Rowan → Ethan Nakamura ✔

Horde

The sound of cracking plaster filled the air as the surrounding statues began to move. The priest Nico had touched shuffled stiffly towards them, arms outstretched like a hungry zombie. Its mouth opened, and a waft of decay wormed into their noses.

Will scrunched up his nose. "Gods, what's that smell?"

"Death," Nico answered, unsheathing his sword. He squinted at a shambling Buddha, its painted smile not reaching its eyes. "Whoever animated the statues is from the Chinese Underworld – Diyu."

"Not bad," Rowan said, impressed. She drew her Guandao. "I've heard people pronounce it weirder."

"Should we take them out?" Ethan asked Rowan, his poisoned knife in his hand. Rowan wasn't sure how much poison would do to bloodless beings.

"Maybe they're friendly," Billie said. She glanced away from the chimpanzee with a humanoid face lumbering over. "Maybe they're going to show us the way to – OW!"

Billie shrieked as the chimpanzee jumped up with surprising agility. It wrapped its legs around her neck, fingers digging into Billie's eyes. Nico was about to slash at it, but Ethan got there first. With a pinpointed stab, the back of the chimpanzee's head split open, a cloud of black dust escaping with a slight poof.

"Thanks," Billie gasped, rubbing her eyes to make sure they hadn't been gouged out. She hastily pried the rest of the chimpanzee's broken limbs off her, throwing them to the ground in disgust.

Ethan grunted in acknowledgement. Rowan had forgotten what he was like around people who weren't her. "They're not – " He stabbed another statue, this one a dragon that had been crawling towards his foot – "Friendly."

"We can take them; they move slow," Will said. He fired an arrow that pierced the chest of three statues that had been lined up behind one another. They flew backwards into a woman in pink robes and chipped red lips, who cracked open as she fell to the floor. "And they break easy."

A lion roared. Although it had the goofy eyes of a children's nursery rhyme, it charged with a speed to rival a real beast, leaving flakes of plaster in its wake. Rowan's Guandao flashed in the sun; the lion was cut in two perfect halves. She ducked as a blue bird with a disproportionate beak flew at her, the statues suddenly renewed with energy.

"Great," Nico grumbled to Will. "You just had to say something."

"I didn't think they could understand us!"

"Because we're in Singapore?"

"Because they're statues!"

"There's too many of them," Rowan said. She cracked open the face of another Buddha, slicing off its legs. There were still at least a hundred heading towards them.

Ethan gave her a skeptical look. "You and I both know you can take twice as many."

"Billie's never been in combat before; it's only a matter of time before she hits one of us."

Rowan was right – Billie had summoned vines as thick as her torso from below the park's ground. They waved, hysterical and uncontrolled, trying to crush anything that moved. "Will's arrows are wasted here - "

"Agreed!" Will shouted. His quiver was getting lighter.

" - and Nico can't keep defending both of them."

"Yes, I can!" Nico protested.

"Well, why fight harder when you can fight smarter?" Rowan argued. An idea came to her. "How fast does plaster burn?"

Ethan scooped one of the Buddha's legs off the ground. "This isn't plaster."

"What?" Nico asked. "What is it then?"