Chapter VII: Threats From All Sides
Despite Ragna's exhaustion of dancing with almost every lady at the banquet last night, he was wide awake as he laid in his bed. The Reaper couldn't explain it, he was sore from dancing the entire night and his feet hurt from being stepped on so many times (some of the nobles or the daughters of nobility hadn't been proficient dancers at all), but for some reason, the fates that had screwed his life over more times than he could count weren't even allowing him the reprieve of a well-earned rest.
'God, sleep just isn't an option for me tonight,' Ragna thought to himself. 'Maybe I could try reading some of those books on strategy.' Ragna made his way over to his nightstand. 'Let's see, I've already read these, complete notes on these, and read the entirety of these but was only given repeated information.' Ragna sighed his as he realized he had no reading material for that night. 'This is what I get for reading all of my books in one setting. Wait…' He looked one the bottom of the bag and saw the white tome that Emmeryn had given him before he left on the journey. 'I haven't looked into this yet, but I probably shouldn't read about something as deadly as magic when it's this late at night… maybe I can get rid of some of this energy at the training grounds.'
Ragna got out of bed, got his coat on, grabbed his sword, and proceeded to make his way towards the training grounds. The hallway was dark, only slightly lit by the torches that remained to light the way. Only very few people were up at this area, Ragna noticed that there were still a few nobles still in the dining hall where the ball had taken place, talking amongst themselves and gambling with cards. 'Don't notice me don't notice me PLEASE don't notice me!' Ragna thought as he made a quick dash across the door opening.
"Was that Ylisse's tactician?" one of the nobles asked from inside the dining hall. "Jeth," he said to his servant. "Stop him for me, tell him I'd like a word with him."
"Yes milord," the servant said as he hastily made his way towards the hallway. By the time he got there, he noticed saw that Ragna was nowhere to be found. "Milord, he's not here. There's no sign of him."
"Very well," the Noble said. "Never mind them, come back in here and fetch me another glass of wine."
The servant nodded as he made his way back inside the ball room and went to answer his master's wishes. Once he was gone, Ragna dropped down from the ceiling and landed on his feet with ease. He wasted no time in sprinting away. 'That was too close, but at least I didn't have to endure the babblings of another of those arrogant pricks. The only contact I can stand with them is punching them in the face.'
After that, Ragna made his way through the hallways towards the training grounds. While he made his way down one particular hallway it seemed that he caught the attention of someone.
"Ah, Sir Ragna," a feminine voice called. "I'm quite surprised to see you so late at this hour."
Ragna groaned as he slowed himself to a stop. He recognized that voice, Eliza, one of the nobles he'd danced with earlier that night. To describe her, well she had bright blonde hair that fell past her shoulders, piercing blue eyes, and was wearing a rather extravagant dress. He could admit that she had a cute face, but she'd implied certain 'activities' for them to do with each other too many times for comfort. Ragna had been a gentlemen and had refused as politely as was possible for him, but it seemed that this woman wasn't about to take no for an answer.
"Yeah well I couldn't sleep," Ragna said bluntly, hoping to get this conversation over with as soon as he could. "I was going to the training field to work some of this energy off."
"Oh?" Eliza said giving him a rather sultry gaze. "Well perhaps I could help you with an alternate strategy to cure your insomnia. I know a few… methods that could help."
"Not interested," Ragna refused, his eyes narrow in glare.
"In that case I wish you luck with your training. Perhaps I'll be out there as well to what your performance and see if you wish to reconsider my offer. Until then, Ragna the BloodEdge."
With that, Eliza made her way to her bedroom. Ragna involuntarily shivered; dealing with woman like that was unsettling. 'I'd rather deal with one of those perverted nobles, at least then I can hit him in the face and actually feel like I did the right thing.'
A Lesson of Swords and Life
After his encounter with Eliza, Ragna was able to make his way outside to the training grounds without encounter. The snow was falling at a steady rate, the air was crisp, and he could see his breath in the vapor. 'Not the harshest conditions I've trained in,' Ragna thought, referring to his early days of training with Jubei. The Reaper then noticed that he wasn't the only on out here. 'One of the Shepherds? No I saw everyone leave to hit the hay while I was in the middle of my dancing.'
When he got closer to the figure he recognized it as Oliva, the woman he'd saved earlier from that noble. She had a blade in her hands and was attempting to swing it with minimum success. It honestly looked to Ragna like this was her first time wielding a weapon. "Kind of late to sneak in some training, wouldn't you say?"
Oliva gave a small shrike as she turned towards Ragna, dropping the practice sword she'd been holding. "R-Ragna! What are you doing out here this late? Don't you know what time it is?"
Ragna gave a small chuckle. "I could ask you same thing Oliva. As for me, couldn't sleep so I thought I'd try to get a few cricks out of my back. I tell you, some of those nobles have no idea how to dance. I also that I'd do a little practice with my sword work while I'm here, not unlike you it seems."
"Oh, you uh saw that?" Oliva asked, her face tinged with crimson. "I'm uh, not used to using swords."
"No offense but it was kind of obvious," Ragna said as he made his way to the training field supplies and grabbed a practice sword off the rack. "Any reasons you're starting now?"
"N-no reason…" Oliva said. Ragna wasn't the best at reading people but he could tell that Oliva was hiding something.
"C'mon you can tell me. I won't tell a soul I promise."
Oliva hesitated before resolving to answer. "I'm tired of always having to be rescued. I really appreciate you helping to save me from that noble in the court room, but that wasn't the first time that it's happened. I try to stick to the shadows and to not get noticed, but they always come after me, and I end up having to be saved by Basilio and Lon'qu."
Ragna shook his head. "Oliva, it's those bastards' fault for thinking that they could take advantage of you. They were the ones in the wrong, not you, never forget that."
"It's not just that," Oliva said. "Some of those Nobles are really fierce warriors underneath everything else. There have been times where Lon'qu or Basilio were badly injured trying to defend me from them. And when I saw you having to fight one of the strongest nobles unarmed, it felt like I was responsible for sending you off to your grave." Oliva looked directly into Ragna's eyes and spoke with more confidence. "I'm tired of seeing other people being hurt because of me and always being helpless, I was hoping that I could protect myself better by learning swords work, but maybe I'm not cut out for it."
"It'd probably help if you knew the basics," Ragna told her. Oliva only gave a small, sad nod. Ragna threw his jacket off and it landed on the weapons rack. "Welcome to Swordsmanship 101, I'll be you instructor Ragna the BloodEdge. Class is now in session," he said with a smirk on his face.
"R-Ragna?" Oliva asked completely surprised.
"You know, all you had to do was ask," Ragna said as he brought his sword into a ready position. "All right, start off by attacking me. Let's start with seeing what you're doing and we'll work from there."
"Are you sure?" Oliva asked. "I thought you were sore from dancing earlier."
"Yeah, but you're a better dancer than those nobles," Ragna said, not dropping his grin. "I'll take you as a dance partner over them any day."
"Alright then," Oliva said, trying to build her self-confidence as she approached Ragna and swung her sword at him. Ragna blocked the attack with ease and Oliva stumbled from the backlash.
"First off, your attack's too rigid and you're relying on you blade hitting your opponent too much. Try swinging slightly slower, but keep it more controlled. The more control you have the easier it is to chain into your next attack or shift to your defense." Oliva did as Ragna asked her. He blocked the attack easily, but the contact was much more solid. "There now if you try swinging at full speed…" Oliva took the invitation, and heard the dull crack of the swords. "Now you're getting it. From here let's work on your grip."
"My grip?" Oliva asked, before Ragna gently grabbed her hand. "What are you-?!" she demanded, her face crimson.
"The way you hold your weapon can make or break you," Ragna explained to her as he shifted her fingers around a bit. "There we go, does that feel a bit better?" Ragna asked.
Oliva nodded as she took a few swings with the blade. Memorizing the feeling with her blade and the way her fingers were positioned. "Yeah, I guess it does feel a little easier to use."
"Great, now keep attacking me like that until it start to feel natural." Oliva took another swing at Ragna and the attack hit his sword with almost perfect contact.
They stuck with doing that for a time, until Oliva eventually got it down. After that Ragna taught her some of the basic sword moves by mirror teaching the moves to Oliva. After she started getting that down, the two practiced sparring with each other, Ragna was holding back sure, but Oliva was learning pretty quickly and getting the moves down pretty quickly. After sparring he taught Oliva some more advanced sword moves and sparred a few more rounds against her.
"You're getting the hang of this pretty quickly," Ragna said as he set his training sword back on the rack and grabbed his coat and Blood-Scythe. "Pretty soon you'll be putting the castle guards out of a job."
"I just hope that I'll be ready when those nobles try something," Oliva said. "You've really helped me with this Ragna, so thank you, but standing up to the nobles is only something I can do."
"Hey, I got faith in you, that's something," Ragna said with an earnest smile. "You'll do fine Oliva, separate yourself from doubt and no one can stop you."
"You really think so?" Oliva asked.
"I know so, trust me, you've got this."
"If you say so, I'll have faith in myself," Oliva said.
"Good, well we better turn in, I can't even tell how late it is."
"Yes, I suppose. Goodnight Ragna, and thank you."
"You're welcome," Ragna told her. "See you in the morning."
After Oliva ran off toward her room, Ragna was about to make his way back to his room, until he looked up and saw that he'd been observed from a top the upper balcony. Eliza had been watching the two for some time now. She gave a glare to Ragna, before huffing and turning to leave.
After she left Ragna allowed himself a laugh. "Oh man, now she's pissed and wants nothing to do with me… I definitely owe Oliva one."
*Time Skip- The Next Morning*
Ragna made his way into the dining hall the next morning. Despite how late he'd stayed out last night he'd managed to awaken at a decent time and feeling well rested. On the way to the hall he'd encountered Eliza, and true to his belief she wasn't paying attention to him and refused to even return his 'good morning'. Personally, the Reaper was loving every second of it.
As he stepped into the hall he noticed that Oliva was there as well about to grab her food. Unfortunately, it seemed that one of the nobles from last night hadn't gotten the message and approached her. Ragna stood at the ready in case anything happened, but minded his distance for now.
"Not hiding in the shadows?" the noble asked Oliva with a greasy voice. "Perhaps you enjoy bringing attention to yourself now? Maybe I could get you more attention, some political power as well. All you'd need to do is-" As he moved his hand to grope the young dancer, Oliva's hand shot out and stopped the noble in his tracks.
"Don't touch me," she practically hissed at the man. The look of confusion was apparent on the noble's face, before shifting into fear. Gone was the timid and meek girl that had hid behind the Kahn and his bodyguard, now replaced by… something that scared him.
The noble audibly gulped and proceeded to leave Oliva with his tail between his legs. The dancer turned her head and saw Basilio staring at her like he'd just seen a ghost and Lon'qu had an eyebrow raised in disbelief. She turned her head slightly more and saw Ragna giving her a smile and a thumbs-up. She returned the smile to him, happy to have known someone like him.
Support Rank C obtained with Olivia
Ragna grabbed his own food and took a seat next to Chrom. The prince looked at him with slight disbelief for what he'd just witnessed. "Did something happened between you two?"
"Well I did save her at the banquet last night. I thought you saw that," Ragna answered coyly as he bit into his bread. Chrom shook his head in disbelief, so Ragna decided to elaborate. "I couldn't sleep last night so I decided to hit the training grounds. Oliva was there trying to pick up some swordsmanship and I helped her out."
"And that?" Chrom asked, pointing his finger to some of the nobles who had decided to keep their distance from the dancer.
"Just some words of encouragement," Ragna said with a smug grin. "I'd say it worked."
"Whatever gave you that impression?" Chrom asked sarcastically. "Anyways, Flavia wanted to talk with us after breakfast."
"How did she let you know?" Ragna asked.
"Uh, she used a messenger. Why?"
"Because of how many drinks she was having last night," Ragna said, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "I'm going to hate seeing her with the hangover she got last night."
"Please, she wouldn't have done anything too excessive." Chrom then turned to a rather distracting sound. "Why is Basilio snickering?"
"Two words," Ragna said counting each one on his fingers as he said them. "We're. Screwed."
*Flavia's office*
"Told you," Ragna said as they stepped into Flavia's office. The current Kahn was slumped over her desk, laying on it as Raimi tried to awaken her, with little success. "Any ideas?" Ragna asked Raimi, the knight thought to herself for a moment before coming up with an idea.
"Kahn Flavia," she whispered into the Kahn's ear, Flavia didn't react. "Ragna the BloodEdge is here, and he currently wants to duel you."
'Really? That's her solution for getting her up; throwing me into the fire? At least it doesn't appear to have wor-'
An instant later, Ragna had his sword out blocking Flavia's sudden attack at his head with her silver sword. The Kahn's hangover almost looked to be completely gone at this point as she looked at Ragna with duel-eager adrenalin.
"Good reflexes!" she said at Ragna as she brought the blade back for another attack which Ragna barely managed to dodge. "I'd hate to see you fall too quickly!"
"I'm not going to fall!" Ragna yelled, try to get himself out of this predicament. "You said you wanted to talk so Chrom and I are here to talk! Lay off the blades dammit!"
Flavia looked somewhat disappointed, but sheathed her sword and Ragna followed suit. The Reaper let out a sigh of relief, he'd gotten out of that one, barely.
"I still want that duel later," Flavia said to him, her eyes narrow and serious. Ragna turned his attention to Raimi and glared at the knight, who was doing her best not to look at him.
"Anyways," Chrom said stepping in. "Perhaps you could to us what you want to see us for?"
"Oh yes, that," Flavia said as she laid her hand on her forehead and grimaced; apparently her hangover was returning. "The first announcement is good news, I sent a courier to Ylisstol this morning so the Exalt and the rest of your nation will know about the reinforcements and support they'll be receiving."
"Good to know," Chrom agreed.
"The second part is more troublesome. Some of the nobles seem unconvinced about aiding Ylisse in the upcoming war. Most of them see Ylisse as a weaker and less important nation. While I'm the Kahn and I have final say, not addressing this now would be a poor decision as we could lose support in the long run."
"Are the nobles that influential?" Ragna decided to ask.
"All that and more I'm afraid," Flavia said darkly before allowing herself a smile. "Of course you just removed one noble from power last night, one of my largest opponents at that."
"Last night?" Ragna said as he tried to think back to the previous night. The tactician had only talked a few minutes with the nobles before helping Oliva and beating the crap out of that pervert… "Are you talking about that one noble I kicked to the curb?"
"Exactly," Raimi said. "It was quite a spectacle for everyone to watch him lose so badly to an unarmed man and you wounded him badly enough that people are going to take him much less seriously in court. In that effect you wounded him almost fatally in his political career."
"We can overcome them, but it's going to take an example of Ylisse's might," Flavia explained to them. "One of the nobles recommended having you fight in our place in an upcoming battle. I don't like sending you to do my job any more than you do, but an entire ensemble of nobles agreed that this would be a good tactic to showcase if you're even worth helping… their words, not mine."
"What's the battle going to entail?" Chrom asked.
"One of my best scouts reported back to me about signs of a large group of… Risen? I believe that's what you called them. They seem to be moving towards a large town 10 miles from here. While the town does have a sufficient amount of soldiers, many of them are inexperienced. It would be a massacre it we didn't intervene."
"So our job's to intercept them before they get to the town? This sounds too easy, what's the catch Flavia?" Ragna asked speculatively.
"The catch is you're going to be watched by most of the nobles," Flavia admitted. "They're already leaving to the supposed battle grounds to watch your defense, I don't have any say in this."
"Are you serious? They're going to take a threat that could potentially kill an entire village and use it to judge us!?" Ragna asked more than a little pissed. 'These bastards are just like the NOL, hell they're even worse!' "Who the hell thought of this!?"
"A noble that was at the party last night who talked with the nobles after all of the Shepherds had left. Her name is Eliza of house Chamandure, she's also one of my main opponents in politics."
"Big surprise it's her," Ragna said annoyed. "I wanted nothing to do with her and now she's trying to get back at me like this. It's pretty pathetic."
"Something I should know about?" Flavia asked. Ragna shook his head to her question. "I won't pry. Regardless we don't have much time now, we need to get to the town before it's too late."
'Damn it, I feel like I'm getting played by Terumi again. I'll give these nobles what's coming to them when I'm done here.'
*Time Skip- Outside the Village*
Ragna and the rest of the Shepard's arrived with time to spare, there was no sign of the Risen yet. Ragna had everyone taking up battle ready positions in the fields in front of the city to be ready and keep the fight at a safe distance.
"Still no sign of them," Ragna said as he looked over the horizon. "We sure that these things are going to show up?"
"Either that or the nobles enjoy making us look like fools," Chrom said with disgust as he looked and saw where the nobles camp was located. They were on the top of the hill overlooking the field and the town, claiming that the area would be perfect for evaluating the shepherds. He and Ragna knew the real reason for their location; when the shit hit the fan, they didn't want to be near the combat. Even with their personal guard they were just going to tuck tail and run if things didn't go well, not giving a damn about the villagers.
Just then Ragna's Risen Sense ability activate indicating that the Risen were close by. What he wasn't expecting was the size of the presence he was receiving, it felt massive.
'This can't be right, the report we got told us that Risen were only showing up in a small group.' "Chrom, I'm going to head out and do reconnaissance with Sumia. Something's not right about these Risen."
"Right, be careful. I'm just as suspicious of this as you are. And… go easy on Sumia alright? She may be clumsy, but she means well."
"Don't worry, I'm not going to treat her badly just because I'm in a bad mood with this." He made his way to the side of the group and grabbed one of the signal torches to call Sumia down. The knight landed close to him with her pegasus.
Flying
"Something wrong Ragna?" she asked him.
"I'm going to need you to help me out here, can you take us over that forest?" he asked, pointing into the distance.
"Sure thing," she said nodding. "Climb aboard." Ragna wasted no time climbing aboard her pegasus before it took to the skies.
While they were up in the air Ragna knew he needed to keep his mind focused on looking out for the Risen, but he just had to say it. "This is amazing! Flying, I mean!"
"You've never flown before?" Sumia asked him.
"First time," Ragna admitted as the soared over the clouds. "Got to say, I'm liking it so far, but what happens if you fall?"
"Ylisse's pegasi are trained to be able to catch their riders should the worst happen. We have to be careful, but I'm pretty good at flying in even some of the harsher weather conditions."
'Yet you can't even walk a full day without tripping over absolutely nothing," Ragna thought as he shook his head. It was then that he heard the pegasus whine softly and shake his head. "What's his problem?"
"Apparently he smells something he doesn't like," Sumia told him.
"You can tell that?" Ragna asked befuddled.
"Yes, it's sort of a talent I have, I can read animals very well."
"No kidding," Ragna said as the Pegasus dived beneath the clouds. 'I guess everyone in the Shepherds has their own talents, Sumia's no different from anyone else.' He then looked over the side of the pegasus. "That ain't good."
Below Sumia and Ragna was an entire legion of Risen. Close to two hundred of those monsters all in one group. Using his Tactician's Eye ability, Ragna was able to notice that these Risen were different; while the others appeared to be dead corpses of different humans, these risen simply appeared to be almost shapeless blobs with razor sharp claws. The traveled much slower than normal risen, but their number could overwhelm almost any force. And for the current Shepherds…
"Sumia, get us back to base. Chrom's going to need to hear about this."
"Right," the pegasus knight said as she skillfully turned her mount mid-air and went sailing back to the town.
Support Rank C Obtained with Sumia
When they landed Chrom rushed over to them. "What's it look like?"
"Two hundred," Ragna said glumly as he made his way off the pegasus. "Good news is they seem to be the beast type only dealing in close combat and they don't exactly move fast, especially not in this snow. The problem is that they look strong, they could probably hack through Kellam's amour in only a few swings. So taking on groups of them at a time is going to be a bad idea." Ragna said as Sumia moved her pegasus out of the way. "Our best bet is dividing the force right down the center, attacking from afar, and then using our melee troops to pick up any stragglers, that's the only way I can see this working."
"It sounds easy, but how the hell to you propose we break the group down the center?" Chrom challenged him. "There's no structures or formations that we can use to do that!"
"There's a way, but you'll have to trust me," Ragna told him. "I have a trick hidden up my sleeve for situations like this."
"Don't worry, I've given up arguing with you," Chrom relented. "But you still need a break."
"C'mon, I slept last night!" Ragna defended himself, with the classic excuse.
"I'm scared that I believe you actually think that counts," Chrom said scratching his head. "Also, you need to keep someone on the center with you while you execute the attack, who are you going to bring with you?"
"I dunno, you up for it?"
Chrom sighed. "If I can't even keep up with my own tactician I'm not going to be much of a leader. All right Ragna, you're on!"
*Ten Minutes Later*
The Shepherds had taken positions half a mile in front of the city. The Risen approached them slowly, groaning and moaning as they did in their tight formation. All of the Shepherds knew the plan, Ragna had told them all the plan. As the Risen came closer they started shuffling faster towards the group of defenders. Just when they were within range, Ragna unleashed his surprise attack. Normally when he unleashed this attack, he used a specified amount of Seither, but in certain instances, he learned that he could increase the size and force of the attack depending on how much energy he put into this attack, so this time he decided to just let it fly.
"DEAD SPIKE!" he shouted. The Black Beast head the emerged from the ground was HUGE, over 20 meters tall and 10 meter wide, just pulsing with dark energy. The energy wave literally roared with power as it slammed into the Risen and exploded, wiping out close to a quarter of the entire force. This did have a major back lash however, he arm was already starting to go numb with the lack of energy, but Ragna would cure that soon.
"Come on!" he shouted. The Shepherd all gave a roaring battle cry as they rushed towards the Risen. Ragna and Chrom were constantly fighting back to back, a tempest of blades if anyone ever saw one. Within under ten minutes, TEN MINUTES, all of the risen were gone with absolutely zero casualties and any injuries were healed immediately by Lissa.
Once the battle was over, Ragna reset his sword. "If this doesn't make those nobles think twice about messing with Ylisse I don't know what will… by the way, that beast head thing I just created was the result of several mages for all intents and purposes, okay?"
"Not going to say otherwise," Chrom promised. "Anyways let's see what those nobles have to say."
"I'll pass, but you go ahead," Ragna told him. As Chrom left Ragna looked over his arm, sure enough it gave off a small pulse.
Ability Obtained: Dark Conservation Level One This ability allows you to use less dark energy in your attacks while retaining the power and effect of the attack.
'Well at least I got something out of this,' Ragna said as he made his way back to the Shepherds camp. He saw Fredrick approaching him with a woman in a strange outfit and red hair. "Something wrong?"
"This woman wanted to join our ranks," Fredrick said with his usual stoic expression. "She claims to be a merchant and can be a great asset to us."
"Hey, I could of told him that myself," the woman said as she looked at Ragna. "So you're the head tactician, my name is Anna. Nice to meet you!"
"Same to you, I suppose," Ragna said mostly uninterested. "Anyways what were you planning to do in the Shepherds?"
"Well I'm decent with a blade, more than able to work my way around almost any lock, and I can even work with some contacts to get you decent deals to get you better inventory."
"Sounds like you have a pretty decent set up, so why join us?"
"Simple, unlike those high and mighty nobles up there, you guys are actually doing something about the threats instead of worrying about the titles you can get out of it. Not to mention I get to travel around with some of the best warriors around and I don't even have to pay for protection."
"So that's you're angle," Ragna said, allowing himself a small sigh.
"So what's your verdict?" Fredrick decided to ask.
"You're trusting me with this?" Ragna asked, somewhat surprised.
"You're our tactician so we leave the strategy to you. That includes what troops are going to join us. This is entirely your call."
Ragna hesitated for a moment. "All right you're in, but the first sign I hear about missing stock or increased prices we have, our talks are not going to be pleasant."
"Please, I have an honor as a saleswomen, but I'll do my job to the best of my abilities."
"That's all we're asking," Ragna said, "Welcome to the Shepherds Anna."
Funny, Ragna had joined the Shepherds less than a week ago, now it felt like he was part of the family.
Authors Note: I don't own BlazBlue or Fire Emblem.
Not getting much activity on my forum, but whatever. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, it's a bit longer than I'm used to writing. Anyways, I'll be sure to answer any review you leave, either the next chapter or before it via PM. See you next time.
Ciao!
