It turned out that the beasts were afraid of Yuriko’s flared Anima.

She found out when a four-eared rabbit wandered into her camp while she was cooking dinner. She couldn’t bring herself to catch it; it was as cute as the fluffers back home.

She’d taken to weaving the grass she’d cut into logs so that they didn’t burn so quickly. The absence of any kind of wood meant that she had to use grass as her kindling. But the damp blades also gave off a lot of dark smoke which inevitably flavoured whatever she was cooking with soot.

So, she wove logs with individual blades, using the paracord lanyards she bought a couple of Seasons’ ago as a pattern. Afterwards, she thought to dry them out near the fire. She could bring a couple of logs along with her to her next campsite where she could start over. The logs should burn for a couple of hours at least.

The breadth of her Anima had expanded over the weeks she’d kept it active. The obelisk had been a couple of weeks ago and combined with how it had been since her birthday, it was already the 56th of Earth. When flared it was now fifteen inches from her skin. That also meant her Animus blade extended that far.

“An inch longer is an inch stronger,” Damien had said that while she practised with the blade.

She couldn’t help but roll her eyes when he did. He meant something else with it, she was sure, but er…she couldn’t figure out what. Nope, she didn’t know. Nope.

The filth from Damien’s mind was slowly filtering into hers despite her efforts. Back when she had that long dream during her coma, she hadn’t known what he’d been doing with those girls. Well, now she did, and her face heated up every time she recalled it.

It didn’t help that half the time her Ancestor spoke in her mind wasn’t to impart his wisdom but to lament the lack of ‘pleasing views’ that he’d often had while Yuriko was back in Sharom. That and he sometimes spoke fondly of the numerous partners he’s had over the years. Ellana was a name that cropped up often and she could almost match that name to a face. One of those she saw when she dreamt of Damien’s life, probably.

Part of her routine had changed. Aside from the physical training, the sword dances, the Animus manipulation, and the Anima refining, she’d added the techniques she caught a glimpse of from the obelisk.

The only one that was clear was the skin hardening technique, though she couldn’t get it to work. Not on her entire body anyway.

The principle was simple enough.

She drew out four strands from her core then wove it into the runescript sigil that meant ‘Adamant’ then she pressed it up to her skin. The problem was that the four strands, which were four lumens worth, only covered a circle a couple of inches across. That was just enough to cover her wrist, palm or the back of her hand. She hadn’t tested it thoroughly but she tried to cut her skin with her combat knife and the tip just skidded off as if she struck metal.

The blow consumed her Animus, however, so she had to recreate the sigil. She also couldn’t just leave the sigil there. It ran out after a couple of minutes. It took her several seconds to form the pattern, which meant it would be too late to be useful unless she anticipated the attack. In that case, she was better served with just avoiding the strike to begin with. But she was sure that with practice she could form it faster. Besides, it was a good way to exercise her Animus control.

It took nearly thirty days to cross the grasslands. The spire was the only constant and as long as she kept it straight ahead, she wouldn’t get lost. Throughout all the time she travelled, it didn’t look like she got any closer to it.

She stopped cutting the grass as she walked. Mainly in an effort to attract predators to her. She needed more meat after all. The first one that attacked her was a strange cross between a lizard and a… chicken. It was bipedal, had colourful feathers, sharp spurs, and a reptilian maw much like that river lizard she fought before. The chicken-lizard pounced on her back, and it succeeded.

One moment she was just walking, the next she felt a jaw clamp down on her shoulder. The teeth broke through her skin but that was it. As soon as she felt it bite down, she flared her Anima and it got thrown off. Before it could escape, she grabbed it by the long neck, formed her Animus blade while avoiding kicks from its hind legs, then stabbed it in the eye. It went limp immediately.

The creature was about as tall as her chest, though it was incredibly light for its size. Yuriko heard rustling in the grass as the rest of them ran away.

“Well, here’s to dinner, I guess,” she grumbled as she rubbed her shoulder.

With the heat and humidity, she’d opted not to wear her jacket or a camisole, keeping only her brassiere on. Besides, the sun felt wonderful on her skin. Her backpack strap had a couple of tears though. Tsk.

She decided then and there to make camp. It was afternoon anyway and she needed to process the meat. She cleared a circle five paces wide. The grass blades went to one side as she built a fire pit using her shovel. She wrote runescript borders to control the fire’s spread, plopped the braided grass logs in the middle and lit it up. She filled the pot with water then started feathering, skinning, then butchering the chicken-lizard.

The cooking and smoking took the entire afternoon and evening, but by the next day, she had enough supplies for another week. Unless she used Body Forging, then that probably was just enough for a single meal.

Well, she wasn’t at training cap yet. She wasn’t really able to push herself to the extremes she managed back in Rumiga, but she felt herself slowly improving. Maybe by next year, she’d be ready.

As she moved further west, the grass became shorter. It also changed from dark green to a browner green shade. It got to the point where she could finally see over the grass without having to stand on her walking-spear. She also finally came across a stream.

It was a pitiful thing, barely a pace wide and only a couple of inches deep. The water current was also quite slow, almost nonexistent. She could see insects skating across the water, and small minnows darting about.

It was too shallow and muddy to take a proper bath in, so she just moved on. She came across more shallow streams over the next few days. During that time, she baited another chicken-lizard to attack her, killed and butchered it, and smoked the meat. The critters seemed to be incredibly foolish. They always ran away when she flared her Anima but came like flies to honey when she had it retracted.

But as the ground grew more barren, the attacks stopped. The grass grew shorter and shorter, fading from vibrant green to nearly dead brown. Finally, on her fortieth day on the grassland, the area around her was more dirt than vegetation. The air was drier, though still warm.

As dusk approached, she set up her camp. There was still enough grass to create her bundled logs. There was also some form of shrubbery. Scrawny things that were mostly thorns and branches rather than leaves. They had beautiful white flowers though.

As she waited for the stew to finish, she idly whittled on a small branch. Shaving the wood had been good for tinder, but with how she lit her fires, she didn’t need much. The piece of wood she had left was a couple of inches long and about half an inch wide in the middle. By the time the stew boiled, she’d created a little arrowhead with the branch, a far cry from the travesty she made during her elite trials in Lunette.

“..well, it’s still pretty bad,” Yuriko muttered as she tossed the wood into the fire pit. After her dinner, she cleaned the pot by scrubbing it with grass and rinsing it with water.

After she’s done her evening ablutions, she settled into a seated meditation pose and circulated PTM and Anima Refinement. There were fewer cracks in her Anima now, a clear sign that she had acclimated to the current density of ambient Chaos. She was only halfway to her goal, she thought worriedly. But she supposed that was only to be expected. Perhaps she needed to train in the Tidelands next.

“Fri’Avgi,” she called.

The artefact materialised on her lap. Yuriko caressed it lovingly.

The Chaos pollution had been all but cleaned up and it was safe to bring the artefact out. She channelled her Animus into Fri’Avgi, touching as many nodes as she could reach with a single strand. The weapon glowed with warmth though there was a strange green light coming from inside the central gem. Probably refining excess Chaos.

She sheathed the artefact back inside her Anima and settled down to sleep after setting the alarm stones. The skies were clear and the Chaos Streams were quite vivid. She let the slow and gentle movements lull her to sleep.

How many times had she slept under the skies back home? The sun, the moon, and the streams made up the heavens. The Veil covered the entirety of the plane, not just the sides. The colours of the Chaos stream were different here compared to Rumiga. There, the skies were in hues of green, blue, and violets. Here, it was greens and browns. And large swathes of black. A hint of red at some points. She drifted away to sleep, just like that.

Wreeeeee!

The proximity alarm blared in her mind and Yuriko jumped to her feet, her Anima flaring instinctively.

“What?” she muttered groggily. “Whoa!” She staggered as the earth jumped.

She felt the slightest pressure from her Anima, pushing her up and away. She followed her instincts even as the earth collapsed into a sinkhole from under her. The dirt caved in, dragging her campfire, some of her grass logs, and her pack.

Her pack!

Yuriko leapt to recover her gear. She managed to snag it off the sinkhole before it fell in.

Plop!

“Huh?”

A furrow of dirt formed from the sinkhole and moved towards where she landed. Then a fin appeared, as brown as the earth it came from. Even as she watched, the dirt erupted and a… creature leapt at her, jaws wide agape, large enough to fit her upper body in.

“What in Chaos!” she yelled, all traces of sleep gone from her mind.

She leapt out of the way and the creature dove back into the dirt as if it were water. She saw thick, stumpy legs churning to push the body into the earth, and the long narrow tail whipped at Yuriko.

She dodged it easily, though not before she caught a glimpse of a spiked tip. The beast wasn’t frightened by her flared Anima.

Yuriko circulated her sword dance, extruding Animus blades from both of her hands. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw another fin surface behind her. The ground trembled as the beast came close, and just before it leapt out of the ground, Yuriko dodged to the side, swiping her blade as she did so.

A scorched line scored underneath the creature’s eye, eliciting a pained squeal. It tumbled over the dirt instead of sinking. Yuriko charged at it, but she was a step too late. It dug back into the ground.

“Rotter!”

She felt something press against her Anima from behind. It hardened instinctively, cushioning the blow, but it was still enough to score a shallow cut near her spine.

“Ahh!”

The tail! Yuriko glared. Not only was the beast capable of travelling underground, it was also strong enough to pierce through what Body Forging had done to her skin.

Hsss!

A sizzling sound and a burnt scent wafted from her back. Her Anima had neutralized the enemy's hostile Animus before it could drill into her body. Cold sweat ran down her face as the fins circled a few paces away from her.

It was in the middle of the night, Chaos take these beasts!

Yuriko’s eyes darted about, seeking advantageous terrain. But it was flat grassland all throughout.

She focused her sword dance into the second Intent. She would not be caught unaware again!

As she shifted her footing, the creatures burst out of the ground, one in front, the other behind. High and low. She danced to the side while she slashed. Fetid blood sprayed into the air as she cut deep. Her hands flicked and parried the tails before they could hit her again.

They went back into the ground, circling around her. Always circling. Yuriko felt her blood dripping down her back. She wasn’t the only one wounded, but there may be more than these two!

With a growl, she jumped towards one of them. The creature surfaced, mouth agape. She would land right in its gullet if she didn’t do anything.

Fri’Avgi materialised and stabbed down its throat. The creature gurgled even as the gold alloyed blade burst out behind its head. Yuriko kicked off its skull and twisted in the air. The other creature was already in mid-leap.

The third sword Intent channeled through her Animus blades, morphing them from the slender blades into large jagged monstrosities. She stabbed a blade into the creature’s soft palate and the other one at the creature’s lower mandible. Then with a wrench and a loud grunt, ripped it clean down the middle.

The remains of that beast quivered and flopped, but its lifeblood spilt into the dirt, creating a foul puddle underneath. As for the first one, it died as soon as she skewered it.

“Ick,” she gagged. Their blood stank!

Dig out the third vertebra from behind their skull.

‘Huh?”

Come on! Don’t waste it.

Yuriko shrugged and did as Damien asked. She cut into its leathery skin. The creature’s head was the widest part of its body, not that she could get a good look at it. The first one was twice as long as she was tall, though the tail was half its length.

Cutting through was easy enough, and soon, she exposed the backbone. She didn’t even need to count out which bone it was. The third vertebra was glowing red. She cut it out of the creature. Yuriko didn’t even think of butchering the thing for meat. It stank too much. She did the same for the second monster. That one was a little bit smaller than the first and had a sleeker look.

“Male and female?” she wondered.

The third vertebra also glowed red. She wiped the blood off using grass and a careful application of her Animus. She couldn’t do the same with her own body, but thankfully, aside from a few spatters, she was mostly clean. Well, she needed to use Recovery to heal her back, but the blood had already stopped flowing.

“What are these for?” Yuriko asked.

Just keep them for now. They’ll be handy.

Shrugging to herself, Yuriko grabbed her things and moved her camp. It was probably only a couple of hours until dawn, but she was going to get what sleep she could.