Yuriko and her team ran away from the battle site as quickly as they could. Almost by default, they had followed their own trail back, which made sense when she thought about it later. There was already a path, and they had cleared it of overhanging vines and protruding thorny branches when they first went through it. Of course, just as it was an easy path for them to follow, like a stream following its banks, it also meant that whatever might follow them would have an equally easy time tracking them.
"We have to get off the path," Krystal gasped a few minutes later.
Yuriko was at the rear of the group simply from the fact that if she had been in front, she would inevitably outrun them and she wouldn't even notice. She looked back every now and then, heaving a sigh of relief when there was no imminent pursuit.
"Lead the way," Yuriko said.
Krystal nodded, then picked a direction seemingly at random. The forest was still eerily silent, but after more than an hour moving due north, the normal forest sounds returned. The five of them exchanged glances but did not stop moving. Eventually, after another half hour, they found a resting place, a natural bend in the stream that formed a reclusive nook surrounded by tall trees.
Yuriko washed her face and hair. The blue blood had turned dry and flaky during their flight but it still felt uncomfortable. Thankfully her jacket and pants naturally repelled dirt and fluids, returning to its pristine state once she had rinsed herself off. The same couldn't be said for her undergarments that were now soaked in sweat and a few blue blood stains from where it dripped down her neck and chest.
Krystal, Orrin, and Mikel were nearly exhausted from the forced march. They guzzled down their water and refilled their canteens upstream. Heron looked relatively fine on his own, though his face was similarly drenched in sweat.
"So, what just happened?" Orrin muttered once they were huddled together.
"Swarmlings. Why they're here though, I have no idea," Mikel answered with a frown. "If they came out of the Tidelands, they should have been lured to the Watchtower. No, no. It should be impossible for them to be here. Only Wanderers are strong enough to resist the lure." His musings devolved into incoherent mutters while he glared at the flowing water.
"It's not impossible," Yuriko said, "since clearly they are here. What matters now is what do we do?"
Heron cleared his throat. "We should get back to the outpost."
The rest of them nodded in agreement.
Yuriko turned to Krystal. "Krystal, do you think you can find us a way past them?"
The other girl shrugged. "I can try."
"Let's catch our breaths first," Orrin said.
Yuriko picked up her side-blades from where she left them on a rock. She didn't sheath the weapons after the fight not wanting to get the scabbards dirty with the blood. Having the weapons ready was better anyway. Sighing to herself, she cleaned the flaky blood off. At least Wyldling blood was easy enough to clean.
"Yuri, why aren't you using the Plasma Caster?" Krystal asked.
"It was damaged," Yuriko answered slowly. "The runescript is scratched up."
"Oh. May I see it?" Orrin suddenly asked.
Yuriko gave him an odd look but since she didn't have any reason to refuse, she untied it from her pack and handed it over. Orrin traced the runescript with his fingers while he pursed his lips.
"We have to address something else," Heron said suddenly.
"What is it?" Yuriko looked at him. Heron was similarly occupied with cleaning his weapon.
"Our formation is different now that you're no longer acting as a ranged striker," Heron shook his head, "You also got too wrapped up with your swords that you lost sight of the rest of the team."
Yuriko blushed in chagrin. He was right of course. She glanced at Orrin's arm. Though it was covered by his forceweave jacket, he moved it a bit gingerly.
"I'm sorry," she said abashedly. "I…"
"No need to apologise," Heron quickly said. "It's not really a failing, not yet anyway. Though I'm wondering why you shifted your fighting style."
"Oh, yes." Orrin looked up from his study. "You mostly used Flowing Water Style with your sword work before but lately you've been doing something different..
"Flowing Water Style?" Yuriko asked. Her weapon skills were taught by her Da and he never said anything about a style. For that matter, Virgil had taught his children a mishmash of skills that applied to different situations instead of a systematic school of thought.
"It's a foundational martial art school. Uncle Colin taught us a few of its basic tenets. Most of it involves continuous flowing movement to defend and attack, hence the name," Orrin answered. ���You were performing it during your sparring matches back in the training hall. You didn't know?"
"Not at all. I just used what worked."
"Ah, I see. Well, lately you've been doing something else, it feels familiar though, but I must say you look gorgeous doing it and it's quite effective too." Orrin blushed after the words came out, but Heron also nodded with the other boy. "Anyway," Orrin coughed, "Where did you learn that style?"
"From my Facet," she answered.
"I thought your Facet doesn't have a combat application?" Heron asked wonderingly. He had stopped cleaning his spear and focused his eyes on her.
"It doesn't."
"But…?"
Yuriko shook her head. "What did it feel like when you inlaid your Facet," she asked Heron, "if you don't mind telling us?"
He stared at her for a moment, taken aback at her rather forward request.
Krystal smacked Yuriko on her shoulder, "That's something you ask only to family or close friends." Then she gave Heron the side eye before smirking, "Or your loved ones."
Yuriko felt herself colour. "No, no, I mean, uhm, I'm trying to explain my Facet but there are some things I need to know, uhm...:"
"So, I'll show you mine if you show me yours?" Krystal's smirk widened, "Shall Mikel and I give you two some privacy?"
"Krys!" Yuriko pinched Krystal's waist.
"Owie!"
"Anyway," Yuriko continued, "after I inlaid my Facet, it didn't give me any hereditary memories or experience from the Ancestor my Heritage came from."
"What?" All four of them exclaimed.
"What's the point then?" Heron frowned, curiosity and a little bit of pity crossed his face.
One of the reasons the Empire could hold its own against both the Chaos and other nations was that all of its citizens went through the Atavism Ritual which provided them with a Heritage. This Heritage contains the experiences of someone in their bloodline packaged in a little bundle. The Facet was one aspect of this Heritage that allowed the child to access a particular skill or technique along with the experiences of someone who spent a lifetime to master it, along with every other descendent who inherited these experiences and added more to it.
Anyone who has access to their Animus could theoretically mimic any of the Facet techniques anyone in the team knew, but what set each person with a Heritage apart was the nearly instant mastery of that technique.
"When I inlaid my Facet, I learned how to connect the air together in a way that it would be solid, and how to anchor it to something so it doesn't just get knocked away," Heron said. "What did you get with your Facet then?"
Yuriko smiled. "Whenever I activate my Facet, I see a silhouette of someone my size and shape, and it demonstrates techniques. My current dual sword style is something I learned from it."
"That sounds…both useful and not at the same time," Krystal muttered.
"Right. What is your Heritage then?" Heron asked.
"I don't know." Yuriko shook her head, "I still don't know much about it, though the techniques I learned indirectly from my Facet are, well, quite effective. But we digress." She continued. " We were discussing how to change our formation?"
"Yes, I suggest somebody else take tactical command from you," Krystal said. "Since you're back in the front line, we don't want you distracted because you have to think about the rest of us, or worse, be unable to give the right commands and we get wounded."
"Or die," Yuriko answered grimly. "I agree. Who will take tactical command?"
"It's either Orrin, Krystal, or me," Mikel said after an awkward silence. He, Orrin, and Heron exchanged glances and then said in unison, "Krystal then."
"What? Why me?"
"You're the only one nosy enough to keep an eye on everyone," Mikel said sagely.
Thunk!
Mikel swiftly received a pebble to head.
"Ow!"
"I think that's an excellent choice," Yuriko said. "What about strategic command?"
"You can keep it," Heron said. The others nodded in agreement. Yuriko sighed but accepted.
"Krystal, are you ready to scout a way back? Orrin, do you mind returning my Plasma Caster?"
"Oh, uhm, sorry. I don't think I can repair this," Orrin said.
"I didn't expect you to," Yuriko nodded, "I need materials to repair this."
"Well, I think I can do an etching to bypass the damaged section," Orrin offered, "But it's not a sure thing. I'll need someplace where we won't be interrupted."
"I'll have it repaired at the outpost or the Watchtower. No need to waste time here," she said dismissively.
"Sure. Here." Orrin returned the rifle a bit reluctantly. Yuriko strapped it back onto her pack.
Krystal dug out a map from her pack and spread it out on the ground. Her eyes glowed green for a couple of moments before she shook her head. "We're over here, I think." She pointed at a spot close to the edge of the map. "Or maybe beyond this map. We went further north than expected."
"We could always follow the water." Mikel said, "Wasn't that what Armsmaster Byrne said? We can follow the streams until we arrive back south."
They glanced at the relatively wide stream they were camped next to. The water was a couple of paces deep in the centre while the entire thing was five or so paces wide. The water was crystal clear and Yuriko could see several small shadows darting with the current.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Mikel said.
"If you're thinking now's a good time to fish, you're not quite right," Krystal said.
"What? No! I mean, maybe we can fashion a raft of something and just float down the river until we come out of the forest?"
"And come flying down the waterfall?" Yuriko asked drily.
"Uh, no, I forgot about that," Mikel muttered.
"Well, let's not shelf that idea." Heron studied the map. "We could raft until we get near the Twin Falls and hoof it from there."
"I think you're right. It would allow us to avoid the dense undergrowth and we can conserve our strength, too." Yuriko offered.
"Right, let's get to it then," Krystal muttered. She brought out a coil of rope. "Miki, how much wood do we need? How much rope too? Or do we use vines instead?"
Mikel stood up and walked up to the thicket. He examined the trees. Most were large enough that it would take three of them hand in hand to hug the trunk completely. The branches above were narrower.
"We shouldn't need the entire tree. I think about two layers of ten should do."
"How long will this take though?" Heron muttered, "We might just waste more time than if we just walked. We're what, five leagues or so away from the edge of the forest? I don't think we could have marched much more than a longstride every hour."
"But the swarmlings are out there," Yuriko protested.
"We might make a bigger target if we float down the river. We'll be in plain sight then." Heron ruthlessly shot down the idea.
Yuriko hummed. "Huh, you have a point there."
"So what? Do we walk or make a raft?" Krystal asked, clearly annoyed. "We better make a decision soon or we'd be sitting here until nightfall. Yuri?"
The burden of deciding things weighed heavily on her shoulders. One wrong decision, one mistake, could lead to a cascade of failure that could ultimately lead to their demise.
"I…" She began, but Krystal suddenly cut her off.
"Wait. Listen."
"Eh?"
Then her face paled. Aside from the water splashing on the banks and their own voices, the forest had gone silent. Again.
Swish. Swish.
The leaves rustled and some of the branches swayed. They couldn't hear any footsteps but Yuriko remembered that the swarmlings feet didn't look like it would make a lot of sound. She pulled her side-blades from their sheaths and started to circulate her Animus into the second form, wholly prepared to defend herself.
The silence was deafening. Then, the bushes in front of them shook and rustled. Yuriko's hands tightened on her swords and a grim frown formed on her face.
The bushes rustled again and something burst out of the undergrowth.