“What’s going on?” Ella-Mai yelped.

Yuriko didn’t answer, instead, she dove into her tent and grabbed her Plasma Caster. She came out a second later, eyes darting about. The skies were still overcast, just dark enough that the flash of expended Animus was obvious. It was towards the palisade, of course, but since the wall wasn’t complete, whatever was attacking them went for the weak points.

“Eh?” Ella-Mai was still bewildered, but Gwendith had gone for her weapons too. The other blonde girl had a collapsible spear, a resonating buckler, a Plasma Lancet, and a side-blade.

“Get your gear, hurry!” Yuriko yelled.

“Oh, uh, yeah!”

She scrambled into the tent and emerged kitted out with gear nearly identical to Gwendith’s, just that she didn't have a spear or buckler. She had more Plasma Lancet cartridges though.

“Over here!” Centurion Finley yelled. “Form up! Spear wall!”

Yuriko still didn’t know what was going on. She couldn’t see who the aggressor was. Wyldlings? Well, only one way to find out. She dashed towards a watchtower a hundred paces away, not quite up to the wall, but close.

“Yuri, wait!” Gwendith called.

She hesitated, coming to a halt before her third step. Yuriko looked at Gwendith and asked, “What?”

“Stay with the Century!”

“Spear wall, hurry!” Centurion Finley called again. About thirty men and women had formed up around him, and a series of commands had them wheel towards the southern half of the wall.

“Come on, Yuri!” Gwendith yelled. She and Ella-Mai were trailing behind the formation. Yuriko glanced at the watchtower, where she could snipe away at targets at her leisure, but…

Master Antiga’s voice rang in her head.

“Follow your commanding officer. Don’t go off on your own.”

Gwendith wasn’t the commanding officer but Centurion Finley was. Gritting her teeth, Yuriko ran up next to Gwendith, following just behind the majority of the Century. She pulled out her side-blade, configured it to stick onto the Caster and attached it to the rifle’s barrel.

“I’ll have a hard time getting a clear shot from here,” Yuriko muttered.

“You’ll get your chance,” Gwendith replied grimly.

With an even pace, they soon arrived south of the palisade, and they finally saw their enemies.

“Human?” Yuriko’s eyes widened.

A crowd of bare-chested men were just slightly downhill, roaring and waving their weapons at the legion. Strangely, they waited until the men on her side formed up before they started charging. She couldn’t tell how many there were from her vantage point, but the ones in front were an easy shot.

Instinctively, she raised her weapon up, aiming down at a barbarian, for they could be nothing else other than those women taking scum. Animus gathered in her eyes, magnifying the view. She could clearly see a lead barbarian’s screaming face as he charged up the slope.

“Fire!”

Yuriko’s finger jerked against the trigger but she didn’t fire. How many men were in the camp? Two Centuries? Three? Stormwalker and Ravage Century, plus whoever was stationed here when they arrived.

From the top of the palisade, plasma bolts raked across the barbarian horde, who staggered as the superheated plasma splashed against their skin, but other than that they kept pressing ahead, towards the south and north, where the palisade abruptly stopped.

How many barbarians? A thousand? Two? Enough to overwhelm the camp’s meagre resistance.

“Fire!”

This time, she took her shot. She watched her target’s fierce expression turn to shock as her golden bolt smashed into his nose. She could see his face blacken, see the skin bubble as it melted. Bile rose up from her tummy all the way to her mouth, and it took all of her willpower not to bend over and retch.

She killed. She killed another human.

“Yuri! Do it again!” Gwendith shook her shoulder, jolting her out of her stupor.

She blinked and realized that the horde had crossed the small gap between where the Century was, and where they came from. In another second, a clash would be inevitable.

“Spears!”

With a hearty yell, spears coated with Animus from Empowered Strike thrust out.

The first line of barbarians tried to parry it with stone axes. Some succeeded, some failed, with spurting blood the result of such failure. Most of the spears punched straight through the torsos but that was a failing on its own. The stricken men grasped at the spears even as they fell.

Another fusillade of plasma bolts came from the second and third rank. Yuriko and the other two girls were behind the fifth, and even as she watched, more barbarians came around to flank them.

“Shoot, swarm fodder, shoot!” Gwendith’s voice.

Yuriko aimed and fired another shot, taking another man, no boy, straight in the face. Most of the attackers, though they were taller and wider than the average legionnaire, still had baby fat on their cheeks and scraggly whiskers over their lips and chin. Boys barely her age.

But the looks in their eyes weren’t innocent. No, battle lust was there. Hatred, anger, and a little bit of fear.

Almost without her volition, her Animus circulated into her sword dance. A barbarian came up to them, weapons raised. She stepped closer, jabbing the sword in his gut, knocked the axe off his hand as it fell towards her, and she kicked the boy away, all in the blink of an eye.

The hood of her cloak fell back as she did so but it hampered her peripheral vision and her movements anyway. Fighting would warm her up as easily as the cloak and it wouldn’t get in the way. With a quick motion, she unlatched the cloak and flung it away, just in time to block another’s attack.

The barbarian’s eyes widened as he beheld her features but she didn’t give him the chance to do much else. With her superior strength, she manoeuvred the muzzle towards his heart and pulled the trigger. The superheated plasma burned through his bare skin, though it was a shallow hit, she knew. A second shot at the same point solved that matter easily.

The legionnaires in front of her turned to the flankers, presenting spears, swords, and plasma bolts to ward them off. Aside from the two who had charged at her, most of the barbarians flung themselves at the men.

Yuriko cooly took her shots. Her mind was a whirling mess but something held the maelstrom from affecting her actions.

Damien, she thought, but that was merely conjecture. She hadn’t heard him speak since before the blizzard.

Beside her, Gwendith used her spear to ward off attackers. She had flung off her cloak too, as had Ella-Mai, for that matter and contrary to what Yuriko might have expected, the barbarians took one look at any of them and veered away.

That left her free to continue shooting until her cartridges ran out. The ebb and flow of the battle had forced the Century to slowly back off. Gwendith and Ella-Mai made sure that Yuriko wasn’t left behind, focused as she was on shooting.

When her cartridges ran out, she looked over the slope. Bodies. Mostly barbarians, but there were dead and dying legionnaires too. Even as she kept pace with the Century, more barbarians charged up the slope. The fallen legionnaires were trampled or if they still moved, met with an axe to the face.

Gwendith’s face was pale but her jaw was clenched. There was blood on her speartip. Ella-Mai was shivering.

They had retreated beyond the palisade, into the camp itself. Still, the flow of barbarians never ceased. It was a wonder that they weren’t dogpiled into submission, but no, only when a barbarian fell did another come to take his place. Otherwise, the rest waited just out of easy reach.

Yuriko could have shot them with her Caster, of course, or her Lancet. But, it seemed wrong to do so. They could have swarmed the Century and the camp and won by dint of sheer numbers, but they took care not to have more than two or three barbarians engaged against a single man. As for the women, they seemed to avoid them in the thick of battle, quite contrary to what Yuriko expected.

“They’ll probably wait until all the men are dead before moving on us,” Gwendith said grimly.

“What do we do?” Ella-Mai moaned.

“Hold fast,” Gwendith said. “Wait for orders.”

By now, the Century had boxed in the women against the wall. They were surrounded by a large semi-circle of waiting men, each with a grim yet eager face. Yuriko felt a few gazes on her, too.

Decanus Belgarde staggered towards them, blood dripping down a wound on his forehead. His glazed eyes snapped towards Yuriko and the other two. He leaned against the wood.

“You must escape,” he said in a low voice, “you’ll not like what they’ll do to you should they succeed in their raid.”

“We’re cornered here,” Yuriko said, “and I won’t run.”

“You’ve no choice. Follow my command. Break over the palisade and escape. Take those who’ll go with you. The battle is lost.”

“How can you say that?” Gwendith said heatedly. “We still stand.”

“No, swarm fodder! There’s hundreds more of those rotting barbarians. All of them are waiting for the chance to fight. They won’t chase after you not unless there are no more men here. Those are unblooded warriors and their chief concern is to complete their Blooding Ritual. Go!” He turned away, grasping at his side-blade.

Yuriko exchanged glances with the other two. “I…”

“No.” Gwendith shook her head. “We’ve received the order. We must follow.”

Yuriko shook her head in frustration. But still, her reserves were about half and her Caster cartridges were empty. “Where do we go?”

“Just away, for now,” Gwendith hissed. “We’ll break for the south as soon as we can.”

“Aye.”

The palisade was only four paces high here, barely more than twice Yuriko’s height. Scaling it would take less than a second and she suspected she could as easily jump over it. If she used Boost, she could probably carry these two with her when she did.

“Wait!” A legionnaire called out to them. When Yuriko turned to look, the man shoved a fistful of ration bars. “Ancestors guide you.”

“What about the other women?” Yuriko asked, looking pointedly at a female legionnaire.

“They refused to flee. But you three are only cadets. We cannot lose you.”

“Alright. Thank you.”

The man nodded and turned back to the fight. There were barely half of their numbers left, and they were slowly being whittled down.

Yuriko spared a thought for the last cadet in camp with them, Lukas, but she hasn’t seen him since the blizzard fell. She hoped he could make his way to safety.

“I’ll use Boost and jump over. I can carry both of you.”

“Are you sure?” Gwendith asked, “We can just climb over.”

“We’ll be spotted as soon as we do. Speed is key.”

“Alright.”

Yuriko removed the side-blade from her Caster. She tightened the rifle’s strap, making it flush against her back, then she motioned for the two girls. She lowered her stance, grasping Gwendith by the waist with her right arm, while Ella-Mai fell to her left. Animus flowed in Boost’s pattern in her Anima, transitioning to her body the next moment.

Heat flooded into her body, as well as a sense of strength and power. “Brace yourselves.”

“Ri---ah!”

Yuriko channelled her strength to her legs and leapt. She soared above the palisade, clearing it by half a dozen paces. Midair, she saw the opposite side clear, with most of the barbarians gathered at where the wall opened into the camp. They had a clear run if they headed straight away from the wall and the camp. They landed a couple dozen paces away, all three staggering as Yuriko regained her balance. Puffs of snow erupted from where she stomped her feet.

Yells and roars came from the barbarians, even as the three of them ran. The snow had been trampled down, giving them even footing, and they ran and ran down the slope. The Cinderfield Hills were covered with some evergreens but the majority of the forest were of trees that lost their leaves in the Season of Water.

Yuriko held both of the other girls by the hand, half dragging them along as she ran full tilt. They just had to lose themselves into the forest and from there, hopefully, return to Aegermonth!

“No! They're chasing after us!” Ella-Mai cried out.

Yuriko glanced back, seeing maybe a couple dozen barbarians at their heels, led by a particularly massive one. They were about a hundred paces away but Yuriko’s eyesight was enough to make out the lead man’s features. Well, boy, now that she had a closer look. He didn’t have a beard and had black hair and crimson eyes. He was looking straight at her, she realized, and when their eyes met, he grinned at her and licked his lips.

Rage shot through her veins. Treat her as prey, would he? She’ll break his legs! See how he could run then! Growling in both anger and frustration, she increased her pace. Soon, they crested a hill and ran down the other side. A ravine, a gully, and a thicker copse of trees were downhill, and they had but seconds to decide where to go.

“There!” Gwendith pointed towards the trees.

Beyond the thicket was a larger tract of forest. They could lose the barbarians there.

Yuriko ran, not looking back until they were surrounded by evergreens. Then, acting on instinct, she shifted directions. The sound of pursuit seemed to fade away, but they didn’t stop. Not unless they reach safety.