A layer of frostscales shattered, but thankfully, Gwendith had three layers protecting her body at all times. While each scale was roughly an inch wide, it was barely hair-thin. They still mitigated kinetic force, and the first layer was designed to ablate so that excess force didn’t transfer beyond that layer. Still, the ablation didn’t negate everything, and what passed through it was rather painful.

Gwendith scowled at her assailant, who’d ambushed them from the dark. Physique refinement had not been something she was good at but Yuriko insisted on it. Her body was tougher and stronger than a baseline humanoid, even accounting for the stronger races like the beastkin. Still, the metal bolt that the rotter shot at her was more than enough to penetrate even her reinforced skin, and if not for the scales, she’d have a hole through her shoulder now.

Anima tendrils snapped towards the man, who was clad in a suit. Unlike the soldiers, he wasn’t in powered armour and looked ready to attend a ball. He had dark hair, carefully styled and short. His irises were colourless and quite disturbing as they surrounded his dark pupils. He also had a black mask covering the lower part of his face all the way down to his neck. On one hand, was a submachine gun, and on the other, a trio of daggers floated above his palm.

“Surrender,” he said, voice soft but compelling. Gwendith shook her head as she felt something attempt to drill into her mind. But as they did, they encountered a light golden barrier that easily rebuffed them.

“Rotter,” she growled back and snapped her tendrils at him. Expressionless, he countered with his own. They were as colourless as his eyes, and they twirled around her tendrils, not quite touching them. The knives on his hand were grasped by his colourless tendrils, then flung towards her. Gwendith grunted and caught the blades using a single tendril that she split near the end to catch the blades.

At the same time, he raised his other hand and used his submachine gun. He didn’t infuse it with Anima or any other kind of energy, so Gwendith ignored it and allowed her frostscales to take the attack. The lead bounced off her frostscales and she didn’t even feel the hit. The knives were another matter.

When she caught them with her tendrils, they bounced off, changing trajectory. The knives were slightly diverted, but the rotter’s Animakinesis was still attached to the blades. He twisted them around and they almost struck her arm if not for her reflexes. She jumped out of the way and the blades curved to follow her. Ryoko, thankfully, had retreated as soon as the battle began. Gwendith spared the handmaiden a bit of attention and found her holding a pistol and hidden around a corner.

Gwendith’s distraction almost allowed the other to hit her. He’d sneakily enhanced his gun with Anima and shot her again. This time, she felt the bullets as they entered her reach, but she was able to deflect them with her tendrils. As for the knives, she grabbed at them, twirling her tendrils around his, then drew away all the heat she could from its surroundings. The knives were suddenly covered in frost, and there were balls of plasma a couple of inches away. She grabbed those and flung them at the rotter, who shot at the fireballs and managed to disperse two of them. The third one smacked into his suit.

The plasma orb splashed across the cloth and ignited the outer coat, prompting the man to yell in surprise and anger. He didn’t panic for long, however, and managed to smother the flames simply by shoving his Anima into it. Gwendith saw the tongues of flame distort as his tendrils pressed down on them, momentarily giving her a better view of his Anima. Hers was tinged in pink or blue and was easily seen, which gave her opponent an advantage.

She held the shape in her mind even as she closed in on the rotter. He hadn’t moved an inch during the entire encounter, relying completely on his Animakinesis. He was more deft with his manipulation, but if he couldn’t even dodge a simple plasma ball, Gwendith doubted he could dodge a blow.

A couple of frostscales at the small of her back dissipated into her body and was channeled into an Empowered Strike. Animus techniques were still intuitive and quick, and she slammed her fist into his jaw.

Her Anima was wrapped tightly around her fist as well as her arm, shoulder, and down her back and leg, forming a complete path to the transfer of force.

Crack!

As she expected, his physique was trash.

“Gah!” the man yelled as he flew across the hallway and slammed into the opposite wall.

Bang!

Cracks formed behind him and spread from the impact zone all the way to the ceiling and floor. Gwendith didn’t let up. She followed her foe, stomping hard against the floor. Underneath her boot, the faux wood flooring fractured, then shattered, filling the air with wood chips and dust. Empowered Strike on her other fist.

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Her blow sank into his gut, and she pushed with all of her might.

Boom!

The wall broke and he flew into the other room.

“Ryoko! Let’s go!”

The handmaiden ran up behind Gwendith and then down the hallway. Their goal was the roof, and she intended to jump across the buildings. The apartment was only six stories tall, but the adjacent one was about ten high. She noticed that the windows were broken in, and they could leave that way, hopefully losing the trail for the corpo goons.

They reached the stairs and had run a couple of floors up when the bullets ripped into the well. One of them struck Ryoko, but the handmaiden had sensibly kept her Field technique up. The lead deflected off the cloud of Animus and the woman was left unharmed.

Gwendith rushed up the stairs, picked up the handmaiden, and pushed herself to climb faster. They reached the roofdeck just as the rotter burst into the stairwell. Gwendith smirked down at him even as they left his sight.

The rain was still falling and there were dozens of puddles across the rooftop. A quick scan told her that the chasers had not brought an aerial vehicle with them. Picking a side at random, since there were three buildings taller than the apartment within jumping distance, she rushed across the rooftop and leapt. She slammed into the wall, secured herself with her Anima, then tossed Ryoko into an open window.

She followed soon after, and they continued to run. Higher towards the roof, and when they emerged, she found the only building within jumping distance had a roof that was a couple of storeys below.

An easy jump, at least.

They crossed a couple of blocks that way, then she used her perception to find windows that lined up between buildings. She used those to cross and hopefully, whatever surveillance videos the enemy had wouldn’t be able to track them.

It took another hour of running before they settled into a hiding place. Gwendith was breathing easily, though Ryoko was out of breath. Funnily enough, the other woman had spent most of the chase being carried and she was the one that was winded.

Gwendith spent quite a bit of Animus, so she settled down to regenerate it. Her frostscales did that automatically, but only if there was enough ambient Chaos. Elemental energy had to be converted first to be of use. She gave some of her Animus, channeled into a jade cartridge, to Ryoko. It would take a few minutes to denature before the other could siphon it off and top herself up. In the meantime, Gwendith produced thermal energy by cycling hot and cold enough times to produce both energies. From there, she pulled them in, then allowed her Animus core to take them in, and convert them. The frostscales took from her internal reserves once those were topped up.

The neighbourhood was quiet, and this time, they stayed in the interior of the building. Gwendith debated going literally underground, but she’d wait for word from Devotee, Saki, and Heron first.

As the excitement slowly drained away, Gwendtih wondered what her lover…and her lover’s lover…were up to.

________

It turned out that Heron was not having a good time either. After Gwendith and the other two left the apartment, which had become a bit of a mess, a building inspector came and fined them for breaking down two of the retaining walls. That and they were summarily evicted. He hadn’t been able to check the account balances, remembering that Gwendith had terminated the main intake account that distributed funds to the rest of theirs. Which one was fined though?

The inspector tried to stop him from retrieving the remaining items left in the apartments, claiming that those would be used as collateral for repairing the broken walls. The man was officious-looking and he had been backed by two larger muscle men, bearing ‘chronian gear for arms that looked grotesquely large.

“No,” Heron said firmly, and when the musclemen tried to intervene, he showed them why bodies built for show were ultimately weak and ineffective. Not that he broke anything, but he did grab the inspector by the neck and lifted him up half a dozen inches off the floor while his bodyguards writhed on the floor.

He left it at that and gathered what remained of their possessions. Yuriko had a bunch of clothes left in her closet, as did the other girls, come to think of it. He folded the dresses and other articles but had to shove them into the backpack. Even spatially expanded, the bags weren’t big enough to contain everything. Most of the space would be occupied by his beloved’s things, and he couldn’t just grab all of it and leave Gwendith’s, Ryoko’s, and Saki’s extra clothes behind.

He packed up half of the available spaces with Yuri’s stuff and divided the rest with the other two girls. Ah, there’s no space for his own…

He ended up putting the other things in another bag. It wasn’t a spatially expanded container, but he squished his stuff inside anyway.

He spent some time looking through REI-space for a new apartment and found one in a lower Zone. The deposit and rent amounted to five thousand ACs. It was only a single-bedroom affair, but it should be good enough as a base. Besides, with four of their number outside, it was only he and Saki remaining in the towers.

Afterwards, he didn’t quite know what Saki was up to considering she barely spent time in their apartment. He did miss Ryoko’s food prep, but the burrito machines were good enough. He patiently waited for Yuriko’s connection spells, but the woman he loved was a bit too preoccupied with her training. Which then prompted him to do the same. He had enough ACs saved up that he could lay low for a while. He needed to prepare for the mercenary’s test, however, and there went the notion that they could do it as a group. Still, his goals here aligned with Yuriko’s and if she wasn’t going, why would he?

Several days passed, and Saki returned looking extra satisfied. When asked, the woman simply said that she solved a problem with violence.

Shrugging to himself, he went back to training. But it was only a few days later that something else happened. He wasn’t sure if it was trouble though.

There was a knock at the door and it opened even without Heron doing anything. He glared at the Durandir that walked in. The man had green hair all over his head, and his moustache and beard were braided together. His eyes were a burning shade of green. More importantly, he was surrounded by an Anima.

“Who are you and what do you want?” Heron growled.

The man started, stared at Heron for a long moment, then clicked his tongue.

“Rogues,” he sighed. But he didn’t maintain his derisive demeanour. Instead, he said, “Mister Muryh, I invite you to come with me to the Conclave Embassy. As an Ancient, it does not do for you and your fellow to live in such squalor.”

Heron frowned at the man’s presumption, but he wasn’t sure if he should reject the invitation or not. Yuriko would have probably put the man in his place, but he wasn’t as strong, or as impulsive as she was. Still, there was nothing wrong with gathering information.

“Lead the way.”