Sylvain was not a praying man but at that moment, in the Knight's hall, face to face with a large demonic-looking snake, unarmed with three children between him and the snake, he found himself praying. But Sylvain was also a Knight set on a course to be a Dark Knight by his professor. He might not have his lance but he had his spells.
His hands lit up with fire but before he could move, the snake lunged at the kids. But Dimitri was already there, in front of the kids, shielding them with his body, heedless of any danger to himself.
"Boar!" howled Felix as he moved the join Dimitri in the frontlines, with nothing but his practice sword, "Watch what you are doing!"
"Don't die! You are my best friend and I don't want you to die," Sylvain translated Felix speak in his head. It almost brought a smile to his lips but there was no time for such frivolity. That snake had to die!
Fortunately, while Felix and he might have been new to magic, Annette was not. But there was only so much she could do with the kids so near to the snake.
"Children, back here!" She urged them to fall back even as Dimitri bodily pushed the snake back, away from the children.
At the sound of her voice, the little boy looked back towards her, "Mama!" he cried and ran to her. Hugging her legs, causing her to topple over.
For a moment she sat frozen as the boy scrambled over her, "Mama! Mama!"
"Alexi," she finally said, "Mama needs to fight. So you hide behind mama, okay?"
"Okay," said the boy through tears and scrambled behind Annette as the latter rose to her feet, a look of determination on her face.
She didn't waste any more time before unleashing a series of devastating wind-based attacks on the giant snake. Sylvain wasn't sure if she thought the snake was now far enough away from the girls, who remained frozen in place, or if she didn't care what happened to his daughters when her son was also in danger.
"Wait, what?"
He didn't have time to think about this weirdness. He ran forward to put himself between the girls and the snake, making the call that the best use of his small stock of fire spells was to takeout the snake's eyes!
His aim was good and true, but the plan wasn't nearly as effective as the blinded snake bit down hard on Dimitri, then proceeded to trash about with Dimitri in his mouth before tossing the prince as if he was nothing.
"Dimitri!"
"Your Highness!"
"Fall… fall back and hold the line!" called Sylvain, "Let's use all our spells and end this!"
Felix fell back away just out of lung distance, Annette rushed forward a little and with the three of them roughly in a line, they unloaded all their spells on the snake. It wasn't enough! But it didn't matter. Because the snake had tossed Dimitri into a weapon rack
Bleeding profusely, with one arm broken and dangling uselessly by his side, the Prince of Faerghus still manage to hurl a lance with the full power of his crest behind it. He impaled the snake through its blinded eye, the force of his throw making the lance go through the snake's skull. That did it, the snake keeled over dead.
Dimitri also could not stay on his feet. Felix rushed to him, "If you die, Boar! I'll kill you!"
"Alexi, come here," called Annette, even as she rushed to Dimitri, using up what stock of healing magic she had.
Sylvain was grateful that the professor had insisted that Annette learn faith magic along with reason magic. Still, they needed Mercedes and Manuela here as soon as possible! But first, he needed to do something with the girls.
"Daddy!" cried one of the twins, Sylvain realised. The girls were twins with Gautier red hair and Galatea green eyes, it was a nice combination that resulted in very cute little girls.
Sylvain felt his lips turn up in a smile but then, the other girl stopped her sister, "No, Violet! Remember? Daddy doesn't want us anymore."
"What…"
"What's going… your highness!" exclaimed Dedue who had rushed to the Knight's hall, followed closely by Ingrid and Mercedes.
"Mummy!" the girls rushed to Ingrid, completely stealing her attention but Mercedes had time for no one but the medical emergency unfolding before her.
"Dimitri! Hold on! I have you," reassured Mercedes as she set about triaging him.
As for Ingrid, she stood frozen for a second as the girls wrapped themselves around her leg. She then looked at Sylvain, her face reflecting her shock and dismay. Then her shoulder slumped, she dropped to her knees and hugged the girls tight, "It's okay, everything is okay. Everything will be okay."
A sob distracted Sylvain, he returned his attention to Dimitri to find that he was now being cared for by Dedue and Mercedes. That meant that the best thing Felix and Annette could do was get out of the way.
So they stood together, just far enough that Dedue and Mercedes had room to work, and Felix was sobbing. Her face was buried in the crook of Alexi's neck and he was sobbing as the little boy tightly clutched him and saying over and over, "Don't cry, papa! Don't cry!"
When was the last time he heard Felix cry? Not since before Duscar. It was nostalgic in a weird sort of way.
"Daddy doesn't want us anymore!" the words returned to his mind as he returned his attention to Ingrid and the twins.
The girls were just hugging each other. Not saying anything, just holding each other in a way that left no opening for him. So Sylvain walked past the girls and left. He was clearly not needed here.