‘Mama, help!’

Fluffer’s mental shriek jostled Yuriko out of her daze at the armoured man’s strange, possibly suicidal actions. Her gaze snapped towards her pupper even as she mouthed ‘Mama?’ to herself.

Shaking her head, she fought the urge to burst into laughter at the side. Morbid thoughts sometimes intruded at odd times and this was simply one of them. Fluffington had returned to his full size, and she would have thought it was enough to handle the one survivor of an ordeal that would have changed him fundamentally. She might have been right if she hadn’t overlooked the fact that Fluffers used his Animakinesis for everything these days, and the silly puppy had forgotten that his jaws and claws were still deadly even without Anima reinforcement.

The sight of him scrambling away from Scourge that was less than half his sight was admittedly funny, but she sobered up quickly at her pupper’s distress. She took a moment to observe and quickly determined that Fluffers could have easily taken the chasers out if he applied himself. Or rather, if he had been training in body reinforcement, which he had not been. Ah, that was her fault, wasn’t it? She should have taught him earlier…no wait, he knew how. He learned by copying Yuriko, Gwendith, and Heron. Though she didn’t know how he managed to transform and shrink his body, more than likely, it was due to his Elemental beast nature more than any other technique. It shouldn’t be a stretch to shift the patterns from transforming to empowerment.

Well, now wasn’t the time to have him train. She kicked off and appeared between the frantic pupper and the chasing Scourge. Looking those poor people in the eye, she was more than certain that they were dead. The one who survived whatever the raiders bathed him in was a bit more complicated, she felt.

He hadn’t moved much and had only been staring at her and Fluffers. Scuff marks on the ground around the man told her he was trying to move away. The gleam of intelligence and more than a bit of malice directed at her was disconcerting. He was actually somewhat familiar-looking, and she supposed he had been one of the gangsters inside the cafeteria during the attack. Back then, he had been nodding furiously at their leader’s rhetoric. He’d gone down with the first shot fired.

Snikt!

A quick slash beheaded the Scourge. The bone plates resisted her attack, but she hadn’t been holding back at all. The freshly born Dragon Blooded’s eyes widened at the sight, especially after she beheaded the next three Scourge. He spun around and sprinted, heading towards the entrance tunnel.

Yuriko spread her Animakinesis, and this time, she condensed her aura into grabby hands. He was well within reach, and no one could run faster than she could spread her Anima to its limits. The hands condensed in front of him, behind, and around him, all without touching the ground. A moment later, she had a firm grasp of his limbs and forced him into a spread eagle, then she lifted him off the cavern floor and pulled him back.

“Let go! Release me, witch!”

The corner of her eyes twitched in annoyance. Witch? When was the last time someone called her that? Was it back in Irvalla? Hmm. Well, it didn’t matter much. She had another condensed aura wrap around his mouth to stop him from screaming, while she finished off the rest of the Scourge.

Would it be in bad taste to use the dissolving fluids to melt their flesh off? No, bad Yuriko. No selling humanoid bones for ACs.

She shook the errant thought off and pet Fluffington, who pouted as only a giant wolf pup could do. He manipulated his body and Anima to shrink himself back to a small size, and he clambered on her backpack perch.

The rest of the captives had stared at her in stunned silence, eyes going from the glowing golden hands to her body. She snorted, then used her kinesis to open the cages. They had been secured with an old-fashioned padlock, and she didn’t bother looking for the keys. She simply yanked them open with her Anima.

“The way out is that way. You can use the cars from the garage over there. It’s a long walk,” Yuriko said as she turned her attention back to the yellow pool. Was it bubbling more than usual?

Was it a power-up or something? Like those things called ‘video games’ she found in REI-space? She half extended a perception tendril before pulling back with a shudder. She wasn’t touching that thing!

A quick sweep and a quick wrench got her a makeshift pole from one of the cage bars. She kept hold of one end with her kinesis and moved it over the pool. She poked it down, checking for depth, and quickly realised that it followed the slope of the cavern, meaning at the centre shouldn’t be more than a pace or two. Except when she used the pole, which was nearly three paces long, it went all the way down the centre. She swirled it a bit and found a hole half a pace wide. She wasn’t sure how that man fit through, but she supposed he might have forced himself through. His armour certainly looked like it could be sealed, and it probably had an air supply.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Now, for this fresh turned Dragon Blooded…

It was terribly inconvenient to use her kinesis here since she had to avoid touching the floor. Even if it had a layer of sediment, an accidental press might trigger the siphon. She should commandeer one of the haulers and leave the mountain, but….

She stared at the opposite wall. There were more tunnels. There were some above, and some along the sides. There was more to discover here, but she already had some kind of result. The man she held captive was still struggling, but she wondered what exactly she could do with him. He was new, so aside from the abrupt mental change, he couldn’t know much right?

The boy glared at her ferociously, then, his eyes crinkled strangely. Like, in amusement. Huh?

Yuriko frowned as she stared at him. The moment he had stopped twitching from whatever was changing him, she felt an almost instant enmity. The longer she looked, the more malice she felt. Her instincts were telling her that in no uncertain terms was this man an innocent, nor was he not an enemy. The way he glared at her, absent of any kind of lust that she was used to seeing, was more than a bit disquieting. There was only hatred behind those eyes, and they looked like he wanted to kill her. Mutilate her, even. His fists were clenched tight, and she could see the veins throbbing against skin. He hated her and wanted to kill her, of that there was no doubt. But why?

She hadn’t noticed any such thing back in the motel, so it was only the transformation that she could blame. For that matter, why was she so certain that he had transformed? He looked completely humanoid, though not fully human. His ears were slightly elongated, and he was shorter than she was. Either he was a half-human, half-Sha’ledras, or maybe half-Durandir? Definitely not a half-bred beastkin. His eyes were slightly more almond-shaped than normal too. Either feature could be Durandir or Sha’ledras. The only reason she was sure he had human blood was because of the ears or maybe a union between Durandir and Sha’ledras resulted in that blend? He wasn’t stocky, but her also wasn’t slender.

Shaking her head, she wondered what she should do. The enmity behind his eyes was annoying her, but she didn’t want to kill someone she took prisoner. It was one thing to kill in the heat of battle and another to do so in cold blood. Let him go? Bring him back to the city? To what end?

She heard the distant haulers and cars roar to life from the motorpool, and she watched dispassionately as the survivors fled. The captured man didn’t twitch or turn his head, for all that she hadn't secured it. He kept staring at her…

She glared right back, and she felt her Anima flare in response. She had more than enough control not to touch anything else, but then…

The rotter was trying to drain her! She could feel it now. A little tug through her solidified Anima. It was actually what alerted her when he managed to snip a piece, a tiny, tiny fragment off, and take it into himself.

With a grunt of displeasure, Yuriko raised him up high, then slammed him down, releasing him in the process.

Boom!

She leapt towards his landing place and stomped down on him, but he rolled out of the way. Her boot crunched down on the sediment and created a sizable dent on the actual floor. Something shook in the process, but she ignored it to kill the Dragon Blooded.

She stabbed down, but the man’s flailing managed to affect a parry and her point slipped. The metal tip slammed into his shoulder instead of his throat, and the man rolled away, heedless of the damage it caused his flesh.

He rolled to his feet. Yuriko kicked him in the gut and propelled him back several paces. “Tsk.” She clicked her tongue as she lunged after him.

As soon as he took distance, he tried to escape again. This time, he was headed towards the pool, probably to dive into the opening in the centre.

Yuriko scooped some ball bearings and flung them at him. And this time, the attacks connected. A couple of metal balls pierced his legs. One attack almost detached his knee, but as he stumbled, he continued to roll forward. She didn’t want to touch her Anima to him again, she she dashed after the desperate man.

He was fast, but he couldn’t hope to outrun her. She caught up to him before he came within five paces of the pool. She grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back, then she transitioned to a spin, then slammed her fist on his face.

Bone gave way to her superior strength.

Squish. Splat.

And nothing was left of his head other than a splatter zone.

Urk!

Then Fluffington retched, dizzy from her high-speed maneuvers.

‘That’s why you should have gotten off,’ Yuriko sent him with some amusement, but it was a half-hearted rebuke at best.

The man’s body twitched nervelessly before all of his blood whoosed out of his neck. The colour wasn’t completely red and held hints of the same yellowish taint as the pool. Yuriko leapt away, not wishing to be stained, but the blood didn’t spread. Instead, it connected with the pool, and within moments, nothing was left but a withered husk.

“Disgusting,” Yuriko muttered. She couldn’t quite bring herself to regret her actions. Her gut feelings were just too strong, and the enmity that had little to do with their initial interaction was just too prominent.

‘Go home?’ Fluffers asked, and Yuriko hesitated.

Investigate more, or return? She could just as easily report her findings to Heron or Gwendith through their connection, and she could simply continue on. That yellow blood pool was somehow central to this. She went towards the pole with the dipper in it and lowered it to the pool. She had the thought to bring back a sample and have it looked over.

She found a whiskey flask in one of the dead kidnapper’s pockets, and she emptied it of the alcohol, vaguely noting that it was daemonfyre whiskey. She used her condenser canteen to rinse the thing with water, then she carefully poured the yellow blood into it. She made sure the cap was secure, then placed the thing inside her backpack.

Well, she knew where these caves and tunnels were, and she could continue exploring and investigating another time. She should get this thing checked first.

She had just taken the first step towards the exit tunnel, when all of a sudden, the chamber suddenly shuddered. She almost lost her footing, since she resisted the urge to use her Anima to steady herself. The kinesis she used to spread her body weight across a wider surface was sorely missed, but she was in such control over her body that she was able to compensate. But that didn’t address the shaking. She turned around to see…

The yellow blood pool was boiling.