The Legend of Fodlan Ch 9 - Bandit Arc, Part 4, a Legend of Zelda + Fire Emblem Crossover fanfic

Fodlan year: 1180

Harpstrings Moon

"…"

As Byleth opened her eyes, a familiar faint, green glow was the only source of light that she could perceive. Immediately, the former mercenary recognized the general ambiance as well as the cold floor made of stone as the strange dream that she had always had.

Now that she thought of it, though, it had not occurred since the bandit attack… she shortly wondered why until a high-pitched voice attracted her attention. At first, a loud yawn could be heard, and at this point Byleth found the throne where the green-haired girl – or, as she called herself, Sothis – was sitting. As she herself opened her eyes, she looked down on the new teacher.

"Hey, finally we can speak again." The small girl sighed slightly in relief as she rested her head on one of her hands. Byleth, on her part, simply stared at Sothis.

"And what did you want to speak about?" Asked the former mercenary, crossing her arms while not changing her deadpan expression in the slightest way.

"Well, firstly, about the mission that you and your class are going to fulfill." As the girl spoke, however, Byleth frowned almost imperceptibly.

"And how do you know of this?"

"I'm not sure… somehow, I kind of know what happens to you. After that bandit attack, I've been able to perceive things clearer, like that humiliating defeat that Dimitri caused you…" A small chuckle escaped Sothis' lips as a wide grin appeared on her face. Predictably, it did not amuse her interlocutor very much. Then, as she resumed speaking, her expression began serious again. "If my presence continues to grow at this rate, I should be capable of communicating with you, even when you're awake."

"Didn't you want to speak of the mission?" Asked Byleth.

"Hm? Oh, yes, right…" Sothis then cleared her throat before she returned to her intended topic of conversation. "Over the course of the last few days, this man, what's-his-name, he has been keeping you aware of the situation, right?"

The former mercenary nodded approvingly. Indeed, during the first weekend of the month, Seteth had informed her that the Order of Seiros' search for Kostas and his accomplices had been rather fruitful. They even had a good idea of a hideout. Presumably, she and the Golden Deer would be sent in the next week to deal with them before they find a way to escape.

"So, I will say it right now. I don't like the idea of sending children to the battlefield…"

"In their defence, they have done a second mock battle against the Knights of Seiros Saturday, and it went much better than the one they did Thursday." Objected Byleth, raising a finger as she made her point.

"This is not what I'm talking about. They are just kids and…" Then, Sothis paused as she took into consideration the person she was currently talking to. "Although you have been a mercenary for your whole life, so you would not really understand. The point is that since the situation is quite delicate, I will try to grant you my Divine Pulse."

"Your what?" Asked the former mercenary with a raised eyebrow.

"The way I rewinded time when you almost got us killed, do you remember it? Divine Pulse is what I called it." Sothis adopted a semi-prideful smile. "It sounds quite good, do you think not?"

"I think that it would have been great to have back when Dimitri almost fractured my skull."

"Oh, please. That one was your own fault… just like with the axe in your back, actually. In any case, I am not sure of how many times you will be able to use this ability, so do so wisely. Got it?"

Byleth then rolled her eyes as the world around her and Sothis began to glow brighter.

"Yes, I got it."

As she spoke those four words, the light became stronger, almost blinding, until it engulfed the entire throne room as Byleth woke up.

Soon in the morning of the monastery of Garreg Mach, the merchants that were stationed near the front gate were already filling the marketplace with a pleasant ambiance as they did the preparations for the day. The small mercenary guild that offered temporary service for any Knight that may want them were maintaining their weapons and the local blacksmith had already begun to work on a few pieces of equipment that she had been tasked to craft.

Meanwhile, in a more secluded part of the market, usually reserved for Almyran merchants or other outsiders, Anna had installed her stand and was making some early business with a familiar Hylian. As the latter looked through the exotic materials and ingredients that she had brought, the two made some small talk.

"And how has been the potion research so far? Have you found anything that worked well with the recipe I gave you?" Asked Link as he examined an anti-magic shield in the pink-haired merchant's stand before putting it back in place. Anna pouted a little as she sighed.

"Not that well. I've tried a couple of bugs, like you told me, but none gave a good effect like the one you did by yourself. Plus, Monster meat isn't really easy to find, and my guys aren't seasoned hunters themselves."

"This is because you need to find either an insect or a lizard that needed to adapt to the place it lives in. I remember that in Hyrule, all of the lizards I used were of the same species, but with different habitats…" Responded the Hylian while looking over a couple of sceals that Anna claimed to be mandatory for the students to pass certain exams, whatever that meant.

"Yeah, I guess that would work, but I have better things to do with the time I would need for that…" Retorted the greedy merchant as she frowned and brought her index under her chin. "I would need to hire someone just to gather the bugs…"

"Yes, but if Beedle's prices back home taught me something, it's that the potion market is quite profitable." Link commented before he pointed at a turtle shell on the stand. "And what is this, exactly?"

"Ah, this is a Mega Shell!" Exclaimed Anna excitedly, with the prospect of a sale overshadowing her previous disappointment. "It serves as a soup ingredient. It is so nutritive that it reinforces your bones permanently… Or so the rumor says, in any case."

"Permanently? I've never managed to make any potion or elixir that lasted forever." Link then nodded slowly and shrugged. "I'll have to see for myself, then."

Right as the Hylian made his purchase and handed the required money to Anna, a quite massive figured entered the marketplace, hurriedly looking around and looking as though he's been running all around the monastery for the last hour. As the man spotted Link, he sighed out in relief and slowly approached the discussing pair. The pink-haired merchant saw him coming before he could announce his presence, however, and she waved at him with a smile.

"Oh, fancy seeing you here, Alois!" She exclaimed while grinning in the anticipation of another successful selling as Link turned his head around to look at the newcomer. "You needed something peculiar, I presume?"

"Hello, miss Anna." Responded the Holy Knight with a respectful bow. "I didn't come for you today, however. I was searching for Mister Link."

"Hm?" The Hylian tilted his head to the side in slight confusion. "So early in the morning? What for?"

"Surely you must remember the bandits that you fought close to Remire, right?" Asked Alois as he regained his breath.

"Yes, I do…" Link's face then lightened up as he realized what was happening. "Have your scouts found them already?"

"Yup. Right into the Red Canyon as we thought. And just like we thought as well, several monsters have been spotted nearby, so we have to escort the Golden Deer so they can carry on their assignment in relative peace."

"As much peaceful as an extermination quest goes." Link retorted with a slightly disdainful look. Alois then grinned as he cleared his throat.

"You know, these thugs probably didn't expect to be caught red-handed like this!" As the knight laughed out loud of his own joke, Link looked over him with immense disappointment while Anna chuckled a little. "Got it? Because they are in the Red Canyon…"

"Don't worry, I got it." Link reassured as he stored the Shell away in his Slate before he stretched a little. "So, when do we go?"

"As soon as the Golden Deer are ready. They haven't begun to prepare, so we still have plenty of time. What equipment do you need?" The knight inquired, checking out the Hylian who, aside from his usual blue clothing and his Slate, did not have anything in his possession that could help him in a battle. In response, Link smiled and tapped on his trusted piece of Sheika-made technology.

"Don't worry, buddy. Everything's in there. I do have some things to do before I go, though, but I'll be back quickly."

"And what are these things? If it isn't too indiscreet, of course." Asked Alois.

"I just have to go notify Jeritza and Manuela that I won't be there today. Thinking about it, though, it was the Golden Deer's turn at the training area today, so he'll know either way…" Link reflected as he scratched his head before beginning to walk out. "I'll speak to them and come back to you, buddy. You did say there were monsters, right?"

As the Holy Knight acquiesced quietly, the Hylian turned to Anna and waved off as he left.

"I'll be bringing some monster meat when I come back, then. See you both later!"

Later this morning, a small battalion departed from the front gate of the Officers' Academy as the monastery's citadel's streets began to liven up with the various businesses' activities. At the front, Alois, who was wearing his white armor decorated with a red cape led the group, discussing with Link, who had put on his usual Champion's blue outfit, as he marched through the town. Just behind the pair was Byleth, who walked at an even pace, seemingly lost in thought as she stared right ahead.

Then, following suite were the current eight students of the Golden Deer House. At the front of the little group were Claude, spinning an arrow in his hand absent-mindedly, and Lorenz, who had decided to show his defiance to his House leader by walking side by side with him and thus denying any obedience he had for the heir of the Riegan. Of course, the Gloucester lad was the only one to care for this little act.

Behind the two were the rest of the class, coming along with a good variety of expressions on their visages, ranging from excited to frightful. Alongside the youngsters were the beasts of burden which had to carry the students' equipment, including their weapons and protecting gear. Only Raphael and Leonie were holding their own stuff, as a way to exercise for the former and a question of personal pride for the latter. At last, behind the students were the knights of Seiros under Alois' command who were going to make sure that the lads' first assigned mission remained monster-free.

At this moment, the Golden Deer got out of the city and arrived to a thinner, badly maintained road which led to Zanato. The green landscape ran unevenly across the Horizon with some rocky fields in the Red Canyon's direction. Leonie stretched slightly as the battallion's lineup thinned slightly to accommodate the new road and she noticed Ignatz' borderline fightened expression and she frowned slightly as she addressed him.

"Hey, Ignatz. Is there a problem?"

"Oh, Leonie…" The green-haired young man flinched slightly as the redhead suddenly spoke up. "I… No, there's no problem."

"Are you sure? You look pretty nervous, you know?"

"…" Sighing out from stress, Ignatz then looked up to the sky as the class began walking once again. "Actually… I am a bit afraid, I have to admit…"

"Well, you are in an academy which trains people to be knights, or whatever." Responded the redhead. "Of course you're gonna be put in dangerous situations."

"It is not only that." Admitted the lad once again. "Just the idea of killing someone… I can't imagine actually taking a life…"

"Uh…" At this, Leonie turned her head around to look at Ignatz with an unsure look. "And what are you here for, exactly, if just that scares you?"

"It… It's my parents. We are a rather important merchant family, but it is my older brother who is going to inherit our business. As such, my parents thought that it would be better for me to become a knight…"

"Oh, I see… And what about you? What did you want to become?"

"…" Ignatz blushed slightly at the question, turning his head around in order to avoid Leonie's stare. "Oh, i-it is nothing, really…"

"Alright, if you don't want to tell me about it, then it's fine." Leonie said before a slight, confidant grin formed on her face. "For now, though, don't forget that we're in the best Academy in all of Fodlan! You and your family know the value of hard work, right? Let's show these snotty nobles what we've got and become the best fighters in history!"

"I suppose so… I fear that I don't share your enthusiasm…" Muttered the young man as he looked forward, in the direction of Claude and Lorenz.

Speaking of those two, the violet-haired nobleman had made it a point to walk at the same pace as his House leader, even after the road became thinner. He held his chin high in the air before he glanced to the side in Claude's direction. The latter had his head facing the ground as he mumbled to himself, which irritated the young Gloucester.

"Claude, if your thoughts are not meant to be shared, then keep them to yourself. Stop muttering like this, you hardly look adequate."

"Hm?" Slightly startled by Lorenz addressing him, the archer lifted his head and looked at his interlocutor. "Oh, I was simply thinking up possible scenarios in my head. You know, "what would I do in X situation', this sort of thing."

"And yet again, you are not capable of passing a moment without scheming, are you?" Asked Lorenz again with a judgemental look.

"You are never prepared enough, Lorenz. Besides, scheming is to me what a noble's duty is to you. The thing is that I can't think of a precise plan as long as we haven't seen the terrain and the enemy's position."

"Yet another reason to stop mumbling. If you even manage to actually become the leader of the Alliance, this sort of behavior will make you pass as a lunatic, or even worse, someone who is always planning something behind everyone's back."

"Isn't that what every noble in the Alliance do anyway?" Claude retorted, which caused Lorenz to scuff. "In any case, we are almost there, so we may as well stop arguing over nothing for the rest of the trip, now should we?"

As the young Riegan spoke, Lorenz briefly glanced in his direction with an offended expression, not appreciating the implications of his words at all. Looking back ahead, though, Lorenz could indeed see that their group was approaching the limits of the Red Canyon. As a result, he decided that he would wait until the now traditional strategic talk with Byleth in order to argue with Claude any further and the class ended their trip in the utmost silence.

The sun was hitting hard on the rocky surface on which the Golden Deer had stationed to eat. About a dozen of meters away from them, there was a cliff which gave a direct view on the place where Kostas and his people were waiting, and on the other direction, another cliff erected for a certain height. They were effectively on a reasonably-sized pathway on the length of the ravin. Despite arriving quite soon in the morning, the position of Kostas' hideout had caused some trouble for Byleth and Alois, mainly in how they were going to approach the thugs without being noticed. Link had proposed an aerial assault on kites, but his idea was quickly shut down.

As for the students, part of them really did not mind the delay. After all, for Ignatz, Hilda and Marianne, this meant that, with some luck, they might be exempt from fighting altogether! For the rest, however, the wait was beginning to be excruciating, without mentioning the heat and the harsh sunlight.

Meanwhile, Byleth and Alois were still debating on how to proceed properly. The former mercenary took a peek on the bandits' hiding place and observed it for some more time.

They were resting on what seemed to be the ruins of a vast building, of which the foundations had somehow survived the erosion caused by the flowing river which ran a hundred meters lower. The area was separated in three main 'islands', which were connected with old rocky bridges, which would complicate the assault even more as the class would have to pass through those to catch Kostas.

On top of it all, their hideout was surrounded with high cliffs, with very few paths which gave access to it. The southern one was relatively unguarded, but it was only because it was completely in the open and, thus, not optimal for stealth. Byleth sighed out in annoyance before she went back to the knights.

At the same time, climbing on the cliffside over the group was Link, looking around him with a wide smile as he gained some altitude before he went out of the Red Canyon's ravins for a minute. At this point, he got his Sheikah Slate out and snapped a few pictures of the gorgeous geography before he went back down and rejoined the students. At this point, Claude decided to break the monotony and addressed the Hylian.

"Hey, Mister Link! What were you doing over there with your thingy?"

"Oh, I was taking pictures!" Claimed the bearded blonde man as he raised the Slate in the air proudly. "This is just one of this precious thing's abilities!"

"Really?" Hilda asked, a bit incredulous. "Could I see for myself, then?"

Nodding in agreement, the Hero of Hyrule then came to the pink-haired teenager's side and opened up his photo gallery before showing her the images of the scenery of Fodlan that he had taken, especially the ones around the mountains of Oghma. As Hilda's eyes got wider with amazement, Ignatz joined in and gasped as he saw the pictures.

"By the Goddess!" He exclaimed, bringing his hand to his mouth. "It looks just like the real thing! It would be so practical to have for a painter…"

"Indeed, it would." Link stated as he turned his Slate off, before he gave another look on his surroundings. "Could one of you tell me what is the deal is with all these ruins? What is this place?"

At this, Lorenz raised his hand and decided to answer Link's question. After all, he had been taught all of the Church of Seiros' legends… Or so he thought.

"As you must have heard, we are in Zanato, also known as the Red Canyon. Over a thousand years ago, this place was the most populated city in all of Fodlan, although now this title belongs to Enbarr, the Empire's capital. According to the Church's teachings, this is the place where the Goddess would have manifested and revealed herself to the people of Fodlan."

"Oh, so you have a Goddess who came here?" Asked Link, causing a good chunk of the students to give him a curious glance.

"Pardon me? The legend is about the Goddess, the Projenitor God." Lorenz retorted.

"Oh, yeah, I got that. It's just that every place I went in had their own folklore, you know? Dagda and Brigid had their own Gods as well." Link explained as he shrugged. After this, Claude grinned and spoke up.

"Speaking of Gods, what about your homeland, Hyrule? Surely you have a religion over there too?"

Ignoring the disapproving glare that Lorenz gave the young Riegan, Link sighed slightly as he tried to remember the details as well as he could.

"Yeah, we did. If I recall correctly, Hyrule would have been created by three Goddesses. They had their own chosen ones, representing Courage, Wisdom and Power, or something like that."

"And what role did your religion have in your life, if I may ask?" Inquired the tanned archer once again.

"Not much, honestly. You know, most folks' priorities changed when most of them were killed."

Most of the students found themselves surprised to hear Link's words, as this was new information for them, while Claude remembered very well the little talk they had prior about the 'Calamity'.

"Alright, I see." Concluded Claude as he stretched a little, looking over to Byleth and the knights. "I do hope that they can find a good path before the end of the day…"

While Link was bonding with the members of the Golden Deer, the latter's teacher was laying on her stomach as she observed the bandit group some more and their positions, trying to come up with the optimal strategy before she slowly got up and walked towards the knights. Sighing in frustration as she reflected on her plan of action, Byleth turned to Alois, who had almost fallen asleep under the heavy sun of the afternoon. She then nudged him in the arm, causing the large Warrior to flinch.

"Alright, I've decided on a course of action." Announced the former mercenary with a cold stare.

"Oh, great…" Alois said as he tumbled while getting back up. "And which path are you going to take, in the end?"

"Is it going to be long?" Asked a cavalier not far from them, but his question only got him a stern look from Byleth, which encouraged him to not speak further.

"It should not. We are going to attack from the South. At least, down there, there is enough space for us all to maneuver freely and, thus, place ourselves best." Explained the teacher before she stopped talking, seemingly paying close attention to the enemy's direction. Alois raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Professor? Is something the ma-"

He was interrupted, however, by Byleth bringing her point finger to her mouth, signaling him to stop making sounds before she approached the ravine and looked at the Knight of Seiros while nodding her head in the thugs' way, asking him to come see as well. As Alois complied, the newfound silence allowed him to distinguish guttural growls coming from the deeper parts of the Canyon, as well as some panicked voices.

Then, when he looked at Kostas' group, he understood what was happening. Below them, the bandits were in the middle of battling with a Demonic Beast who had just invaded their hideout. Already, distinctive spots of red could be seen around the creature as the outlaws' leader rushed the thing. Alois frowned slightly at the sight.

"Took it long enough to happen… I don't think that they are going to survive this, Professor, so I suggest we depart now before more monsters come and spot us."

Acquiescing at the older man's advice, Byleth looked in the direction of the students under her charge. At the same time, the beast's cries had become clearer and had attracted the attention of Link, who was now approaching the ravine as well.

"Hey, looks like this thing got them before you could, huh?" Asked the Hylian rhetorically.

However, the near silence was utterly destroyed by an abominable roar that came from over their position. Byleth and Alois' eyes widened in horror as Link reached for the Master Sword on his back while they looked up to see what was the cause of this sound.

Sure enough, the professor and the Holy Knight's fears were true: a Demonic Beast was now looming over them, gripping the walls as it slowly descended toward them. It mutated grey skin and numerous, sharped teeth gave the creature a hellish look as it observed the party present. The battalion hadn't the time to react before another cry made itself heard, this time in the form of a monstrous screech, this time coming from the Canyon, as around a dozen Giant Birds erupted from the deeper parts of Zanado and began to circle the party.

One of the Snipers present in the group had the reaction to take aim on the avians who were now threatening the battalion, but in his haste he had failed to give attention to the Beast, who was now preparing to jump on the man, as if to protect its terrifying allies. Some tried to warn him, but it was too late. The enormous mass was going to crash on the knight of Seiros, and the poor man could only scream and cower.

Just as the monster's body should have killed him, however, a red sphere materialized around him and a green, phantomatic form appeared with a mighty roar as the suddenly-appeared shield repelled the Beast and sent it flying on the cliff, not far from them. While the rest of the battalion got ready to confront the thing, the miraculously saved Sniper dared to look up, almost certain that he had actually died.

However, what he saw was drastically different than, say, Saint Seiros welcoming you in the Other Side. Instead, the form of the blonde outsider who had been following them today was perched over the knight while the red shield he created turned around them. A second after the man peeked, the Hylian got up and stopped maintaining the red sphere as he looked toward the monster.

"Phew, this one was close…" He then glanced at the Sniper, who was beginning to regain his composure. "Be more careful when there are monsters around, buddy. I won't always be there to protect you."

He then chuckled as he took in a deep breath and psyched himself up for battle as he stared at the Birds who were coming dangerously close.

"Now then, let's settle th-"

Link was cut short, ironically, by a stray fireball that the Demonic Beast had shot out of its mouth in its struggle against the knights, which hit the ground below him and sent him right into the ravine, much to the Sniper's horror.

Alois himself looked on with a justifiably worried look as the Hylian cursed in his native tongue while falling down the cliff. He didn't have the privilege to know of the outsider's fate, however, as a second Beast came climbing from right under him and gripped the edge of the pathway before it pulled itself up and knocked the Holy Knight away with its free front paw. As a result, Byleth found herself alone against the creature as the Knights of Seiros fought against the first one.

As she gave a glance to the Birds, just to make sure she wouldn't be hit by them, she noticed that they were now all flying back down, in the direction in which Link had fallen. She thus unsheathed her sword and took a combat stance, ready to confront the monster since her students were out of danger.

Or at least, she thought they were.

The shock had been great for the Golden Deer House, when only a few seconds after their pleasant discussion with Link, two Demonic Beasts had appeared out of seemingly nowhere and began to fight their professor and the knights. The Hylian, being knocked in the canyon, was quickly presumed dead by the students. Reacting quickly before everyone began to panic, Claude got up and yelled at his classmates while pointing and waving in the direction from which they had arrived, which seemed free of monsters.

"Everyone, quick! Let's go while we have the chance!"

With the notable exception of Lorenz and Leonie, who both intended to stay and help out as much as they could – which would have meant, in the grand scheme of things, very little –, the rest of the class followed Claude's order and began to run toward safety. Raphael, for his part, stayed slightly behind the rest so he could make sure to stop incoming threats from behind.

Unfortunately for Claude's latest plan, fate would not let the Golden Deer leave this Canyon this easily. As the youngsters ran around one of the cliff's corners, they found out that a third Beast was coming in this direction, creeping slowly on the battalion until the students came in its field of vision. At this point, however, the monster's attitude quickly switched from 'stalking' to all-out hunting. Claude gasped in horror and extended his hand to help Lysithea from falling over due to the sudden stopping.

"Change of plans! Everyone, get back!"

Unsurprisingly, this new directive found no objection as the students were now stuck between the raging battle down the pathway and a hungry Demonic Beast running after them. As Leonie and Lorenz took notice of the gravity of the situation, Claude took his bow from behind his back and readied it before shooting right in the monster's throat.

Unfortunately, despite his best efforts, the arrow merely bounced right off its deformed skin and did rather little to stop the thing, apart from staying behind as a juicy distraction. The young Riegan barely had the time to jump to the side before the creature tried to slash him open, avoiding the lethal attack.

Then, right as the monster turned around and eyed Claude up, a medium-sized rock hit it square in the eye. While it did not do any damage, the impact still made the Beast flinch and re-direct its attention. Claude looked on as well as he got up and distanced himself from the current threat.

He saw Leonie picking up another stone and preparing herself to throw it with a look of absolute terror on her face. Nonetheless, she stood her ground and waited for the enemy to make its move. Looking behind her, Claude could also see Lorenz holding up his spear shakily, Hilda bringing most of the others behind a massive boulder and Raphael running away, towards the knights.

"Leonie, no! Go back to safety, this is the duty of Claude and me to defend you and the others!" Screamed Lorenz, who was breathing heavily.

"Ah, stop it already! You really want to die for your stupid nobility?" Yelled Leonie, more out of the stress of the situation than actual anger directed at her classmate.

Then, the Demonic Beast plunged forward, roaring mightily as it intended to shoot fire in the redhead's direction. Just like Claude earlier, she dodged the attack as Lorenz attempted to pierce the creature's torso, to no avail. While he admittedly caused a light scratch, it wouldn't do if they wanted to kill this thing.

Claude then sighed from desperation as he aimed for the monster with his bow. However, he realized that if they wanted to win this fight and get out of it alive, then they would have to play it smart. Thus, Claude decided to save his arrows for better opportunities and moved around, trying to get a good angle at its sensible parts, which was difficult because of the Beast's frantic movements.

Meanwhile, Leonie looked on with wide eyes as Lorenz found himself right in the monster's face, stumbling away in an attempt to evade the creature's wrath. When it attacked with its clawed paw, the heir of the Gloucester got cut on his right arm as he managed to jump away from a deadly blow. Now, however, his wounded limb was bleeding heavily as he squirmed over in pain.

Now at the mercy of the monster, Lorenz looked up with tearful eyes as the Beast was about to finish him off. At this moment, though, a huge, blonde figure ran right past him and swung a gigantic hammer right in the creature's face, actually managing to make it flinch and stumble away.

Raphael was back, with a weapon that he had 'borrowed' from the knights of Seiros' beasts of burdens. He was preparing to make good use of it once again as he glanced back at the two lancers behind him. Leonie then helped Lorenz get up by wrapping his left arm around her shoulders and nodded to the mountain of a man.

The young Gloucester then looked on in shame as Raphael and Claude resumed the tango that they had begun with the Demonic Beast, with one distracting the thing while the other attempted an attack. Unfortunately, Lorenz had no choice but to retreat in his state, and the faster he was brought to safety, the faster Leonie could go help the two young men who were currently risking their lives.

During her students' life-or-death struggle, Byleth was not having that great of a time herself. Indeed, instead of at least being able to rely on someone else to direct the attention of the monster she was facing to someone else from time to time, she was instead forced to endure the unending assault of the Beast while trying to find a way to defeat it on her own.

The thing was that her body had its limits, and jumping around incessantly was going to tire her out rather quickly. Thus, her quick-mindedness was going to be a great asset, as always.

This was not the first time that she was fighting a monster. After all, not many merchants have the means to hunt them off the commercial roads on their own, and thus mercenaries like herself and her father had often been hired to deal with them.

However, those were normally wolves, birds or worms who had grown to disproportionate sizes after absorbing magic, essentially augmented wild animals. This Demonic Beast, however, was different and she could feel it. Its movement were completely unnatural, with spasms shaking its entire body constantly, on top of being able to breathe fire.

In order to triumph, Byleth knew that she could not only rely on dealing damage and making it bleed out. Instead, she would first have to incapacitate it. Fortunately, while vastly different from wild animals in behavior, the body of the Beast was still quadrupedal with legs, wrists and ankles, full of delicate nerves and tendons which were quite important for motion.

Encouraged by her new plan of action, the former mercenary then frowned as she focused and rushed for one of the monster's back legs. She was going to cut its mobility short by removing its usage from its hind leg, then she would follow suite with the other limbs before going for the throat.

When she was about to strike, however, the rocky terrain she was fighting on betrayed her as a small rock rolled under her foot, causing her to lose balance for a second. This little time was far too much and the monster managed to strike her and send her on her back. Then, the Beast used a paw to hold her down as the other moved in to cut her guts open. As the claws hit, a screaming pain erupted from Byleth's abdomen as blood was sprayed on the ground around her.

*** STOP ***

All of a sudden, everything ceased. The pain, the growls, the movement. At this moment, the professor realized that, just like when she died against that bandit, Sothis had stopped time to save her. This time, however, no vision of her throne came, just the weirdly-colored view of the world that she had in this state.

"Are you serious? What is it with you and dying lately?" Came a familiar high-pitched voice in her mind.

Sighing internally, Byleth then came back in time in order to fix her mistake.

*** REWIND ***

This time, though, the former mercenary paid a little more mind to the state that the battlefield was in, and thus she could avoid being transformed into monster food in the immediate future.

However, the extra carefulness that she had needed in order not to die cost her her opening, and she was thus back to square one in regards to fighting the thing.

Alright, that was not going to be a fun one.

Since the Demonic Beasts had attacked most of the battalion right away, none of the people who were lucky enough to have stayed at the pathway – namely, all but one – had been able to either assist or even take notice of Link's current situation.

After a few seconds of Hylian cursing, the blonde outsider then reacted quickly and reached for his Sheikah Slate with one hand while holding on the Master Sword with the other. In his free fall, he took a second to store his current weapon and then managed to materialize the Kite out of it, just quickly enough to deploy it over his head and change his trajectory, which was going right into an extruding boulder on the cliff.

He could cheat his way out of that one even without the Kite, but it would have been quite painful regardless.

As the Kite barely slowed down his speed, Link decided that he needed to get a grip on some surface in order to at least become stationary. Unfortunately, the ground was still far below him, and the other people above would probably need his help if more of these hideous things were to appear, and as such he couldn't afford to wait any longer.

Thus, the Hylian directed his aerial path in the direction of the Cliffside besides him. As he approached, he braced himself from the impact. After all, his speed had not been diminished all that much by the kite yet and it meant that he would need to grip the vertical, rocky surface well.

Right as he was about to attain his current goal, however, Link suddenly found himself pushed away, further in the Red Canyon. It was not only a sudden gust of wind that had derailed him, however, since the Hero of Hyrule could still feel the force that was dragging him along: it was strong and continuous. As he looked up to see what was messing with his precious Kite, Link yelled both from shock and exasperation when he saw two enormous clawed paws which were holding tightly on the mean of aerial transportation.

"What the..? Get off, you son of a-"

Not long after, whatever had caught him threw him away, with the force with which it did so causing one of Link's hands to lose grip. As a result, the Hylian found himself practically helpless as he spiraled down the cliff, trying to regain control of his fall. He didn't benefit from enough time to do so, however, and crashed right into a small platform, not far from where the bandit group had been entirely slaughtered.

When his body landed, though, there was not any drop of blood nor any sickening crunching sound that you would expect from a human – or Hylian – falling from this height.

Instead, while he fell on his back on the hard, unforgiving rock, a green light enveloped his figure while another green aura emanated from him, taking a humanoid form. However, instead of a huge, rotund man with a booming voice, the new apparition was thin and graceful, seemingly holding its hands in a praying position as it said with a feminine voice:

"I will protect you…"

With the shock of the impact against the ground having temporarily stopped him from breathing, Link gasped for air as he sat up. Resting on his rear, he cringed from the pain running from his back. While the feminine entity that had just appeared was great at preventing death, he was still afflicted with the sensation of the wounds that led him to this point.

When he opened his eyes, his expression turned to anger as he looked up and noticed the culprit for his unfortunate fall: what looked like a deformed, gigantic bird. And it wasn't even just one, as a few more were descending to his position. To make matters worse, the Demonic Beast who had just finished off its group of thugs had seen the Hylian's fall, as well as his ensuing survival, and was now walking toward him with a ferocious glare.

Link's response to this chaotic mess was to simply sigh before he got up and stretched.

Now, there was no time to lose on useless grandeur or ridiculous killing methods, nor could he afford to ever drop his guard, especially with so many opponents surrounding him.

Now, all bets were off. Those freaks were going to regret catching him on a bad mood.

Now down to only Claude, Leonie and Raphael being able to be close to the Beast without getting instantly shredded into tiny pieces, the Golden Deer House found itself in quite a bad posture as the rest of their members were trying to come up with a reasonable plan. Lorenz looked over the boulder they were hiding behind and scowled as he tried to figure out a weakness to exploit.

"This monster… it is mostly impervious to our attacks… We need to try to attack it with magic." He deduced, still holding his wounded arm. As he spoke, Lysithea nodded slowly and looked on as well.

"Alright, I can try something… I can't do a lot of attacks, though, so they each need to count."

"Good." Lorenz said with a small nod. "What about you, Marianne?"

"I…" The blue-haired girl then glanced at the young Gloucester as panic overtook her just at the idea to confront the creature. Seeing her like this, Lorenz decided not to insist. Ignatz, however, spoke up.

"You should only shoot when no one's between the beast and us. Just to be sure not to… hurt anyone…"

"Yeah, I figured. When you have something not obvious to say, tell me." The cadet member of the class said with a frown as she tried to determine a good moment to strike. To this end, she got out of cover and, when a good opportunity rose, she threw a Miasma Dealta spell in the direction of the Demonic Beast.

For Leonie, Raphael and Claude, it was a relief to see the dark ball of pure energy hit the head of the thing with enough force to send it back a few centimeters. As the smoke created by the attack's explosion cleared out, the blond Axe wielder cheered as he could now see that a part of the monster's face's skin had been blown right off, with some scraps barely hanging on as the Beast roared in pain.

Cheers soon turned to horror, however, when the terrifying creature's next course of action was to stare right in Lysithea's direction. Then, it brought its front paws to the ground and prepared to jump on the frail girl, like a cat preying on a terrified mouse.

As a defense mechanism, Lysithea created another attack that she sent in the enemy's direction. However, the monster saw it coming from miles away and jumped to the side before it roared. So loudly, in fact, that the young mage didn't merely hear it. She, along with the rest of the Golden Deer, felt the sound vibrate in their entire body.

Right as it was about to actually attack, though, Claude rapidly took aim before shooting right into the thing's eye, which had now been possible thanks to the monster's relative immobility. The Beast then whimpered as it covered its face with its front paws, and thus stopping to give unwanted attention to Lysithea, who didn't waste time going back to cover. The monster did not let this attack slide, however, as it trashed around blindly, attempting to strike with either its paws, jaws, tail or fire.

Raphael and Leonie managed to get far quickly enough. Claude, who had just attacked, did not have the same luck. While he did avoid a lethal claw strike, he was blindsided when the creature's tail whipped right on him, knocking him unconscious instantly. His classmates looked on in horror as he fell limply on the ground. Those who were close to the thing had to resume to attract its attraction to protect Claude while those hidden away decided of a plan of action.

"Okay, someone needs to go grab him and bring him here!" Hilda said before looking back expectantly to her companions of fortune. Lorenz scowled.

"What are you looking at me for? I am down an arm! And none of the other three present could easily carry Claude to safety."

Then, the pink-haired girl grunted as she realized that, for once, Lorenz had a valid point. He was incapacitated, Marianne was paralyzed by fear, and both Ignatz and Lysithea were too physically weak.

She needed to do something. Quickly.

Taking a few deep breaths to psych herself up, the young woman then slowly got out of cover, making sure that the Beast's attention was still fixated on Leonie and Raphael, the latter of which kept the monster at bay with his massive hammer. When she was certain that she wasn't going to be attacked, she ran to her House Leader's location and then began to place him over her shoulder.

For someone as slender as her, not many would expect her to carry someone of almost twice her weight with not much effort, but Hilda managed this exploit nonetheless.

Still observing the scene from the safety of the huge boulder he was hiding behing, Lorenz uttered a slight sigh of relief as the young Goneryl began to walk back to his location with Claude in tow.

Unfortunately, as the Beast approached Raphael one too many times, the enormous youngster smashed his massive weapon right in the monster's wounded face, making it flinch and jerk its head to the side in pain. As it did so, its functional eye then was right in the right angle to take notice of Hilda, who was vulnerable as she was not only carrying an unconscious man, but she was also unarmed. Deciding that this target would be more worth the effort than the two tedious teenagers who were distracting it up to that point, the Demonic Beast growled as it went to the pink-haired girl.

Back to the safe haven that was the boulder, Lorenz mentally panicked as he desperately tried to come up with a good idea to deal with the thing before two of his classmates got killed. Since up until now, only Lysithia's magic blast had done considerable damage, then magic would be the thing they needed.

Not wasting time with ordering his younger, white-haired companion to do anything, Lorenz jumped forward as his left hand began to glow with an orange aura.

Mastered or not, a Fire spell was exactly the thing that they needed at this moment. The violet-haired lad thus raised his non-harmed arm forward and focused as the Beast approached Hilda dangerously.

Then, the orange energy around his hand expanded uncontrollably right before it fired.

The result of the poorly executed technique was an enormous blast of heat and fire which was sent right on the monster's body, barely passing over Hilda and Claude. While the sheer power unleashed made the thing stop in its tracks as it screeched, Lorenz himself was blown away by the counter-force of the blast.

As Leonie and Raphael rushed over to provide Hilda some cover, the air was suddenly filled with both the Beast and Lorenz' agonizing screams.

Indeed, while his stunt managed to damage the monster a lot, it was only the case because he lost control of the magic power due to his currently panicked mental state. As a result, the Fire spell's power rose through the roof, but all safety that normally came with its usage was utterly gone.

As Hilda looked up to see who had saved her, her eyes widened in both disgust and shock as she saw Lorenz on the ground, speechless as he stared at the charred carcass that was once his left hand. The pink-haired girl then grabbed on the young Gloucester's right hand as she used her free one to hold onto Claude and then proceeded to bring both to safety.

As she dropped the two wounded boys behind the refuge that she had come from, Hilda panted as Lorenz held his left wrist in pure agony.

"H-how… How did this happen?" He said shakily, trembling from the shock. Lysithea then took a look at his burned hand and shook her head.

"You used a spell that you had no control over, and now you're in this state…" She then looked over to Marianne, who was just as saddened as she was disturbed by the Gloucester's new injury. "You! Come over and heal him as much as you can!"

"What?" Marianne shook her head rapidly as well, closing her eyes. "No… I can't do anything. Faith doesn't just…"

"Marianne!" Lysithea yelled, losing the last bit of patience that she had managed to keep since the beginning of this mess. "You can at least ease his pain!"

"I… I'll just make it wor-"

***SMACK***

The blue-haired girl's retorted was cut short by a slap given to her by the younger mage, who now gritted her teeth as a very short silence befell the two, before Lysithea spoke again. "I didn't ask for your opinion, but to help him. And Claude too, while you're at it."

Marianne then blushed from shame as she regained her senses and looked over to Lorenz. "O-okay, I'll do what I can…"

The young devout then positioned her hands around both of her violet-haired classmate's arms and breathed in as her hands began to glow in a green light. Instantly, Lorenz was able to relax his body as the pain in both limbs lessened.

While Marianne went on to help Claude regain consciousness, Lysithea looked on to the monster, who was now having trouble with Leonie and Raphael due to it being disoriented by the misfired Fire spell, as well as having most of its front body burned. Nevertheless, it was still far from dead, without taking into consideration that the lancer and hammer wielder were tiring out at this point after serving as distractions for so long. At this point, Ignatz came to see himself with a hint of reflection in his nervous face.

"Lysithea, I think that I know how to beat this thing."

"Alright, tell it now." Lysithea said bluntly.

"Do you think that your magic could break off a part of the pathway?"

While the glasses-wearing boy was explaining his plan to his white-haired companion, Raphael tried to swing his weapon at the monster's head. Unfortunately for him, his movements had become too slow and his attack was easily avoided.

The huge blonde looked up, almost in resignation, as the Demonic Beast began to charge up a particularly powerful fire attack. Panting heavily from exhaustion, the overly muscled boy tried to run out of its range, dropping the hammer to give himself some speed. When the flames were sent everywhere around the creature, Raphael was able to feel the heat of it in his back, but he did not suffer any damage.

As he looked back, he saw that it was now targeting Leonie, who was just as tired as he was himself, and despair began to take place as it was about to strike.

It was infuriating, Raphael told to himself. After all these years, a monster would be the end of his as well, along with those he tried to save.

For the n-th time during this fight, however, an attack perturbed the Beast's focus as an arrow hit it right in the exposed flesh of its lower jaw. That's when Raphael saw who had come under the fray.

Ignatz, his best friend, looking up at the enemy with absolute terror as he stood near the edge of the pathway with a bow in his hands.

Predictably, the monster abandoned Leonie as a target in favor of the more rested – and thus more dangerous – green-haired lad, who easily managed to escape the first strike that was coming to him. Then, though, happened something that the blond young man did not see coming.

Arriving from outside of his field of vision, a dark ball of magic hit the ground under the Beast's feet, causing a strong enough shockwave to make it lose its balance. The most impactful effect of the attack, however, was the rocky path now cracking under the weight of the creature and Lysithea's attack's sheer power. Only now understanding what was going on, the monster tried to jump away, at least further away from the edge of the ravine.

The pressure that this action put on the now unstable ground, however, was the last straw and made the rock under it collapse, causing it to begin to fall. Ignatz, who at first seemed elated that his plan had worked, had unfortunately not walked away enough and shrieked as the ground under him broke as well.

"No, no no no no no NO!"

As the glasses-wearing boy panicked and extended his arms in order to try to grab for the closest edge of solid ground, he closed his eyes as he was sure that he was going to fall to his death…

Only for a solid grip to suddenly take a hold of his hand. As he opened his eyes again, he saw Leonie struggling to bring him up.

"DON'T LET GO! DON'T LET GO!" He yelled, more out of fright than anything as he went back to stable ground. Panting heavily, Ignatz then smiled in relief as victory was seemingly assured.

This instance was short-lived, however, when one of the Demonic Beast's paws to grip the edge as well, with the thing trying to climb back to safety.

At this point, however, came Raphael. Tired of this fight, he retrieved his hammer and walked over to the magic blast's impact.

"Alright, now you've made enough comebacks like that, you big dumb lizard." At these words, he then brought the weapon over his head and smashed on the paw as hard as he could.

With another shriek, the monster finally let go for good, falling down the cliff as its desperate roar filled the Red Canyon. Meanwhile, Leonie began to laugh out as she let go of her adrenaline. She then looked to Ignatz and realized that he was still holding on to her hand.

"Ha... heh, Ignatz, you can let go, now. You know that?"

Blushing slightly out of embarrassment, the green-haired boy then released the redhead's hand as Raphael let himself fall on his back with a content smile.

"Urgh… We did it, guys. We did it."

"Yes." Ignatz said simply before he looked down the ravine with an exhausted expression as he addressed Leonie. "I know you said that we would face dangerous situations, but…"

"Yeah, I know." The redhead responded as she glanced to the boulder that the others were hidden behind. "Let's see how the others are doing, alright?"

As the students of the Golden Deer were finishing off their Demonic Beast, the pace of the still ongoing battle between their professor and her own monster was quite different.

Indeed, rather than relying on distractions and lucky hits to defeat her opponent, Byleth preferred to stand her ground, readying her sword in a defensive stance as the creature tried to attack her. Already, one of its paws was bleeding a black oozing liquid as the aftermath of a poorly calculated strike at the former mercenary.

As the Beast roared in both rage and hunger, it nevertheless plunged in Byleth's direction, incapable of forming any better strategy than 'attack'.

This time, though, it was rushing at her with its entire weight, and as such she couldn't afford to stay in place and wound whatever limb it tried to use against her. Thus, the new teacher decided to jump as well, but forward, right below the Beast's belly as it tried to attack the place where she had been only one second ago.

Taking advantage of the opportunity that she had created herself, Byleth then thrusted her blade upwards, directly into the monster's insides. As a pained scream erupted from the thing's body, the former mercenary squinted her eyes due to the black blood that was now pouring from the newly-created wound. Then, because the Beast was becoming more and more erratic, Byleth rolled away from its body before she got up and readied herself for battle again.

The Demonic Beast was now squirming over in pain, uncontrollably trashing around out of frustration. During this short period of unpredictability, the professor decided against trying to attack it again.

Once the thing regained what little control that it previously had over itself, it seemed as though the battle could finally resume.

However, instead of trying to rush Byleth as it had done multiple times previously, an aura of dark-red energy began to emanate from its body as it got on its two hind legs, glaring at the new teacher menacingly.

From what Byleth could remember from when she fought wild Monsters, one would begin to behave in this manner when it was about to unleash a powerful attack. Usually, it came in the form of dirt that a wolf would dig up and throw around, or something as predictable and avoidable as the sort.

However, what came next wasn't what she had expected at all. Rather than reach for a nearby object to throw at her or trashing on the ground, a filet of smoke began to escape from the Demonic Beast's mouth before it rose straight and, to Byleth's horror, began shooting fireballs all around itself. The end result was a terribly painful firestorm in its vicinity that enveloped Byleth and gravely burned all of the skin surface that wasn't covered by her clothing, the latter which didn't do that great of a job at it.

The former mercenary let out a pained cry right before the attack ended, at which point her vision cleared and what she could see was the Beast, looking frustrated to no end, looking down on her as it prepared to strike again. As for Byleth herself, she was looking rather worse for wear, with melted skin on the arm that she had used to cover her face and stinking smoke emanating from her other burns.

Before the thing's clawed paws could make contact with her again, rather than endure the pain another time, the blue-haired woman then focused as hard as she could to recreate the effects of the Divine Pulse without dying first.

***STOP***

At this point, the world around Byleth ceased moving entirely, with the notable exception of shard-like apparitions that appeared out of nowhere, everywhere, and who disappeared as soon as they came with a sound resembling the one of glass shattering.

Now reassured to not have to take another lethal cut, Byleth mentally let out a sigh of relief as she decided on an appropriate moment to come back and do over.

Now that she thought of it, maybe she could go before the battle even started and warn everyone? After all, if Link didn't get pushed into the canyon, then he could probably help her with her current problem.

As she tried to go as far as she could, however, she realized that she only could go to the point to where she engaged the Demonic Beast in combat, a few seconds after the start of the fight. She attempted to go further back, but to her frustration it turned out to be impossible.

"Urgh, why can I only go that far?" She wondered, with her voice echoing as though she was in a void.

"It seems that you can only rewind until the beginning of a battle, or to when you become in actual danger…" Came the disembodied voice of Sothis in response.

"That's a rather arbitrary limitation, if that's the case." Retorted the former mercenary with a deadpan tone. "Anyway, if I can't warn everyone, then I'll just go back to before the firestorm. No need to cancel my efforts up to that point."

"Yes, fair enough, but don't get into unnecessary trouble again. I can feel that you won't be able to rewind much often…"

"Fine. I'll finish it as quickly as I can, then."

***REWIND***

Instead of staying and trying to block the supposed incoming attack, Byleth decided to run away from the monster, getting out of its range as quickly as possible.

It seemed to be an effective strategy, since the monster then suddenly interrupted its charging up as it saw its prey fleeing in this manner. Thus, it instead ran after the professor, although it was limping due to its wounded front paw.

After luring the Beast out of its attack like this, Byleth then gained a confident frown as she turned around and waited for the deformed creature to come at her, sword risen up in the air. As it came closer, it tried to grab her with its unscathed arm, but the former mercenary was ready to react quickly and slashed at it in the same way that she had done previously.

Then, as the monster let out a surprised roar, Byleth risked it all and ran forward, profiting of the thing's shock to her advantage. She readied her blade and cut smoothly at the Beast's neck, opening its throat.

After this last attack, the Demonic Beast then stumbled a bit away from the professor as it reached for its neck with its harmed hands before it attempted to scream and attack again. However, it was losing blood quickly and it was thus only capable of a few clumsy steps before collapsing on the ground, with the sound of its struggled and gurgling breathing persisting for a little while, indicating that the thing was still, even if barely, alive.

Breathing heavily from near exhaustion, which was quite understandable after such an intense battle, Byleth waited for a few seconds to make sure that her opponent would not wake up or otherwise turn not to be relatively unharmed by her attacks. Fortunately, it did not move any further. Looking down the pathway, she could also see that the Knights of Seiros were finishing off their own Beast while a Faith user tended to Alois, who still seemed to have quite the headache from the vicious hit he received at the beginning of the fight.

Now that the adrenaline rush was over, Byleth finally took notice of the few small cuts that she had received during the battle, other than the lethal, cancelled ones. However, what was more noticeable was the black substance that was now covering most of her body, with the sticky feeling that it brought making the blue-haired mercenary quite uncomfortable. It was undoubtedly the blood of the creature that had poured out on her when she attacked the Beast's belly and throat.

With the battle seemingly over, she then looked up at the direction from which the battalion and the Golden Deer House had come from, in order to see if her students were still alright.

When she saw the forms of a few of them on the ground, with the rest tending to their wounded classmates, however, Byleth's eyes widened up slightly before she rushed to see them.

While the scuffle between the battalion and the Beasts was happening a few dozen meters higher, Link was focused on his own fight, and the Goddess knew that he need all the focus he could gather.

A few bodies belonging to Giant Birds were already scattered on the improvised battlefield as the rest carefully stalked the Hylian around, trying to attack him without immediately being riddled with inexplicably quickly shot arrows. The Demonic Beast that had killed most of the bandits, for its part, was busy trying to catch up to the puny human running around.

The Hero of Hyrule's strategy was simple, but proven to be effective: he was moving as much as he could, no matter if he was aiming, shooting or just observing his enemies' positions. Coupled with his decent speed, it made it hard for the monsters to launch a powerful attack, since their target was constantly in movement.

Even then, however, no tactic is perfect. Notably, when he was trying to shoot at one bird so he could get rid of it, he would often be sneaked on from behind by one of its buddies. As a result, not only were there still plenty of flying suckers to take care of, but the Hylian himself was beginning to accumulate small wounds and cuts all over his body. To top it all off, his champions' outfit's shirt was almost reduced to shreds.

"God… Damnit…" Link cursed between two heavy breathings before looking quickly at his surroundings. "I have to find somewhere where I could…"

Then, during his quick search, he finally found what he was looking for: a vantage point in the form of a pillar, broken at around ten meters off the ground. After this little discovery, the Hylian grinned as he sprinted up in order to outpace his pursuers.

Surprised by his sudden change of attitude, the gigantic avians then took a few seconds to change their momentum in order to match Link's direction. The man was quite quick, however, and they would need a little time to catch him if he were to suddenly stop…

Which he did, crouching down and resting his hands on the ground as he inhaled slowly.

After around two seconds, a strong gust of wind then erupted from seemingly nowhere, spiraling around Link as it went up in the air while the ground around the Hylian's feet glowed in a green color. Satisfied at this outcome, Link let out a sigh of relief before bringing his Kite over his head.

As soon as he did so, the gust grew stronger by several order of magnitude as Link rocketed up in the air. Two Giant Birds, who had begun their descent to attack him, found themselves striking at nothing as the outsider simply went out of the way.

After this, however, he found himself in a rather delicate position, as he was now slowly gliding down with no real obvious way of defending himself while his opponents were quite accustomed to aerial battling. This did not seem to bother Link, though, as he was landing on the broken top of the pillar he had noticed earlier.

Once he regained solid footing, he then withdrew the Master Sword, still hanging on his back, and looked around to see which monster would attack first. The Demonic Beast was still far away, so only the Birds were any sort of threatening for now.

Since his signature weapon used his life force for its ranged attacks, however, it meant that he couldn't perform the blade beams that he did against Kostas' cronies, back when he helped out at Remire. As such, his ranged options were limited to bows and a last trump card. As a few birds began descending toward him, Link grinned as he raised his sword to the side.

First, he had used the Protection to save a man.

Then, the Grace prevented him a quite untimely death.

Then, the Gale allowed him to place himself at the optimal place.

Now, though, it was time to demonstrate the last of the Champions' runes, and the most destructive one.

The Fury.

One second after taking his new stance, electricity began crackling around Link's Master Sword as a green sphere expanded around the Hylian, indicating the area of effect of his next attack. To be frank, he found it quite convenient.

Then, when the flying monsters entered the magical area without care, Link swung his sword in the air, triggering the attack. Immediately, thunder came crashing on five different Birds, killing them instantly and thus giving some time for Link to think of another plan as the rest of the monsters scattered away in surprise.

Seeing the Demonic Beast approaching fearlessly, surely intending to attack him, Link then reached for his Sheikah Slate and materialized a steel bow out of it, just like those that one would find in Fodlan's weapon shops. Readying the new weapon, Link then jumped off the pillar as he took aim for the Beast's head.

Then, from the Hylian's perspective, time seemed to slow down as his focus reached its maximum. In this state, he was able to think clearly and quickly, and his movements became just as fast. He shot an arrow in the Beast's direction, then he reached back to his quiver and shot another. Then another.

Once he landed on the ground, Link had shot no less than eight projectiles in less than two seconds which, all things considered, was rather sloppy for what he could perform prior. As he thought about how he needed to practice some more once he got back to the monastery, the blond outsider then gripped his sword once more and used Urbosa's Fury a second time, striking the Demonic Beast and paralyzing it.

While it could not move, a few well-placed slashes put a quick end to the fight as the rest of the Bird flock came back.

However, Link knew that he could make a short work of them. With half of them being struck down by lightning and the bigger Demonic Beast being slain as well, it was now going to be a cakewalk.

As Byleth approached the boulder near which her students had placed themselves, she was able to notice what had happened more clearly. Notably, Lorenz and Claude were both being tended to by both Marianne and a Priest from the battalion. The young Riegan had a thin filet of blood running down from his hair, indicating a head wound, while the violet-haired lad was breathing heavily due to the pain caused by his burned left hand. Raphael and Leonie, for their part, were simply taking a rest as they looked on their harmed teammates with worry.

At first, the professor had wondered what could have possibly occurred for such injuries to be inflicted. When she looked further up the pathway, she took notice of the cinders on the ground as well as a collapsed part of the path.

No sign of a dead monster's body, though. That was quite odd.

"Professor!" Exclaimed Ignatz with an elated smile. "You're doing well!"

"Yes, I am." Confirmed Byleth, before she looked upon the rest of the class again. "What happened to you? Did another monster come?"

"Yes…" The glasses-wearing boy then looked over at the field of the Golden Deer's battle before he sighed out. "It came really close to kill us. Several times, even. Luckily, Raphael and Leonie held on for long enough."

"I see." The former mercenary then observed the battlefield a bit more with a slight frown. "Where is the monster? Did it go away?"

"Oh no, Byleth!" Came the voice of Leonie, smiling proudly and resting her back on the boulder as her chest moved up and down from her heavy breathing. "We sent it down the canyon after we scorched its face off. Now, it must have splashed in the bottom."

"You sent the Beast down? How?"

Then, as Leonie, Raphael, Ignatz and Lysithea brought in the tale of their victory, Byleth's expression slowly turned from neutral to surprised, but when it arrived to the point of Claude's injury and Lorenz' attempt at saving him and Hilda, she was taken slightly aback.

"I thought it was the Beast who burned him like this… This is really bad." Admitted the professor as she could now clearly see the scorched flesh that had been Lorenz' hand. The youngster, for his part, was cringing in pain as the Priest was wrapping it in bandages to protect it from infection. Lysithea then chimed in the conversation.

"It is bad indeed. Faith can augment the body's natural capacity to heal, as well as giving the body more life force, but there's still a limit to what the body itself can heal."

"Really?" Byleth asked with raised eyebrows. "I've never really been good with magic…"

"Well, my personal specialty is Reason, but I do know a trick or two in Faith." Lysithea admitted before checking on Claude, who had woken up and was being told about what happened by Hilda. Byleth then sighed as she reflected on the situation.

"One thing is sure, those two can't walk to the monastery on their own and Leonie and Raphael seem completely exhausted." As the professor finished her reasoning, Alois came from behind her.

"Yes, don't worry professor. We already have a proper vehicle for the wounded right outside the canyon… If the third Beast didn't attack it." The Warrior then rubbed his mustache as he observed his surroundings. "It is still quite strange…"

"What is?" Inquired Byleth.

"This attack, it does not make any sense. Wild Demonic Beasts do not usually attack in group, even less so in such an ambush." He then looked over to the ravine. "There were also these birds who went straight for Mister Link when he fell down. Poor man, he didn't deserve such a fate."

Right as he finished speaking, a sudden gust of wind then suddenly erupted from deeper down the ravine, slightly startling Alois and the Golden Deer students. However, contrary to what they may have feared, there was no monster who came back to extend this nightmare any further.

Instead, the one who rose up from seemingly nowhere was none other than Link himself, laughing triumphantly as he saw that he had finally arrived at destination. Now slowly gliding down on the ground, he nodded as he concluded that the monster attack had been dealt with here as well. When he landed, he stored his kite in his Slate and walked over to Byleth and Alois. Despite the fact that his shirt had been completely torn apart with only pieces hanging on and that his body was covered in blood, cuts and bruises, the Hylian did not seem to be hindered by pain. At least, that was if his wide grin was of any indication.

"Phew, these flying bastards were a pain, but I managed to get rid of them without too much problems." Exclaimed the Hero of Hyrule while putting his hands on his hips. Byleth, for her part, raised an eyebrow incredulously.

"Without problems, huh…"

"Well, I'll have to admit that I had never had to fight anything like that. A flock of around fifteen flying monsters isn't what I usually fought before…" Then, the Hylian's expression became much more serious when he saw the state of the students of the Golden Deer. He then walked over and cringed as he saw what had happened to Lorenz.

Alois, meanwhile, was still completely stupefied to see the blond outsider being alive at all.

"Mister Link, if I may ask…" When Link turned around, confirming that the Warrior had his attention, he continued. "Can you tell me how you could defeat so many monsters at once? And how did you come back?"

"Oh, that? Well, I just fought them like I've always fought monsters back in Hyrule. As for the comeback, well… It's a long story, and I'm not in the mood to explain it right now."

"That is fair enough." Admitted Alois before he looked up the pathway. "Now, let's bring these two young men to the cart and bring everyone back to Garreg Mach. And let's keep a high spirit! It could have been way worse…"

Author's notes:

So, the first assignment is completed! However, things have been far different from what they should have. The next chapter will focus on the aftermath of this one. Just like the ninth, the tenth chapter will be quite pivotal to the story.

And this is it for notes. To all those who still read this story and to my beta-readers, I do thank you all and thank you for your support and feedback! I couldn't find the heart to continue The Legend of Fodlan If it weren't for you.