Ada's initial survey revealed at least a hundred men on horseback. Upon closer inspection, she counted 30 guards, among which 10 of them were obviously women -- giving her comfort in knowing that the society here wasn't as sexist as Earth's in the 15th century. There might be more women than she counted but knowing for sure was impossible with the heavy armor many of them wore that completely covered their faces and bodies. Despite having some discrepancies in style, all were attired in more armor than any of the guards she has previously encountered. She wasn't familiar with armor but their attire resembled more like knights than city guards, with a material that's more steel and less leather. The weapons between them were composed of lances, spears and long swords. No ranged weapons thankfully, she thought.

The one leading them wore layered silver armor that wholly enclosed the body. Holding a silver sword almost two feet in length with the right arm pointed towards her, both the armor and the weapon gleamed in the afternoon sunlight. She noticed that Ruciella and Leanne had casted their eyes aside. It would have been blinding for her as well if her eyes weren't divine. Surprisingly, the man or woman was quite short at probably only five feet three plus or minus two inches. Nonetheless, despite his or her height, the charging armored leader would have looked quite intimidating to the average mortal.

To her, their leader just looked like flashy. Ada remained unfazed on her own well-being; if she could easily crush their god, she hypothesized 0% probability that she could incur any damage from their attacks. What concerned her more was that her companions were directly in the path of their motion. Yuano was right. She didn't have enough materials here to create enough obstacles to disarm all of them. Why did she need to do though? Barriers were much more effective. First, though, she wanted to try the diplomatic approach.

"Are you sure you want your followers to see you in such a predicament? You've lost to a demigod which admittedly is very embarrassing in your own words. If you let them approach, they would know that you're buried in mud underneath stone."

"True but I don't plan for them to come this close. You think I ordered them to capture you? That would be clearly futile and stupid which I'm not."

He paused waiting for her reaction. Ada begged to differ on the stupid part but he was correct in his assessment here which perhaps gave him a modicum of intelligence in her book. Hearing no reply from her, he continued. "They've been ordered to dispose of your companions. I doubt these two magicians and the ruffian there have any capacity to defeat the city's elite guards. If you let me free, I might have enough mercy to let them live."

Diplomacy failed, she allowed herself a wry smile. Could Yuano see her expression? How it was possible she didn't know but he probably could. "Well, seeing that you're trapped here, I see no reason why I shouldn't greet them personally."

Without waiting for a reply from the god, Ada took several steps to dash to the mortals under the trees. She reached there in a fraction of a second. Her velocity was even greater than before when fighting Yuano much to her surprise. Her physical capabilities were clearly greater than she has expected and the shortage of time for intervention has resulted in her pushing herself a bit harder. When she appeared next to Leanne, her Seer jumped back a small step in surprise. Leanne quickly composed herself. "Did you just teleport here?"

"I did not. I just ran a bit faster," Ada replied. "It seems we don't have much time. I estimate five seconds."

Ruciella and Sçæaisøh said something at the same time but Ada didn't bother to reply. She would create a wall at the perfect time so that the armored guards wouldn't be able to stop before hitting it. With all of them clumped together, for normal mortals, this should work perfectly. A quick calculation showed that for conservation of linear momentum, assuming each person with an ostrich had a mass of 300 kg going at a velocity of 6 m/s and the wall's mass to be 5000 kg with 0 m/s, the velocity backwards would be 0.36 m/s in the opposite direction. The change in momentum for a person would be (6+0.36)*300 = 1908 kg*m/s. Now assuming that the elapsed time of impact would be 0.5 s and F = deltaP/deltat which meant that the force would be 3916 N. That was assuredly a large enough magnitude to knock anyone hitting the wall off of their mounts and possibly knock them unconscious as well. She sincerely hoped that none of them would die.

The other matter was the wall height. She needed to ensure that none of them could get over the wall. She assumed that none of them could fly since if they could why would they be riding ostriches? However, maybe some of them could do a superhuman feat of jumping off of their ostriches and clambering over the wall. The armor looked heavy but she held no illusions. This world did have magic and she wasn't entirely sure that the armor was not made of some other material which could be much lighter or even helped them move faster. Perhaps like a xianxia novel, there were some of them who could do it. Yuano did say that these were elite guards. She would not underestimate them. On Earth, the high jump record from the Olympics was 2.45 meters. Since they were mounted at approximately a meter off the ground, 3.45 meters would be the highest they could jump if they had Olympic-level abilities.

...

...

...

…

…

...

A wall with a length of 20 meters, a thickness of 5 meters and a height of 20 meters suddenly materialized ten meters in front of Ada's group. Just for good measure, she created a quicksand trap in front of them in case by some miraculous ability, any of the guards actually tunneled through the wall or still went over.

Two seconds later, Ada was rewarded with the sound of at least a dozen armored men smacking into the stone wall.

...

...

She felt her purse lighten considerably. She sensed that she only had five gold coins left in total including what was in Leanne's purse. I should have brought more coins if I knew we would be fighting one battle after another, Ada thought. Next time for an extended outing, she would create some osmium coins. It wouldn't be useful as currency but it was far denser which would translate to less volume needed. Preserving lives were far more important than having some extra coin.

Scarcely a moment after the preparations were ready, she was rewarded with the resounding cacophony of over a dozen guards smashing into the wall. This was followed by screeches of pain from the ostriches mixed in with cries and groans from the guards. Just as Ada was going to pump her fist in triumph, one of them somersaulted over the 20 meter wall. The gleaming sword held tightly in the person's hand was practically glowing and the three mortals shielded their eyes from the blinding light. Ada could see now that the sword's brightness was magical in nature and not just because of the sun's reflectivity. A passing thought went through her mind that perhaps she could also create such weapons herself for her followers.

Ruciella gasped and Sçæaisøh looked like he was about to faint. Ada wasn't concerned though. Rather impressive indeed but he or she couldn't fly and was following a parabolic trajectory according to the laws of gravity straight into the quicksand. Unless the guard could do a double jump like a videogame character, inevitably he or she would inevitably plunge into a similar fate as Yuano. Time seemed to slow down as she calmly observed the conclusion of the drop. A loud splash ensued a moment later. The sword's light flickered and then faded as the entire figure disappeared underneath the water. Typically, a person would float in quicksand but with the armor and downward acceleration, it was impossible. Unlike the god Yuano, this mortal would die if Ada left him or her there.

"Yuano, do you have any more men to sacrifice? Your guards are injured and some may even die."

Yuano scoffed. "Die? I don't care about their pathetic mortal lives. For humiliating me though, you shall pay with your life next time we meet."

These were his elite guards who came here to aid him and he still didn't care? Once she learned more about her powers and the weaknesses in his, she was going to ensure that he would be trapped for a very long time. Maybe even death if she found out he has actively participated in genocide, which didn't appear to be beyond his nature. She kept her anger at bay. "I suppose I'll just leave you here for a while longer."

"Hey, I answered your questions. A deal should be respected," Yuano whined.

"You broke the agreement first when you sent in your men after us just now," Ada coldly replied.

Ignoring further protests from the god, she transformed the wall and the quicksand back to her gold coins. The scene in front of her was a jumbled mess of men laying on the ground with some groaning and others silent -- probably unconscious at the very least but maybe even dead. Some of the silent ones had blood leaking out of the helmets. If she was mortal, she would have retched at the dismal sight. The man, for that was the sex of their leader, laid prone on the ground. His armor was completely soaked and his sword laid a few paces beside him. Whether he was dead or merely unconscious, she couldn't tell. No doubt Ruciella could heal some of them but she didn't want to stick around for Yuano to escape his prison nor did she feel that much inclination to do so. Though far from heartless, her heart held an anger that she didn't realize was there previously. Whether willingly or not following the God of Wealth, from previous encounters, she knew that they wouldn't bat an eye from murder.

She turned to the three mortals who was still gaping at the scene. "I think I've seen enough. We don't have time to dawdle any longer. Let's go everyone. Do any of you know how to ride these ostriches?"

Ada was heartened when she saw that Ruciella nodded her head. Leanne translated for the man and he nodded as well. Most of the ostriches have ran off but several still stood nearby next to their owners. Like men, some animals were more loyal than others, Ada thought.

"Each ostrich can only take two people," Ruciella said. She pointed at the two closest to them. "I think we can take those two. They're smaller which means they're younger so that means they're more docile. I think ..."

Before Ruciella finished, Sçæaisøh approached the most intimidating one there that stood in the opposite direction which Ruciella was pointing at. It was a full foot taller than any of the other ostriches and it looked large enough to carry all of them. Leanne looked concerned. Ruciella angrily shouted in the local tongue which probably translated to "hey, what are you doing?!" He ignored her and continued walking towards the beast all the while making gentle cooing sounds. The ostrich ignored him at first but then turned its long neck with beady eyes staring directly at the man. It started making a sound as well which was extremely loud and not at all pleasant to Ada's ears. She wasn't the only one for she saw that both the girls winced. Only Sçæaisøh appeared to not be affected.

He reached out his hand and after a moment the bird approached him curiously. There was a softer coo from the beast which still sounded raucously loud to her ears. Sçæaisøh replied in kind and the bird bent its head down to take a closer look at his face. The man stood stock still and the two looked at each other. Then, there was a softer coo from the bird and it bent its legs so that its back was at the man's height. Turning back to look at them, the man gestured with his right hand for them to hop on.

Ruciella looked surprised and hesitated before she took a step. Leanne had no such reservation and approached when he gestured. Ada took a moment as well to digest the fact that this ruffian wasn't completely useless. With the lack of mechanized methods of transportation, having someone who could tame and ride ostriches would be quite helpful.

Ada has never ridden a horse before but she doubted knowing that would have helped with riding one of these. Hopping on the ostrich was an awkward experience. If she was still mortal, the awkward would be replaced by the word uncomfortable. There was a harness on the bird's back with several looped leather straps on each side large enough for her hand to fit through. The man said something which Leanne translated for Ada. "He said to hold on and not to let go until we reach our destination. I've already told him earlier that we need to reach the highest plateau east of the city. These birds are quite intelligent and with a trained handler we should be able to reach there in less than half an hour."

Ada nodded. The man started adjusting the harness. He sat in front with Leanne just behind him and Ada behind her. Ruciella sat in the very back nearly hanging off the edge. The Seer appeared calm but Ruciella noticeably gulped. Ada asked with slight concern, "Ruciella, I thought you've ridden one of these before?"

She smiled sheepishly. "Only young ones."

Leanne laughed. "What she means is the barely mature females."

Ada was expecting a snort and a verbal punch back but Ruciella remained silent. She must be frightened which surprised Ada. The girl hasn't appeared to be afraid of anything so far. She asked her Seer. "I suppose you have ridden them?"

Leanne nodded. "For several years, I was tasked with delivering weekly correspondences from the temple to the harbormaster. Mostly for acquisition of supplies and news from other temples. Since time was frequently of importance, I would ride an ostrich every time."

Leanne turned her head and gave Ruciella an encouraging smile. "You'll be fine, Aurian."

Ruciella gulped and didn't reply. Sçæaisøh said something. Ada didn't need Leanne to translate to know that he was asking if they were all ready. Ada held on to the loop of leather on each side with her two hands. She was confident that she wouldn't fall but just in case. The man glanced back at them to ensure that they were all holding tightly. Then, he let out a loud coo and the ostrich replied in kind. It kicked off its powerful legs and accelerated forward at an incredible speed. Ada did a quick estimate of the bird's speed at around 30 miles per hour. Why the birds didn't travel faster earlier she couldn't understand. She hypothesized the smaller ones didn't go as fast.

With the wind whistling past them, vocalizing anything would have landed on deaf ears. Ada tried and gave up. If there was a Divine Voice, she had not yet uncovered how to use it. She reflected on the events of the day. Nothing in the day has gone the way it was supposed to but it wasn't a complete disaster. She impressed one goddess enough to be on her side and defeated another. She has learned on the limitations and powers of deities and the basic nature of reality. She learned about the Galacia Club, the local Academy and the history of the city.

Summarizing the events of the day and the knowledge garnered took a few minutes. She reflected on the last battle. Though it was simple to defeat the god, she wanted to be ready for an encounter with another entity. Yuano has said that the other gods were stronger than him. On the rest of the journey, she activated systemhelper and wrote three more scripts.