It was odd to describe how he felt. He guessed that he felt…. Free ? Corrin didn't care about Hoshido, or Nohr, or what he was doing at all, in fact. All that mattered to him was that he was in a fight, and his goal was to win it. And while he wouldn't be cruel not arrogant in his attempt to win… Well, he still intended to make it to the end, and would not hold back. That was fighting "selfishly" for him, yes. To constantly look out for oneself and fight not for some higher cause, but because he was in a bad situation and needed all his might to get out of it.
He had done it at Goemon's trap, he had done it against Fuga and he was doing it again. And it was almost unnerving to see how easy it was for him to fight seriously when he wanted to. With one swing of his sword, he could easily send several tough soldier flying into the horizon right before moving through the warring armies effortlessly, effortlessly dodging the blows sent his way and responding with effortless strikes on his own. Wherever Corrin moved, soldiers would emerge… After being sent flying with immense force first, of course.
Beruka found it rather entertaining to watch, but was distracted with a higher goal of not dying as well. As usual, she and the other flying squads had taken the upper hand against their foes, but they were currently suffering from the support brought by the archers below, safe behind their walls. The archers were thankfully busy shooting down at the army below as well, but it didn't mean that they couldn't lob deadly arrows at the group, giving the kinshi knights some breathing room to allow them to back off and draw their own bows.
Luckily for them, an intelligent Faceless had noticed the Wyvern Riders's current troubles and made its way through the Hoshidans before jumping directly into the white walls of the fort, landing directly next to the snipers and using its massive hands to swipe away at them, sending them all flying and pretty much killing them on the spot. A bunch of flying units moved away from the fight to try to deal with the Faceless, allowing Beruka and the others to focus purely on their foe. They'd help the Faceless, but it was better to defeat the enemy outright and then help the beast, instead of not exploiting their distraction to their advantage. Beruka flew forward and grasped the Thunder tome in her hands, focusing magic into her hands. The tome was naught but a conduit for her to channel lightnings through her fingertips and fire it at a sky knight, with such speed that the woman could only raise her arm to defend herself.
While the winged horses had a resistance to magic that was innate, and could extend it as an aura for whoever was wielding it, the smoke of the blast caused some confusion for the sky knight, and Beruka easily grasped her axe before flying forth, cleaving the soldier in half and causing her body to drop down into the ground below. "Good work!" Said Camilla. "You are mastering magic quickly!"
"Hm." Beruka channeled it again and fired it at a Kinshi Knight, who managed to dodge and lobbed some arrows. The bluehead dodged them all and both women circled around the air for a moment, throwing projectiles at one another until Camilla rose from below and swiftly disabled the knight with a rising uppercut from her axe. Then, Camilla swooped down towards the fortified walls and leapt off her wyvern right alongside Beruka and a few other daring fighters, arriving right in front of the reinforcement for the archers.
"Don't forget! It's not because they have no head that they're dead!"
"Yes." Beruka promptly disproved Camilla's words with her follow up strike, and the axe-wielding Nohrians easily made their way through the archers at close range, denying them the chance to lob even one arrow. A fairly daring attack, since the Nohrians could easily be overwhelmed by reinforcements, but most of these were busy with the Faceless, who seemed to keep going no matter how hard they tried to fill it with arrows.
The situation in front of the fort was also going rather well for Nohr. Xander was leading a finishing sweeping charge, aiming to gather his countrymen and have them perform a wide attack on the enemy so as to finish them off. The young prince was, of course, leading the charge, deflecting projectiles thrown his way and decimating scores of enemies with potent blasts from Siegfried. The other royals, bar Elise and Camilla, were following him as well, with the Nohrians tides gaining more and more numbers as the Hoshidans were either crushed or cut apart by the flurry of weapons.
"We've got them!" Tello said, as he swung his trusty hammer to batter away a Samurai. "We need to open the gates!" Mages, take formation! Generals, protect the mages from ninjas! Wait until we've cleared the fort before entering!"
"Incoming!" Yelled a random bow knight on Nohr, pointing at the sky to warn his companions. Up above, a magic projectile was falling towards the gate, and a particularly eagle-eyed mage was likely cheering with his friends over his accuracy. Unluckily for him, the projectile struck the gate… and failed to open it wide. Instead, the gates proved their own resistance when they more than held up to the attack, remaining intact even after being struck with much force!
"Damn Hoshidans! You can trust them to make some solid defenses!" Tello said. "If we give them too much time, they're going to be able to regroup and attacking will be much harder! We need to force the gates down!"
"I can do that!" Said Corrin. Xander, however, ignored his younger brother and sped towards the gates himself. Up above, Beruka and the others had been forced back into the battlements, but weren't giving away any ground now, and the Faceless was still very much smashing Hoshidans around. This allowed Xander to be left alone as he grasped the legendary weapon and pointed it at the door, unleashing forth a bolt of pure power and striking the structure. And while it had held up to the fury of magic, the might of Siegfried was too much to take for the structure, and the mighty gates were crumbled away in a mighty strike, hurling their massive debris backwards and crashing into unlucky soldiers or part of the fort.
"W-whoah!" Contemplated a particular soldier. "Why are we even fighting in this war when they can do that?" But the soldier's complaints were drowned out when the horde of soldiers charged forth across the wooden bridge, bringing them into the fort itself. Xander, who was leading the fray, immediately scored first blood when he charged a disorganized group, casually tossing them aside in his mad charge. And those agile enough to dodge the stampede quickly ended up buffeted away by a potent magical spell, courtesy of Leo. A few paladins then ran after their prince, further causing chaos amongst the lines.
"Our cue!" Camilla swung her axe to push back a charging line of Samurais and then leapt away, getting back on her wyvern along with Beruka and the others. The Hoshidans briefly howled in victory before a bunch of charging Nohrian troops managed to ram into them, causing a quick yet gruesome victory on the battlements, and meanwhile, the Faceless was done with its job, having thoroughly crushed the reinforcement's reinforcements. It moved to join its companions to protect some mages, landing atop a ninja who was about to stab a charging dark mage.
In the actual battlefield, things were getting more complicated, but some form of Nohrian unity could still be found. Having bested their foes at a aerial duel, the Malig Knights were free to bombard the Hoshidans with spells, when they weren't busy dropping troops on their heads. Beruka hadn't played with her axe much, constantly using her tome to cause damage from afar instead of abusing her tomahawks. After all, the lightning magic was faster and caused "splash damage" that was more useful to her than tomahawks. A good tomahawk throw could fell at least one soldier, perhaps one or two more. But a potent lightning spell could easily score dozen more than that, and even more at the hands of a skilled caster. She wasn't quite that yet, but Beruka's obsession with proving herself meant that she was slinging basic spells with ease.
But more than spell-slinging, she was also picking up slower units and dropping them right into the fray. It was an hazardous manoeuver (most units appreciated being dropped next to allies, instead of hostiles, and would also very much like not being dropped from very high above) but one that some Nohrians enjoyed, as attested by Effie, who was observing the battlefield cautiously. "Here!" She pointed at a horde of Swordmaster, who were proving too tough to defeat for a bunch of Nohrians, and Beruka dropped her right into the middle of them, aware that Effie would not have it any other way. And indeed, she made quite the entrance by slamming down into a bunch of soldiers and, with a good spin from her trusty spear, blowing them all away, giving the Nohrians time to regroup with her and prevent herself from being overwhelmed. Beruka contemplated helping her out, but then flew back to acquire another soldier to throw at the enemy.
Below, the invasion was going fairly well. With the support of the mages to take care of projectiles and the sheer offensive power of the royals, the battle was going well for the Nohrians, though of course, they weren't going through this without losses. In fact, more losses started to pile up on Nohr's side as Hoshido started to regain their bearing, forming pockets of defense within the fort that held up to the numerous attacks on them.
On one side, multiple poisoned shuriken tore through some of the finest Nohrian armor as if it was made out of paper, firing with such accuracy and power that even the heaviest armored units were having trouble. Yukimura, Hoshido's tactician, was out in the open, to the general surprise of Nohr: Yukimura was an important asset to Hoshido, and yet here he was, fighting a losing battle where it was certain that he would be killed. And yet, he fought fiercely, commanding his puppet with all the experience of Hoshido's finest, staining the floor of the fortress he defended with an increasing amount of Nohrian blood.
"I've got a bead on him." Niles suggested, sneaking behind the group that Yukimura was commanding and taking a shot at him with his trusty bow.
"Don't kill him." Warned Fuga. "There's lot of intel to gain out of that guy. Aim for the hands, that'll significantly lower his output."
"Sure, how about I shoot the fly hovering near him too?" Niles aimed and shot, and to Fuga's disbelief, nearly aimed true. However, a wooden limb rose to block the projectile, and a storm of projectiles struck the spot where the two outlaws were standing, with both men barely getting out of the way in time. The puppeteer who aimed at them didn't take his chance though, and fired at the blind spot a few more times to further discourage his foes.
The other big group had an archer within them, as the ground troops could attest by seeing just how many of their friends were now dropping out of the sky like flies. Corrin looked up in fear: Both for Beruka and Camilla (as well as the other survivors) and also because he feared that Takumi had joined the battle. He was confident in his ability to fight and defeat him but… wasn't it too early? What was a royal even doing in this doomed place?
"They have a dragon vein within the fort." Camilla flew down next to Xander, during a lull in fighting. Right now, the enemies were mostly fighting in their little "pockets" in the fort, and while the royals never had their guards down in a fight, they could afford quickly talking. The troops rushed everywhere around them, eagerly stepping over fallen bodies or bringing wounded comrades to the medics. "It's healing those in the west square, and it's making it really easy for them to weather the assault, we're going to need an overwhelmingly strong strike to defeat them all in one stroke, or else they'll heal."
"I see… They're only delaying the inevitable, let us quickly end this fight by storming them!"
"Wait!" Corrin snapped himself off from his own battle rush, so to speak, and looked. "Let me lead this assault! I can handle the arrows and I can fight Takumi!"
"This isn't your brother." Camilla winced. "It's that adorable little girl from Izumo, I think… Well, I'd say that she isn't so cute now that she's skewering dozens of us with arrows, but if you ask me, she's even more adorable in my opinion."
"Focus." Said Leo. Corrin, meanwhile, gasped in horror. Sakura was here? With those mindless brutes going around smashing everything? How quickly would they reach her? He absolutely had to get here.
"I'm going to stop her. Don't let those atrocities get anywhere near close to Sakura!" He said. "I'll be able to subdue her quickly, just get the troops to stand back while I get there, it'll be quick!"
"Very well. We'll handle the tactician." Said Xander. "I do wonder what he's doing here… Bah, it doesn't matter for now. Good luck."
The royals separated: Corrin speeded west, while everyone else went east. Beruka, for her part, wasn't going Corrin's way for once, since she was actively trying her hardest to dodge Sakura's arrows. For a small, harmless-looking girl, she was quite vicious. Vicious enough that Beruka was reminded of the storm of arrows deployed by her brother in Cheve. And this time, there would be no water source to catch her fall if Altena were to get hit, prompting the rider to head at lower altitude to get out of Sakura's sight and jump from a lesser distance if a projectile ever struck. Apparently, the source of healing in the west portion of the fort (announced by an intense blue glow) meant that she could fully dedicate to the offense, and focusing on whittling down the troops that could attack from above and ferry slower units around.
Beruka eventually left Sakura's onslaught, only to be led into Yukimura. Or rather, a goon of his, who was fiercely defending his master from any attempt at circumventing the blue-haired man's overwhelming assault. The puppet's fast rate of fire and its owner's accuracy ultimately proved to be a sizable challenge. Lesser than Sakura's, but still irritating enough to get Beruka to actually pull off some rather desperate maneuvers in her attempt to avoid being outright skewered along with her mount. But still, all the manoeuvers in the world wouldn't stop what seemed to be inevitable: She was slowly getting closer to being shot to pieces with every moment, perhaps because she was recognized as the slayer of Orochi and Reina or simply because the Hoshidan refused to allow the enemy to be able to freely attack from above. Beruka gritted her teeth as a projectile barely missed her, tearing through her flesh to create a gash on her cheek. With her dead angle, dodging was harder than ever, and Altena could only remain focused for so long while having to dodge on onslaught on attacks from another side.
Then, out of nowhere, a bolt of lightning flew and the projectiles sent her way were reduced to mere ashes by a powerful magical spell. Beruka glanced as Camilla flew in, wielding her tome. "That was close!" She said. "A few more seconds of this and you would've been hard to distinguish from a sponge, my dearest retainer! And by that, I mean that you'd be full of holes."
"Thank you." Beruka eyed the mass below. "We will need to work together to defeat this threat, or am I wrong?"
"You're absolutely correct! Well, the others are planning to launch a big a-woops!" The two riders flew out of the way of another group of shots. While Camilla used her raw magical power to disperse the projectiles, Beruka just flew away skillfully. Thankfully, the ground troops had gathered themselves together so the enemy were spending more resources on firing away at them, throwing such a large amount of projectiles that even the intelligent Faceless or the princes (bar Corrin, if he took his draconic form and was here) would get shredded to pieces if they stuck their head out.
"How are we gonna approach them?" Asked Camilla. "I'd quite love to just shoot at them but they'd just block it!"
Beruka contemplated her book and thought of her ability at throwing stuff. Putting two and two together, she grabbed her book and tore its pages in two, damaging it and causing the magic gathered within to "overload". While tomes were mostly there to channel a spell, they had magic of their own, and directly damaging the tome could result in the magic within leaking and eventually exploding. This is why Nohr always kept its tome reserves locked away, with a lot of measures to ensure that Hoshido wouldn't try anything to sabotage them.
"What are you do-" Beruka didn't listen to Camilla, and just grabbed the tome before throwing it at the group directly, using her precise skills to make the throw. Of course, launching a tome was different than launching a tomahawk, since the tome was obviously lighter and explicitly not made to be thrown at the enemy, but her insane tactic worked surprisingly well nonetheless, or at least, more than most would expect it to. The tome blew up above the group, prompting them to stop the onslaught because of the general surprise and damage to their eyesight. But yet, it wasn't enough. The tome had exploded too far above, and there wasn't enough magic left to really cause damage to it. Already, Yukimura was raising his hands to fire more shurikens blindly, determined not to give up.
So, deciding to take a proactive step in stopping him, the young woman stood up on Altena, grabbed her axe and leapt down directly into the group of very angry Hoshidans, much to the surprise of Camilla. Spinning a little to ease the landing, she managed to nail it in spite of her reduced vision, landing directly behind Yukimura, on his puppet. The tactician noted the attack and turned around to better gauge it perhaps, and ate a punch to the face for his trouble, ending up struck with such force by Beruka's fist that teeth and glass fragments flew along the air, along with some of his blood. The assassin would be satisfied with the outcome if she hadn't been directly placed in the middle of a bunch of very angry Hoshidans, who were now all staring at her intently. One of them raised his katana, but plenty others aimed their weapons at her. And while she could handle a sword, she wasn't so sure of her ability to dodge the weaponry at such close range. True, Yukimura was right besides her, but Hoshidan sharpshooters were legendary for their ability at shooting and they were likely skilled enough not to accidentally shoot their tactician in the face.
Or they just didn't care. After all, Yukimura had been knocked out and was likely to be captured by Nohr. Killing him to prevent informations from being leaked was likely something that he had ordered if he were to fall, or was about to. As a result, they'd likely hold nothing back. Beruka readied herself for her fate, knowing that she, at least, managed to make things easy for the group. She just regretted not being able to say her goodbye to some people but… ah, well.
"Kill her!" They said, and Beruka held her axe, as if it alone could change her fate. Fortunately for her, fate had a different idea. And it manifested as Altena herself, swooping down from below to smash directly into one of the machinists aiming at her. Both machine and human alike found themselves on the receiving end of having about two tons worth of muscle and claws landing directly on top of them, causing the machine to scatter and the Hoshidan to suffer a rather grisly fate. Then, she went and swung her tail as Beruka ducked, causing most of the people aiming at her to duck as well, or die thanks to sudden massive damage to their bones. Seeing the occasion, Beruka leapt atop Altena and the wyvern took off right as the other Nohrians saw their chances and charged, quickly capturing the Hoshidans who weren't knocked out or dead by that point. Beruka held unto her beast, keeping her eye closed as Camilla met up with her. "Well, I do appreciate your reckless lack of concern for your safety." She said, approaching and putting her hand on Beruka to prevent her from slipping away. Camilla glanced at her retainer with a look of confusion. "Are you okay?"
"Hrm." Beruka wished to grunt something in approval, but her throat felt dry and she could barely even muster the strength to blink. Slowly, she realized what had happened to her and put an end on her cheek wound. Yes, of course Yukimura would dip his projectiles in poison. A poison sharp enough to overcome her built-in resistance, too. If it had been anyone else but her, they would probably be dead… Though in fairness, perhaps it was a poison that she was unused to. After all, building up resistance to poison does not grant immunity against all toxins per magic.
Regardless, the cause mattered little. Beruka was poisoned, and she slowly felt her grip weaken, threatening to get her to drop several feet in mid-air. Luckily, Camilla had a different idea, leaping forth to grab her retainer before she could drop off and then hoisting her up. "I'd rather you live to drink a toast with me!" She declared. "I'd be sad if I had to celebrate this victory with only Selena, you know how much of a party pooper she can be at times!"
Beruka grunted something, but failed to really do anything beyond that. Her limbs felt tied to heavy weight, and even breathing was a bit difficult. She could only resign herself to be thrown around like a ragdoll, as Camilla flew down near Elise. However, the mere idea that she'd be seen vulnerable caused her to shoot her hand forward to grab Camilla. "Please…" She said. "Not… in front of the others, I… I must not look…"
"Hm? Oh, you have your pride! Riighht!" Camilla flew up as the Nohrians caught the Hoshidans, leaving only one other major pocket of resistance. "You shouldn't feel bad about being seen in danger though, you know! You've done a great deed for everyone! I'm sure none of them are going to laugh at you for being weakened by the poison. And if they do, well, you're going to be laughing at them, because I'll cut their tongues off! Well, not like you really do laugh at much."
"… Heh." Beruka actually let out a muffled grunt, which Camilla interpreted as laughter. "F-fine…" She admitted, though she was also just partly convinced that the poison would spread to her heart and kill her if she held on healing. Wisely, the princess went for her sister, aware that her knowledge of haling magic, and general raw power with it by virtue of her status as a royal child, would allow her to more easily undo the toxin that had struck her.
"O-oh! Beruka! Are you alright?" She asked, perhaps rather naively. The assassin contemplated telling the young woman off for not being able to see that she was sick, but her temper held. And besides, Camilla was thankfully quick to precise what was happening, stepping off her horse while Beruka's arm was wrapped around her shoulder, being supported by the elder princess.
"Well, my dear Elise, obviously Beruka isn't really doing all too good! And she might need your help to recover quickly!"
"Y-yes! Sorry!" Elise shoved her hands in a tiny bag, containing several staves of various shapes and sizes. Beruka grunted, expecting the blonde to fumble through, but Elise pulled through and pulled out a short purple staff, tapping Beruka in the upper chest with it. The poison faded, but only partially: When Beruka tried to stand up, she found herself on quivering legs, and Camilla's intervention barely managed to stop her from faceplanting in front of a bunch of Nohrian soldiers. Elise didn't seem too surprised by the staff's somewhat failure at removing the ailment. In fact, Beruka deciding to stand up was seemingly the more surprising element for her, and she moved to help her up as well.
"Oh, it's a tough poison then! Alright, Beruka, you're going to need to sit back and take the time to heal after this! There are a few remedies that will help you bring this nasty thing down!" As she spoke, Elise switched staves, rather casually bringing aids to her fellow Nohrians while still looking at the two women. Camilla smiled quietly, but Beruka grunted in annoyance. "Oh, I know it's annoying! But Hoshidans make those strong poisons that can't be so easily bested by a staff for a reason! Don't worry though, you're a toughie, so you'll be up on your feet in two days top!" She then frowned slightly, and Beruka was reminded very slightly of Xander. "But don't try to do anything dangerous while you're recovering! Because you're doing that, recovering! You shouldn't stay on that crazy battlefield with all these dangerous monsters and Samurais and other words that sound really scary!"
"Tsk." Beruka knew Elise meant well, but having herself be ordered around by a child, regardless of the child's status, was a bit of a blow. At the very least, the other Nohrians royals were heading towards them, and the situation had somewhat settled going by how the other Nohrian soldiers were all heading straight for the other part of the fort. Xander himself walked at Beruka and held his hand out.
"Congratulations on dispatching Yukimura." He said. Beruka stared at his hand and moved her own to shake it, ignoring the pain and weight of her arm to do so. "Ah…" He noticed the small scar. "Well, we are fortunate that you walked away with an injury such as this. Plenty would have died even attempting to pull off the manoeuver that you just performed. My most sincere congratulations upon you!" Xander glanced at his retainers. "My retainers wouldn't be caught doing this."
"In fairness, my lord, I would rather not get shot." Said Laslow, shrugging. Then, he and Peri (who hadn't heard) left for the other part of the battlefield. Xander turned around.
"Well, I would like to congratulate you again, but there is another battlefront to attend to. You should hang back for now though. Perhaps we could ask a soldier…"
"Oh, I'll escort my little retainer off to safety! With Corrin and my dear Selena on the offensive, I doubt that this little princess is going to last long against Nohr!"
"I see…. Well, your help would still be appreciated, since Corrin is facing his sister, but I trust that our combined might will be enough."
…
Corrin and the others were facing a storm of arrows and spell, coming out not just from Sakura, but from the mages and archers near her. By that point, they knew the battle was lost, so they deployed their absolute best to make sure that Nohr would lose its elite soldiers while attempting to get to them. The young prince groaned at the sight of Sakura lobbing arrows with enough dexterity and speed to remind him of Takumi. Without a doubt, the youth had taught his sister how to use a bow in case she even needed to.
He remembered, from his brief months in the castle, that Sakura had asked Takumi to do so. Hinoka and Ryoma had managed to forbid her from using a weapon that would get her close to the enemy, but she got around the issue by asking to be taught with bows. That she'd ever get so good at it surprised Corrin, but not that much. Sakura had that Hoshidan blaze within her, buried away beneath the timid demeanor. It stood at reason that she'd be a fierce enemy once she decided to unleash her might.
"We need to approach Sakura and get her hostage, they'll likely surrender once we manage to get her hostage." Said Selena. "But with that barrage… We're going to need to force our way in to get past. Well, unless you have some brilliant last idea to throw our way, mister prince!"
"I think I have an idea but it's kinda… weird." He said, looking down at the ground. Transforming one of his hands into a massive claw, he struck the pavement so as to make a hole. "I'm going to try to emerge in the middle of them. Soon as I do, I'll try to knock them all out at once. They're not really grouped together to avoid being wiped out by a projectile, but I could still use my… erm, tail attack." He looked away. "To knock them away. And then, you can approach them and neutralize Sakura. But without killing her, of course!" He said, attempting to give himself a glare to prevent anyone from getting an idea that would be displeasing. Luckily, Selena seemed accepting of it, only nodding once.
"Hey, who are ya taking me for? I'm not a jerk." Selena winked right at Corrin while doing so, but then, when the prince stared silently at her, she raised an angry eyebrow, prompting the young man to nod very awkwardly.
"Y-yeah, you're very agreeable actually!" He said, putting his hands up so as to defend himself just in case., before digging into the ground. Seeing this, the mages nearby began to attack the group, so as to distract them. Indeed, the new battlefield was filled with a blue light that could passively heal the wound of Hoshidan soldiers, but apparently didn't exchange that courtesy to Nohrian ones, as attested by the numerous dead soldiers who had tried to go at melee and fell to Sakura's onslaught, having expected that the projectiles wounds would go away.
Corrin dug quite easily, but made sure to avoid being seen and was pretty careful in digging through stuff. Once he was satisfied, he then began to claw his way through the ground using his two transformed hands, easily progressing through a tunnel of a sort. His superior senses easily detected the location of his foes, and he knew exactly where he needed to go before emerging. The only part that bothered him, as he turned around, was that Selena was also crouching in the tunnel, along with a very confused Nohrian soldier. "Geez, you could've made a larger tunnel!"
"I-I was led to believe I'd attack from below and you'd charge." Said Corrin, almost sheepishly.
"Well, don't worry! I don't want to have my…" She glanced at the soldier. "master's brother end up in danger! Don't worry about me, I'm perfectly capable of handling myself! Just pop in and do your thing, and I'll do the same!"
"But… there will be arrows and the mages are slinging spells! It's dangerous!"
"Yep." Said Selena. "And I can handle that, coz you can't kill what you can't catch! Now c'mon, before they figure out a thing! And before the tunnel collapse on us."
Corrin figured out that there was no backing down, though he wondered how the two women in Camilla's group even got along considering their different personalities. Still, he knew better than to just contest her, so he moved in the middle of where his enemies would be. They had put themselves in the center but there were other groups near the edge of the room. Not close enough to get grabbed by their enemy, but still not far enough not to stop them from trying to sneak past. To knock them out, he was going to need to be quick and decisive! He could also reach Sakura quickly but he didn't want her to hold her hostage. It'd be cowardly, after all, and he didn't want to cause her any harm at all. That's why he hurried along, fearing that one of the Faceless would get to her first. They were busy finishing off lesser pockets of resistance, but if they managed to reach her…
"Alrigh, duck!" Corrin leaped through the ground and into the middle of the block, surprising many of his foes thanks to his sudden emergence. Quickly transforming his body so as to include his draconic tail, he spun around to knock a good deal of people off their feet, allowing him to effortlessly knock out most of those. He did aim slightly higher in Sakura's case, not wishing to hurt her, but she and a few other agile people were able to barely duck anyway. The shock didn't quite kill the soldiers, but it knocked them out, meaning that they wouldn't be able to get up so easily anyway. Sakura realized this, quickly looking at the fallen soldier with a look of panic on her face.
"Brother!" She yelled, wishing to see something else but finding herself promptly stopped by a swordmaster on her side. The man stood in front of her, swords raised, and pointed straight at the young man.
"Traitor!" Accused the soldier, before running at Corrin. His sword was a Wyrmslayer, as attested by its shape and the disagreeable feeling that ran over Corrin's body as he merely laid his eyes upon it. Before he could react though, Selena leapt out of her hole and dashed at the soldier with a look of determination in her eyes, easily leaping above his ruthless slash and hitting him in the face with a knee, shattering his nose and taking him down to the ground. Sakura quickly aimed an arrow and fired it, aiming to hit Selena in the shoulder, but the redhead swung her sword effortlessly fast, splitting the projectile in two and letting both halves fly past her. She then landed on the ground, rolled on the ground to avoid a downward smash attack from a particularly strong soldier and, in doing so, rolled between the muscular Hoshidan's legs, getting up behind him and swiftly knocking him out with a direct attack to the elbow. This left Sakura, who was already aiming again, and a onmyoji, a potent magic user, who couldn't quite let loose because of Sakura being currently right next to the enemy. This allowed Selena to once again make an effortless dodge, leaping above Sakura and even putting her hand on the top of her pink head before lashing out with a kick, hitting the man square in the face and knocking him unconscious along with the rest.
Selena's manoeuver distracted Sakura, who took two steps forwards in confusion after being used to support a grown woman in gear. The Nohrian used this manoeuver to swiftly grab her sword and cut the tails on Sakura's quiver, disabling the arrows ad preventing her from launching more projectile. Just to be sure though, Selena swung her arm, twirled the sword a bit to get into a stabbing position and stabbed at the bow itself, severing its cord in two. Corrin sighed in the distance, having been very worried at Selena drawing her sword at his sister. Sakura, surprised by the sheer swiftness of the attack, vainly tried to reach for her arrows and then her bow before realizing that they were both destroyed. Her arms fell and she stepped backwards, visibly terrified. And who wouldn't be? Selena had just effortlessly defeated her and about three soldiers who must have been quite talented, at blinding speed, while holding back without a doubt. Corrin himself could barely believe what he saw, even with his superior reflexes. Weird as Camilla was, he couldn't deny that she could pick good retainers. Both Selena and Beruka were warriors on the level of the very people that they protected.
"Amazing, Selena! You're really strong!" Selena looked up and closed her eyes with a small smirk, basking in the moment before looking down at Sakura, sheathing her sword. The Nohrians on the edge were too surprised by what had just happened to really intervene yet, but a few were already swarming to capture weakened Hoshidan prisoners.
"Alright, princess. You've lost!" Said Selena, putting her hands on her hips and towering over Sakura. "You're going to come with us nicely and surrender. That way, there won't be any victims! Got it?"
Sakura bit her lips and walked back slightly, still grasping her bow. She glanced at the destruction around her, the dead people at the outer edge, her brother who stood over a defeated Hoshidan… And she made her choice, slowly turning towards Selena. The redhead smiled gently and held her hand out. "We're going to pull you through this mess, alright kid? Just-"
Then, out of a sudden, Sakura grasped her bow and swung it at Selena right in the face, wielding it like a blunt tool. Selena would've easily dodged such a blow in another time, since it was a wide swing, all too easily dodged by her superior reflexes, but her sheer surprise at Sakura's decision caused her to get hit right in the cheek, sending her spinning backwards. While certainly agile, she had still been struck with a blow strong enough to snap the bow in many pieces, and as such, she was almost sent to the ground before she managed to catch herself. Sakura stumbled backwards, holding her ruined weapon in one hand, before Corrin swiftly moved in before anyone else, grabbing Sakura by her long blue collar and holding her up. She immediately moved to deck him with what remained of her weapon, but he simply failed to budge, even as the weapon shattered to pieces. Looking more closely at her, she was wearing something akin to Mikoto's royal dress, and Corrin's hand shook a little at the sight, though he didn't let go. Sakura, for her part, seemed to be saddened at the sight of her brother, and stopped struggling after striking at him, even briefly putting her hand on her face after realizing what she did. "B-big broth… ah, I guess it's useless, you know now, right?"
"It's alright, Sakura." Said Corrin, trying his best to keep a gentle tone. "Do you surrender? There's been enough deaths and mayhem."
Sakura took a quick look and sighed sadly. "I surrender." She said, though she sounded as if speaking those words was difficult to her. Corrin nodded and his other hand rose as he shaped it into a larger form. "HOSHIDANS! YOUR PRINCESS HAS SURRENDERED! DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND NO HARM SHALL BE DONE TO YOU!"
The Faceless stopped, and whatever Hoshidans who were still up and active dropped their weapons, with the exception of a few stubborn soldiers who had to be put down elsewhere. However, Sakura acted up. "Wait!" She said. "We can't let the soldiers enter the tower! There are wounded civilians and soldiers inside!"
Corrin almost thought that this was a trap, and was almost tempted to call out Sakura in case she lied, but he did remember Xander and the others mentioning that it had civilians. He nodded and put her down, though he kept a firm hand on her shoulder just in case. "I'll accompany you to the tower, and we'll see what to do. Are you hurt?"
"N-no…" She said. Corrin nodded and glanced at Selena, holding his hand up. "Are you okay?"
"I just got whacked in the face with a bow." Said Selena, holding unto a bruise on her face and smiling sarcastically. "So yeah, I'm very fine!"
"Nice to hear, you're a toughie, Selena!"
"I-I'm joking, dummy!" She said. "But it's fine." She lowered her hand, revealing that while she had a bruise, it wasn't too bad. "Huh, don't tell Beruka that I gained it because of this, right? I just… I don't know, gawd. I'm gonna search a doctor while you search your story."
"Alright, erm, take care! I'll find you a epic story!"
"Yeah, you better!" Whispered Selena, and she was off, moving as if she had just lost a limb, and not gotten a bruise. Sakura looked at her with a concerned look, but didn't offer to heal her, aware that the prideful Nohrian wouldn't accept to get pitied or healed by a captured foe. Corrin smiled slightly though, amused at Selena's insistence. However, he still had a bit of an issue.
"Let's go." He said, and they began to walk. Plenty of soldiers stared at them as they walked, some were confused, others were simply proud to know that they caught a royal and a few dared to jeer at her, only to back off when an angered Corrin glared at them, wisely realizing that they were angering the prince. "But… I surrendered." She said. "When the invasion started, Ryoma gathered us all and told us… never give up in front of the enemy. If there remain a single stone, then we have to defend it with all our might. And I… I did it, I surrendered." She sadly shook her head. "I've been caught and I gave up…"
Corrin wondered why Ryoma would give such an order to Sakura as well. Had the war taken such a toll on him? Unlike the others, she wasn't really used to the horror of conflict after all, and her presence at Jinya, a fort that was about to fall… The youth's stomach churned. "You do not need to blame yourself, now, the wounded will be healed and there won't be any more deaths here. Ryoma wanted you to take the decision of a warrior, but you took the decision of a leader." He said to his younger "sister". "Don't ever feel bad for taking such a decision."
"… Heh." Sakura smiled, but bitterly. "Thank you…"
"What are you even doing here though, Sakura? This place wasn't meant to held strong, why would Ryoma send you?"
"O-oh, he didn't send me! I knew there would be troubles here, so I… I kind of snuck away with my retainers to try to help. I'd heal the wounded and then I'd go." She nodded. "And I'd take the healed civilians while the recovered soldiers would add to the defenses. T-that was what I wanted to do, but then you and the Nohrians emerged out of the Infinite Stairway so much faster than we thought possible. You were supposed to take at least a few hours, just enough to properly get the people out but… but you had crossed it so fast! Yukimura never accounted for that." She sadly shook her head. "And those monsters too… I… I wanted to just offer a defense that would be too durable to be pierced by Nohr, but those monsters really interrupted things."
"Yeah…" Corrin pondered a little. Hoshido didn't know about this? Their ninja network had allowed them to effectively spy on their foes before, and until the Faceless, Hoshido was always quick to disable a Nohrian attempt at breaking past Mikoto's barrier. Even during the war, information being leaked was a threat and Hoshido rarely had propositions get past it.
For the intelligent Faceless to be a surprise… It was probably kept really really well. Even Xander didn't know about it and the prince was obviously never kept privy to such confidential matters. For them to be deployed too, and successfully sneak across an entire country… Iago had surpassed himself it seemed.
"… What is Yukimura doing here though? Isn't he the head tactician? He shouldn't be out there fighting in Jinya right?"
"Y-yeah… Well, a lot of things happened to him between your departure and now, and he… I don't think the elders like him much anymore." She grimaced. "I don't really know though, it's… it's a lot of politics done behind the back, you mean? I found him here and he just said that he was about to leave too until you surprised him. Erm, regardless, what are you going to do with us? Big brother said that Garon has ordered all of Hoshido to…"
"We're not doing that, ever." Said Corrin. "The wounded in the fort or the tower will be treated and the prisoners will be treated humanely. I won't allow Garon to trample over Hoshido, and everyone in the army has decided to do so. Of course, we'll still have to take part in the war and…" He glanced at some bodies. "… But Hoshido won't be sacked and destroyed outright."
"I'm… I'm glad to hear." She said, a little doubtful. "It's nice to know that you're not a bloodthirsty Nohrian. I… I was a bit scared by Takumi's stories, and how he described you as someone who broke his arm." Sakura clenched her torso while making herself smaller, so as to avoid soldiers. Meanwhile, they reached the black gate leading to the tower. It was gargantuan in size, easily big enough to have an army pass through it, though at the same time, it was so durable that said army wouldn't be able to bust it open, as attested by the way spells bounced off it harmlessly.
"Wait!" Corrin held his hand out and Tello, who was leading the charge, glanced at him. He had to somewhat admire the general's work ethic, since he was right back to giving orders after the tough battle. "There are civilians inside."
"And a bunch of soldiers." Explained Tello. "And we need it to hoist the flag… But don't worry, I'm not looking to raid the place." The bald man jammed his thumb over his shoulder, pointing at some spells. "I'm just going to open the door to fully conquer the fort, and besides, we really need the medical equipement stored inside after that fight… But I won't harm any of the civilians inside." The general held his hand out." "However, I do need some soldiers to neutralize any hostiles still inside. Some Hoshidans don't give up so easily, after all… But we're not killing them unless we absolutely have to." Then, his eyes settled to Sakura. "Heh? When you all said that Princess Sakura was in the fort, I thought I was having a prank pulled on me. What are you doing here, little girl?"
Sakura frowned in answer, and Corrin was reminded that he was kind of an exception. "D-don't call me a little girl!" She asserted. Takumi had rubbed off on her, though to a thankfully limited extent. "I'm… I was here to bring aid to the wounded, and I wasn't supposed to be caught." The princess glared at the mages. "I know that you want to get in, but please, allow me to convince the soldiers inside. If you try to bust it open, you'll just get them to go aggressive!"
Corrin nodded silently. While he understood why Tello would like to access the fort, busting the door open would only cause another massacre, and the loss of yet more lives after they managed to get through that huge fight. "I understand your concern, Tello, but we could have Sakura convince the. It should be fine as long as we keep her away from the door."
"Hm…" Tello looked at Sakura and nodded. "Alright, do your best so we don't end up with another bloodbath." He admitted. "I'm going to need to dig a lot of graves, better not add a few more."
"Erm… thank you." Sakura smiled, a little uncertain. Then, she looked at the door and knocked on it before standing back, just in case someone tried to open it and snatch her. Corrin kept himself close to her though, so as not to have her run off of all of a sudden.
"Lady Sakura!" a small slit opened in the door, but they couldn't see an eye beneath. "Those brutes have captured you?! Rah, this is why I told you to stick with me! Hang on!" To Corrin and the Nohrians's surprise, the plucky woman behind the door almost opened it before being pulled away by her fellow Hoshidans, though they could only hear the sound of the struggle. Corrin glanced at Sakura, who blushed in shame.
"Hana is… a very nice and competent retainer but she can be a bit… excited, heh-heh." Sakura scratched the back of her head and chuckled a little, before quickly looking away in embarrassment. Finally, another voice emerged. "Lady Sakura? What are these monsters offering?"
"N-not monsters, calm down. They… they are saying that they want to get in, but only to get proper access to the medical equipement, and they promise… they promise not to kill the people inside."
"Have they gotten bored of killing everyone outside?" Answered the voice. Sakura panicked a little.
"T-they haven't! The wounded are being treated, I've seen it! Corrin is not lying!" Her hands shook a little. "I know… I know that it stings, but they're not evil Nohrians. Please, I can swear that Corrin will not let anything happen to us!"
The man behind hesitated a little, and Corrin heard a hand moving to open the door before Kaze burst into the scene, landing right besides Corrin. "Milord!" He said. "Apologies for bursting in, but there is something urgent happening!" Kaze looked up, with panic on his face. "Please, put Sakura and the others to safety immediately!"
"Why?" Asked Corrin, a little bit shocked. "What is happening?"
"The dog… the dogs of war are at Jinya's gate!" Kaze's tone was almost frantic, and Corrin's eyes opened widely. "Hans is about to arrive!"
…
A/N: Surprise surprise! Lots of action this chapter! I hope you've enjoyed it!
Hans is coming, what will Corrin do? Will he put an end to the massacre as he failed to do in canon? We'll see in five days! I enjoyed making this chapter to be honest, and what's about to happen was something I thought of a lot while making this fic, so I hope you'll enjoy it!
What did you think of the chapter? I do love reviews, I adore getting one for every chapter!
See you later!