Waterstrider

Canvas Town, Tseludia Station, Pantheonic Territory, Fifthmonth, 1634 PTS

Karie took a close look at the Celan base across the gap between stacks, trying to acquire a better understanding of its armaments. There were at least three enforcers, as well as various large mechanical objects she had to assume were some form of artillery, or perhaps the barrier’s power cores.

She turned back to the most important of her force- Pakas and Sulno, who was still accompanying her.

“They probably know we’re here, but have yet to turn the barrier on. It must take some time to activate.”

“Should we charge in before they succeed?” asked Pakas.

Karie quickly nodded.

“That was my thought. There’s no need to let the soldiers get settled.”

“Understood.”

While they were having this exchange, Sulno’s brow was creased, clearly not anticipating the battle. For a spirit refiner of the clan, Karie couldn’t help but feel he was a bit too cowardly. Perhaps this was why he had chosen to become an apothecary in the first place. Unfortunately for him, he had been too successful in his development.

Karie couldn’t help but smirk at his expression. Juen was quite good at attracting such cowardly or lazy subordinates, flocking to the one they saw as most likely to become the successor. On the other hand, Karie’s supporters tended to be those who were most loyal to her mother, such as her Uncle Wei. He had given her small assistance here and there over the years, and helped keep her candidacy from being eliminated by the schemes of the other participants. It had allowed her to survive past the weakness of being one of the youngest candidates for the position.

Now, she had finally become a spirit refiner, and Juen would not be able to suppress her as much as he had in the past. Once she gained fame, she would convince his supporters such as Sulno to switch to her side instead.

Karie shook herself from her reverie, reaching to her twin sheaths to pull out her blades. She stretched her arms and legs, and scanned the troops, ensuring that they seemed ready for the charge. Seeing that they were ready, she gave them all a nod, beginning to sprint towards the bridge.

Karie had wanted to give a morale boosting speech, like she saw the heroic martial artists perform in films and stories, but she wasn’t sure what to say. Instead, she had simply remained silent. She could give a heroic speech after the fact, and that would probably be sufficient, she thought.

As they moved past cover, the Celans began to fire their munitions, their slugs flying out towards Karie and her soldiers as explosive shells crashed down from above, clearly having been launched from artillery. Karie simply continued to run, quickly building up a lead over her force. Sulno was purposefully staying with the pack, while the other practitioners could simply not keep up with her speed. A bullet tore through her hair, cutting apart several strands, but Karie continued to run, trusting in her luck to get her where she needed to be.

So long as no bullets impacted her cores, she would be fine.

Another bullet impacted her forearm, but it, too, was not particularly deep, though sanguine miasma started to well up within the limb. She immediately suppressed the energy, not allowing such a minor issue to quell her momentum.

Karie was only halfway across the bridge when a blaze of orange light lit up the sky before her, and she was forced to slow her motion. Just then, she heard a thunderous boom, and felt the ground fall from beneath her feet as explosives destroyed the bridge beneath her.

Karie swore, releasing one of her swords to tumble into the abyss beneath her feet as she reached out to grab desperately at the crumbling edge of the stack, her momentum just barely enough to reach the far side. Her fingertips were all that held her aloft, just barely gripping onto the cool, jagged stone.

Genesis miasma rushed through her veins, expending itself to strengthen her muscles and was able to cement her grip on the stone, slightly cracking it further as she hauled herself upwards, standing on the roughly two feet of walkable space between the edge and the glowing shield. Through its translucent sheen she could see numerous Korlove and Jobu watching her, unable to do anything about her presence.

While she was unable to enter, they were similarly unable to send anything out, even munitions. Karie sneered at them as she glanced across the gap, where most of her troops remained. The rest were lucky, as she had been outpacing the others so much that nobody else was caught up in the blast. She sheathed her sword, wiping the soot and rock dust off of her robes.

“But how long can you keep this up?” she muttered.

“Are you alright?” called Sulno from across the gap.

The space between stacks ranged a bit over twenty feet across, just long enough to be difficult to cross. If she had a running start, she would be able to easily clear it in one leap, but the ledge she was standing on lacked the space for such a thing.

“I’m fine!” she called back. “Regroup and surround the stack on both the top and lower level! And plant explosives on the level below them just in case!”

Even across the gap, Karie could see Pakas giving her an odd expression as if to question why she was shouting their plans right within earshot of them. Chances were at least one of the Celans present understood seiyin, after all.

Glancing back at the barrier, Karie saw an enforcer standing right before her, guns pointed in her direction. She reached behind her back with both hands, tightening the tie that held her robe in place. Given that the barrier could theoretically drop any minute, she decided it was best to move somewhere less risky.

Karie glanced down to the level below, confirming that it was indeed also blocked by the barrier. The lower level’s bridge, too, had been cracked apart by the falling rubble. In fact, the one two levels below had also been heavily damaged. She couldn’t trust them to not break apart if she were to land normally.

Glancing again across the gap, Karie was honestly uncertain whether she could make it. She did not wish to expend as much of her reserves as it would take to guarantee the matter, but luckily she had an idea that should be effective. She stepped back as far as she could, her heels mere inches away from the searing energy mesh that composed the pseudoplasmic barrier. Then, she shifted her weight, tearing across the ledge as she leapt into the air with all of her strength, clearing fifteen feet in one simple bound. It wasn’t quite enough to reach the far side, but it should be enough to reach the level below. She pulled her head down to avoid colliding with the top floor of the stack, and allowed a thick green mist to spring up around her body, siphoning away all of her momentum and kinetic energy. Karie’s feet landed softly and silently on the ground without a problem, and she smiled, absentmindedly reaching back with both of her hands to shift the complex system of elegant braids her flaxen hair had been set into. The damage was not severe, and some careful positioning allowed her to hide it completely.

After fixing her hair, Karie made her way relaxedly up the stairwell, crossing paths with a squad of meridian establishment practitioners who Pakas had stationed down here under her orders. She gave them a nod as they passed, and quickly reached the top level.

As she glanced around, she got a slight feeling of deja vu, as Pakas and Sulno were still standing in the same place they had been prior to the charge. However, there were multiple wounded being treated from bullet and shrapnel wounds around them, while most of the forces were moving around to surround the barrier and cut off any potential escape routes. Sulno had gotten down on one knee as he was inspecting a wounded core formation practitioner to make sure his dantian was unharmed despite a bullet hole going through his gut. Even if the man had not been crippled, it was a nasty wound, and he would need to be taken to a hospital if he wished to survive.

Now that she was near, Pakas frowned as he saw her more closely.

“You’re injured,” he said.

The wound in her left arm continued to bleed, and Karie glanced at it, remembering its existence. The wound was relatively small, and she placed little importance onto it.

“So I am. I’ll speak with Sulno after he finishes what he’s doing. More importantly, tell those on the lower level to inspect the bridges from below for any explosives. It’s simply implausible to assume that we happened to choose the only trapped bridge.”

“Already done, ma’am,” said Pakas. “It seems that all of the bridges on this level and the one below are similarly trapped. I imagine they haven’t blown them yet simply to bait us into trying to remove the bombs.”

Karie frowned.

“Don’t bother. We might be able to make use of this somehow, and they would probably blow it the moment somebody got close.”

“Do you have something in mind?”

Karie smiled.

“I expect they’ll try to do this same trick again, injuring our men and wasting our time until their power runs out. So we can do something similar to them as well. How many explosives do we have?”

Pakas’ usually stony expression cracked as he understood what she was suggesting. A dark smile filled his face, one that left Karie taken aback.

“We have plenty, ma’am. I’ll have them spread among the squads.”

Seiyal Explosive Technology: [While the Seiyal have enough of a technology base to understand nuclear technology, they simply have not done the testing and development necessary to turn such explosives into usable products that won’t cross the Pantheonic Government’s bottom line. Similarly, those within the Pantheonic Territory lack suitable places to test such weapons. For this reason, they are forced to use inferior methods such as synthesized nitroglycerin or napalm. Despite the fact that such compounds are often considered primitive, they are more than effective enough for practical use. In addition, a martial artist’s hand eye coordination and ability to throw objects is outmatched among the mortal races.]