Love Tactics (working title)

By Thunder

CHAPTER 2

Author's notes: w00t! Second chapter!

Now, to answer questions...

maskedstranger1990: Strange, I thought Emiline established Eturia. Oo;; Anyway, you're probably right. I would check, but someone seems to have stolen my GBA with Fire Emblem in it. --;;

And it is going to have twists, mostly filling in the "interactive" blanks when it comes to the tactician, but other things as well.

Shunoku: Your wish is my command -bows and writes another chapter-

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"Head to the left and equip your sword," the tactician called. Lowen, below him, obeyed, and rode his horse to the west, then put away his javelin. Pulling his sword from its sheath, he brandished it at the bandits to the north.

Angered, the bandits ran toward Lowen. Sporting reckless fury and a certain abandon for rules, they dashed at him.

One jumped at him, trying to cut him with his rusty iron axe. Lowen expertly avoided the wild axe swing, and then used the almighty precision of the sword to cut down the foe.

"Excellent," the tactician, known as Mark, said to himself. "No problems here with Lowen... he'll be fine. But... oh no! Lord Eliwood!"

Horrified, the tactician looked into the jaws of defeat: three axmen coming at Lord Eliwood with murderous looks on their faces.

"Lord Eliwood! Run!"

Eliwood looked up toward Mark, and then followed his gaze to the bandits. Eliwood began to run, his long cape billowing behind him. Unfortunately, a bandit turned from Lowen and began to chase Eliwood, cutting his flight off. The brigand moved and blocked Mark's view.

Then, he jumped for the kill.

Mark heard an earsplitting crack, and then all was silent.

"NO!" He couldn't lose Eliwood yet...

Then there was a whoosh, and the bandit fell. Eliwood flipped back over the body of the bandit, and then continued his flight away from the other bandits.

Eliwood passed by the paladin that had become known as Marcus to the tactician. Under Mark's order, he continued on to effortlessly obliterate the bandits that still pursued.

"Lord Eliwood!" Mark called. How did Eliwood live?"

"Yes, Mark?" Eliwood replied, sheathing his deadly rapier.

"What happened with that bandit?"

"Oh, you mean... him. Well, that brigand totally missed his attack... I just counterattacked. He was done for."

"But... what do you mean? I heard a crack..."

Eliwood laughed. "Oh, that? He hit a tree! Did you not notice I was delved deep in the forest?"

"Oh..." Mark blushed. "I'm sorry... I must have missed that. My apologies, Lord Eliwood."

"That's quite all right," Eliwood answered realistically. "It's nice to know that you tacticians are still human. And please, call me Eliwood."

With that the heir to Pherae turned and grabbed his sword, then ran back onto the battlefield.

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It was after the battle. The townspeople had been saved from raid, thanks to the brave actions of Mark and Eliwood. Two axe fighters had come amidst the battle, one of which Mark knew from the scuffle one year ago.

Mark thought. Dorcas and Batre. Two axeweilding powerhouses with borderline dangerous aim. Yet, with the right aid, they could become unstoppable warriors.

And then there was Rebecca. She convinced her father to let her travel with Eliwood and his group.

And he himself had been asked to accompany them. He had accepted. His hopes began to build up. With all this traipsing around with nobles, he might stumble across Caelin again at some point... but that was a different matter altogether. Right now, their force was set on one thing- to find Eliwood's father.

He had disappeared on a trip to visit Marquess Ostia. What was scarier was that there were some of the best knights of Pherae there, protecting Marquess Pherae, and all of them disappeared. It had been a month since last contact, and most assumed they were dead...

But Eliwood didn't, so they set out on a journey to find him.

Mark took off his traveling coat and laid it down next to him. Turning down the kerosene lamp near him, he lied back. He looked over and saw Marcus alternating the watch with Lowen. Nothing to worry about. He lied back and closed his eyes. His subconscious mind mixed up the details of today's battles with his own personal desires to be with Lyn again, and he tossed and turned until he finally fell into a tentative sleep.

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"Mark...?"

Was it morning already? It seemed like he had just gotten to sleep...

He opened his eyes and looked up to see Rebecca shaking him.

"We're about to move, so you might want to get up, sir..."

Mark sat up and rubbed his eyes. He looked at Rebecca.

"What time is it?"

"It's about 10:30. You slept in," Rebecca said, smiling.

Mark jumped out of the bed. "Slept in!? Oh, great..." He was slacking. If anything, the tactician needed to awake before his army, and plan the next day's excursions...

Rebecca laughed. "It's all right. Lord Eliwood wished to rest a little after yesterday, so we wasn't in the least bit angry."

"All right," Mark said, relieved. "Well, I'd better go and receive the plan for movement today... I'll see you later, Rebecca," he said, getting up and putting on his robe.

"Goodbye, Lord Mark!" Rebecca called, as Mark walked away.

Lord Mark... well, that certainly was an interesting twist, he thought to himself, as he spotted Eliwood and made his way toward him.

Once reaching Eliwood, he bowed and spoke. "I must apologize for my tardiness, Lord Eliwood."

Eliwood laughed. "Don't think anything of it. You didn't disrupt the plan for today at all. And, I've said before, please, just call me Eliwood."

"All right... if you insist. What is the plan for today, by the way?"

"Well," Eliwood responded, "We're going to Santaruz to try and get some answers from the marquess. He was last to contact with my father."

"All right," the tactician said. Santaruz wasn't that far away. They could certainly make it there in a day. "So, when do we leave? As soon as possible?"

"Yes," Eliwood said. With that, he turned to Marcus. "Marcus! Round up everybody, we're leaving."

"As you wish, Lord Eliwood," Marcus replied and rode off.

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The journey to Santaruz passed uneventfully until the very end. They stooped on a road which would eventually lead to the castle.

"There it is. Castle Santaruz is over there," Eliwood said, pointing toward the other side of a mountain.

"All right then! Let's go!" Batre said. He went toward the mountain and began to scale its rocky cliff face.

Dorcas sighed. "No, Batre... think of the OTHER people, and not just yourself, please...?"

Batre looked around. "Oh, yeah. Forgot about all you people on horses..."

Marcus sighed exasperatedly. "If you all are quite through..." With that, he rode his powerful horse off down the rode, the rest following suit.

After about five minutes, Marcus suddenly stopped. He looked to the side, and then unsheathed his sword.

"What is he...!?" Eliwood said.

At that moment, a bandit jumped out at Marcus. Marcus easily moved his horse out of the path of danger, and then... missed his stroke. The bandit abandoned Marcus, sensing his power, and ran up to Eliwood and Mark.

"It's too bad you're all going to die here today..." the bandit said. He was rather well-fed, with was a testimonial to his skill. Any bandit that had that much girth had to have robbed many people.

"And why are you after us?" Eliwood said to the bandit.

"Someone wants the boy in an early grave..." he said softly, pointing to Eliwood. He grinned, and then called to the others. "C'mon out, boys!"

Bandits laying in ambush all around emerged from their hiding places. Then, the leader of them ran off to the north, laughing all the way.

Eliwood turned to Mark. "Mark! We need a plan! What are your orders?!"

Mark thought for a while. Then, he called out to everyone. "Come to arms! We must fight back!!"

-END OF CHAPTER TWO-