The alarm stone blared in her mind as soon as a foot crossed the threshold line. It was set nearly ten paces away from her lean-to shelter, which was really just a bunch of branches set against a broad tree. Yuriko’s view was limited by the small opening but it was enough for her to see nearly a dozen spear-armed, grey-skinned humanoids.

They were…grotesque. Savage, she supposed, with how their wide mouths were open, dripping drool down their chin. Their teeth were sharp and needle-like, though she could see blunt molars deeper inside. Mostly carnivorous, probably. She grabbed her backpack from the ground and slung it over her back, then, crouching, she leapt up, activated Boost for a moment and used her Anima to guide and deflect the wood away. The lean-to burst as she shot up towards the low hanging branches. She landed on her toes, gaze spinning to look at the threat.

There were nearly a hundred of them, as far as she could see. The old forest she was in had sparse undergrowth. The things were roughly the size of a teenager. Shorter than she was by five or six inches. They were wiry, emaciated even, and their exposed skin was lined with scars. Most wore some sort of hide tunics that fell nearly to their knees, and a few were armed with clubs instead of flint-tipped spears.

Spears that were flung straight at her.

Slow and easy enough to catch with her flared Anima, so she did. She had to drop some to catch the remainder though, she would have fired them back but since they were heavier than pebbles and she used the bare minimum to catch, the return fire wouldn’t have enough speed to be better than simply dropping things on the creatures’ heads. Instead, she drew her Plasma Lancet, with her Anima, and fired. And missed, since she didn’t line up the sights properly and shooting from a different angle and remaining accurate was hard. Da told her never to fire her Plasma Caster from the hip for a reason.

She drew her side-blade and placed the Lancet in her left hand, preparing herself to leap into the centre of the mob and wipe them out from there. They couldn’t be stronger than Wanderers, she thought. That was when another variable happened.

A gigantic wolf, the size of a landcrafter certainly, barged into the clearing and its jaws crushed three of the humanoids’ heads in quick succession. Then, a glaive carved up another couple of the things. There was a rider on the wolf, a man clad in a mixture of leather and chainmail armour, and he laid about with his weapon, striking the greys on either side of the wolf.

Before she could think to react, twenty of them were down. The man glanced up at her and shouted something, but his words were drowned out by the cacophonous shrieks. Still, she knew what he wanted to say, so she started shooting with her Lancet while flinging the broken spearheads at the ones farther back.

A glowing ball of orange light arched over the trees and fell into a clump of creatures and exploded.

Boom!

Light and heat washed over the forest floor, bringing with it a shockwave that knocked the creatures off their feet. The wolf and the rider stumbled, and the man let loose a flow of expletives in a language Yuriko’s couldn’t understand.

Another exploding ball arched over and struck another clump, decimating the creatures and turning them into minced meat. The man and wolf seemed to take offence at it since they rushed about and slew as many as they could. In less than five minutes, the ground was clear of the grey humanoids.

A woman waltzed into the clearing with a satisfied smirk on her face. Her protective gear was a leather overcoat with discs of dull metal sewn over the front and back, but otherwise, her clothing looked similar to what Yuriko wore.

The two of them exchanged some heated words after the man jumped off his wolf and yelled at the woman.

Skreee!

A falcon dove down from beyond the canopy and ladder on the woman’s shoulder pads. It was a gorgeous creature with black and white plumage. Its sharp gaze focused on Yuriko and it chirped at the woman. Both of them paused in their bickering when she jumped down to the ground.

“Why aren’t you with your group, trainee?” he said sharply in Wojan. “Waypoints are dangerous to walk alone even if we’re hunting…” He froze when he turned to look at her. “Huh, you’re not an adventurer trainee.”

“No,” Yuriko said simply. “You’re not Imperials either.”

“Not at all,” the woman replied, “but we’re not in Imperial territory, aren’t we?”

“The Ulmira plane is just four Waypoints away,” Yuriko pointed out.

The two of them shared a glance and then laughed. The man removed his helmet and revealed salt and pepper hair and an unlined face. He had a neatly trimmed goatee around his mouth, and his eyes gleamed with suppressed mischief. The woman had fiery red hair, green eyes and a pale complexion with a smattering of freckles.

“You must be new to travel in the Chaos Sea,” the man said. “International treaties have long established that any Waypoint that isn’t fortified and more than one away from their planes are considered neutral. Ah, where are my manners? I am Jacob Dunnings, Adventurer, Explorer, and Mercenary extraordinaire!” He gave a flourishing bow and a wide grin. “This is my partner, Sami.”

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His wolf companion, Yuriko assumed. The wolf - Sami, sat on her haunches and scratched at her nose, looking much like an oversized house dog with bright eyes and lolling tongue. She was a wolf, right?

“And I am Sasha Veriol.” The woman said, almost over Jacob’s introduction. “Adventurer, Explorer, and even better Mercenary than this hick over her.” She bowed, too, though not as elaborately as Jacob. “This is my bond, Rui.”

The falcon gave Yuriko a mean side-eye, though maybe that’s just how she normally looked.

“Yuriko Mishala Davar,” she answered simply with a small curtsy. Her overcoat extended nearly to her knees and was nearly a skirt so she felt a bow would have been inappropriate. “I’m an Imperial, but, hmmm, I’m not an adventurer or a legionnaire.”

Adventurers and Explorers have been mentioned in her History classes. They were simply people who didn't want to be beholden to their state and roamed the Chaos Sea as they pleased. However, why did Jacob mention trainees? Were they a formal organization now?

“Well, now that we’ve been acquainted, we urgently must discuss the distribution of loot.” Jacob gestured at the corpses. “Some G’Rak produce Chaos shards in the body but more than three in four only have dust. Now, we can split the kills evenly or…”

“Why even? I say based on which ones we killed, that’s how we should decide!” Sasha interrupted. And with that, the two of them started arguing.

“Miss Davar was the one responsible for clumping them up. I distracted them and you simply blew them apart! Without either of us, your explosive blasts wouldn’t have taken out that many in the first place!”

“Oh yeah? You’re just sore that you didn’t kill as many as I did! Charter rules state that in the absence of an organized group, splitting of bounty is between dealers of the fatal blow! Neither of us is organised into a group, hence the default rulings are as such!”

Yuriko coughed to draw their attention but they either ignored her or didn’t hear her over their voices. Their words were interesting though. Charter? That means an organisation, right? A formal group of those wandering the Chaos Sea in search of fortune and, well, adventure? Hmmm.

Ah, she really shouldn’t linger here.

“Excuse me,” she said loudly enough to cut through the chatter. She continued when they looked at her. “I really must go. You can divide the loot amongst the two of you, I don’t really care. I, er, have something urgent to do.”

“Ah, yes. Quite generous of you,” Jacob said. “I would invite you over to the camp, but if you’re in a hurry, well, it was a pleasure to meet a fellow traveller.”

“Yes, thank you,” Sasha continued. “Ah, if you run into any of the trainees please don’t hesitate to leave them be. There’s four groups in the forest looking for G’Rak nests.”

“Oh, sure. I’ll be going then.”

Yuriko nodded, then left the two adventurers to their bickering. From what she heard, they decided to divide her kills evenly, but still couldn’t come to an agreement with the rest. The wolf, Sami, stared at her with tongue lolling and tail wagging slightly. Rui the falcon leapt off Sasha’s shoulders and circled just below the canopy.

Even though Rui was much smaller than Sami, it was still bigger than a normal falcon, Yuriko decided, by double actually. She would have thought the bird was an eagle if not for the fact that her wing feathers weren’t in distinct fingers like an eagle or a hawk would. The beak was much smaller in proportion too. Well, the only reason she could tell the varied species apart was that one of the last lessons in Natural Sciences had been about birds of prey.

She took the arboreal highway from then on. The G’Rak didn’t seem to like climbing up, though she did spot a few perched on low hanging branches. She simply went further up to avoid them. She did see the adventurer trainee groups.

One was a large group, nearly eight of them, and they were in battle with G’Rak that were twice their number. The easy coordination between the trainees nearly matched that of the legions, but they weren’t youngsters. Yuriko thought that they were all older than she, though she didn’t think they were all at the Knight level.

They used varied Anima strengthening systems. A couple used Geists, one used the same kind of Bond that Reinhardt and his bodyguards used, and one used the Imperial System from how he used Empowered Strike and had a Protective Field around him.

The Waypoint wasn’t that hostile to life, Yuriko realised. Her Anima had been condensed around her body but it was still beyond her skin. But she didn’t feel the same pressure as when she was directly in the Chaos Sea. Did they come inside the Waypoints through a Chaos ship? Yes, that sounded right.

Anyway, she left them to their tasks, finding little need to interfere. She did throw a pebble, reinforced with Empowered Strike, to smash the head of a G’Rak that was about to stab a trainee in the back, but neither that girl or the others with her noticed. Every now and then, she wondered what pushed these people to enter such a dangerous profession.

It took nearly fourteen hours to reach the other side of the Waypoint and when she left, she did find a Chaos ship hovering near the Veil. It was shaped similarly to an Imperial vessel, meaning it looked like a river barge rather than the strange floating island or giant weapons that the pirate ships had. She could see the lookout staring at her with some confusion. She waved at them, receiving one in turn before she continued on her way.

The next Waypoint contained a humid jungle, and the runescript weaving on her clothes strained to keep her reasonably cool and dry. It didn’t contain any dwellers, at least nothing more sinister than mosquitoes and river lizards. Those were easy enough to counter since she took the arboreal highway again. And there was no way she was resting inside such an uncomfortable Waypoint.

The seventh Waypoint was underwater. The moment she passed through the Veil she nearly screamed in fright. Bubbles of air floated towards her right where she assumed the surface was. At least that rotting place was well lit. She paddled to the surface, admittedly using her Anima more than her limbs to propel her. She’d taken some swimming lessons back in Realmheart, but three such lessons weren’t enough. Thankfully, the utility her Anima brought her was enough to overcome the challenge. If not for the enormous fish with sharp teeth that tried to take a bite out of her leg. Her Anima protected her, but the thing, which was at least five times longer than she was tall, circled around her until she reached the surface. Afterwards, an enormous fin breached above the waves before swimming for her.

She used her Anima to squirt herself away from the lunging jaws, then stabbed its side with her Animus empowered combat knife. Blood gushed out of the long wound and it retreated away.

Aside from the waves, there was nothing on the surface, and Yuriko sighed as she resolved herself for a rather long swim.