The last time Yuriko fought on the same battlefield with another beastkin was in the Bella plane, and the last time she encountered a feline beastkin, except for dear Masa, was against them. Lion, tiger, and cat. Kassy seemed different from the three tribes before though, considering she was fully capable of shifting from humanoid to full beast, and the feline features weren’t quite the same as the Kutin clan’s.

Idle thoughts really had no place on a battlefield except that she couldn’t help it. With her Anima strength, anything less than a challenging opponent, meaning a powerful Knight or Knight Captain, didn’t require her full focus.

Her Anima was doing three things at the moment, a hundred inches condensed around her body as armour, supplementing her Animus Armour relic. Another hundred were used to support her body, making her stronger, faster, and tougher. The remaining one hundred twenty-seven was diffused to her maximum reach as her perceptive aura and for her kinesis. Several strands of her attention were focused on her sunshards, three dozen in all. Yes, she could direct her attention thirty-six ways, but her ability would be limited. Instead, she designated three shards as a central shard wherein eleven others took the lead. One of the dozen was set as protection around her, ready to intercept what perceptive aura picked up on. Like the crossbow bolt that got shot her way. A sunshard moved to deflect it with only a minor point of attention on her part. The other two dozen were for attacking. And attack, she did.

Their rush was immediately noticed, of course. Even if they had been in the darkness, sentries usually had some sort of technique to enhance night vision. Other than Saki, nobody else could really run and attack quietly. Besides, Heron’s hexagonal shields glowed blue. He had one up in front of everyone who wasn’t a Knight: Braden, Orrin, Asami, Gwendith, and himself. The shields were larger than she expected, more than a pace in diameter. It was more than enough to protect them from a frontal attack.

Not that they were rushing straight into battle, no. She was the only one doing that. Ehehe. On the opposite side of the wagons, where the beastkin were supposed to attack…well, she heard and saw nothing. She half wondered if Kassy had been lying to her and the others and if they were part of the Haveenian forces.

Still, they had a limited time to attack, and there was no need to hesitate. No need for mercy either. Pulling Fri’Avgi out would make her easily identifiable, but then, the same is true with the sunshards. However, the latter was too useful to hold back on.

In less than a minute, fifteen seconds to be exact, she would make contact with the sentries. The Arclight blade left her sheath silently and she held it over her shoulder as she channelled Animus into it.

Shwing! Whoosh!

Arclight filled with Radiant energy careened off her blade formed a crescent three paces wide and flew waist-high parallel to the ground. She aimed it directly at a clump of sentries, who panicked at the sight. Some tried to duck, others to dodge. One tried to block it with his shield–Crunch!–and got bisected at the waist for his troubles.

The arclight flew past him and impacted another sentry, who had the presence of mind to insert Animus into his shield. The arclight slammed into it and devoured the Animus before it cut through the shield and into his body. It didn’t bisect him though, so it was a partially successful defence.

Yuriko’s next arclight blast went the other way though and cleaved through a couple of warriors before someone managed to stop it. Now, she allowed her Anima to glow, and her Mien reached out and inspired fear. She saw the warriors’ knees knocking in fright, with some dropping their weapons and cowering.

As her team moved beyond her perception range, she glanced at them and met Gwendith’s gaze. Her friend nodded back and smirked confidently.

Their roles in this battle were different, of course. She was to draw as much attention as she could, and engage the Master Binder while creating as much havoc as she could. The unawakened were easy to cow with her terrorising Mien. She released more arclight blasts towards the other Binders as she pushed on. The wagon circle was just a few paces away. With a quick jump, she alighted on a roof. Her perception aura pushed down into its contents.

This wasn’t a prisoner wagon, but a supply one. She flung her shards at the next wagon, which also held supplies. But the one on her left had prisoners inside. The sunshards struck the metal locks, cleaving them in twain and melting the edges.

Her kinesis flung open the doors and she yelled, “Here!” while pointing.

Heron rushed towards that wagon. He bull-rushed past the unawakened, knocking most of them flying. They landed with a sickening thud as limbs snapped. One unfortunate victim landed on the crown of his head and had his neck snap.

Orrin and Braden stood behind Heron, and both cast their lightning at any who came close. The black lightning pulled the legs out from under its targets, while it jumped from one guard to another, while the red one pushed them back. Each flicker of lightning left burns along their arms and faces, and a few unfortunate people had their clothes ignited.

Gwendith flung daggers of conjured ice, which, like Yuriko’s sunshards, danced in the air. She seemed to be able to control three of them at once, and all three stabbed at anyone who came close. In the meantime, she yelled at the prisoners within the wagon to get out and run to the desert, but from the look of frustration on her face, either the prisoners didn’t listen, or couldn’t move. A moment later, Gwendith climbed into the wagon.

Sheamus rushed towards an Adept, identifiable simply from being able to resist Yuriko’s terror. Desire sang her hymn, and glimmers of illusion appeared around her, rushing towards the sentries and pushing them astray. The images pushed at a guard, and the man staggered. Yuriko knew from her perception that no force was actually applied, so the man’s reaction was entirely in his mind.

Her moment of watching came to an end when she saw the Master Binder, as described by their prisoner. It was a tall, gaunt man, with a dark beard that reached all the way to his chest. He had a crazed look on his face as he observed the battle, his eyes zeroing in on Yuriko’s team before his gaze riveted on her. He snapped his hand and a chain extended out of his sleeve, then another from the other arm.

“Come face me!” he roared.

Yuriko obliged. She noted the other standout warriors, other Adepts, perhaps, and she noted, with relief, at the beastkin, who had finally engaged from the other side of the wagon circle. She ignored them afterwards and leapt towards the chainman.

Sunshards darted from behind her, seeking to pierce the chainman’s arms and legs, but his chains acted as if they were tentacles, moving almost independently from his actions. More popped out from his poncho, and they swatted at her shards. She focused on some, allowing them to avoid the chains, but the others were hit and slammed into the sand. She from a dozen paces away and focused on controlling her shards even as she channelled Animus into her Arclight blade.

“Spin, strike, around, below,” she murmured as she manipulated the shards.

She expressed the fused dances through them, grouping the shards into sets of three, each one doing a dance. Her focus split to eight, and attacked from all around, forcing the chainman to defend himself furiously.

She could feel the ambient Chaos around his twist, and she realised that he was trying to reach for an Ennoia, but it was rudimentary and barely formed. Radiant energy gleaned off each of her weapons, and they continued to gather it from the surrounding Chaos. Every now and then, a shard would release a thin beam of Radiant energy, holding power a hundredth of what her Radiant Lance would, but that was more than enough.

The chainman howled as the beams pierced his Animus defenses, leaving holes in his clothing. Smoke rose from his skin, and she saw black spots from where they hit. Yuriko slowly stepped closer, bringing him within reach of her perception aura. Once he was there, she would be able to see his every move.

But ten paces seemed to be the reach of his chains, and as soon as she came close enough, he flung several chains at her. They twisted and turned. Moving at dead angles. She used her reserve sunshards to defend, each of them expressing the second dance and Jade Mountain.

Ptang! Ptang! Ptang!

The chains sheared away, drawing furrows in the sand as her shards forceful deflection knocked them away. More chains appeared from chainman’s body. Ten, twenty, thirty!

More than her defensive shards could block.

She danced the second sword as well, moving her body as her instincts and skill pushed her. The Arclight blade continued to gather Animus until it was stuffed with more than a hundred lumens. The blade practically glowed as bright as a bonfire.

With a roar, she slashed low, and as the arclight left the blade, she seized it with her kinesis, then twisted it towards where he dodged. The chains formed a shield, and would have deflected the arclight, but her kinesis forced it up, then over, and down.

Boom!

Blood spurted from a deep gash on his shoulder, but the chainman was a Master Binder after all. His body was tougher than she expected.

“Who are you?” he panted as he continued to defend against her sunshards. Beams lanced from a couple of them, which he blocked with his chains. The metal was already glowing red from the heat.

Yuriko snorted but didn’t answer. She continued to advance, and soon enough, he was within her eight-pace-wide perception aura. Then, her eyes widened as she perceived a complicated runescript structure he’d formed from chains, hidden underneath his clothes.

The chainman’s hideous grin widened, and hundreds of chains burst from his body and quickly encircled her position. And in a flash, they penetrated her defensive perimeter and entangled her limbs and torso. The chains were like snakes, constricting her body, squeezing her chest, and then anchoring themselves into the earth.

“Ha! I have you now!” he yelled in triumph as Animus flooded the chains. “Your Animus techniques are useless!”

Yuriko blinked at the man’s arrogance. Her condensed Anima easily held back the chains from her skin, and even though the Animus within sought to bind to her Animus, she easily fended them off. She saw his arrogant expression turn to one of confusion.

“Fool,” she said, one of the few curse words she knew in Wojan.

With all of his chains binding her body, there were none left to protect himself. The sunshards, all two dozen of them, struck.

“Ahh!”

He screamed in pain as his poncho ignited from the heat. Bloody steam rose off his body as he stumbled. His body was aflame, and the shards continued to strike, pull out, then strike again.

But then, she frowned. A thick layer of Animus concealed his body from her vision, and the sound of the shards hitting him changed. Instead of flesh…

Paching! Ptang!

Shards on steel.

As his clothes burned away, and as his skin melted and ripped, what was revealed underneath were muscles and flesh made out of chains.

Blood dripped down from the wounds, and the chainman growled. The chains holding her twisted and tightened, squeezing harder and harder. She pushed with her Anima, but they were pressed back down to her skin. And then, her condensed Anima began to crack.