chivalread | INBOX ↣ FELLDEN

[This is no time to be timid, Ashe! Lightning holds back her spells, waiting for him to line up the shot without distraction, but if those get much closer--wait! It's down!

Well. That was a good shot!

Shame it only took down one of them. Its fellows just keep on walking like it was never there to begin with, showing no signs of slowing down. Gritting her teeth Lightning calls on Fira instead, the heavier spell slamming into the ground between knots of Spartae and sending bones flying...but also revealing that, out of the darkness, more are coming.

The wards are holding, for now. But they need to do something to clear this line or they're all screwed when those wards go down.]

Dammit. Where do they keep coming from?

[ Now that Ashe seems to have found a mote of confidence, something to focus on rather than the fear that buzzes around in his head and his heart like angry wasps, he’s quick to keep going. Another arrow nocked and released, even as Lightning looses her spell. It’s sort of comforting, actually. It reminds him of fighting alongside Annette, or Mercedes or any of his other magically-inclined friends. ]

I don’t know.

[ In a war that’s been going on for as long as this one has, there’s probably no shortage of souls or skeletons available. Two to replace every one they manage to fell. ]

Do they have a commander of some kind? Maybe we could get them to break ranks and scatter.

[The only thing keeping them from being overrun is the runes on the walls, and the fact that the sun has to rise. Calls go up along the wall: keep them back and hold steady 'til morning!, but there's people out there on the road, people like she and Dimitri had been.

Just trying to make it to safety, one way or another. If they can break this charge, then maybe--they have to try. So she peers into the dark, scanning the heads for anything.]

I don't think they have a rank system. [Her eyes narrow. It's bare skull after bare skull out there. The occasional helm or cap, but nothing to designate leadership. They probably don't need a leader when they're this driven and mindless. They're almost like Cie'th in that respect.] Not anymore. We could take the whole line out and they'd keep coming.

[Even if it meant walking over their fallen comrades to do it. She grits her teeth.]

We need a better plan.

[ She’s right – if someone or something is giving these things orders, he can’t see it. Okay, so conventional battle strategies are out. They sure didn’t teach how to do battle with mindless, skeletal soldiers at Garreg Mach, so he’s a little (a lot) out of his depth here.

Ashe also sweeps his gaze over the advancing horde, lips pursed as he considers their precious few options. ]

If we’d had more time to prepare, a pitfall might have worked. Explosives might also slow them down a bit, or at least create a gap?

Probably. Fill a trench with explosives and that'll slow anything down.

[But that takes time to get going. Even if these things vanish come morning, would they have the time they need to get it up and running? Probably not. The only thing to do is hold the line. Not to mention...

One of the other arches on the wall gets off a good shot, but their arrow was steel, not silver or gold. The Spartae falls to pieces, but bones rattle their way back into order all too soon. It's not just for every one they fell two more take their place, but they can't even fell the first one to begin with! She grips the wall tight, fingers going white beneath her gloves.]

But we're going to need a lot of explosives to slow down this mess. Detonating that much would take out the wall, too.

[Which. Defeats the point. Urgh! They're stuck between a bone and a hard place, aren't they? Dammit.]

[ He seems to be much on the same page as she is – they don’t have the luxury of options, of human opponents with human weaknesses and a human commander. They have a wall, they have the high ground, and they have to pray it holds until sunrise. ]

Then we just have to keep doing what we’re doing and hope we can hold them back until morning.

[ “Should haves” won’t serve them now. Ashe draws another arrow back and releases, the silver-tipped bolt managing to take one of the skeletons between the ribs. That seems to be enough to cleave its soul away, and it drops to be trampled by its brethren. ]

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