Lion-heart and Frato swiftly made their way to the east side of the city, where they were to try and rescue any citizens stranded there. As they were bounding across the central houses, Lion-heart spoke up to Frato.
"Frato! I will search for the citizens in the street down there!" Lion-heart stated firmly, nodding towards one of the more populated streets with plenty of houses and places to hide away from the mages. "You must go around the parameters of the eastern street and make sure I am not ambushed by any of those blasted mages! Is that clear?"
"Yes sir." Frato replied affirmatively. "If there is only mage heading your way I'll dispose of it myself. However, what if I was suddenly ambushed by the mages and needed help to escape, or if you got discovered evacuating the citizens?"
"Fire a Dragon Knight spell into the air." Lion-heart answered. "It will be easy to see and show each other clearly our exact location."
"Fair enough." Frato replied shortly before the two split up to perform their tasks. The two didn't travel very far apart from each other; instead Lion-heart jumped down into the street to search for Burmecians whilst Frato remained perched on the rooftops surrounding him.
Lion-heart had some difficulty finding the Burmecian women and children. They were hidden very deep in their homes and it was to tell whether the house was empty or not. He chanted that he was Sir Lion-heart and that he had come to ensure their safe escape from the city. Not everybody responded to his call, although many approached him cautiously from their hiding places, after they discovered he was not someone luring them into a trap they gathered behind him. After a reasonable amount of time Lion-heart had rounded up a reasonable number of citizens.
Frato leapt around the rooftops of the eastern avenue and scanned the distance for any sign of mages or other enemies. It wasn't long before he detected a spot of trouble, and he jumped towards it to see what it was. As he bounded closer to the sound of chants, fire and destruction he realised that two black mages had strayed from their pack to search for survivors. Frato decided he could probably take them on without much hassle, especially if he caught them off guard.
The two black mages marched onwards, with no particular destination. Mindlessly chanting their one word song of "KILL!" they threw fireballs in random directions. After the second fireball was hurled at a nearby building, something hurtled through the air and skewered the mage marching on the right. The other mage turned, with no expression of surprise or shock to look at his slain comrade and found his ally had been taken out in one blow by a lance. The mage looked upwards to see what had caused his friend's demise and saw Frato, building up energy in his hands to destroy him with a type of Dragon magic.
The black mage tried to counter Frato's ambush with a fire spell of its own, but it didn't have enough time to prepare the spell. Frato thrust his palms out at the mage, shouting "Cherry Blossom!" before an intense stream of red petals shot out of his hands and towards the mage. The petals erupted in an extreme red flame as they touched his opponent and when the magic had subsided all that remained of the black mage was a small pile of ashes.
Frato gave a small smile at his victory, but he was a little concerned about the mages making their way here. Had they followed him? Were they now attacking the east part of the city having decimated the Royal Palace? Frato looked into the distance and saw humanoid figures making their way towards him. There were more than two of them, at least a dozen of them, marching towards him. Eager to get out of the way of the small squadron, Frato leapt onto the rooftop on the other side of the cobblestone road he was on and crouched to hide himself from view, yet still see what the figures were.
As they came closer, it became apparent to Frato what they were. They were soldiers, but they weren't Burmecian. They were human, and they wore a completely different uniform. Their chests were shielded by metal plates, and they wore a helmet made of the same compound. To Frato's disgust, they wore very little to cover up their legs, only a thin green thong. Another thing which disturbed him was that they were all female. There was not one man in their ranks. Frato figured it must be a large group of prostitutes that had come to rape the Burmecian corpses.
Frato shuddered as the disgusting thought bore through him. Yet these "soldiers" were holding weapons, and their expressions had determined faces. They were here strictly for business, no fun and games. Pressing his mind further, Frato found a description which told him who they were. This was a small group of Alexandrian soldiers, although this certainly wasn't the entire army. These women were here to finish off what precious little the black mages had left.
They didn't manage to detect Frato on the rooftops, and even didn't pay any attention to him when he started building up another Dragon Knight ability. Frato figured if he didn't kill most of the off with this, he would go and warn his father. Frato managed to build up the energy without being spotted, and pointed his lance down onto the street below.
"Dragon's Crest!" Frato chanted, which caused a few Alexandrians to look up at him in alarm. They were too late, a large green Dragon emblem had begun glowing brightly in the street, shortly before a big dragon spirit came bursting through the badge and started eating, gouging and ripping anyone in sight. Eight or nine of the soldiers were killed instantly by the dragon, and another was seriously injured. The others dodged the attacks of the dragon successfully and remained standing when the dragon finally disappeared.
This left Frato standing on a rooftop staring at two able and angry Alexandrian soldiers. They couldn't reach Frato on the rooftops, so it was up to Frato to make the first move. He wanted to try another Dragon knight ability, but he had used enough of that and he would give himself a major headache if he overused them. This time, he would have to rely on physical strength alone.
Frato feinted throwing his lance down at one knight, and as she dodged the nonexistent attack, Frato flung his lance to where she was planning to move to. His attack worked, he managed to impale the Alexandrian soldier right through chest, making the battle one-on-one and giving Frato a keen start. He leapt down from the rooftop to receive his weapon, but already the other knight was charging towards him. Frato pulled his lance out quick enough to block an oncoming blow.
The Alexandrian backed off, leaving the two staring each other down. She was trying to intimidate Frato, make him think she'd get revenge for taking out most of her small squadron. It didn't work, Frato wouldn't back down now. He would finish this, and Frato spent his time more wisely, thinking of finding a weak spot he could use.
The idea came to Frato quickly, and he lunged at the Alexandrian soldier's biggest weakness. He swung his lance fiercely at his opponent's legs, and he managed to hit a swift slash. The Alexandrian screamed and fell to the floor, staring in horror at her two stumps, which were once legs. They had been sliced off and were laying several feet to her right. Blood was gushing profusely onto the concrete road, and Frato gave an evil smirk of satisfaction.
"Silly Alexandrians." Frato scoffed. "You're so vain and arrogant you think you can win with a suit of armour that doesn't protect your two most important limbs. Had you wore leg armour I might have had a half-decent fight."
"My defeat means nothing..." The Alexandrian gasped. "Burmecia is in ruins, Alexandria has already won. The end is near for you evil rats..."
Frato's faced turned to one of anger. "You'll be lucky I don't kill you now with a mouth like that!" But then Frato gave another evil grin, a second idea entering his mind. "Although I think you'd prefer to bleed to death in the city you destroyed. Die slowly in the knowledge you were beaten by a Burmecian. We will survive this war, we will rebuild our city and your presence here will have no lasting effects!"
"Queen Brahne will destroy you all..." The Alexandrian gasped, even weaker than before. "Burmecia will die so Alexandria can..."
The soldier never finished her sentence, as Frato rammed his spear into her head, causing more blood to flow onto the stone road. Frato had heard enough profanities against his home, he would not tolerate it.
Lion-heart was herding the group of citizens towards the Western gate so they could move to Cleyra, so they would be safe. Frato had not returned with any warning of black mages so he was feeling this would pull off. That was until three black mages came marching towards them from the west. Lion-heart quickly turned the herd of Burmecians towards the east to travel to the eastern gate, but black mages were marching from there too. He desperately tried leading them south, but to no avail, more mages were closing in from there.
They were surrounded. Lion-heart couldn't hope to fight all those mages by himself and protect everyone he gathered. All of the Burmecian citizens trembled and yelped in fear. Maybe this was a trap after all. After they were out of hiding, the black mages would close in on them and kill them all. Many were begging Lion-heart to force a way through for them.
Lion-heart had other plans; he had already begun charging a small amount of spiritual energy in his lance. He finished charging the small amount of energy, and pointed it to the sky. He chanted "Dragon's Crest!" and the energy discharged to form a green and white emblem in the rainy sky. The roar of a dragon was heard as a white, fire-like dragon burst through the emblem and down towards the mages in a death-dive.
Frato had barely taken a few steps from the fallen soldier before he heard the sound of a dragon's roar in the distance; he turned and looked at a green and white dragon emblem forged in the sky. This meant that his father was in trouble, and Frato had to go to aid his father in the escape of the innocent Burmecians. He was just about to leap onto the nearest rooftop when a voice called out to him and pierced him like ice. He remained frozen to the spot as the voice leered at him.
"You are not going anywhere." A stern, female voice told him.
Frato turned to look at the Alexandrian and was surprised to see she was wearing a better uniform than the other soldiers. White boots and brown leather trousers covered her legs and lower body whilst a white blouse complete with a similar colour cape that went down to her feet. One of her eyes was covered with an eye-patch whilst the other stared at him in a fearless and intimidating glare. She flicked a lock of her long, brown hair out of her eyes and pointed her decorated sword at her foe.
"You will pay for slaying my troop of soldiers and your fate is sealed. Don't even try to escape." The woman said fiercely yet concealing her anger and making herself look cold and emotionless.
Frato gave an interested smile. "You must be General Beatrix, am I right?" Beatrix made no response, but Frato could tell his guess was accurate. "I bet you got scared when my brother defeated you, so you've come here to get some payback. Well, you're in for a surprise. I'm stronger than my brother is now; I've trained for this day. I will defeat you and restore peace in Burmecia!" Frato then took his personal battle stance.
"Ignorant fool." Beatrix seethed, before taking a battle stance.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story except for Sir Frato. Does that shock you in the slightest? I didn't think so.
Author's Rants: Nice to see Breeze has returned, but where are the rest of you? I know more people are just reading rather than reading and reviewing. I need some constructive comments people! Don't be lazy! Also, since it has been a long time since I updated, I have a special treat. Not only have I posted this, but another story of mine is up on which kicks off the final part in my fanfiction trilogy, which is by far the most interesting. See what you think of it!
Breeze of Summoners: I apologise that the battles seem like they are from a textbook, but it's harder than I thought to write about this. Hopefully this chapter should be more thrilling for you, and the next chapter promises an exciting fight scene! I also think I could really use a beta-reader. Do you know where I could get one? I'm also glad you're working on your Burmecian stories again. Update them soon!
Dazz Combo: I'm glad you're still interested. Keep reading, and I also reviewed your big brother story. Be sure to look at my new story!