Hello again, readers!
Last time, I left you all hanging just before the confrontation with Mustafa. Be warned, ahead lay a massive death match, Grimeal and magic battles.
Without any further ado, enjoy the chapter!
Fire Emblem: Dragon's Claw
~ Chapter 23 ~
Escape From Plegia
Flavia watched as a good chunk of the Ylissean-Feroxi Army stayed behind to fight, resisting the urge to jump down from the cart she was in to go back and join the fun.
She had to admit, the bald oaf had outdone himself in organizing the escape route.
The problem was, the majority of the healers, two Dragonwings and their only other Dark Mage were here with them.
Don't get her wrong, she was happy that the tactician and the little prince had finally snapped out of it and got off their asses, but she wished they wouldn't be making themselves targets to let them escape.
For the umpteenth time, she pushed down the urge to go back to the battlefield when she saw the rest of the Wyvern Brigade take flight.
How had it gotten so messed up?
Oh, right.
The commanding officer's family was being threatened, Daraen found out about it and exploited a loophole to negotiate safe passage for the noncombatants, among which numbered quite a few people who were actually rather good fighters.
Then it all went wrong.
"This storm is massive, is it not?" Daraen had mused before it started.
"Yes," Chrom had replied idly, "It's almost as if the heavens are weeping for Emm…."
Their voices were distant, almost as if they had been thinking about something different and knew something everyone else didn't.
…And they did.
Boy, had Daraen known what would happen afterward.
Almost in tune to the Plegian officer, he had smoothly ordered the troops into a loose defensive formation, creating massive distractions and making a target out of himself. And then he had given the signal she had dreaded throughout the battle.
She understood his reasoning, though.
Damn it all, she understood what he was talking about with that strategy.
The only military leaders who remained behind were Gangrel's targets. Anyone else was out of the way, being smuggled across the Feroxi-Plegian border by a rather shy dancer in Basilio's employ.
Chrom was Alcander's son and had the Fire Emblem, Daraen was the one who nearly wrecked his plans and Ryoko had easily taken control of the skies from him and quite probably killed his tactician.
She wondered, though, why was Frederick not more against the plan if…
Oh.
Of course.
Ryoko was the type to knock out two military leaders, smuggle them with the injured and rope someone to help her take their place, all so that she could screw someone over.
Flavia just hoped the girl had a fucking good plan and a better excuse next time they saw each other, or she was going to hit her with Raimi's hammer.
Dragon or not, she would definitively feel that.
.
"Ylisseans! I offer you mercy! Surrender to me now and live!"
That was how the Plegian commanding officer posted at what was simply known as 'the Outpost' greeted them.
Ryoko almost, almost, smiled at that.
Mustafa was that kind of man. He was generous to a fault sometimes, letting people through with barely a glance to their documents and helping random orphans in his free time, but he had not survived to see fifty by being soft. He was a hardened veteran and an experienced fighter, ready to use every dirty trick and then some when his rather extensive family was threatened.
"Now what?" Flavia questioned irritably.
"Prepare for the worst." Ryoko replied somberly, "Pray for the best outcome. In any case, we'll have to fight."
She raised her voice, "How can we be sure your king will not execute us on the spot?"
There was a long moment of silence.
Basilio scoffed, "Surrender, you say? I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar with that word."
A pause.
"Emmeryn would not have wished for this bloodshed." Mustafa tried to reason.
"Don't speak her name!" Marth shouted angrily.
"Your rage is justified, Prince Chrom." The Plegian officer told him, "But the meaning of your sister's final sacrifice was not lost on me. I suspect many Plegians who heard her final words would say the same. If you lay down your weapons, I vow to protect you as best I can."
"As Sir Daraen put it," Frederick replied, "we have no guarantee that your king will not just kill us all or leave us to rot in a dungeon."
"I suspected you would say as much." Mustafa sighed, "So be it, then. I shall endeavor to grant you a swift and dignified end."
He reached for his ax, ready to give the command to attack.
"WAIT!" Ryoko interrupted.
"Will you reconsider, then?" the man questioned.
"No." She stated firmly, "But, as you said, there has been too much blood spilled unjustly already."
Marth sighed, gathering her courage to speak, "I challenge you to a duel for the right to grant safe passage across the border to our noncombatants!"
Thunder roared.
For a minute, the only sounds were those of the heavy rain falling, the roars of impatient or annoyed Wyverns in the distance and the howling winds.
Ryoko's heartbeat echoed in her ears, rapid and nervous but still carrying a grim air reminiscent of war drums.
"State your terms!" Mustafa demanded.
"Two on two, no magic unless at least one person on each side carries a tome, until surrender or incapacitation… or death." Marth listed easily.
"I accept your conditions!" the man replied. "Should you win, your noncombatants may pass through the Outpost. However, should you lose, your fighters will have to surrender."
"W-What?!" Flavia exclaimed angrily.
Ryoko raised a hand to interrupt. "Acceptable."
"I agree." Marth said, gesturing to Ryoko. "He will be my second."
"Talaal!" Mustafa called, causing a pale man on a black stallion to come forward to stand next to his commanding officer.
"He has magic." Ryoko pointed out blankly, "Be careful, this might turn out harder than we thought."
Marth grimaced, but stepped forward anyways, almost strolling to a more open area as Ryoko followed close behind and Mustafa and Talaal did the same.
Once they were facing one another, Ryoko could identify a Nosferatu tome on the man's lap, ready to be used.
She took out a Fire tome and opened it, flipping it to a random page and aiming her hand upwards as she cast.
The resulting fireball was a bright blue-green and flashed twice before exploding in the sky above their heads.
Azura and Zeiss screeched, and a barrier sprung up around the four fighters, giving them enough room to battle but keeping them caged in and everyone else out.
Mustafa raised his eyebrow.
"Merely an insurance." Marth explained, "This way, nobody will interfere with our duel."
"Very well." The man nodded in understanding.
"I am General Mustafa of Plegia." He declared, drawing his ax, "If you wish to keep your lives, then you must win them!"
"As you said, I am Prince Chrom of Ylisse." Marth said in reply, "Best of luck to you."
"Talaal Faraj of Plegia, Sorcerer." The pale man introduced himself, "Try to keep up."
"Silver, tactician of this army." Ryoko stated, her tone flat as she took out her enchanted blade, "Prepare yourselves."
She slipped into a ready stance, waiting patiently for anyone to make a move as she activated her Sky-Eyes.
The field wasn't overly large, about the size of the Feroxi Arena, and mostly even. Mustafa was an experienced fighter, so good with his ax that he had the advantage no matter what unless his opponent was of similar skill with their own weapon. His backup, instead, was a complete unknown.
Judging from the tomes the man had, Talaal was most likely experienced with the darker arts, possibly on Levi's level or better, and he had gotten there on skill alone.
On their side, they had a nullified weapon advantage, an unbreakable blade and another one very nearly so, Svalinn just in case the man could use Forblaze and two of Rho Aias' gems. Oh, and Laevateinn's flames could be useful as well.
Ryoko and Marth were also not used to fighting together, unlike their opponents, so the deck was heavily stacked against them.
The blue-haired Dragon knew Daraen's battle style, though. It was similar to hers, even if adapted to tome magic, leaning more on the magical side than the blade. Ren was not as fast or powerful as her, so he tended to deal with close and long range simultaneously, using the faster thunder and wind spells to take out ranged threats while fighting at close range with his blade and the few dark spells he had learned from her and Levi rather than using both simultaneously for everything.
She sensed magic approaching, and she sent a blade of wind to shatter the spell's core in a shower of bright sparks.
Marth and Mustafa charged at one another.
Ryoko ignored them in favor of the Sorcerer.
She sent sparks at him, testing the strength of his magic.
Talaal smirked arrogantly, and with a wave of shadows the sparks were dispersed into harmless energy.
Overconfident, then.
Possibly arrogant, but an arrogance that was well-backed rather than loud barks with no bite.
She sent a few more sparks and hexes, trying to goad the man into attacking her head on.
Around her, the gathering magic shifted ominously.
Keeping up her insignificant assault, she jumped to the right, taking out one of her self-written tomes, which she had given to Daraen previous to this.
Levitating the handwritten book to her left, she carefully built the spell matrix for one of Daraen's many combinations.
The overlaying circles glowed faintly, but all of them were quickly buried under the first, a measly Spark.
Spark was a mostly useless spell, a joke used to teach beginners self-defense and how to feel their own magic or to hinder the escape of bigger prey. It caused some mild pain and either slowed or outright paralyzed the target on contact. It had no level, no incantation, and even calling it could become optional, making it barely a step up from a stunner spell.
She dodged a few more spells and hexes, letting the Spark's magic occasionally flicker in response to her movement.
She sheathed her sword temporarily, using her now free right hand to keep casting harmless spells at her opponent as she continued to build the combo.
In a moment of lull between attacks, she quickly spared a glance in Marth's direction, noting that she was about on even ground with Mustafa.
Finally, Talaal lost his patience and charged forward.
She shot a stunner at the stallion to slow it down, and cast the spells.
Spark was first, overpowered as shit from all the magic she had fed it, and it was broken by Talaal's sword.
The other circles revealed themselves, each glowing faintly, "Thunder! Split Thunder! Elthunder! Spark! Thunder! Arcthunder! Thoron!"
The barrage of spells was evenly spaced, with only a breath's pause from one to the next as each slammed into the man's hastily raised shield.
Of course, the first four to five spells had the very specific purpose to weaken and break said shield, while Arcthunder was to either deal extra damage or as insurance of the shield's destruction.
Just as the initial Spark was overpowered just to cause a very mild paralysis even if the target wasn't hit directly.
Talaal was sent roughly to the ground on his back as his stallion fled from a fear curse she shot at it with her free hand before retaking the sword.
He sputtered in rage as he unsteadily got to his feet.
Ryoko smirked, taking a stance with a brief flourish.
"Damn Ylissean." He hissed angrily, "You dare throw me to the ground, you filth!"
"Ylissean…" she murmured to herself before her smirk widened, "It has a nicer ring to it than 'Drifter'."
He charged blindly.
She dodged smoothly, slamming a stunner in the man's stomach as she ducked under his next swing.
"Eat my foe's lifeforce." He hissed, "Nosferatu!"
Ryoko didn't have time to react properly, and barely managed to erect a barrier in time.
He viciously attacked her sword arm rather than go for a killing blow.
She created various blades of wind all around him and parried.
He tried to push her back.
She won the struggle for power and forced him to jump to the side.
She flipped her tome to another page and studied it as fast as she could, trying to memorize the pattern drawn on the page.
"Marth!" she called.
The woman immediately broke off from Mustafa, jumping back just as Talaal's Nosferatu activated, nearly catching the general.
"Switch." Marth said, knowing Ryoko would easily hear it even with the storm and battle.
Ryoko immediately shot towards Mustafa, sword drawn and the tome tucked inside her cloak once more.
Marth focused on Falchion, making the blade glow a light blue.
The sword easily cut apart most of Talaal's spells, and the man was quickly cowered into fighting at long range.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Ryoko easily pushing back Mustafa before skirting to the side or jumping back in what looked like some elaborate dance.
She grimaced.
The plan was clear, though.
Ryoko, Daraen and Miriel had built three types of devastating combination arrays. One to take down shields, one was the impenetrable barrier that surrounded them, and the last…
She easily batted aside a blow of his sword.
…was a three-tier anti-mage spell, the first of which could be used by even Miriel herself to defeat spellcasters on par with Levi.
As a downside, the array had to be slowly and carefully constructed, with the tiniest mistake resulting in a devastating backlash.
Marth wove around the man's sword and spells, thankful of her recent experience fighting human opponents rather than Risen.
Ryoko being Ryoko, she could somehow skip entire steps in a pinch and keep the spell stable while jumping around in the middle of a sword fight, but not even the Silver Dragon was capable of constructing that spell while flinging magic at someone else.
Which meant that Marth's role in the case of facing off a mage on a level Daraen could not feasibly defeat quickly enough was that of dealing with Mustafa until Ryoko riled up her opponent, then keep the mage busy until she was ready to unleash the tier-one version of the spell and finish him off, by which time Marth would be free to get back to her own battle.
Talaal tried to regain control of the battle by using a spell at close range, but Marth was very familiar with those surprise attacks, thanks to her Aunt and cousins, and evaded it.
She countered quickly, trying to finish him off sooner rather than later.
A moment after finishing her swing, something slammed into her side.
She was sent flying to the ground, Falchion slipping from her grip at some point.
The man smirked in self-satisfaction.
She groaned at the pain, and deduced it had been a rather nasty Ruin.
"Nosferatu!" Talaal commanded.
The shadows gathered around Marth, and slammed into her.
Without Falchion's light to ward off the effect, the magic attacked her lifeforce, stealing it for its caster.
The man maintained the spell with a sadistic smile on his face as she struggled to break free.
Ryoko would not be able to finish in time.
She had to face this battle alone.
So she grit her teeth and tried to get up.
She found that she couldn't.
The magic was keeping her down and it felt like the rain was a massive weight pinning her to the ground.
Her vision was starting to get little black spots, and she briefly considered just giving up.
…But what would her cousin say if she gave up now?
If he were in her place, he would have said something about his sword hand, then he would get up and do a dramatic pose.
She wouldn't be one-upped by the dramatic boy who was five years her junior!
Gritting her teeth against the pain, she put her hands under her body and fought against the spell's pressure to get up.
Falchion gleamed.
Focusing on the fang, Marth cycled what little magic she had through her body, the holy energy generated by her link to it weakening the spell just enough that she could rise to her feet.
Her eyes glued to the glowing sword, the woman took a sliver of her magic and pushed into the Nosferatu, shattering its core.
She shot towards Falchion, easily picking it up and changing directions to charge at Talaal.
With a battle cry, she prepared one of her family's most powerful skills.
She blocked a blow, and threw Falchion into the air.
Talaal lunged at her.
She dodged and jumped, grabbing the sword.
"Aether!"
Using her own weight, she slashed at him from above.
He tried to block, too panicked to dodge.
The man's sword, sturdy steel as it was, could not match a Dragon's Fang, and broke.
Marth landed neatly and dashed forward for a second slash.
Talaal stumbled backwards in an effort to avoid it, failing.
The attack hit him, leaving a nasty slash across his ribcage and a few broken bones.
The stolen energy was sapped, and returned to Marth, healing her of the damage done by the dark spell.
The cut in the man's robes had also let fly something, but she could not discern what it was.
Talaal laughed hysterically.
There was a flash of red at the corner of her eye.
"GRIMEAL!" Ryoko shouted. "Awaken, Laevateinn!"
A flaming sword was thrown in the direction of the flash, which was now glowing with a malicious purple mist.
Talaal abruptly fell silent.
His hand went to his chest, desperately clawing at it as if trying to find a knife stabbed into him, even though his only injuries were electrical burns and a slash that wasn't lifethreatening if treated soon.
"Endless storm, howling winds, scorching flames, heed my call beyond the lands of light and shadows, by balance of magic deny power to this blade! Deny my foe to draw on thine strength unless by will of the Gatekeepers! Bind!"
A glowing silver mist emanated from Ryoko's body, quickly sailing towards Talaal and slamming into him.
The now revealed Grimeal screamed as his magic was forcibly bound.
Turning her attention to Ryoko's sword, Marth noticed that its flames were focused on something.
Ryoko's eyes were fixed on it, glowing an inner light that was very reminiscent of those same flames.
If there was one thing Marth knew, it was that the only way to anger Ryoko to that point was for someone not to burn— or let her do it —a Grimeal medallion.
It was because other than proof of rank, they were very nearly a weapon.
Those medallions could summon other Grimeal to them, or call upon unspeakable magics to use Forsaken-class spells, self-destruct and kill everyone but the owners of said medallions, drain others' magic or let someone higher up on the food chain possess whoever had it at the moment, among other things.
It was possible that they could also function to summon Risen at the moment, but nobody in the army who knew about them was sure or wanted to test it.
The two disguised women sighed in relief when the flames died, and the blade's harsh glow faded.
Talaal fell to the ground, dead, his body fading into black smoke.
Ryoko was quick to jump and retake her sword, rolling to face Mustafa.
She was quick to charge in and attack fiercely.
Mustafa fended her off with little effort.
Marth observed, waiting for an opening.
He paid her no mind, focusing more on the Dragon's quick blows.
Her swings were wide and left multiple openings, but tiny sparks and blades of wind protected her from someone exploiting them.
The Plegian general was beginning to lose patience.
She knew it was annoying him that he was being matched and overpowered by two 'young upstarts', and it annoyed him that there were Grimeal in the military.
She struck and he blocked.
He countered and she danced out of the way.
She struck and he blocked again.
It was a deadly dance, almost looking looking as if it were perfectly choreographed, if not for the deepening frown on Mustafa's face.
And then Ryoko was getting pushed back.
She jumped behind Marth, who had taken a fighting stance in the meantime.
And they proceeded to prove why certain pairs were the deadliest in the army, mainly Chrom and Daraen, Ryoko and Levi, and Lon'qu and either Ryoko, Levi or Daraen.
Marth smoothly blocked the blow, and Ryoko dashed into the general's guard from behind her battle partner.
He barely managed to block that blow, and Marth was free to attack.
She slashed at him from above, very close to Ryoko.
Again, it took him all his skill to block, and he had to back up to avoid Ryoko's attempt to skewer him.
In tandem, the two women pushed him back.
One defending and distracting, the other attacking. Then the other did the defending, and the first attacked. And they changed roles again, and again, and again, in a never-ending cycle. In the rare cases the defender could not make it, a small spell deviated the blow enough.
Both of them knew, one mistake and they would be lucky to end up crippled with their own weapons.
This was the concept of paired up fighters taken to its logical extreme, the ultimate show of mutual confidence and trust between two people.
But even with the sloppy stance the two women had, their respect for one another and the determination to not to lose this battle made it possible to fight smoothly together, blades passing harmlessly millimeters away from their partner's skin.
To those observing, it felt like an eternity before Falchion finally shattered Mustafa's ax, and Ryoko decked the man with a punch to the face.
Both women brought their blades at his neck, threatening his life.
They had won.
"Yield." Marth commanded, her breathing perfectly controlled even as her legs trembled under her.
Ryoko was standing impassively, looking as if she hadn't just had a ten-minute death match with two people that greatly outclassed many soldiers.
Mustafa eyed the two blades, and the two women holding them.
Neither of them would remove that blade unless he admitted defeat, and they would hesitate little to kill him should he make things difficult.
He could see it in their gaze, a hard steel countless of battles and loss.
The Plegian general sighed, "I yield."
The barrier flickered and disappeared, and Ryoko and Marth removed their swords from his neck, though they did not sheathe them just yet.
"As agreed, the noncombatants may pass through." Marth stated.
"Aye." Mustafa said, his eyes widening slightly as he realized he'd been had.
Huffing, Ryoko turned her back to the man, sheathing her sword to return to the army, directing the to healers where they needed to be and chosen soldiers disguised as merchants to lead the carriages with supplies hidden everywhere they could think of in the short time they had, among which were Donny and Panne.
Marth stayed to keep an eye on the general.
The two stayed there in silence, waiting for the other to say something or make a move.
"Smart one, your strategist." He commented after a while, "I didn't realize I've been had until it was too late." He scoffed, "'Noncombatants'. Has Roy been teaching him or something?"
She snorted, mostly because she had been on the receiving hand of Ryoko's vaguely-worded ideas, agreed, and found out she'd been suckered into something unpleasant, embarrassing or humiliating, something her fiance and his siblings had picked up, saying it was a family tradition.
Marth knew, however, that they just found it funny to trick Loki or some poor unsuspecting fool into losing sucker's bets.
"Silver says it's some sort of family tradition." She replied.
"Tricked Loki into buying me a literal ton of chocolate, too!" Ryoko suddenly said from behind Marth, making her jump a little.
"All ready, then?" Marth inquired as if she had not very nearly given them away by shrieking.
Ryoko nodded, "Everyone's waiting for the all clear, and then I'll have Donny lead them up north. And no, I never even met Roy, general Mustafa."
The man sighed tiredly, "A pity. I like the lad, has a good head on his shoulders for a damn sellsword and gets along with all the kids. Almost like he's a rebellious son, I tell you. I just hope he hasn't been dragged in the middle of this shitstorm. He deeply respected Emmeryn, you know. He admired how she never gave up her dream of peace."
"The Exalt was a formidable woman." Ryoko replied quietly, "It's sad that her dream was shattered by a madman."
Mustafa sighed again. "Aye. He shattered many of those. I only hope my dear wife does not suffer from it."
Ryoko smiled mysteriously, "She won't."
She slammed a stunner in his chest, sending him backwards.
"SCATTER!" she shouted. "Brig up the barriers! Don't let them catch you! The remaining mages, keep the soldiers off of us! Come on, move it! Form a defensive perimeter!"
She whistled twice.
The two Wyverns roared in the air, and Fae used her staff to cast Ward on the pair.
Zeiss dove quickly, as Mustafa barked orders to his troops to attack.
Running forwards, Ryoko used the general as a springboard to jump towards the massive Wyvern, using the harness to climb onto the saddle as he caught Marth and flew out of range of possible thrown objects.
She was dropped on Azura shortly after, while Ryoko continued to organize a rather sloppy defense.
The reason for this was that they would not be doing it for long.
It was only enough time for them to make a massive mess, for Ryoko to reclaim her scarf and break the illusions and she would be giving the retreat signal.
In the chaos of battle, Ryoko and Fae would make massive annoyances of themselves, casting spells everywhere while Ryoko summoned Dragon Knights all over the place.
In the meantime, the troops that remained would flee while the volunteers that were in on the plan would stay behind and fight with Ryoko's Horde.
Then Ryoko and the Horde would cause a distraction and get everyone away.
Ryoko looked down, assessing the situation.
Deciding that the mess was enough, she flew up in the middle of the battlefield, setting off a large red flare with her magic.
She slumped into Zeiss' saddle, stroking the Wyvern's side.
"I'm sorry you can't be with your partner for a while." She told him, "I'll send you to him as soon as possible, I promise."
Zeiss crooned reassuringly.
Ryoko sighed, recomposing herself. She had a plan to enact, after all.
Silently, she prayed to both the Skies and the Guardian Dragon that they would make it out with very few casualties on both sides.
Feeling the Seal warm slightly at the prayer, she smiled before directing Zeiss back into the heat of battle, fingers sparking with magic as they shot towards the Plegian Wyvern Riders.
That was insanely hard. I had most of the original chapter scrapped and only used the bare bones. Also, from now on I will be editing as I write. While I will eventually revisit the entire story to get rid of plot holes and typos, it'll be near the end of the story. If you notice some, please tell me and I'll fix it as soon as possible.
Now, notes!
I decided to add in Flavia's horrified realization of Ryoko's plan. With what's going on, even I need to write some silliness in or I get depressed and can't write on.
You might have noticed that Ryoko's battle style is becoming more refined from 'overpower spells until it dies' to 'kill it quick and without wasting magic'. The battles she faces are forcing her to think and carefully manage her resources, to set traps and bide her time. She will not, however, replace Daraen's role.
I know this wasn't on par with the battle against Aversa, but here Ryoko and Marth were disguising themselves as Chrom and Daraen. The tactician isn't capable of that level of casting just yet, while Ryoko practically lives overpowering spells.
Speaking of, the spell chain, Spark, Bind, the barrier, Nosferatu's incantation, the Grimeal medallions and Talaal are all original, and thus mine. If you saw it somewhere else, sorry for accidentally copying stuff.
I also left you with a little foreshadowing.
Until next time, and please tell me what you think!