Disclaimer: I do not own Breath of Fire or its characters.
"Excellent, Princess!" exclaimed her instructor. Nina lowered her hand, her breath labored. Before her stood the incinerated remains of a wooden soldier, the only object in an otherwise empty field. Nina closed her eyes and inhaled, recomposing herself before turning to her instructor.
"Thank you, Professor," she said, her soft voice strained from exhaustion.
The old man beamed. "You have been assimilating the curriculum at over twice what I expected," the magician praised. "However, remember that you're disarmed spells will always be weaker than spells cast through your wand." His smiling face grew solemn. "Only rely on it for last resorts."
Nina nodded in understanding. "Yes, Professor."
The instructor clapped his hands together, rubbing his palms excitedly. "Since you have been progressing so readily, I am going to show you something I do not normally show first-year apprentices." With a wave of his hand, a gust cleared the field of ashes.
"Now, before I show you this, listen: a spell of this power cast improperly will surely kill its caster. I show you this spell for knowledge, not for experimentation," Nina's instructor warned her. Nina nodded, a mixture of excitement and curiosity overwhelming her.
"Very well. This spell is the tier-three lightning spell Myollnir. Watch closely." Closing his eyes, he slowly lifted his hands and chanted underneath his breath. Energy built around him slowly as Nina watched on anxiously.
Suddenly, a blinding bolt of lightning tore through the air and struck the ground in front of them, the force of it knocking Nina unexpectedly off her feet and throwing debris in the air. Nina coughed, the air clearing to reveal the extensive damage.
Nina's eyes widened as a crater nearly two hundred of her paces around occupied the once green meadow. What damage and with only his hands! Shakily getting to her feet, Nina faced her professor.
"That…that was incredible!" she exclaimed with childish excitement. "And without channeling your magic through a wand!"
"It is true that such a spell is terribly destructive," her instructor replied. "We have only had to use such spells in times of war." He turned towards Nina, his face grave. "As the heir to the throne, such an onus will fall on you, in time."
Nina suddenly felt cold as reality returned to her; this was not simply for her benefit training to someday accept the throne from her mother and father, the King and Queen of Windia.
"Well, I believe that is all for today," her instructor said, turning away to look at the sun above them. "It's about high noon now. The captain will be furious if you do not report promptly for your patrol."
With a sigh, Nina nodded and turned to follow her instructor back to the kingdom.
xxxxXxxx
For as long as she could remember, Nina's life had always been preparatory routines; training in magical and armed combat, familiarizing herself with the roles of the staff, researching the rich history of the kingdom - everything was always purposely planned. As a child, Nina resented the duties forced upon her by lineage, but after almost two decades of life, she began to appreciate the necessity and privilege of her position.
Even with this appreciation, however, Nina still did not look forward to her militant training.
"You are going to succeed myself as the head of the royal army," the King had once told her. "As such, you need to know not just how to fight like a soldier but think like one. Battle strategies, rapport with generals and troops, the ability to lead your company into battle are all necessary to win a war."
"But now I'm stuck leading small, useless search parties," Nina mumbled to herself. She looked around at her company; about a dozen younger soldiers all war-pups, obnoxious children in uniform. She had decided to let them take a short break from their mission to eat and recuperate.
Nina sighed with resignation and looked back down to the scroll she held with her orders: Obtain intelligence on the whereabouts of Unit 74. Last known returning from a northern trading expedition. Confirm status of the unit. Confirm status - find out whether they were alive or dead. A simple mission, one that had gone cold weeks before, but the King had insisted on her to try to find a new lead. So far, she had little success.
Putting the scroll away in her pack, Nina stood up to face her party. "Alright, time to head back out. Since we've got nothing in the kingdom, we'll look through the outskirts of the forest then question the farmers out along the west road." There was a collective groan as they collected their things to begrudgingly follow their leader's orders.
They made good time and soon found themselves walking through the dense forest to the north of the kingdom. Nina knew they wouldn't find anything in the forest. There were small groups of renegades and bandits around the kingdom, products of poverty and the slum life. However, nothing Unit 74, a trained group of soldiers, couldn't readily handle.
They ventured further in, looking for signs or tracks of the unit or the bandit camp that was allegedly here long ago. Nina led the group about an hour into the forest before turning to her party. "Okay, we'll split the twelve of us into three groups," she said authoritatively. "I will lead Unit A to the north, Unit B take the west and Unit C take the east. Spread out and comb the area for any tracks. Rendezvous here in three hours." With those orders, the party was divided and soon on their individual paths.
Within the second hour, Nina began to feel uneasy. She had always been sensitive to magical forces (perhaps the reason her magical training was her favorite lesson of the day) and now she could feel the anxious feeling of strong magic overwhelming her - extremely strong magic.
"Stop," she commanded, and instantly her soldiers heeded, looking at their captain. "Something's here, something magical" They all readied their weapons, looking around cautiously for the unknown entity. Maybe this expedition would turn out to be more interesting than Nina originally thought. Suddenly there was a rustling a tree near them, causing the party to turn to face the threat with their weapons drawn.
A young man stepped out, tall with handsome features. He had a smaller but fit frame, covered by worn clothing. One may have mistaken the man for a traveler or merchant but the sword strapped to his side spoke otherwise. The sheath and hilt were remarkably clean and a jewel the same color as the stranger's blue hair shone on the base of the hilt.
Nina was startled by the appearance of the man clearly not much older than herself. Not so much by the fact that the stranger had appeared in the first place but by both the sudden disappearance of the magical force and her instant recognition of him.
"You…you're Ryu the Outlaw!" she cried, almost overwhelmed by fear and awe. The two soldiers with her both paled. They knew the story of the bandit, a man who had single-handedly destroyed several small villages to the west. He had even burned down the McNeil mansion, where Windia had sent several of their armed guards to protect the mayor of their western trading post.
The young man smiled slightly but their was no life in his eyes. "I am pleased and surprised you have heard of me, your Majesty. Even more impressed you could tell I was following you," he said coolly. He looked at the two soldiers behind her. "You two are insignificant in this conversation. You may leave now."
The two soldiers exchanged a glance before charging the bandit, swords drawn. Before Nina could even react, the two soldiers fell, their armor cut cleanly through. Ryu stood above their now bleeding bodies, sheathing his sword.
Nina felt a chill run through her body. She hadn't even seen this man draw his sword and before she knew it he had already killed two of her armed soldiers, cutting through them as if they were nothing. She raised her wand, clenching it tightly to stop her hands from shaking.
"So you are a magician," Ryu noted. "That would explain how you could sense me coming. I will admit I had not thought you would be trained so well, yet it does not surprise me coming from the future heir to the Windian throne."
"Why are you here?" Nina asked in a strained voice.
A ghost of a smile played on Ryu's lips. "It is funny you should ask. I'm here to take you to see something. I would simply tell you but I have a feeling you would not believe me, you see."
"And if I don't want to go to wherever this 'something' is?"
Ryu frowned. "I am afraid I am going to have to insist," he said. He started making his way toward her.
That was what Nina figured; he was here to kidnap her. Channeling her energy, she spoke the magic incantation and suddenly a vacuum of air shot at Ryu.
Ryu's sword flashed in the dim light of the forest and arced down, cutting right through the vacuum and dispersing the now useless wind energy. He sheathed his sword and faced the speechless Nina. "You are going to need to do better than that, Princess," he said. "Do not do me the displeasure of underestimating me again."
Quickly Nina regained her composure. "So, you're able to break spells physically?" she asked. "Fine, I won't hold back then." Focused now, she raised her wand and pointed it at Ryu, who remained still, almost looking amused. This time, she rapidly spoke a string of words and raised her second hand before suddenly releasing the energy at Ryu.
Nina saw Ryu's eyes widened in surprise as the realization took place; he had been hit with two spells simultaneously - Blunt and Slow. Without giving him time to react, she gripped her wand with both hands and spoke the words to her strongest spell. A blazing ball of wind and fire energy burst forth, colliding with Ryu's chest and engulfing him in a large sphere of flame.
After completing her spells, Nina breathed deeply and called towards the wall of fire, "Did I underestimate you this time, bandit? What do you think of my Simoon spell?" Actually, Nina knew that if he had had the power to destroy the spell again or the speed to move out of its way, her spell would have been useless. By using both her hand and her wand, she had hit him with two unseen spells that enabled her to strike him with her slower visible spell.
Nina looked down at her fallen comrades. "What am I going to do now?" she asked herself aloud. She knew she could not just leave their bodies out here. They had died serving their duty and deserved to be respected in death, yet Nina could not physically carry two bodies the two hour journey back.
With her decision made, Nina started back to the rendezvous point. She would return with the rest of her party to help her carry the others; leaving them alone was a lesser evil than abandoning the bodies entirely or fruitlessly attempting to carry them herself.
"Where do you think you are going, Princess?"
Nina froze, her eyes wide in fear. She turned slowly back towards the fire and saw a figure walking through the flame. Suddenly Ryu's body emerged, unscathed by the attack.
"How…?" Nina began to ask, fear turning to panic. Ryu had withstood her most powerful attack and without as much as a scratch!
"That was a very tricky technique," Ryu said, brushing ashes off his clothing. "On any other person, that combination magic would have surely been the end of them. However, I do not need a sword to withstand a magical attack, including your tier-one spells Blunt and Slow."
"Then that means," Nina said, "that you could have simply evaded my attack at anytime."
Ryu nodded. "I needed to show you that there is nothing you can do to harm me." Ryu began walking towards her. "Now, if you are done playing, I insist we must leave now."
Nina stood in place, transfixed by her terror. "Where are you going to take me?" she whispered.
Ryu stood in front of Nina, towering over a head above her. He looked down, smiling before his hand came down and blackness covered Nina's vision.
Author's Note: So here it is, the first chapter to my new story. I've already outlined much of the story and simply need to add in the minor details, so the story should progress smoothly and be updated frequently. I will allow some time for people to read and give me some input though, hence my not putting up all the chapters at once. Read and review!