The World Of Blazing Part 1
Kiran gulped as he felt even saying the least stupid thing could cost him his entire military career.
The grandmaster of Askr was reading the report Anna had written regarding his victories in all the battles since the last time Kiran had spoken to Frank for the first time.
"Here it says you use an artifact you himself developed to analyze the movements of the enemy army just a few minutes before the encounter. Would you mind allowing me to take a look at this telescope thing?"
Kiran gulped again. "I can be defined as a more potent version of a classical spyglass. Its capacity allows a pegasus knight to observe almost perfectly the other army from a very secure distance... I'll bring it!"
Kiran "had" to run as if his own life depended on it. Meanwhile, the grown man continued reading.
Kiran came back holding two objects.
"This," he put on the table the telescope of his left-hand. "It's the one that I've been using... or rather said, the pegasus knights under my command have used. " Then he did the same thing with the second one. "This is a more advanced prototype... it's not in conditions of being useful right now... my assistant that knows more about glass is assisting me with it..." then he laughed nervously a little as he scratched his head's back part.
The man took his time examining. When he used his eye to watch through the object to outside, the entrance of the tent was permitted to see the armory tent that was in front of the place the war tent. After a while, he decided to stand up and attempt to watch something more being outside.
Kiran remained there, sitting on the chair until the grandmaster returned.
"Didn't you think it would be an excellent idea to create more of these to help us?"
Kiran didn't know what to say... "Eh... you're right..." then he face-palmed very quickly. "I... I will replicate it and give you a copy as soon as possible!"
Frank raised his hand a little to order him to relax. "According to Anna, this is one of the most important factors that allowed you to win against the legendary tactician, Robin."
"Y-Yeah... I'm not really that good at making tactics... it's this what ensures I win... if this was a chess game... I would be cheating, using some kind of mental powers for example. That... and the fact the heroes aren't exactly willing to win against us when they are forced to."
"I admire your humility, boy. However, whether you truly depend on this or you actually are a good tactician... we're going to figure it out."
The man prepared his quill and some paper to write down. "Before that, is there any other invention you could give us to end this war faster?"
"Urgh..." Kiran frowned... "The truth is... yes... there are at least two things that cross my mind right now... the most important one would be the dynamite... I would have started on it had I already have the components that make it stable... I would prefer to make it illegal for military operations since its original and "right" purpose is for mining... but perhaps we could make an exception by the moment..."
Kiran sighed and inclined his head to do not see the man to the eyes. "I highly doubt I could explain its function and how I make it work without having a single one to make a demonstration... but it is more efficient at destroying a fortress than the fire..."
The man rubbed his chin. "If you say so... and now you mentioned the fortress. It seems you have never needed to assault one."
"Ylissetol didn't have walls and Marth didn't wait for me inside his castle." Kiran shrugged.
"So," Frank began to look at the paper. "Tell me, boy. How would you storm a fort?"
"Eh... attempting to take the fort is the last resort tactic... they are designed to be a death course to the invaders after all. Unless it's definitely necessary to take it because of some reason... simply it is more practical to destroy or steal the supplies for the soldiers of the castle so the enemy will starve to death... unless they surrender before of course... it takes longer but the casualties from your side would be less or pretty much zero. "
"Correct." Frank nodded, his hand was writing as fast as Kiran spoke. "But let's pretend you absolutely need to take it as soon as possible."
Kiran rubbed his chin at the same time he scratched his hair furiously. "In that case... you can either convince some guards from inside to betray their general and open the door for you... which is pretty hard though... or send someone, usually a ninja, to do an infiltration mission. Stealing the uniform of the enemy to dress as the enemy and... probably wait until the night if it's not night already, and open or burn the door down for you.., mixing it with freeing the prisoners may increase the probabilities of success."
"Nothing else?"
"Well... if all that fails... then you must attempt to enter by using stairs to jump the walls or a battering ram to take the door down... and that's only considering the cases you don't think your soldiers are chess pieces... or at least you have some honor to do not end your enemies the worst way as possible." Kiran gave a more sad face. "Otherwise you can poison the food or the water." Kiran particularly remembered a certain scene from FF6 while saying this. "Of course, some of these other options aren't exactly cute or... legal?" He gave a very nervous smile... he REALLY didn't want to think in the implications of knowing what a bacteria was... training some bacterias to resist the normal methods to cure their diseases... could create a potential biologic weapon... not as effective as the one the American army owned but... still. "Any good tactician should prepare to deal with situations like those though... who knows what kind of person may be commanding the enemy side." he gulped.
"That's true." the grandmaster smiled. "Although..." Kiran grimaced... he had forgotten an important factor... RIGHT?!"
"You didn't mention something like pretending to retreat, or asking the ninja to burn the supplies inside the castle or fort."
"Oh! right!" he face-palmed as he growled... then he considered something. "But... the first one would only really be a good option if the enemy is stupid enough to celebrate the "victory" with beer and more... right?" he highly doubted something like the Trojan Horse would work in real life.
Frank nodded satisfied. "If the date is something more to consider, you can take advantage of any possible holiday the other nation has to get the same effect."
"I think I once read about that..."
"For an infiltration mission, who is a better option? a man or a woman?"
"Eh... a woman... a maid costume can be better than a soldier uniform if nobody knows how she looks like... and also the obvious fact she can seduce easier." he didn't say anything else for two seconds as the thought something. "I think I know who am I going to send if the opportunity appears..."
The grandmaster continued making questions regarding other aspects of the war.
Two hours later, Kiran finally left the tent and returned to the side of the camp that belonged to the order of heroes.
Robin and Ephraim approached as soon as they saw him.
"So?" Robin asked.
Kiran pointed with his hand the emblem he had received, now easily seen in his tactician clothes. It was mostly silver with a light-blue letter. He couldn't read the symbol but what he heard from Frank was very recorded in his mind. "He gave me the A rank. He also requested me to use my replicas to support the other armies." he shrugged.
"So you are just a single rank under the highest one?" Ephraim asked.
Kiran rubbed his hair. "Technically speaking, yes and no. The next rank is S and the final rank is SS... but the SS only belongs to the grandmaster so... you understand."
Robin smiled... and knowing he actually enjoyed something like this, as she remembered how he reacted with Corrin... she patted him. "Well done!"
Kiran closed his eyes and smiled. "Thanks for teaching me."
"I still need to teach you how to fight with only you and three soldiers though." Ephraim also smiled, they both did the same salute he had done with Alfonse before.
"True."
There was something that bothered him a lot though... something that Frank had explained to him regarding how, strangely, the heroes from the recent battles had been... more aggressive, as if they actually were willing to fight for the Empire... the only known example until that point was Xander... Frank even mentioned his soldiers felt forced to actually kill two heroes... a blonde archer woman and a silver-haired mage man.
The only explanation the man supposed was more black magic... interestingly, they didn't speak... and then Kiran remembered the last time he fought some heroes they didn't speak... and, if he remembered correctly, the World Of Blazing was the homeworld of those heroes...
He had to capture at least one and analyze them with Raigh.
Again, The Order Of Heroes had to wait until the other side showed the light of the sun. As much as this was disappointing for the astronomic side of Kiran that wanted to find the possible major galaxy... it was necessary.
The Nabata Desert was a place that the traveler hadn't liked much since the first time he arrived with his friends. However, Hawkeye, following orders from the master, hadn't allowed him to leave with the legendary tome until he had mastered it and at least read seven times each one of the books the master had left.
The traveler considered that, in the end, it paid off though. After so much effort to get the approbation of Athos to be accepted as apprentice and training to be at least as powerful as the 40% percent of Athos's power... Hawkeye had finally allowed him to visit his old friends and being the owner of the legendary tome.
So, finally returning to Lycia felt so good... but the feeling didn't last much.
However, when he entered to a town he discovered something so horrible that he could barely believe it.
While he was out, an army from an unknown nation had conquered the country and probably would start an invasion to other nations soon or late.
When he asked what happened to the Marquesses... nobody was totally sure about all of them... but many had been killed.
Yet, for him, the worst part came when those enemy soldiers laid their eyes on him.
A certain factor... a certain factor had caused that he was now being considered a possible primary threat...
He walked through the fields, trying to move himself the fast as possible to run away... yet, he knew he would have to fight again when he heard that cursed war horn...
He stopped and turned around... he pulled the hood of his green mage clothes off as he saw many mages and pegasus knights following him.
The face of a young man of 21 years old frowned. His hair was brown just like his eyes. His hair had got reduced to tolerate better the heat of the desert...
He still had some injuries he got from fighting with these bastards previous times... but that wasn't going to stop him.
"Tse... allomos... (Tse,.. let's go)."
He quickly opened an Elfire tome and, jumping to avoid a thunder attack and some javelins, he incinerated at least five mages. As one of them attempted to attack him with a thunder, he used his own thunder tome to control the lightning and quickly throw it against a pegasus knight. Gods blessed the armor was made of metal and that helped.
The traveler started to continue running away at the same time he counterattacked.
An Excalibur of his thrown away some other mages at the same time he began to aim at the sky, making more pegasus knights fell and die due to this. He then used this same magic to jump higher and cast more fire magic against his enemies on the ground.
When his feet were on the Earth again, he switched to a Thoron tome. He then rolled from to the right and sometimes to the left and each time stopped a second, it was to release the power of lighting.
Each hit, due to the insanely high voltage and intensity, resulted to be mortal.
As he noticed more mages and the remaining pegasus knights preparing themselves to attack him with better tactics... he saw his opportunity to use his legendary tome.
As he extracted energy from the book, it was as if a second sun was born and it generated a very dense ray of light that aimed at the center of all his enemies. By the moment they thought it was dangerous to remain there, it was too late. The so heat energy of the light erased the majority from the existence and the ones remaining had fourth-degree burns!
Usually, he would have felt on his knees... but after practicing for at least a year, this wasn't as tiring as it used to be.
He then continued escaping in direction to Caelin... or part of Ositia as it was now... it was the place more near to his position and he had to confirm his friend was fine... and in the case she was dead... he would use this tome on the whole enemy army!
"If what you say is true... this is terrible..." Alfonse grimaced. It seemed that, just like in the world of Awakening, the heroes would be serious again.
"However... I have another problem..." Kiran sighed in frustration.
"Which one?"
"Well... probably this time my own tactic is gonna work against me this time." he then pointed with his finger to Nino, she and Lilina were practicing riding a pegasus with Florina.
Alfonse needed some seconds to process what he meant. "You don't want to fight the local version of Nino?"
Kiran laughed, again, in frustration. "Stupid... right? I mean, one of the things that I agreed with you regarding not getting close to others was to do not get a weakness the enemy could exploit... and now I have one... true, Embla does not know this about me... but I'm pretty sure they would be more than happy to kidnap Sharena to force you to surrender or something like that."
Alfonse scratched his head's back part. "They have attempted it at least one time..."
"So, who were the ones we fought back then?"
"Eliwood, Lyndis, and Hector. The power trio of Lycia... Hector rivals with Ephraim and Ike at being the strongest hero we know... from the side of the males. From the side of the females, Lyndis is not stronger than Altina or Ayra... but perhaps she could beat Lucina easily. Eliwood is an interesting case though. He's not considered to be stronger than, for example, Chrom... but he's very good at dodging."
"This is gonna be painful..." Kiran growled.
"Although is strange, technically speaking there's a fourth member... yet, very little is known about them."
"How is that?"
"The only information we have is that they are a mage and a tactician..."
That made a light get on in Kiran's mind. "Wait, If he's from this world... I might have an idea of who is... let me go to ask Florina, I mean, she should have met them too, right?"
"That's a good point."
Kiran thought very seriously about what he remembered. If what he had heard was true...
Before he could leave, a blue-haired pegasus knight landed by their side. "I have to admit, this artifact is wonderful." the princess of Talys commented as she handed over the telescope.
"So? what do we have for dinner?" Kiran unsheathed his two swords. He then, again, he thanked again he didn't have long hair anymore. It's true that principally he got rid of it because he hated long hair... but at the same time, when he had seen himself in a mirror... he noticed that wearing a coat and wielding two swords and with that kind of hair... he was looking like certain character almost everybody hated back home... he included in the list. Granted, that character's hair and eyes were black, the same with his coat, instead of brown and white... but... still.
"They don't seem to be aware we're here, they are securing the position. The town is their base I suppose."
"Do you want to apply the same tactic we did with Ylissetol?" Alfonse asked.
"It's not a bad idea I suppose, we're not exactly hurried... thanks, lady Caeda."
"It's my pleasure to help." she nodded.
"Well, I see you later." he and Alfonse collided their fists before he started walking in direction to Florina.
Which didn't happen as he felt someone poking on his back... He turned to see Raigh. "What's up?"
"The quintessence." he whispered.
"Ah! right... let's go." He nodded.
It was time to see if he could get some more years of life...
I suppose is pretty obvious who is our "mysterious character" here. I mean, I think the only mysterious character that is done right in the entire franchise is the Black Knight.
I tried to inspire myself seeing the intro stage of Megaman Zero 2 to create his introduction.
Just like it happened with Robin, this guy is gonna have his own scenes. Try to guess what tome is that legendary one. it's pretty obvious of course, but try! :D
Now many of you perhaps remember when I said that he and Kiran will meet each other in a very strange way... you'll understand it.
So our bastard is rank A. I don't think he's ever gonna reach the rank S though.
I really want to ensure that his skills make sense. I know it seems that he has improved fast, but let's remember he's been trained by not anyone but the heroes, they are the strongest warriors after all. So it means his training has more quality than your regular spearman.
Yeah... I don't know what else to say... so... let's time to answer the review.
Guest:
It helps that grinding is not very boring for me so I obtain a lot of money (it's because of this that I usually continue playing Fire Emblem Sacred Stones until my characters have all their max level... I know that grinding kinda erases the strategy for the last maps but... meh). Also, it is very funny attack Caos using Excalibur, Ragnarok, and Ultima Weapon at the same time XD.
Well, in Awakening, Tiki's tears gave to a character a stats boost! temporal... unlike the Naga's tears... but they gave one!
Eh... I don't know if the sentence is hard to understand, but as far as I remember, it implies Corrin is happy to know that Kiran wasn't actually being a pervert. He was looking at her armor which kinda means at the same time he's looking at her boobs... but he wasn't doing that for the sake of staring at her. XD
