Third-Person POV

As an eagle sounds off from above, and the horns blare across Gronder Field, the three armies representing Fódlan's future prepare for a fight.

The Prince of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus steps forward, "You all should know… I am not about to go easy on you today." Dimitri readys his lance, and the Blue Lions fall in behind him. Dedue, Felix, Sylvain, Ingrid, Mercedes, & Ashe. Along with their new companions, Junko, Yugiri, Lily, Leonie, Balthus, & Yuri who stand beside each other in the crowd.

Ai steps forward, serious expression on her face while preparing her weapons. Next to her is her teacher, Byleth, and his reluctant adjutant Bernadetta. Dimitri's adjutant, Marianne, inches next to him, a worried look on her face as she looks toward her former class.

The next leader of the Leicester Alliance and current Golden Deer leader, Claude speaks next, "As long as we can pull off the win, doesn't matter how.", twirling his bow as his companions join him. Hilda, Ignatz, Raphael, Lorenz, Lysithea, and joining them is Saki, grinning at the scale of her next rumble.

Sakura gulps atop her pegasus as she and Tae look at the other sides, the former with slight nervousness. The future empress of the Adrestian Empire pats her on the back, as the Black Eagles join the two zombie girls. Ferdinand (von Aegir), Dorothea, Caspar, Hubert, & Petra look on as Edelgard says her piece, "Our victory must be absolute… no matter what it may take.".

Byleth raises the Sword of the Creator into his hands and looks towards the cliffside, where Lady Rhea and Seteth stood.

"It is time." Seteth calls for the battle to begin.

"Forward! Now!" Edelgard commands as the Black Eagles move.

Dimitri points his lance towards their opponents, "For honor!" he yells, and the Blue Lions charge.

Claude raises his hand forward to signal the Golden Deer and they follow through.

(Insert Song: Blue Skies and a Battle)

"Good luck everyone!" Annette cheered from the sidelines alongside Flayn.

"Zzzz…" Linhardt dozed off next to them, prompting the two of them to sigh.

"Head for the central platform, from there you can take control of the ballista. We'll cover you." Byleth tells Ai as she fires an arrow into an imperial archer..

Two more soldiers are above her and attack, yet she manages to switch to her sword and fight them off. As she stepped up towards the top of the platform she looked to her right, and spotted Ferdinand with her great kinetic vision.

"Ferdinand's approaching the platform, I need someone to cover me!" She shouted to her teammates.

"Allow me." Dedue, in his heavy armor, raises his shield to defend against the noble of House Aegir.

"Tch, I am Ferdinand von Aegir (*ding*), and I shall not fail my team today! HAH!" Although his lance failed to affect his large opponent, he kept up with dodging.

"Sakura, can you and Hubert handle the approaching Blue Lions?" Edelgard asked her companion who gave a slight nod.

"I'll be sure to try my best, even though they're my own class." Sakura gulps before taking off on her pegasus, with Hubert in pursuit.

Edelgard looks to her right and sees Tae chewing on her axe, and she's taken aback by this, before recomposing herself.

"Shall we join them, Dorothea, Tae?" Edelgard asks the opera singer to her left as she raises her own axe.

"With pleasure, Edie!" Dorothea answers as the three of them went forward.

The students of the Kingdom and Empire were feuding as the Alliance group began their assault.

Claude spots the sight and thinks, "The Black Eagles and Blue Lions are fighting... Maybe we can sneak right past them."

Saki knocks down a few kingdom soldiers before spotting Felix, Balthus, and Caspar on the field. Fire in her eyes, she makes a mad dash towards the Black Eagles' resident brawler first.

Claude scratches his head at that, as he turns and sees Lorenz heading to the central hill along, causing him to sigh.

"Ha ha, I've gotten a lot tougher since we last met. I couldn't wait to fight ya again!" Caspar greeted her with a right hook to the face.

The biker gang leader simply smiled as she gripped a fist and gave him a punch of her own, "Feeling's mutual! Let's have a REAL good brawl now!"

They really roughed each other up. A strike to the gut sent Saki back a few feet, but she just ran back towards him with a flurry of gauntlet punches. They both switched to their axes and swung for the fences, clashing until they ended up breaking. Switching back to fisticuffs, the blonde and Bergliez were evenly matched, until Saki finally landed one more uppercut on Caspar.

He is knocked flat on his back with spirals in his eyes, the first Black Eagle student to be eliminated. "Thanks for the match, hope you can join my class so we can have another one. Now where's that dark-blue-haired prick?" Saki takes a quick look and sees Felix fighting off Petra in a duel, "There you are…" she smirks.

As she slowly makes her way towards him and Caspar is brought off the field to recover, we rejoin the Lions in their conflicts.

"Ha, this brings back memories. So what's your name, beautiful?" Yuri swings his rapier to counter Lorenz's lance.

"I am called Yugiri. And I may refer to you as?" The courtesan uses the spell she just learned on the House Gloucester noble.

"Call me Yuri. You seem pretty skilled, care to assist me with some problems underground?" Yuri asks as he uses Nosferatu.

"What do you mean by that?" Yugiri responds as they take out Lorenz together.

"You'll see…" The Ashen Wolves' leader smirks as Lorenz grumbles in defeat, "Ugh, me of all people, really? This early into the battle?"

"Ack!" Ashe is almost knocked off of his Wyvern as Hubert hits him with Fire.

"Hold on, Ashe!" Junko & Mercedes both use Physic to fully heal the silver-haired student.

"Hoo, I could have taken an unwanted swim there. Thank you both!" He waves as he moves away from the river.

"No problem." Junko responds.

"Hm? Oh my, Junko, why are your cheeks red?" Mercie giggles and the Showa idol's blush spreads to her whole face. The focus is then shifted to Lily who her enemies think is vulnerable, until she unleashes a brand new spell.

"Bolganone!" She shouts as flames surround the Alliance soldiers, forcing them to drop out.

"Impressive, and you're even younger than I am." A voice says as across from Lily stands Lysithea von Ordelia of the Golden Deer, right hand glowing as she uses Miasma Δ.

Lily barely manages to get out of the way as she looks back at her, "Hey! No fair! Lily wasn't ready yet!"

"Your reason magic is great for your age, yet you look like you need to mature quite a bit. You're using your name instead of normal pronouns!" The white-haired mage told her younger peer.

"Like you're one to talk! Lily saw you stuffing cake into your mouth by the garden yesterday!" Lily shouts at her, causing Lysithea to be embarrassed.

"W-why you—!" The youngest students of the Officers Academy duked it out as they argued about acting their age.

Back with Ferdinand, he tries to rush up to the central hill, but once again is blocked by Dedue.

"Firing…. NOW!" Ai uses the ballista to shoot at the orange-haired noble.

"Agh… huh?" He looks up to see Dedue above him, "I yield…what an impressive showing by both of you.".

Ferdinand bows out and Sakura turns her attention to Ingrid & Sylvain after witnessing that elimination.

"Hubert, can you cover me? I'm going for Ingrid." She tells Edelgard's retainer who nods back at her.

Sakura and Ingrid fight in the skies above Gronder Field, a dance of two pegasuses with the constant thrusts of lances between them. As Sakura manages to gain the upper hand, she spots Byleth and Dimitri, along with their adjutants heading towards Dorothea, Edelgard, and Tae.

"Stay focused!" Ingrid tells her classmate who dodges just in time.

"S-sorry! Hah!" Sakura lands one more hit, staggering her (current) enemy.

"Ingrid!" Sylvain calls out to his childhood friend as he gets hit by another magic attack.

"Ha ha, you should learn to stay focused as well, Gautier." Hubert laughs as he manages to take out the distracted Blue Lion easily.

"HERE I GO!" A critical hit from Sakura takes down Ingrid, grounding her.

"It looks like your training has paid off, a good duel, Sakura." The two of them shake hands as Sakura hops back onto her winged steed and takes off to continue their battle.

Speaking of duels, Felix and Petra's is interrupted by the arrival of Saki and Hilda.

"Hello, mind if we cut in?" Hilda grins innocently.

"I do not mind, yet Felix may not be willing to end our fight so soon." Petra says as she turns to him.

"You were a worthy opponent for the time being, perhaps we'll get the chance to finish our fight one day. If the professor is persuasive enough." His statement confuses her for a bit before she leaves to fight Hilda.

"After so much time training… it's finally time for me to successfully kick your ass! My loss to you has motivated me for a long time, so let's finish this, Felix!" Saki glares at the swordsman, fired up.

Felix calmly readied his blade, lowering his eyebrows in anticipation.

Not another word was spoken between the two.

It was a clash worthy of the Battle of the Eagle and Lion.

Saki Nikaido VS. Felix Hugo Fraldarius

END OF CHAPTER 24

"I am Ferdinand von Aegir" count x4

The conclusion of the battle, next time. Next chapter features Felix vs Saki, Lily vs Lysithea, Ai vs Sakura, Dimitri vs Edelgard vs Claude, and much more! Wish these matches could be seen on PPV.