The Wind Darter settled with nary a thump on the other side of the town. Crossing the ravine had posed an issue with the sloop's levitation runescript not being strong enough to lift them that high. It was easy enough to circumvent. Yuriko simply picked it up, along with everyone else, with her Animakinesis and moved them. Albeit slowly.
It was barely at the limit of her kinesis, actually, at least at the point where she could move it at about a pace per second. Her rough estimate of her Animakinetic strength had been moving 5 Jins at a pace per second for each inch of reach, but the stronger her Anima became, the better the ratio. Or perhaps it was because of her higher Stage? Perhaps it was also because of her Anima Refinement, though Radiant wasn't specialized in brute kinetic strength. Anyway, when she tested it a few days ago, she averaged 11 Jin per pace per second for every inch of Anima reach she devoted to kinesis, and with her current available reserves, she could carry about sixty-nine MiJin of weight and push it along at a pace per second. The sloop was roughly thirty MiJin in weight.
While it was fascinating, she wondered if her kinetic ratio improving would help her advance to Manifestation. She wasn't sure it was correlated, and her Anima reach grew by at least an inch every day. The early days they entered the wasteland and Bresia had seen a higher growth rate, about double, but by now, they had returned to a steady inch. The only way she knew of to increase that rate was by actively straining her Anima and recovering, but there was nothing here that was strong enough to do that. Unless there were stronger foes to fight, anyway, but how common were warriors at the Knight Captain, Knight Commander, and Knight Dominus level anyway?
In the Empire, Mum pointed out that Legate Brygos was one of three hundred. Out of the hundred or so planes in Imperial territory, the average was three Knights Domini? The concentration might be higher in the Core, and Stable planes since Rumiga only had two…well, three with Mum, so they were just average. But was that really true throughout the territories?
She read somewhere that the general ratio between Knighthood ranks varied from a hundred to one to two hundred to one…well, except for the census on Knights to Journeymen and below, which was about one to five hundred. So how many below Knight civilians would the populace have to be to birth a single Knight Dominus?
The thought intrigued her enough that she actually got a piece of paper and worked out the annoying calculations.
"Hmmm, 1 Knight Dominus per two hundred Knight Commanders, one Knight Coms to a hundred and fifty Knight Captains, and a hundred Knights to a Knight Captain, then a Knight for every five hundred people…"
"Er…two billion people? Sounds about right, yeah." Yuriko looked at the paper that had multiple scratchouts and strike-throughs, then decided that the number was fine. And how many people lived in Bresia to get a Knight Dominus level Magi?
Then, the other thing was that she knew, through Damien, that the Empire's methods allowed it to increase the number of Knights and above compared to civilians. She didn't know what the normal ratio was, but she remembered that the Federation of City States probably had as much as ten times more people living in their cities than the entirety of Imperial Rumiga, yet their combat forces were relatively even.
Her musings were interrupted by the loud chiming of the bells from town. The eastern side of Felbridge looked a bit more mercantile than anything else, but there was a large-ish building that had a couple of tall smokestacks belching out a plume of black smoke. Not that the noxious fumes stayed in the air long. There was a small rod sticking out at the top of the stacks that drew the smoke towards the tip, though its rate of attraction was slower than the expulsion. As a consequence, there was a thick black cloud with a wisp of a tail towards the side.
She wasn't sure what the building was for, and why it was belching out that much smoke. If they needed heat, could they not use their Arcana Weaving to serve? Ah, well, maybe they didn't have enough Fire or Heat elemental users to keep that up. After all, it took Intent and Will to manipulate Ennoia energies, and mental stamina depleted quickly at low levels.
"What's going on?" she asked Cillian.
The lieutenant frowned and said, "It's a battle alarm. I'm not sure…wait, that pattern." He frowned. "Ah, of course, I've never been to a frontier town before my posting. It's a Chaos Fount overflow alarm."
"It's when the beasts inside a Fount emerge to hunt people?" Yuriko asked.
"Normally, yes."
"How dangerous?"
Cillian coughed. "I'm sure it's not dangerous to one such as you. And the Adventurer Guild's branch head is at least a full Magus. And the local garrison would have one as well."
Yuriko nodded, "Do they need help? And should you not go, too?"
"I should, but my mission priority is to accompany and guide you, so unless you give me leave or head to the battlefield yourself…"
"Ah, I see. You can go help if you wish. I will observe."
With that, she took to the air above the sloop, using her Animakinesis to carry herself. She rose half a longstride, then used Enhanced Sight to actually see what was happening in the distance.
The beast horde…or should she really call bipedal humanoids from the Chaos Founts beasts? The horde, then, emerged from the tree line that was several hundred paces away from the western wall. There were at least a thousand of them that emerged, and more of them kept coming out of the woods.
The town's main thoroughfare had opened space quickly for responders to get to the wall as soon as they could, but it still took several minutes. The advance forces from the horde had already reached within striking distance, and the soldiers already manning the wall came under attack. The gate was pushed shut and secured, but not until everyone outside managed to get to safety.
Wooden spears flew in the air and slammed against the battlements while the soldiers ducked away. Some returned fire with rifles and spells, with the latter being an assortment of differing elemental bolts. Fire wasn't the most common, but ice, and to a lesser extent, wind.
Yuriko squinted to better see the details. The wind bullets weren't sharp, but the hits broke the vine armour. Ah, there were a couple of Magi using Wood elemental bolts. Hmmm, it looked like they materialised thorns and arrows out of midair. The projectiles melted back into their elemental form after impact, and surprisingly, the vine-humanoids were harmed equally by the thorns as they were by the ice crystals.
A few minutes into the fight, reinforcements arrived and the guards organised themselves more efficiently. Those monsters that made it up the battlements were swept aside by armoured infantry while firing squads organised volleys against enemy slingers.
Oh, there's Gwendith on the southern part of the wall. Her ice daggers carved through the tide. Was Heron in the melee, too? She couldn't see him on the wall.
Oh, there he is. She saw him climbing up the central wall section and aided in repelling the climbers.
It looked like the defenders had things well in hand. The horde continued to pour forces towards Felbridge, but after several thousand died, the tide petered out. Some packs came out of the woods every now and then, but they were too few to make a difference.
The sun had already set by that time, and some of the Magi threw up orbs of flame to light the battle. The horde didn't seem bothered by the darkness though, it was a couple of hours past dusk when everything was over.
Or mostly. Yuriko watched as groups of soldiers and adventurers went out of the gate and marched towards the woods. Were they seeking the overflowing Chaos Fount, perhaps?
She noticed that both Gwendith and Heron were headed across the bridge, so she returned aboard the Wind Darter to wait for them. Ryoko came up on deck with a dinner of sausages, fried eggs, and roasted baby potatoes smothered in butter.
"Thanks. It looks delicious."
Ryoko nodded happily and left her to enjoy her meal. She noticed Cillian and Adan were polishing off their plates and Yuriko beckoned to the lieutenant to ask a few questions.
"They're seeking the Fount hastily. Why?"
"The overflow won't stop unless the Fount is destroyed or subdued," he said.
"Ah, I see. Why do they happen? Do you know?"
He shrugged. "It's been studied but there are many theories. Some think it will happen to all Founts if they're not cleared often, but others think it's less a matter of time and more a matter of their natures. I'm sure you'd enjoy reading about it in Nirlith."
"Indeed." Yuriko sighed. She might enjoy knowing more, but probably not the reading part.
Soon enough, Heron and Gwendith arrived and climbed aboard.
"I have presents!" Gwendith yelled, which got the attention of everyone. "Er, for Yuri."
"Tease," Devotee muttered before he returned to his watch.
"What did you get?" Yuriko asked curiously.
"Hie hie." Gwendith leaned over and whispered, "Lingerie for you."
"Oh."
"And clothes. You've got the same stuff for Seasons now."
"Er, sure. Thank you?"
"And sweets!" Gwendith presented a small sack, and when Yuriko opened it, there in lay four beautiful yellow-gold orbs.
Gwendith took one between her fingers and teased it over Yuriko's lips. "Ahh?"
Rolling her eyes, Yuriko did so, and when the candy went inside, her mocking pout turned into a genuine moan of pleasure. "So good!"
She felt her Mien start to shift. Oops. She caught it in time and firmly held it into Tranquility.
"Here, have some," Yuriko said as she took a piece and fed it to Gwendith.
Her lover sighed happily. "Worth the coins."
"Ah, here," Heron said as he took a purse from his pocket. "One twenty silvers as Cillian said was most likely."
"Oh, those could have been handy," Gwendith sighed. "I should have waited, but then, I probably wouldn't have gotten the clothes and candy in time."
Yuriko accepted the purse, checked the contents, and then gave it to Gwendith. She was the one who accounted for their expenses and budget.
Afterwards, they retired for the night, and the next morning, they resumed their journey. There were two more towns to pass through before they reached Nirlith City. Norrington and Waterlow. If Yuriko kept to the same speed, they should reach Nerrington by tomorrow morning. She didn't intend to stay there longer than to get around it, since she'd really rather reach the city.
But the Threads of Fate had other plans, apparently.
Norrington was a pretty open town that was surrounded by farmlands, which was how it was obvious that they were being attacked by another Chaos Fount overflow. The horde this time consisted of living marble statues. The town didn't have walls as tall as Felbridge, but the defenders were making good use of it. They weren't having much trouble with the living statues though, since their guns were more than capable of blowing off limbs or heads. Unfortunately, the statues seemed more than capable of fighting even without a head.
Should she help directly? Yuriko spied what could possibly be the Chaos Fount. It was nearly a couple of longstrides away from the town, and it was set against a large boulder that had a cleft in the middle. The gate was there, and the statues popped out of it a dozen at a time.