When Lucina stepped back into the clearing, she found it completely abandoned.
She frowned. That was strange. She was sure she had left Sleepy Anna right here. Where else could she have wandered off? And why?
Has she been kidnapped again? Was the first thought she had. Slowly, Lucina's eye narrowed, and her hand fell to the sword at her side.
"Anna!" she called, stepping further into the clearing. "Are you still here? You cannot be wandering off like this. Your mother says she will return in a few minutes."
"Well, ain't that convenient."
Her sword was drawn in an instant. Lucina spun around, and she came face to face with another man. Clad in light purple armor, his head nearly shaven, and a large steel axe in his hands–she immediately recognized him as the bandit who had kidnapped Anna before.
Vincent, if she recalled correctly.
Lucina held her sword between them and scowled. "You're the bandit from before."
"Ain't you a smart girlie?" Vincent sneered. "I feel so special you remembered me face. I can't even remember what I had for breakfast. And I sure ain't gonna remember you once I'm done with you."
Lucina swept her gaze over the trees around them. When her eye landed back on him, he showed no signs of trying to leave. If he'd kidnapped Anna again, then that would've made sense, given their last encounter.
Lucina's hands tightened around her sword. "Then I will have to ask you to leave. This camp is under my protection."
"I don't wanna do that. After all, I didn't come all the way here for nothing."
He had followed them all the way here? Lucina couldn't help but feel a little worried at that. That meant he was driven. It was always the driven ones she needed to put down. Devotion had, after all, destroyed her world.
"You're going to have to leave empty-handed. Even you must remember how things went last time. If we are to come to blows again, and you may not be so lucky."
"I think I'm already lucky enough. No brat to get in my way this time."
Lucina widened her stance. "Then I have no reason to hold my blows."
And her sword parted the air between them.
The bandit stepped back, just out of reach of the tip of her blade. Lucina drew it back and swiped again. Her blow glanced off the rocks below, missing Vincent by an inch.
If she still had Falchion, her first strike would have been fast enough to pierce him before he had the chance to run away. This steel sword felt too different. Too heavy. Just the weight of it swinging around and dragging it back was slowing her down.
As Vincent ducked away from a third slash, she bit back her frustration and pulled herself away.
Vincent's sneer widened. "Giving up already? And here I was, thinking you were some kind of stupid rich girlie."
He drew a steel axe from his belt. Its blade gleamed a killer white in the sun, almost invisible to the cloudy sky. He reared back and drove his axe downward.
The rocks beneath them split in two under the weight. Vincent ripped it away with a roar. Lucina hissed, jumping away as another slash nearly separated her shoulders. The third, she raised her sword to block. The axe smashed into her guard and nearly ripped her wrist from its socket.
This wasn't going to work. Not when they were both dragging around heavy weapons, and not when he was so clearly better at it than her. She couldn't hope to overpower him as much as he could hammer against her defenses. As Morgan would so often tell her, she needed a change of plans.
Lucina kicked a rock from the fireplace up into Vincent's face. The bandit snarled and swatted it aside. That still bought her enough time to put some more distance between them.
Last time they had fought, she had been forced to use a ladle as a weapon. If she was being honest, she would have preferred the ladle. The lighter weight would have freed her hands for movement. Now, however, she was stuck with what she had. She would have to adapt.
Lucina pulled her hands apart. Her sword pulled behind her, her hand held in front.
She could feel the sword drag her down. With only one hand, it would be harder to swing around. But she was strong enough to keep it held at eye level. That would do for now.
Vincent snarled. He stepped forward, raised his axe over his shoulder, and swung to the side. Lucina danced away. The axe buried itself halfway into a tree trunk. Lucina stepped forward, her sword drawn back to strike.
With a roar, Vincent tore the axe free. Lucina skittered back as the tip of the axe grazed her stomach.
"Stop running away!" Vincent said. "Take the hit like a man!"
"You first."
"Gah!" Vincent raised his axe over his head, lunged, and swung down. Lucina ducked to the right. The axe tore through the air next to her and smashed into the ground so hard, she could feel the force through her boots.
Dirt sprayed on Lucina's clothes as the bandit forced the ground to release his axe. He stumbled back, already rearing for another strike. Lucina stepped in to follow.
This close, her sword wouldn't be fast enough to draw back and strike. That was fine. After all, it wasn't her only option now.
Lucina smashed her elbow into Vincent's face. The bandit cried out and clutched his nose, and the weight of his axe, already pulled back so far, dragged him further away. It was that which saved his life, as Lucina followed through with an upward slash. The tip of her sword just barely missed his heart. Instead, it settled for catching on a strap on his armor, severing the leather in a single motion.
Vincent's back slammed into a nearby tree. He glanced between the cut strap and Lucina's sword and scowled.
Lucina flicked her sword and spread her feet into a defensive stance.
"Leave."
Vincent snarled. "I ain't leaving until I got what I came here for!"
"I told you, you're not taking anyone with you. This family is under my protection." Anna's face flashed through her mind, the firelight dancing in her red eyes as she watched the darkness, afraid.
Slowly, Vincent pushed himself off from the tree trunk. He raised his gaze to meet hers, and Lucina was startled to find so much anger burning behind his face.
"You think I'm here for them? I'm here for you."
That got her to pause. For her?
Vincent stepped forward, axe in hand. "I ain't leaving until I see your head on the ground, until I make you hurt. Until you're hurting as much as you hurt me."
Really, there was something funny about how many enemies she had made in so short a time. She had barely been in the past for a month, and already she had Emmeryn, Gregor, and now this bandit nipping at her heels. At the rate she was going, she might have to face the Grimleal nce she had somehow found a way to slight them too.
Just the thought would have frightened her, if it hadn't proved to be such a nuisance already.
I don't have time for this. Why must I waste my time on petty squabbles when I could be spending my time getting stronger and preparing for the future? she thought, clenching her teeth.
"Hurt you? I didn't even touch you," Lucina scoffed.
"You're gonna wish you did when you had the chance. I'll split your head into two halves!"
Lucina narrowed her eye, and she slowly stepped toward him. "As much as I may not like Anna, my duty is to protect her and her family. Yours will not be the blade that fails me this task."
"Is it now? I gots a few friends who don't think otherwise."
The trees rustled behind her. Like locusts, bandits emerged from the treeline, their axes glistening like stars. Lucina's teeth ground together, and she clenched her free hand into a fist as she flitted between each one. Slowly, she could feel her chances of survival drop with her heart.
She was outmatched, and unlike before, her friends were not here to save her. If she did not take her chance to escape, she would die.
And then, from the bushes, one of the bandits shoved a very familiar looking figure to the ground.
Tied up and laid out unconscious on the dirt, was Gregor.
When Vincent saw her reaction, he cackled. "One of your friends, ain't it? Don't think I didn't see you think you could run away. I ain't stupid." Vincent nodded, and one of the bandits stepped forward to press his foot against Gregor's back and raised an axe over his head. "Like I said, I ain't gonna leave empty handed. I'll have someone's head to take home, one way or another."
And now she just couldn't leave, because even if he was not her Gregor, he looked like him. Lucina could not watch him die. That was not what her father would have done, and it was not what she would do either.
So, Lucina planted her feet, raised her sword, and said, "Come on, then."
Vincent's lips peeled back, and his yellow teeth gleamed in the sunlight. "That's the spirit."
Lucina's gaze swept around her, and slowly, she realized that the other bandits had moved to surround her, encircling her and Vincent until she had nowhere left to go. No way for her to escape.
Lucina stepped to the left. Vincent did too. Step by step, they walked around the hastily made ring, surrounded by bandits hurling insults everywhere she turned.
"You're gonna get what's coming to you, girl!" a bandit hissed.
"Make a pretty pattern if you're gonna bleed out on the floor!" another screamed.
Someone leaned out and spat at her face. Lucina scowled and raised a hand to her face to shield her eyes. When she lowered them, Vincent's blade was only inches from her face.
Lucina ducked back. The axe followed. Lucina thrust out her hand and caught it by the flat with the palm of her hand. A shove was all it took to drive the heavy blade into the ground beside her.
Vincent was a savage man. A bandit and a scoundrel, he was clearly a man of very little law and very little morals. The way he fought was wild, every blow aimed to kill her without any thought in technique or efficiency. But he was not stupid. Before Lucina could counter, he jumped over and kicked her in the face.
Lucina staggered back. Her back slammed into another bandit. The bandit sneered and shoved her back, sending her tumbling to the ground. Lucina grit her teeth and steadied herself.
Vincent was already pulling back his arm for another attack. With a roar, he swung his axe across in a way that would have split her in two. Lucina could not back away. She could not avoid this.
Lucina grasped her sword with both hands and raised her sword to block. The axe smashed against her blade and twisted her hands. The sword wrenched out of her hands. Lucina tumbled to the ground.
"Don't you know? Girls shouldn't play with swords," Vincent said, and he raised his axe over his head. "Where are you gonna run now?"
Lucina clenched at the dirt and scowled. "From you? Hardly."
"Stupid to the end. We'll see how smart you are when your brain is spilled over the floor!"
Then Lucina hurled dirt into his eyes. Vincent, startled, let his axe drag him back, and he fell to the ground.
It was a dirty trick. Her father would have been displeased. But if Vincent got to fight dirty, she would too, and as he stumbled away, Lucina buried her fist into his gut.
Vincent gasped. His axe clattered to the ground. He stepped back to give himself distance, but Lucina refused to give him any space. She tore her sword out of the ground, and she swung at him.
With no weapon to block with, Vincent jumped back. Lucina followed and reversed her swing. Vincent stepped back again. His back slammed into another bandit, who shoved him forward.
Lucina felt her lips twitch up. "That's the thing. If I can't run, you can't either."
"Well," Vincent said, pushing himself off the ground, "who needs to run when you have friends?"
A part of Lucina could have laughed at the bitter irony of it as the other bandits suddenly rushed in and pinned her to the ground. As it was, she could not utter a single noise with her face pressed to the dirt.
"You're a smart girl," Vincent said over her. "Like a rat. I hate rats. You can't crush them because they think they're too smart." He raised his axe and grinned. "I shouldn't have tried to fight you. I gotta trap you like the rat you are."
Whatever response Lucina tried to muster was muffled by the dirt. Vincent's axe shone with a deadly gleam as his arms tensed.
To her right, Lucina saw Gregor stir. Slowly, at first, before his gaze fell on Vincent, and his eyes went wide.
"You!"
Vincent stopped. He glanced over at Gregor with a scowl. "Don't interrupt me, little man. I'll kill you later."
"You do not know who Gregor is?"
"If I was, I would know."
Then the axe came down. Lucina's arm snapped in half, and she bit back a scream. Vincent growled, and he lifted the handle off her.
"Dammit. I missed." He raised his axe again.
"You killed him! You killed Gregor!" Gregor roared. He thrashed furiously in the grip of the bandit holding him, and when he slammed the back of his head into the bandit's face, the bandit yelled and thrust him into the floor. Vincent only had time to let out a startled grunt before Gregor tackled him.
Nearby, Anna's wagon went up in a plume of fire, spitting shrapnel and embers over the floor. Bandits screamed, awash in the burning lashes, and as bodies flew in the air, Lucina scrambled to her feet.
Her sword lay on the ground just out of reach. Bandits scurried around in a panicked mess, and as Lucina forced her way through, one of the bandits noticed her reaching for her sword.
"Not so fast!" he growled, grabbing her by her long blue hair.
Lucina yelped as he yanked her back. He reached out to grab her by the head. Lucina, though, was quick enough to jerk her head back, smashing the back of her skull into his face. The bandit cried out and clutched his nose. He had no time to see her foot shoot toward his chest.
Lucina kicked him away, using the force to drive herself forward. She leaned down, picked up her sword, and ducked an incoming swing from a nearby bandit.
She needed to find Vincent. These were not organized soldiers. They did not rally under a single banner. They were like animals, wild and untamed. But all groups of people needed order to stay together, and like animals, bandits would flock to the strongest and the smartest.
Vincent was not smart. He was proud and stupid, taking her head on just to prove that he could. He was strong.
If she killed him, the rest would bend to her will.
The bandit who had attacked her got in her way. With a vicious grin, he brandished his axe and charged.
He was not as fast as Vincent, nor as strong. Lucina blocked his strike with her sword. She twisted her wrist, and with a shove, forced him aside. The bandit stumbled, and he turned to snarl at her before another bandit took a wild swing at her and slammed him in the back of the head, knocking him to the ground
By the time they had recovered, Lucina had already disappeared.
Where could he be? she thought, weaving her way through the panicking bandits as the smell of smoke slowly seeped through the air. He was not that close to the wagon when it went off. He could not have gotten far.
As the flames around her rose higher, Lucina saw movement behind the curait of flickering heat. Bracing herself, Lucina clutched her broken arm and jumped through just in time to find Vincent engaged in a struggle with Gregor, their blades locked against each other.
Her Gregor would have had no problem overpowering such a puny bandit.
Vincent roared and shoved Gregor back. His axe drew back, and he swung it down. Gregor jumped back, then back again as Vincent reversed his swing. The axe hurled past Vincent, swung too wide, and as Vincent staggered after the weight, Gregor pulled his sword back and lunged.
"Gregor's debt will be repaid!" he yelled as he thrust his sword for Vincent's chest.
It would have worked too, a clean, killing blow straight through his ribs, had Lucina not tried the very same thing minutes ago.
Vincent let his axe clatter to the ground. He pulled back, and Gregor's sword grazed against his armor. Vincent reached out and grabbed his arm. Before Gregor could pull away, he yanked him forward, pulled back, and smashed his skull into Gregor's face.
Gregor's nose erupted in a spray of blood. His hand flew to his face, and he staggered back. Vincent was on him in an instant. The bandit slammed a fist into the side of Gregor's head, and he flew into a nearby tree. The trunk crumpled into a shower of ash grey splinters, and burning branches scattered over the floor.
Gregor groaned, and he reached for his fallen sword. Vincent's boot broke it like a twig.
"I was feeling pretty good today," Vincent sneered. " I was gonna let you live once I'd killed that pesky girl. You changed me mind."
"Then allow me to change it again!"
Vincent didn't even have time to turn around before Lucina buried her blade into his wrist.
It had been an awful swing. Had she been able to use both hands, perhaps she would have been able to swing hard enough to cut his hand clean off.
But a cut was still a cut, and as red seeped from his hand, Vincent cried in anguish and tore his hand away. His axe clattered to the floor. He looked at her, and slowly his surprise morphed into fury.
"You!"
Lucina huffed, and she raised her sword between them. "Your fight is still with me! If you're a man of your word, finish what you began."
"Maybe I will!" Vincent growled, and he charged.
Lucina swung. Vincent ducked, and her sword sailed over her. She hadn't been expecting that. It had always been her who had been the more nimble in their fights, but as Vincent swooped into her guard, she came to the startling realization that he was, in fact, smarter than he looked.
Vincent's elbow slammed into her neck. Lucina staggered away, suddenly finding it hard to breathe. As it turned out, it also became very hard to keep hold of her sword as well. Vincent reached out and pried it from her grasp without a struggle, and Lucina found herself on the back foot.
"Finish my fight?" he laughed, punching her in the nose. "There ain't no fight to begin with." His foot slammed into her chest, and Lucina slammed against what remained of the wagon. She moved to get up. He struck her again, and the back of her head smashed into the wagon again.
"Like I said, you don't fight rats." He punched her again. Blood sprayed over the ground. "You trap them." He kicked her in the stomach. "You crush them underneath your heel."
"T–then go ahead," Lucina wheezed out, reaching up to clutch her bleeding nose. "You couldn't, even if you tried."
Vincent scowled. "Shut up!" He lunged, wrapped his hand around her neck, and began to choke her.
Lucina's hand battered weakly against his face. She dug her nails into his skin, but Vincent just grinned. He would not let up. Nothing she could do could push him away, and as dark spots danced in her vision, Lucina reached down and slammed her broken elbow against the side of the wagon.
Pain shot up her elbow. The burned wood creaked and gave away. Suddenly, there was nothing to pin her to. Lucina fell to the side. As she did, she grabbed Vincent by the collar and dragged him down with her.
Right into the path of an oncoming fireball.
"Gah!" Vincent cried out, as flames splashed against the back of his head.
Standing behind him, Lucina could just barely make out Anna's daughter with her hand outstretched.
Vincent whirled around. Lucina glanced at the back of his head. The attack had barely left a mark.
It had, however, pulled his attention away for a moment. A single, vital moment.
Lucina seized Vincent's arm and shoved him away. Suddenly, she was the one pushing him down, and she grabbed a nearby splintered plank and shattered it against the side of his face.
Vincent staggered away. Lucina pulled back for another blow, but as she swung, Vincent's eyes snapped open. His hand snapped out to catch hers.
"I'll kill you!" he screamed, and he thrust her to the floor. He raised his boot to crush her head.
Another fire spell soared past his ear. "Leave her alone!" Anna cried.
Vincent's boot punched a hole through the earth next to Lucina. Lucina jumped to her feet and drove her shoulder into Vincent. He gasped for breath and scrambled to grab her. She danced out of reach. Growling, Vincent charged to grasp at her ratty brown cloak.
Anna flung another fire spell. This one glanced off Vincent's side and set a nearby tree ablaze. He flinched. Lucina lunged back in and drove the plank up his chin. Vincent's head snapped back into a fourth fire spell that washed his bald head in fire. Lucina reared back and smashed the side of the plank into his head, and finally, he collapsed like a sack of bricks against a nearby tree–the same one Anna's daughter had blasted seconds ago, Lucina noted.
He would not be there for long. Lucina plucked the nearest sword off the ground: Gregor's sword. She raced back to his side, raised her sword above her head.
"Wait!"
Lucina paused. She glanced to her right to see Anna staring at her with wide eyes.
Was something wrong? Had she missed something?
Then she looked down again, and saw Vincent sprawled helplessly on the ground.
Oh.
Lucina roared, and she plunged her sword into Vincent's uninjured arm, slicing it clean off. Vincent screamed. Lucina scowled.
"This fight is over," she said, kicking his side. "Mercy is not a kindness I can afford to many. Consider yourself fortunate that you are not among them–."
"Get away from me!" Vincent howled.
Lucina did not expect him to find one last burst of strength, not with both his arms practically useless. And yet, somehow, he did, slammed his skull into her gut. With a strangled cry, he lunged at her one last time. Lucina's only reply was to slam her boot against his chest, sending him crashing back into the tree.
What he had hoped to accomplish with that second wind, she did not know. As it turned out, she would never know, as the tree she had knocked him against, already weakened by Anna's assault, crumpled. The top half splintered off, and as Vincent let out one last scream, Lucina watched in silence as he was buried under a mess of burning branches and twigs.
Vincent's charred body collapsed onto the scorched clearing in the middle of a group of bewildered bandits. Lucina pressed her boot over the back of his head, and as she scanned the crowd gathered before her, she cleared her throat.
"Get out of here."
A few of the bandits exchanged looks. One of the bandits, a young man with slick red hair, stepped forward.
"But there's only one of you! We don't have to listen to what you says! It's basic math!"
Lucina shrugged as well as she could with a broken arm. "That is true."
"Then let's get her!"
Lucina narrowed her eyes.
"Does this mean you want to lead them against me?" Lucina said, nudging Vincent's body with her foot. "Like he had?"
The bandit eyed her sword, then Vincent's body, and gulped.
"I'd listen to her if I were you," came a familiar voice from behind. The bandits turned around, and Lucina glanced over them to see Anna stride through them, a steel sword slung over her shoulder. She grinned as she looked around, then raised a hand to motion to the bandits.
"I'll be honest, I'm not feeling particularly nice right now," Anna said with a huff. "You burned all my wares and attacked my guards. You know who's going to have to pay for that? It ain't gonna be you guys, that's for sure. Naga, I'm sure y'all don't even have ten gold coins between you. I'd just kill you all to be done with it."
Around her, the bandits murmured nervously. Lucina glanced at her as well. Her Anna had been a fearsome warrior, so she had no doubts this Anna would be the same, but...
"But, Marth here is kinder than I am. She says you can go, and who am I to deny her request?"
When the bandits hesitated, her grin dropped. "Well, what are you waiting for? Out, all of you!"
A few of the bandits yelped in surprise, and like ducks in a pond, they disappeared back into the woods. Anna sighed the moment they were gone. She ran the tip of her sword through the dirt, before giving Lucina a look.
"Did you have to make such a big mess while I was away?"
"I–" Lucina turned to find Anna's daughter, and she glanced back to see her wilt. "Things got out of hand," she said. "I did not mean to ruin your wares. I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It ain't your fault. The most you've done is given me a call to the guild that they won't like." She paused. "That, and a day's walk to the next town."
"I see."
"I've got the other girls hiding by the river. They should be far enough to avoid any trouble." Nudging Lucina with her elbow, she grinned and said, "Hey, what do you say I fetch them, you and Anna pick up Gregor, and we can be on our merry way?"
Lucina sighed. "I'll get to it."
"Don't be like that. We've got plenty of road left 'till Ferox! The sooner we can put all this behind us, the better off we'll be."
As Lucina watched her dance away, she spared a glance back to the road behind them, to Ylisse. She wanted to agree. She truly did. But as she looked down at Vincent's body, she couldn't help but wonder if she was really leaving anything behind at all.
So, it's been a month.
A lot's happened since then. I graduated high school, got a job, and started prepping for college. I also started writing more original stuff that I may or may not be thinking of putting on Wattpad. Between all that, my awful time management skills, and the fact that I don't get a lot of feedback on this story anymore, it's sort of moved out of my head, and I haven't been able to write that much for it.
And you know what? That kinda sucks. Coming back has reminded me how much I liked the concept and the story. Court's kinda out for how well I handle the characters, but it's getting there. I really do want to be able to post more regularly, and I really do want to get this story further along because I have a plan in mind for where I want to go and where I want to end, but between juggling this and my original stories, it's a task that requires an amount of motivation that is really difficult to maintain.
I keep saying that I'll stick to a schedule, and I keep not sticking to the schedule. Clearly, that's not working, and if it's not working, something's gotta change. So, here's what I'm going to try to do: I'm going to make a server, and anyone who likes reading can join to yell at me to work on this story. Annoy me, throw virtual rocks at me, whatever. If you don't want to yell at me, then fine. If you don't want to yell at me, then fine. You can just join to listen to me talk about writing, because I like to talk about writing a lot. Maybe too much. If you like writing too, hey, why not give it a shot?
Until then, or if I don't, feel free to just yell at me in the reviews. As much as I've tried to deny it, nice reviews really do bring me a lot of motivation to get off my seat and do stuff. It really makes my day to hear someone other than me likes my stuff, and it motivates me to finish new chapters faster.
If any of you are still here and haven't been chased off by the stupid long wait times, thanks for sticking with me. Until next time, remember to take care of yourselves out there, and stay safe!
