I didn't upload yesterday because my wi-fi died. Sorry about that.
(Also, I fixed a few grammar mistaks, but forgot to add that in. Nothing that important)
The Grimleal parted, revealing a rather small man standing at the back. He couldn't have been much taller than Ricken, and he looked so frail she could probably beat him in a fight, but the hat he wore marked him out as a Grimleal priest, and the purple tome he held at his side still glowed with magical energy. The man sneered when he saw her, and as he pushed through the crowd, Sumia shrank back.
"Hello there," he said, leaning down to look her in the eye. His rancid breath washed over her, and she gagged.
"Why the sour face? Is it because you don't like how I look?"
No, it's because your breath smells like onions, she thought. She kept her mouth sealed, though.
"Females are so shallow. All they care about are looks. If I was more attractive, this would be a dream come true for you, being tied up and at my mercy. If I was the Exalt, you'd hang on to every word I say. You'd throw yourself off a cliff. Well, I'm all you've got today. I'm all you're ever going to get."
Sumia frowned, confused. What did any of that have to do with this?
"I'm... I'm sorry, did I do anything to you?"
"What did you do?" The Grimleal laughed. "Of course you wouldn't know who I am. You females wouldn't spare a second glance for guys like me. You wouldn't give me a chance. You made me who I am! The world should know my name, but because of you, no one even looks my way when I pass them in the street, no one even looks me in the eye when I talk to them. People say it's my fault, that I'm too aggressive. They say I'm too demanding. Well, it's their fault, not mine. You can't say anything in this sensitive society or follow someone around without attracting scorn. You just say whatever you want and you're deranged, you're a creep."
"All my life, I've been treated like dirt. No girl I wanted thought I was worth their time. And why did they think that? Society? Social norms? They're all chains that keep people tied down, restricted to people who've got more power and who've got better looks. It's not my fault I was born this way."
To her relief, the Grimleal leader turned his back to her, and he faced his men. Sweeping his arms around the room, he walked back down the middle of the room and said, "You all want to be free from these chains, don't you? Well, that's why I'm Grimleal. As Grimleal, no one can put me beneath their heel. Our master sees us all as equals, noble or peasant. Justice is the only thing that's fair, and so is destruction. Our master deserves our obedience, for he will set us free from the trappings of society."
This man was clearly unstable. Sumia didn't need to be a prodigy to see that. As he had said, he was at his mercy. If she wanted to escape with her life, she needed to play this carefully. So she did the only thing she could think of.
"I'm sorry for anything I did to you," she said. In an instant, his eyes snapped back to her.
"What did you say?" he said, drawing his eyebrows into a frown.
"I said I'm sorry. Maybe you've been treated like dirt all your life. I don't blame you for being like this."
"You're right about that," the Grimleal leader cut her off before she could get another word in. "It's all your fault. That doesn't change who I am. You would never give me a chance if you weren't at my mercy. But now, I am the hand of the Fell Dragon. To me, you're nothing but dirt, and I don't need to listen to you. You can't talk your way out of this, it's too late for you. No one paid attention to my magical talents when I was no one, so I won't pay attention to them now that I'm someone. Do you know anyone who can cast magic better than me?"
Robin, probably. It had only been a minute, and Sumia could already feel the bonds of dark energy around her beginning to fade. The Nosferatu binding her didn't even hurt, which was a bad thing for him. Not that she was going to tell him that. He was so invested in his monologue, anyway, so he wouldn't have heard her. Sighing, she let her face fall back to the floor, her neck sore from holding it up for so long. The spell was wearing off, she just needed to hold on for a few more seconds.
"Do you think apologizing makes you special? That's what the others thought too."
Others? Sumia lifted her head. There were others? Don't tell me this is the man responsible.
"I'd tell you who they are, but you already know, don't you? You and your partner. Don't look so surprised. We've known you were after us ever since you showed up at our tavern to mock our music. You and the rest of your kind, you deserve to suffer. But, being the generous soul that I am, I have decided to sacrifice you all to the Fell Dragon. By the day after tomorrow, Ylisse will know the name of Ardri, the greatest Grimleal priest in the kingdom!"
He burst out laughing, his nasal voice echoing in the large room. He stopped when he realized that the only voice coming back to him was his own.
"Come on, laugh with me minions!" he said.
"Oh, did I distract them? I'm sorry!" Sumia said, jumping back. As she did so, her lance slipped out from beneath the ribs of the man next to her.
Ardri and the Grimleal watched, slack-jawed as his body his the floor with a thud. Sumia glanced at the body, then back at them, feeling a little awkward. Were they just going to stand there, or...
"Get her!"
Maybe not.
About ten robed men drew swords, axes, and daggers, and it was then that she realized how outnumbered she was. She could never hope to hold off this many people.
"Robin!" she yelled, hoping to Naga that he would hear. He said he'd come. He wouldn't break his word. Would he?
One of the Grimleal lunged forward, his sword outstretched. Sumia batted it aside with her lance. Another man jumped in from above. He raised his axe over his head and brought it down on her. Quickly, she dislodged her lance from the other man's sword and thrust it in his path.
The heavy blade swept past her face, missing by inches. Her opponent, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky, and his momentum carried him right into her lance. A third and fourth jumped into her guard before she could dislodge the corpse from her weapon. One swung his sword at her legs. The other drew his sword back and aimed it at her face.
Her lance fell to the floor, the fall softened by the body still transfixed on its shaft. She stomped down. The first sword snapped beneath her foot. The tip of the second sword stopped just before it could bite into her flesh, the blade clasped between two of her hands.
A look of surprise passed between the two Grimleal. That was all the time she needed to jump away, smashing her knee into the face of the first Grimleal as she took to the air like a pegasus. He stumbled away, his nose twisted at an awkward angle. Two more Grimleal took his place. The third flashed two knives at her, and the fourth hefted a hammer over his shoulders. As one, the three of them charged, coming at her from the front, the left, and the right.
Sumia turned herself ever so slightly to the right. The air two her sides rippled as a knife and a hammer swept past. The sword, on the other hand, ripped right through the thin layer of cloth over her chest. The second Grimleal's mouth widened into a victorious snarl.
Instead of blood, sparks flew off her chest as the tip of the sword scraped over her breastplate. He only had a moment to think about this before her fist slammed into his jaw.
The blow lifted the second Grimleal off his feet. Behind him, the fourth Grimleal focused on tearing his hammer from the dent in the wall, didn't notice the body flying toward him until it was too late. Both Grimleal tumbled back, hitting the floor with a loud crash.
Sumia didn't have much time to savor that victory. The third Grimleal stepped into her guard. She stepped back in surprise, and not a moment too soon. The two daggers flashed in front of her vision, severing a few inches off her hair, but otherwise leaving her unharmed. Not to be deterred by another missed attack, the Grimleal stepped closer and reversed his strike.
Sumia raised her arms above her. A clang rang out, and the blades bit into metal armor again. The third Grimleal hissed in frustration. He reared his head back to cave in her face. She beat him to the punch. As he reeled from the blow, it gave her enough time to lift her boot to his chest and kick out. Her foot connected with his sternum with a crack. He flew back a few feet, rolling over the floor for a second before he finally crashed into a desk at the center of the room. He tried to push himself back up, but his arms gave out, and he slumped back to the floor.
As Sumia swept her gaze over the three Grimleal lying unmoving on the floor, she thought to herself, Maybe I'm not so useless after all.
A heavy weight slammed into her stomach, expelling all the air from her lungs. As she keeled over, clutching her stomach in pain, she saw something loom above her. She had half a mind to stumble back.
Splinters shot in every direction. Her eyes snapped shut on instinct, and wood shards pinged against her armor and stung her face. When she opened her eyes, it was to a massive hammer lodged in the floor at her feet. She yelped. The fourth Grimleal, a hulking monster of a man, grinned back. Maybe she'd spoken a little too soon.
The fourth Grimleal plucked his hammer free from the crater in a shower of splinters. He barked out a laugh and charged at her. Sumia stepped back, startled. As she did, her foot pressed down on the loose floorboard from before. It caved beneath her weight, and she lost her balance. Her arms flailed out. She yelped, and then she found herself on the floor, staring up and the fourth Grimleal. His grin widened. He knew it was over.
Then the other end of the loose floorboard clocked him in the jaw. His head snapped up, and he stumbled away. As he stepped back, he lost control of his hammer. She watched as it slipped from the cultist's grip, falling through the air before crushing his foot. He howled, and Sumia winced. Still, she wasn't one to waste an opportunity like this.
Before he could recover, Sumia lunged for the handle of the hammer sticking up into the air. Her fingers wrapped around it, and swinging it like a lever she struck him on the temple with it. The fourth Grimleal stumbled for a bit, then collapsed to the floor like a flightless pegasus.
That wasn't too hard. A grin broke through Sumia's face, and she wiped the sweat from her forehead. Her arms were already tired, but the adrenaline pumping through her kept her standing. She let herself laugh a little. It died as soon as she looked up and saw the six other Grimleal slowly gathering in a circle around her.
She couldn't keep this up for long.
A sixth Grimleal charged at her with an axe. She stepped to the side, but a seventh Grimleal jabbed at her with a knife. The knife bounced off the armor over her forearms, and she turned over and socked him in the face. A tooth came flying out, along with some blood. The eighth Grimleal cut across with a sword, forcing her back. He swiped at her again, and she was about to step back again when she heard a creak behind her.
With a clang, the sword dug into her armor. With no way of negating the impact, it cut through the metal and right into her arm. She bit her lip, trying to distract herself from how much it hurt. Instead, she reached over the sword and grabbed the arm of the eighth Grimleal. She dragged him over her shoulder before he could react and right into the path of the sixth Grimleal's axe. There was a brief scream, then a squelch. Red liquid ran down to her sleeves from the man's cloak.
Of course, the sixth Grimleal didn't stop there. With the corpse of his former colleague still attached, he placed another hand on the back of his axe and pressed down. Sumia's legs crumbled. She hit the floor with a dead body and an axe pinned on top of her. Her arms wrapped around the corpse, but before she could try to move it, she found herself staring down the tip of a knife.
"Well done," Ardri said from far behind her. "I didn't even need to cast a spell. A good thing too, since it takes me a long time to charge it up. Now, why don't you two tie her up. We don't want to stick around, or–"
An explosion cut him off. Smoke poured in from the left wall, and everyone turned to look. From behind the billowing grey clouds gushing into the room, someone started coughing, and as the dust settled, Robin stepped through, waving a hand in front of his face.
"You never know how much dust builds up between the walls until you try to break through one," he said, and coughed again.
"Nosferatu."
A flash of purple came from the corner of her eye.
"Arcwind!" came the reply.
A whirlwind of air swirled up at the center. The purple burst of energy was instantly snuffed out, and the whirlwind expelled in a ring of harsh wind, knocking away everyone standing nearby.
Robin was here to save her. The thought made her smile. He wasn't going to leave her to the other Grimleal. Though, judging by how the knife over her was slowly inching closer, there wouldn't be much to save in a few seconds.
"Robin... help..."
A voice came from his far-right, faint like there wasn't enough air to speak any louder. His eyes snapped onto the source. Beneath a large axe and a dead body was Sumia, pinned under the tip of a knife.
"We only need the girl! You two, take her and run. The rest of you lot, keep this mage busy," he heard from the other side. He looked, and he caught a brief glimpse of a man adorned with gold jewelry, the leader of the group, before he vanished behind a line of robed men.
"Stay back! Stay back or I'll put it between her eyes." the dead man said, his blade falling closer to her.
"Arcthunder!" was his only response. An orb of fierce electrical energy shot toward the robed man. He gasped, before the attack slammed into him and exploded into a cross of electricity. He fell to the ground, smoke rising from his body.
The man standing above Sumia took a step back. Under him, Sumia tried to throw the deadweight off her. The man noticed, of course. He tilted his axe away. The corpse fell to the side, leaving him free to raise his axe high into the air. The man turned the axe so that the flat side was facing down, and brought it down to knock his captive unconscious.
"Arcthunder!"
Another electric cross struck the man in the chest. He stumbled away, charred, but still alive. Robin made sure to rectify that. The floor shook as the man's heavy axe hit the ground behind his corpse. Robin's fingertips smoldered, and a faint stinging sensation trickled up to his hands. When he shook it, the stinging vanished, but Robin still frowned.
When he glanced up, Sumia was getting to her feet, looking a little dazed. Behind her, three more Grimleal jumped in to take her down. And she was just standing there.
"Sumia, behind you!" he said.
"Huh?" Sumia turned around. She wasn't fast enough to react, though, and she yelped as the three men dragged her back to the ground.
Robin gritted his teeth. This was starting to get old.
"Arcwind!" he said, throwing out his hand.
Another whirlwind picked up, throwing the three men off Sumia. He stepped in beside her as she finally got back to her feet. Some more of the robed men looked eager to extend their assault. Robin extended his hands toward them.
"Arcfire!"
With the raging flames between them, the robed men were suddenly a lot less eager to confront them. One by one, they turned heel and fled, slipping out through a door in the back. Robin swept over them for their leader, but in the confusion, it seemed he'd got away. So he turned to Sumia instead.
He didn't expect her to suddenly throw her arms around him.
"Robin! You came!"
"I said I would, didn't I?" he said. "And not a moment too late, it seems. Are you okay?"
"A little bruised." She frowned. "I've never seen you use spells like those before."
"They're new. Since I've got used to using El-tomes, I thought my toolkit could use an upgrade."
"That's wonderful!" Sumia finally let go, giving him room to breathe again. "If we hurry, we can still catch their leader," she said, and she grabbed his hand.
Pain shot through his hand, and at his hiss, she let go. A look of concern flashed across her face, and she brought up one of his hands to inspect it. Whatever she found, she didn't seem to like it, and her face contorted into a worried expression.
"Robin. What are these?"
He looked down at his hands. Small scorch marks dotted his palm, and traces of magical energy drifted off from them.
"I haven't gotten the hang of using these new spells yet. If I use them too much, they start to hurt me as well."
"What? That's terrible. Why couldn't you use weaker spells, then?"
"I don't have any on me."
As soon as he said those words, an Elwind tome tumbled out of his pocket. Sumia looked at the tome, then back to him. He just grinned sheepishly.
"I guess I was in a hurry," he said.
"Take care of yourself," Sumia said, wrapping her arms around him. "If anything happened to you, I'd–"
Suddenly, she went silent.
"You'd what?" Robin said.
Her cheeks lit up. Without warning, she shoved him away and clutched her arms to herself.
"W-what are you doing to me?" she said, and she stepped away.
"What are you talking about? I'm not doing anything."
"Are you sure? Are you sure you're not using your Grimleal mind-magic to make me say these things? To make me feel these things?"
"Sumia, I've already told you, that doesn't exist. How many times will I have to say that before that sinks in?"
He took a step toward her. She took a step back. Then it hit him; she didn't trust him. After he'd come in and saved her, she still didn't trust him. It was kind of insulting.
"Well," he said, "if it did exist, I'd use it to make you less useless."
"Useless?" Sumia looked like a kicked puppy. "You think I'm useless?"
"Yes! Because I had to put down everything to help you, their leader got away. It's your fault that a criminal is still on the loose. If you're just going to drag me down, I think I'd be better off working on my own."
Sumia glowered at him. "Well, I could say the same thing. I don't care what Chrom says, I can finish this without you."
With those words said between them, and the fire still raging in the back, Sumia turned away with a huff and walked out the door she had come through. On her way out, she tripped. As she pushed herself back up, she spared one last glance back at him. Robin narrowed his eyes in return.
Once she was gone, Robin moved to follow her. They had no more business here, and that way was the quickest way to the exit. He thought he'd spent enough time around her to build trust between them, but, much to his frustration, he couldn't always be right. As he stepped over yet another Grimleal body, dead or unconscious, he couldn't tell, a flash of pink caught his eye.
He knelt down and picked it off the floor. It was a flower. What kind it was, he didn't know. Sumia might have had an idea since she spent so much time around flowers. Then again, since her head was always in the clouds, she probably didn't pay attention to these things.
He put the flower in one of his coat pockets, making a mental note to examine it later. As he continued his walk to the door, he looked back at all the destruction he had left in the room and all the bodies lying about. With a sigh, he realized that he'd have to call someone to clean it up and take anyone who was still alive as a prisoner. With all the incoming residents for the castle's dungeons, he imagined it would mean more paperwork for him. All that could wait later, though. He still had a case to solve.
So, show of hands, how many of you know what "incels" are? Yeah, those guys.
If you don't know, they're just people who think women are only after sex and money because they can't land a date. They say it's because "women only care about men who look hot, they don't care about personality" when, ironically, their personalities are probably the main thing that keeps people away. And Ardri is basically that.
Ardri isn't an OC, by the way. He's an actual character from Awakening. Kudos if you can remember where he's from without going to the Fire Emblem wiki.
It's always bugged me how, in fiction, the cultists are always kidnapping women to sacrifice to their evil gods. I mean, that's what they did in fairy tales and myths from ages ago, but why do people still write them that way today? Do the cultists have a reason for targeting women, and only women?
So I gave the cultists a reason for going after women only: extreme sexism. Fun times.