Yuriko felt the Ancient struggle to get up and for a moment, she eased up on the pressure she exerted. She looked at him for a long moment. This was the first time she met another Ancient, one that wasn’t her Squire, and she wondered why his Anima was so weak. He was in Actualisation, she could tell, but his strength was not on par with Gwendith or Heron. Judging on looks alone, he was at least twice their age. Not that he looked in his forties, or anything like that.
He wore a face mask, but the area around his eyes had hints of crow’s feet. His hair was silver, and his eyes were colourless. His Anima kept trying to drill into hers, and when she let him penetrate slightly, she felt a soothing, relaxing touch. It was not benevolent, however, and she felt that its ultimate goal was to pacify her to submission. She closed the connection and burned its effect on her with Radiance, though she kept its operation hidden within her body.
“Y-you…who are…you?” the man stuttered.
Armando Malta’s head bounced on the carpet and his body collapsed. Blood spurted out of his neck, his heart still beating, probably for the next few minutes. She could see the light in his eyes still burning with hate, and for a long moment, she wondered if he would die like that. But no; a minute later he was still glaring, and he was still alive. The wonders of technology. His brain function was supported by ‘Chronian Gear implants, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise.
The Ancient, she only let him speak a few words before she slammed him back down on the carpet, and squeezed his Anima to his skin. She gauged his reach to be around twenty or so paces? Maybe? Gwendith and Heron were around that level, but he felt weaker for some reason. Perhaps it was the difference in the Ennoia used to achieve Actualisation?
Yuriko drew one of the pistols on her belt, walked close to the head and pressed the muzzle against the forehead. Armando glared up at her, but underneath the anger and fear, there was uncertainty. He didn’t know why she attacked, and probably who she was in the first place. That was the point of her bulky armour. The only probable intelligence leak would be from the Ancient who would be able to identify what she was. Not that she intended to kill him. Gwendith wanted to face and overcome that Ancient on her terms. Perhaps she shouldn’t toy with the Threads of Fate, but beating another of her kind should do wonders for her lover’s progress. Either way, she wasn’t that threatened considering the Ancients of the Conclave of Authority were a level below hers.
“Don’t!” the third man in the room yelled. She felt his REI-space tether pulsing with communication exchanges. “The Lawbringers will be here soon! Surrender!”
Yuriko scoffed at the brainless bluff. Then she pulled the trigger and splattered the brains of the man who dared set a bounty on her and hers. She thought about killing the other man, too, but he had fallen on his bottom and was screaming shrilly. Even the bodyguard was still alive, though immobile.
Now how would she leave?
She briefly entertained the thought of waiting for those Lawbringers for the challenge. When she last saw them, they gave her an indomitable feel. Ah, but she shouldn't let pride and arrogance rule her thoughts.
Her Anima perception explored the chute Armando attempted to escape through. It was about a hundred paces long and slithered down a dozen floors. At the end of it was a small flying vehicle, set on a cradle that would shoot it out into the skies. She was sure the mechanism would be locked to the man, but it was a way out. She cheekily waved goodbye to the Ancient and the screaming assistant as she hopped down the chute. She used her Animakinesis to propel her towards the flying vehicle, which was about two and a half paces long, and three-fourths of one wide. As she expected the thing wouldn’t activate for her, but she shimmied around it to get to the outer hatch. A quick flex of her kinesis opened it up, and she was treated to the sight of the skies.
‘Gwen, Heron, go ahead to the meeting point. I’ve succeeded and I’m leaving now,’ Yuriko sent to the two using their connecting threads. She received relieved acknowledgement even as she jumped out of the chute. She released the Ancient she pinned as soon as she left.
Her leap brought her more than a hundred paces away, though she dropped down nearly half a longstride already. She thickened and layered Anima between her spread-eagled arms and legs to allow her to glide even as she sought distance from the tower and her victim.
A small figure such as she shouldn’t be spotted so easily, right?
Whoosh!
Boom!
She detected the missile a hundred paces away, but it crossed the distance in the blink of an eye. She dove down just as the missile exploded even as she tracked where it came from. Outside her immediate range, she saw a couple of silvery figures flying towards her trailing tongues of blue flame of white vapour.
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Yuriko smirked as she folded her Anima wings, oriented herself straight down, and dropped faster than a rock. Bullets and rockets shot towards her, but flicks of Invisible Edges intercepted the explosives while the bullets, electromagnetically accelerated they may be, were blocked by metal and Anima.
The pair of Lawbringers rushed in pursuit, and as they closed, Yuriko tumbled in the air until she faced them, then leashed diversionary bullets followed by a couple of Edges. Her pursuers, who were roughly three paces tall, and wore shiny, silvery Chronian Gear, ignored the bullets.
Clang! Skreeee!
But the Edges cut into their armour, rending a good couple of inches into their interiors. Like the bodyguard, the rent metal didn’t reveal flesh. Instead, synthetic muscle, Ossifrum alloyed metal gears, and wiring, along with some kind of whitish coolant, were revealed. Only for a moment, though.
The torn armour squeezed shut and knitted itself together. The wound did cause them to hesitate.
“Hostile bearing Truths,” she heard the wounded Lawbringer say, but she shouldn’t have heard that. She was sure they had internal communications between them, she could even see the REI-space tether.
“Adjusting,” the other said.
The Lawbringers split up, aiming to put her in the middle. They increased their thrusters’ output and caught up to her after a few seconds. She didn’t remain idle but sent more Invisible Edges their way, however, any damage was quickly repaired before the Edges could go more than a couple of inches deep.
Each Lawbringer was fifty paces from her on either side. All three of them were less than a longstride from the ground.
There was a brilliant flash of light, then Yuriko felt it. The fabric of reality tightened around her. Bad enough that she couldn’t hook her Anima into the canvas to fly, but now…
The connection she had to the Ennoia of the Bladeless Sword dimmed. Only for this body, however—she could still connect with her incarnation body. And because of that, the Ennoia was still there, shrouded by mists, but still within reach.
The Lawbringers rushed towards her, their arms extended. Vents opened on their palms and tendrils of flailing metal popped out. Yuriko spun around and unleashed a couple of Invisible Edges. It took nearly ten times as much Intent as it normally would to attack, and her reserves dipped down by a percent. The Invisible Edges carved into their extended arms and split it all the way to the elbow.
They reeled back, and Yuriko pushed herself towards one. It couldn’t react faster than she could close in, and once she was within a couple of paces, she grabbed it and pulled it closer. Her Animakinesis enveloped its body and they spun around until it was directly under her feet. They plummeted to the ground and she slashed a couple of Edges at the other Lawbringer. A moment later…
Boom!
Her knees flexed to absorb the force of their landing. The two of them crashed through a road, several sewer pipes, and finally, into bare rock. Her Anima absorbed the shock and vented it sideways. The crater they made was at least ten paces wide.
The Lawbringer under her feet twitched as it tried to move. Twisted metal hindered its movement, but it was far from dead or unconscious. She pulled all of her Anima into her body and increased her physical might, then slammed her heel into the thing’s shoulder.
Crunch.
She squished it flat and popped its arm out of the socket. As she expected, there was no flesh within the thing. Either it was a brain kept alive within its cranium or it was controlled remotely. She drilled her Anima perception into the thing, using the broken channels of its severed limb as a path to get to its head or heart. There was too much attuned Ossifrum, which told her that there was an Anima attached to the Lawbringer, and that meant there was something alive within.
She leapt out of the way as the second Lawbringer tried to tackle her. She counted with an Invisible Edge and cleaved a couple of inches into its wrist. The lockdown from the fabric of reality was still annoyingly there.
She leaned away from the Lawbringer’s grab, then returned it with a heavy punch to the arm. Her armour’s gauntlet shattered, but so did the second Lawbringer’s arm. It didn’t reel back or hesitate. A compartment opened on its torso and it blasted her with some high-pressure liquid. It cut into her torso armour and was stopped by her aura armour. The pressure jet swished away as she kicked its knee.
Ah, that wasn’t water. Caustic smoke burst from the contact point, but thankfully, it wasn’t strong enough to harm her Anima armour. She stepped closer, then slammed her fist into the thing’s core with all her might.
Crunch. Bzzt.
Her fist went all the way through its torso and got tangled into its mechanical spine. She twisted her wrist, clutched the spine, and pulled hard. The sturdy metal wasn’t crushed and didn’t give way, but the connecting wires were weaker than the bone-shaped metal and were cut. Yuriko dropped a couple of vertebrae on top of the first Lawbringer while the second’s legs collapsed under its weight. It still tried to grab her, then a blade, white hot, popped out of its forearm and slashed at her leg. She dodged the cut by jumping up, then slammed her heel onto the second’s shoulder. Her boot crumpled under the assault that tore off the other’s limb. Then she did the same with the other shoulder and broke her other boot. The Lawbringer toppled backwards.
Wheee whooo,wheee whooo!
Sirens blaring and probably reinforcements. Yuriko shrugged to herself and jumped out of the crater. The city’s sewers were large enough for a truck to drive through, odd considering how dry the wastelands were. She ran down the opened one until she went through several turns. Once she was hidden from sight, she toggled the switch that discarded her outer armour, leaving her only in her bodysuit. She used her Animakinesis to float and propel her down the tunnel until she was several longstrides from the crash site. Anima perception showed her that she was back in Junktown. She fished out a pair of sneakers and a coat from her hip satchel then climbed back to the surface. The meeting point was in the 4th District that was about a couple of leagues away.
She followed her connecting threads to Heron and Gwendith, and soon enough, she entered the black van that took all of them back to the 1st District.