3 revised

The final stretch of the march was almost peaceful in a way, no Plegian attacks, no mishaps, no Morgan, and it seemed the heat was drastically dropping as the day went on, though thinking about the execution they're heading to stop sent a chill down Robin's spine making the otherwise peaceful afternoon hard to enjoy.

Robin was able to foist Morgan off with Maribelle and Lissa, with the vague excuse that she was just some Plegian defector found in one of the nearby villages. Maribelle bought it and quickly got to work critiquing the young girl's posture, presentation and her choice of clothing of course. When Morgan turned back to where her father had just been standing, looking for a bit of help, he was already gone, not needing another earful of Maribelle's helpful suggestions for the time being.

It was all going so well until Robin crested a large dune and finally the castle was in view. An impressively malevolent sight to behold, the massive square stone structure sat atop a tall plateau, made up by rough and rocky cliff face. Surrounding that a tall stone wall encircled the plateau completely with the only entrance to the castle courtyard being from the singular gate facing south. The Castle was intimidating enough as is, but to top it off there laid a massive spire rising up from behind the wall in the courtyard. It took only a moment to realize the thing was actually a massive skull looking very draconic in nature.

Robin hadn't realized he had been holding his breath in until Chrom reached his side surprising him a bit as he began speaking "This is it..." he said, the words sounding ominous at the time.

-0-

Robin is forced to snap out of his trance as he hears the growl of a man charging him, winding up a heavy swing.

An iron longsword whistles through the air with no resistance, clothes and flesh is sliced leaving a clean wound on the swordsman who collapses just as quickly as he appeared. Robin pants heavily as it feels like he's made almost no progress towards the castle entrance at all since the battle started. The sweat rolling down his forehead collects in the corner of his eye becoming an irritating annoyance to deal with as he begins observing the battlefield.

The Plegian forces seems to consist of quick moving infantry who can navigate the desert sands easily, little armor, mostly swords and axes. Archers who line the castle walls preventing any pegasus or Feroxi from breaching the line. Wyvern served as Plegia's cavalry and flying support, currently flanking from the west and north. Everything is as he predicted for the most part, except...

"You've realized it as well, am I correct in my assumption?" a voice from beside Robin startles him back to reality

"E-excuse me?" Robin nearly jumps as he turns to meet Miriel's aloof expression.

"From the befuddled look you were just exhibiting I surmised that there must be something amiss regarding the battle. After a quick examination I believe I have come to the same conclusion as you." Miriel comments, seeming quite calm given the large-scale engagement. The only hint of any sort of hardships or exertion from her seems to be a few beads of sweat that run down her face.

Her face... Miriel's features were quite sharp from her thin feminine eyebrows, to her high cheekbones, she held a steady authoritative gaze wherever she went. While not the most conventionally pretty face, this all of this led to a quite appealing visage that was easy on the eyes, if not for her near constant frown...

Robin slowly places a hand under his chin as he continued to think deeper, perhaps a quick study of Morgan's face could reveal any sort of relation to himself. It was worth a try, he just wished he had thought of it beforehand and not in the middle of a battle... Blinking, he quickly snaps back to his senses as he realize he's been staring at Miriel for quite a bit as she's held his gaze in kind.

"While it's not the best time, I do request an explanation on what's so compelling about my face that you ceased action in a battle to stare at it for a full minute and forty-nine seconds" Miriel says not missing a beat as she realizes Robin isn't deep in thought anymore.

"A-apologies... I just developed a... erm theory" Robin mumbles back. He's not sure if Miriel's dismissive attitude is making this more or less embarrassing.

"While I'm eager to hear this theory, we should return to the topic at hand, the battle" she states and for a moment Robin can swear he notice a slight curvature to her lips, just barely something someone would consider a smile.

"Right, I just thought it odd there were no dark mages about..." he admits still observing the field. It would make sense to position some on the wall, or behind some more armored soldiers, or perhaps in a legion as support... but they're just absent. "They could all be behind the walls but that seems tactically unsound."

"Hey! Wake up you two" a woman shouts from up on a horse that begins passing them by. "You two lovebirds can have all the time you want after we're done, we've just breached the walls."

"Wha- Sully?" Robin quickly turns to see that the Shepherds have finally begun gaining ground, but how...

"Fath-errrobin... Robin!" a familiar voice chirps from behind him. "I managed to get the walls clear."

Turning, Robin is face to face with Morgan who is beaming with pride. Luckily Sully and Miriel have returned to their positions already as Morgan begins recounting. "Since you were busy, I decided to go ahead and make a few changes to your strategy, it was really good! Don't get me wrong, but since there's no mages anywhere I was able to borrow some people to help clear away those arche-"

Robin still trying to take all the information in begin speaking over her "Wait wait... when did you... I mean, good work but" he tries to find the words as he gestures loudly with his hands. He had originally placed Morgan towards the back with Lissa and Maribelle so it's a bit surprising to see her this far forward. "How?..." is all he can manage.

"Goodness father, didn't I tell you already? I learned all about tactics and how to fight and like... everything from you and mother" she smiles and sighs as she begins to envision what is most likely a happy memory.

Robin, not sure how to reply looks around before awkwardly placing a hand on her shoulder "Um... good work?" Despite the unfamiliar gesture, Morgan seems to accept it in full. "Anyways, we can't fall much further behind... so let's keep moving."

A thousand thoughts begin flying through his head as the pair pass by some slow-moving horses unable to find their footing and exhausted heavily armored soldiers.

How did she manage and adapt the strategy so well? How did he even miss her slipping out of position? He must be slipping, cracking under the pressure...

"FATHER watch out!" Morgan quickly shouts pushing him to the side.

His grip on his sword falters as both he and the weapon plummet to the ground. He manages to recover quickly just in time to see the enemy's spear embed itself into the sand of where he was once standing. "D-dammit" he mutters to himself as he goes for his sword.

Morgan has a tome pulled out and has already begun gathering energy and with a quick downward swipe of her hand the El wind spell leaps towards the soldier slicing him across the torso as if done by a blade.

By the time Robin is standing again, clothing disheveled, the deed is done causing Robin to sigh out.

-0-

The battle continues to rage for some time and it only continues to grow in Ylisse's favor as the Feroxi forces are making good use of the opening the Shepherds managed to make. Everything seems to be reaching its climax as Chrom begins to announce "Robin! Their wyvern riders have fallen! The skies are clear! I'm giving the signal!"

Robin barely has time to process this as he sees the remaining Pegasus knights of Ylisse rush towards Emmeryn's aide. At the very least it's almost over now he thinks to himself as he returns his blade to its sheath, preparing for the retreat.

It's then he notices some movement from the grounds circling the massive skull. Slowly arising through the stone and sand comes something skeletal, unliving and armed in the remains of whatever soldier had fallen there.

"...Risen?! Oh gods... Chrom! There are Risen everywhere!" Robin shouts as his plan is being upended from beneath him and he's not sure what to do.

From the balcony in the castle Gangrel's voice can just barely be heard echoing down towards everyone "Bwahaha! Oh, did an army of livin-"

Robin trying to block out the noise begins examining the situation. The Pegasus still need time to safely move Emmeryn, the skeletal archers still require some time to complete their resurrection. The time it would take to cross the castle courtyard wouldn't be suffici-

"Father I know what to do!" Morgan declares having watched her father freeze up a bit due to the unlikely circumstance. Not getting a response she decides to enact her plan with or without his permission.

"Damn, not now..." Chrom mumbles as slowly the ground begins to shake again and slowly more risen begin to appear from beneath the ground. "What? There's more!?" he curses under his breath wondering how this was happening.

Robin sensing a strange energy from behind him quickly turns away from the critical situation in front of him towards Morgan who has taken several steps away from the tactician. The girl in question looks like she's been caught committing a crime, her body is a bit hunched over as she clutches a wooden box in her hands. Her face is flushed and she's staring back at Robin a bit wide-eyed as if obvious she wasn't meant to be caught.

"H-haha...oops" is what she decides on saying as Gangrel's laughing echoes in Robin's ear.

New: So I went and revised this chapter a bit since it was the worst. At least in my opinion and according to statistics, it had the highest drop off of readers.

I wrote this chapter different from the last two, this one seemed more outlined than the others but in the end I felt like it was the worst when trying to line it up to the events of the game. Maybe Gangrel's speech went on a bit longer, maybe he talks slow. I probably could have done this better.

There's no real reason Tharja and Libra isn't in this chapter other than I didn't want to introduce someone new right after Morgan. I do have a good place to put her in though.