Another battle that's mostly filler, but goes to show how far everyone's come so far, including our diva.
Chapter 62 – Danger in the Dark (Red Wolf Moon)
"So, let's get this straight," said Claude as the students continued their trek back toward Abyss. "Constance, your family line is descended from Saint Noa, but your family had you masquerade as having the Crest of Macuil?"
"You are correct, von Riegan," Constance said with unease. "I suspect that Saint Noa feared that revealing her Crest would have only led to tragedy. As part of our ancestors' promise to Saint Noa, House Nuvelle disallowed marriage with other houses in order to keep our bloodline pure. They also produced as few heirs as possible."
"Wait, so you mean you would've had to marry your own brother?" asked Annette. "EWW!"
The others also gave off expressions of disgust at the notion. Incest, while not outright forbidden, was considered highly distasteful in Fódlan.
"Y-Yes, I would have…" Constance answered in discomfort. "But ultimately, our family's need to keep our bloodline pure was what led to our downfall. Our priorities were, perhaps, not what they ought to have been. In sidestepping the internal strife within the Empire, we left ourselves open to the external threat posed by Dagda and Brigid. With stronger blood ties to other houses, we might have had allies in our time of greatest need."
"Okay, so, sidestepping that for now," said Claude, wanting to get back on topic. "Balthus, you carry the Major Crest of Chevalier?"
"Yep. Not something I go announcing publicly, you know," said Balthus. "I had to leave House Albrecht behind after the Church found out I had it. It would've created a big stink back home, and in my mom's home of Kupala."
"Why is that?" asked Dedue.
"See, my stepmother hates my guts, and she's obsessed with making sure my little step-bro is heir to the family name. I don't want the inheritance, but she couldn't care less; she, in her crazy mind, thinks that as long as I'm even breathing, I'm a threat to my little bro's inheritance. It's part of the reason why I live down in Abyss, aside from all the bounty hunters after my head."
"Oh, Baltie…" Hilda said sympathetically.
"Me, I dunno how I ended up with the Crest of Timotheos," said Hapi. "But it's brought me nothing but trouble."
"Wait, so your Crest is what makes you summon monsters when you sigh?" asked Leonie.
"It wasn't always like that, not when I was a kid. I ran away from home when I was about nine and then got scooped up by a woman in Faerghus. She said she'd feed me and give me a roof, and she did, but she also subjected me to all kinds of… horrible experiments and stuff. As a result, I ended up with my sighing problem. No one's been able to fix it."
"Oh Hapi, that's terrible," said Mercedes. "Who would do such a thing to you?"
"I never learned the woman's name. She always kept it a secret from me. All I can really remember is her voice… and that she had bigger tits than Chatterbox."
This comment left a lot of the others flustered, amused, confused, or weirded out. Byleth was blushing at Hapi making another mention of her enormous chest.
"That's… an awfully specific detail to remember," Ashe said with a blush.
"Hey, not my fault she liked to flaunt them all the time."
"I suppose I'm last on the list," said Yuri. "I've got the Major Crest of Aubin. Never did sort out how I have this thing."
"So, the four Crests, which were presumed lost, have all been gathered into the same house," said Edelgard. "How curious."
"All thanks to our buddy Aelfric, it would seem," said Claude.
"Yeah, we owe Elfie a lot," said Hapi.
"He's the one who set up the Ashen Wolf House, right?" asked Caspar. "Sounds like a heck of guy."
"He is," said Yuri. "Like Hapi said, we owe him a great deal." Then, turning to Byleth, "If I recall correctly, he's a friend of your parents, right?"
"Yes, he is," said Byleth. "He and my father have known each other for a long time."
"Have you known Aelfric that long too, Anna?" asked Dorothea.
"Me? Nah, only for a few months now," said Anna. "I might've seen him in passing before then, but we never really spoke until I set up shop at Garreg Mach."
"So, you haven't even known the Ashen Wolves for that long?" asked Ingrid.
"Longer than the rest of you, that's for sure. But I could tell when I met you all that you were good kids, if a little… weird in some ways."
The Ashen Wolves did not comment on Anna's choice of words.
The students soon reached a large chamber with a large array of broken pillars, decaying crates, and other debris scattered about the area. They knew they were on the right track thanks to some wall markings they had left on their way down, and the room was a familiar sight. They would be back in Abyss in less than an hour at their pace.
But as they were about to move on, Felix noticed that some of the debris had been moved out of place. A few broken boards, which had been leaning upright before, had fallen over, as though pushed by someone.
"Hold on," said Felix.
"What is it, Felix?" asked Dorothea as the students stopped.
"Someone else has been here. I don't think we're alone."
"What are you talking about, Felix?" said Sylvain. "No one else knows we're down here. Who would–"
The sound of a creaking board caught their attention.
"Ah! What was that?!" Bernadetta squeaked in fright.
Looking around, Byleth scanned their surroundings for any signs of movement. The others did the same, but the chamber was dark and only their torches were providing any illumination.
Then, Dorothea saw something moving behind an old crumbling statue. For a moment she thought it could've just been a rat, but she caught sight of the familiar glint of a steel weapon.
"Over there!" the singer shouted as she readied her magic.
She raised her left arm over her head and released a ball of light to illuminate the darkness. As the chamber was lit up, the others could now see far more silhouettes hiding from them.
The students immediately drew their weapons and readied their spells as Dimitri shouted, "Show yourselves! We know you are hiding from us!"
The students watched as a group of no fewer than fifty well-armed bandits emerged from hiding and began to take positions. The students were at least outnumbered two-to-one.
"Just like the boss said, they came back," said one of the bandits.
"So, you brats found the treasure-majig?" another one said stupidly. "Treasure-thingy? Whatever it's called! Doesn't matter. Hand it over!"
"These brutes are discussing treasure…" Constance muttered under her breath. "How much can they have surmised?"
Another bandit stepped out, this one looking to be the leader, and said, "No need for them to just hand it over. We'll take it and anything else valuable from them when they're dead."
"Hehehe, sounds good to me!" shouted another bandit.
The other bandits cheered as they began their attack, a disorganized mob that simply rushed in to overpower the students through numerical superiority.
Byleth's response was immediate as she shouted, "Defensive positions!"
The students, despite being tired from fighting the Golems, moved swiftly to their positions, with shields and lances in front to meet the incoming attackers. The archers moved behind the melee fighters as they raised their bows and fired at the approaching bandits, downing several in the first volley. The mages followed up with their spells, each one striking home and eliminating another threat. Thanks to the bandits' carelessness, more than ten of them were dead before the first one even reached the defensive line.
Then the bandits' own archers raised their bows and fired, but their marksmanship was unimpressive, missing their marks or otherwise bouncing off armor or wards. The first bandits who met the students in melee combat were quickly cut down by the lances, swords and axes of the students. However, the sheer number of bandits compared to the students led to some getting through the defensive line, forcing the archers and mages to defend themselves.
Dorothea already had Joyeuse drawn when a bandit rushed her with an axe. She avoided the clumsy swing and thrust the blade at the man's chest. He let out a howl of pain as he was skewered by the tip, but Dorothea's strike had not hit him a vital place and had barely breached the skin. As she pulled her blade back, he roared angrily as he took another swing at the surprised diva. She barely blocked the strike but yelped as she was knocked back. The bandit made another charge at her, only to have a Wind spell from Annette blast him away. Dorothea had no time to thank the diminutive mage before another bandit, this one with a damaged steel sword, thrust his blade at her. Dorothea dodged to the side and slashed, her blade hitting him in the shoulder. However, Joyeuse was not designed for cutting through flesh with its blade, so the wound Dorothea inflicted was shallow. It was enough, however, to stall the bandit's attack.
"You're gonna pay for that, missie," snarled the bandit. "I'm gonna make you pay with that sweet, sweet body of yours!"
The bandit took several swings at Dorothea. She parried each strike but knew she couldn't keep it up for long. Then the bandit, frustrated by her blocks, raised his blade and left himself wide open. Dorothea took the chance and made a hard thrust, impaling the bandit through his heart. The bandit let out a loud cry of agony, dropping his weapon as Dorothea struggled to pull her blade out of his chest. As she removed Joyeuse from him, the bandit fell back to the ground, dead.
For a second, Dorothea looked around at the chaos surrounding her before she heard Byleth shout, "Dorothea, on your left!"
Dorothea whipped around to see a knife-wielding bandit rushing at Mercedes, whose back was turned as she tried to heal Hapi after the dark-skinned girl had taken an arrow to her right leg. Immediately, Dorothea swung Joyeuse at the bandit and sliced through his throat with the tip of her blade, sending him toppling to the ground just inches behind Mercedes.
Before Dorothea could do anything else, she cried out as another bandit tackled her, sending her to the ground on her back as she lost her grip on Joyeuse. Dorothea struggled with the bandit as he tried to drive a knife into her collarbone.
"Get off me!" Dorothea cried out. "Let me go, you– AAH!"
At that moment, Yuri's blade went right through the back of the bandit's skull and out his mouth, getting some blood on Dorothea's face. The bandit's knife slipped from his grasp and clattered to the floor harmlessly. Dorothea frantically pushed the bandit off her as he slumped dead to the ground and then looked at Yuri.
"You alright, songbird?" Yuri asked her.
"T-Thanks for the save, Yurikins," Dorothea said in relief.
"Hey, save the cutesy names for after we get out of this mess."
As he said this, Yuri moved his foot underneath Joyeuse, kicked it up into the air and caught it before handing it to Dorothea, who immediately took back her Mythril blade as she got up.
At that moment, Byleth cut through two more bandits with a single slash of her whip sword before retracting it and blocking two strikes from another sword-wielder. She countered by lopping off the man's right arm and, as he screamed in shock at losing a limb, she stepped forward and slashed through the back of the man's spine, killing him instantly. She looked around to see that, in the span of a few minutes, the students had already wiped out most of the bandits.
Despite the situation, she couldn't help but smile a little in pride at this. She was particularly proud of Dorothea, who had unknowingly saved Mercedes from certain death. Byleth had been forced to rewind time after Dorothea's second kill slipped past her and stabbed the blonde healer in the back. Byleth wasn't able to stop the thief directly, as she had been forced to handle another four that would've hit their flank. She had to trust that Dorothea would intercept Mercedes' killer, and her trust had been rewarded.
The bandit leader, seeing his men being handled easily by the students, snarled for a moment before realizing that Anna, who was now wielding a silver dagger, was dashing at him. The bandit drew his blade and blocked before stepping back to ready himself.
Anna's face lit up as she saw the bandit leader was wielding a familiar wavy gold blade.
"Ooh, nice sword!" she said. "Mind if I have a look at it?"
The bandit leader roared as he swung his Levin Sword at Anna, who easily avoided the strike and then rushed forward to drive her dagger in between the man's ribs. The bandit leader let out a groan as one of his lungs was pierced, while Anna deftly took hold of the Levin Sword with her right hand before pushing the bandit leader away to perish on the floor.
Anna immediately began to inspect the weapon. "Lucky me!" she said. "And it's in good shape, too! Thanks for the business~"
As the merchant turned back to the battle, she was surprised to see the students had already routed the last of the bandits. Amazingly, the battle had only taken around five minutes, and all of the bandits were dead or soon to perish, while the students again had suffered no casualties. Raphael had the worst injury, having taken a shallow blow from an axe to his shoulder, but he was already being healed by Linhardt, who was groaning in disgust at the blood. Otherwise, most of the injuries were some cuts and bruises.
"Is everyone alright?" called out Dimitri.
"It appears that was the last of them," said Lorenz. "But what were these vagabonds doing here in any event?"
"A good question," said Hubert. "They seemed to know we passed through this area, and they knew of our objective."
"We should get back to Abyss as soon as possible," said Edelgard. "We can ponder on it later."
"No arguments from me," said Yuri. "Come on, let's get outta here."
Warily, the students kept their weapons drawn as they continued their march back to Abyss.
Yeah, sorry I had one of the bandits make another rape threat, but hey, they're nameless bandits. And they're all dead now.
This chapter, much like the in-game one, might seem like filler, but it also shows how much Byleth trusts Dorothea.
Also, did I reveal too much too early about the Ashen Wolves (i.e. Hapi's curse background)? I know Linhardt is supposed to reveal the names of the Apostles, but I didn't really want to copy that part, so I decided to be original.
And yeah, Anna got a new Levin Sword. Yay!