AUTHOR'S NOTES: I do not apologize for the name of this chapter. In other news, I'm working full-time and so updates might be a little slower, but I'm gonna still try and update at least once a week on Tuesdays. Anyways, here's the fated Wind Tribe chapter. Instead of trying to go with the nonsense of Fuga and co. not believing Corrin's intentions by clutching the Idiot Ball, instead, mistakes are made and Fuga challenges them to a nonviolent test of ability (because "oh you killed my men. to prove your innocence, you need to kill [or at least maim] some more of my men!" doesn't make sense). Anyways, here's the 52nd installment of my 'Silent Dragons' series.
Happy Reading!

CHAPTER 52: Mr. Fuga's Wild Ride

Sing with me a song of Trials and Winds...

Fuga led them to a rather treacherous series of winding platforms. "The goal of this game is simple…" he explained, "Reach me and topple me, without falling off the platforms. The winds will beat against you and your army, and you'll be against my own tribespeople in this event. Should you topple me and my people, you will reign victorious. Should your group all fall, then it shall be counted as a defeat."

"What happens if we win?" Corrin asked, "and what happens if we lose?"

"Should you win," Fuga explained, "then you will have my tribe's support in your crusade. Should you lose… then I will allow you on your way, and perhaps test your fortitude when it is worthy of my strength. No weapons are necessary for this tournament. Only your raw strength and resilience against my winds and my people. Should you have any further questions, Princess Rinkah will be happy to tell you. She is one of the few that has won my game. When you are ready to begin, strike that gong behind you."

With this, Fuga propelled himself skyward with a powerful blast of air, and landed on a distant platform across the 'arena'. Corrin and his army immediately all turned to Rinkah.

"Okay, so basically you just need to not fall off." Rinkah explained, "I mean, it won't hurt too much since it's just sand down there, but you'll probably have to disrobe if you ever want to get it out of those hard-to-reach spots."

"Is that why you're only half-dressed?" Anna quipped.

"Actually no," Rinkah laughed, "It's because those tribespeople said my clothes were too torn and bloody from my last fight to keep wearing. Wind Tribe women are pretty stubborn about the weirdest things. Anyways… the biggest thing is to learn the patterns of the wind and use them to your advantage. It's really something you just need to see for yourself."

A couple dozen Wind Tribe men and women lined the platforms between Corrin and Fuga. Corrin and his army disarmed themselves, though none of them removed any gear, armor or clothing apart from their weapons, since the tribalists had done the same. Silas, Gunter, and Subaki dismounted as well, not wanting to risk their steeds to the whims of Fuga's gales.

"Are you ready for Mr. Fuga's Wild Ride?" Rinkah licked her lips as she lifted the mallet.

"We're ready," Corrin gulped. He glanced around at his companions to see how they felt about this. Sakura, Felicia, and Mozu looked expectedly nervous. Gunter, Kaze, Roku, Anna, and Jakob were reserved and collected. Hana, Subaki, Silas, Oboro, and Kamui were doing a few warm-up stretches before the game started, and Zenzi and Azura were taking deep, calming breaths.

"Then let's get ready to rumble!" Rinkah hit the gong, and Fuga chanted. Suddenly, fierce winds picked up and a few people staggered immediately. Fortunately no one lost their footing in the opening seconds, but the game had begun.

Among their adversaries was a younger boy who was clearly rather talented at manipulating the winds. He fired several of them off at Corrin's group, pumping his fist after successfully knocking Subaki of all people off the platform first. Hana made the mistake of finding vindication in this moment, and one of Fuga's fierce winds sent her flying. She tried using her momentum to grab the ledge of the next nearest platform, but she plunged to the ground as well, striking the ground in a small 'poof' of fine sand.

Corrin took the approach rather slowly, using caution to keep his footing. He was briefly distracted as he heard Sakura shriek as she was blown away. However, instead of falling, she was picked up so easily that she was blown clear over to the next set of platforms. Of course, with the tribalists surrounding her, they began closing in.

"I'm coming, Lady Sakura!" Corrin cocked his head to see Zenzi flip rather elegantly through the air, catching a breeze and floating on it with such grace that it almost looked like she was flying.

While Silas outlasted Anna, Mozu, and surprisingly Kaze and Roku, he was soon blown off the platforms as well. This did not sit well with Kamui, who charged in.

"I'm okay, Kamui!" Silas called out as he realized what she was doing, "don't do anything rash!"

Kamui was doing something rash, but not violent. She charged right into four tribalists and knocked them down, taking them off the platforms with her. It removed her from Fuga's game obviously, but it also took out four of the wind-churning adversaries.

Rinkah was struggling as well. While she had managed to come to Zenzi and Sakura's aid earlier, she was staggering, clearly due to her injuries.

"I've got this…" she muttered as Sakura tried to heal her, "you two stay focused. I'm gonna ride this breeze." the gusts turned around and Rinkah lunged. However, she stepped poorly (likely due to either an internal injury, or one covered by her shorts) and so wound up colliding with the wall instead of landing on the platform. Fortunately for her, her back struck the wall rather than her front, but she slumped to the ground, her head hung for now.

Sakura managed to stay safe with Zenzi's graceful protection, but when she got separated from Zenzi again, Zeni spun around to try and protect her. Instead though, Sakura collided with Roku, and both of them tumbled into the sand below.

"Are… you alright, Lady Sakura?" Roku was clearly not too comfortable with a woman (that was not Zenzi) landing on top of him like this, but he was a retainer and Sakura wa sa princess, and Roku knew enough about duty to know that helping her was important.

"I'm fine…" Sakura heaved a sigh of relief as she crawled off of him. "Th-thank you for asking."

"Mm." Roku nodded to acknowledge her, but said little more.

Azura's light-footedness got her right up to Fuga where she faced him in hand-to-hand combat. Her speed kept her well up with Fuga's pace, but Fuga's girth and body mass was nearly three times that of Azura's slender, lithe frame, and so one well-aimed strike backed by raw strength and Azura sprawled off the edge of Fuga's platform as well. She had, however, cleared a decent path to Fuga by removing a lot of the tribalists that stood between Corrin's army and Fuga, though there were still a handful of the proficient ones, including the powerful red-haired boy that had harassed them with his wind magic earlier. He identified himself to Oboro as Hayato before launching her from his platform. She tumbled off, but was roughly seized by the ankle by Gunter.

"On your feet, Hoshidan," he grunted, pulling Oboro back up. "I apologize if the save was a little rough, but I imagine it is preferable to slamming into stone."

"Right…" Oboro shook her head, conflicted between Gunter's Nohrian heritage and his militaristic no-nonsense attitude. On the other hand, he had gone out of his way to not only save her, but also protect her from harm, and had not tried to make any further point of it apart from assisting an ally. She'd worry about it later. As one of the few members of Corrin's army still engaged in Fuga's wild ride, she decided to stick with Gunter.

A surprisingly effective fighter in this kind of situation was Felicia. While Corrin had quickly learned that Felicia's grace with foodservice and preparation was mediocre at best and horrifying at worst, the pink-haired girl fought and moved with remarkable grace, especially for a woman in a frilly skirt and heels. She pivoted on her heels, suplexing a tribalist that had tried to knock her down and following up with a kick aimed squarely in another tribalist's face. The kick itself was impressive enough, but so was Felicia's flexibility, considering that for a moment her foot had been higher in the air than the crown of her head.

She was the one to confront Hayato and keep him busy as Zenzi and the others tried making it to Fuga. For a moment the winds seemed to slow.

"I've always been curious about the practicality of Nohrian attire," Hayato commented, "that certainly doesn't look like an outfit to fight in… let alone leave the bedroom in."

"And who might you be?" The battlefield was Felicia's element, much more so than household chores and activities, "

"I am Hayato Miyazaki," Hayato replied, "and the one to prevent you from reaching my Chief."

"Oh yeah?" Felicia retorted as she dodged a blast of wind and retaliated with an icy breeze from her own hands, "well I'm Felicia Kunaluk, and I'm here to stop you!"

"We shall see!" this youngster was surprisingly eloquent for someone who looked so young. He caught Felicia off-guard and blew her off the platform. However, she rescued herself in a rather unorthodox manner.

Weapons were not explicitly banned in Fuga's tournament; just that they were not to be used on other people. That said nothing about inanimate objects though. Felicia didn't realize this was the case at the time, but later found it ironic. In the meantime, she kicked up a knife hidden under one of her boots, and pulled another knife off that was strapped to her upper thigh. She stabbed these into the wall of the structure to suspend her fall before wrenching one out and stabbing it a foot or two higher. She repeated this action with her other knife, essentially "climbing the wall" with her blades until she was back up. She was just in time to watch Hayato blast Gunter and knock him into Oboro, sending both of them tumbling into the abyss. Corrin was already gone, leaving just her and Zenzi to try and stop Fuga. Fortunately, only two other tribalists remained, and they seemed to be playing an evasive game with Zenzi while Hayato bombarded her with gusts of wind.

So fixated was Hayato on Zenzi that he didn't even see Felicia get right up behind him and give him a nice push right off the ledge.

"Ha!" she laughed, still shocked at how lucky she had been, "I bet you weren't expecting THAT, now, huh?" Obviously Hayato did not reply, nor would he even if he were able to. His pride was far too wounded for that sort of thing.

Now only a few tribalists stood between Felicia, Zenzi, and Fuga. Felicia turned to her fellow pink-haired comrade.

"Y-you should confront him," she suggested, "I'll probably slip up when I least expect it and then we'd lose. I'll deal with these guys in the meantime!"

"A-are you sure?" Zenzi blushed, "you'd really sacrifice yourself for this?"

"Well it's not like we're gonna die from it, are we?" Felicia pointed out, "at worst I'll just find my head buried in the sand and have someone pull me out by the legs. Go! Go!"

Zenzi couldn't argue Felicia's point any further, because she sprinted past the remaining tribalists, who were then cut off by Felicia who kept them occupied.

"Ah, the Dancer from Hoshido…" Fuga smirked as he confronted Zenzi, "show me what you do… prove to me that your convictions are worth my support!"

Fuga was much faster than his large frame might have suggested, but Zenzi was light on her feet and had lightning reflexes and reactions times to match.

"Do let your liege know that he has formidable troops," Fuga continued his ruthless barrage of wind as he fixed his aim on Zenzi, "and that you are a talented dancer."

Instead of replying, Zenzi lunged and caught Fuga off-guard, throwing him off of his platform and into the sands below. When she realized what she had done, she gasped. Fuga got to his feet, brushed the sand off of him, and with a wave of his hands, the winds stopped.

Corrin's army had completed Fuga's challenge.

CHARACTERS RECRUITED:

Rinkah: Daughter of the Flame Tribe's chieftain, with fiery abilities and a physique to match. Passionate and powerful, she refuses to quit and will shrug off injuries until she starts feeling woozy from blood loss. While she comes off as distant and sometimes even hostile, she is actually just an introvert who appreciates solitude and fiercely maintains her own tribal traditions, disregarding many "civilized" rules. The one with the highest pain tolerance. Born on 5 February (Age 16)
Class: Oni Chieftain