Paired up

Lon'qu knew that he had to stand his ground and take this enemy out before it had a chance to break through the line and attack the mages. He was confident that he would be able to take this lance-wielding bandit out with a quick critical strike.

Overconfidence has always been one of my weaknesses, he thought to himself.

He stared at the ground, watching his own blood drip into a small pool at his feet. It felt like time had stopped around him; although his opponent stood just in front of him, the fact that neither of them were moving gave him time to plan out his next move. Unfortunately, everything he could think to do seemed hopeless.

With an injury this bad, there's no way I'm going to be able to land a critical strike this time. And one more blow like that and I'm gone for good… Damn! Why did I have to give my last vulnerary to that woman!

Lon'qu's mind snapped to an anxiety-fueled replay of events that had occurred only minutes ago.

"Lon'qu!" Miriel shouted. "It is absolutely vital that you consign one of your vulneraries to me. This order comes straight from Adrian herself."

"What!?" Lon'qu shouted back at her as he parried a bandit's sword. "I'm a little bit BUSY at the moment!" He grunted as he slashed the bandit across the chest. Suddenly, the bandit he was fighting erupted in flames and fell to the ground.

"You don't seem terribly busy anymore," Miriel said coolly as she stowed her Elfire tome back into her robes. "I will say this once more, I need one of your vulneraries immediately; someone on the other side of the battlefield is in dire need."

"Who is it that needs it? I'll deliver it myself," Lon'qu said. He had no issue with helping out someone in need, but this person – this woman – couldn't necessarily be trusted to make it all the way there in time.

"Lon'qu, there's no time to explain this to you! Just do as you're told so nobody gets injured!"

Lon'qu hesitated for a moment, sighed, and tossed his last vulnerary over to the mage. Miriel panicked as she attempted to catch the sailing medicine, but only managed to fumble around adjusting her glasses before she realized the medicine had already hit the ground. "Must you be so boorish?" she shouted at him as she picked it up.

Lon'qu suddenly realized that his toss combined with his stubborn refusal to comply with orders had come off as obnoxiously rude. Damn, he thought, I didn't mean to make her upset at me… Whatever. What's done is done, I have to focus on this battle.

"Look, just take it and go. There are more battles to be fought." The myrmidon worried that Miriel now thought of him as no more than a simple brute. He turned away from her and sprinted quickly toward the next enemy in an attempt to quickly end the conversation before he made anything any worse.

In his panic, he hadn't realized he was running directly into a battle with a bandit that clearly had an advantage on him.

Lon'qu stared at the lance-wielder before him. The bandit took advantage of the swordsman's reflective pause, and charged at him with his lance extended. The bandit let out a war cry as he advanced.

Lon'qu reacted by attempting to jump out of the way, but he had underestimated the severity of the wound he had received. He winced in pain and instead of executing a dodge, fell to a knee.

Gods, this is it, he thought to himself. Done in by my inability to communicate, how fitting.

Lon'qu's world suddenly went dark.

He heard the loud clang of steel on steel. Startled, he looked up to see that he was in the shadow of the army's tactician. She had jumped between the bandit and Lon'qu and managed to deflect the attack completely.

Taken completely by surprise and still reeling from the pain, Lon'qu could only growl "What… are you doing here?"

The tactician, still blocking the bandit's lance with one hand, reached for her Thunder tome with the other. As she opened the book, a flurry of lightning blasted the bandit backwards. He landed on the ground and did not try to get up.

"Is that really what you say to the person who saved your life?" The tactician snarked to Lon'qu. "I told Miriel to grab a vulnerary from you, you didn't really think I'd just leave you with no defense, did you? I planned to come over here and pair up with you!"

Lon'qu was thankful for the help, but there was one thing he still couldn't understand.

"Why the hell couldn't you have told Miriel you were sending backup!?"

The tactician spun around and looked him right in the eyes. Lon'qu quickly realized that he had come off, once again, as an angry brute. He shifted his gaze away from the tactician's stare.

"Really? You're gonna blame me for deciding to pick a fight with a lance-wielder? Gods, you really are hopeless." She rummaged through her pockets and tossed an Elixir his way.

Lon'qu caught it and stared at the medicine. "A-are you sure I should have this?" he asked.

"Of course. As you know, we save those for emergencies, and with the shape you're in after that fight, I think this would be considered an emergency. Besides, I need you to stay alive to help me fight off the rest of these bandits." The tactician grabbed his arm to help him stand.

"I don't need your help!" he shouted as he shrugged her off and rose to his feet. He caught a glimpse of her face, which he could pretty easily tell was none too pleased with him.

"I mean-" he began.

"You don't need to explain, I get it. But your punishment for doing something this reckless is pairing up with me for the rest of this battle!"

Lon'qu's heart started racing. "You know this whole mess only happened because I… have trouble communicating…" he stopped himself there, although he had more to say.

"Yes! And if something as simple as a girl asking you for a VULNERARY is enough to get you to run headlong into your death, then you need to overcome this problem! We'll just have to pair up for the rest of this battle and see how you do. Don't worry about having another person with you, just fight as you normally would! I'll support you by working around how you fight!"

Lon'qu's expression didn't change, but he was secretly happy that someone was actually willing to work with him.

"…Thanks." he stated simply, and headed off toward the next opponent.

The tactician chuckled to herself and ran to keep up with Lon'qu, wondering how such an enormous child had managed to survive in battle for so long.