Chapter 774: Book 12-7.1: From Duskfoot Guard

With a pleading glance towards Yuriko, Gwendith grinned when she saw her beloved silently acquiesce. She knew that the current fight would be trivial if the other fought, but it wasn’t as if Yuriko could always be there to protect her. And the way to get better was practice. And in this case, using her abilities in the heat of battle would be nice.

The strange environment was both an advantage and a detriment. There was practically no ambient Chaos in the air, but oddly, there were motes of other energies. Heat energy and cold energy? Or perhaps something more primal? Fire and Ice, or perhaps Water?

Gwendith didn’t quite know, just that she could sense the energies, and—

She extended her Anima and caught the motes within. She attempted to impose her Intent on them, and was surprised to see that the energies quickly turned compliant. She quickly compared the twin energies to the one she produced within her Essence.

There were more differences than similarities. If anything, her Ennoia energies looked like a combination of the two outside. Which sort of made sense, if she looked at it from another point of view. She used her Ennoia to manipulate temperature, hot and cold, while these seemed to relate to fire and water? She still couldn’t quite decide. The absence of ambient Chaos, which was the base form of everything, was disconcerting. Anyway, could she use these elemental energies to fuel her Animus regeneration?

Well, the question would have to be answered later since the monsters were closing in. The Wind Darter stopped and hovered. Gwendith jumped over the railings, landing softly on the hard ground. Next to her, Heron did the same, except his boots sunk an inch into the stones. His Anima flared for a moment, then condensed around his skin.

Over the past weeks after both of their Actualisations, Gwendith’s Anima reach had expanded by half a pace. Heron’s growth was even faster, increasing twenty-two inches from before. That still meant she was ahead of him by eight inches or so, but the gap was closing.

Gwendith pulled at the cold elemental energy and forced it into a dagger shape. It took a bit longer than she expected, especially without using Animus. Too long. She gave up and expended some of her outer reserves. A dozen scales fell off from her upper arm and reshaped into a hiltless dagger. Anchored by her Anima, the weapon hovered in front of her even as the first of the beasts came within a hundred paces of the sloop.

Heron had not been idle while Gwendith shaped her weapon. He rushed towards the nearest one, a slender brute that looked like a cross between a cat and a lizard. The beast punched Heron, who met the attack with planted heels and a counter punch. His fist slammed into the beast’s open maw, and instead of the fangs piercing his limb, the beast’s teeth shattered along with its jaws, then its skull as Heron’s attack crushed everything in its path. His fist emerged behind the head, while the decapitated body collapsed at his feet.

Gwendith’s focus snapped to another of the beasts, which was a bit bulkier and slower. Its head, body, and tail were like that of a river lizard, while its limbs, all six of them, looked more like a lion’s. It swerved around its fallen packmate and charged towards her. Gwendith flung her ice dagger straight at its eye. The beast covered its vulnerable point with a scaled eyelid, but the razor sharp dagger stabbed right through it.

Graggh!

The shriek of pain was cut short as the dagger pushed through the eyeball and deep into its brain. The creature collapsed bonelessly, and Gwendith absently noted the blurred energy motes that dispersed from its body.

She moved away from the sloop as she called the weapon back to her side. She conjured another ice dagger, and a third. That seemed to be her current limit of control. She could only set the third one to revolve around her while using the other two. She could freely control them within a dozen paces or so, but she could certainly throw them much farther if need be.

Heron had killed a second and third beast. The slower creatures were much tougher, and the fourth one was suddenly covered with a brown, earthen light. And a moment later, actual earthen plates formed around the monster just as Heron’s punch hit it.

Dong!

The sound reverberated in the air, even as the plate shattered under his fist. It left the beast unharmed and allowed it to lunge for the young man’s throat. Gwendith snorted in derision as the creature’s fangs shattered on his condensed aura. Heron’s next blow struck the same place, now unprotected, and crushed the beast to a pulp.

These things were quite weak, weren’t they?

Gwendith’s dancing daggers slew her fifth beast by now, and she’d advanced in front of the sloop far enough that she was about twenty paces from the bow. On the other side of the ship, she saw Devotee crushing the monsters with his maul in a display of exuberant glee.

Desire was still on the ship, looking at them while perched on the bow. As for Saki the Shadow Guard, Gwendith saw a few of the beasts seemingly dismembered or had their throats slit without any clear cause.

Yuriko was simply standing next to Desire, watching them fight.

Ah.

A beam of golden light flashed from her beloved’s eyes and sliced a couple of monsters in twain. Gwendith caught Yuriko’s gaze, and the other winked at her.

Show off!

Gwendith leapt back onto the sloop to get a better vantage point. Heron and Devotee, after slaughtering a few more beasts, headed back when no more came. Other than the mangled corpses, there were no signs of more attackers.

“What happened?” Gwendith asked. “I thought there would be more.”

Yuriko smirked as her Anima flared. Her powerful kinesis lifted the sloop high up in the air, and the circumstances became clear. Most of the beasts that charged towards them were either dead or fleeing. In fact, the entire line was moving away from them.

“Hmmm, is that going to be trouble?” Gwendith murmured.

“Maybe,” Yuriko said.

“You think there’s other people here?” Heron asked.

“It would be strange if there weren’t.” Gwendith retorted.

“So what now?”

“Yuri?”

“Let’s follow?” Yuriko said, “If they run to villages or towns, it would be our responsibility since we drove them away.”

“Those beasts attacked us without provocation.” Heron pointed out.

“Do you have a better idea where to go? Other than the east?”

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“No. I guess following them is as good a direction as any.”

“Ah, but don’t push yourself,” Gwendith interjected.

Yuriko simply shrugged, “This is easy. And did you two notice?”

“Notice what?” Heron asked.

“Ennoia energies,” Gwendith answered.

“Yes. Without ambient Chaos, the Radiant energy is much more obvious,” Yuriko said.

“Radiant? I didn’t notice any,” Heron said, though he frowned. “I think I see something else.”

“Same,” Gwendith admitted.

“It seems we’ve come upon a rather interesting place,” Yuriko said with a soft smile.

“Then let’s see what else there is to this.” Gwendith grinned.

____________

Cillain Coinoch stood on his Steeld’s saddle while the mechanical horse trotted towards the kill zone. The extra height gave him a good vantage point and he could see the herd of Twisted Beasts as they made their way through the shallow valley. They would reach the natural choke point in a few minutes, while his patrol group was ready to unleash death upon them from the  cliffs.

It was not an honourable tactic, which still bothered him even though he knew the Twisted would wreak destruction and death upon the lands of the Republic. Mindless beasts. Driven only by instinct to feed.

But the ones at the border aren’t quite the same as the ones formed in the Founts. Cillian shook his head as he dropped back down to his seat. He noticed his men wince as his crotch seemingly smashed onto the saddle, but really, these old fogies didn’t know modern uses of Arcana. It only took a free intrinsic circle to cast a kinetic barrier, even if all it was good for was carrying light things or stopping things from hitting him.

The Twisted entered the valley and continued on. But there were fewer of them than expected. Cillian looked up at his two scouts. Corporal Ortiz was circling above them while Private Rivera had split off. Probably to track where the other half of the herd went.

There were no trees or any other kind of life in the Wasteland, so the only cover to be had were boulders, ridges, and gullies. An ill wind stirred and Cillian cursed. The Twisted were suddenly downwind of them!

The lead beasts threw their heads up, their nostrils flared. The scent of Steelds was rather potent. Machinery oil, Arcanum, and En Shard crystals. Coupled with gunpowder cartridges, blade oil, sweat, perfume, and whatnot. The Twelfth Company was becoming a bit rank after a week of patrol too. Or maybe it was just Cillian’s sensitive nose. He was human, but perhaps he had a bit of beastkin blood in his ancestry.

“Company present.” Cillain commanded. They were in a skirmish line, all eighteen of them. Their Steelds showing their flanks to the beasts, ready to turn and retreat at a moment’s notice. He drew his rifle from its holster, though he wasn’t going to use it as an opening salvo.

Instead, he presented his palm towards the beasts as they charged uphill towards the company.

“Innate spell: Concussive Blast.”

From around his body, elemental fire gathered. They spun into the sigils engraved into his heart, channeled towards his limb, and expressed from his palm. An orb, two inches wide, formed, and a moment later, blasted towards the nearest beast.

Down the line, each member of the patrol group attacked. Half chanted personal spells, all of the other humans, and half of the Durandir. The beastkin merely used their firearms since their innate spells weren’t offensive in nature. As for the five Sha’ledras, they retrieved javelins from their holsters, reared back, and let loose. The javelins caused the air to boom as they flew even faster than rifle bullets. They slammed into the Twisted and pierced right through their tough hides.

Cillian couldn’t help but chuckle at how the Sha’ledras used Arcana Weaving. They put all of their focus on the body and empowered it beyond compare. However, their spellcraft was limited to what the mortal coil could sustain. Certainly, very few of that tribe ever surpassed a Grand Magus in power. Still, the long-lived, and long-eared race danced to their own tunes.

“Again!” Cillian commanded.

The strain of channeling, or using Arcana Weaving, wearied the mind. He could only use his innate spell a number of times in quick succession. That number was usally equal to the number of intrinsic spell circles he could form within, and as a Journeyman Magus, he had three. Concussive Blast occupied two circles, while the last one was always left free. That was the protocol for the military, to allow each and every soldier the versatility to use Arcanatech.

“Concussive Blast.”

Another orb of fire, that slammed against the same beast. The first orb blew off a shoulder and part of the front leg, the second one hit it dead on the face, and exploded its skull. The creature tumbled and fell, then soon got trampled by its fellows.

“Pull back to the first rendezvous point.”

The Steelds turned away from the climbing Twisted Beasts and galloped away. The Mechanical Horses were more surefooted than real live horses as they ran down the slope, a feat that would have resulted in broken legs and heads should they be attempted by living bodies. Cillian twisted around to check, but none of the Twisted followed. They were probably busy scavenging the dead. A pity for the lost En Shards.

Half a day later, they were at another kill zone, ready to repeat the process until the herd was annihilated.

Then, Private Rivera came down from the skies to report, panic writ clear in his face.

“There’s another beast horde. Carnivores.”

Ah. Well, reason to panic indeed.

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