It took two days, but neither Saki nor the beastkin found any tunnels nearby that could lead to Synkrasia. Yuriko and the others then decided that they would try to penetrate deeper into the city, but in the meantime, they relocated away from the first barracks building to a different one that was at least several hundred paces away from the Femorant circle.

“Their eyesight isn’t the best,” Saki said. “I noticed it, even when I’m out of the shadows.” Yuriko thought that Saki had deliberately exited her hiding place rather than something by accident, “They keep to the circle and don’t react even when I’m less than a dozen paces away. Even in direct sight. At eight paces they begin to react, and at five, they orient themselves to me and look ready to attack. I returned to the shadows then.”

The circle of ants was roughly a longstride across and occupied a good portion of the city. Actually, it wasn’t a circle but an elongated oval. To the east and west, more of the city was free of them. Unfortunately, the ant circle covered the city centre and there was no way to reach it without breaking through.

The streets and alleys were like a maze, twisting and turning, going up and down, sideways, and around. It made little sense if viewed from the lens of a real city, but…

The streets are runescript formations. It enhanced the resilience of people living within. But it’s not active now. Not enough blood and living creatures walking the streets.

‘Is that why streets in some cities are twisted like this?’ Yuriko wondered.

Undoubtedly. I recognized a few ambient Chaos dampeners. Little twists and turns. The formation doesn’t have to be whole streets, but you could see it in the little things.

The ants were using part of the formation, weren’t they? Yuriko grumbled to herself as she looked at the tower in the middle. A couple of towers weren’t occupied by the ants, and she decided to explore those before doing anything else.

She, Saki, Gwendith, and Kassy skirted around the ants’ territory. They had little choice but to follow the roads rather than take to the rooftops. Near the central tower, there was a swarm of flying ants. They lingered near the pillar, but they swept across the city every now and then. They roosted once the Radiant Sun was across the sky, and returned to flying in the dark. However, there were a few individuals swarming during the day. A fraction of what was there at night, but plentiful enough to make travel above nearly impossible to keep hidden.

They stuck to the outskirts. Yuriko felt her heart rate rise every time she heard a noise, which was odd really, since she was sure that the ants weren’t going to be much of a challenge as long as they didn’t clump up on her. Ah, perhaps that was it. She could fight a few, but if even one or two caught wind of them, it would bring the entire swarm.

She wasn’t quite ready to begin the distraction yet.

Their targeted tower-pillar wasn’t that far away, but it wasn’t entirely free of ants as Saki had reported. Either they had been hidden or the ants had moved. She exchanged a look with Saki, who shrugged and said, “It was clear yesterday.”

They were roughly a longstride from the tower, if measured as a straight line. Yuriko climbed up and settled on one of the buildings’ balconies and observed it, activating Enhanced Sight in the process. The details became much clearer under her gaze.

The pillar was several dozen paces wide, and there were blocky constructs embedded on the sides. There was an outer ramp that spiralled part of the way up. The ramp ended about a third of its height, circling towards the back where she assumed it entered the pillar. The blocky constructs looked like partial buildings, actually, and she spotted a few with ladders or stairs connecting them to the ramp.

She also got a good look at the warren of alleys and streets from her perch, though only for a couple of hundred paces. There wasn’t a street that led directly to the tower, but there seemed to be one just a few twists and turns just a bit northwest of where she was.

She dropped down to the street level and beckoned for her companions. From the slight giggles she heard, too soft to really carry, the other three had been chatting. Well, Kassy and Gwendith, probably, since Saki didn’t look to be in that sort of mood.

They went down a side street and followed Yuriko’s directions until they turned into a dead end. She would have leapt up on the roof, but in this area, the buildings were the highest in its surroundings, which meant the chance for detection was high. The tower-pillar was still visible though, and so they looked for streets that might lead them there. Of course, they had to backtrack several times, but eventually, they made it to the base of the pillar. And walked into a horde of Femorants.

It wasn’t even her fault! They just entered the square around the pillar a moment after the four of them arrived. There was a timeless moment of shock, then Yuriko burst into action. She didn’t know how they communicated with each other, and her Chaos Sight didn’t show anything at all. Not at first anyway.

There were nearly fifty of the ants, and four of them. Fri’Avgi was immediately in her hand, and with the artefact, dozens of sunshards were spun into existence. She leapt towards the slender antmen, sending a barrage of sunshards aimed squarely between their eyes. The first dozen shards punctured and melted heads and a second wave did the same. Just like that, nearly half of their numbers were dead.

Then, one of the bulkier ants charged towards her and swatted a sunshard away. A sickle blade popped out of its wrist, nearly half a pace long. Part of the blade melted from the contact, but then, the melted bits squirmed and reformed back into a sharp weapon. Interesting.

There were a couple more of the brutes, so she sent her sunshards towards them in a harrying pattern. The Ender’s Waltz, while effective, would have drained her Animus reserves in less than a minute. Still, the principle of the waltz was effective even if she didn’t activate the technique. She aimed her shards so that the brute ants would veer towards her regardless of whether they parried the attacks or not. If they didn’t, then they would be dead, and if they did, they would be closer to her to continue the attack.

As for the first ant, she sent two groups of three to keep it occupied while letting the rest of the shards strike the remnants.

“There’s more of them!” Gwendith shouted and Yuriko risked a glance. There was another group following closely behind this one, and that meant they needed to wipe out both groups before they got swamped.

She saw Kassy barrel into the second group, bowling them over as she engaged the bigger ants. Her claws extended so that they were several inches long and razor sharp. A single swipe left several deep furrows across a brute ant’s carapace, and a second stab tore out several bits of internal organs.

The first brute ant closed in on Yuriko as it now ignored the sunshards. Foolish. Even as it did, a third set struck it from behind and decapitated it. Did they think the sunshards were mere distractions? Those little things were the most effective weapons she had, even counting Fri’Avgi. Well, only if she used the artefact as a sword rather than what it was meant to be, a Free Shaping instrument.

Gwendith used her frost daggers to finish off the regular ants, and Saki was out of sight. Yurko noticed a few ants collapse with holes at the back of their heads, so she supposed that was what Saki was doing.

Kassy’s fight was rather entertaining to watch, though only in a visceral manner. Internal organs, limbs, and shattered carapace flew from the wild cat’s position, and she had transformed into her hybrid war form. She was even taller than Yuriko that way, and more muscular than Heron. She was covered in orange and grey fur, which melded with her hair. She actually looked like the tiger-kin she met back in the Bella plane, Anda of the Tigris Clan, though her features were more delicate. Sort of.

A minute. That’s how long the skirmish lasted. And then the streets were covered in Femorant offal. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem that it would be the last of them. Down the street that the ants came from, another set had made its way within sight. As soon as they turned the corner, Yuriko saw their antennae quiver, then start to wave around crazily. Then, the entire troop rushed out and charged at them.

“Tsk,” Yuriko grunted in annoyance.

This was what she wanted to avoid. They were so close! Now, the question was whether they should retreat or push ahead. She looked at Gwendith and only saw determination behind her close friend’s eyes. Kassy was licking her lips, which was somewhat disturbing considering her jaws could open wide enough to fit most of Yuriko’s head inside. And Saki…was still nowhere in sight. The call was hers though.

She looked at the tower-pillar, and saw that the spiralling ramp was still empty. Several storeys above, she noted the empty buildings, and that they could easily hold the tower against the ants if it came to that. And she was confident in being able to bring Gwendith away if they had to flee. Saki was more slippery than a snake and Kassy could take care of herself. In short, there was little harm in pushing for their goal.

“Up the ramp! Go!” she yelled to Gwendith and Kassy. The wild cat-kin glared at her in defiance, but Yuriko felt her Mien flare at the challenge. Kassy’s ears flattened and she hunched over ever so slightly. Then she nodded in acquiescence and Yuriko felt a dull guilt at forcing the issue. Shaking her head, she turned towards the ants and sent most of her shards to cull the insectoids.

Snikt! Swoosh. Ploooop!

Heads rolled off necks, torsos were perforated, and limbs were shorn off. She launched herself to block the path, spinning the shards to kill more of the mindless beasts. Steam rose from holes in their bodies as her shards superheated whatever fluid was in them. There were a few who exploded from the expanding steam within their bodies when they had been struck by only a single shard. The hole it created wasn’t enough to ease the internal pressure, she supposed.

It was gruesome and disturbing, but also fascinating. Destruction and all of its side effects and reactions. She had enough shards out that none of that troop even got within twenty paces of her. Unfortunately, the distance between ant troops wasn't wide enough and they caught sight of her and the corpses before she could escape.

“Yuri!” Gwendith yelled from the ramp.

She was already on the second spiral, having gone around the pillar and back to facing the original side where the ramp was. Yuriko nodded and jumped back, then leapt upwards. The second spiral was merely five paces above the square and was an easy jump. The pillar narrowed as it went higher, at least until it hit the midpoint, then it widened again. She grabbed Gwendith by the waist and leapt up to the next level, and the one after that. Fri’Avgi had been sheathed into her Anima and she dismissed the sunshards, then drew back her Anima until there was little light.

After the fourth jump, she pulled both of them towards the trunk, effectively hiding them from the ground level. A few moments later, she saw Kassy running towards them, after spiralling around the pillar. And, another few moments later, Saki materialised into view. Her attendant was looking down the edge and motioned for Yuriko to flatten against the wall.

A few tense minutes later Saki sighed in relief. “Looks like they’re not looking up here.”

“That’s good,” Yuriko muttered. At least they could explore this tower in peace.