A few more days passed since the prototype weapons were put to use. In response, the daemons raided in bigger groups, but that also made them far more visible.

Yuriko intercepted dozens of raids a week and slaughtered hundreds of crimson apes. She made a habit of spreading her perceptive aura as far as it would go, and she often caught a six-legged lizard or two with every group. The reptilian daemons always tried to run from her, but they were slower and weaker than the apes, so she always caught them.

She managed to trace where their base was, and she raided it as soon as she did. She found them tunnelled under the basement of castles, or in natural caverns that were quite plentiful in the mountainous terrain. The usual fauna of the countryside was driven out from their habitats, which was also a sign of the daemons’ presence.

The days grew shorter and the nights longer. The weather grew colder until finally, the snow that fell from the skies didn’t melt even in the presence of her constrained perception aura. The army had pushed back into highland territory, and they were now about a hundred longstrides from Burgheron City. A fifty longstride swathe had been retaken from the east to the west coast.

The absolute north of the Karcellian Isles was a frozen mountain that plunged into the cold Inner Ocean. She flew up there once and saw naught but floating ice. There was nowhere for the apes to go unless they planned to swim. And the rest of the terrain in the highlands was mostly steep cliffs, icy fjords, and frozen rivers.

But it was that vast mountainous wilderness that made looking for the apes so difficult. Evergreen trees, snow, and fens. Where the daemons couldn’t dig underground, they hid in gullies, ravines, and ridges.

Her task now was to patrol the skies, spot concentrations of daemons, and direct the armies towards them. She often hunted them too, and that was what she was doing now. She flew over snow-covered valleys, raking the ground for a hint…

Wheeee! Whoosh!

Yuriko had been flying lazily just underneath the clouds. But then, a horrific thing entered the edges of her perception and crossed the thirty paces of her flare in less than an instant, and it struck her condensed aura.

Boom!

The kinetic force was enough to knock her spinning, and even though it didn’t penetrate her defences, her hold on the air, and the shape of her Anima faltered just enough that she careened towards the mountains. Whatever had struck her had been reduced to dust and pebbles, then, the shockwave that came after going faster than sound swept over her and the debris, changing her trajectory, but also slapping the sense back into her. She re-established control over her Anima and the air around her, just in time to feel another missile enter her perception range.

“Erk!” she gasped as she rolled to the side, barely avoiding the hit. She fell several paces down, which helped her avoid the next attack.

It was a pillar of stone. Several dozen paces long, and at least ten inches wide. The next one, she didn’t allow it to hit, nor did she move. She slapped it with the full force of her body and Anima.

Crack! Smash!

The velocity of the strike as well as the fact that it didn’t have a protective infusion of Animus, shattered the pillar. Her eyes darted to where it came from, and at first, she thought that it was a Colossus. It was huge, maybe five paces tall, humanoid, and looked like it had been hewed from the mountain rock. Its craggy face stared up at her, and its eyes burned with fury. Its hand reached into the cliffside, and pulled out another pillar, then, it reared back and hurled it straight at her.

Growling in anger, Yuriko dove towards the giant. She smashed the missile to the side and used the momentum of her deflection to propel her even faster. What in the Abyss was that thing? Sunshards materialised around her, and the air boomed as she split the winds.

The giant dug both hands into the rock and pulled out something else. Instead of the relatively narrow pillar, it brandished a chunk of rock fashioned like a club. It twisted around, both hands on the narrower end even as it adjusted its position so that it wouldn’t hit the hillside with its swing.

And it swung almost as soon as she got within range, and this time, the blow glistened with Animus!

“Graaaah!” Yuriko roared as held out her hand and activated the Adamant Guardian Seal. The stone club struck the hastily formed mandala and stopped cold in the air. The giant’s momentum wasn’t arrested, and the force of its blow nearly twisted its waist off. The stone covering its legs cracked and the giant stumbled back.

But its recovery speed was faster than she expected. Even before she could bring her sunshards to bear, the titan had already regained its balance. Its grip on the weapon had only loosened, but it managed to keep hold. It stomped towards her position, moving faster than something of its size would suggest.

Sunshards struck its arm, and where it hit, the area turned orange from the heat. But the shards didn’t penetrate, merely bounced off. Yuriko growled as she flowed around the counter swing. She rebounded off the ground, kicked at the thing’s calf, cracked parts of it, and then took her distance. The giant staggered from her hit, but nevertheless continued its assault. She pushed with her Animakinesis, deflecting the overhead blow.

Then she lunged towards it, finally activating her sword dances as she materialised a couple of sunblades in her hand. She doubted her Arclight Sword could penetrate its rocky skin, so she didn’t even bother drawing it.

It had been Seasons since she last used her sword dances for anything other than practice, and no one in this region had been worth the Animus expenditure. But for this giant, she would relish the fight.

The second dance and Jade Mountain met a diagonal smash and turned it to the side. Her Anima absorbed the kinetic force and she redirected it into her blade. But then, her sword wouldn’t be able to hit the thing unless she dashed five paces ahead, so instead of using the sunblade, she channelled the force of the blow into an Animakinetic punch, right into its centre of mass.

The stone beneath her feet cratered as her blow connected. The giant, for the first time since the battle started, was knocked off its feet. Its body curved inwards like a prawn, but it stabbed its right foot into the hillside, which then caved into a landslide, causing it to lose its balance.

Recovering from the recoil, it was only after the titan managed to get both feet back to somewhat solid ground was she able to follow.

And then, she got blindsided by a sideways club smack, that threw her against the cliffside.

“Ack!”

She spat as the soft stone gave in against her body, sinking her several paces into the earth. She pushed herself back towards the entry hole, only to be met with another blow just as she came out. Her perception couldn’t penetrate through the dirt, blindsiding her completely and knocking her back underground.

She took a long moment to regain her mental balance, but then, the dirt around her solidified into stone and began to twist around her body, attempting to constrict her. She pushed against the snaky stones using her Animakinesis, and at the same time, created a bubble excluding the dirt. She only managed to give herself a few inches of clear space, and then she spun her Anima to drill out an escape tunnel. She didn’t use her entry tunnel but angled higher. She emerged into the air a few paces above, but the giant honed in on her position and managed to swat her back. She dug in with her feet, used Jade Mountain to redirect the force downwards and used the momentum to push herself clear.

“Haaah haaaaah, haaaah!”

The giant’s guffaw was nearly unbearably loud, and gusts of wind slammed against her, pushing her slightly back. The club followed her movements, and even as she tried to evade it, it agilely twisted in the midswing. She was once again struck, but this time, she flew away from the hillside and up in the air.

Booom!

The giant slammed the club into the mountainside and roared in angry laughter, “Is that all you have, Ancient?!”

The words were said in Old Imperial, and the air quivered with resonance. Ambient Chaos swirled around them, drawn in by their furious battle. The iarvesh levels rose to about half a point, nearly fifty times higher than what the rest of the Irvalla region had.

Animus roared into her Anima runescript weaving, bringing her emptied reserves back. She gritted her teeth and activated the Ender’s Waltz. Shadows and silhouettes darted around the titan, but unlike its normal use, there were far too many shadows to follow. A piercing pain shot through her mind, but she powered through it, fine-tuning the calculative vision. Less than an instant passed, and she found the pattern that would allow her to shatter the titan’s body.

She gathered all of the sunshards she had control of and merged them into an impromptu Radiant Lance. It wasn't as strong as the spell, of course, but the Radiant energy contained within it should be potent enough. She sent it careening left, while she flew on the opposite trajectory. She read the titan’s reaction, which was either to ignore the lance and strike her or to defend itself from that attack. It chose to swipe at the combined sunshards, but the main difference between the Radiant Lance and this one was that the shards were still very much under her control.

It avoided its parry, spun around the club and darted for its face. It reflexively tried to protect its eyes by letting go of the club and blocking with its arm, but she darted in, her fist glowing with Radiant energy. Then, together with the full might of her Anima reach, she slammed it, and her sunblades into the giant’s torso.

Boooom!

Again, the giant was torn off its stance, but this time, she didn’t let it recover. She pushed against the air, slammed an Animakinetic punch to its side then from above, slamming it into the hillside.

She rained blow after blow into the stone, poured almost as much Radiant energy as her Essence could generate into her fists. The sunblades struck independently from her punches, landing slashing and piercing blows over its face. The faux Radiant Lance slammed into its shoulder, and dumped all of its heat into the stones, turning the area bright red. Splashes of molten stone spurted from the wound. Craters upon craters formed on the stone body, digging deep into its core. Then, she wound back, synchronized her Animakinesis with her body, roared, and punched down.

Kaboom!

The hillside underneath the titan collapsed through to the bedrock underneath, forming a gigantic sinkhole. The next thing she knew, they were nearly a couple of dozen paces underground, and they slammed into an underground river. The water immediately boiled. Clouds of steam formed a thick fog, obscuring her vision, though her perception aura was as clear as ever.

The titan sunk even deeper into the river until it was covered in its entirety. But Yuriko didn’t relent. She continued to rain blow after blow. Water boiled and splashed away. In fact, the river water dispersed from where they were, just from the force of her blows, until the titan’s stone body was once again revealed.

As she reared back for another haymaker, the stone crumbled completely and her Animakinesis lost its anchor. The momentary imbalance precluded her strike, and then, the titan’s body exploded.

She was thrown back and out, landing on the hillside. She pushed off the earth with her kinesis, intent on continuing the slugfest. But as soon as she got into the air, a blur shot out from the crater and launched several shadows her way. The speed was at least twice what the titan had been capable of, but since her perception was up, and she wasn’t taken off guard, it was easy enough to avoid. The stone darts slammed into the hillside, and left deep craters behind.

The sunshards she used as a faux lance had dissipated, but the blades were still active. They hovered at her sides and she began to create the sunshards anew.

She glared at the figure that attacked her, and unlike the titan, this one was the size of a man. A large man, actually, about two and a half paces tall, and quite muscular and wide. He was bald, and his obsidian skin glistened in the sunlight. He was also completely naked, but where his genitals would have been was only a smooth bulge.

Molten lava flowed up from the sinkhole and coalesced into a thick quarterstaff in his hands. His face was impassive, but his eyes flared with rage once they met hers.

“Slayer!” he hissed. “Murderer. I will avenge Their deaths!”

And with that, the obsidian man lunged towards her, his staff raised over his head, and struck towards hers.