The roar of the waves, the constant downpour of rain, and the distant crackle of thunder did little to steady the beating of Ryon's heart. He was below deck, seated at one of the tables. The time for maintenance has long since passed. All he did was stare at his hands as he contemplated the upcoming battle. Ryon was glad to serve in the vanguard, and this was far from his first voyage on a seafaring vessel, but he could not shake the trepidation from his being. He sipped from a flask of soju, but no more than a taste. Any more would dull his senses. 

A woman's voice barked orders from above. The Amatsuna heiress who had so graciously granted the Five Faction Concord their ships would be joining this battle. They were simple: to make ready for contact. The lieutenant gave his men a wild grin and rose to his feet. "You heard the lady, let's get up there." His forces responded in kind. His particular squad only truly consisted of volunteer soldiers who wished to be at the front; it was no surprise to anyone that many men in Jinju were not exactly keen on traveling to foreign lands to die in a war against the undead. Still, where these men may have lacked in talent or experience, they made up for in spirit.

Ryon gripped the [i]Red Meteor[/i] in hand, inspecting the arbalest for only a moment before properly pulling the lever and stringing the fire mechanism. Even now, he could feel her soul giving life to this weapon. He would do her proud. He could spot his fellow men from Hang-jun stride out of the decks with their own equipment. Some had blades and shields in hand, whilst others had crossbows of their own. The lieutenant was quick to follow behind. The battle would be joined soon enough.

The ship hit the docks with a heavy thud, the very impact causing more than a few men to fall off-balance. A storm of arrows erupted from the dock. "Shields up!" Ryon boomed, his voice echoing across the dock. His squad was quick to respond, raising their deungpae to block the oncoming projectiles. The man and his fellow crossbowmen hid behind their barriers, but not all were as lucky. Some men were slow or had been knocked down by the initial impact and were struck dead. Others had simply had the ill-fate to suffer a wound this early on. It seemed that these creatures were substituting quantity over quality. "Return fire!" The lieutenant commanded, his own marksmen doing as he asks. A staccato of bolts and arrows found their marks in various places, but many had instead failed to hit the target. The shot from his own crossbow tore a bloody hole in the head of one of the unresting. The man grinned, but wisely decided to hide behind the shield of another soldier before another volley came.

Ryon ordered his men to push forward. Most of the vanguard had entered the streets already and were doing battle with the Unresting there. Their opponents were nothing spectacular. They would be little more than peasants to cut down, had they not been tainted by the sanguine plague. When a man at the front was to strike at a ghoul, he would quickly be sprayed down by a torrent of arrows from above. [i]How troublesome[/i], the man thought to himself. In between shots, the man threw ceramic bombs up onto the roofs and buildings where the enemy archers hid themselves. The resulting explosion would quickly silence those emplacements.

"Not one step back! Move forward and find some cover!" The lieutenant commanded as he fired a crossbow into the brain of an oncoming ghoul. They could not afford this battle to become one of attrition.

The undead would most certainly win that.