Jasper's vision cut out as the form of Jackie dissipated into a rain of sparks just before the enormous siege weaponry had a chance to fire into him, breathing heavily the look on Jaspers face left nothing to be imagined, the horrors of this place seemed to be truly impenetrable in his eyes.
Damian hurriedly brought him over to Warden to share what he had seen before any strange rumors started to circulate around the camp, the sudden tension in the air made it all the clearer that the hushed whispers being said were about what Jasper had said upon first seeing the undead army, and the seeds of doubt had started to burrow into the hearts of the others.
The restlessness was not intense just yet but if nothing was done soon it could soon shift in a way which was unforeseen to the leaders of this invasion force, after sharing their findings with Warden the three sat around in silence for some time, to face an army of that scale was truly a daunting task for anyone to face.
Not only that but they were blocking their only path forward which meant they had no choice but to fight them, with how strong they were at this moment Warden estimated that only a handful of them would survive an encounter with such a force let alone be able to push past yet he failed to say the quite part out loud, in hopes that it would not come to pass.
Damian was the first to speak out of the three,
"Lets try to look at this a bit differently, that army of undead is still a number of days away from us at this point, based on our current pace we should only encounter them in about four to five days time, three if we disregard safety."
Jasper looked up as he spoke next,
"Even so, how does that help in any way my good sir? We will still need to get past them to reach the main keep so how does knowing when the fight will take place make much of a difference. I say we cut our losses and leave whilst we have the chance. It's not ideal but it certainly beats being torn apart by an undead horde."
Damian matched his eyes and continued,
"It matters because it means that we can prepare a counter offensive, we just need to change our strategy slightly. We don't need to kill them all, just the key targets then retreat, doing so should cause enough disruption in order to allow us to pass."
Warden looked at them both as he spoke next,
"We don't have enough long range fighters to take out the key enemies in this fight. Maybe there is a path to get past them which we simply don't know about, we have only been here for a day and it's doubtful they would have only one way to reach the main keep."
The three continued their disagreement for some time, Warden wanted to spend more time exploring in the hopes of finding a new path despite the very real possibility they were on a time limit, Jasper wanted to flee the castle, to leave and hope to find somewhere else which may provide a means of escape from this strange world of horrific nightmares. Meanwhile Damian wanted to push forward directly through the enemy lines, to create a corridor through the army by taking out the most dangerous adversaries from a distance in order to disrupt the enemy.
Each provided their own pros and cons and yet they were unable to come to a decisive decision, that was until Jest eventually joined the conversation,
"Listen here and listen close, I may not be as strong as the rest of you but I still have a say! And after talking to some of our fellow companions we think it may be a good idea to push forward. The next few days will be crucial and utterly deadly of course, but instead of just idly waiting for our deaths as we deliver ourselves on a silver platter, we should instead take the fight to them. Hunting down the smaller groups before they have a chance to join up with the rest of those rotting fleshbags."
They all stared at him for a moment as he continued,
"Jasper my good man, do you really think that outside the walls of this place we will find anywhere which is likely to save us from this hell? I seriously doubt it. Our dear leader you know as well as the rest of us that finding a way through which the undead don't know about would be nearly impossible, they have been guarding this place since before our great great grandparents were even conceptualised, I bet if these other paths do exist they also have an uncounterable number of undead waiting for us."
Warden wanted to say something to rebuke the man's claims but he couldn't, he knew that, unbelievably this man was making sense for the first time since they met! Jasper was of a similar mind, he wanted to run but he couldn't argue against what Jest was saying either.
Finally Jest turned to Damian as he spoke,
"Your plan sounds like the best option we have, though it does mean that we will have to prepare by hunting down the creatures around here in order to gain as much strength as possible before the fight begins."
Shifting his gaze towards Warden he continued,
"We will need better weapons and armour for those without suitable memories as well, we were limited from what we could gather in the forests but here? We could use the enemies' own equipment against them if you help reshape them to fit our size."
***
Hours past as the sleepers waited in anxious anticipation, the moon was hanging high overhead so for now they would be forced to stay put but once the sun rose they would have a lot of work cut out for them, as they would begin to hunt the nearby monsters so that they can grow as strong as possible for their inevitable fight, most of them were unhappy with this decision but with no real alternative they had little choice but to act on it.
Damian had once again taken up his post and was watching out for any wandering creatures that they be getting to close as another figure appeared by his side and sat down, it was their indomitable leader, his knightly armour was damaged in many places with putrid stains of blood marking its surface and yet unwilling to dismiss it back into his soul, he was too cautious to allow for any opportunity to be sneaked up on unprepared.
He lingered for a moment before he spoke,
"Do you know what that bow of yours is truly capable of?"
Damian looked at his as he raised an eyebrow as he said,
"What do you mean?
Warden simply looked at him with an unreadable expression as he spoke,
"What I mean is, do you know how strong it truly is? Do you know its enchantments or how highly tiered it is?"
Damian's confusion deepened as he looked at the younger man,
"Enchantments and tier? No I can't say that I do, I can feel that it has something to do with souls and that it had a slight presence to it but apart from that I don't know any of the finer details, why? You think that it has some other properties I don't yet know about?"
Warden looked at him with something glistening in his eyes,
"Thats precisely it, from what I've seen that bow is the strongest memory anyone of us had at the moment, and with how easily the arrows you fire from it are able to kill the undead sentinels it must have come from a truly horrific foe. If you'd like I could take a look at it for you, my abilities allow for me to see the tier and enchantments of memories so I could figure out what it's truly capable of, but I would need your help. I don't know the enchantments immediately but the more I spend time with something and know where it came from the more insight I gain."
Damian looked at the man with wide eyes as he stepped down from his elevated point of view and faced him directly,
" Sure…Im pretty curious myself to know more about how these tiers and enchantments work in general, I had a feeling it had some kind of magical properties yet I hadn't gone to far as to say it was enchanted."
Warden simply smiled as he held out a hand,
"Well then let me teach you, just transfer your memory to me and let's see what it's really capable of."