The battlements had become a battlefield of their own.
Broken weapons, shattered supply barrels, and the bodies of countless goblins and soldiers littered the stone walkway.
The air was thick with smoke and the scent of burning wood. Every time one goblin fell from the ramparts, another immediately climbed into its place, as though the horde would never run out.
Robin and Maeve moved almost instinctively between what little cover remained. They ducked behind a toppled ballista to avoid another volley before emerging in perfect sync, their bowstrings singing with one another.
"Do they ever stop coming?" Maeve muttered, wiping the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand.
Robin didn’t answer immediately. She simply loosed another arrow; the arrow veered to the side before landing square between the eyes of a goblin archer.
"How many times will you keep asking the same question?"
Neither of them could remember how long they had been fighting. Their fingers were blistered from repeatedly drawing their bows, their shoulders ached with every shot, and bruises covered nearly every inch of their bodies.
Maeve reached behind her without looking, expecting her fingers to brush against another arrow. Instead, she only felt a single arrow shaft.
She pulled it free and stared at it quietly. The weathered wood running along the surface felt strangely familiar, and before she realized it, a faint smile crept across her lips.
It reminded her of a time long before monsters and endless wars, when every sunrise meant another day spent hunting through the forests beyond Arduis.
Hunting had never been a pastime for the two sisters; it was how they filled their empty stomachs, endured another harsh winter, and survived one more day.
"Easy..." her older sister whispered, kneeling beside her. "Steady your breathing."
Several steps ahead, a rabbit cautiously emerged from behind the tree trunks. Maeve drew the bowstring back with all the strength her small arms could muster. The string trembled violently beneath her fingers.
She let loose. The arrow flew and buried itself into the trunk of a nearby tree. The rabbit immediately darted into the brush and disappeared.
"Aww..."
Maeve let her bow droop before plopping onto the ground with a defeated cry.
"This is too hard!" She stomped her foot, hugged her knees, and curled into a ball.
"I don’t want to hunt anymore."
Her older sister walked over and pulled the arrow free from the tree before kneeling beside her.
"Come on, Maeve. You can’t give up now."
She brushed a few leaves from Maeve’s hair and placed the arrow back into her hands. Strands of bright ginger hair slipped from behind her ear as she brushed the dirt from the arrow’s shaft.
"How about this? If you hunt your first rabbit, I’ll give you the bigger drumstick!"
"...Really?" Maeve blinked, her eyes sparkling. The mere thought of a larger drumstick was enough to make her stomach growl.
"Of course." Her sister nodded, a warm smile spreading across her face.
She crouched beside the rabbit’s tracks before picking up one of their old arrows. The wooden shaft was weathered, and the rusted arrowhead had chipped away so badly that it was almost blunt.
"Looks like this one’s seen better days." She smiled helplessly.
Maeve stared at the quiver slung over her sister’s shoulder. Almost every arrow in there was the same. Some were bent, chipped, or warped; most of them were held together by string and resin.
"We need new arrows..."
"Yes, we do." Her sister laughed softly.
"But until we can afford them..."
She spun the battered arrow between her fingers.
"...every shot has to count."
She handed the arrow back to Maeve.
"When you only have one good arrow... don’t think about what you don’t have. Think about what you can do with it."
THUNK!
A goblin’s corpse tumbled from the battlements, crashing on the stone and slumping onto the ground.
Maeve blinked. The loud sound snapped her back to reality.
"What are you blanking out for, Maeve?"
Robin’s voice cut through the chaos as another goblin arrow shattered against the broken ballista beside them.
The supply barrels that had once served as cover were riddled with arrows, the remaining ballistas reduced to wreckage, and every usable arrow had either been fired or broken.
"...We’re cornered."
"Looks like it." Maeve let out a dry laugh.
Robin’s eye swept across the battlements one last time, desperately searching for anything they could use. She looked back at Maeve.
"...Any ideas?"
Maeve lowered her gaze to the weathered arrow she still clasped firmly in her hand.
"Let’s give this one last shot."
Slowly, she rose from behind the shattered ballista.
The goblins’ snarls echoed across the battlements as they charged toward her from every direction.
Maeve closed her eyes and drew a slow, steady breath, raising her bow as though the world around her didn’t exist.
Her sister’s voice echoed softly in the back of her mind.
"Think about the shot you can still make."
Maeve opened her eyes.
The trembling in her hands was gone.
She drew the weathered arrow back until the bowstring was stretched to its limit.
Then.
She let go.
The weathered arrow streaked across the battlements.
Halfway through its flight, emerald light erupted from the worn shaft, swallowing it whole. The brilliant radiance twisted and expanded, taking the form of a colossal spirit tiger that roared before charging straight into the goblin horde.
The spectral beast surged through the goblin ranks with unstoppable force.
Wherever it passed, goblins were thrown into the air like leaves caught in a hurricane. The monstrous tide that had overwhelmed the battlements only moments before vanished beneath the being.
[Skill Awakened: Wild Hunt]
Robin stood frozen.
The battlements had fallen silent.
The goblin war cries that had filled the fortress moments ago were gone, leaving behind nothing but shattered weapons and countless lifeless bodies.
"Phew..." Maeve let out a long breath before lowering her bow.
"What do you think?" She turned around with a grin that stretched from ear to ear. Strands of bright ginger hair danced in the breeze, highlighting the smile of a carefree girl.
"Cool, huh?"
Robin didn’t answer; she covered her mouth in shock.
"Umm... What’s with the long face?"
Maeve tilted her head in confusion.
. . .
[Warning: Core Party Unit "Maeve" HP is critically low.]
"Robin?"
A crimson droplet splashed onto the stone between them.
"Oh." Maeve’s smile slowly faded.
She lowered her gaze.
An arrow was lodged deep in her lower abdomen.
Darkened blood soaked through her clothes as black veins slowly spread across the wound.
The bow slipped from Maeve’s fingers. Before she could hit the ground, Robin lunged forward and caught her by the shoulders.
"Maeve!"
She carefully lowered her onto the cold stone, one hand supporting the back of her head while the other instinctively reached for the arrow lodged in her abdomen.
The black veins creeping across Maeve’s skin spread farther with each passing second, pulsing faintly.
"No..." Robin clenched her trembling hands.
Maeve’s body jerked violently as blood burst from the wound, staining Robin’s hands.
She immediately pressed both hands over the wound before lowering her head, desperately trying to draw the poison from it.
"There has to be something..."
"There has to be..."
...
"It’s okay." Maeve’s trembling hand rested gently atop Robin’s head. She stroked her hair with what little strength she had left.
"Hey..." Maeve’s breathing had already begun to grow heavier.
"...Robin."
"How many did you get?"
Robin opened her mouth.
But nothing came out.
Tears rolled down the side of her pale face as she slumped her head over Maeve’s shoulders.
"I guess... you owe me a round." Maeve laughed weakly. She could feel her face getting numb as the world around her slowly faded. She coughed up a mouthful of blood.
. . .
A peaceful smile spread across Maeve’s face.
"...Sis"
"I got the rabbit..."
"...Can I have the bigger piece?"
Robin’s body trembled. She clutched the pendant hanging around her neck so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
Warm tears streamed silently down her face, falling quietly onto Maeve’s still hand.
The faint blue light within the pendant pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Before faded into darkness.