[h2]Ashte[/h2]

... was it really okay to let these two make first impressions? Maybe she and Aureia should run ahead of everyone else next time? Not that Ashte had anything against fighting--[i]that [/i]would be completely ridiculous--but there was more to winning a war than killing everything that stood in your path. Knowing thy enemy, for instance, which was really not helped if you murdered everyone that even looked at you funny. Right now, she didn't feel like they could take on an entire army either.

Well, the choice was out of her hands and at least this spared her the need to engage in making some overly flower declaration. That was something the white-haired goddess had never been too good at. Pillow talk? Rousing speeches? Those were fine but just... acting pompous on demand with no purpose to it? Where was the fun in [i]that?[/i]

It was a fortunate time to discover that her instincts were still working, her [i]second[/i] shield forming as one of the red-clad soldiers pointed his tubular stick at her, the projectile embedding into the holy metal with a resounding clang. That was... unpleasantly close, she would have to pay more attention to fighting mortals until her power was back up to spec. And pay attention to this one she did, darting up to this one outside of the rampaging huntress's path, a cheerful smile on her face as her arms snapped into place around his. Twist, and...

Oh, this [i]was[/i] an interesting weapon, wasn't it? Ah, if she had enough of them, and faithful soldiers... the tactics that she could pull off with perfect battlefield awareness and a ranged implement such as this. It wouldn't be as fun or exciting as a pitched battlefield but being able to eliminate specific targets in the dead of night...

She slammed the butt off the weapon into the disoriented soldier a few more times, knocking him to the ground. At least that way, they'd have someone to interrogate afterwards. Then, shields ready to intercept if anyone looked in her direction, Ashte scanned the battlefield... ah, that one had an even [i]bigger[/i] tube? Best stop him first. One, two... their armour was unsurprisingly resilient to their own weapons, but it seemed multiple shots in the same spot could still go through. If you could do it.

If the weapons had changed this much, how had warfare? Oh, this would be exciting.