell of absorbed poisons, that was not great. And being scraped against the roof of the tunnel, piles of dirt falling on him and reducing the airflow, continued to not be great. But he also didn’t want to try to stand directly behind Aconite- where she was constantly flinging great quantities of dirt at speed- and he couldn’t possibly stand in front of her because there was dirt there. Dirt that was getting clawed and chucked behind them rapidly.

When he was fed up, Chidi would tap the back of Aconite’s skull and make some intentional noise. She would crouch down, letting him squeeze over to the side.

“Why don’t you take a short break?” Chidi said. “I’ll soften up the section ahead.” Since there was a whole Aconite between the dirt in front and the partially empty tunnel behind, he didn’t bother trying to get it there. Instead, he pulled out his sword.

Chidi knew the people managing the armory would be furious to know he was using a sword on dirt. But it was his sword, now. Besides, he was still using it properly. Or rather, he was going to if he could maneuver his arms and the blade to all face in the right directions.

He couldn’t really swing, but he still eventually managed to cut. More than just the meter length of his blade, but several times that. He moved his blade around in a crosshatch pattern, treating the dirt as something to be dismantled. It remained basically in place, effectively in long rows. It took a few minutes, but it gave him a chance to ‘stretch’.

Then he was back on Aconite’s back, grains of dirt rubbing into his face and nose and ears and every little pore. He used his energy to clear his nostrils and prevent dust from getting into his lungs, but it was not pleasant. Once more, Chidi decided this was an experience he would prefer not to do again. But it would make for a good story, should he survive somehow.