Chapter 9: The longfort.
After a week, Chrom and the Shepherds finally approach the Longfort, well-known far and wide for being the largest fortress that stands guard between the border of the Halidom of Ylisse and Regna Ferox.
The Longfort, got its name for being a long series of fortifications built along the west-to-east line across the southern borders of Regna Ferox. No one knows when was it built or for what purpose was it built for. But, when mention the Longfort, people will always known it for two facts: it is such a long fort, that it completely divides the whole continent of Ylisse into two, with the northern part of the continent belongs to Regna Ferox, while the southern part is shared between the Halidom of Ylisse and the Theocracy of Plegia; and it is a completely invincible and impenetrable fortress, due to its solid construction and having natural blizzards regularly all year long.
"Brrr! It's f-f-freebing here!" Lissa rubs her hands continuously to keeps her body warm.
"Here, Lissa." Chrom hugs Lissa, and covers with his cape to keep both brother and sister warm. "I've heard that the Longfort has blizzard all year long, but I never thought it was actually true. Such harsh and severe weather, and yet it's the norm for the people here." Chrom is in awe. "There sure is a lot of the world that I had yet to known…"
"Heh, this much of snow doesn't mean a thing to me!" Vaike boasts.
"Yeah, a fool can't catch a cold, after all." Sully snarls at Vaike.
"Yeah, you got that right! Teach here is so strong, he never caught a cold in his life!" Completely unaware of what Sully actually meant, Vaike continue with his boast.
"Urgh…" Sully can't help but sighs at Vaike's naiveness (stupidity).
"Say, we've been walking in this snow for quite a while already." Stahl speaks up. "When will we finally reach the Longfort? I'm starving here."
"According to the map, probably about half an hour or so." Frederick says. "Try to hang in there a little more, Stahl."
"Captain." Sumia calls out to Chrom. "I just did a flower fortune…"
"Not the flower fortune thing again, Sumia?" Chrom frowns. His head hurts just trying to think what Sumia would say to him about the flower fortune this time.
"Yes, captain. The flower fortune told me that there's trouble up ahead of the road. Perhaps I go ahead and scout the area?" Sumia suggests.
"It's alright, Sumia. In this snow, even with the Pegasus, you'll not be able to fly much further than the rest of us. It'd be troublesome if you get lost. Let's just stick together for now." Chrom orders.
"Aye, captain." Sumia is kind of disappointed that Chrom refused, but she still smiles regardless.
"Then allow me to go ahead, milord." Frederick volunteers.
"Alright, if it's you then I have nothing to worry about." Chrom nods. "Just be careful not to go too far, Frederick."
"Aye, sir." Frederick bows to Chrom, then he rowels his horse to gallop ahead.
"Hmm…" Lissa looks at Chrom and Sumia funnily and with a small grin on her face.
"What?" Chrom asks Lissa.
"Why did you allow Frederick to go while refusing Sumia just mere seconds before?" Lissa asks.
"Well, that's because Frederick is a veteran knight, while Sumia is still inexperience." Chrom answers.
"Oh, really now? I think otherwise…" Lissa looks over to Sumia, still with a small grin on her face.
"Lissa, you're sounding like Scrooge…"
"Ee hee hee."
…
"Milord!" After a while, Frederick hurriedly returns to his lord side.
"What is it, Frederick? Is there something up ahead again?" Chrom asks.
"Risen, milord!" Frederick reports. "I see Risen up ahead! The Feroxi Guard is currently engaging with those Risens!"
"I knew it! Shepherds, prepare yourselves! We must go and give aid to them fast!" Chrom orders. He takes out his sword, the Falchion, from its scabbard and charges ahead of everyone.
"Waah! Sloow doooown, Chrooom!" Lissa, the one sharing the seat with Chrom on the steed, yells.
…
"Armor knights! Form a wall to protect the entrances of the fort! We must not let those things breach the fort at all cost!" The Feroxi Guard's leader, Raimi, orders her subordinates, and goes to join the fray.
The Feroxi knights' defense is truly formidable, as not The Risen could only scratch at their armor without being able to harm the knights themselves. The knights guard themselves against the attack, then push back in wave, preventing the Risen to advance further. The tactic isn't that great offensively, but as a defensive tactic to guard a chokehold, it was perfect…
… Or so it would have been had the Risen not number in hundreds. With that massive number, they flood at the Feroxi knights. The knights were able to push back a few waves, but they eventually got overwhelmed, the Risen just step onto the knights and themselves, creating a living ladder (as much living as a zombie can be anyway…) to scale over the walls of the fort.
"Archers! Commence firing at will!" The leader of the archer squad gives the order. Hundreds of arrows let loose out of the bows and pierce through the scaling Risen, pushing them back to and down the walls.
While his squad still firing at will, the archer leader calmly walks forward, gracefully shoots down any Risen so much glare at him. Standing at the edge of the wall, he looks down at the struggling armor knight of Raimi, flips his hair, then calls out to Raimi below. "Raimi, my dear. Don't you think that your guard platoon is a whee bit in trouble? Isn't it time for you to order a retreat before we are completely overwhelmed?"
"Silent, Virion!" Raimi yells at the archer leader. "Never retreat, never surrender. To find death in the field of battle is the greatest glory in one's life. That is the way of life of a Feroxi's knight! Now, proud knights, push forward! Drive back these unholy creatures off our beloved land!"
"Fair enough." Virion replies to Raimi, then he raises his hand up and gives an order to his archer squad. "Archers, move forward! Fire at will at the enemy! Don't let the armor knights steal all of the glory!"
The archers cry out in unison and charges forward to the edge of the wall, arrows firing down at the Risen like rain. Not losing to the archers above, the armor knights also stand their ground like an unshakable mountain and push back any Risen who hasn't been shot down by the archers. With just a small conversation between two people, the morale of the entire platoon was raised sky high.
"Heh." Virion flips his hair then joins his comrades in the firing. "Die! With magnificence!" He cries and shoots two his arrows, piercing through a running Risen's throat from afar.
…
"Huh?" Chrom stops his horse and stares into space. "Wait… Something is funny here."
"Not this 'something' again. What is it this time?" Lissa peeks out from behind Chrom to look.
"Shh…"
"Gwaaaaaar!" A loud roar can be heard from afar. A horde of Risen is running right at the direction Chrom, but there's something not quite right with them, they don't seem to be as aggressive as they were in the last fights with Chrom, instead they seem to be… running away from something. Chrom isn't sure what to make of it.
"What's wrong, captain? Let's go and give those Risen a beating already!" From behind Chrom, Sully passes him and charges straight at the Risen.
Vaike, who is sharing the seat with Sully, also takes a quick jab at Chrom "Move your princely ass quick, or the Vaike'll steal all the kill this time!"
"Heh, those two hot-headed…" Chrom grins and immediately jumps off the horse to join his two companions.
"… Chrom's leaving me behind again. The nerve of him!" Lissa pouts.
When near the Risen enough, Vaike stands up and jumps off the horse. "Wahah! Enter the Vaike!" he shouts, and descends upon the Risen like a giant. He twirls the axe in his hand and start attacking any Risen he can reach. "A one! A two!" He begins counting. Not losing to Vaike, Chrom also quick to take action. With the two warriors back-to-back, the Risen, even with their overwhelming number, doesn't stand a chance.
"Men…" Sully can't help but smile at the scene. She then rowels her steed to jump into the middle of a pack of Risen and fights alone. No, actually… Saying she fights alone is a very wrong statement. As Sully is a cavalier, to her, her steed is not simply just a horse, it is her trusted comrade, her beloved brother. When Sully swings her javelin to attack her enemy on one side, the horse would tilt its body slightly to that side to make things easier for Sully. If an enemy takes that chance to attack on the other side, the horse would take care of that enemy for Sully by kicking that enemy in the guts. If they got surrounded on all sides, the horse would jump up and spin around, keeping the enemy away, and to create enough space for Sully to dispatch those enemies. Together, they are a prime example of how a cavalier should be, an invincible duo of the knight and her steed.
"My, such elegance in combat."
"Wha-?" Sully got surprised and her fighting got halted by the sudden appearance of the unfamiliar man.
"G' day, my fair lady." The man makes a quick elegant bow to Sully, then quickly turns to shoot down a Risen from behind him, then turns back to Sully and continues with his praise. "Power and skill, beauty and strength! What a magnificent combination!"
"… Who the hell are you suppose to be?!" Sully tries to ask the man as she fends off the Risen. His sudden appearance had distracted her somewhat, making it hard for her to fight as effective as earlier.
"Ha! Is the lady intrigued? Of course you are—it's only natural." He flips his hair. "I am myth and legend!" He turns to shoot down two Risen one after another in a matter of second. "I am he who strides large across history's greatest stage!" He trips a Risen coming at him, gets on top of it and shoots it right in the philtrum. "The man who puts the "arch" in "archer"!" He stands up and raises both of his hands into the sky. "My name, my fair lady, is…"
"VIRION!"
"Yes, Virion. That is my name, my fair lady. How did you… Wait!" The arrogant on his face quickly fade away, and in its place is a perplexedly look, because that wasn't Sully who just spoke, it was… "Ah, Raimi, my dear." Virion calls out to her.
"What are you, an archer, doing charging into the fray ahead of us armor knight? Have you had a death wish?" Raimi says.
"No worries, Raimi, my dear." Virion makes a quick graceful bow to Raimi. "It wasn't my intention to find death in a place like this. It's just that I smelled love is in the air, and wanted to seek out the source of that smell." He turns to Sully once more. "Now, my fair lady. Pray, won't you grace me the honor of knowing your beautiful name?"
"Urgh…" Sully isn't sure of what to do in such a situation (and neither does Raimi). Ultimately, she decided to just ignore him and focus on the Risen for now. "I have something else to worry about, right now…" She says.
"Ah, yes…" Virion nods. "Come, my fair lady. Let us grace the world with our presence together!" Virion readies his bow and arrows. "You too, Raimi, my dear. Try not to fall behind."
Raimi is still a little confused about what happened, but she quickly snap out of it and tell her troops to dispatch the remains of the Risen.
With the combined forces of both the Shepherds and Feroxi's Guard, the remaining Risen got wiped out in no time. There are some that got injured during the process, but nothing too serious, so Lissa and was able to heal them back to perfect shape without any trouble.
"I, Raimi, on behalf of the Feroxi Knight Guard, a million thanks for the aid, sir." Raimi bows to Chrom.
"Please, there's no need to thank us. It was our pleasure to be of help." Chrom says. "And actually, in the name of House Ylisse, we are come to Regna Ferox to seek out an audience with the khans to discuss matters concerning those creatures earlier."
"Representatives of House Ylisse? Then you must be…"
"Yes, I am prince Chrom of Ylisse. This is my little sister and princess of Ylisse, Lissa. And everyone here with me is my trusted companions, known as the Shepherds." Chrom introduces himself.
"Yes, and I am Virion." Virion introduces himself. "I am myth and legend. The man who…"
"… This is hardly time nor place to talk, prince Chrom." Raimi interrupts Virion's introduction. "Let us return to the Longfort. We will continue our conversation there." She then quickly orders her troops to hurry back immediately, with her leading the guard, and Chrom and the Shepherds follow right behind.
"Wait, I haven't finished yet. I said wait!" Virion calls out, but nobody so much glances over at him. Poor Virion, all he wanted was to make a grand introduction worthy to someone as noble as him, but no one could appreciate it.
…
Raimi and her Feroxi Knight leads the way for Chrom and the Shepherds to follow. Shortly afterward, they all arrive at one of the many entrances of the Longfort.
"Whoa! So this is the Longfort? It's huge, and so looooooong!" Lissa is in awed.
"I've read much about the Longfort from many book, but to have the honor see it in real life like this… I-I don't know what to say…" Sumia is so moved that there are tears streaming down her face.
"Er… It's just a pile of bricks, stones and semen and maybe a lot of other random nasty stuffs… What's so special about this fort exactly?" Vaike tilts his head.
"Maybe if you shut up for a moment, you'll understand, Vaike." Sully murmurs to Vaike.
"No, seriously… Even our garrison back in Ylisse is all made from the same stuff as this thing, and no one ever praised it before." Vaike rolls his eyes, thinking. Then he turns to Stahl to ask for his opinion. "What do you think, Stahl?"
"When is dinner?" Stahl yawns.
"Urgh…" Sully shakes her head in annoyance.
"Quiet down, you three." Frederick speaks up. "We are currently the representatives of an entire kingdom. Do you honestly want this to be the impression to give to the Feroxi people when they think of Ylisse?"
"…" Sully, Stahl and Vaike all shut their mouth, not saying another word.
In front of the entrance, Raimi orders the Feroxi Guard to get back to their posts, then she turns to Chrom. "Prince Chrom." She says, standing up straight, with her hands behind her back. "I really appreciate your aid back then. But I'm afraid this is the furthest point I'll allow you to go."
"What?! Why?" Chrom question the logic behind Raimi's words. Why go so far as to lead him to the entrance, just to tell him to go home?
"Please understand, prince Chrom. I am the leader of Feroxi Guard platoon, and my job is to keep outsiders from entering our land. I can't make an exception even if you are of noble blood. If you want to get through, then you have to defeat me in combat first."
"But we only want to discuss diplomacy, my lady." Frederick speaks up. "Surely you can understand and make an exception for your policy?"
"And strength is policy here, sir." Raimi turns to Frederick and says. "If you don't have the necessary strength, then I see no reason to let you meet the khans. I repeat, if you want to get through, then you have to defeat me in combat first." Raimi grip the short spear in her hand tightly and stand facing all of the Shepherds, unfazed.
"So this is a test of strength, I see." Frederick takes a hold of his silver lance, gets off his steed and goes to face Raimi. "Then I shall be your opponent." He loudly proclaims.
"No, Frederick. Let me be the one to duel her." Chrom takes out the Falchion and steps forward, but got halted by Frederick.
"No, milord. Raimi here is the leader the Feroxi Knight, I am also a fellow veteran knight, it's only appropriate that we have a duel. Plus, your Falchion is a sword, and sword loses to lance in the weapon triangle. You'd be at a disadvantage if you duel her." Frederick reasons. "It's not that I don't trust your skill, milord. But just to be safe, let me be the one to duel her."
"…" Chrom wants to object, but Frederick spoke the truth. "Then, be cautious, Frederick." Chrom had no choice but to entrust the duel to Frederick.
Everyone then spread out to create space for the duel…
"Now, now. Please don't be so hasty…" Suddenly, Virion jumps in between Frederick and Raimi and demand them to stop. "Why don't we keep it civilized, like the civilized human being we are?"
"Virion. I ask you to get out of the way. This is not a problem that concerns a foreigner like you." Raimi points the tip of her spear at Virion.
"Please, low down your weapon." Virion pushes away the spear. "I have an idea to solve this problem without resorting to violent."
"And what would that be, good sir?" Frederick puts down his weapon.
"Heaven's will." Virion points to the sky.
"Heaven's will?" Frederick frowns. "What do you mean by that?"
"May I borrow your lance, sir Knight?" Virion holds out his hand to Frederick.
"Uhm… Yes, sure. Here" Frederick gives the lance to Virion.
Virion then thrusts the lance into the ground, bury it deep into the snow. Next, he takes out a handkerchief and ties it into the spear.
"Virion. Can you please stop fooling around?" Raimi plucks the spear off the ground and throws it back to Frederick.
"Oh no, Raimi, my dear. I am certainly not fooling around." Virion waves his hands around, mimicking the action of a conductor. "Now, if you don't mind, sir Knight. Can you move back, say… 150 paces away from here?"
"Excuse me? Did you just tell to move away?" Frederick has to ask Virion again to confirm the request, since he doesn't understand the intention of Virion from such strange request.
"Yes, about 150 paces would be good." Virion nods.
Curious as to what Virion intended to do, Frederick move exactly 150 paces away from where he was standing. The others, while also question the actual meaning of the action, don't raise any objection at all, and just stand there to witness the event unfold.
"Yes, right there." Virion signals Frederick. "Then next, hold your spear and makes it stand up. Now set up the spear horizontally, so that it can stand up right like a pole."
Frederick does just as requested.
"Good. Now you can come back here." Virion waves his hand to tell him to come back. Frederick does just that.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen." Virion claps his hands to gather attention. He then goes to explain what he is going to do. "From where I'm standing to the spear standing way over there, is exactly 150 paces. In archery, the standard longest distance from the archer to target is 90 paces. Most extraordinary archers recorded in history had only able to shoot from 120 paces away." He pauses a little before continuing. "It is literally impossible to shoot at a target from 150 paces away, much less shooting a handkerchief tied to a lance, in a snowing condition. Impossible, unthinkable, out of the question!" He emphasizes.
"Don't tell me you…"Sully seems to have caught up with Virion, so do Frederick and Raimi. The others are a little slow behind.
"Yes, my fair lady." Virion makes an elegant bow to Sully. "Right here and now! I, the great Virion, will shoot an arrow straight through that handkerchief, with the help of heaven's will!" He proudly proclaims.
"Virion! You are wasting everyone's time here. I demand that you stop this foolish act this instance!" Raimi growls. She was going to go pick up lance to give it back to Frederick and apologize for her companion's delusional action, but someone put their hand on her shoulder and stops her. It was Sumia.
"It is not foolish." Sumia says, with a confident look on her face. "He really is going to do it, and he will succeed."
"How do you know?" Raimi asks. Now, she really is worried.
Sumia smiles at Raimi and shows her a small flower, a small flower with all its petals plugged off. "The flower fortune told me so." She says.
Raimi widen her eyes. There is not a single sense of doubt in Sumia's voice. Was she just as delusional as Virion, or is she really just betting on the ability of someone she has never met before, or is it something else? Whatever it is, Sumia has managed to convince Raimi to stay her hands and watch Virion shooting on behalf of the heaven.
Virion puts an arrow to the bow's string, he slowly pulls the string, he closes one of his eyes and aim carefully at his target. It was only a few seconds, but it feels like he has been aiming for an hour straight. Then finally, both of his open wide, and with a twang of bow, the arrow leaves the string and flies straight at the lance, drills a large hole on the handkerchief, tears it off the silver lance, and flies a small distance more before falling to the ground.
"That, ladies and gentlemen, is Heaven's will." Like an actor before exiting the stage, Virion gracefully bows to his audience.
Sumia claps her hands nonstop and runs toward Virion. "That was amazing!" She praises him.
"Please, my cutie. That was Heaven's will, of course it is amazing." Saying it like it was a daily activity to him, Virion flips his hair, nonchalantly.
Still couldn't believe what he just saw, Chrom blinks a few blinks, and he still clearly sees the arrow the arrow with a torn handkerchief. "Just-just who are you?" Chrom turns to Virion.
"Ha! Is the prince intrigued? Of course you are-it's only natural. I am myth and legend! I am he who strides large across history's greatest stage! The man who puts the 'arch' in 'archer'! I am the amazing, the magnificent, the great Virion!" Finally, the man had managed to pull off his spectacular introduction. Then, he turns to Raimi. "Now, Raimi, my dear. Can't you make an exception for prince Chrom and his companions here?" He asks.
"Urgh… Now I can see why the khan had taken so much interest in you, sir Virion…" Facing with such inhuman skill, what choice does Raimi have left except for complying with Virion's request. "… Please, this way, prince Chrom." She steps aside to shows the way to enter the Longfort to Chrom. Then she calls out to one of her subordinates nearby. "Hey, you there! Go and retrieve the lance for our honor guests."
"Let's go, everyone." Chrom calls out to his friends and starts moving.
Virion approaches Sully "Pray, my fair lady." He speaks up. "I still haven't had the honor of knowing your name." He asks her one more time.
"Urgh…" Sully sighs. "It's Sully, damn it." She answers his question to be done with it and shoos him away.
"Ah… Sully, what a beautiful name, befitting such a beautiful woman." Virion praises her.
"Har har, you're funny!" Vaike laughs out loud at Virion. "Haven't you ever of the phrase "To sully one's name"? Argh!" And got a boot from Sully right in the middle of his face. "Hey! What did I do?!" Vaike yells.
"Being an idiot! Thank you very much." Sully glares menacingly at Vaike and walks away before she completely loses it.
Sanjima: Hello everyone, thank you for finishing chapter 9. Virion was supposed to appear alongside Sully, but I changed it and made his offcial appearance to be in this chapter, and to be honest, I was surprised at how much I seem to enjoy writing his dialogue, since I benched him as soon as I could select units in the game XD. And I'm also quite puzzled, because I enjoy Stahl's personality and his supports a lot, but I can't seem to think up a way to properly insert him into the dialogues, better think up a way to fix this problem in future chapters as soon as possible. Oh, and aside the obvious Great Wall of China reference, if someone thought "Virion's feat of archery from 150 paces away" sounds familliar, it's a homage (read: complete rip-off) to an event from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. So, please look forward to the next chapter, everyone!
