At almost the exact moment Yuriko leapt to attack, Aidan grabbed her arm and attempted to pull her back. Attempted.

She had considered both of them to be in the same general fitness level, having both completed Strengthen Physique. But she was in mid-leap. So what happened was that she dragged Aidan off his feet and she stumbled and they both landed in a heap. Fri’Avgi dropped from her hand and bounced off the ground with loud clangs.

“Why’d you do that?” she yelled as she pushed Aidan off her legs.

“Swarm fodder, Yuriko, don’t be hasty!” Aidan grumbled as he got on his hands and knees then crawled back behind the outcropping. He glanced back and nodded sharply at her to follow. Yuriko grumbled and followed, calling the artefact to her hand when she was near the others.

“Don’t just rush up,” Riley admonished. “You did the same thing at the Waypoint, and nearly got yourself snipped by that crab.”

“That didn’t happen,” Yuriko protested crossly.

“Anyway, wait until we come up with a plan of attack.” Aidan said, “No use rushing at them.” He stared pointedly at Fri’Avgi. “They’re probably after you anyway.”

“Eh? Me?”

“Your artefact,” Reinhardt said. “You know kingdoms start wars to get them right?”

Yuriko frowned. “You mean the reason those pirates wouldn’t leave us alone is because of me?”

Aidan and Riley glanced at each other, coughed into their hands and shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Probably,” Reinhardt said. “Not that that makes it your fault,” he backpedalled when her frown deepened, “It's entirely their choice to go after you.”

“But they want Fri’Avgi,” Yuriko said slowly, “and by using her to defend the Horizon during that first encounter, it only gave them more cause to pursue.”

“Let’s not focus on that, right now,” Aidan interrupted. “We have to get to the Horizon soon. And hopefully, Aunt Layla would have fixed it by now.”

“Eh? What do you mean?” Yuriko yelped. But whatever he could have said was precluded when the ground shuddered from the weight of a Colossus’ footsteps as it moved towards them.

“Burning Moon!” Aidan growled. “Riley, shoot at the eye holes, Yuriko, take out its legs. You three, try to distract it and keep it from focusing on me or Yuri. Go!”

“You shouldn’t have stopped me earlier!” She growled as she leapt to her feet. She brought Fri’Avgi above her head, while she kept the sunshards circling around her body protectively. Running the fused sword dances gave her less than an hour to fight, and she’d rather not waste time!

A brilliant purple plasma bolt shot towards the giant, who raised its forearm to block. The pirates’ Colossi looked markedly different from Imperial ones. The ones she saw back in Zarek Mountains were humanoid in shape and proportions and looked much like how a person would look if they wore heavy armour, if one that was made of wood instead of the metal ones of antiquity. These ones were still humanoid, but the proportions were off by just enough to make it uncomfortable to look at. The torso was short and broad, the legs long and spindly, and the arms were longer than the legs, and nearly twice as thick. They walked on two legs though, and she half expected them to use their forearms to support their weight.

As soon as Riley’s bolt got blocked, it paused and looked at her as she ran up to it. They were nearly fifty paces apart, too far for her to send the sunshards. She could hear Aidan running just behind her and to the right, and she could see the glow of his controlled plasma balls out of the corner of her eye.

The Colossi raised its hands up high, then waited. A couple more plasma bolts shot at it, but a deft twist of its head let the bolts splash harmlessly across the helm instead. Well, not completely harmless. The wood started to smoulder and smoke.

With a roar, Aidan sent a couple of plasma orbs spinning towards the Colossi, then diamonds flashed past her and smacked into the wood, sending splinters flying away. Yuriko sent the sunshards at the head as she veered to the left and shifted her grip on Fri’Avgi to swing.

The sunshards burned into the helm, straight at the eye slits, but the Colossi was undeterred. Its arms came crashing down at her as soon as she stepped within reach, which was farther than she expected.

Gritting her teeth, she condensed her Anima above her head, angled it to the right as she sidestepped left. Before it could strike her though, Aidan’s plasma balls, and Reinhardt’s diamond shards, smashed into the arm, deflecting it just enough that it only glanced off her Anima, leaving her wholly unharmed. The next moment, Fri’Avgi bit into the leg, just above the knee. And with a grunt, she threw her entire bodyweight, all fifty Jin of it, and all of her strength, into the blow.

The jagged Animus edge sheared through the wood and came out the other side. She jumped out of the way, expecting the Colossus to crash down where she had been but had to use her Anima as leverage to change her trajectory in mid-air when the thing’s hand lunged towards her.

Boom! Whist! Hsst!

Riley’s and Aidan’s attacks set the Colossus’ body on fire, but that wasn’t really enough to keep the thing down. It got on its hands and knees and swiped at her. Even like that, the Colossus was still taller than her by a couple of inches and definitely could reach farther.

The second dance prompted her to meet the Colossus’ arm with the edge of her blade, and at the same time, her Anima stabbed into the ground, giving her a strong enough anchor to match the Colossus' mass. Her downward swing had the tip of the Animus blade catch the space between the second and third knuckle, then split the hand, then the forearm as the giant’s swing pushed its limb into her blade. Her knees bent to absorb the force of the blow, but even still, her feet and Anima dug a furrow a few paces long. Her sandals burst and it was her bare feet and toes that dragged across the hard stone.

With a twist of her waist, she split the entire arm in half, while the sunshards drilled into the helm. They came out on the other side, but as before, it didn’t seem to mind losing its head. Instead, it used its other hand to swipe. This time, she jumped over it.

Aidan rushed towards its chest, on his palm were five plasma orbs that he pressed against each other. That shouldn’t really magnify its strength, Yuriko idly thought, but perhaps some aspect of his Facet did something that made it more potent. When he smashed the compressed and combined orbs into the chest plate, the explosion actually caused it to rock back and topple over. The thunderous sound echoed across the plateau.

Warily, Yuriko looked towards the Chaos ships, but none of the three reacted. Instead, they were slowly moving to manoeuvre around the rampart protecting the Ebon Horizon.

Thud. Thud!

But that didn’t mean that their enemies were ignoring them. The three nearest Colossi made their way towards her, and beyond she could see at least half of the giants moving away from the Horizon.

“Tsk. I’ll take care of those. Hurry to the Horizon!” She yelled back and was off before either of her cousins could protest.

“Watch out!” Reinhardt yelled.

Yuriko couldn’t help but look back and she released a startled gasp when the Colossus she thought had been destroyed was struggling to its hands and knees. The torso was still burning, with huge billows of black smoke lingering in the still air. The Colossus ignored Aidan and the others, and was instead, crawling towards her. It wasn’t quick at all, but with its four pace height, it still devoured the distance between them.

Her eyes met Aidan’s and her cousin clenched his jaw so hard that she could practically hear his teeth crack. Then he jerked his head and used his Plasma Lancet to create more orbs. He gathered more than a dozen of them before he repeated his trick. This time, he aimed at the other leg and managed to blow it clean off.

While that happened, Yuriko danced around the nearest Colossus and severed its knees. Whoever piloted these things were simpletons. Their movements never varied, and their attack pattern was either a sideways swipe or an overhead smash.

All three of them converged on her, and with a sudden impulse, she ducked and dodged instead of parrying.

Crack!

A Colossus smashed its arm right into one of its comrades. The blow was strong enough to shatter the wood, with splinters flying about. Her Anima protected her, and she teased another blow out of the thing and positioned herself so that it would hit the third Colossus when it missed her.

Twack!

Right on target.

She smirked as she rolled under the remaining Colossus’ arm, then transitioned into a sideswipe. The sunshards struck each of the fallen Colossi until the things started to burn. She glanced back at her companions, hoping to see them already on the way to the Horizon and away from the other Colossi, only to find Aidan, his face a thunderhead, mere paces away from her.

“You stubborn, musclehead!” he snarled, “I told you we move together! And stop running off for independent action!”

Yuriko leaned back, her mouth agape. The others were close by and each of them struck at the fallen Colossi, taking limbs off to prevent them from moving effectively.

“Now, obey orders, Chaos burn you!” Aidan jerked his hand and led them towards a different route than the one she intended. More of the Colossi moved towards them. The things usually stopped in mid-action to head towards them.

Yuriko meekly followed Aidan’s instruction, which was essentially to cripple the Colossi after he or Riley distracted it. They did the same for a dozen of the things with little problem. The patterns never changed, and it became easier to defeat the Colossi as time wore on. At least, until the pattern changed.

One moment, the Colossus went after Aidan while Yuriko swung at the knee, the next, the thing pulled his leg up and out of the way, and only the fact that Fri’Avgi’s weight and momentum were utterly under her control was she able to prevent herself from spinning off balance. She stopped the weapon in mid-swing and reversed her strike, and managed to catch the Colossus’ foot and sheared it off.

The thing stomped down at her, to which she jumped out of the way. Riley’s bolt caught it in the faceplate, but it ignored the blow and chased after her.

Well, it was still slow and ponderous, so she had little trouble dancing around its blows. Only, it took nearly a minute before it was destroyed. Yuriko stabbed Fri’Avgi to the ground and leaned on the hilt, panting. Her Animus reserves were precipitously low, and she was on the verge of running out.

“What was that?” she gasped.

Devion, still carrying Tiernan over his shoulders, pointed to the distance. “They stopped moving.”

He referred to the rest of the Colossi, who had frozen stiff. Except for three, who were moving directly at them.

“What happened?” Aidan asked.

“They just stopped,” Riley muttered, with the Isgeri nodding in agreement. Reinhardt and his bodyguards were barely any help with the fighting, but they made excellent lookouts.

Three Colossi stomped towards them, and she could tell immediately that something was different about these three. They didn’t have the lumbering quality of the ones they’d fought before, and there were lights shining behind the faceplates, right where the eyes would have been. She could feel their gazes at her.

No. Not her. Fri’Avgi.

Avaricious gazes, and eager steps. It was as if whoever controlled the things finally noticed her and the artefact. Worse, the ships stopped moving and were turning to face her.

Crack! Crunch!

The Colossi…started to compress and fold in on themselves as they walked. They grew smaller and smaller, yet far denser. By the time they were the size of a normal human, each of their footsteps caused the stone they walked on to crack and shatter.

The heads of each changed form, with the faceplate retracted and facial features formed. A woman and two men. The woman stared at Fri’Avgi and it wasn’t difficult to see the naked greed and desire there. The other two men looked at Reinhardt instead, and the prince’s face paled.

“Captain Ester,” he stuttered. “Why?”

“You should have given up, boy.” The man on the woman’s left said. His voice sounded strange and echoey and the Colossus’ lips didn’t really move. “It would have been easier.”

“You’ve no chance to live.” The other man said with an arrogant tone, looking pointedly at them. “Surrender and you will be spared. Ah,” He grunted, “Except for the Verdanian Knights. There is no quarter with people of your power.”

Yuriko’s knuckles whitened over Fri’Avgi’s hilt.

“Do your worst.” she spat out, then sent the sunshards flying.

“Burning Moon!” she heard Aidan growl. “Why do I even bother planning?”

Yuriko felt heat suffuse her face but she pushed aside feelings of shame and guilt. The sunshards flew as fast as her thoughts, and one slammed right into the arrogant man’s face.

With a casual swipe, he slapped the shard away, growled, then leapt straight at her. That was when the rest of the shards struck him from behind. Splinters and embers flew from his back, but it didn’t stop him.

In the blink of an eye, he was up in her face, and his fist was but inches away from her nose.