Encore

Monsters

Sypha is kind of the cornerstone of his plan this time, so of course this time everyone's watching him like starving hawks.

There's more of them than there really were. Back then it'd just been the remnants of the mob, the ones who'd showed up and been there at the right point in his run and then survived the opening swoops of the Night Horde. Now there's...

...everyone already died or lived. He can't change that. He can't change anything.

There's salt and buckets of water that, supposedly, have been blessed, though there's no sign of whoever's been doing it now. Well, Trevor did assault several priests today, it's not much of a surprise the guy's made himself scarce.

Even if it's regular water, Trevor's managed in places where everyone capable of mumbling the words was long dead. He'll handle it.

He examines the square. He fell in around... there, definitely. "You and you, that section's going to cave in later, move left." He waves his hand at them and they scamper to the side. "Do you have whitewash here?"

There's a vaguely affirmative murmur-hum from points in the crowd at that. "Whoever has it, get it, I need to mark off the area so you can stay out of it tonight. I'm falling down there later, no need for anyone else breaking their necks." He waits until a few people separate and run off.

He points to the water. "I'm told this is holy water," he starts, because if it doesn't work he wants to be clear it's not because he's the one who's wrong about monster-fighting. "Holy water burns demons, so I want the ground here as soaked as you can make it. That won't kill them, but it'll hurt them when they land. A distracted demon is one that isn't biting anyone's guts out. To kill them..."

He strides towards the salt and lifts a handful into the air. "To pierce the hide of a demon, all you need is to salt the blade. Salt interferes with their powers, prevents their flesh from coming back together. Salt kills demons."

"How come you can touch it?"

"It's salt!" These fucking people. There really is something wrong with Gresit, unless it's God fucking around directly to see how much more raw stupid insanity needs to be crammed into Trevor's hallucination Hell before he gives up and beats his own skull in on a wall.

Someone else answers with, "He's a revenant, not a demon."

"I'm not a revenant," Trevor clarifies, and then can't stop himself from adding, "And no, salt does work on a revenant. And a revenant would not be helping you because it's a rotted out lunatic monster."

Everyone's staring at him like they're not convinced. He. Does. Not. Look. That. Fucking. Bad!

"Revenants can't move in direct sunlight," he tries, and oh, that gets a mutter of acceptance. That they find convincing. He sighs and lets the salt flow through his fingers to return to the pile. "Just remember about salt. Salt doesn't need magic. If whatever priest you got for the water turns out to have just been fucking with us all, it'll do nothing, but if you can taste salt, it's salt and it'll work against monsters. Just salt will be enough for you to win. So!" He gestures at the various jars and jugs. "As soon as the sun starts to go down, you need to apply salt to your weapon. After a few strikes, it'll be worn off and you'll need to reapply it. But it'll only take a few strikes to fight off the Night Horde. They're not like an army of men. They rely on near invulnerability to make up for their low numbers. They won't have that tonight."

He backs up toward one of the more intact buildings and waves his hand. "We'll be taking up position here. Going into the buildings is a trap, the hellfire's worse in enclosed space, so everyone stays out outside, clustering up for defense. Double row of pikes to keep them off people, then those of you with knives rush in once they're skewered. Any demon who keeps its distance, I'll take out myself. Stick the kids in the center. For now, sharpen everything, make sure it's not about to break, and get any extra pikes you can. Ah, there's my whitewash, thank you."