“AIEEEEEEE!!!!” Zach screeched as Yuriko blinked in momentary confusion.

The car flipped over and over as they bounced off the bridge. Her perception was wide enough that she knew they would land in a wheat field, though what was there now was nothing more than weedlings. She could feel the Homelander lunging towards the car, and she guessed what he was thinking. 

Surely now, they wouldn’t attempt to escape. Surely now, they would give up. 

Yuriko cackled madly. Surely not. 

Her Animakinesis encompassed the entirety of the car. It was well within her limits, and all it took was a thought to render them weightless. She counteracted against all of the momentum, and Homelander shot underneath the car, several paces wide, and no doubt surprised. 

“AIEEEEEEE!!!!”

Yuriko spared a glance at Zach, noting that he had his eyes shut, his mouth opened as far as it would go, and he even managed to tuck himself into a pseudo foetal position, despite the seatbelt and his long legs. She snorted in amusement and felt the urge to ruffle his carefully styled hair. His brow was moist with sweat, and he was paler than the Luminous Moon. Not a flattering sight, really, but considering he’d been deathly afraid of the Homelander, at least he wasn’t catatonic. 

And it was also why she couldn’t afford to leave the vehicle to fight the man directly. She could probably express Invisible Edge without having it originate from her fingers, but doing so always took longer. She had fifteen strands of Swordlight within her core. Producing the next strand in the sequence took longer and used up more Animus than the strand before. They were also much more potent when used, though her power when using those effectively diminished with each strand she used up. Tightly packed as they were, she couldn’t access the core strands, which would have taken less time and effort to fabricate.

She wondered if it was a limitation of using Tertiary Truths or if it was her methodology. After all, she wove Swordlight strands and wrapped them around a seed, much like a ball of yarn, and she could only retrieve the strand on the outside. It hadn’t been the case when she only had half a dozen or so, as it was easy to pull from the inside, but once she surpassed ten, the strands tightened up. 

The Swordlight core just sat next to her centre, her Animus core, in roughly the same position as where her Radiant Core would have been. She wondered when it would grow dense enough to produce Swordlight on its own. It would be at that point when she could add supporting Ennoias to it, or perhaps advance the Bladeless Sword into a Colligia. But that would only happen if she failed to create a unifying Truth of the Sword. 

She pushed the car back towards the bridge. Homelander had overshot them by dozens of paces, and he took a long sweeping turn to get back in position. 

“Rotter,” Yuriko muttered as the flying cape moved to block them from returning to the bridge. Yuriko didn’t hesitate and allowed gravity to aid their descent. The man flew towards them and angled around. He was far more manoeuvrable than a floating car. It looked like she had no choice. 

“Hey!” 

“AIEEEEEEEE!!!” 

“Haven’t you run out of breath yet?” 

“EEEE!!! No, I practice vocals a lot,” Zach said in a surprisingly calm voice though he was still pale-faced. 

“Right, good on you,” Yuriko said. “Anyway, prepare to take over.” 

“Wha—?”

Yuriko solidified a mask over her face using her Anima, then altered the way it interacted with light around her, as well as the light from within. Soft golden light suffused her form and hid the details of her body shape. She wasn’t copying Brilliance. The other cape was glowing white, not gold. 

Then, she flung open the door, unlatched her seatbelt, then floated out. She saw Homelander’s eyes widen in surprise, but he did back off a bit. Enough so that Yuriko casually moved the Corvette to the bridge. She kept herself between the flying cape and the car, made sure to face him directly and made no indications of any intention to run. 

The two were content to let the car land on the bridge. She floated just a dozen paces away and saw Zach scramble to the driver’s seat. But he hesitated. He looked towards her and didn’t close the door. 

“Either go or stay,” Yuriko said through her aura. “I’ll move the battle away.” 

“I…” He gritted his teeth. She could hear soft grinding sounds. “I…” 

“Just go, Zach. This isn’t a battle you can face.” 

If anything, his hesitation grew. He bit his lip hard enough to bleed, and he was about to say something, but time ran out. Homelander charged at Yuriko, hands extended to either grab her to hit. Either way, she slid out of the way and used a nudge to push him off-centre enough not to hit the bridge. 

“Come, let’s not involve the innocent,” Yuriko said as she retreated from the bridge. Homelander obliged her and followed, though he kept carefully just out of her perception range. Odd that. She moved slightly closer, but he twitched out of the way. Did he feel her perception aura? 

Once they were far enough away, Yuriko said, “Not that I mind a good fight, but why are you here?” 

“It’s funny,” the man said, his voice a very pleasant baritone. “But I’m here for the same thing.” He didn’t say anything else and continued his assault. He was faster but he didn’t have a perception field like she did. Nothing he did could surprise her, and she was agile enough with both body and Anima that he couldn’t even graze her with a finger. Not for lack of trying, though. She hadn’t counterattacked at all, and the mounting frustration on the older man’s face made her smirk. Not that he could probably see it behind her light. “Is that all you do? Evade?” 

“Well, old man, I’m just waiting to see what else you can do.” Yuriko taunted, “But since you insist…” 

“Wha-” 

Skreeee!!!

An Invisible Edge slammed into his side, but sure enough, it glanced off his invincible skin, though it did slice his khaki uniform. 

Homelander paused, then snorted. “Impressive.” His tone was flat and more than a hint of sarcasm, but she could see his eyes were wary, and his thoughts obvious. If she could strike him without being able to react…what if she hit him where it would hurt? But the question is, where would it hurt the most? 

And Yuriko wondered if she should finish him off that way or if she should continue working out how to cut through the invulnerability itself. The Bladeless Sword was a work in progress, and she hadn’t even come close to unlocking even a single percentage of its true potential, not to mention her need to merge it with Radiant Flying Swords. 

She might be able to kill the man, probably by bypassing his invulnerable skin. Or was it just his skin that was protected? Could she slip the Invisible Edge into his orifices and carve him from within? She could probably do it with other foes, especially those that were bigger than normal. Certainly, she’d encounter such enemies in the depths of Shangria, so what she could do now would work. Did Homelander have enhanced healing? If he were invincible, then he probably wouldn’t have such an ability. Altered Humans were weird that way. They only had a few powers, but what they had was abnormally strong compared to those using other disciplines. 

Could the act of focusing work that well? She couldn’t help but worry about the weaknesses it left behind, however. The reason she didn’t mind giving Scarlett Ambrosia was so that she could also awaken her Anima and round out her power. She only had enhanced healing, after all, and where would that eventually lead her? 

Take the two heroic capes she encountered yesterday. Speedrun could move his limbs several times faster than a mundane human, but that was it. Perhaps he could work on refining his usage, but he had no true foundation to raise his entire self to another level. Same with Brilliance, who had the power to shoot hard light beams and fly. How would she grow beyond refining the use of her powers? 

Altered Humans received a lot of power, but the path they could tread was obscured with heavy fog. Flailing around might lead to just going around in circles. It was nifty and life-saving, but Yuriko didn’t like it. Plus, she couldn’t help by feel that there was something nefarious about the entire thing. It was engineered, somehow, and she still had no clue who was behind it. Or perhaps there was more than one actor? Working together or at cross purposes? Perhaps the Divines, the whole lot of them praised, were in on it, too, if they actually existed instead of being superstition. Hmmm, perhaps she should look into that more. 

Homelander’s hesitation lasted for about ten seconds before he flung himself at her again. He led with a fist that she easily deflected. He tried to close in to grapple again, but it was easy enough to slip out of the way. He kept up with his efforts, shifting his pattern every few cycles in order to prod at her defences. 

Yuriko grinned as she deflected fists, chips, kicks, grapple attempts, and even the odd headbutt or two. She started to counterattack. A punch here. An edge there. A sweeping kick at the knee. An attempt to lock his joints, except that one almost got her caught since his limbs were tougher and more resilient than she expected. 

All the while, she fired off an Edge every now and then, all aimed at the same spot she had hit previously. Every strike caused sparks, as if the Edge struck metal while being nothing more than steel. Homelander grunted in annoyance the first few times, but slowly grew more confident when she didn’t aim at anything else. That probably meant that his invulnerability wasn’t complete. 

Then again, she was sure nothing was truly invincible. Some techniques, like the Adamant Guardian Seal, may seem like it, but each one has its own weaknesses. The Seal only lasted a short while, consumed a lot of Animus, and unless she preloaded it in her Anima, it took a while to set up and power. Well, the setting up part didn’t last more than a couple of seconds now since she was used to drawing the patterns. Anyway, with Homelander, she either had to find the weakness, overpower him with brute force, or tune her Bladeless Sword to the right frequency to cut his invulnerability off. 

The last one was only a matter of time. She needed practice finding the right frequency quickly anyway. 

“Is this all you have?” Homelander said, not quite mocking. “You are strong, fast, and can fly. You would make a good addition to our forces.”

Yuriko blinked. “You’re trying to recruit me?”

“Consider this your entrance interview. A bird told us of your power and identity. You would be better off with the Nation.” 

“What nation is that?”

“The Nation. The brotherhood of Altered seeking freedom against racism and hate. The oppressors will fall and we will rise in their place.” His tone was fervent, even if his rhetoric was plain. 

Yuriko pulled back. The Homelander allowed her some distance. “Why would I join you?” 

“You have little choice, girl. Although we will not expose your true self to the world, you only delude yourself by thinking you can remain hidden, especially with your burgeoning fame. You might not join us now, but eventually, you will. I sense bloodlust from you. You enjoy the fight too much to remain as you are.” 

Yuriko frowned, though the battle thrill remained strong. She was closing in on the proper frequency, and the Homelander stopping to monologue was putting a damper on her mood.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep