“Master!” Kato yelped, turning to the red-haired woman seated a couple of rows behind them. Kale, Rorke, and few other passengers stood up, faces twisted in anger.

For a moment, Yuriko didn’t know what to do. The…things…were trampling the people of the camp with the Koinos trying their best to push them back. But the Colossi…not only were they smaller than the craggy boulder monsters, there were only a couple of them against five.

Yuriko’s Animus channelled into her eyes, almost without her direction, making things clearer. The mining camp consisted of a smattering of wooden shacks, pitched tents, and only a single stone structure. There was a palisade made of thick logs with a sharpened point on top, but it proved useless, as one boulder monster smashed one of its six feet into it, bringing that part of the wall down.

Bolts of superheated plasma shot out from a watchtower. Smaller bolts, from Plasma Lancets, flew from the scattered people, but they proved to have as little effect as the larger bolts from the Plasma Casters. The shots burned and melted a tiny bit of the granite outer layer, but Yuriko didn’t think it penetrated more than an inch, if at all.

One of the Koinos swung a metal mace with both hands at one of the monsters. The weapon smacked against the shell with a resounding crack that made the Tram rock on its wheels from the shockwave. The monster was pushed back, digging a furrow with its legs. A fissure in its shell made the creature moan, and Yuriko was finally able to see its head. It was oddly flat, with nostrils mere slits in the middle of the face. Its neck could extend, though it retracted into its shell. The mouth was huge but filled with dull crushing teeth.

Not a carnivore, Yuriko thought.

On the opposite end of the shell, a long whip-like tail extended out and slashed at the Koinos, who used a forearm to block. It left a gash on the lacquered wood, and the Colossi staggered back, nearly dropping its weapon in the process. In the meantime, the shooters aimed at the crack and the exposed head, neither doing much but it did make the creature recoil.

“To arms!” Master Antiga called out. “Open the cargo space.”

Kato grabbed Yuriko’s arm.

“Let’s go!”

The few passengers, numbering a dozen, filled the aisle. The driver, who looked younger than the conductor though chubbier, pulled a lever on his dashboard, popping the door open, and got out of the Tram. They followed quickly, heading to the rear part.

Yuriko and Kato grabbed their luggage and fished out their Plasma Casters. Master Antiga gave instructions to the driver and conductor, swept an eye across the assembled passengers, skipping over Yuriko and the twins, and focusing on Kale, Rorke, Kato, and the other four with them.

“Kato, provide covering fire, clear the Grunders but leave the Stonetoises to me and the Koinos. Kale, Rorke, with me. You,” she pointed at a man with a truncheon, “follow if you can. The rest of you protect the Tram.”

“Yes!”

“Grunders?” Yuriko asked, bewildered.

“Look.” Kato pointed.

Not all of the miners and their protection were occupied with the giant monsters, the Stonetoises. Amongst the crowd, there were smaller, grey-skinned humanoid creatures pouncing on the people. The Stonetoises had broken down half of the palisade and the Grunders stormed the camp. She could see them breaking into the ramshackle buildings, sometimes coming out with sacks of lumpy things and other times carrying a flailing human over their shoulders. Sometimes the humans hung limply, and from here she couldn’t tell if they lived.

While she was staring, Kato powered his Plasma Caster up, aimed and shot a brilliant blue bolt of plasma at a Grunder carrying a still moving human. They were a half a longstride away, an easy shot for her older brother, but a difficult one for her. They had the higher ground but that didn’t matter much when the Stonetoises were a dozen paces tall. The bolt pierced straight through the Grunder’s squat looking head, dropping the creature on the wall. The person it was carrying, a woman with her dress in a tangle, rolled over on the hard-packed earth after the creature died.

Master Antiga and the others ran to the camp. In the meantime, three of the Stonetoises crashed through the palisades and headed towards the only stone building in the camp. The remaining two were held back by the Colossi.

Yuriko found a good vantage point and aimed at a Grunder. She hesitated though since the one nearest her was carrying a person. What if she missed and hit the guy? Would she have the blood of another imperial citizen in her hands? While she hesitated, Kato killed the Grunder.

“Aim for the others.”

Sweat dripped down her forehead while she shifted her aim. The Golden Silhouette had never imparted her with a long-ranged technique. She had only the techniques her Da taught her. She took deep even breaths, listening to the beat of her heart, waiting for the opportune moment. In between one heartbeat and the next she pulled the trigger, imparting the bullet with the Intent to Strike and to Pierce.

The Grunder she aimed at had a sack over his shoulder. Her golden plasma bolt smashed against its torso, melting part of its rocky exterior. The creature staggered back, looked furiously around with his beady yellow eyes and spotted them up the rise. With a roar, it summoned its fellows and charged up the incline.

Yuriko grunted in frustration, focusing on taking another shot. Three hundred paces away, her bolt drilled through its torso, dropping it for good. The sack spilt out its contents, fist-sized pieces of rock and ore, across the ground.

By this time, a dozen of them were only a couple of hundred paces away. Kato dropped a few headed their way but there were more coming up. Yuriko drew one of her side-blades and fiddled with the circular guard, causing it to unfold. She attached it to the base of the Plasma Caster’s barrel, snapped it in and locked it in with the mechanism. She finished the procedure just in time as the Grunders were a mere twenty paces away. She started circulating her Animus in the second sword dance, letting it adapt to the rifle-glaive. Orrin and Braden carried a couple of collapsible spears in both hands and flanked her.

The three remaining passengers wielded a truncheon, a side-blade, and spear. All looked like civilians, though their hands were steady. Kato kept shooting, downing another two Grunders, leaving them to fight almost two to one. The conductor and driver started shooting with their Plasma Lancets, melting through the creature’s stone outer layer, wounding but not killing.

Yuriko lunged at the closest Grunder. It was shorter than she was by half a head, but was nearly twice as wide. It’s body was squarish, limbs thick and sturdy. She had thought that they were wearing some kind of rock armor, but it was really its skin.

Golden Animus coated her blade while she avoided its barehanded blow, and countered with a slash. To her surprise, the blade skidded across its skin, leaving only a small white skid mark across its torso. She danced back, avoiding another blow, and aimed a thrust at the creature’s neck at the prodding of her sword dance.

This time, the tip of the blade sunk a couple of inches into its skin, and when she pulled back with her blade, red blood spurted out. The Grunder collapsed to its knees, clutching at its neck. Yuriko ducked out of another’s attack. She transitioned into the third sword dance, which was focused on powerful, penetrating blows, and with her Animus already circulating through the rifle, it had long been primed to fire a plasma bolt. She pointed the weapon at the creature behind the first, not even lifting it to her eyes to aim. When she pulled the trigger, the bolt flew from the muzzle, glided above the length of her side-blade and drilled through its middle, leaving a semi-cauterized hole the size of her fist.

Orrin and Braden were toying with a Grunder. Orrin used his Facet to knock his opponent off-balance while Braden used his to pull the staggering creature onto the point of his spear. Beyond them, one of the passengers with a truncheon smacked it over the Grunder’s head, and moved out of the way while it staggered. Either the driver or the conductor would finish it off with a plasma bolt.

The other passenger with a side-blade was panicking, his weapon skidding against the skin and finding no purchase despite his skillful use of Empowered Strike. Yuriko aimed quickly and shot it down. Soon, the dozen Grunders had turned into corpses. Kato continued sniping at the distant targets. Yuriko noticed most of the stone-skinned humanoids ran in the opposite direction.

Kato tried to snipe them down but either they were too far or the Stonetoises blocked the way. The giants had reached the inner part camp and demolished the building, revealing the glint of metal ingots inside. With a triumphant cry, each of the Stonetoises’ heads darted into the stockpile and gobbled it up. The dreadful and ear-shattering sound of metal being torn filled the valley.

Master Antiga and the others reached the mining camp soon after. The moment she got close to the Stonetoise, there was a blinding flash of light, and while Yuriko blinked away the glare and tears, there was a heartrending scream that made her ears hurt. When her vision returned, the Stonetoise that had a cracked shell was crawling away from her, thick black smoke rising from the crack and its head and tail.

Master Antiga was bent over and still. Yuriko turned to Kato who shook his head.

“It's fine,” he said, “but too many are escaping.”

The other Koinos started bashing the downed monster with its club. In the meantime, Kale and the others ran into the camp and started evacuating the miners.

A few minutes later, another group of Grunders headed their way. Yuriko and Kato mowed them down and those who reached melee range were met with spears and Yuriko’s glaive. Using the makeshift polearm wasn’t so different from using a greatsword, she decided. The circulation pattern for her Animus was similar enough though she wasted some on inefficiency. Still, it was better to be more versatile right now.

The odd thing was that when she used the circulation pattern of the sword dances and shot the rifle, a little bit of the Intent was imparted into the plasma bolt. The third dance created powerful shots that blew the enemy’s defences apart, though the first and second dance didn’t do much.

Kato stopped firing after a while, face pale. Yuriko’s reserves were low too, but she didn’t take too many shots. The Stonetoises were leaving the mining camp. Of the two outside, one had been killed, while the other had managed to get away. The ground shook as they walked.

After a few minutes, the Tram pulled up next to them, the door opened.

“Get in!” the conductor yelled.

They boarded and the Tram soon trundled next to camp. The Stonetoise corpse lay across the road a few dozen paces away, though the dirt around them looked firm enough that they could probably circle around. The Tram turned to enter the camp, and they parked on the main thoroughfare inside.

Up close, the Koinos Colossi looked even more impressive, even though they were dwarfed by the Stonetoise corpse. Both had taken a severe beating, with most of the wooden slats across the torso and arm shattered. The runescript was still glowing though, keeping the shattered wood relatively intact.

Master Antiga and the others were talking to a group of miners, anxiety plain on their faces. Most had sooty faces, tear-streaked cheeks, and a nearly hopeless look in their eyes.

“...we’ve lost the week’s quota and we’ve lost half of our manpower.” The speaker was a woman in overalls, her hair cropped as short as Master Antiga’s. She shook her head. “Thank you for your timely help, but how did you wind up here?”

“Landslide.”

“Ancestors,” the miners murmured. “How bad is it? Are we cut off?”

“You shouldn’t be,” the conductor interjected, “the path to Horswick is still clear, but I don’t know if we can reach Misttyre.”

“How did you draw the ire of Zarek’s get?” Antiga asked.

“We don’t know,” the head looked away, “We did nothing out of the ordinary here when they suddenly struck. Damn Zarek, why would it let its brood rampage like that?”

Master Antiga and her students frowned.

“And they captured many of our men. Most of the militia had fallen, too.” She nodded at the Koinos. “Only they survived.”

The more intact Colossi trudged up next to them, knelt and bent over until its head almost touched the ground while its hands supported its weight on the ground. The glowing runescript slowly faded while a panel on the back, just beneath the base of the neck opened up and out came the Core Pilots.

The first on out had long brown hair and a figure-hugging suit embedded with green jade. She snapped a salute to Master Antiga.

“Thank you for your timely assistance. Centurion Lleufer of the Legion Agminis on detached duty at your service.”

The second was a younger man, similarly in a form-fitting suit, with sunken cheeks and bags under his eyes.

“Decanus Cavin, of the same unit.”

“We have to rescue our men before the Grunders turn them!” The camp’s leader anxiously yelled.

Yuriko exchanged weary glances with the twins. What did she mean, “turn”?