It turned out that Yuriko didn’t need to ferry the other women across the remaining gap between the ice bridge and the opposite shore. Pavo, the third and shortest man of the scouts said that he could create platforms of light that should be able to hold anyone’s weight. Gwendith wasn’t sure that was a good idea, but it would allow Yuriko to rest and ready herself for the coming confrontation.

Worms of anger wriggled in Gwendith’s guts. How dare the barbarians chase after them? Were they that eager for slaves and breeding stock? There were more than enough women amongst the tribes. Gwendith thought it had more to do with each barbarian male’s pride and greed than anything else. Or perhaps their pride couldn’t take the idea that the women they tried so long to break had managed to escape?

“You should go on the other side,” Yuriko said as she walked by Gwendith.

Gwendith tilted her head. “You think I can’t help you fight? Or do you think I’ll be more hindrance than help?” she added, a bit more fiercely than she intended.

Yuriko froze up and gave her a half guilty half measuring look. Gwendith kept her gaze even then revealed one of the ice daggers she shaped from the snow. The taller girl sighed then said, “Keep near me then.”

“I can handle myself,” Gwendith replied, trying to recapture the confidence and dignity she had before she had been captured. The cold, shivering wretch that she had turned into the past year she kicked down and stomped on. She wouldn’t cower or fear though her hand still trembled.

“I know you can.”

Yuriko’s smile filled Gwendith with both warmth and confidence. She could feel it in her bones, the strength to fight back and the certainty that the other girl wouldn’t leave her behind or abandon her. She knew that if not for that Chaos rift suddenly appearing back then, Yuriko would have never left her behind. Maybe the two of them could have gone back to Aegermonth safely, too.

“But we don’t know how strong the barbarians are,” Yuriko continued, “so, let’s be a bit cautious.”

Cautious? Miss reckless, independent action taking, headstrong, and monstrously powerful Yuriko talking about caution? Perhaps she would be cautious, but only if it rained silver coins. Gwendith snorted and gave Yuriko a pointed stare long enough that she started to fidget and blurted out, “What?”

“Nothing at all,” Gwendith murmured.

In a few minutes, Pavo had managed to create planks made out of solid light. Actually, it was now a single plank that stretched out over the water and it bent distressingly close to the current when he put his weight on it. It was quite clear that the man wasn’t using the Imperial System since Gwendith could see him channel his Animus into his gloves. To her Chaos Sight, those things were thick with condensed Animus.

“Hurry! I can’t keep this up for long!”

“Burning Moon! Hold on to your horse, Pavo!” Lucinda grumbled. “It’s not easy walking across this slippery thing!”

“Ah!” Gweindith gasped. She and Kalla were supposed to make the surface a bit rougher to make it less slippery, but since the bridge wasn’t finished, that treading wasn’t done either. It was a bit too late to start on it now; changing the surface of the ice took several minutes per square pace. This meant that the women had to cross slowly.

Once they all made it across, Pavo’s solid light boards collapsed, and so did he. Animus exhaustion, no doubt. But now, here they were, with only twenty-five paces of cold river water between them and the barbarians. Gwendith thought that maybe they should just collapse the bridge and escape, but they had built it as solidly as they could. No doubt that the ice floes going downriver would eventually destroy the bridge, but it would take many collisions and several hours before that could happen.

There, too, was the belligerence in Yuriko’s countenance. Gwendith could see that even though the girl wasn’t too affected by staying awake, she still was in some small manner. Perhaps Yuriko was just itching for a fight.

So was Gwendith, for that matter. Except she knew that killing a distracted barbarian was different from fighting one that had his blood up. She was only an Apprentice. Her Animus reserves paled in comparison to the scouts, who should be at the Knight level since they were able to survive crossing the open Chaos Sea.

For that matter, unless the barbarian group had several Knight level combatants, then tracking them here was tantamount to suicide. Considering that they worshipped Chaos Lords, Gwendith was sure that they would be accompanied by at least one.

All of them were now across the river. Kalla created a half wall along the bank, giving them cover from ranged attacks. Sheamus did some final checks on his Plasma Caster. A conscript issued weapon, Gwendith thought, since the man was also not using the Imperial system. He took off his amulet and placed it on the stock. It stuck there without any obvious support, and its condensed Animus filtered into the weapon.

Lucinda breathed into her palms, rubbing them vigorously. Sparks flew from her fingertips as well as small tongues of flame. Nathan stood near the bank, directly across the ice bridge. He had his warscythe held low and it glimmered with his Animus. Yuriko was the only one still standing on the bridge.

From behind, she looked relaxed and at ease. She glanced back at them and gave a calm smile. That was the time that the barbarians crossed over the ridge though.

Gwendith had Enhanced Senses active and she took a sharp breath when she recognised who was in the lead. There was that rotter, Thaer Surtsson, and beside him was another of the young chieftains, Assur Erlendsson of the Fleetfoot Tribe. She could see small horns growing from above both of his eyebrows.

Thaer had an axe in hand, while Erlend had a spear. Behind them were their armsmen, half Iron Skin and half Fleetfoot. And another figure that she didn’t know the name of, but from how perfect his features were, she was sure it was a Chaos Lord.

They marched down towards the base of the ice bridge. The young chieftains swaggered confidently, even though the last time Thaer had come into contact with Yuriko, he got his ass handed to him.

Gwendith wished that she had witnessed that fight. She also wished that Yuriko had taken the time to kill the rotter, but then again, if he had died, then she probably would have had a worse time as a captive. It was a frustrating predicament for her. She wanted so much to kill that swarm fodder…

She saw his eyes flick towards her, but perhaps they were too far away. Although his armsmen fidgeted, the two chieftains and the Chaos Lord didn’t hesitate to walk down the ice bridge.

Yuriko was glowing. The flames of her Protective Field, though Gwendith was sure it wasn’t just that technique, billowed out several paces from the gorgeous woman. She surreptitiously glanced at the ice and spotted the sheen of a slight runoff.

‘I guess that’s the plan.’

The barbarians stopped a dozen paces from Yuriko, then Thaer took another step forward and started declaiming. In Ikash, which Gwendith was sure that Yuriko didn’t understand. From the way she tilted her head, Gwendtih knew that to be true. She wasn’t sure if she was glad that Yuriko couldn’t understand the drivel Thaer spouted from his foul mouth or disappointed. She was sure Yuriko would have lashed out much sooner in that case.

“...so you’ve come back to me. Surrender yourself to me, and I will keep you well-fed and safe!”

Gwendith’s eyes almost popped out when she heard what the delusional boy was saying.

Didn’t he realise that his meagre progress over the past couple of years was nothing compared to what Yuriko accomplished? The girl advanced to the Knight level! Ancestors! She must have broken not a few records. Certainly she was the youngest native Rumigan to do so.

“I don't know what you said, but I don’t like how you said it,” Yuriko stated clearly. “I’ll give you one chance. Leave. Or die.”

Thaer tilted his head to the Chaos Lord, who translated. Why he didn’t do that for Yuriko, Gwendith didn’t know. But from how the Chaos Lord looked at Yuriko with wariness…huh, no, it was the girl’s fiery aura that he was…afraid of.

Thaer took an aggressive step forward and Yuriko shot an ice pellet straight at his forehead.

It missed Thaer, though not because he noticed or dodged. It was something the Chaos Lord did. One moment, Thaer was standing there, and the next, he somehow slid to the side, without moving a muscle, and neatly avoided the projectile. The armsman behind him wasn’t so lucky though, and he lost his head.

Thaer and the other young chieftain both roared with indignation and anger. They drew their weapons and charged. Their armsmen followed behind, but Yuriko only paid attention to the Chaos Lord. Almost absently, she sent projectiles at the armsmen and the young chiefs, who were jostled aside by their bodyguards.

The Chaos Lord stood right where he was, keeping the stare-off. Then, he gave a rolling bow. “I am The Weaver of the Warp and Weft of the World, Courtier and Viscount of the Telurian.”

“I am Yuriko Mishala Davar of Rumiga,” Yuriko responded with a similar bow even as her fiery aura snapped towards one of the armsmen who got too close and launched him over to the water.

“You are a Shaper.”

“I am not.”

“Hmmm, but you smell like one. A Destroyer, too. Interesting.” The Weaver shook his head. If not for his perfectly symmetrical features, he could have been a gentlemanly scholar, Gwendith thought. “I offer battle to you here. The stakes of which are our lives and liberty.”

“Your Anima will simply flee your Corpus if I defeat you,” Yuriko offered easily, but she froze for a bit afterwards then shook her head. Gwendith didn’t know what the other girl meant. Something she learned in Sharom?

“I will lose much should my Corpus be destroyed,” the Weaver retorted. “Enough pleasantries. Have at you!”

Gwendith didn’t see him move, but he was suddenly in front of the pack, a couple of paces from Yuriko, arm raised and about to grab her. She also didn’t see how Yuriko reacted, and the next thing she knew, neither of them was on the ice bridge.

A splash and a plop coming from Gwendith’s left had her turn to look, only to catch a glimpse of Yuriko jumping off the surface of the water, while the Weaver bounced off an ice floe. Sparks of gold and green light spat away from their bodies as they clashed. Yuriko was playing, Gwendith thought with an annoyed huff. She wasn’t using her weapons and was meeting the Weaver fist to palm.

An errant blow from her created a gust of wind so strong that the water in front of her blow parted. A furrow several paces long and a few inches deep was carved on the river’s surface, collapsing back into the current a couple of moments later.

They fought up and down the river, jumping off ice floes, or in Yuriko’s case, jumping off the surface of the water. She saw the choppy water settle into a flat disc for a pace around her foot. Gwendith idly wondered why the girl didn’t just offer to walk them across the river. It would have been faster than building a bridge. If she had, then they would have been leagues away from this place when Thaer and the others arrived.

Speaking of Thaer, the youth was staring slack-jawed at Yuriko and the Chaos Lord. It must have reminded him of the last time they saw each other, back when Yuriko fought a Chaos baron while she was still an Apprentice and how she managed to defeat the doppelganger.

Still, her ears didn’t deceive her, did it? A Chaos Viscount? From the Telurian? That was the Chaos Court different and inimical to the Asheron Court right? She couldn’t remember where the doppelganger came from, but she was sure the Iron Skin had relations with the Asheron, not the Telurian!

Did that mean an alliance? Cold sweat ran down her back. Visions of death and destruction ran through her mind. There were uncountable Chaos dwellers in the Primordial Chaos Sea, and the only reason that the stronger ones haven’t banded together to drown the planes was that they had irreconcilable differences between each Court. And how many Courts were there? Nearly as uncountable as the dwellers themselves.

The Empire’s stable planes didn’t allow the Courts to form nearby though, so only in the frontiers do they have the chance to flourish.

“So, my little runner. I must thank you for leading me to my prize,” Thaer said, drawing Gwendith’s attention. He was looking straight at her and as their gazes met, he licked his lips. A wave of revulsion and anger rose in her heart. But they were separated from the barbarians. There was no way to…

The young Fleetfoot chieftain, along with the remnants of his armsmen, backed up, then ran towards the edge, took a giant leap and crossed the rushing waters in the blink of an eye.

One of Thaer’s armsmen threw a line over, but before anything else happened, Sheamus fired his Plasma Caster, and Lucinda flung a ball of billowing flames the size of her fist at the ice bridge. It exploded and filled the air with smoke and thunder.