"What… What did I do wrong...?"

Night had fallen upon Sacae. Sacae is a large region of Elibe that was composed mostly of beautiful grass, thick forests, tall mountains and occasional villages and cottages. These vast lands of vegetation usually symbolized the beauty and richness of life itself.

But not this night. Everything is silent, apart from the whispering of the winds across the plains. Out in the open, a man wearing a brown cloak is standing. He was trying to comprehend what had just happened, but at the same time he was being overflowed by so many different emotions that he could hardly think at all, up to the point where he even forgot where he was. Hesitating, he opened his eyes to once again lay his eyes upon the horrific scenery.

The once beautiful plains of Sacae had been stained by blood and the dead bodies of soldiers wearing green armors. As he viewed the hundreds of corpses, his memory slowly returned to him. He knew that each of them had fought valiantly, but in the end been taken down to the realm of death. But why…?

"Was it… My fault?"

He fell to his knees, lowering his head. He did not notice that something in the darkness was approaching him. Either that or he did not care about it anymore.

A man followed by several soldiers all wearing red armor appeared out of the dark and walked slowly towards the man in the cloak. This man was tall and looked like he was very thin, had it not been for his small yet muscular arms. His hair was rather short and orange, whereas his eyes were as red as the blood he had poured all over the plains of Sacae. He was wearing rather tight clothes that were colored black and gray. In his left hand he was holding a very sharp and deadly-looking sword.

"I warned you…" the man said with something that resembled a smile, and he walked all the way up to the cloaked man and put the less bloodied side of his blade near the man's neck. "Although, I have to admit that a strategy like that might have worked if it had not been for this Killing Edge of mine…"

"You… You monster!" the cloaked man replied, and suddenly stood up and faced him.

"Monster?" the thin man said as he suddenly became angry. "I gave you the chance to surrender! Instead you chose to send out your men into a battle that they could never win!"

"You… Did not…" the cloaked man said while trembling, "Have to kill… Them all…"

"What are you saying?" the thin man said and kicked the cloaked man sharply in the stomach. "Who do you think I am!? I am your enemy! By usual standards you would be dead by! As a matter of fact…" he said as he lifted his menacing sword high, "I have nothing more to talk to you about…"

The cloaked man had bent over after the painful kick. For some reason, he decided to look up even though he already knew what he would see – A sword quickly approaching him.

He closed his eyes and felt something cold and hard hit the left side of his throat. He felt a little pain, but it was only there for a second before disappearing. He felt somewhat relieved that it had only taken less than a second. He thought that dying wasn't so bad after all. The pain only lasted for a second, and he was now blissfully free from all his guilt, all his suffering, and…

"Get up", said a voice. This sudden sound made him jump a little. Wait, jump…?

He opened his eyes, and saw to his surprise that his head was still attached to his body. He was still alive! Then he saw what was lying next to him: The sword that moments earlier he thought had decapitated him.

"The time for talking is over" the voice said again, which the man recognized as the voice of the thin man. "Now we duel, like real men!"

The cloaked man could not really understand what was going on anymore. First he thought he was dead, and then he found out that it had only been his imagination. All the feelings of relief were still there, though, and he didn't know what to do.

"Grab the sword! What is wrong with you!?" the thin man called loudly. Still rather shaken and not thinking clearly, the cloaked man grabbed a hold of the sword. As his right hand touched the hilt, he recognized the feeling from what had hit him on the throat earlier. He looked at the sword for a few moments and realized that it was just a simple Iron Sword, not the fancy sword that the thin man was carrying. As he looked upon the sword, he suddenly remembered something. The sword that he was holding was the exact same type as the sword that…

… That she had used…

… That girl…

"No" the cloaked man said, much to the thin man's surprise. "What?" the thin man replied, "You fool, do you really think that you have a ch…"

He stopped talking as the cloaked man slowly stood up, carrying the Iron Sword in his right hand. The cloaked man lifted his head and faced him, his face filled with determination. "I cannot lose here!" he shouted, to which the thin man smiled. "Finally…" the thin man sighed.

The cloaked man was scared. Very scared. He had seen what this man had done to all of his comrades, and now he was going to face him one-on-one. To make things worse, he had no experience whatsoever with using weapons. He had absolutely no hope of winning. Still, he saw no other way out of this mess…

"Lyn…" he thought, as he tried to mimic the pose that he had seen her use so many times. As he did this, most of soldiers started laughing, and the thin man looked disappointed. "What kind of stance is that…?" the thin man said, and readied his own sword. "You're the one to talk!" the cloaked man shouted, and sure enough the thin man had not bothered with making any stance at all. He was just standing there. "I'll let you attack first. Come at me" the thin man said, looking bored.

"Hmm…" the cloaked man thought, "He is giving me the advantage of attacking first. But if he dodges my attack, he will counter and I am most likely done for. I cannot escape him or expect any support…"

Then suddenly an idea hit him. Thinking that it was his only chance, he ran towards the thin man with his sword. However, as he tried to move the sword, it would not budge. All the soldiers started laughing very loudly and even the thin man smirked. "He's so weak that he cannot even carry a light sword like that!" one of the soldiers said, before almost dying of laughter. The thin man walked up to the cloaked man. The thin man shrugged his shoulders and said "Fine, fine, I get the point. Don't degrade yourself any further, I will release you from your torment…" as he raised his sword.

A sound was heard. A sound of metal cutting through flesh. All the soldiers became quite at once, as they witnessed the scene. "Got him", the cloaked man thought.

When the thin man had raised his sword to deliver the final blow, the man in the cloak had pulled up his sword and swiftly cut the thin man's right leg. Blood gushed out as the cloaked man drew out his sword as the wound was very deep, and it was located below the thin man's right knee. Shocked by the surprise and pain, the thin man stumbled back two steps before landing on his damaged leg and falling to the ground with a quick shout.

"You underestimated me", the cloaked man said as he threw his brown cloak aside and presented what was underneath it. He was wearing clothes similar to the thin man, just that they were green and blue. He was also wearing brown gloves on his hands and some sort of pendant around his neck. What was interesting, though, was the fact that had muscles on his arm that rivaled those on a normal soldier, and he did not look weak at all!

"I pretended that I could not wield the sword to make you come closer, increasing my chances of striking an immobilizing blow" he said with a smug smile on his face, and looked over at the soldiers. "Your soldiers look quite heavily geared, do they not? Since you have no archers nearby, I doubt that now that they could stop me if I decided to flee. And now that you can only limp, you can do nothing to stop me". The thin man could not believe what he was hearing and stuttered "T…Tac…"

The once cloaked man's face became serious as he stared into the thin man's blood colored eyes and said "I will never forget what you did to all of my comrades here, this very night. Be assured, I will not rest until they have been avenged. I will build up an army bigger than yours, and then you will finally pay. Now, I have nothing more to talk to you about…"

He turned around and started to run away, and one of the soldiers shouted "AFTER HIM!" as they followed him.

"As expected, these soldiers cannot run as fast as me…" he thought smugly as he started running even faster. Then he felt something cold connect with his back. Unlike before, this feeling was very painful as he felt something travel through his back and stomach.

He stopped due to his sudden feeling of confusion and hopelessness. "W… What?" he thought and turned around slowly.

The thin man was right behind him, panting heavily but with a broad smile on his face. Behind him was a trail of blood. "Looks like… It was you who… In the end… Underestimated me… Tactician!" the thin man said, apparently making a huge effort be talking. The whole world stood still for the impaled man for what seemed like several minutes, but then he was reminded of the searing pain in his abdomen. He did not move even a centimeter, even the slightest shudder made several of his internal organs rub against the sharp blade which was far more painful than he had ever imagined.

The pain seemed to get worse every moment as he felt his strength leaving every part of his body. Soon his legs felt very weak and he attempted to kneel down to ease the strain on them. As soon as he moved he felt the sword move around in him, and the pain was coursed through his body as he screamed loudly and tried to stop kneeling procedure, only to find out that he had no power to do so. Instead of caught by his knees, he fell to his side with the sword still attached in his back. He could hear voices saying something, but he did not care what they said. He had failed. Everything that he had done up until that point is all that was ever going to do. He thought of Lyn, the Sacean girl that he had met, and how they had journeyed to save her grandfather. He thought of all the people they had met who supported them. For some reason, he could not remember their names, just their faces and the many times that they had talked. He wished that they were here with him now, that he could talk to them one last time, that he could seek forgiveness and die without any regrets…

He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Them? Here? What a stupid idea. There is no way that they would be here. He felt something fill his throat, probably blood, but he didn't notice that he coughed it up. Then he noticed that his vision was fading slowly. "This is it…" he thought, and somehow felt that he was lying on a bed somewhere, surrounded by friends who were crying for him. Lyn was there… And everyone else as well. He did not want to see them cry anymore… He noticed that his vision was a little blurred before it started fading even faster than before.

All the pain was now gone. Apart from the stinging pain in his heart.

"Brother… I'm sorry…"

Not too far away from there inside an inn, a boy sleeping in a comfortable bed suddenly woke up. Even though he could not recall having a nightmare, he could not stop his heart from beating loudly and painfully...


Author Notes: As the thin man said, the man who died right at the beginning of this story was indeed the Tactician. Sorry if his death was a bit gruesome, I guess I got carried away. That's what you get for listening to "Blood Tears" made by Blind Guardian while writing a story!

Anyway, don't worry, his brother will take his place. We all know that the whole Lyn's story is just a tutorial in the game, the adventure starting with Eliwood's story is more interesting, especially if... Nah, I won't spoil anything more.

So, as I stated earlier, if you like what you have just read and want to read more, write a review. The next chapter will contain more humor, and not so much, uh, impalement.

Trivia:

1. "The winds across the plains" is actually the name of a song from the game. So when everything is silent apart from the winds across the plains...

2. Lyn is the only name mentioned in this chapter. Elibe and Sacae are the only places mentioned.

3. Green armored allies and red armored foes...

4. Killing Edge is a popular sword in the game that very often triggers Critical Attacks. These attacks pretty much kills anything.

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