Medium of the Falcon

Ganishka presses on toward the band while Griffith's apostles keep the tentacled creatures at bay. Sonia rounds on the frightened human fighters and shouts that a monstrous appearance is no reason to distrust the apostles, since they alone are holding back Ganishka's horde and shielding the humans. What matters, she insists, is not whether they are human but that they stand with Griffith.

Sonia spurs her horse straight at the closest monster. She is hopelessly outmatched, and Mule fears she is about to die, when a lone arrow buries itself in the creature. The shaft instantly sprouts branches that race through the beast and kill it, and the carcass drops onto her horse. Her rescuer is Irvine, now in his apostle form, who ribs her for imagining she could trade blows with such things while noting that her words have plainly fired up the cheering band.

Griffith speaks to the heartened crowd. He warns that his apostles, strong as they are, cannot hold against the full mass of monsters, and orders the troops to herd any creatures that slip past the war demons into a single killing zone raked by cannon and arrow fire. Fighting in coordinated units, the humans bring several monsters down once they have been worn down enough and push the horde back a few steps.

Sonia's appeal turns the terrified onlookers into active fighters, and Irvine's branching arrows show how a single apostle's power can fell the spawn with ease.