Chapter 601: Book 9-18.2: Unlikely Allies

Stones the size of her fist, head, and even a couple that were more than three paces wide, fell from cracks in the ceiling. The reflection of the night sky, with the Chaos flows and the Waning Moon, persisted even as stones dropped through them, giving Yuriko the notion that the illusion was projected from the rock rather than painted on, or something like that.

Boom! Crash! Bam!

Her eyes immediately went to her friends, as well as the two unconscious people. Asami was trembling even as she cast her Field technique. As a Journeyman, the Protective Field would be able to cover her and about a pace around her, but doing so weakened the protection. Even still, Yuriko wasn’t certain if that would have been enough to protect her, let alone the others with her.

Orrin’s antennae were swivelling to and fro, while red lightning sparked from his fingers. They jumped towards any pebbles and stones that came close and pushed them away. As for the marines, they huddled together and stared up at the ceiling, with a couple of them throwing bolts of solidified Animus against the debris. That didn’t really do more than nudge the stones away, but it could conceivably deflect a strike to the head to one on the shoulders.

Yuriko’s Anima flared to full as she saw one of the giant boulders heading their way. From its angle, it would strike the walls next to them and either bounce towards her or collapse the structure on top of them. Sunshards and arclights wouldn’t do a thing to it, so she activated her Adamant Guardian Seal. The boulder slammed into the golden-hued runescript seal and stopped cold. Yuriko used her kinesis to nudge over to a side, allowing it to settle against the wall and rubble, and effectively giving them a roof. Better than deflecting or blocking the rain of boulders, even if the thing wasn’t properly settled and she had to use her kinesis to hold it in place.

There was barely enough room to stand underneath it, and the marines took one look at it and made to scamper out.

“Wait, I have it! Stay under shelter!” Yuriko yelled.

The marines hesitated for a moment, to their detriment as a stone the size of two fists hit the other woman in the party, a thin blonde girl with unusually dark eyes named Faline Remdall, on the shoulder.

Crack!

“Ahh!” She screamed and stumbled, dropping down to her knees. Amanda grabbed her, unfortunately on the same shoulder than got hit, and Faline’s eyes rolled up as she fainted.

“Swarm fodder!” Amanda swore as the other woman’s deadweight settled on her strained arms.

Yuriko’s Animakinesis was fully occupied with keeping the boulder from tumbling down to crush them, so she couldn’t lend a hand. Thankfully, the three men managed to drag the other two back under, pulling their exposed feet away from the slamming stones.

Bam! Boom! Crack! Slam!

The rain of boulders continued for so long that Yuriko feared that the city’s cavern would collapse. Images of starving to death while they were trapped in a cave swam in her imagination, but she swallowed and fiercely pushed against the boulder with Anima and body.

The opening at the front was soon covered with loose rocks, and enough of them slipped under their shelter that she was able to lower the boulder to rest on the unsteady pile. She and the others then did what they could to secure the shelter by rolling the stones around the gaps which allowed the bigger boulder to rest easily.

It was only after the entrance was buried completely by loose stones that the stonefall ended. Yuriko pushed her perception outside, slipping her Anima through the gaps rather than forcefully penetrating the material. They were buried under several inches of pebbles and stones, but thankfully, the entrance could be cleared with only a minimal effort. Not that they could do so now, actually, with three injured or unconscious members. She drilled through the smaller pebbles and secured the openings with hastily made Animus constructs to ensure proper airflow.

“What in Chaos was that?” Amanda spluttered once the rumbling quakes and boulder rain stopped. She winced as she felt Faline’s shoulder. The area was starting to swell, and a bit of bone had pierced the woman’s skin. Yuriko’s perception couldn’t see into her body without violating the Anima boundary, but she didn’t need to see into the body to know that Faline was in a bad way. “Nagi, healing talisman!”

The tallest man in the group, who was actually a couple of inches taller than Yuriko, was already rummaging through his pack. He brought out two strips of paper, talismans inscribed with Recovery runescript patterns and regeneration patterns, and held them out to Amanda. The other woman nodded, then twisted Faline’s shoulder until the bones returned to where they should approximately be, but in the process made the unconscious woman wake up and scream, before fainting again. Only when she was sure that the bones were in a better position did she slap the healing talismans on. Animus covered the shoulder with opaque light.

The spilt blood slid right off the forceweave clothing and dripped down into the gravel. The stonefall felt like it lasted for hours, but in reality, her timesense told her that it had only been a few minutes.

Once the boulder was settled, Yuriko dug her way out, carefully so that none of the stones piled above the entrance would collapse. Once she was out, the very first thing she noticed was the broken pillar as well as the huge crevice in the ceiling. Dust and stones still fell from the gap, and many of the half-broken houses and buildings were completely collapsed now.

And because of that, there was little cover except for the natural undulations of the land. And right across her were several dozen skellies digging their way out of the rubble. Their armours were dented and torn, revealing gleaming white bone underneath, as well as an eerie pale light reflecting off bone and metal.

They saw almost at the same instant, and their eyes flared with burning flames as they crawled, marched, or tumbled towards her.

“Swarm fodder!” Yuriko cursed. The skellies were already in pieces, but even broken in half, dismembered and nearly decapitated, they were still heading towards her to attack.

Sunshards formed in quick succession around her even as Fri’Avgi materialised in her hands. The artefact’s presence increased the sunshards to an even sixty and Yuriko struck at the skellies, targeting heads and hearts, remembering at the last moment that decapitation and head shots wouldn’t instantly kill…er, destroy them.

The sunshards struck and shattered a crystalline octahedron nestled within each creature’s ribs. The light burning behind their helms snuffed out, though not without an ominous burst of light. Yuriko frowned, wondering if the same thing happened back near Uaran.

“No, it didn’t,” she muttered. Then, they simply collapsed on themselves.

Either way, the skellies were as easy to dispatch as ever, so she cleaned up the whole lot within easy reach before beckoning to her friends.

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“We need to move,” she said quietly. “The skellies are amassing nearby and it looks like they lost contact with the Femorants and are hunting for other foes. We should get out of their immediate vicinity.”

“Alright,” Amanda said even as Seran protested about the wounded. The dark-haired woman rounded on the scout leader and growled, “Our position is compromised and it’s better to return to the others.”

Reluctantly, Seran nodded and the scouts helped carry the other two unconscious men while Amanda took care of Faline.

“Which way?” Yuriko asked, and Seran pointed. It wasn’t in the direction that Braden and the rest of the group were in, in fact, it was almost the opposite of it. Yuriko hesitated for a long moment, torn between going back to her friends and nascent people and going to see the cousins that had rescued her from Bella plane. Still, She had no idea how to get back to Cerkala while the scouts had a clear path towards whatever outpost city they settled in. “Lead the way.”

“We’re in your care, Lady Knight,” Seran bowed.

“Alright,” Yuriko answered automatically.

Despite the earthquake and crashing stones, the terrain they passed through wasn’t much different from before. Well, there was more rubble on top of the streets, or what was left of them. Most times, if not for her perception aura, she wouldn’t have been able to tell if they were walking on roads or on top of collapsed buildings.

Seran’s eyes glowed with red Animus light as he activated his technique. Facet ability, Yuriko thought, considering the ease at which he used it and how long he could keep it up. He unerringly led them without minding the rubble or blockages, though they avoided going up on crests and ridges, keeping generally out of sight.

Graaagh! Aghaaaa!

Skellies dug themselves out of the rubble and Yuriko finished them off before they could come close. More and more of them appeared, out of the debris, or mostly coming towards them over the buildings. Her Anima light was probably what was calling to them, considering that the skies were dark and the only light came from her and…from luminous blue moss scattered along the cavern’s walls.

And from the skellies, too. Their eyes glowed strongly enough that they could be clearly seen against the darkness. Yuriko growled as she destroyed every skelly that came close, but as she had feared before, they seemed like an endless tide.

More and more came. Along the streets, over the walls and buildings, and around corners. Where were the Femorants that they were fighting before?

“We have to detour!” Seran said while mopping the sweat off his face. There’s too many of them ahead.”

“Rotting walking corpses! Where are the normal Chaos dwellers and Wyldlings to fight?” The third man in their squad, Louen Verne who was stocky, short, and with brilliant green hair, yelled. He pointed at one of the skellies and flung a small greyish bolt from it, which splashed and seeped into the skelly’s armour. Acrid smoke spilt out of the crevices of its breastplate and the thing collapsed into a heap a few seconds later. “Don’t have much of that left…” he grumbled.

“Then save your Animus, you dolt,” Amanda growled right back.

“But I can’t just let her do all of the fighting!”

Amanda rolled her eyes and stared at him disdainfully, while Louen devolved into sour mutters. From a few paces ahead, Yuriko observed the byplay and had to hold in her chuckles. Louen reminded her of Zeyn Strider, one of her batchmates in the Atavism Ritual. She’d barely saw them back in Faron’s Crossing, considering how busy she got.

Her musings were interrupted by roars and shouting, as well as battle that wasn’t theirs. Yuriko spotted the combatants easily enough. They were right over the next hilltop, or building rubble top. A group of warriors engaged in melee with the skellies. They were awfully outnumbered and even as Yuriko watched, one of the defenders was grabbed by an armoured hand and flung towards the rest of the skellies. Weapons rose and fell, and along with a gurgled scream, their fate wasn’t hard to imagine.

Yuriko shifted her heading towards the beleaguered group, ignoring the fact that they were likely to be Federation warriors. They didn’t fight with Plasma Casters or Lancets, but with clubs, axes, crossbows, and blades, with the odd Animus blasts every now and then.

Even if they were Federation people, they were still humans being attacked by monsters, and she couldn't bring herself to abandon them to their fate.

“You’re too kind,” Orrin murmured with a rueful shake of his head, but his antennae were quivering in excitement.

Your boytoy is right, of course, heh. Damien said in her mind, But you have strength and power, and the luxury to do whatever you want.

Yuriko shrugged uncomfortably, especially when she recognised one of the fighters. It was a big, bulky man slamming his fists into the skellies. Unlike the last time she saw him, however, his attacks packed up a lot of… er, punch. The skellies struck practically flew apart. Still, he was the only man who could hold his own. The rest were being pushed back and he was in danger of getting cut off.

Even if Lucian, the Garamus explorer, annoyed her, Yuriko still chose to help. Her sunshards struck at the back of the horde and decimated the skellies. The man noticed them and yelled to his compatriots in Wojan, too garbled and accented for her to make out. But the group pushed towards them, rallying behind the bulky warrior.

His eyes widened in surprise once he got a good look at her, but he nodded in gratitude and crashed against the skellies. Once he was close enough to them, he yelled, “We are in your debt. But we must run, there’s thousands more of them. Hurry, before we get caught again!”

Yuriko nodded, though if the creatures were so fragile against her shards, she didn’t really mind if they caught up. But then again, her allies would be frantic without her, and she’d rather not make Gwendith cry.

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