Chapter 16 (Connor)
As the Shepherds approached the Longfort, a call came from the ramparts above the gate.
"Halt! Who goes there?!" called a woman's voice.
"In the name of House Ylisse, I seek audience with the khans!" Chrom replied.
"Not another step, my bold lad! I've lancers at the ready!"
"Hold, milady!" Frederick answered back. "We are not your enemy! Exalt Emmeryn herself sent us to discuss matters of mutual interest."
"My only interest is keeping you out of Regna Ferox, brigand!"
"B-brigand? Now see here-"
"You think you are the first 'Ylisseans' to try and cross our border? I have the authority to fell such imposters where they stand." Raimi shouted back. Something in her words seemed to get a barely contained snicker out of Noah, but he didn't say anything.
"How dare you!" Frederick snapped. "You are in the presence of Prince Chrom, the exalt's own blood!"
"Ha! Yes, indeed-and I'm the queen of Valm! You do realize impersonating royalty is a capital offense, yes? Mmm… Then perhaps we should settle this the Feroxi way. You claim to be the prince of Ylisse? Then prove it on the battlefield!"
These words seemed to tear at Chrom, who had been hoping to avoid conflict. He grit his teeth as he muttered to himself, "Emmeryn won't like this at all." The prince then called out to the Feroxi commander, "Please, good lady! If you'd just listen-"
This clearly isn't going anywhere, Connor thought as he summoned a Truthteller grenade launcher. He checked to make sure it was loaded with blinding grenades as the woman on the wall shouted, "I've heard quite enough! Attack!"
The hunter moved into action immediately, dashing off towards the left stairwell of the fort as he fired a blinding nade past the soldiers in front of him. All hell had broken loose behind him, but he couldn't worry about that now. He needed to finish his part of the plan. He released the trigger on his Truthteller right as he reached the soldiers, detonating it's grenade above the group of archers behind them. The soldiers raised their lances to meet him, but he leapt right over them and landed among the blinded archers, disarming them with several swift punches. Five down, twenty five to go.
Connor turned now to face the six soldiers he had jumped past, looks of bewilderment on their faces. "Drop your weapons and you won't be harmed," the guardian barked as he holstered his grenade launcher on his back. The soldiers moved to encircle him. "You have no weapon, why should we lay down ours?" one of them quipped with a sneer. "Because," Connor said with a grin beneath his helmet, "I don't need one to beat the shit out of you." Provoked, the soldier who had spoken jabbed forward with his lance. The guardian ducked as he grabbed the shaft of the weapon with one hand, ripping it from the soldier's. With the other hand he scooped up a handful of snow. He twirled as he rose, tossing the snow into the faces of five of the Feroxi guards and hitting the sixth in the side of the head with the butt of the lance he had stolen, knocking the man out cold.
Taking advantage of his cheap trick, the guardian planted a hard kick into the chest of the nearest soldier, toppling him. Connor then landed a left hook square in the face of a third guard, a crunch indicating he had likely broken her nose. She staggered back as the other three stepped forward. "I don't want to kill you, but that doesn't mean I won't hurt you," he said as he broke the iron point off the stolen lance. He twirled the broken lance like he would his arcstaff, getting a feel for its weight.
The lightbearer stole a quick lance past the soldiers to see how the other Shepherds were doing. They had already started making their way up the set of stairs on their side of the wall. "Sorry, don't have time to fight you anymore,'' he said as he dropped the stolen weapon and drew his 18 Kelvins sidearm, shooting each of the soldiers still standing in the foot. Nineteen left on his side.
As Connor approached the stairs, six armored knights began slowly descending towards him. He smirked as he holstered his sidearm and redrew the Truthteller from his back. One well placed grenade over the heads of the knights caused them to go blind and lose their balance, sending all six of them toppling down the stairs. "Sorry, not sorry," he laughed as he stepped over the pile of groaning armorclad Feroxi.
Just before reaching the door at the top of the stairs, Connor crouched and checked his radar. At least seven targets on the other side. He stepped back down the stairs and drew his Roar of the Bear rocket launcher, took aim at the door, and fired. The blast threw the doors off their hinges and sent the group of axe wielding fighters on the other side flying.
Connor took a quick moment to survey the situation on the top of the wall as he stepped through the doorway. The others were already engaged with the guards on their side of the wall. However, that short moment was all it took for one of the six remaining swordsmen on Connor's side to close the distance to him. The hunter dodged back, narrowly avoiding the Feroxi blade as he called the Aegis to it's true form. Connor raised the energy shield as the guard brought her sword down on it. Using his shield, the hunter pushed into the woman, with Connor delivering a swift kick to his opponents legs as she shifted them to adjust her balance from the weight. Once the guard hit the ground the lightbearer stomped on her sword hand, breaking her fingers and taking his opponent out of the fight.
Five more, Connor thought to himself. He heard the Feroxi commander shout to the other group from behind him. "Let our battle sound the truth of your words!" Her cry was his cue to finish this. Connor turned to face the other five swordsmen. Reaching out for his void light, the hunter leapt into the air and fired off his shadowshot. The tether struck the ground in front of the five remaining guards as it's void light shot outwards at them, bringing them all to their knees. With a sigh of content, he turned to watch the final duel with the Feroxi officer, just in time to see Chrom disarm her. "Then your claims were…true…" she said.
"Yeah, no shit," Noah quipped before turning to look at the hunter. "Took you long enough," he teased.
"One of me, twelve of you," Connor shot back with a grin.
After the wounded had been tended to, the Feroxi commander, whose name was apparently Raimi, approached the Shepherds. "A thousand apologies, Prince Chrom. I truly took you for brigand impostors. But no frauds could ever wage a battle as you just have! I will send word of your arrival to the capital and escort you there personally," she said.
"That would be most appreciated, thank you," Chrom replied.
Raimi then turned to Connor. "And you. You beat thirty of my best soldiers single handedly without so much as a scratch. I would love to see you fight in the arenas."
"Thank you," the hunter replied. "While I would be honored to fight in your arenas, my skills are honed for killing. Restraint is… a bit difficult to say the least."
"Hmm… Then you may wish to speak with the West Khan, Basilio. He may be able to use your skills."
"I shall keep that in mind, thank you." Connor said with a nod. Raimi nodded back, then left.
"Amazing. Her whole demeanor changed," Robin said with surprise.
"We did kinda hand their asses to them," Noah responded. Frederick sighed, likely at Noah's vulgar language, before commenting, "In Ferox, strength speaks louder than words. I should have known better than to overestimate the value of diplomacy here…"
There was a brief pause, the silence being interrupted by Lissa. "So can we get going, Chrom?"
"Please? I'm freezing," Noah added.
"Yes," the prince replied, "it's not getting any warmer."
AN: Told you there would be another chapter soon. I probably won't have another one until sometime next week however, as I'm participating in the upcoming raid race for Vow of the Disciple this weekend. I do intend to try and update this somewhat regularly, but also don't want to make any promises I might not be able to keep. Hopefully this being the longest chapter since Chapter 5 (and the second longest yet) makes up for some of the wait. I know it's still pretty short compared to what a lot of other authors do, but it's what I'm comfortable with, so it's what I'll be sticking to for the foreseeable future. Maybe one day I'll rerelease this story with some changes and more dense chapters, who knows.