And now we get the first REAL battle of the series. And the first show of why I'm rating this 'M'.
Chapter 5 – The Red Canyon Offensive (Harpstring Moon)
The attack upon the bandits had begun, and the students now were in the first real fight for their lives. The bandits, an undisciplined and untrained bunch, lacked the skill of the students or Byleth's leadership, but made up for it with their tenacity and greater willingness to kill. However, that advantage was short-lived, as slowly but surely the students were getting over their reluctance to deliver death as each one slew an opponent of their own. Some like Ingrid, Lysithea, Lorenz and Ferdinand weren't all too phased by their first slain opponents, but others such as Ashe, Mercedes, Ignatz and Marianne were clearly troubled. Fortunately, they had the mental fortitude to push it aside for the sake of their classmates.
That is, all but one of them.
Linhardt fell to his knees with a look of horror as he watched his first victim collapse to the ground, blood pooling around him as a result of his Wind spell. The sight of blood had always nauseated him, but the knowledge that he had caused such a display sickened him.
"I… I killed him. What have I done? S-So much blood…" Linhardt wretched as he held his mouth with one hand, clearly about to lose his lunch.
"Linhardt, snap out of it!" shouted Annette. "We're not done here yet!"
As Annette said this, Dorothea turned to the orange-haired girl and, to her shock, saw a female bandit emerge from hiding behind a rock, bearing a crude bow with an equally crude arrow drawn, aimed right at Annette.
"Annie, behind you!" Dorothea shouted, but it was too late.
Annette could only manage a short gasp of surprise before the arrow sank into the back of her right shoulder, sending her to the ground with a scream. The girl curled up as she cried out in pain, her shrieking drawing the attention of Felix. Upon seeing the girl's peril, and the one who had inflicted her injury, Felix snarled as he darted toward the bandit as she reached for another arrow. Felix was upon her before she had cleared her quiver, and his blade went through the bandit's heart, killing her instantly.
Kicking away his latest kill, Felix turned back to Annette, who continued screaming out in agony as Dorothea rushed over to help her. Dorothea immediately checked the girl's wound, finding to her relief that nothing vital had been struck.
"Annie, calm down, please!" Dorothea said as she tried to hold Annette still. "You're going to be okay! You'll be just– Linhardt, help me out here!"
Unfortunately, Linhardt made no move to help, still catatonic from his first kill. Dorothea caught a glimpse of his eyes and saw the sheer horror in them, and realized he wasn't going to be of any help.
By this point, Felix had rushed over to Annette's side. "Annette, stop squirming!" Felix barked.
"AAAAGH! GAAHHH! IT HURTS! IT– AAAAAAAAHHHH!" Annette's screams could be heard by just about everyone in the canyon by this point.
"Just hold still!" As Felix said this, he managed to get a hold on the arrow still sticking out of Annette's shoulder and, with a harsh tug, ripped it out of her. Annette howled in pain at this, and soon was reduced to bawling almost incoherently. Dorothea was thankful the arrow hadn't been barbed, or she probably would've been screaming even louder.
"Is she going to be alright?" Dorothea asked Felix.
"She needs to have this wound sealed," Felix hissed. Then, looking up at Dorothea, he said, "What are you waiting for, woman? Heal her!"
"Me? I don't know the first thing about healing spells!"
Felix hissed at this. Then, looking at Linhardt, he rose up and shouted, "Hevring, get over here and help her!"
"So much blood… So much… urgh…" Linhardt groaned.
Snarling, Felix strode over to Linhardt and, to Dorothea's shock, kicked the green-haired boy in his side, knocking him onto his back.
"Felix, what the hell are you doing?!" Dorothea shouted.
As Linhardt gasped for breath, Felix grabbed him by the shirt and hauled him up to face him. Furious, Felix then said, "If you don't help her in five seconds, I'll–"
"Whoa, whoa, Felix! Same team!" said Sylvain as the redhead slipped in between Felix and Linhardt, separating them with a sweep of his arm.
"Sylvain, Annette's–"
"Got it covered. Look."
Felix turned and saw Mercedes had knelt next to Annette, her magic channeling into the girl's body to heal her bleeding shoulder.
"M-Mercie, it hurts…" Annette whimpered.
"Shh-shh-shh, it's okay, Annie," Mercedes said in a reassuring tone. "You're going to be okay. I'm here for you."
The sight of Mercedes treating Annette's wound caused Felix to loosen up his tense frame, but only slightly. Still angry, he turned back to Linhardt and snarled, "You have ONE job, Hevring! Stop being such a coward and do it!"
"I-I'm sorry… Really, I–"
"Could you be any more useless? Freeze up like this again and I'll–"
"Felix, that's enough!" Sylvain interrupted, far more serious than usual. "Save it for the bandits!"
Dorothea watched as Felix finally started to cool down. With a loud scoff, he wrenched himself free of Sylvain's grasp and stormed off to find more bandits to kill. Sylvain, giving Dorothea a brief shrug and a wink, chased after him.
Turning back to Annette and Mercedes, Dorothea asked, "Will she be okay?"
"Just leave it to me, Dorothea," Mercedes answered. "I've healed worse than this."
"Oh good. I'm going to go find Edie. Can you–"
"I'll get Linhardt back to camp too."
"Thank you so much."
With that, Dorothea ran off to find Edelgard.
…
Claude smirked as he fired another arrow, striking one of the bandits right in his throat. So far it was his third kill of the day, but there were still more to deal with. He looked to his side to see Lysithea blast another with an orb of dark magic while Hilda dealt another a heavy blow from her axe.
Removing her axe from her second kill, Hilda said, "Eww, gross! How does my brother do this all the time? I'm all sweaty and covered in blood!"
Snickering, Claude said, "You seem to have your priorities skewed, Hilda. Fight's not over yet."
Claude then turned to see Dorothea running onto the scene and gave the singer a small wave of his hand.
"A little lost?" Claude asked casually.
"Ah, Claude," Dorothea answered nonchalantly. "Do you know which way Edie went?"
"She went down below with Teach. Probably after the bandits' leader."
"Thanks! Don't mind me, then!"
As Dorothea broke off to run after Edelgard, Claude dropped his playful tone as he said, "Hey, wait! We haven't finished clearing them out yet!"
Unfortunately, Dorothea didn't hear what Claude had said, and turned her head to shout, "What was that?"
"I said we haven't– LOOK OUT!"
Dorothea's eyes widened as she turned back to where she was going and saw, to her shock, a previously unseen bandit swinging his axe at her. Dorothea yelped as she sprung back, narrowly avoiding a gruesome demise, but in doing so she slipped on a loose rock and fell to her back. Dorothea tried to push herself up, but the bandit was already upon her and looking for blood.
Claude immediately drew an arrow and loosed it hastily at the bandit, but he only grazed the man's shoulder. He reached for another arrow, but he knew he would be too late. Hilda and Lysithea, meanwhile, were too far away to do anything to help.
Desperate, Dorothea raised her hand to try and use a Thunder spell but knew she wouldn't finish it in time as the bandit's axe descended toward her.
To her surprise, the axe was parried by a lance as a familiar blonde prince rushed in to protect Dorothea. Dimitri immediately shoved the bandit back, throwing him off balance, and followed up by slashing his lance across the man's face, leaving a deep gouge and sending the doomed bandit spinning to the ground.
As Dorothea gasped in relief, Dimitri turned and extended a hand to her as he asked, "Are you injured?"
It was then Dimitri's turn for a surprise as Dorothea suddenly thrust her hand out and sent a bolt of lightning streaming narrowly by him. Dimitri heard another voice behind him howling out in agony and turned to see another bandit had gotten in behind him. Said bandit was now twitching violently on the ground from Dorothea's spell.
"I'd say I'm better off than him," Dorothea remarked.
With a nervous laugh, Dimitri then said, "Indeed. But please, a little warning next time?"
Dorothea smirked as Dimitri took her hand and pulled her to her feet.
"Cutting it a little close, Your Princeliness," said Claude.
"Do try not to miss next time, Claude."
"Hey, it was a cross-breeze!"
Before Dimitri could say anything to Claude's excuse, Dorothea said, "Either way, thank you for your help, Dimitri."
"Think nothing of it. I'm not about to let a classmate fall victim to these villains."
Dorothea giggled flirtatiously at this and then said, "Anyhow, I need to track down Edie and the Professor. I'll see you later, Your Highness."
Giving Dimitri a wink, Dorothea skipped off, not knowing Dimitri had been oblivious to her charms.
…
Kostas couldn't believe it. The woman standing before him was the same one who had, over one month prior, saved those three noble brats from him and his men. Now she had led those brats and their friends down to exterminate him and his band of marauders, their route of escape cut off by the Knights of Seiros.
But Kostas wasn't about to give up. He knew the Knights were underestimating him if they had sent students to kill him. He planned to make them regret such a mistake.
"So, what, now you're pals with the Knights?" Kostas snarled at Byleth. "I'll kill you and your pesky brats! I'll kill all of you!"
Byleth said nothing in response, simply assuming her stance. With reckless abandon, Kostas rushed at Byleth with his axe, swinging at her from above. The blow was easily avoided, so he followed up with a horizontal swing, but this too missed its mark. He then tried to swing at her from overhead again, but this time he was met by a swift kick to the chest from one of Byleth's shapely legs.
As he stumbled back, Kostas took another look at Byleth as she reassumed her stance. He then snickered as he ogled her and said, "You know what, mercenary? When I beat you, I won't kill you right away. I'm gonna make your noble brats watch as I fuck you to death instead!"
"Despicable…" said a commanding voice behind him.
Startled, Kostas turned around to see Edelgard brandishing her axe, too late to stop her as she swung her weapon and cleaved deep into Kostas' left shoulder.
The bandit leader howled in agony as Edelgard said, "Do you really think being born a commoner gives you the right to kill?"
She then ripped her axe from his body, letting out a gush of blood from his gaping wound. Kostas fell to his knees as he felt his life slipping away, his eyes in utter disbelief.
It was at this moment that Dorothea ran onto the scene, just as Edelgard raised her axe again for the killing blow. Dorothea winced, knowing what was going to happen next.
"The road to eternal torment awaits you," said Edelgard.
A look of sudden realization sprung upon Kostas' face. Gasping, he wheezed, "Wait, you mean you're–"
Kostas' thought, and his life, ended as Edelgard's axe separated his head from his shoulders.
Wouldn't it have been neat if Edelgard and Kostas could've had such an exchange in New Game+ (just so you don't get spoiled in NG)?