With every Jin of power, Yuriko could muster, the twin orichalcum armament blades cut down on the Steam tank’s turret. The jagged edges of the third dance in ascendance, Radiant energy suffused along the edge, as well as the Ender’s Waltz brief peek into the possible futures, she was more than certain to hit.

She briefly contemplated activating the fourth dance, worried about the Animus expenditure, before she scrapped the idea. In midswing, any minute change and unplanned power use could throw the attack off.

Without any deviation, the twin blades slammed into the turret…and bounced off.

Radiant energy transferred with the brief contact and changed the grey metal to orange with the heat. Smoke and steam rose from the surface, and the colour spread throughout the turret, and slowly into the body. The orange dimmed down to red, however, as it spread.

Yuriko couldn’t help but gape in surprise and disappointment. The Steam tank was steeped in the Spirit Binder’s Intent, and her attack had not been strong enough to consume it. Only her Ennoia…Colligia energies were superior to her foes, but the difference in Anima strength closed the gap anyway.

The turret swung towards Eli’Theria’s side but she managed to step back to avoid it. But then, it stopped right as it was aimed at the Colossus’ middle and…

Her intuition screaming at her, Yuriko forced Eli’Theria to roll backwards.

Boom!

The cannon shell passed right over them, but it curved back after a moment. Yuriko slapped it away, but the shell exploded as soon as Eli’Theria’s hand made contact. They staggered back, but she planted the Colossus’ foot and forced themselves to stay close. The tank was already backing up, and the cannon was still aimed at them. A moment later, another shell blasted out, and this time, Yuriko stepped forward hoping to deflect the explosion back to its source.

The cannon shell swerved around Eli’Theria’s gauntlet and almost smashed into the chest plate if not for Yuriko’s hurried use of Animakinesis. The explosion squashed her Anima back into Eli’Theria’s chest plate, fractured most of it, and infected it with some strange Ennoia energy…

She felt her body and Anima burning…no, it was some kind of corrosive effect that gave off heat. Sweat poured down Yuriko’s brow, though most of it was absorbed by the core. She rallied her Radiant energy to fight against the corrosive energy, and while her Colligia was stronger, the interaction only caused a bigger boom than anything else. Her Anima fissured as a result of the violent mix, and in the meantime, the tank moved farther back, blasting a cannon shell every couple of seconds…

The blades retracted from the wrist armaments and transformed into bucklers. Each one was roughly a pace wide and was shaped like an elongated hexagon. The Colossus used both to defend her torso even while Yuriko was preoccupied with cleansing her Anima.

Fri’Avgi’s reserve of distilled Chaos was prodigious after spending so much time in the Chaos Sea, but even so, those reserves quickly dwindled as the artefact fed it to Yuriko. She felt both cold and burning hot as her Anima fought off the incursion, and worse, the Steam tank was gaining space. A secondary mini-cannon started spitting smaller bullets at Eli’Theria, though they only pinged off her armour.

A few seconds later, Yuriko regained enough control over her Anima to retake control of Eli’Theria. She quickly spotted a couple of dents on top of the turret where the orichalcum blades struck, though they were quite shallow. It proved to her mind that the enemy wasn’t invulnerable to her attacks.

The shadows of twilight crossed the hills as the day had turned to night. It had only been earlier today that she fought the Chaos Duke’s minor incarnation…bone-deep weariness warred with Yuriko’s excitement and need to fight. The Steam tank and the salvaged Colossus were the strongest foes she faced…well, not counting the Duke, but that had been a minor incarnation, of course.

On Eli’Theria in downgraded form, she should have been a match for them! Even with her level of strength ostensibly at the Knight level…

Well, Eli’Theria gave her protection, as she had little doubt that if those cannon shells hit her while not in the Colossus, she would have been gravely injured at the very least.

But how can she win this fight?

Eli’Theria reeled to the right as she avoided another volley. Then, she jumped forward to avoid bombardment from the salvaged Colossus. She thought that the other Grandmaster Binder would have raced to the tank’s aid, but both kept their distance. From what she could see of the Colossus binder, it was hunkered down and had its turrets raised to the skies. Only a bit less than half of its armaments were aimed at her, while the other shot towards the Legate’s crystal army.

Her Colligia energies weren’t strong enough to overcome the two-level gap between them, at least not when the entire landcraft was there to reinforce him…

She spun a single sunshard hidden behind the twin bucklers while she sent sunblades to harry the tank. Though the blades weren’t strong enough to actually damage the metal, if she poured enough Radiant energy into the chassis, the heat should eventually melt the thing around the Grandmaster.

The only question was how many blades would it take? Eli’Theria’s Chaos converter also fed her regeneration runescript weaving, allowing her to keep her reserves topped up. She spun out several threads of condensed Animus and wove the Trinity pattern over the sunshard.

She debated whether she should make more, but she wasn’t sure if that was enough to penetrate the tank’s defences, and she’d rather not make any mistakes while weaving the dangerous technique.

A minute later, she had it ready and was merely waiting for the right moment to unleash it. She dodged or deflected the cannon shells, then closed towards the tank while the shells turned to strike her back. She timed her dodge so that the shells would hit the tank instead of Eli’Theria, but the only time she managed it was the first time. The shell exploded against the tank’s armour but did little more than scorch the outside. Afterwards, the Spirit Binder made certain that the returning attacks didn’t line up.

Her moment came when the tank’s cannon hiccuped and blasted out a puff of steam instead of a shell. Yuriko flung Eli’Theria’s arm and pointed a finger at the body. The sunshard careened right out, and a moment later, slammed into the tank’s Protective Field. Only for a moment though, as the shard just melted through it. The Trinity detonated against the armour, and for a long moment, nothing seemed to happen.

Then…

Hzzzzzk…. Boooom!

The Trinity activated for a single second but it was enough to eat through several inches of Animus armour and metal plate. A large crater appeared on the tank armour’s surface, nearly exposing the interior.

Then, sparks of Animus flickered from the wound, then a scream that could barely be heard rippled across the hillside. The surviving mini-cannoneers a couple of hundred paces away toppled over. The land rippled in distress, and the earth and stone disintegrated into sand. A pale fire emerged from the wounded plates, and the bound spirit wept and wailed.

The Steam tank keeled backwards and the turret bent out of shape. Yuriko rushed toward it while the bucklers turned to blades. She aimed a vicious stab at the wound, bypassing the Protective Field in the process. The points struck the interior and managed to wrench it open enough to allow her to spray Radiant energy inside. The tank threads squealed as they spun in retreat, and the turret swung to hit her side. She let it strike this time, thinking to prevent it from shooting…

Blam!

A powerful kinetic force blasted her and Eli’Theria away. They rolled over the hillside even as a fusillade of cannon shells from the other Grandmaster arrived in support.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

She and Eli’Theria rolled out of the way, though a couple struck the Colossus’ legs. The orichalcum armour around the knee bent and warped. When they tried to get to their feet, the left knee wouldn’t bend properly.

Yuriko sent her Anima to assess the damage and swore loudly when she found many of the runescript weaving broken.

‘It will repair on its own,’ Eli’Theria grunted, ‘but it will take time and energy.’

‘Time we can’t waste,’ Yuriko growled.

She pushed out her Anima and used her kinesis to move the Colossus around instead of relying on her limbs. The fractured portions creaked worryingly, and the cracks widened. Her reach would grow extensively once the battle was done, but only if they actually survived.

She boosted Eli’Theria over the hillside and oriented herself to where the Steam tank was. She spotted it puttering backwards down the hill. The cannon was bent nearly ninety degrees after smacking against the Colossus, and the damaged armour was weeping Animus and Chaos.

A moment later, the broken armour plates burst away from the chassis, and from the shattered fragments, a grotesque spirit emerged. It was made out of metal pipes and chains, with gears for eyes and shattered glass for teeth. It screamed in pain as Animus streamed away from it, returning to the greeter construct that was the tank. It visibly withered down to nothing while the hole in the armour closed over the ejected plate.

Yuriko growled and formed another Trinity sunshard. It took her a bit longer to do so, all the while avoiding or defending herself against the salvaged Colossus’ bombardment. The thing was more than a longstride away! How was it able to target her position so accurately?

Probably a link with the tank, she mused. Either way, dealing with two Grandmasters, Knight Commander equivalents, was harder than she expected. Each combatant had their own tricks and she was on the other end of the power scale…

The Trinity worked, so she needed to make more. They were the only weapons she had that were consistently effective against Manifestation-level foes.

She spun five into existence though it took her a quarter of an hour’s painful focus to bring them to fruition. All the while the Steam tank’s damage had completely repaired itself, including the cannon barrel.

She kept her distance, only sending sunblades every now and then to keep the heat against its armour. Finally, when she was ready with the Trinity sunshards, she launched them against the tank.

Five Trinity sunshards struck from the front, behind, above, and on either side. The Grandmaster Binder didn’t just take the attack, no…he jettisoned several armour plates, each one carrying one of his bound spirits, and they intercepted the sunshards a couple of paces before they could hit the tank.

Hzzrrrt! Booom!

The explosion of the Trinity fed into itself, expanding to trap the tank. But there was one direction without an expanded devouring zone…downwards.

Dirt fountained up, and even they were devoured by the Trinity. But Yuriko dared not set the cycle for longer than a couple of seconds, and by the time the cycle broke, the Steam tank was none the worse for wear.

Pain pierced into her mind as her Will and Intent had been overdrawn, By keeping the Trinity formation up for several minutes…

“Ugh,” Yuriko groaned as Eli’Theria took some distance. The Steam tank emerged out of the hillside and continued to bombard her. The Colossus’ outer armour was already dented in several places, and the golden shimmer had started to fade.

And she hadn’t even been able to attack the other Grandmaster either!

Drink the Ambrosia. Damien said, push your Radiant Anima Refinement and Radiant Body Refinement to the brink. Those are the only things missing before you can advance.

‘But…’ Yuriko hesitated. Doing things the proper way builds solid foundations…

Foolish child. Nothing builds better foundations than Ambrosia. If you had more, you should use it to stabilise your realms.

‘Oh. How much should I drink?’

Better to drink the entire bottle. You have nearly a Ren. Use it all.

‘But…my friends… ‘

It's your choice. Drinking half a Ren can allow you to reach perfection in one of the Refinements. Which one will you sacrifice? Besides, none of the others accepted.

‘Oh. I guess that makes sense,’ Yuriko muttered. The canister of Ambrosia had never left her hip satchel, though she worried that drinking it right now might not be the best time to do so.

That’s right, of course, the best time would have been yesterday. Withdraw. You don’t have to defeat them to win the war. Ah. It looks like the point is moot.

At that point, dozens of yellow crystal spears rained down on the Steam tank. Where her orichalcum blades failed to make any purchase, the spears easily perforated the tank. The Steam Cannon shells shot towards the Legate and her army, who were marching over the hill. But the rain of javelins didn’t stop. Yuriko spotted the salvaged Colossus Grandmaster beating a hasty retreat, leaving their comrade behind.

The javelins eventually destroyed the wheels, and the Steam tank Grandmaster was trapped.

Iola Brygos landed in front of the tank, and her fist, encased with a yellow crystal gauntlet, slammed down on the landcraft’s front. The metal crumpled like paper, and what was left of the war machine whined as steam and Animus burst out of its seams.