Chapter 401: Book 6-20.3: Enemy at the Gate

By the third day, the strict rotation on the walls had broken down enough that Commander Perry only assigned half of the original number. The rest were filled with volunteers or, more likely, bored Knights who wanted to let off some steam.

Only the Destroyers amongst the militia and the legion were really necessary, as they had literally trained for this sort of battle.

Also, on the third day, just after noon, Yuriko’s patience had all but dried up. She leapt off the wall, summoning Fri’Avgi and a dozen sunshards then proceeded to massacre the swarmlings all the way to the edge of the forest.

It was both foolhardy and, if she was being frank, completely safe. As long as it was just swarmlings, they couldn’t even touch the edge of her flared Anima without the Radiant energy burning them to a crisp. All she had to do was stand there and let them kill themselves by bumping into her. No effort required, really, which was both saddening and exhilarating at the same time.

Anyway, she waded into the tide, swinging Fri’Avig with impunity. She drew in her Anima and condensed it to protect herself. After all, even if they burned at the touch, that didn’t mean their bodies immediately turned to ashes.

Afterwards, she drove herself at the swarmlings, decapitating and bisecting them, burning holes into their heads, just generally breaking them apart. She wasn’t the only one who did so, however. Just after she jumped to the tide, another Knight followed behind her.

The man was just a bit shorter than she was, wore the Agminis infantry insignia, and carried a glaive that was about three paces long. The weapon was impractically ornate. The entire haft was made of some black metal alloy and inscribed with runescript lines going up and down in spirals. It was inlaid with silver too. The blade was a bit wider than what Yuriko expected, and whenever he swung, ambient Chaos transformed into something transparent that was only visible through the spraying of the swarmlings’ blue blood. Whatever it was he projected from his weapon, it followed the lay of the land, at about half a pace high and bisected everything it came across for about twenty paces.

He gave her a happy nod as he grinned and continued his gristly work. Another Knight jumped from the wall and started flaying the swarmling with bolts of lightning that shot out to twenty-five paces, burning everything in a line. Then, she gestured and the rising motes of Chaos dust gathered around her hand. She did something with her Animus, then flung the hand out, and a fresh bolt of lightning shot to the extremes of her range. Gather, alter, then shoot.

Her sunshards continued to whirl around her, varying the distance between three and five paces. Seeing how the other Knights were able to slaughter with such a wide range, Yuriko sent her shards straight out, carving a line that led out to nearly thirty-five paces, about ten times the reach of her flared Anima.

She felt a bit of a competitive spirit rising within her, which spurred her efforts, initially done to while away the boredom, on. Fri’Avgi sucked up all of the Chaos dust from everything around her, though they were rather slim pickings. She wasn’t sure what to do with it though, her Animus reserves were topped up simply because she had her outer reserves active. In camp, it meant that she was always glowing slightly. It was dreadfully eye-catching but people were quite preoccupied anyway and it didn’t lead to anything.

She could probably do what that woman did. She used the Chaos dust as fuel for her lightning blasts, would she be able to do the same with Radiant?

Shrugging to herself and figuring that she might as well find out now if it would work, she pulled the dust from Fri’Avgi, who gave it up reluctantly and fed it into her Radiant Essence. Unfortunately, the puffs of Radiant energy created from the dust were barely enough to even create a single sunshard. Still, after she’d drawn in quite a bit of dust, her reserves were full. The Radiant Essence had a limit to how much she could feed it at a time, and it was now, er, digesting the Chaos she’s fed it.

What to do with the excess then?

A streak of blue lightning flashed from her left and Yuriko shrugged and channelled the excess Radiant energy and simply flung it from her fingertips, mimicking the lightning Knight. A bar of Radiant light erupted from her index finger, less than an inch thick. It went through the Wyldlings like a hot knife through butter but was easily stopped by the dirt.

It went through quite a few swarmlings but she didn’t get a good read on how far it reached. It used up as much Radiant energy as she converted from more than a hundred swarmlings’ worth of dust, so it wasn’t even that efficient.

Still, it was a good way to vent the excess, so she kept at it. She returned back to the outpost after a couple of hours, not willing to spend too much energy.

She leapt back up to the top of the walls with little trouble. A moment later, the glaive Knight jumped up next to her. Yuriko glanced at his insignia, then his face, crossed her eyes as she tried to remember who he was then asked, “Er, Verreem York?”

“Close enough.” He chuckled. “Veren Jake, Chainbreaker Century’s commanding Centurion.” He looked at Fri’Avgi and nodded, “Anima Telum?”

“Oh, yes.” Yuriko nodded as she sheathed the artefact into her Anima. She started when his glaive vanished from his hands, “Same?”

“Yes. Family heirloom.” He grunted, looking up at her eyes. “That was a nice way to release stress, hah! Hopefully someone’s managed to make a still and we’d actually have ale tonight!”

“Oh, er, is that common?”

“Self-made liquor, in the outposts, yes.” He shook his head. “You haven’t come to the officers’ cafe, haven’t you? We’re all curious about the unattached Knight who’s brave enough to rescue barbarian captives.” He offered her a grin. “Care to join us later?”

“Yes, thank you,” Yuriko answered politely.

“Oi, Veren, a little help!” the other Knight yelled as she ran towards the wall. The southern gate was only a few dozen paces away, but it was shut.

“Just jump up, Areena, you can make it!” Veren laughed.

Grumbling to herself, she did so, falling just a pace short of the crenelations. She managed to stick to the walls, however. One of the militiamen reached down at her with a spear, handle side down. She used it as leverage to leap back up.

In the time it took for the three of them to return to the wall, the swarmlings had once again covered the ground.

“There’s no end to them,” Yuriko muttered.

Later that evening, Yuriko joined the two Centurions and Gwendith for dinner at the officers’ cafe. While it was mostly ration bar stew, there were at least strips of meat mixed in with it. There was some kind of homebrew drink, but after a single whiff of the proffered mug, Yuriko wrinkled her nose and gracefully declined.

“It’s not that bad,” Veren said, but he betrayed his distaste by puckering his lips as soon as he drank. He didn’t stop though, so maybe it was better than it smelled.

“Yup, it’s bad,” Areena grunted. “Fermented ration bars, what else would you think it tasted like?”

“Pretty bad, then?” Gwendith agreed. She sipped her mug and grimaced, but like Veren, continued to drink.

“Aren’t you a bit young for homebrew?” Veren asked Gwendith.

“I’m fifteen, same as Yuri.” Gwendith sniffed.

“Fifteen?” Both Centurions gasped. Yuriko just shrugged.

Areena nudged Veren’s ribs. “Control your impulses.”

Veren laughed ruefully and shrugged. “With how tall you are, Knight Davar, and how competent, I thought you were already a veteran warrior.”

“I am,” Yuriko said succinctly.

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“Right, of course.”

“Think this will last long?” Gwendith interrupted.

“Who knows? I’m paid the same whether I’m stationed here or in the city,” Veren grumbled.

“Oh, hey!” A slender man with a charming smile, sporting the same Agminis overcoat and infantry insignia, walked up to their longtable. “Look who finally deigned to show herself! Welcome to the club, ehehe.”

“Sod off, Davvy,” Areena sniffed.

“Hey, no need to be so defensive,” Davvy chuckled then turned his smile to Yuriko and Gwendith. “Ah, the rescued noble and the strange, beautiful, and powerful Knight.”

“Hello,” Yuriko nodded cooly. Gwendith merely nodded.

“Hehe,” Davvy pulled up a chair and waved to the waiter to bring him some beer, “I can still hear the bugs dying, even here.”

Cocking her head, Yuriko could make out a faint screeching. “Yeah, I hear it, too.”

“Still, for a Wyldling Wave, this isn’t so bad,” he added.

“Yeah, but it feels like a blade hanging over my neck,” Veren grunted. “Not to mention the barbarians.”

“We’ll just deal with it when it comes,” Yuriko said decisively.

“Pretty optimistic, aren’t we?” Davvy laughed, but then he shrugged, “I suppose there’s nothing to do but wait. And kill.”

After a while, one of the waitstaff brought out a fiddle and started a haunting tune. The people in the cafe paused their conversation to listen appreciatively. After the song ended, he started a livelier one. Then he was joined by a woman with a couple of drums who beat out a catchy tune and another woman with a lute.

Several of the officers cleared a space in the middle and started dancing. It wasn’t a pattern or pair dance, but the sort of free form dance Yuriko observed in Rumiga City’s Blue Butterfly Inn.

“Wanna dance?” Gwendith asked when the players started a third song.

“Oh, yes, thank you,” Yuriko smiled.

“Ah, that’s how it is.” Veren and Davvy murmured to themselves.

Yuriko arched an eyebrow and the two men chuckled defensively while Gwendith gave them a pointed stare. The two of them joined at the edge of the dance floor and swayed with the beat and melody. Her last experiences on the dance floor weren’t quite so pleasant, Yuriko thought, but here, nobody stared at her with judging looks and expectant eyes.

They returned to the barracks a bit later than usual, to Desire’s miffed looks, and Gwendith bade her goodnight. She moved as though to hug Yuriko, but thought better of it and just gave a small wave. For her part, Yuriko caught and squeezed Gwendith’s hand and smiled.

Over those two weeks of nonstop battle, Yuriko and Gwendith fought on the walls, and after their shifts, loosened up in the cafe, or over a game of Shatran. There was an old board in the officer’s club, and the two of them enjoyed a game in the afternoons. Gwendith was a complete beginner though but seemed to enjoy it nonetheless. Desire endeavoured to learn and was beating the other girl handily after a dozen games.

Every day, at midmorning, Commander Perry called a conference of the off duty Centurions to debrief, align, and lay out the supply report. It wasn’t looking good. The increased activity and the inability to hunt or forage meant that their supplies were running out faster than expected.

“We should probably go for the barbarian herd,” the commander said tiredly. “Who will volunteer?”

“We’ll have to get past the swarmlings and brave whatever’s waiting out there.” One of the other infantry Centurions said.

“The Jolly Wood squadron will go,” A Colossi Core Pilot said.

“But leave the outpost understrength?” The infantry Centurion protested.

“We gained six Knights as reinforcement,” Commander Perry said. “A Colossi squad can be spared. Ration bars won’t last more than a Season the way things are going.”

“Agreed,” several Centurions murmured.

So it was that in the middle of the second week of the Wyldling Wave, a squad of five Colossi exited from the northern gate, trampled their way across the clearing and disappeared to the west. Hopefully, they’d receive a fruitful harvest.

Every day of the past two weeks, Yuriko and Gwendith trained in the Four Phases of the Sword. Gwendith made quick progress in all but Flowing Water. Oddly enough, she seemed to have an affinity with Roaring Volcano’s overbearing and aggressive style. Yuriko worried that it would leave a hole in her defences so she insisted that her friend continued to practice the former.

By the fourth day, more than a dozen militiamen joined in the practice and Yuriko readily gave instruction. By the sixth, an entire Century's worth of warriors joined in. Mostly of the militia, but there were a few junior members of the legion that joined in.

After a solid week of practice, everyone had marked improvement and by the end of the second week, with the help of the Golden Silhouette, Yuriko adapted the Four Phases to using a spear. It was quite the sight when an entire line of spearmen struck in unity with tongues of flame gathered on the spear points.

Yuriko was satisfied with their progress, which was actually much faster than her own. It had taken her several weeks of practice before she managed to resonate with the ambient Chaos.

On the fifteenth day of the Wave…

Thud! Boom!

At first, Yuriko thought it was the carronades, but the sound was wrong. And when she looked to the north, it was just in time to see a boulder flying from on top of the plateau. It crashed on the clearing, several hundred paces short of the outpost’s wall. But a chill ran down her spine anyway.

She could see more boulders in the air.

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