Her whisper was almost hopeless, but he couldn't really blame her. The situation truly did feel awful, didn't it?
Some unknown entity has killed other members of the siege army, practically deleting them from their memories, and now she was trying to serve as the bait for the potentially-beyond-herself entity, while the others were on their way to fight approaching Dormant beasts.
Forty-seven of them would be enough for nineteen. Her plan was to minimise casualties clearly. It was a good plan too, if they truly wanted to overcome the trial of this Orb, they had to.
However, human nature was never fully noble. Her current actions were logical, yet they were also laced with insidious cunning, he was sure. Having others protect her while she took on a mental threat? Sounds like a way to skimp out on the heavy lifting.
"If I ever feel or look possessed to you... kill me."
Her voice was low enough for only him to hear it as the men clamoured around into their hasty formations, preparing to deal with the onslaught of creatures.
He froze, staring at her incredulously. He almost wanted to ask if she was crazy, but by the dead gods, she was clearly crazy. Who would reasonably in the right minds ask them to do that... for an army of fake people, no less? The Orbs trials only included false people. Was she truly so soft?
...her eyes were closed. However, her full focus set on acting as bait.
'She's insane. But sure. Don't have to tell me twice.'
He turned to the far distance, staring through the dense foliage, spotting the first of the beasts. It was a fleshy husk of a hound - its skin was non-existent, only muscles that sizzled and rippled with power in every leap visible. It had no eyes and thus relied on its excellent sense of hearing, he was sure.
Seven came from all angles, and despite the fact that the peoples weapons had no problem in tearing through the flesh, the pressure of simply one beast was already more than the average group of four soldiers can handle. The flesh of these creatures, left unprotected and vulnerable due to the weapons being able to tear through the pure muscles, was a mighty blessing to the cohort, however, organised or not, a Dormant Beast was still too mighty for people without the blessing of a Star.
Specifically poorly protected and armoured people. The battle had just started, and there were already two casualties, dropped to the ground in screams, their rakes failing to push back against the beasts, sets of jaws literally crushing through armor and bone alike.
One of the fleshy hounds, with abnormal strength, hounded through the rake, which acted as a barrier, narrowly evading the spear as it bit the groin of the man holding the rake. A blood-curdling scream left the man's mouth, and the spear man next to him paled. A nearby sword man made the mistake of rushing to help, and the shovel man that accompanied him followed suit.
And so did the remaining four unoccupied hounds, the other two currently fighting against sets of three soldiers each. The others stayed on guard to his own surprise.
'How organised.'
In mere moments, the fleshy beasts bounded over, their ravenous maws muddied with the blood of other men or beasts, dessicating the men with insatiable fury. The neck of the swordsman was bitten from behind, the head of the shovel man gnawed off with fury, and the leg of the spear mean was gored through.
Paper didn't rush over to help the man. He walked, instead, assessing the situation and keeping an open mind.
Rule number one for surviving the backstreets of Night City?
Keep an eye open at all times.
From the corners of his visor, he saw the organised formation breaking almost instantly, men fighting with their lives on the line against hounds in which all it took was a single strike to kill them.
'Fools.'
He approached the four feasting beasts, watching as the spear man desperately crawled away. He had honest brown eyes and dark black hair. Quite the looker, too, seemingly twenty years old. He met eyes with Paper and screamed.
"H-Help!".
Paper tilted his head at the man, then looked at the muscled hounds that hungrily feasted. It was logical to save the man, as he was in no immediate danger. If he saved him, he'd have an ally that owes him his life, wouldn't he?
So Paper didn't regret lifting his spear and plunging it into the man's jaw. An ally that had the ability to scream and wasn't able to pick up the nature of the beasts while having lost a limb? It was liability wrapped up in a care package.
「You have murdered an Unnamed Siege Member.」
「The Orb Watchers are pleased by your action as an Assailant.」
「You have been awarded A Boon Of Minor Strength.」
A boon of minor strength...?
Gee, how useful.
He didn't know what exactly was a minor strength boost to the Orb, but he prayed that it was insanely useful by his own standards. Which it proved instantly when suddenly feeling his muscles burn up with an unnatural surge of energy. It was an almost intoxicating sensation.
'It'd be more beneficial for me to kill everybody here, I'm certain.'
He didn't pay the man's death any attention anymore, instead lifting his spear from the man's jaw and piercing one of the four feasting beasts with its maximum range. The beast crumbled like a marionette with its strings cut.
「You have killed a Dormant Beast, Flesh Hound.」
「A weapon binds to your star, a satellite to you.」
'Interesting. A weapon? I'll find out later.'
Indeed, had he been given the moment to check, he would have checked without hesitation. The gain of a weapon in general from a beast within the Orb was almost as rare as being struck by lightning. Not because it was that rare, but because of the measures needed to even reliably get one.
You had to slay a beast, after all.
He pierced through the body of the beast even harder, right into the struggling body of the man whose groin was bit off.
The other two were sadly dead, so he couldn't finish them off, too.
「You have murdered an Unnamed Siege Member.」
「The Orb Watchers look at you with interest.」
'No boon? Shame.'
It's not like he was looking for more anyway. If all goes well, he'll actually thin down the targets for possession and make it more clear for who was possessed. The fewer people, the less risk from this Dormant Marauder.
That and he didn't trust any of the men.
Unlike the others who were furiously having a high difficulty fight, their unintelligible chaotic disturbance of noise serving as a mask to his approach, he killed the stragglers who found themselves overwhelmed. Three members, and each time, the Orb's Watchers' reactions stayed the same. Though with each murder, he felt a part of his brain grow sharper, clearer. That haze he had felt was clearing itself for every murder.
And the only reason he went unnoticed... had to be from the chaos of the battlefield. Though he was sure of that.
Regardless, the battle was not one to last too long. After all, nineteen dormant beasts against an army of forty-seven mundane soldiers? That was nothing.
However, when Paper was added to the mix?
His spear pierced another one of the stragglers, this one pressured by a Flesh Hound that he had impaled within the same thrust. The straggler, a sword man, turned to face him in mortification, blood pouring out of his mouth.
"Y-you...! Wh..."
「You have murdered an Unnamed Siege Member.」
「You have killed a Dormant Beast, Flesh Hound.」
How substandard. It almost looked to him as if he'd spend the battle just killing others. That's four more people dead, and at least five hounds dead, by his hand. He stopped paying attention to the Orb's announcements long since the third kill, instead walking over to the next place.
Whatever the case was, the battle was going to remain messy at this rate as he seemed to be the only one killing the creatures cleanly. Granted, it also came at the cost of lives, but... these lives meant nothing to him.
He looked back at the center, and the Noble's veins were threatening to burst as she grimaced.
'...frustration?'
Her eyes suddenly snapped open in the middle of dying men and hounds, sat on a patch of grass that was unnaturally dead. She seemed strangely aggravated with how she picked her blade up, the armor creating itself around her body with yellow sparkles.
She let out a quiet sigh before she dove into battle herself. In mere moments, her blade flashed with graceless, wrathful strikes, brutal in their nature as she ripped and teared through most of the remaining beasts.
'Woah woah woah woah what the hell is her problem!?'
Paper just gasped as she slayed the last two creatures, a flow of eight arriving. They surrounded her specifically as she hit her chest plate hard, a sonorous sound ringing through the woods.
The men stared at her incredulously, finally given a reprieve at the cost of her now just taking on the full pressure. She pulled back the aura from their weapons, shaking her head while looking down.
"...I hate this."
As the member closest to her position due to his casual strut through the center of the battlefield to kill others, Paper heard her murmurs.
A beast lunged at her while she seemed distracted, and Paper watched silently, curious about what he'd need to do-
Her fist shot out and grabbed the mutts jaws, crushing it together with frightening force before stabbing her sword in the ground and the grating sound of muscular flesh tearing grated his ears.
What the hell!? She grabbed its head and ripped it in two!
"By the will of Chroma and his greatest paladin, we WILL get out of here alive." She roared powerfully, the armor making her voice echo through the forest... and directing the beasts full attention to her.
They learned very quickly that there was more than nineteen of the flesh beasts, judging from the tens of eyes that appeared in the shadows.
"And naturally... I'll take accountability for the mistake I've made."
She turned to the other men, pointing to the castle as she picked up her blade, a nascent yet sharp ethereal golden fog coating it. Her eyes fell on paper, piercing him through the helmet. As if to tell him they were his responsibility.
"Run. We will meet again."