We will win this.
Kiran moved around his four units, occasionally glancing at the opposing team in thought before saying a few commands. This was his seventh arena battle in his chain, and his team was on fire! They had won six consecutive battles so far, and this was the final battle to complete the chain and gain the maximum amount of points possible. All five - Kiran and the four allies - were ready to conquer and defeat the last set of heroes.
Nino had wrecked Hectors and Lucinas and Deltheas, and also managed to survive Effie's attacks for some reason (you know, weapon triangle advantage, rally defense, and so forth). She had acquired Desperation 3 recently from inheritance and had become even more powerful. Naturally, Nino was the weakest on the physical defense aspect, but shined in attack and speed despite not being merged even once.
Klein, although weak at first, had Fury 3 on his side. He successfully wrecked the Brave Lyns and other glass cannons from hurting his other three allies. Although not the strongest, he definitely provided a lot of support which made him pivotal for the team's success. Kiran had experimented on putting different skills on him (although he liked Death Blow and Quick Riposte) and the new changes seemed to be working. Out of all the units, Klein was excellent at acting as a supportive and defensive character who could at least shield Nino once or twice depending on the enemy in an emergency.
Vanguard Ike (the last possible summon he made on the Ike banner before he had run out of orbs - victory!) was such an awesome fighter. Kiran had actually gotten two Ikes and merged them into a stronger Ike with more physical attack than the other. Ike was the first unit Kiran had summoned whose weapon could counterattack regardless of distance (not counting Hector because he needs a skill to be able to counter at a distance). Ever since then, Kiran realized that being able to counter at any distance was so awesome! Really awesome! Things became much easier when archers, thieves, and green mages came along; one hit could demolish those pesky cowards.
And finally, Brave Lucina. Brave Lucina was the first five star unit Kiran had gotten for free since the start of his adventures, and ever since stayed on the main team. Lucina was very reliable, especially with the weapons giving bonuses to certain units nearby. And with Rally Defense and Resistance, Nino became super powerful. An easy plus six to damage output, possibly combined with Honing skills? Heck yeah!
Kiran finally finished ordering the heroes around and sent them on their way. Since Nino and Klein had support bonuses and Ike and Lucina also had support bonuses, he had them moving along close to each other so they could receive more bonuses.
Ahead on the other side of the battlefield was another Kiran (he wondered why there were so many Kirans around; it was strange to see someone identical to him, mainly because none of them ever lifted their hood and revealed their true appearances). That Kiran was glancing at his units and also making some preparations before sending his units along.
The Black Knight, Azura (the New Year Azura), older Tiki (with Lightning Tongue +) and Brave Lyn marched towards Kiran's units. Kiran at once ordered Klein to go for Brave Lyn, which he shot down immediately. The poor horseback archer never stood a chance. He had the other units move into the forests, away from the Black Knight's range.
However, the Black Knight moved and Azura sang to him, making him move and aim at-
Nino! No! Damn it!
A massive swing of the sword sends Nino out of the battle. She retreated in a daze, bruised in the shoulder where that hit probably would have dislocated her shoulder. Thankfully it didn't, and he was glad; the girl looked like she might burst in tears from the pain. At least there wasn't Triangle Adept, but that would have been overkill in defeating a mage with low defense.
How could I be so stupid?
And then things went bad. The older Tiki managed to move past and knock down Lucina's health despite of the princess's weapon advantage, where Azura on her Pegasus swooped down and dealt the finishing blow. Kiran facepalmed; he had forgotten to move the blue unit out of the way, and now he had lost two units so far. And Lucina was needed for the weapon triangle advantage against the two red units still on the battlefield. Now, without Lucina, Kiran did not have a good advantage anymore, and in fact, was on the path of defeat.
Things didn't look so good. It was just Ike and Klein. Klein had already suffered from a decent amount of damage although he had a lot of health. New Year Azura had hit him once and he still survived, but he had gotten additional damage from Fury 3. Although Ike destroyed the Pegasus knight soon after, the Black Knight used Black Luna and obliterated Ike. Kiran cursed under his breath as Ike left the battlefield in cuts and scrapes and in tattered clothes.
"Sorry," Ike mumbled as he passed by me to get to a healer.
Kiran shook his head, meeting Ike's eyes for a moment. "It's all right." He then turned back to Klein, who started to struggle to stay standing on the battlefield.
Faced against the Tiki and the Black Knight, the silver archer didn't face much of a chance. Klein somehow managed to beat the Black Knight by using Glacies, but Tiki came along and roasted the poor archer in an electrifying blast. Trees singed and burnt with the beam of electricity, and when the smoke cleared, Klein was knocked out on the ground, burnt with clothes still on fire. Tiki was trying to put out the flames and the other Kiran helped, and eventually succeeded.
Meanwhile, Kiran felt like screaming. He had went through six battles, came out victorious, and he lost on the seventh one? This was ridiculous! His streak was ruined! He'd have to start all over again and use up more Dueling Crests and send his favorite four units on more battles and face the chance of losing once in at least one of those next seven battles and then have to restart if that happened.
He had experienced this a few times. When he was in the lower tiers, he had lost on the seventh battle a few times. But this time, it was different. Prior to this chain, he and the team continuously fought, but the chain had been continuously broken, an unusual event for them. Usually, the team would only break one chain or manage to win all seven battles on the first try, but this time, their luck seemed to be out, and failure was prevailing.
After his mental outburst, he thanked Tiki and the other Kiran and dragged a less burnt and still unconscious Klein off the battlefield. Clarine would certainly beat him for seeing Klein so badly hurt (although not in critical condition, hopefully). He needed a healer, so maybe he'd get Lachesis or Sakura to help out.
As he exited the battlefield, he saw a seventh light on the arena streak board light up as red. The words 'YOU LOSE' pulsed in red, mocking his loss. He looked away. What a failure of him, to lead his units to defeat instead of what should have been a glorious success. He was tired and wasn't thinking straight, and that was what caused the mistake.
This isn't fair. This isn't fair. It is not fair at all. Why?
After indeed getting a beating from Klein's little sister as he had predicted, Kiran went to see the other three allies he always had on his team. Nino and Lucina had bandages from the small injuries they had gotten during the battle, and Ike's clothes were still tattered and cut about from the sharp weapons. Although he had bruises on his arm, he looked better off than the other two.
"Sorry about this disaster. I should have been able to protect you all." Kiran apologized, bowing his head.
"Think nothing of it!" Nino gave her usual cheerful smile. "We can't always be invincible. And I learned a lot from losing. Don't feel bad, Kiran!"
Lucina nodded. "There's always a next time. Besides, we're already in Tier Seventeen. Consider how much we've done over just a few months."
Ike nodded. "We did lose our streak though... But that's not too bad."
They all silently agreed, before Klein stumbled in, looking bright in his purple clothing, recently repaired (thanks to Oboro?) from the burning. Char marks still remained on his face, but he looked as if he was ready to fight again.
"Tiki definitely burnt me to a crisp... I could have been dinner for that Manakete."
Nino laughed. "At least you aren't. Let's go battle again!"
Kiran stopped them, although he found himself smiling from her enthusiasm, "I think we should wait until tomorrow. It's late now."
"Okay! I'll do my best tomorrow!" Nino cheered, before giving Kiran a hug. "You'd better, too!"
"I will." Kiran chuckled, and the other three bade Kiran good night. Kiran himself went to his tent after a quick wash and stared up at the ceiling from his cot. Although they had lost today, they would definitely win tomorrow, no matter what it took.
Losses in the arena didn't matter (well, maybe unless it was on the seventh and final round). There would always be another chance, another day.
AN: This was just something I thought up of because it happened to me several times (and may have happened to you several times if you play Heroes). I lost the seventh match and felt like screaming. This season, I just couldn't win seven times.
Klein, Nino, Ike, and Lucina are all part of my main team I use for the arena. Ike was the newest addition to the team, while the others have been on the team for a while. I use this team for my defensive team, too, so if you've seen these four units in one of the teams you were fighting against, maybe that was me. Let me know in the comments if you did; I'm genuinely curious in if anybody has seen a team like mine.
*I looked over this once but this may still contain some mistakes that I might get to fixing later.
*Sorry if the characters are slightly out of character; The only hero I know reasonably is Lucina.
Thank you all for reading my fanfic! For those of you who read my other works, I updated my profile page. I will not be updating my other fanfics until the end of the school year, but I will probably make little one-shots like these every once in a while.