It began the next day.

They must not have gone north far enough. They found the northern road and started to follow it. After all, why would they walk on mud, bushes, or swampy water if there was a better alternative?

Yuriko had just finished her morning warm up and meditation, soaking in what little sun there was. She had to cut back on the Radiant Tempering simply because she didn’t want to drain her reserves. She’d done the arithmetic in her head.

Summoning a sunblade to fight weighed less in terms of Animus usage than using Fri’Avgi. For foes less than Chaos Lords or other Knights, it was a waste of effort. Like using a Plasma Caster to fry an ant. A regular ant at that, not the Fomorants in the Labyrinth.

So, she had to reserve at least half of her Radiant energy. She had no idea how to quantify the stuff. She could break it down to tiny, tiny motes but those would barely do anything. Less than a fifth of her reserve and she couldn’t create a sunblade. But the thing was…she was sure her reserves were growing. How do you quantify stored light anyway? It was nothing like Animus, which also acted like light, now that she thought about it. Hmmm. But there was a hard cap of how much she produced and stored. So, yeah.

Anyway, right after morning training and meditations, and breakfast, they started on their journey, and within an hour, they were attacked.

The Tiathans.

“Cover!” Aidan yelled as crossbow bolts shot from above a hillside.

The Tiathans, in their deep green tabards, charged down the hill and from the road. South and west. They weren’t surrounded though.

Yuriko readied herself to escape, having no wish to tangle with them.

But, almost as soon as Aidan shouted, all three of them were suddenly covered in pale purple light. Protective Field. Layla’s light was in an oval shape, perfectly smooth. Aidan’s was somewhat blobby, while Riley’s was like Yuriko’s, a purple flame. Aidan drew his Lancet, while Riley raised his Plasma Caster up to shooting position, and let loose with a powerful bolt that burned through a couple of crossbow bolts and blew a hole the size of her head into a Tiathan’s torso.

“Eh?” Yuriko started before she unleashed her Anima.

Despite Aidan yelling, the only one who sought cover was Layla, who ducked behind Riley’s girth. She reached into her belt and drew her Lancet. No, it wasn’t a Lancet, Yuriko realized. It was a rod, four inches long and half an inch thick. Runescript lines flared to life as Layla channelled Animus into it.

The sunblade materialized a few seconds later. The crossbow bolts, the ones shot into her direction, were blasted out of the sky by Aidan’s Lancet.

The bolts he fired didn’t burn out whenever it hit a bolt. Instead, it looked more like a rubber ball and it moved under the man’s control. His right hand held the Lancet, his left hand had its fingers writhing, as though playing the piano. And with each movement of his fingers, the plasma balls swerved and danced.

Riley fired nonstop. A shot every second. He barely paused to aim and it didn’t look like he needed to, with how many the Tiathans were. At his rate of fire, Yuriko worried he’d run out of Animus in a couple of minutes!

The Tiathans on the road rode on horses and used shortbows to shoot. The ones on the hill used crossbows. Unlike the Vizugmonians, they didn’t halt from afar and continually shot at her. Instead, after a few volleys, they were only a couple dozen paces away. Their bell-like helmets didn’t conceal their faces and she could see fear and determination in equal measure.

“Hah!” Layla yelled as she pointed the rod at the rides. A blinding flash of light made the horses rear. A few riders fell and the entire line ground to a halt. But the ones on the hillside continued on.

Now that they were close, Yuriko could see that there were only a couple of cohorts, two hundred men.

With the riders stalled, Riley blasted them. Sometimes, his bolts penetrated past one man and hit the one behind. After a minute, he paused, popped out a jade cartridge from where it had been slotted beneath the stock, then dropped it into an opened purse on his left hip. In the same motion, he retrieved another cartridge from his belt and plugged it in. Animus lit up the runescript lines and in five counts, he was back to shooting.

His face was lit with a wide grin, and he snorted everytime he killed.

“Got a triple!” he yelled when a bolt drilled through three warriors.

“Yeah, give thanks to me for keeping their arrows off you!” Aidan yelled.

By the time the riders had regained their balance, half of them were charred lumps. The horses panicked at the stench and grew wild-eyed. They broke and fled not long after. The crossbowmen at the hills retreated at that sight.

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All told, the brief battle lasted all of five minutes and she had summoned her sunblade for nothing. None of them even came close enough to touch.

“I saw you use that before,” Layla said as she pointed at the Radiant weapon. “That’s an Animus construct, isn’t it?” Her eyes were shining in interest.

“Uh, yes,” Yuriko nodded.

Aidan had let the plasma balls dissipate, while Riley let his Caster cool down. The barrel vented heat, and any raindrops that touched it turned into puffs of steam.

“Whew. That was a fine workout,” he said with a smirk.

“Aye.” Aidan agreed.

Layla was hovering around Yuriko, prodding her to display the sunblade and shooting questions at her.

“How much did you train to make that? Did you inlay it? Well, no you couldn’t have, it took you a few seconds to materialize it, after all. You’re still improving it, I suppose? Only reason you wouldn’t inlay.”

She nattered on, but Yuriko barely paid attention. The three of them didn’t even give the corpses a second glance, even though some of them were still alive. From the groans and the screaming.

“Uh, shouldn’t we…” she gestured at the carnage.

“I doubt they’d have anything valuable,” Riley said offhand. “Probably some of their coinage. Not really worth the lost time. Aunt! Come on, we’d better move!”

“Don’t call me aunt!” Layla yelled, but that seemed to have brought her out of her obsessive behaviour. “Fine, fine. Let’s go. There may be more, and it’s a pain to have to deal with them.”

“Uh.” Yuriko mumbled. But the other three had already started to move. She hastily followed while keeping the sunblade out. It was a waste of Animus and Radiant energy to dissipate it immediately.

Her question hadn’t been to loot at all, but to give aid. But, she supposed that they didn’t have time, and there were the ones attacked. Whatever they got was what they deserved for attacking. Yeah, that’s what she told herself.

An hour later, her sunblade dissipated much to Layla’s disappointment. Yuriko had answered as much of the woman’s questions as she could. But she felt a fraud. For one thing, when she was about to tell them about how she could absorb and store Radiant energy, Damien interrupted her.

No.

‘Huh?’

Don’t tell them.

‘Why?’

But her Ancestor didn’t respond. She was half tempted to tell Layla anyway, but on second thought, she could always do it anytime. It wasn’t necessary to reveal all of her secrets.

That’s right. A secret revealed is a weakness.

Yuriko just shook her head.

“Why do you think they attacked?” Riley asked. “And do you think they’ll send another detachment?”

“Why are they even attacking us instead of focusing on their foes?” Aidan grumbled. “I’ll have to refill a whole cartridge because of this.”

“Could be a patrol,” Layla offered. “But they may be after Yuriko.”

“Me?” Yuriko said.

“Probably.”

The other two just shrugged.

“Let’s run,” Layla said.

And they did. They started out at a light jog, then increased their pace to a sprint. Yuriko easily kept pace, though she was surprised Layla could keep up this speed. Somehow, she thought her aunt had neglected physical training.

At their pace now, Yuriko knew Krystal would be gasping for breath after half a minute, and even Heron wouldn’t have been able to keep at it for five minutes at most. For her, it was a comfortable pace.

They ran until it was midday, then they slowed down to a jog, then a brisk walk over the next half hour. They gulped down water from their canteens and ate ration bars unprocessed.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t that tough anymore. Or maybe her jaw muscles and teeth had strengthened to match the rest of her.

Of the other three, Aidan looked like he had the easiest time. Riley was slightly winded and Layla was red-faced and puffing. They rested for an hour then continued to run. All the while, the weather slowly worsened.

Blustery winds, rain that sometimes turned to hail, and muddy roads. Yuriko’s Anima kept her nice and comfortable, and she could keep it up for as long as she wanted to. Riley’s Protective Field started to weaken an hour after lunch. They stopped to rest for another hour then.

They ran for an hour, then rested for another hour, cycling between the two until twilight was upon them. Yuriko spotted a rocky overhang that could shelter them from the rain. They’d have to use blankets to wall off a section though, otherwise the wind would still make them miserable.

“Camp there?” she pointed.

Layla nodded wearily. She plopped down on the muddy ground and leaned against a boulder while the young men and Yuriko built the camp. By the time they were done, Layla had built a campfire and began a stew then went off fiddling with a small grey cylinder while waiting for the food to cook.

“You think we lost them?” Riley asked. He had his fingers pressed against either side of a jade cartridge and was slowly feeding Animus into it. Slow, as in about a lumen every minute. “Why are they after us, anyway?”

“Probably Yuriko’s artefact,” Layla said slowly.

“Fri’Avgi?” Yuriko asked. “Why? I’m the only one who can wield her.”

“But they don’t know that, do they?” Layla chuckled. “Wars happen over Pre-Shattering artefacts. Don’t you know that?”

“I, er. I think that was…”

“You forgot?”

“Er, yeah. Sometimes”

“Well, I don’t blame you for using it in battle,” Layla shrugged. “But doing so may create more trouble than it solves.”

“What, you think those people will keep going for us now that they know?” Riley asked with a feral grin.

“Probably.”

“Well, if they come, we’ll just send more of them packing,” Aidan snorted.

Yuriko just nodded.

They can try to take her, but only an Ancient can touch Fri’Avgi. Of course, if they kill you, even if they can’t use Fri’Avgi, you’d still be dead. Damien chortled.

‘Not helpful.’

They settled on a watch rotation, with Yuriko given the first watch. The other three settled into their bedrolls. The rain splashed against the overhang, and the wind made their waterproof cloth rustle. Yuriko sat just outside, using a rain cloak that had been gifted to her by the Lucentians. It did a passable enough job of keeping her dry and warm, though she released a bit of her Anima as an extra seal against the damp. She made sure that it didn’t push past the cloak, hence concealing the light.

By the end of her three-hour watch, she nudged Layla awake and then turned in. The bedrolls were laid next to each other to share warmth, and she slept with her back pressed against Riley.

It felt as if she had only closed her eyes when someone kicked her foot and hissed. “Wake up!”

“Huh?” she muttered groggily. “Oh.”

The air was thick with ambient Chaos. The currents grew strong, as though she were in the midst of a storm, but the weather was calmer than before. It was still night, and the Luminous Moon was nearly Dark.

“Sorcery,” Layla said. “There.”

Yuriko looked at where she pointed and frowned. The trees were swaying and a wave of earth was headed their way. That Sorcerer was back.