"So, this is the power of the Heroes' Relic from House Gautier?"
Hubert's voice is slight, slithering and diabolical despite coming from a somewhat brutishly large form in a dark cloak befitting a reaper.
He stood beside his liege, Edelgard, in the small fortification of pillars atop the southwestern hill. Together they watch the Lance of Ruin cut through the sky and rain terror down upon Leonie, Ferdinand and Dorothea.
Edelgard has her pale purple gaze focused on the attack, and brushes the white hair from her face with her right hand as the left leans against her downturned axe as though it were a walking stick.
"It's certainly impressive… Though I don't like seeing that kind of energy being wrought against our troops." She briefly glances up at Hubert. "We'll need to balance the scales going forward by finishing that little project of ours."
"Indeed."
Hubert ducks his head down slightly and closes his eyes.
When he begins to hum thoughtfully, Edelgard gives her attention more properly.
"I can't imagine that depth of thought will be healthy for our enemies, Hubert."
"I'm just thinking…" He turns his body to face Edelgard completely and folds both arms behind his back. As if trying to keep their conversation a secret, he leans in so he can speak more quietly by her ear.
"It will obviously do us well to have firepower to match theirs. But what if we put an extra finger on the scale next time?"
"I'm listening."
"Think about it, Lady Edelgard. The might of our Relic would be all the more devastating if we orchestrated our opponents into weakening one another before we need lay the first blow."
"And it would spare us from suffering a blunt of casualties."
As Edelgard begins to play along with the idea, Hubert grows a wicked grin. The Adrestian Heiress can't help but smile warmly in return.
"Devilish as always, Hubert." She taps the metal end of her axe against the stone floor of the open-air structure. "I'll keep the idea in mind for the future."
"Of course," he replies with an icy chuckle. "Only the best for—"
Before Hubert can finish, a whirring discus of air flies past his head and collides into one of the fortification's pillars. The Black Eagles' leader and her vassal gasp as they turn their attention to the wooden walls dotting the hill's northern approach.
In the distance they can see a tiny redhead and a much larger, shapelier blonde poking their heads out.
"Defiant brats." Hubert growls as he raises his right hand, fingers curled inward like jagged claws.
A wispy purple energy amasses between his fingers, which he launches with an aggressive conviction. The aptly named Banshee spell screeches like a pained wail as it flies through the air toward Annette and Mercedes. Both girls manage to duck behind cover before his dark magic explodes against the ground nearby.
"Nice shot," Edelgard lightly teases.
He runs a hand through his oily black hair and immediately begins charging another attack.
Deep within the sparse woods in the southeast corner of the battlefield, the Golden Deer's resident gentle-giant-turned-roaring-tank slams down his silvery gauntlets.
They just miss his fleet-footed target, a backpedaling Felix with his sword drawn and ropes of hair falling in his face. But the impact of the powerhouse's attack shakes the ground and leaves a small crater in its wake.
"That the best you got, Raphael?" Felix chastises with a hiss, though it was clearly overcompensating for his growing pant.
"Nah, don't worry." Raphael was a mostly genial-looking scruffy blond whose shirt buttons seemed ready to burst as they held back a brick wall. But in that moment, he grins with some malicious pleasure. "We're just getting started."
As the mountainous man advances, he throws punches at Felix.
The Blue Lion's swordsman is successful at jumping out of the way of the spiked knuckles, in spite of the gnarled tree roots that threatened to trip him at any moment.
"Bring it on, I can hunt deer like you any day."
Felix ducks and crouches against the ground to avoid a sidewinder he sees Raphael gearing up. Raphael's swing leaves him momentarily off-balance.
"And boy am I going to enjoy knocking the stuffing out of you."
With that quip, Felix jolts forward and rams his shoulder into Raphael's stomach. The large man stumbles backward and nearly falls. However, Felix doesn't let up. He follows through by cutting a diagonal swipe across Raphael's chest —leaving a minor cut while surprising the warrior enough to send him sprawling onto his back.
There's barely a moment for Felix to revel in his victory, as an arrow flies from a nearby bush and jams into his left thigh.
"Gah!" Felix yelps with a gnash of his teeth as he drops to his knees. "Not this shit again…"
As the Fraldarius Heir clutches the cloth around his new wound, he looks toward the source of the projectile. He knew another was coming soon, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
But luckily, he didn't have to.
Ignatz, a somewhat feminine boy who usually has a wide-eyed splendor for the arts behind his rounded spectacles, is sent flying out of the bush. He lands on the ground with a hard thud and loses his bow. Just behind him comes the imposing metal mass of Dedue; fresh off a shield charge.
Dimitri's vassal rests his large boot on Ignatz' back to keep him down as the boy attempts to stand up again.
"I wouldn't advise that," Dedue says calmly. "The game is over for you, Ignatz."
"Drat…" The downed boy with mint green hair mumbles into the dirt.
Felix looks up at Dedue and nods appreciatively. He receives a similar gesture in turn, though with a fair amount of concern for the bloody arrow puncture.
Yet the swordsman has no interest in addressing the wound.
"You're up," he calls into the tree line. "Time to show them your worst, Boar Prince."
Dimitri runs out of hiding and quickly makes his way through the battleground, intent on finding the head of the Golden Deer house. His lance was gripped hard enough to give the prince white knuckles.
After a few moments of wandering the thin woods and finding nothing, Dimitri is suddenly stopped in his tracks by a smoke ball that explodes at his feet.
The thick gas quickly envelops him, leaving Dimitri coughing as he stumbles into the open air with his left hand waving in front of his face.
As he looks up, he'd see Claude flash a shit-eating grin from atop a high branch.
"Well? Whatcha think?" The Golden Deer house leader asks with a brief laugh. "Pretty effective distraction, eh?"
"It's a cheap trick Claude," Dimitri somehow manages to get out between coughs.
"All's fair in love and war, Your Royalness."
Claude leaps down and lands gracefully on both feet, then holds his arms out.
"I think the real cheap trick was you stealing our cleric away just before this big battle." He crosses his arms and puts on more of a serious expression… That only lasts about a second before he starts rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Though it was an awfully devious, shrewd strategy on behalf of you and Teach. I'm kinda impressed!"
"You say that like it was our decision," Dimitri retorts as he finally starts breathing normally again. "Marianne wanted to change houses. She approached us first."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, Dimi." Claude rolls his eyes. "Just be glad Lysithea has a good grasp of healing magic or I would be way more pissed right now."
Claude takes a step back so he can draw his bow.
"Let's just get this over with, shall we? Gotta catch up to Hilda for our plan."
Now back with his full faculties, Dimitri smiles and aims his lance toward Claude's neck.
"I will happily face you, here and now. Do not hold back, Claude!"
The Golden Deer's pigtailed second-in-command held true to their plan. She was on her own near the top of the Black Eagles' hill, watching as Hubert, Annette and Mercedes trade off magical blasts of energy.
She was awfully lucky for that distraction. It would have been easy to notice her bright pink hair against the green landscape otherwise.
In fact, she'd have to thank Sylvain for giving her the perfect cover to slip past Ferdinand and Dorothea as well.
But that was neither here nor there.
Hilda knew what she had to do, and for once she was excited to take action.
The girl twirls her axe in the air a few times before holding it up over her shoulder, ready to strike down. She runs at Edelgard's back. It was time to finish this battle once and for all.
"Surprise!" She cries out with a jubilant laugh.
Edelgard and Hubert both turn their attentions toward her, but it was almost too late for them to do anything about their unexpected guest.
However it was not too late for Petra, who appeared seemingly out of nowhere to cut off Hilda's path and block her strike with a well-placed sword.
"What…" Hilda manages as she struggles to push her axe closer to the maroon-haired girl with a downward-facing arrow tattoo under her right eye.
"Is it common for Fódlan people to announce their surprising attacks before they are surprises?" The foreign princess asks in characteristically broken speech. "In Brigid we are preferring a truly stealthy approach!"
Edelgard smirks as she watches Petra and Hilda pull away from each other to start trading sword and axe swings one at a time.
"I knew there was a reason we kept her close by," she remarks.
The girl's thoughts are interrupted as Hubert cries out in pain. She looks over to find him recoiling from a direct hit to his shoulder and frowns.
"Hubert?"
He shakes his head quickly and straightens out, clearly putting back on his usual façade of normalcy to assure her everything was all right.
"Do not worry about me Lady Edelgard. I'm going to exterminate these pests directly."
While her concern is palpable, there isn't much Edelgard can do before Hubert disappears. Once he set his mind to something he believed would benefit the cause, there was no stopping him.
His disappearance leaves the Adrestian Heiress alone, however. Originally the plan had been for her to stay back and keep the contest from ending — much like a king in chess.
But as she glanced between the small-scale battles that Petra and Hubert were taking part in, she couldn't help but feel something more hands-on would be beneficial.
At the very least, she couldn't help but want to learn from them.
"Blue Lions scouts to the north… Golden Deer scout to the south…" She crosses her arms and breathes deep through her nose. "Big distracting affairs really do make it easier to slip forces past the front lines, don't they?"
Before she can muse on the idea for too long, Edelgard hears a sharp whistle. Her skin tingles as she looks toward the eastern face of the hill.
Unbeknown to her, a large group of students from the Blue Lions and Golden Deer house had been lining up all around the perimeter of the fort.
She was surrounded.
Though it was Claude who whistled, he was disarmed behind a serious-faced Dimitri. Yet Edelgard's attention was drawn more to Byleth, who stood beside his house leader. The instructor was pushing Dorothea along while holding the girl's arm behind her back.
"Sorry Edie…" Dorothea says before turning her glum look to the floor. "We did our best."
Edelgard scoffs and shakes her head, arms folded.
"Dimitri. Professor. Come to pay me a visit then, have you?"
"We've come to win this game once and for all," Dimitri calls back to her. When he raises his lance, the other members of his army follow suit.
"You truly think this is just a game?" Edelgard asks with slightly widened eyes.
He doesn't respond, but she can see the victorious conviction in the prince's eyes. Even the stone-faced Professor Byleth had a vaguely perceptible smirk.
As the girl's pale eyes scan across the line of warriors, she knew she was done for. Arrows were drawn, swords were pointed… Even that soft girl Flayn had some kind of magic spell prepared.
"Your silence speaks volumes, Dimitri."
"Let's just say I remember how our last mock battle went, Edelgard."
She closes her eyes. This had been two loses in a row for the Black Eagles house. Edelgard's gut lurches at the thought, but she knew there was nothing to be done.
"As do I," she says softly.
After that she turns toward the clashing girls nearby.
"Petra!"
Then she looks down the hill where magic spells continued to fly.
"Hubert!"
On her call, all of the fighting ceased. She picks up her axe with one hand and tosses it aside. The gesture confuses everyone at first, and more weapons are lowered.
"A good general knows when she has been bested fair and square."
With that, the Black Eagles' house leader wanders out of her fortified location. She approaches Byleth and Dimitri, who stand at calm attention despite Sylvain and Felix around them cautiously raising their weapons toward her.
"The Blue Lions win. You can let my friend go now."
Byleth lets go of Dorothea. She starts to rub her arm with a slight whimper.
"Savor this victory now, friends." Edelgard begins walking again, right past Byleth and Dimitri.
They step aside, as it was quite clear she had no intention to stop and would have pushed them away. Before she gets too far away she offers a sharp, serious glance back at Dimitri over her shoulder.
"Next time, it will not come so easily."