When I first started this thing, I had intended for it to be similar to Lemurian Girl's Sword Princess, save focused on Karel. Now, it will be a series of moments featuring swordsmen from each army in FE6-9.
Demon's Grace
"Remember that one assignment over in Ilia?"
"Uh, what was it? Wasn't it a…?"
Drephen sighed deeply and turned his eyes to the vast fields surrounding the Shrine of Seals. Here we are, at the end of the Black Fang…where did the good old days go?
They left when Nergal and that Sonia bitch showed up, remember? A snider part of his brain countered. …Sonia is very…voluptuous, though. Maybe that's why the Commander married her…though I don't see how he could just ignore the fact that she's an utter bitch.
Something moving in the distance caught his eye, and he narrowed his gaze. It was too far out to be distinct, but it certainly wasn't-
"Incoming!" shouted Drephen. He picked up his axe and motioned for his comrades to follow.Turning to the wyvern rider who was part of their division, hebarked, "Go confirm who he is! Avoid detection and hostilities!"
The standoffish knight sniffed and took off. Two minutes later, he came back looking like he'd seen the ghost of Hartmut.
Drephen narrowed his eyes and shifted his axe onto his shoulder. "What's wrong? Even if it is incoming hostiles, you shouldn't be-"
"We're fucked."
The warrior lifted a brow. "Come again?"
"I…It's a man. But…this one man…no, he's not a man. He can't be…"
"What the hell are you jabbering about?" the axe-fighter barked. "If he's one man, he's one man! He'll bleed when we hit him, he'll die when we stab him! What the hell's with the cold feet?"
"He…he's the-"
"Master Karel…today, we attack the Shrine of Seals. With the entirety of the Black Fang remnant guarding it, we face a serious challenge – one we may not be entirely able to best," the tactician explained to the Sacaen swordsman. "My assignment for you will be incredibly dangerous. You will have little in the way of support for a fair portion of this battle. You will be outnumbered, in the heart of the battlefield, surrounded on all sides. However…that is your preference, is it not?"
A muted, dark fire began to burn in Karel's eyes. "Yes," he evenly replied.
"The sooner you leave, the sooner you can catch the Fang off-guard…and the sooner you can cross blades with the Black Fang's best. Our mission counts on your success, Karel. Godspeed and good luck. We'll join you as soon as we can manage."
"I need no well-wishers," the Sword Demon countered as he rose from his seat. "I only need prey."
Mark did not respond as the other man calmly strode away – at least, not until Karel left earshot.
"By Elimine, that guy creeps me out. …At least we have him on our side, though."
The boy was, indeed, wise. Karel's thirst for killing made him difficult to monitor, regulate, and get along with. Not only that, the Sacaen also slept and rested for a bare minimum. Much of the company was frightened of the infamous swordmaster, and for good reason.
Besides, Karel had accomplished the feats that had given rise to his fame alone. He had slain armies and juggernauts alone. He had lived and traveled for the better portion of his life alone. The select few who had known him before his insanity were dead, save for one. He was alone, and preferred it that way.
He would do so until the end.
Karel's thoughts strayed from solitude, however, when he noticed a pair of military forts in the distance. He banished the idle thoughts entirely when a slew of men wielding all manner of weapons converged towards him.
Drawing his sword, he dropped the scabbard on the ground. He slowly broke into a swift and silent sprint, not seeing that his scabbard had landed on a rock, with the metallic end pointing tilted against it towards the sky.
Draw an arrow. Pinch the end of the shaft and the string with the thumb and forefinger – it prevents tangling the string on release. Tilt the bow slightly to the left when notching an arrow on the right side. This was sub-conscious routine for the Countess of Reglay, and her training as a commoner prior to marrying Lord Pent freed Louise to focus on marksmanship and choosing targets wisely.
Another arrow rocketed out and struck a horse in the knee, causing it and its rider to tumble. The cavalier was summarily skewered by Kent with a quick stab as he moved on to other targets. Louise sighed in pity for the poor animal, then searched for more targets.
A faint glint in her peripheral vision caused the beautiful blonde to turn and gaze towards a bloodstained field littered with bodies. About four meters away from the dead, a scabbard for a short sword rested against a rock. Louise briefly stared harder at the spectacle before connecting the chaos to the size of the sword.
"Karel," she whispered. Perhaps he needed assistance...no, that was preposterous. Whether he did or not, however, she could find no targets here. Believing that wherever Karel was, there would be more to do, she lightly jogged towards the trail of carnage.
Pent interrupted, his voice short of breath from having sprinted over. "There appears to be no more resistance in this area, my dear. We…My dear?" he inquired when Louise did not immediately respond.
"I am well, milord. I must see to something."
"…I see. Make haste, love." The Mage General watched his wife continue towards the wreckage of a particularly gruesome melee. "Oh my…who could have done such a thing? Our army was not present in that sector…"
His eyes, not as keen as his wife's, failed to notice the gleaming sheath in the distance.
A quick swat deflected the clumsy axe strike, and was followed by swift slashes to the foe's throat and chest. Karel planted one foot on the fallen man's axe, leaped to the man's shoulder, and kicked off in a swift leap to meet a senior mercenary who brandished both sword and shield.
The hero countered with a leaping slash, but Karel was far too swift and vicious. He parried the downward stroke meant to cleave him in two, and kicked the man in the chin with his right boot. Suspended in mid-air, his foe could only lurch backwards. Karel spun to plant his left foot on the shield, lightly kicked off, and slashed twice at the man's head in a twisting somersault. Karel landed facing the fallen foe, spun around, cut down another mercenary, then moved on to the remaining axemen in the north.
Behind him, the hero's head separated into two bloody fragments, and more of his vanished life poured onto the field where his arm was once connected to his body.
Five minutes later, Louise stopped to cringe at the disturbing sight as she moved to catch up to the Sword Demon. Looking up, she saw dark green shapes some twenty meters in the air, moving towards Karel. Resolutely nodding to herself, she drew an arrow and broke into a sprint.
The berserker was swift; his strokes were not. The other reason why he was not dead yet was his fellow warriors' synergy that prevented Karel from landing killing strokes. Very frequently, javelins would hurtle towards him at angles anticipating evasive movement. Lesser men would be dead, but Karel simply vaulted, twisted, and swatted aside or even dissected the incoming weapon. Nonetheless, the volleys of spears kept him from assuming the offensive and slaying his foes, and Karel saw nomads to the east finally escaping the flying soldiers of their company. They would all, of course, perish, but the assassins' stalling tactics made the task much more complicated and time-consuming for even the Sword Demon.
To Karel's fortunes, one of them seemed to tire of the stand-off. That warrior, a paladin, charged forward with a lance, intent on skewering the swordmaster with his momentum and reach advantage. Karel parried the stroke aside as he leaped into the air with a spinning drop kick, violently unseating the horseman so rapidly his mount reared up as it ran underneath Karel. He smoothly landed, sprinted forward and swiftly lodged his sword into the knight's chest, earning a bloody gurgle and a sudden jerk. Removing his sword, he turned to face the berserker's renewed assault.
As he parried the incoming blows again, he turned his head with his defenses to watch for attacks from his other foes. In the edge of his vision, however, he saw the berserker flinch. Not hesitating in the slightest, the swordmaster merely sliced the axeman in the chest. The massive surge of blood that erupted from the wound showed that Karel had sliced open vital organs. Never one to admire his handiwork when more targets were present, however, Karel simply moved to engage the remaining horsemen. He saw primal fear in the nomads even as they readied their bows, and he knew the visors of the mounted knights hid the same terror that did not prevent them form spurring on their war horses.
A white shaft shot forward and hit a horse in the neck, felling the beast and tripping up the paladins behind it. Subsequent arrows followed, striking a nomad. Knowing that help had arrived, Karel continued to meet their charge, swatting aside an arrow headed for him and dodging a Sacaen horse with a swift evasive spin to the side, toppling the horse by slicing its legs. He quickly killed the remainder, who were stunned by the sudden flurry of arrows and terrified by the famed mountain of bodies and sea of blood the Sword Demon left in his wake.
The knights and nomads finally disposed of, Karel finally turned to face his benefactor, a woman in ornate, yet practical vestments carrying a white bow. Her blonde hair and pink cape fluttered in the background as she lightly jogged to meet him – Karel saw a number of scrapes on her arms, and a fresh cut on her cheek. The woman (who he identified as a member of the company) stopped about a meter away and notched another arrow.
"Master Karel!" she shouted in warning, pointing her weapon skywards. He idly followed her aim to see a quartet of wyverns converging on their position. Swiftly flicking the gore off his blade, Karel readied himself for incoming. Four shafts, one after another, rocketed out with precision aim.
One pierced a wyvern's wing and left a large exit wound. Its means of flight damaged so, the beast toppled from the sky far from their current position.
Another hit the knight's lance and splintered the shaft on impact. The momentum of the shaft dislodged the rider, who fell to his doom, his loyal mount racing against gravity to an intended rescue.
The third struck another beast's elongated neck. It crowed and fell rapidly, crushing its rider underneath its weight.
The last arrow hit the wyvern's wing, and it, too, fell. However, the beast's momentum sent it rocketing forward, straight at their position. Louise shuffled backwards while drawing another arrow, but Karel sprang forward to meet the wyvern rider.
He leaped and swiftly stabbed the beast's head as he twisted in an evasive somersault. Right as he landed, he swatted aside the rider's lance and impaled the knight of Bern through the chest. The soldier screamed out blood, and swiped at Karel's neck in a parting gesture. The swordmaster simply withdrew his blade and sliced the offender's arm off before it touched him, then deftly hopped off the dead wyvern and surveyed his surroundings. Empty for now…and if I heard correctly, a stronger foe awaits. One much closer to my level…
He began evenly walking towards the tall shrine in the distance, but the woman interrupted him. "I…trust you are well, Master Karel?"
The swordmaster paused in response, then turned to face her. After a brief pause, he abruptly sprinted forward. She flinched, then noted that he had charged past her. She turned her head to follow him, and saw him skewer a Sacaen archer struggling to his feet after the fall from his mount. Karel looked upwards, and saw another wyvern in the sky.
"You didn't kill him," he noted in a deep monotone.
"Apologies," Louise lightly replied as she notched an arrow quickly. The rider was closing the distance quickly, though – twenty meters, sixteen, twelve, ten-
Just as she released the arrow, the wyvern swerved upwards and a javelin rocketed at her. She immediately ducked out of the way in an evasive dash, and her gaze trailed the flying soldier as he stopped, then abruptly turned around into a gravity-fed rush at her. Rather than ready another arrow, she immediately dove out of the way of the lunge. The wyvern shot past a meter above ground at top speed, then hit the ground in a sharp, springing about-facepowered by negative momentum. As Louise drew an arrow, she realized it was a mistake, and that she couldn't dodge the coming blow.
Then something struck her in the hip and shoved her aside. Karel had kicked off of her to push both her and himself out of reach of the wyvern's bite as he sliced the beast's head into two pieces during a corkscrew somersault and landed on the wyvern to reverse stab the rider (his intended strike at Louise was well out of Karel's way).
The knight gurgled and his eyes widened. "You…you're-"
He was cut off by a swift decapitation. Karel had withdrawn the blade and switched it into his off hand to finish the kill while gazing at the Shrine of Seals – or rather, the army converging on it. …In those numbers, they will not leave prey for me. He hopped off the dead foe and stood still, considering his next move.
A sharp, shaky sigh from the woman turned Karel's head. She futilely brushed at the red and green stains on her skirt, then looked up and pleasantly said, "I am in your debt, Master Karel."
He blinked once. "There are few who would do as you have," he impassively replied at length. Taking slow, steady steps towards her, he continued, "I need no assistance – you knew this."
She blinked once, outwardly unfazed by his even gait. "…Yes, I did know that. But should that mean it is impermissible to help you?"
Karel did not respond. Instead, he closed the remaining distance, to where he stood right in front of the woman. He spoke at length, evenly, his eyes icy and sharp like the fate that awaited ill-fortuned hikers in Ilia.
"...You are strong. …Fearless. …And a fool."
His sword reappeared in his right hand, its blade a hair from Louise's throat. She flinched and reflexively took a half-step back.
His voice turned low, soft, and dangerous, and his glare sharpened further. "You know who I am. You know I slay those whom Elibe praises as strong. The beauty in your strength, the foolishness in your ways…such is what rouses my hunger. The hunger I cannot resist; the call for blood.
"I should kill you," he explained, in a lethally matter-of-fact tone.
She inhaled sharply in response, but not very deeply. Letting the breath out slowly, she composed herself inside and met Karel's stoic onyx gaze with her eyes of shining amethyst.
He dropped the blade to his side after a long, tense exchange between their eyes. "Yet…I cannot. I hesitate, and I know not why."
She smiled warmly, and softly replied, "We are comrades. Your efforts to protect me, your…hesitation to kill me – they are natural among those who fight together."
"…" Karel was silent for several moments. "Camaraderie means nothing to me. Battle and slaughter are my purpose. None are safe from my blade…not even my kin."
She gasped in response. He…he killed his own family?
He abruptly reached out with his off hand to brush at the cut on her face lightly. She started in surprise, watching the odd light in his gaze with uncertainty. Karel stared at the woman's blood on his finger for several silent moments before noting distantly, "…But…you are too much like her."
His eyes sharply narrowed. "How do you, a woman I do not know, rouse memories of my past?"
Louise shut her eyes and briefly considered the change in the infamous murderer's demeanor. Donning a radiant smile, she opened her eyes and replied, "Perhaps you have not forgotten the past, as you believe. Perhaps it is closer than you think. …In your heart, perhaps there remains the kind boy I'm sure you once were." She considered her words briefly, then sagely nodded. Yes, that is it. He is not as he seems.
He slowly closed and opened his eyes repeatedly, considering her words. A fool indeed…
…But a wise fool. "So…my heart yet lives…" he noted dully.
He snorted and moved to leave, but the blonde caught him by the wrist and shook her head when he glared at her. "All of mankind has hearts. It is not a weakness, Master Karel."
He eyed her oddly, then turned to leave again when he saw a man with light-blue hair dressed in black standing before him. The other man's stance suggested he had been present for some portion of his conversation with the woman – and the fact that he had eluded his notice was impressive. Karel turned to face her, and then to the man once more; the way they looked at each other made their connection obvious.""
"She is yours?" the swordmaster inquired.
Pent nodded curtly. "And I hers." Facing Louise, he asked, "So this is what you wandered off for, my love? To assist Master Karel?"
She nodded. "I had intended to, and I did. But he saved my life in the process."
Karel ignored their conversation,however, and fixed his gaze on the side of Pent's sash. The Sacaen strode forward, and stopped right in front of the Count of Reglay. Pent's hip suddenly jerked backwards, and he flinched, his foot shifting to prevent himself from falling over.
The Mage General looked down and saw that the impact had been from Karel spearing the scabbard Pent had taken from the ground. I had thought it belonged to one of the company…so it was his? Well…a scabbard would interfere with movement during combat. "Ah…I see that this sheath is yours, Master Karel." Pent then reached for the sheath with the sword still in it (and Karel's hand still on the grip), and returned the casing to the infamous swordmaster. "You have my gratitude for protecting my wife in my stead. Perhaps I could find a suitable reward for you, unless…"
Karel's stony gaze locked with Pent's eyes. "I am not bound to your standards. I have no use for your compensation." He then passed Pent and walked to the Shrine of Seals in silence.
Husband and wife watched their eccentric benefactor depart, then shared fond glances. "I see that you talked with Master Karel. Impressive – almost none of our company has ever elicited words from him."
She nodded, and the two began to walk to where the rest of the company had gathered at the base of the Shrine of Seals. "Yes…" Louise replied somewhat vacantly.
"Well?" She blinked in surprise, then faced her husband. He continued, "I am curious, my love. What did he say? And…I must confess, I feared that he might have attempted to injure or kill you when I realized where you had gone." Pent seemed uncharacteristically sheepish – absent-minded as he was, he spent little time worrying about things that were often important. Such as his own health…or his wife, Louise sadly noted.
"I apologize for worrying you, my lord," she her conversation with Karel briefly, she answered his question with a warm smile and, "He is a good man…he just does not know it yet."
How'd this happen? Well, I somehow wound up drawing a lot of parallels between Louise and Karla:
- Hot older chicks with long hair and big boobs XD
- Crappy stats and weapon choice :(
- A bit flaky and oblivious
- Supportive and caring (though Karla is only so with Karel during FE7, and in light doses)
- Neither is sighted very often in the fandom
That, and I somehow thought that Louise would be one of the few not so terrified by Karel that she would avoid associating with or helping him. I don't know myself – it just kept popping into my head, so there.
Read and review (to the tune of non-generic statements or encouragement).