Chronicles of the Exalted Sun Child

Yuriko pressed her Mien against the man’s mind. Since her face was only concealed with a domino mask, one that altered the contours of her face, it didn’t hinder the process much. While the Mishala Mien worked through every feature, not just the face, having the most distinct part of her concealed still affected things. With her Regalia helmet on, most of the feelings the Mien evoked were admiration, fear, or other similar emotions. With her face bare, the emotion usually evoked involved attraction and lust. When she had most of her body exposed, such as when she was in that swimsuit commercial, lust and obsession drowned out everything else.

She had little doubt that the Progenitor could evoke whatever emotion she wanted out of anyone even if she was covered head to toe in muslin, but that was more a matter of skill and experience than anything else. Yuriko had not practiced the more manipulative aspects of her Mien, and often resorted to brute force methods, such as Commands.

Resistance to the Mien was a matter of Will, and theoretically, someone who wasn’t at the Actualisation level, or even the Knight level, wouldn’t have enough Will to effectively resist. That the soldier did so for nearly a minute was startling and evoked more than a little bit of curiosity. They couldn’t resist the more overt Command for silence, but the vagueness of what she wanted out of him allowed the soldier’s mind to slip through the gaps, as it were. He even managed to keep his full name concealed, and she only learned his family name—Kistler—and his rank—corporal.

At the same time, she inspected his gear and found it fascinating. The rifle was a rather effective mix of Astorian, or rather Irvallan technology back during the time she and her companions stumbled their way there, and Occult Resonance technology. The latter was similar enough to Arcana Weaving that she recognised elements common to it. What was different was that Occult Resonance was heavily reliant on tools to achieve whatever limited effects it had in a Chaos poor world.

That, she supposed, helped meld the two technologies wonderfully. Astorian firearms involved the use of exploding powders contained within a bullet casing to propel it at supersonic speeds down a barrel. The technology was the same in Irvalla, except now, they used an Occult Resonance tool at the hammer to propel the bullet, which were also OR tools in themselves. They were charged with Elemental Energies that weren’t just used to increase speed and penetrating power, but also to take the shooter’s Intent, what little was usable to mortals, which imbued it to the bullet. Essentially, each projectile the guns fired sought the target the shooter wanted to hit, and allowed them to shift their trajectories to hit. Not by a lot, she judged, but enough to turn near misses into a graze, and the latter into a sure hit.

She’d filched the bullets from the magazines at first, until she realised that they had differently labeled mags, and the bullets contained within had different effects. The things also would be useless without the actual guns, since they couldn’t be fired without the OR tool, and wouldn't have the range without the inscriptions inside the barrel. The bullets of the rifle could fit their sidearms too, and at least those were easy enough to, er confiscate and carry. While she was at it, she grabbed some of their rations too. Mostly candy bars, but there was one MRE pack that she lifted off one of the other’s backpacks.

Part of her attention shifted to their uniforms. She pressed her perception into the fabric and quickly learned that they were anything simple. While there weren’t any metal inserts, the clothes were similarly enhanced by Occult Resonance. Specifically, the threading along the seams and interior joins were runescript lines. Those threads weren’t mundane but were treated in such a way that attracted Elemental energy, and the way they were sewn formed two basic concepts, Protection and Endurance.

“Tell me why you have taken prisoners and what you intend with them.” Yuriko forced the Command.

Kistler’s expression twisted and his lips pursed as though to spit, but reluctant words finally came out of them. “I…took no…prisoners.”

Yuriko rolled her eyes and said, “Not you personally, but your army.”

“It is not…”

“Stop being pedantic,” Yuriko said. “Tell me.”

“I… It's…to accelerate…the…”

That was as far as he got when they were rudely interrupted.

From above and north, a bullet entered her perception range, moving faster than the speed of sound. It was aimed at her, but it would also pierce Kistler’s body before it could hit her. It was also thicker than her thumb and thrummed with barely contained power.

A hexagonal shield materialised in the bullet’s path, though only a couple of paces behind Kistler.

Blam!

She winced when the condensed aura shield fractured at the impact, and unlike the bullets the squad fired at her, this one was imbued with Light. Metal Elemental energy suffused the projectile, meant for penetrative power, momentum, and weight. No sooner had she blocked it, than another bullet entered her range, this one from a different angle. She flicked a finger and intercepted it with an Invisible Edge. The bullet split apart fifty paces away, and the fragments missed the squad and slammed into the tree cover.

She tracked where the bullets came from and spotted several fliers roughly half a longstride away, and probably a hundred paces above the hilltop. They might have tried to use the Sun to conceal themselves from sight, but Radiance did not hinder her. She noted that they were clad in powered armour, and had ephemeral wings sticking out of their backs. She wasn’t sure if those things provided lift or if they were used to anchor the fliers to the canvas of reality, but considering they weren’t actually on the prime material plane, she wasn’t sure of the exact mechanics they used.

The two bullets weren’t the only ones shot at her, however, though they had been the first to arrive. The other ten had staggered their shots, though the entire dozen had been in two groups of six, and those just entered her range. They curved towards her and adjusted around the overhanging tree branches and leaves. She snapped her fingers and sent ten Invisible Edges, each one quite small, but more than enough to intercept and cut the bullets. The Edges also sliced the shooters’ Intent, which meant the fragments didn’t attempt to hit her afterwards.

Scarlett’s scream of surprise had just left her lips. Kistler and the other five soldiers hadn’t reacted, but that was likely because they didn’t know about the attack. The sound of the bullets hadn’t even reached them yet, though the impact of the first had sent a shockwave towards them anyway.

Huh.

Yuriko frowned as only two of the Edges actually hit something solid. The other eight did hit something, but they weren’t enhanced bullets. More like solidified Elemental energies.

She spent a couple of seconds observing the fliers, but nothing much stood out, especially since they were far out of her range. Her interception of the bullets must have taken them aback since they didn’t continue firing. The soldiers finally reacted to being shot at, and, she suspected, reacted to her being distracted. Twelve foes meant that she couldn’t split her focus to all of them, and the strands she used to keep track of the soldiers and to focus her Mien on, wavered. She only jolted out of her musing when Kistler managed to throw off her influence and doubled down on his stubbornness.

Well, it wasn’t as if she could interrogate them while being attacked.

“Sleep.”

There was a brief struggle, but ultimately, the squad failed to resist her and all fell unconscious. She tossed them all to the sidewalk, then gestured fiercely to intercept another two bullets with Invisible Edge.

“Take cover,” Yuriko said to Scarlett.

“Where?” the smol woman yelped and Yuriko paused. Where indeed.

The shooters were above them, and while they were some distance away, their weapons had the range, and with Intent infused ammunition, accuracy wasn’t much of a factor. The utility of intent being automatically infused to guide bullets to their targets made her slightly green with envy. She remembered Da being proud of that same ability that he only learned once he reached Knight-Commander. Granted, his range was more than tenfold the range. Either way, there was no meaningful cover for Scarlett and unless she brought her along, Yuriko couldn’t actually engage the fliers without significant resource expenditures.

She muttered, “I guess behind me.”

Scarlett gave her a flat look, then complied. Yuriko wrapped her friend with her Animakinesis and took to the air, then intercepted another shot in the process. She rocketed towards the fliers, but the two groups split up. She frowned as her Enhanced Sight allowed her to get a better look, then scoffed.

“Mirror images.”

There were only two fliers in powered armour, but each one projected a mirror image that appeared roughly five or so paces from each other. By sight, there was no way to tell which one was real, but each bullet that the duplicates fired at her weren’t mere illusion as she discovered earlier. They just didn’t have a kinetic heft, but they were just as potent as plasma bolts.

They were also flying faster than she could. About ten percent faster? If she left Scarlett behind, she could probably catch up, but it looked like this would be a shoot out rather than anything else.

Although…

Yuriko frowned as the fliers used the same bullets, physical and elemental, at her. None of them showed any micro adjustments. She simply evaded by moving out of the way. Her perception was more than enough to determine the trajectories. Not all of the bullets used Intent? Or the tracker shots were unique to the infantry? She supposed carrying too much would weigh down the fliers considering how much power it took to fly. She determined that the power armours did all of the lifting rather than any kind of Truth.

Hmmm…

Speaking of Truth, if she layered an Invisible Edge in front of her, just as she did against the daemons, could she tune it to allow faster flight? It was a possibility, and her other option was to infuse her sunblades with Intent and let them loose. Her initial Edges had drained about half of her easily recoverable pool already. Also, she hadn’t tested Invisible Edge at such ranges yet.

Blam! Whoosh! Bang!

“Eek!” Scarlett yelped as Yuriko danced in the air while the girl was practically strapped to her back.

She slowly closed in while thinking, quite well aware that the longer she stalled, the more likely complications would occur. Reinforcements to the first squad happened within minutes of their capture, and who knew how many were crawling around, hidden by the canopy. In the distance, the forest petered out into a grassy savannah, with the black river of the asphalt road headed directly to where Desire was. Her sight was obscured by the everpresent mists, otherwise, she could have spied her objective already.

Bang! Whoosh! Blam!

As she expected, bullets flew from beneath the canopy, and these ones curved to track her movement. She was sure the direction they came from wasn’t where the shooters were.

“Retreat?” Scarlett whispered.

Yuriko scowled. That felt wrong to her, not when she hadn’t even managed an attack. Her Truths pulsed within her core, and her Anima roiled. No. Retreat wasn’t an option. Not yet. A tactical withdrawal? Sure, but the fliers would have to be too busy to just follow.

With a savage grin, Yuriko gathered the dozen mini-sunblades in front of her. She infused as much of her Intent and Will as she could without compromising her reserves, then ninety percent of her stored Radiant energy. The blades melded into each other, and formed a sunblade the size and shape of Fri’Avgi.

Then she tagged the closer flier group as the target and let loose. Only then did the two of them fall back under the canopy and make an attempt at stealth.