I do not own The Familiar of Zero or any characters or ideas used. The Familiar of Zero and all characters and ideas associated is property of Noboru Yamaguchi

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Chapter 1

"GET OUT OF HERE!"

It would be the last sentence they heard from him for a long time. Hiraga Saito, or "Gandalfr", turned his back on the fleeing airships carrying the precious cargo of his friends and loved ones. He had not lived in this world for long, but in the little time he had spent here, he had created trust and camaraderie that he wouldn't trade for the world.

'I don't want to die, but defending the people I care for will be worth death if it means they get to continue living...' thought Saito as he eyed the dark horizon just barely visible in the moonlight. 'Goodbye Louise.'

He started forward with slow, deliberate steps, mentally preparing himself for what was to be his largest and final battle.

"Damn."

He took in his final moments of peace before off in the distance, thousands of lights illuminated across the miles of low hills spread out in front of him, followed by a thunderous war cry from tens of thousands of monsters and soldiers ready to draw blood.

A long drawn out "Fuck" escaped Saito's lips in a low whisper as he realized the magnitude of the situation he was in.

Absolutely preposterous.

Preposterous in the fact that these seventy thousand strong were facing against an eighteen year old lone kid who just wanted to protect the people he loves. His slow steady steps turned into wobbling attempts of walking, his mind overloading with adrenaline as he struggled to maintain his composure. "COME ON!" He screamed, desperately trying to pull himself together as the army closed the distance between him and death at an alarming rate. He thought of everyone he was protecting, then of one face in particular… 'Louise.'

"RAHHHHH!" and with a roar the mighty hero of Tristain bounded forward, focusing his adrenaline to his legendary sword Derflinger, the rune on his hand glowing impossibly bright. Before long he was at the front line of swordsmen ready to cut him down. However, using the blunt of his blade, Saito easily parried every thrust and slash thrown his way, striking the first soldier hard in the head with the butt of his handle before slashing several across their legs or arms. He was holding back with everything he could to not kill a single soul, but to end things quickly in a non-lethal way. He crouched quickly, swinging the dull end of his blade low to the ground, swiftly knocking several enemies off of their feet.

"He's too fast!"

"Bring out the orcs!"

"Partner behind you!" Saito spun superhumanly fast, using his momentum to counteract the downward swing of an orcs blade as he cut the very sword clean in two.

"No!" screamed Saito, as the fragment of the orc's blade had been flung out, impaling a nearby soldier in the chest and nearly cleaving him in two. This was getting bloody, and fast. He immediately dashed to a nearby soldier, connecting both his feet with the enemies chest. The orc chased after him quickly, until he realized Saito was only using the soldier as a launch pad. His realization was too late, however, as Saito kicked off from poor armored man, and propelled himself forward at sonic speed towards the orc, dragging his sword with him and slicing a giant leg clean from its body.

Saito could not hear the orc roar in pain as it was drowned out by the sound war crying enemy soldiers after his life. He dashed forward, into the heart of the crowd of bloodthirsty men trying to take his head as a war trophy. He lept and dodged as he ran, continuously parrying and slashing his way through their ranks as he began to see archers lighting arrows in the distance every time he lept. 'What are they doing? If they fire now they'll kill everyone here!'

Without hesitation Saito swung Derflinger as hard as he could in a circular path, creating a whirlwind that blew the enemies back as torch lit arrows began raining down. "SHIT!" he exclaimed as he saw a soldier laying on the ground still exposed to the incoming volley. In a quick, thoughtless action, Saito sprinted forward before deflecting ten, twenty, thirty arrows in the span of less than two seconds. "Urghhh!!" Pain shot through his left foot as an arrow lodged him firmly into the ground. He reached down, pulling it out despite the blinding pain just in time to throw his head to the side and and narrowly avoid a stray arrow scraping a strip of skin off his cheek.

"AHHHHHHH!" Saito turned around, pulling the sword out of his side and glaring at the man trembling in fear.

"I- I'm sorry! I just th-thoug- hurk!" His head was cleaved off with his own sword. Saito's anger quickly faded away as he just realized what he did. "Did I just…" He had no time to think as he felt a searing white hot pain explode over his back. His vision went blurry and clouded by smoke as fireballs flung past him at incredible speeds. His rune flashed with intense illumination as he regained his composure and sprinted towards his attackers: a three hundred man rank of spell casters. Saito quickly reached the line of defense, an explosion of air blasting several mages away as he created a shockwave with the force of his leap into the air.

While elevated he saw the airships were no longer anywhere in sight, having long been gone. 'Good' thought Saito to himself before his blade became a blur of movement, deflecting arrows and spells back to their owners in a mess of explosions the shook the very ground. Upon landing from his temporary flight, Saito immediately began picking off enemies. However, hsi fatigue was catching up to him and he was having a harder time staying in control of his damage output. "Dammit! At this rate…" he was late in his realization as he failed to twist his blade in time when connecting with a mages head. The blade pierced through his flesh and bone like butter as the his head above the ears was sliced clean off the bottom half. Blood sprayed everywhere as Saito became horrified with his mistake. His eyes were wide as more blood gushed from twenty more enemies as he failed to incapacitate with killing. "NO! GOD NO!" He could only keep on defending himself however, as blood soaked everything around him. Body parts were flung about as he could only do so much to try to keep as many people alive as possible, only to have blood splattered in his face from the men he was killing. 'I'm sorry. I'm so sorry'

Tears of rage filled his eyes as he began to lose himself in the heat of battle. Now everyone he encountered lay dead by his feet just seconds after clashing. A bloody trail of thousands of dead men was paved through the hills before finally the fighting ceased. The enemy soldiers had fallen back.

Saito collapsed on the ground, suddenly unable to move. 'Huh?' his body was growing cold as he lay there. 'Oh yeah, I have a hole in my kidney. Ha ha I forgot!' He coughed up copious amounts of blood as he noticed men walking forward towards him, but not coming any closer than a hundred feet of him. 'This is where it end…'

Arrows began to light, and fireballs began to form.

'No! I will not lay here and just let myself die!'

All bows, staffs and wands aimed upwards.

"URGHHH!" Saito roared in agony as he stood up. "Louise…" he said with a hoarse whisper.

Before he knew it a volley of arrows, fireballs and spells began raining down on him by the thousands. His rune flashed one last time as he gave a final struggle to stay alive. 'I'm sorry I won't make it back alive everyone. I'm sorry Louise'. His body became a blur as he deflected as much as he could, the circle of enemies around him fleeing from the ricocheting projectiles. The ground shook once again as hundreds of soldiers were blasted and torn to shreds by the deflected torrent of death.

"LOUISE!" cried Saito as the onslaught completely enveloped him. As the smoke cleared, a smoldering pile of ash and dust was all that was left in the giant crater left in the aftermath.