8.2 Pressure

"Brother..."

I tuned out their jeers and concerns, my sister and new apprentice included, in favor of trying to look at our situation with as much rationality as I could muster.

Okay... Surrounded from all sides... Dezimals blocking the only way in and out of the Central Hub... Counting myself, Lise, Baccus, possibly Emeraud and Bernstein along with the few that came to us before this mess, we have just over a dozen people capable of firing rifles. We could take potshots, but that would just be a waste of ammunition due to the rifle's current lack of range. Lise and I could break the blockade with the rest following behind us, but what would stop the Dezimals from collapsing on top of us afterward-

"NENNERS ROUGE AND LISE, YOU ARE BOTH CHARGED WITH THE MURDER OF ARIA, THE DAME BLUTMOND!"

I froze midthought. I was shaken from my thoughts as the random announcement put a primal fear in me that I didn't think I had in me. I could feel them getting closer simply by the sound of their march getting louder as the seconds passed by.

"WHILE THE REST OF YOU FILTH WILL CONTINUE TO SERVE, THESE TWO INDIVIDUALS ARE SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR TREASON AND INCITING REBELLION!"

"They're closing in!"

Fvck! Think dammit!

There was only one way in and out of here... Currently, they were all coming through that valley of smoldering heat and flames that we all crossed to get here... Baccus did say... Wait... That might work...

"Heh... Haha..."

A chuckle escaped my lips as a stupid plan formed in my mind's eye.

Yes... Use the surroundings to our advantage... The heat was already unbearable for us as it is. What more for these tin cans under all of their heat-conductive armor? Granted, they could've had Seigels etched on their armor for an occasion such as this, but a Dezimal would never beat a full-fledged Zahler in terms of powering their Seigel-enchanted tools.

"Ha...Haha!"

I felt the crowd of Nenners behind me fall into silence as they heard me chuckle to myself. Again, my plan flashed its stupidity in my mind. Really, it was so stupid that I couldn't believe I haven't thought of it sooner.

"Brother?" Lise asked behind me, her hope and worry intermixed in her tone as she quickly stood beside me.

"Don't worry," I assuaged, a grin spreading across my face as I turned to her. "We'll get through this somehow."

Without looking at my sister's reaction, I fully turned to face the music of my fellow Nenners. The gravity of our situation finally sank in as I saw the hopelessness and despair on most of my fellows, the only exceptions being Baccus and Emeraud who were simply waiting for my next move. With a keen eye, I silently counted just how many riflemen we managed to train, with me ending up with a decent number of eleven as I didn't count myself and Lise to the numbers.

With a deep breath, I steeled myself to address the oh-so-adoring crowd in front of me. I was never good at public speaking despite my usual shot-calling for team games whenever I got in the mood. I damn well hope that my nerves won't show their ugly head on me now in such a life-and-death situation...

My fellow Nenners were counting on me, and if this stupid plan of mine would give us some form of cohesion and purpose, then it was better than nothing.

"Guys!" I shouted out, ignoring the foreboding sounds of marching closing in on us. It was now or never. If this somehow worked, I'll never discount considering B-movie plans ever again. "I have a plan!"

"Took you long enough!"

"C'mon! What do we do?!"

I suppressed a nervous chuckle from escaping my lips as I turned to my detractors. I honestly wouldn't blame them. I would've left a long time ago if I could.

"We're not escaping. Not by a long shot," I began, noting the gasps and cries of some of my fellows. "They've blockaded the only way out of this place. The only thing we can do now is fight!"

"Fight?!" a burly Nenner shouted in disbelief. "You're sending us out to die?!"

"I'm not done speaking yet!" I assuaged, pointing towards our only exit. "Fighting is the wrong term. Rather, we're defending this position!"

If there was only one way in or out of a certain place, then it would become a natural choke-point that even untrained soldiers could manage to hold if given the proper instructions and adequate equipment. Slabs of metal and a few rifles might not be much, but it'll do with the plan that I so blatantly stole from a movie I once saw.

"You guys!" I shouted as I pointed at the most muscular men and women that I could see. "You all take any sturdy slab of metal available to us and use it as a shield!"

Without anything else to do, they complied with my orders. They methodically searched for the sturdiest plates of scrap metal they could find before quickly attaching handles to one side of it to be used as a shield.

"What are you planning-"

"No time to talk!" I cut the random guy off as I gestured to the 'shieldmen' to follow me. "Everyone, let's go meet these ti- err... Dezimals!"

My fellow Nenners followed without much protest. Though, I could still feel the hopelessness emanating from most of them as I arranged my new shieldmen to form a makeshift phalanx.

"Okay, you guys will have to bear the brunt of the attack," I explained, noticing the forming grimaces on their faces as I drew a line on the soot-covered ground. "You will never cross this line, understood?"

"You expect us to be your meat shield-"

"I'll explain later!" I ignored the one muscle head's protests as I quickly turned to address the unarmed majority of our group. "You guys! I want you to keep close to the peopl- shieldmen!"

"What would that achieve, boy?"

I suppressed a sigh as I went straight to the point, "When the Dezimals start pushing, we push back!"

It was a basic strategy that I'm sure most people would already know if they were familiar with their pop culture references. Dezimals, from what I've gathered, lacked range beyond their massive halberds. We only had a few decently-sized pieces of metal so that worked in our favor, but we'd still need something to thin out the numbers, no matter how slowly it had to happen.

I felt a smile forming on my face. Everything was coming together... I had a good feeling about this.

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