Yuriko's hair was braided and tied into a bun; otherwise, it would have flowed out of her helmet in her costume. It wasn't as if she cared too much about hiding her cape identity, but it felt like it was all a game—and what was the fun in not breaking the rules? Even though her body shape and features were distinct enough that she could be identified through photographs cross-referenced through a computer program…probably. The helmet was an attempt to obscure the shape of her head, but the most distinctive part that couldn't be hidden so easily was her hair.

Lilibeth's hair had been closer to brown than blonde, and even her true body's original hair had been a bit darker. But upon embarking on the Ancient Way and upon refining her physique, and even more so when she touched her Radiant Ennoia, her hair had lightened to gold. Then it started glowing with an internal light when she was flushed with Radiant energy.

Her incarnation body didn't have it as bad, even though she still had a Radiant Physique. Without an Ennoia Core, the physique didn't produce as much Radiance as her true body did. But sunbathing for too long, and if she didn't make use of her Radiant stores, would have her hair glowing like the sun. Even at low storage, in dim lighting, her hair was still luminescent.

Here, two storeys underground, inside a workshop that wasn't brightly illuminated, her hair matched the glow of her Anima, and wrapped up around her hair in a bun, the light was much brighter, which was why she undid the bun and allowed her braid to settle around her shoulders. Her incarnation body's hair length wasn't as much as her true body's yet, but loose, it fell all the way down to her bottom.

Crasher was wary enough not to strike while she removed her helmet and undid her hair bun. Her lips now visible, Yuriko gave the larger woman a slight smile and said, "Thank you for waiting. You may strike when ready."

"You wore a mask underneath your helm?" Crasher asked in a flat tone.

"Handy for these moments, aren't they?" Mid-sentence, the hulking woman lunged.

Yuriko deflected the punch and took a step to close the distance. As it was, the other woman's reach exceeded her arm's by a fair margin, and the only thing she could strike was the offending limbs.

Crasher's original brawling stance tightened into a boxer's guard, and she threw supersonic jabs at Yuriko one after the other. The shockwaves made the workshop floor tremble, and Jessa screamed, "Stop wrecking my stuff!"

"Shaddap and get going!" Crasher yelled.

"Well, go and beat her up then!"

Yuriko smirked as she refrained from doing anything other than fisticuffs. Crasher's boxing skill was quite developed, to the point that she was sure the other woman had either touched or was already developing an Ennoia. The supersonic punches alone, from the fact that they did minimal damage to its surroundings, told her a lot. Her own supersonic blows had wreaked too much havoc to be of great use, and since she dind't have an Ennoia of Unarmed Combat or Martial Arts, or Boxing, or Whathaveyou, she couldn't control the shockwaves in any manner other than brute force. Just like now

She exchanged a slugging match with Crasher, and at the same time, she used her Animakinesis to redirect and negate any shockwaves that weren't focused ahead of her fists. Using the same technique, she redirected Crasher's attacks as well as the following shockwaves towards the ground, though only after allowing it to ripple across her aura. That process hurt and damaged her Anima, but much in the same vein as training did. She was using the other woman's attacks to temper her Anima, though the effects were minuscule at best. She also wasn't sure if Anima growth on her incarnation body would translate to the same in her true body. The ratio between the two stubbornly remained at ten to one. Hopefully, it meant organic growth at this end translated to increased growth on the other end. Only time and experience would tell anyway.

She was vaguely aware that Jessa had fled to the other end of the workshop, though she was on the opposite end of the doorway. Was there another exit point? She didn't remember seeing one during her initial sweep. Not one that led to the hallway outside, anyway.

Blam! Blam! Blam!

Fists struck flesh over and over again. Crasher's against Yuriko's forearms, while hers into the bigger woman's guts. Her opponent didn't bother trying to block, and instead, tightened her abdominal muscles just before every blow connected. A useful defensive technique, but her punches weren't simple physical attacks. Radiant energy suffused her body, and even while she held back on unleashing it, some of it still spilt out after every impact. As a result, the front of her bodysuit had been scorched off her abs, and even flesh was singed. The burns didn't last, however, and new skin was revealed as dead, melted flesh sloughed off. The woman's grin widened, but Yuriko only matched the expression. A resilient foe was an excellent way to cut loose. Somewhat, anyway. If she really wanted it over, she could have cut off Crasher's head with a single Invisible Edge.

As it was, she slowly ramped up power and speed. She started ducking and weaving around the woman's punches. She blocked an attempted low kick that would have torn a mundane's knee apart. She slapped away attempted grabs and punished each one with a stronger blow.

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A minute into the fight and Crasher's face was drenched in sweat, and her regeneration couldn't completely recover all of the burns and bruises Yuriko inflicted on her. But it wasn't as if she didn't manage to get her own licks in. The woman's large fists managed to strike Yuriko's cheek and also her left shoulder. Her aura protected her, of course, but the blows had been strong enough that the armour was riddled with visible cracks. Visible to Crasher, too, and it seemed to spur the larger woman on. As such, she didn't meld the damaged portion with the rest of her Anima.

A second minute into the slug match, and Crasher started to falter. Yuriko had upped her physical attack to her normal level, with her kinesis neither helping nor hindering. Her incarnation body's strength wasn't on par with her true body's, but it wasn't quite the same ratio of ten to one either.

"Is that all you can do?" Yuriko asked in an even tone.

Crasher's visible facial features looked irked, "You've seen nothing yet!" She reared back with her right arm, and those muscles bulged to twice their normal volume, along with her back and leg muscles. Her left arm muscles shrank and looked almost gaunt.

Yuriko didn't evade the telegraphed haymaker and met it directly with her palm.

Blam! Crunch! Boom!

This time, Crasher didn't control the shockwaves beyond making sure none of it blew towards her body. The blow pushed Yuriko back a couple of steps, and her feet cratered the floor underneath. Her hand felt a bit numb, and her Anima armour cracked over her palm.

"Not bad."

"You…!" Crasher grunted, and she stepped back to gain a bit more momentum to charge up a stronger blow. But Yuriko's attention was suddenly pulled to Jessa.

She'd devoted a single strand of consciousness to track the mechanic, of course, but the woman hadn't done anything except cower in a corner. Or rather, that's what Jessa pretended to do. Instead of that, she managed to retrieve what looked like a homemade grenade from the bench… or rather, she had assembled one while pretending to grope after her stuff.

"Eat dung!" She yelled as she threw her explosive device right at Crasher.

So the earlier conflict had been genuine after all. Yuriko didn't bother to do anything other than watch, confident in her Anima armour's protection. An unfortunate oversight, considering the thing wasn't a normal explosive.

"Wait!" Crasher managed to yell before the grenade came within a pace of her. But then, the thing triggered.

There was a blast of light, and her Anima wasn't able to block it. Instead, she felt it as soon as the light touched her perception, which had been spread all over the workshop. Which meant that it was as if the thing exploded right on top of her, at least for the effect it had.

Which was Pain.

_________

The camping grounds, barely twenty paces from the trails, were practically deserted, Ericka noted while she helped her cousin set up the tent. It was a simple contraption, barely large enough to sit up in. The weather was nice and windy, and thankfully, Greenwood National Park didn't have a prediction of rain during the weekends.

Unless someone prayed for it, anyway, then all bets were off. Still, it would take concerted effort to influence the Lord of the Skies, and would take no less than half the population of the Republic for the god to even consider altering the weather, though she wasn't really sure if praying for rain really worked. The Church of the Indomitable Heavens weren't quite as active as they'd been a few centuries ago, but then, the Republic hadn't faced a major conflict during that time, not since it became the hegemon of Northern Astoria.

Nowadays, with the advent of the Network and the continuous advancement of science, the more mystical aspects of life have taken a backseat to logic. Until Altered Humans came onto the scene, anyway.

But there were way to many conspiracy theories found in the Network, and one of the more infuritating ones was that Altered were created by the god to remind people to be thankful of his presence and miracles. That there had been no documented miracles ever since recording devices, photo and video cameras came into common use instead of personal testimonies casued such things to become tests of faith. Ericka wasn't sure, but she'd been brought up with the rituals and mores of the church, and there was no reason to overhaul her beliefs. Even if her Alteration wasn't quite as natural as others have been.

"I'm going to grab some deadwood for the campsite," Arthur said, "Secure our supplies, please."

"Sure, sure!" Ericka chirped, "But I'm going for a leisurely flight afterwards."

"Keep your phone handy."

"Yeah, yeah. I know!"

"Heh, well, have fun." He ruffled her hair, and she swatted his hand away after pouting. He was chuckling as he walked away.

"Sure, do the easy thing," Ericka grumbled as she grabbed the rope to secure the backpacks. Once she had the knots secured, she pulled the rope as she flew over a branch. When she landed, she pulled the bags up., mostly using her bodyweight since the things were about half as heavy as she was, then secured the line around the oak tree's trunk.

That hardly took a few minutes, and once she was done, she glanced up at the skies. It was late afternoon, bordering on twilight, but that was the perfect time to fly up to the clouds. The view of dark landscape, punctuated by the stars of artificial lights amongs the buildings was to die for. Ah, but she needed a beacon to guide her back to camp.

She set up a slow-blinking lantern on the clearing and activated her phone's tracker and map. Her smartphone still had four-fifths of its battery life remaining, so there was no danger of it dying. All set, she allowed her light to escape her body and she shot up to the clouds.

"Wheee!" she squealed in pleasure. Normally, she'd be afraid of flying too high, but there was something about the wilderness that set her fears to rest. She reached the clouds after a few minutes but she didn't make the mistake of flying into them. Once was enough, and she didn't want to get wet.

She floated around for half an hour, and then, she was admiring the sunset over the sea of clouds. Sighing in contentment, she slowly began her descent as she looked around for the beacon.

"Huh? Oh, I guess more people came to camp." Ericka giggled as she spotted several dots of light down below. She hadn't drifted too far, and the campfires were almost directly below her. As she descended, she stared at the campsite and wondered why the road seemed so far from it.

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