Fire ED-blem: The Twilight Army

By The Mauve Lantern

In the Third Age of Man, there was a great war between the races of man and demon. Throughout the continent of Lygriba, bloody battles were fought, with no victory in sight; no victory, that is, until a great hero rose up to challenge the Lord of Shadows. This hero, along with his army of followers, saved Lygriba from the menace, and banished the demons away, seemingly for good…

A full millennia has passed, and new nations have risen up around Lygriba: the forest nation Konohal, ruled by the people; Woldor, the kingdom in the mountains, is lorded over by the royal family; ruled by theocracy, the oceanic kingdom of Poseida; in the desert, the small kingdom of Teratea is home to the desert tribes; the land to the north, Zumirba; the grand kingdom of Ryadina, most powerful of the nations.

It is a time of peace, but there have been disturbances in the world, with rumors of an attack coming from the kingdom of Ryadina. The king, Gildeon, has denied any connection to the rise in bandits, but the attacks continue without any end.

Something is coming…a dark cloud sweeps over the land…

Prologue: A Friend in Need

"Get back here, ya little rat!"

A small party of cutthroat bandits is racing through the forest in an attempt to catch up to the child who just robbed them of their gold. This chase had been going on for a couple of days, and now the hunters and their prey are on the outskirts of a small village in Konohal.

She, the thief, is a young girl, perhaps thirteen years old, and has black hair that is kept out of her eyes by a brown bandana. Draped around her body is a forest green cloak, and the hood is pulled back, revealing a narrow face with lavender eyes. Her feet are wrapped in a pair of dark green pixie boots, and she wears a pair of green gloves on her hands. Her torso is adorned by a viridian tunic, and her legs are covered by white stockings. And right now, she is running for her life…

The little thief turns to her pursuers and sneers at them, shouting, "Is that the best you can do?! My grandmother can run faster than that!"

The lead bandit growls, "Grrr…why you little- GET HER!"

Despite her taunts and jabs, the girl knows that she can't keep running like this; sooner or later, they will catch her, and she doesn't have the strength to fight off three armed bandits by herself! As she thinks up a plan, she doesn't notice the wall that stops in front of her. The girl crashes into the wall at full speed, and realizes it's a human that she hit.

"OW!" she cries out as she falls on her rear.

A yellow hand reaches down to help her up, and a deep voice asks slowly, "Are you okay?"

The girl takes a good look at the young man she ran into: he's pretty tall and has long red hair reaching to his shoulders; his biceps are revealed, and show powerful muscles running up his arms. The sleeveless tunic he is wearing is green, but there is red and white striped shirt on underneath it. His pants are made of some blue material, and he has black boots on his feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine; forgive me," she quietly says, before she turns to find the bandits have caught up to her.

Laughing evilly, the leader tells the young man, "Hand over the girl, lad; ye don't want to get involved in this!"

The young man tilts his head and asks, "Why would I do that?"

"She stole money from us!" the leader shouts, "Ain't a soul alive that stole from Jango the Beast, and lived to tell the tale!"

The girl keeps looking from Jango to this boy, who seems to be standing up for her; thinking she can run off, she attempts to take off, only to find that the boy has grabbed her arm. "Let me go!" she screams, but her plea lands on deaf ears as the red-haired boy refuses to let go.

He stares the bandit in the eyes, and says slowly, "I don't like bandits very much, so I don't think I'll give her to you."

Jango's eye twitches in fury, and he roars, "Fine! Have it your way; you'll wish you'd never messed with us! Napo, get 'em!"

One of the bandits leaps at the boy, wielding a heavy axe; he lets out a war cry, and prepares to slice the boy in two. However, the boy dodges to one side, and pulls out an iron sword from its holster.

He grimaces and whispers, "Guess I have to fight," and he slashes at the bandit with all his might. The sword slices into the man's chest, and then the boy kicks him into a tree. Without letting go of the girl, he glares at Jango and readies his sword, as if saying, "I will stop you."

"ATTACK!" shouts Jango, and he and his remaining bandits ready themselves for combat.

The girl realizes she has to fight, and she begs the boy, "Let me go! I can help you!"

"Tell me your name and if you can fight," he whispers to her.

She sighs and says, "My name is Delilah, and I can fight, but I don't think my dagger will do me much good now."

The boy reaches behind him and pulls out a slim sword; he judges its weight, and tosses it to Delilah, who catches it by the hilt. The boy smiles and tells her, "You can keep it, if you want."

"This will do perfectly, umm…"

"Ed."

"Right; Ed, thank you." She readies herself for battle and shouts to Jango, "Come get some, you oaf!"

One of the bandits charges at Delilah but she dodges to the side, deftly avoiding the axe; in return, the bandit girl sliced at him with her sword, forming a gash in his side. With her opponent wide open, Delilah goes in for a stab, and she manages to impale the bandit on her sword. Unfortunately, it was not a killing blow, and her foe was still able to fight.

While Delilah deals with one of Jango's underlings, Ed grapples with the other, who screams, "Take THIS!" as he swings his axe at the youth. Closing his eyes, Ed blocks the axe with his iron sword, ending the bandit's attack.

"My turn," Ed says as he punches his opponent in the gut, sending him reeling. He is not finished, however, and Ed dashes forward and slashes upward with his blade, cutting deep into the bandit's gut. To finish, the boy tosses his sword into the air, where it spins; he leaps up to catch it and he crashes down on the bandit, effectively killing him.

Jango, shaken at how Ed has taken out two of his men, grits his teeth and asks himself, "How…how could we be beaten by this kid?!" Gripping his iron axe, he rushes Ed, who tries to parry with his sword. He is too slow, however, and his arm is slashed by the axe; reeling backwards, Ed clutches his wound, trying to stop the blood.

Delilah screams, "ED!" and she deals one final blow to the bandit in front of her, taking his life in the process. The girl dashes over to aid her new ally, and she slices Jango's arm, taking vengeance for Ed's injury.

Reeling in pain, Jango growls, "You wench! I'll kill the both of you, ya hear me?!" He raises his axe high, and sends it down on Delilah, who leaps to the side before she can be murdered, and she spins in a circle, delivering multiple attacks to Jango's back. The man howls in pain, and turns to confront the girl; he doesn't realize that Ed has gotten back up.

Ed shouts, "See ya later, alligator!" and brings his sword down in a downward slash, tearing into Jango in the process. Blood pours out of his back, while small rivulets of the crimson life-force seep from his mouth.

The bandit gurgles, "H-How was this…possible…?" before he crashes face-first onto the forest ground, a pool of red forming on his back.

Sighing with relief, Delilah says to Ed, "Whew, that was a close one!" Then she notices Ed's injury, and she gasps, "Ah, Ed! Your arm!"

The boy looks down and seems to notice the injury for the first time, pondering, "Hmmm…how did that get there?"

"Here," Delilah instructs her friend as she reaches into her pack, "Take this vulnerary, and drink up; it'll fix that gash."

"Aw, don't worry about it!" Ed waves his hands and slowly backs away, "It's only a flesh wound!"

Delilah follows him and says, "Take the vulnerary, Ed; if it goes on bleeding like that, you'll pass out!"

Ed stops and shuffles his feet as he puts his hands behind his back. "But," he muses, "I hate medicine…"

"…That's what this is about?" the girl asks, shocked that such a strong guy could hate the taste of medicine. "Well, we have to do something!"

The boy perks up and exclaims, "Ooh! My friends in the village have some stuff I can use!"

Delilah sighs, "Okay, we can go there, if you want."

"Come on! I promised Eddy I would have some firewood for dinner!" Ed shouts as he wipes his sword clean and picks up the lumber he was carrying earlier.

Scoffing, Delilah says, "Fine, be that way; reject treatment," then, when Ed begins to walk off, she smiles and thinks to herself, "This should be fun!"

--

Name: Delilah

Class: ??

Level: 1

Name: Ed

Class: Mercenary

Level: 1