The clearing was filled with Steeld carriages, collapsed guards, and Magi. Yuriko didn’t think they were the ones using cooperative spells, as they were too far from each other. She ignored the guards on the ground but kept some strands of consciousness trained of those still able to move and those who were surreptitiously casting. Her perception, which she normally kept away from touching other people directly, she forced on them now.
She could feel their muscles tense, their faces twist, and their bodies sweating. Their spell-casting faltered as she used her Terror Mien. Most of them froze, and some began to tear up. Minister Soria grunted as something under his light coat flashed.
“So you aren’t a Grand Magus yet.” He growled, “Outsider, this isn’t your business, leave.”
Yuriko snorted. “You have my friends. It is my business.”
Her sunblades darted towards the minister, and while she didn’t want to kill him outright, he was the source of the troubles in the city. And probably his associations, too, the Scions of Virtalla. The Ishodirian ambassador looked guilty, too, and he already ran inside the Chaos Fount where the others probably were.
“Don’t let her through!” Soria yelled as he pulled out something from his pocket. His Anima, despite being locked within his body, resonated with the Elemental energy around him, creating a field that began to push away her Anima perception.
Ignoring the fallen, she charged towards the man but something entered her perception range from underneath the ground. It was close enough that it reached her in less than a second.
Animakinesis propelled her away from the attack, and her defensive sunblades struck back against it. Radiant energy blades slashed against metallic skin, deflected off it, and left orange marks from the focused heat.
The figure, along with three others that emerged from underground, looked like humanoid versions of Steeld. Golems, she supposed they were called. One was coloured grey with golden stripes running around its body, another was brown with black patterns, and the last one was a dull red with brighter orange flame patterns around its arms. It wasn’t difficult to guess their elemental affinities since those energies gathered around each one. Metal, Earth, and Fire.
Each golem was half again as tall as she was. The Flame Golem was slender, the Metal Golem had a very muscular outline, somewhat akin to Heron’s body shape, while the Earth Golem looked like a square block. It was the Metal Golem that she forced away. The Earth one held out its arms and pulled out large chunks of earth, compressed them into head-sized boulders, and wound up to throw. The Metal Golem extracted an obsidian javelin from its back.
Yuriko ignored them and rushed the Minister, who yelled and threw what he retrieved from his pocket at her. She caught it with her Animakinesis, briefly examined it with a strand of consciousness, and reached for the man.
Sunblades struck at the Metal Golem, who held up one of its arms to block. Compartments within opened up and spat out little metal spurs towards the incoming sunblades. Unfortunately for the golem, Yuriko’s sunblades weren’t projectiles. They were swords controlled by her Intent and guided by the Ennoia of Radiant Flying Swords. She easily determined how to thread the dozen sunblades around the smaller fragments, easily avoiding all of them.
It threw its javelin at her anyway even as the sunblades stabbed into its frame. This time, she didn’t slash but pressed the edge against its metallic skin. Radiant energy, which carried far too much heat for the metal to easily absorb and disperse, melted into the body moments later. Steam hissed from the breached containment, and her blades pushed the arm out of the way. Three other sunblades that followed behind the initial salvo, stabbed into the torso, while another slammed against the faceplate.
The Fire Golem, on the other hand, had raised its arms above its head. A hole opened on its palm and it squirted out some kind of goopy fluid. Fire Elemental energy immediately dove into the globules, which caused them to ignite, and explode, but before the flames could expand more than half a dozen inches, spell circles wrapped around the thing, and compressed it right back down to the size of a bead. A couple more globules of goopy flame fluid spurted out from the palm, and the process repeated itself resulting in eight compressed explosion beads that spun around the Fire Golem’s head. But its preparation process took too long, and Yuriko’s sunblades had already closed in. Panels opened from the Fire Golem’s back, sides, and belly, squirting out a cloud of blue smoke. There was no way for Yuriko to reach the Golem’s body without having her sunblades touch the smoke cloud, so she allowed it to press right in.
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The Earth Golem also took longer than a few moments to prepare its projectiles. If it weren’t for the fact that it was nearly a hundred paces away, opposite of the Fire Golem who was at a similar distance, Yuriko’s sunblades would have sliced it to pieces already. It was able to throw a single-head-sized stone towards her, which she deflected by using half a dozen sunblades. The flying swords stabbed, slammed, and pressed against the projectile, but it was harder to do than she expected. The heat didn’t penetrate quickly enough, even if the parts where her blades touched had become molten, the rest of it was still dark. The blades that pushed against it had a better effect, and the stone dropped to the ground before it got within twenty paces of her. That still left nine sunblades of the fifteen she sent against the Earth Golem.
The object that the minister threw at her exploded into dense, black smoke. Her Animakinesis began to contain it, but she felt a stinging, corrosive sensation when she did. Growling in annoyance, she forced the hold and contained the smoke, preventing it from expanding. Minister Soria’s eyes widened in surprise and fear. Yuriko’s rush brought her within twenty paces of the man.
Three heartbeats, three seconds, had passed since the golems attacked, and Yuriko’s smile widened in pleasure. They had hurt her Anima when nothing around her provided any sort of challenge or real danger. Her heart fluttered as heat spread across her skin.
“Monster…” The minister gasped, “How can you control so many spells…?”
Yuriko’s grin widened as she reached for the perpetrator with her Animakinesis. His eyes widened as the Radiant energy infused Anima condensed and became more visible as a giant hand. His breath hitched, but as soon as the kinesis came close, the thing underneath his coat flashed brightly. A bubble of condensed Water elemental energy and actual water pulled from the surroundings, wrapped around him and pushed her kinesis away. Even as it did so, the water began to boil, and Yuriko brought her free sunblades to bear.
At the same time, the Metal Golem twisted and flung the obsidian havelin towards her back. It ignored the sunblades penetrating its metal skin and internals. But the damage could not be ignored. The weapons bore down, some seeking to penetrate completely, while others turned and twisted, exerting force through the flat of the blade, which then arrested the golem’s advance. The rest of the fifteen sunblades she designated to fend off the thing continued to saw, chop, and grind it to pieces.
The Fire Golem, on the other hand, shot its fiery load towards her direction, heedless of the minister or the people around them. Yuriko couldn’t help but frown. Were they not allies? Most of the guards were still pretty out of it, their minds enveloped by her Mien. It had only been less than a minute since she closed in, and they had yet to recover.
The golems, the minister, and she were moving faster than most unawakened people were capable of perceiving easily. Well, she and the golems were, but the minister was a strong Magus too, though she wasn’t sure what his level was. He had more than a few spell-casting tools and implements scattered around his person and one of the advantages of Arcana Weaving was that preparation mattered when fighting above one’s level. He was quite prepared, but Ancients were not so easily defeated. The fireballs were slow, however, and Yuriko felt that the issue of victory would be done before they threatened her. Or the abductors for that matter.
The Earth Golem clapped its hands together with a thundering boom laced with Elemental energy. It was not Earth Elemental energy, but a mixture of heterogeneous elements. The wave moved at the speed of sound and struck her condensed aura before she could blink. She felt it strike through her armour, wash over her body, and…nothing. She snorted in amusement. Her physique was much stronger than they thought. Maybe she was actually tougher and stronger physically than those brutes. Laughing in her head, she directed the sunblades to burrow into its stone body and tear it apart.
Her Animakinetic hand reformed around the bubble and pressed down, preventing movement. At least, that was what she wanted to happen, but just like she had trouble holding on to water with her Animakinesis, the bubble of condensed water around the minister allowed him to slip past her ‘fingers’. He tapped the heels of his boots twice on the ground and activated the spell activation tool embedded in them. He blasted towards the Chaos Fount, the bubble squirted him through her attempted cage, and he flew towards the gate, and would be through in less than a couple of seconds. Yuriko’s sunblades flashed in pursuit, but another spell activation tool activated, this one bound into his coat. It sent out a shockwave of displaced air that momentarily disturbed her swords’ flight path and allowed him to close into the Fount’s Gate.
With a loud scree, the Metal Golem’s body was torn asunder. There was a loud explosion at its back, and Yuriko goggled as a section of its backplate burst out, and something came flying out, even faster than the minister’s flight boots. Yuriko barely caught a glimpse of a small but stocky Durandir before they left her perception range. So they weren’t golems at all, huh?
The smoke around the Fire Golem…mini-Colossus…thickened and was filled with Elemental energy, such that her perception aura was hampered. If she didn’t focus on it, she would be able to see. The fireballs accelerated towards her, even as the smoke cloud suddenly expanded away. A moment later, it left her perception range. The fireballs would reach her in a few seconds, and would probably kill everyone on the ground. She knew they were her enemies, but they were already subjugated and helpless. She pulled the sunblades designated to engage the Fire mini-Colossus to return to her, but she also sent a dozen of her defensive sunblades to intercept the fireballs before they could explode. They met the projectiles, turned so that it would be the flat of the blades that would make contact, and swatted them away. All but three exploded on contact, creating ever-expanding blossoms of flame, but she had intercepted them at the right moment since none of her soon-to-be prisoners were harmed.
The Earth Golem, or was it also a mini-Colossus? Anyway, it attempted to escape back into the ground, but her flying swords were relentless. The pilot attempted to escape, but they were too slow. The sunblades practically destroyed their golem, and left it a shell of its former self. She nudged the thing over and trapped the pilot inside. Or maybe they could escape later. She didn’t have the time for prisoners since she still had her students and handmaiden to save.
The minister entered the Chaos Gate, and there was a look of immense relief on his face, just before he disappeared inside. Yuriko grunted. She would catch up to him soon enough.