"Wait! MOMO! You're Momo Hawks… Like, the Hawks family!" Tara squealed, staring at the brown-haired girl with such glee that there could have been stars in her eyes.
Momo's voice when she replied wasn't a happy one though. Instead, the girl looked somewhat… wistful, "Yeah, that's the one."
"Wow, so cool. I've always looked up to the Hawks family. You guys are like… Archery geniuses," Tara mused.
Momo chuckled, "Yeah, you could say that."
Tara seemed to skip over the girl's sombre mood, "There is something I've been meaning to try. I took a long hard look at Arthur's spear and I got an idea.
Although to be honest, you might be the only one capable of pulling it off."
"Oh? What might that be?" Momo raised a brow at the girl.
"Do you have any ordinary arrows with you?" the raven-haired girl asked.
"Yeah, I do," Momo removed her quiver from her shoulder and took out twelve plain arrows that were not covered in runes like every other weapon the archers used.
Carol, a tall slender girl with flowing black hair tied in a high ponytail, was standing next to the girls as they were talking. She also worked so closely with Cade that she'd been appointed the commander in charge of the archers.
The acting commander couldn't help but wonder, "Why would you choose ordinary arrows over enchanted ones? That doesn't make sense."
Momo gave a nervous chuckle, "I guess it was out of habit. I'm comfortable with ordinary arrows since they don't draw on my mana.
When firing a normal arrow, I don't have anything distracting me and my strength doesn't falter. Only then can I fire arrows with my best accuracy. Sometimes I even feel like I can't miss my target."
Carol stared wide-eyed at the girl, "I-I guess I'd never thought of it like that."
"Many archers never do. Enchanted arrows are still more powerful than the ordinary arrows… and if someone can fire an enchanted arrow with perfect precision and accuracy, then normal arrows really cease to be useful," Momo shrugged.
"I'm done," Tara suddenly yelled. The two girls hadn't noticed her completely zone out and work on the arrows. Tara held up an arrow for Momo to take before returning to the rest of the mundane arrows she'd scattered on the ground.
Crudely carved into the arrow she'd handed Momo were runes that resembled childish scribbles. Carol scrunched her brows, "What exactly are you doing?"
"I'm adding an explosive enchantment to the arrows so that they explode on impact with the archer's target," Tara explained, "I just have to do the same with the other arrows."
Tara grabbed another arrow and began curving the same runes into the shaft of another with the sharp tip of her own. The task looked difficult considering she was carving these runes onto a very small space. Somehow, Tara made it look like it was normal to write on something that small.
"Explosive arrows… Won't that require a lot of mana to work?" Carol asked.
"Yes, it will. We can take turns filling the arrows with mana and…"
"No, I'll be fine," Momo interrupted, "That's why you brought this to me, isn't it?"
Tara went silent for a moment and sighed, "Yeah… I've heard the members of the Hawks family usually have an incredibly high mana capacity.
Still, I didn't want to burden you. Besides, if you say your aim suffers when arrows draw on your mana, then isn't it better if we all fill them with mana first?"
"No, it's fine. I'll just use the arrows when the Behemoth becomes an easier target," Momo explained, "Thank you, Tara."
"For what?"
"For giving me something to do. I've been looking for a way I can help but I couldn't find something to do. Most of my arrows are ordinary, and I know those wouldn't do anything against a Behemoth. I-I needed something like this. I'm glad… and really grateful."
Tara beamed, witnessing Momo's smile for the first time, "You're welcome."
............…..
Arthur watched Leo's ashes tumble to the ground with a look of rage, 'Responsibility. Roles… What use are all those things if I get to watch my friends die right one by one?'
Momo… Tara… Leo…
They had all exploded in a rain of runes right before him.
'How am I supposed to watch all that with a straight face? It was my plan but they were supposed to stay alive. We were supposed to make it out of this,' Arthur raged.
"Get a hold of yourself, White," Sullivan appeared beside him. Sweat covered the blonde's face, "We need you ready with that thing. And don't you dare miss it when the time is right. You owe it to them to see this through."
With that said, the blonde blurred out of view. The Behemoth continued to ravage through the ranks of first Years. At this point, when order no longer worked, archers were mixed with the Vanguard, cutting down their efficiency…
…not like that would have changed the end result.
The formations broke. Chaos and despair consumed them.
The Behemoth seemed capable of reading through their attacks. Arthur was only speculating but it felt like the Behemoth had noticed the pillars of their coalition.
When Carol tried organising the archers, the Behemoth abandoned its random rampage and ran her through before she could utter a complete sentence.
After Carol's demise, all hell broke loose. Leo was the only member of the Vanguard that managed to land significant damage and even he had been killed.
With morale hitting rock bottom, Sullivan lost control of the Vanguard.
The Behemoth was a beast to be feared. With fire and a hide as tough as obsidian, forward protruding horns that skewered its enemies and a razor-tooth-filled maw that was equally as vicious.
Arthur watched, frozen to the spot as the Behemoth tore through their ranks. Their number dwindled… What sealed him to the spot, even more, was watching Darius get run through as well.
Knowing his best friend, Darius wouldn't have had it any other way. Contributing to this victory was the only way he wanted to finish this… and that came along with the risk of facing death. A risk that Arthur had failed to accept.
The Warlock's skills had proved useless as well and he'd been skewered by the Behemoth's remaining tusk just as swiftly as everyone else that died at the tip of the sharp horn.
When the creature finally stopped its rampage, a few first years were left.
The Behemoth regarded the students that inched away from it, trying to get away… Most of them had lost their will to fight. That much was clear to anyone.
The fight had been so one-sided that they cursed the moment they chose to fight the abomination.
The Behemoth chose that moment to turn its murderous glare to the white spear-wielding prince. Arthur stared down the creature with a loathsome look, 'You're one terrifying monster. I'll give you that.'