Even kneeling down, the Koinos was still taller than Yuriko by about a dozen inches. It was slouched forward and from behind, she could see a couple of handholds to climb on the back. Centurion Garderon didn’t even bother using them and leapt up, catching hold of a latch.

The hatch pulled open and before he slipped inside, he told Yuriko, “Follow.” Then he disappeared. Runescript lines along the Koinos’ frame lit up, and a low pitched hum came from the torso.

After a moment, Yuriko followed suit and jumped up, landing on the shoulder.

When she looked down at the hatch, she expected to see the centurion’s head but the area was obscured by a faint bluish light. Or was it some kind of liquid?

“Hurry up.”

The voice came from the Colossus’ head though it was unmistakably Garderon’s.

Yuriko touched the light and felt it stick to her fingers and slowly crawl up to her palm. There was a faint suction but it was easy enough to pull free. After another moment’s hesitation, since she didn’t want to be wet, she took a deep breath and dipped her toes into the fluid. She hardly felt it through the skin-tight jumpsuit, but there was a warmth there. She dropped all the way inside, instinctively holding her breath as the fluid covered her head. She half expected to bump into Garderon, but…there was nothing.

Her Anima, which she kept condensed just over her skin, felt a bump. Multiple tendrils of…something…attempted to dive into her. Her protections easily kept them out.

“What’s taking so long?” Garderon’s grumpy voice echoed in the nothingness.

There was no malicious intent in the tendrils and Yuriko identified it as coming from the Colossus’ animating spirit. She let the tendrils enter her Anima and felt it connect to her core. All at once, the darkness that she found herself in changed. She was staring down at the ground, and she felt her hands supporting her weight.

The sensation was muted, as though she had several gloves over her hands, except it was throughout her entire body. Her Anima was constrained inside, but the moment she tried to expand it, she felt the restrictions and pressure intent on keeping it within. It was weak. She knew she could press and have her Anima expand from her skin and out into the open air.

“Very good.” Garderon’s voice sounded in her mind, much like Damien’s did. This felt a bit more intrusive, as if he were peeking at her through a window while she changed her clothes. His mind was closed, leaving only a tight tendril that connected him to the Colossus Core. “Control your connection please, I’d rather not hear your innermost thoughts.”

Yuriko hurriedly controlled the size of the tendril connecting her to the animating spirit and the core, even as her face heated up. The Colossus twitched in response to her heightened emotion but otherwise remained still.

“My, you are talented with Animus control,” Garderon said with an amused undertone. “Well then, I’m not sure if I’ve read your thoughts right, but you’ve no idea of Colossus operation, do you?’

“No,” Yuriko answered curtly, “this trip was rather sudden.”

“I see, no matter. I will cede primary control to you for now, but I will interfere if necessary. Invest fifty lumens, your entire Animus reserve, into the core.”

Her entire reserve or fifty lumens? She had nearly one hundred fifty lumens in her reserve. Still, she extruded the necessary Animus out into her Anima and funnelled it through the tendrils.

“Odd, your Animus is still in a photonic state. You are a Third Order Journeyman, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Why isn’t your Animus in a misty state then?”

She could feel his puzzlement through the tendrils and she hastily answered.

“It’s, uhm, I haven’t reached Sollus yet.”

“Eh? How?”

“I don’t know either.”

“I see. You still have the requisite amount of Animus in your reserve?”

“Around two hundred lumens. One eighty-nine free.”

“You don’t use inlays? Ah well, fifty lumens from a photonic state Animus isn’t enough to access the Colossus. You’ll need about a hundred.”

“Alright,” Yuriko answered.

“You’re an odd girl,” Garderon muttered, but didn’t comment further.

Yuriko extruded more Animus out and as soon as she outputted two thirds out, she suddenly felt as if she and the Colossus were one being. She could feel the breeze striking the lacquered wood armour, and she could feel the vibrations from the other Colossi getting up and taking ponderous steps towards a gate to her left. Experimentally, she attempted to get up on her feet, and the Colossus easily responded as if it were her body. Well, there was a bit of a delay between her thoughts and the body movement. Maybe a half-second slower. It’s not much of an issue now, but she knew that in the heat of battle, it would be crucial. She would not be able to react quickly, and any action must be thought out ahead to be effective.

She took a step, then another. The Colossus wasn’t as heavy as its size suggested, but felt clumsier. Of course, the thing’s physique was as far from hers as it was possible and adjusting to that took a while. About a few steps or so before she got the hang of it. Centurion Garderon snorted but otherwise didn’t say anything.

Of the seven students, only a couple of other Colossi had managed to move with any semblance of grace. One had even crossed the gate.

“Where are we going?” Yuriko asked.

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“The Proving Grounds. Didn’t I already say it?”

“Just head over there?”

“Yes.”

“Why though?”

“Why what?”

“Why are we going there?”

“To get you used to piloting a Colossus.” She felt him cough and the Colossus shuddered for a moment. “All students who’ve achieved Third Order Journeyman status are given an introduction to using Colossi in the Reserve Officer Training. Just in case you find yourself in a situation where you’re in a position to use one.”

“Are Colossi that common?” Yuriko recalled only seeing less than a dozen while she had been in Rumiga City, or at Fort Aegermonth for that matter.

“There’s a Colossi squadron in every legion, and there are more here in the capital than anywhere else. Even as we speak, more Koinos are being built in the Workshops. Ah, there are quite a bit of war assets in the border planes near the Xylarchy and the Coalition. Oh, but since you’re in Sharom, you’re more likely to be assigned as a Runeer.”

“Ah, yes. I think we’ll be visiting a Workshop come Firstday the week after,” Yuriko murmured.

Even as they conversed, she managed to bring the Koinos close enough to the gate to see what was beyond it. It actually led to a ramp that led downwards. She could see the two other Colossi already halfway down.

Manoeuvring down the ramp felt tricky since her acute sense of balance somewhat betrayed her now. The Colossus wasn’t her body, for all that it felt like it at the moment. She was light on her feet even if she did weigh more than her appearance would suggest, while the Koinos’ every step made the ground shudder. She tried to lighten her footsteps, of course, and practically tiptoed down the ramp.

The moment she stepped on level ground, she felt it; a wave of ambient Chaos and the iarvesh pressure increased. The air around her shimmered, and instead of the underground room that she expected, she was now on a grassy plain.

“Tidelands?” she gasped. In the heart of the Imperial Palace?

“Close, but no. It’s a Fysalli, an artificial one, to be sure. The captives would die of Chaos deprivation otherwise.”

“Do we…?”

“Yes, we have to kill them,” Garderon answered firmly. “Take note that these Chaos lords aren’t innocent bystanders. They raided across our shipping lines and caused hundreds of jade crowns worth of damages.”

A jade crown was worth a million Sovereigns. Yuriko swallowed nervously. Even the bounty on her return had only been worth ten million, or ten jade crowns. Lives were lost and ruined over such amounts. Well, even if they were captives, they were still Chaos lords, so Yuriko shook off any reluctance and readied herself. As for the other Koinos, they must have been transported across a different area of the Fysalli as they weren’t in sight.

The Koinos’ head swivelled as she surveyed the surroundings. The area was nearly flat, with few ridges. The grass was knee-high to the Colossus, about waist high to her. The breeze came from the north, and she felt it part against the wooden armour. The sensation was distracting, but since her extended Anima provided the same stimulation, she got used to it. There were no signs of the Chaos lord at all.

Suddenly, her vision was overlaid by region of colour. Green over the grasses, light purple over the air, and to the northwest, a tinge of ugly reddish-brown.

“Looks like it’s there.”

Chaos Sight. The Koinos provided a version of it to her senses. It merely showed the density and aspect of the ambient Chaos.

“What does reddish-brown mean?” she muttered.

“Fire and earth,” Garderon answered.

She trampled over the grass. The blob of reddish-brown moved, heading on a trajectory away from the Koinos. Yuriko instinctively turned to follow it. The Koinos’ arm went to her waist, towards a compartment that held its weapon. It was a collapsible spear, sized for the giant armour of course. With a deft twist, it expanded to its combat length, six paces. The spearhead was longer and thicker than a side-blade, and it had a pair of wings to prevent it from sinking too deeply into her target’s flesh. Like the Koinos, the weapon’s shaft was engraved with glowing runescript lines.

Animus, a mixture of her gold and Garderon’s green, spiralled from the gauntlets and up into the weapon, coating it in an application of Empowered Strike. The Animus formed into small cyclones and spun around the speartip and down the halt, giving Yuriko the impression that whatever it hit would not only be pierced but also torn apart.

The blob continued to move away, and the Koinos spent nearly five minutes catching up. There was no doubt that they had been spotted, from how the blob accelerated away.

The mixed Animus pooled into the greaves and boots, then cycled up to the waist and spine. It made the giant’s footsteps firmer and Yuriko could gain more traction from the soft ground. The sensation of her Animus moving without her direction was both odd and familiar. It also gave her some ideas on how to use the techniques Centurion Garderon used. She committed it to memory, determined to give it a try during her personal training.

Another five minutes and she finally caught sight of their quarry. She had met exactly two Chaos Lords before, both barons. One was the Seeker of Delights, who first appeared as a lean man, before taking her form during their fatal confrontation. The other she met under Rumiga City, in the old mine tunnels. That one had the shape of a woman’s upper body and a spider. She shuddered in disgust at the memory.

This one was different, too. It was entirely inhuman, and more a beast. It reminded her of the dire hounds she faced back in Bella’s Labyrinth. This one had the shape of a hound, but it’s head and face were disturbingly humanoid, even if it had an elongated snout with a mouthful of inward curved needle-like teeth.

It took one glance at the Koinos, face twisting in fear, before it took off.

“After it!” Garderon yelled.

Yuriko stomped down on the soft ground, letting the Animus technique around the legs take the brunt of the force. A single bound crossed nearly thirty paces and she cut the distance towards the target in half. The Chaos lord proved more agile and changed directions several times. Correcting her course widened the creature’s lead, but with every change, she streamlined her movements enough that within a couple of minutes, she was back to gaining ground. At that point, the thing must have decided that it was better to fight than to get stabbed in the back.

It twisted around itself then sprung towards the Koinos’ faceplate. Yuriko reared back, then activated her sword dances. More than half of her Animus had been invested into the Colossus, and she found that cycling the dance within her did nothing for the construct. Swearing under her breath, she forced herself to strike. The creature twisted around the spear shaft, then landed a blow to the Koinos’ breastplate.

Gold and green ropes of Animus warded the blow off, and she felt the Colossus’ reserves take a small hit. The Chaos lord bounded back, then materialized circles under its paws that allowed it to spring off in midair, essentially avoiding Yuriko’s counterstroke. They exchanged nearly a dozen more blows, all of it one-sided against her.

“This would have been easier if I wasn't here!” Yuriko yelled in frustration. The Koinos restricted her techniques, was slow and heavy, and probably couldn’t exert as much strength as she could. Its only saving grace was that it was tough. None of the creature’s strikes left a mark on the wooden armour, and only depleted their reserves. Even that wasn’t enough, Yuriko found out when she checked how much Animus was in the Koinos’ power supply. It was still full to the brim. It recovered Animus much more quickly than she ever could outside.

Well, that only meant that she was on an exceptionally tough target.

Still, she grew used to the Chaos lord’s movements and she eventually managed to clip it by the forelimb with the spearhead. The limb disintegrated in a cloud of bluish blood and the creature collapsed with a pained groan. It struggled to its feet, but it ultimately couldn’t get out of the way of Yuriko’s follow up blow.

For a moment, Yuriko wondered if it would rise again, reform its body, or rush to escape. But when nothing happened, she instead thought that it was too easy. The Chaos Lords she fought weren't this easy to take down. Was this really a Baron?

Its body had been ragged, and its Protective Field nonexistent. It had not been at its normal state and had been severely weakened.

“Well done. Now, return to the barracks.”

“Yes,” Yuriko said. With a backward glance at the shattered remains, she couldn’t help but think once again that this would have been much easier if she wasn’t inside the Colossus.