Chapter Five: Young Warriors
Paperwork was never Soren's favorite thing in the world, and he felt he was completely justified in his dislike of it. One might think that he would enjoy it; it was somewhat similar to creating new strategies to use in battle, and Soren would freely admit that, but even still, they would be wrong. Creating plans made him think; figure out where, when, and how the enemy would be in a position, and he would easily be able to forge a plan to destroy them. But sitting still for hours, writing numbers and doing the necessary equations to calculate funds and the like, was not the same.
It didn't help that he was the only one who would do any paperwork for almost the next year, now that Greil was dead.
He laid his quill down and rubbed at his eyes. Allowing Commander Greil to die was not a decision he had made lightly; he had considered every possible scenario, every possible outcome in the future, and he had not come up with a single one that ended better than Before. Say Greil somehow survived his battle with the Black Knight, and he made it safely to Zarzi with the rest of the company; Greil couldn't beat the Black Knight, of that Soren was certain, and, had his father survived, Ike would not have the drive or the want to take the Knight down. And who was to say that Greil wouldn't die not too long after that day regardless of what Soren did?
In short: he saw no way having Greil live would benefit the future. And that's what he was there for; fixing the future. He still hated that he'd had to make that decision—Greil was a very important person to both the company and Ike himself—but it was completely necessary, or so he told himself.
Ike had taken his father's death as expected; unflinching, unwavering, never showing even a hint of sorrow. The blue-haired young man himself had expressed his confusion over his seemingly inability to grieve the death of his father, but he had yet to find an answer over the approximately thirty hours since.
The rest of the company—sans Soren, who saw no reason to grieve a man's death twice—was also grieving the death of their commander, each in their own way. Mist kicked up her staff training to the next level, having spent the last twelve hours with Rhys, learning from the well-experienced healer. Rolf was somewhat similar, only he practiced alone due to the absence of his mentor.
He wasn't quite sure where some of the others were—Boyd, Oscar, and Mia, in particular—but he did know where Ike, Titania, and Ilyana were. Ilyana was with the merchants, doing whatever she did there; Ike was still asleep, and if he couldn't grieve he would still need his sleep; and Titania was in her room, shifting through her and Commander Greil's things to make sure she could carry both. She wasn't taking it very well, but, Soren supposed, that was to be expected.
Turning his mind back to the paperwork, he found himself left with only the contracts of the newest members—Mia and Ilyana—to write up. The first thing he had done upon waking had been the after-action report of the previous battle; it was a very important piece, after all, then he'd reviewed their finances. He'd had to add some additional notes to their standard shopping list—mostly specialized weapons; halberds and the like—but other than that, he'd only needed to make minor mathematical corrections to what they'd been using.
The merchant troupe that came with Ilyana made acquiring supplies extremely easy. It was made even easier when Titania offered them protection from the forces of Daein. They'd gotten very good prices from the merchants, and those had gone down when Soren informed them that, if they stayed with the mercenaries for a while, they would likely be the main seller that the entire company would go to for anything they needed.
He had also given them some money that he was fairly sure that he hadn't needed to, but it made the deal sweeter for the merchants; the mercenaries had gotten a fair sum of gold from the fort they'd searched after the battle at the border, so it didn't affect their finances in any way.
With a flick of the quill, he penned in the last letter of paperwork, setting it out to dry with a satisfied smile on his face. Soren didn't enjoy paperwork; but the feeling when he was done with several hours worth of paperwork? That he enjoyed.
He leaned back in his seat and let his gaze wander around the room. He had taken up residence in what was intended to be the fort commander's office, laying out all of his personal notes and the company's important documents. When he'd first arrived in the room there had been very little there in terms of papers and the like, just a large map of Gallia on the wall facing the door, so he was glad that he'd brought his own.
The furnishings were incredibly barebones; only a desk with a chair, and a couple of low bookshelves to the left of the door. Not very usable, in Soren's opinion. He would certainly have never used the office under normal circumstances; there simply wasn't enough room for him to work. It didn't help that the desk wasn't the largest he'd ever seen, forcing him to stack his papers on top of each other just to move on to the next one.
But it was mostly clean. He'd only had to do a small amount of dusting before sitting down, so he would take that as a small win. While it was quite easy to tell that no one had used the castle in a number of years, due to the amount of dust he'd had to clear and lack of edibles, someone had certainly been handling the upkeep during that time; as evidenced by the wood stacked in the woodshed and the lack of decay in any of the wooden objects in the castle.
With all of the paperwork finished, Soren picked up all the dried papers and placed them neatly in a special, waterproof section of his bag, leaving out only the ones that needed to dry and those he would need to show to Ike at some point later in the day.
He rose from his seat and stretched his arms over his head, sighing in relief as he moved his way to the door with his papers. He had been sitting at that desk for hours, more than he had counted, and simply being back on his feet was a relief in and of itself.
Most of the fort was unoccupied, something Soren bore witness to as he walked his way to the room they had declared the mess hall. With everyone off doing their own thing, he passed only Mia in the halls; the purple-haired girl walked towards the entrance of the castle—where the training dummies were situated—with a spring in her step, a smile on her face, and her sword over her shoulder. She hadn't really known Commander Greil, so she was more or less unaffected by the man's death, only being slightly saddened, as anyone would when someone they didn't know very well died.
As he entered the mess hall, Ike fell into step beside him, the other young man running a hand through his unkept blue hair as he did so. It was clear he had woken from sleep moments before, and was likely on his way to have his first meal of the way.
Soren decided that, even though he had several sheets of paperwork that he had to pass by Ike, he would wait and allow the young commander to eat and revive himself before he did so.
At some point before they had gotten there, food had been set upon the large table in the center of the room, and, when the two slid down onto opposite sides of it, the blue-haired young man immediately set upon it like a ravenous wolf. Soren, on the other hand, arranged his papers down on the table and looked over them one more time before he showed them to Ike, ensuring that he had made no mistakes anywhere—not that Ike would know if he did.
Once Ike finished his meal, washing it down with a large glass of cold water, Soren looked up from his papers. "Good morning, Ike," he said, re-stacking them in order as he did so.
"Soren," Ike yawned.
"I have some things I'd like for you to look over, if you have the time." Soren gestured his hand over to his side where he'd neatly stacked his reports.
The commander looked up from the table, doubtlessly sensing the business-like manner that Soren had taken. "What is it?" he said, taking one of the documents that Soren slid across the table.
"I have written up a number of things that are important to the future of you leading this company; expenses, contracts, the current status of our men, etcetera."
Ike's brow furrowed. "Yet another part of a commander's job, I see. Understood."
"Now, I don't expect that you will understand most of this right now, but that's what I'm here for," Soren informed his companion. "If you wish, I can do the majority of this work, and you will barely see any of it."
"No, no. So far I'm getting most of it." He was only finished with the first two pages. "What I can see is very good work, keep it up."
"I can also give you any necessary reports after any battles we face," Soren continued. "That should help."
"Ah, thank you." Ike smiled gratefully, taking his eyes off of the paper.
They sat in silence as Ike read the rest of the documents, Soren taking each one after the commander was done with them and creating a neat stack that he would later scoop up and place into a secure pocket in his bag. There were a couple of times when Ike frowned and seemed to re-read a section several times, but eventually he finished all of them and met Soren's eyes.
"Soren, I would like for you to continue doing this, if you would. This has definitely helped with my understanding of what goes on in the background with this company, and I would like to keep relying on these reports for a while."
The mage nodded. There were many little details that Ike needed to take in, and, if what he told Soren Before, Ike was very much overwhelmed when he took over the company. Ike had also told him that his reports—and Titania's guidance—had made life as a commander much easier than it could have been.
"I only have one question," Ike stated. "How long did this take?"
A strange question, but one that Soren supposed made sense. He frowned and directed his thoughts back to when he'd started. "A few hours, I think."
"And when did you wake up?"
"Not too long before that, why?" the mage asked, tilting his head to the side. Again with the strange questions; Soren didn't remember Ike asking such questions Before, but it had also been several years ago and not something he had been sure to particularly remember.
"Soren, as much as I appreciate that you did this for me, you really shouldn't be depriving yourself of so much sleep just for my sake."
"It's nothing," Soren said. So that's what he was on about. It really was nothing to be concerned about; he had run off of nearly no sleep for months at a time, during either of the two wars that he had been a part of, and losing a couple hours for the sake of making Ike's life easier was well worth it, in his opinion. Besides, it wasn't as if he had actually gotten any sleep the night before, opting instead to utilize the magical substitute he had discovered not too long before.
"No, it's not nothing," Ike stated vehemently. "I need you at your best when we go into combat, and can you really do that when you're losing so much sleep over making these reports." He flicked his finger at one of the sheets.
A nice thought, but it was flawed in that it assumed he would be getting any sleep anyway. But he might as well humor Ike and at least try to get sleep. "All right," Soren conceded. "I'll try to get more sleep." He intentionally worded it so that he would try, as opposed to do. He knew the odds of him getting sleep at all were slim, but he supposed he would take what he could get, even if he would be plagued by nightmares the entire time.
Ike smiled gratefully and rose from his seat. "Thank you, Soren. Now, how about we get some training in before we leave?"
"We're leaving today?" Soren asked, picking up his papers following Ike back out the door.
"Yes. In a few hours, most likely," Ike said. "I think we've," he sighed heavily, "spent enough time here." He seemed to want to leave the castle for reasons other than simply the waste of time, but that was his business, not Soren's.
Soren nodded and the two went on, splitting up at the first hall they passed. The mage had no wish to train—he was already far too experienced to get anything out of training with the tomes that he had—and instead opted to head back to his room and store his things for travel.
It didn't take as long as he thought it would; he had not removed many items from his bag, and the only thing that took even a few minutes to re-pack were his reports, which he still managed to quickly place in their home. Most of what he had removed were books, and those easily slid back into their respective places, secure in his bag.
A thought crossed his mind that he should probably check on the rest of the company and pass along the word of their upcoming departure, so, bag in hand, he exited his room once more, heading in the direction he thought was most likely to lead him to the other mercenaries—towards the front gate.
Ike had said he would be training, so it stood to reason that he would tell those similarly training about their departure. That was why, when he left his room, Soren stopped in several locations to check if there were mercenaries.
As he moved past, he dropped by Titania's room for a minute and informed her of Ike's newly-made plans, but he quickly left her to do whatever she had been doing before he arrived.
He didn't find any of the other mercenaries no matter how hard he searched the castle, and eventually he found himself outside, walking towards where the training dummies lay. He knew at least Ike was there, so, if nothing else, he could ask the commander if he knew where everybody else was.
But, to his surprise, when he arrived at the training grounds, he found just about every mercenary there, each practicing their forms in their own way. The only ones missing were Soren himself, Titania, Mist, Rolf, and Ilyana, who was probably off eating somewhere. No, there she was, slipping into the courtyard from the corner where the merchants had set up shop.
Even though he didn't need it, and because almost everybody was there, Soren decided to join in on the training; not that it stopped him from wincing slightly every time he cast a spell.
Eventually, Titania joined in, taking a place against Oscar in a spar; she must have been wanting to practice against a spear-wielder. Not too long after the red-haired paladin arrived, most of the mercenaries had paired off into duels; Ike versus Mia, and Oscar versus Titania, leaving Boyd, Soren, and Ilyana unpaired.
The thin girl quickly sought to rectify the situation and challenged Soren to a duel, one he gladly accepted. A duel between two mages was not something he could easily practice, outside of life and death. Not to mention how few mages wound up joining the company during the war.
As the magic flowed across his fingers and he prepared to cast it at his opponent, Soren smiled.
After an hour or so of training—and many duels completed—the mercenaries met up with their Laguz guides, Lethe and Mordecai, and yet again started down the path south towards Zarzi.
It would have been easy to tire of walking, were Soren someone else, but he had spent years on his feet traveling across Tellius, not even counting the extra years he had from Before. At first, when he was young, he hated traveling, and the only thing that made it up was the moment of arrival, when all his hard work paid off. But that had been when he was but a child, having barely traveled the western side of the continent. Nowadays he was more used to traveling, and thus couldn't care less about the demands of it.
Unfortunately, most of the members of the company weren't quite as used to traveling as Soren, and, as they traveled a great distance down the coast, multiple of them asked Ike if they could take a break from walking; to which Ike staunchly refused, stating that they needed to find a less open place if they were to stop.
That was what led them even further south and a small distance west, where Soren's map had said there was a small fort that they could take refuge in.
"Say, Titania, have you ever been to Gallia before?" Ike asked as they walked, looking up to the red-headed paladin atop her horse.
"I have, many years ago," she replied. "I spent some time here when I was still with the Royal Knights. The king of Crimea created an officer exchange program with King Caineghis to help foster relations with Gallia, and I volunteered to go. Gallia's royal palace is quite the place when you're as young as I was."
"So that's why it seemed like you'd seen Laguz before," Ike mused. "Because you had."
"That's right." Titania smiled at Ike and looked out along the coast, breathing in the sea air. "Gallia is an amazing country, once you've spent some time here. Unlike any other I've been to. There's something about how the setting sun strikes the water, making it look like the ocean itself is aflame."
"It sounds incredible; maybe we'll get to see it." Ike looked down thoughtfully, lightly drumming his fingers on the hilt of his sword. "That reminds me; my father had also been here, hadn't he? He knew where the castle was, and definitely acted like someone who'd been here before. Did he come here with you?"
"Oh, no." The red-haired woman shook her head. "He was already there when my fellow knights and I arrived, working for the king."
Ike looked surprised and turned to look at Titania. "My father worked as a mercenary for Gallia? Then how did you two actually meet?"
A wistful smile spread across Titania's face and she looked off into the distance. "I met your father on my first day in Gallia. They'd arranged a training exercise to take place in the training hall, and, when I made my arrival, I saw him. He was unlike any other I've had the honor of seeing, destroying rank after rank of my peers, and knocking them aside as if they were children." She let out a short bark of laughter. "They barely had time to unsheath their weapons before they were on the ground. I dreamed of being able to cross swords with him, but he was so far beyond my level it was laughable."
"I wish I was there to see it," the young commander sighed.
"Oh, but you were," Titania returned with a smile.
"Huh?"
"After Commander Greil's training matches, I approached him and asked if he could teach me himself; he said yes. From then on we met up whenever we could and hit the ring, sometimes for hours at a time. We grew close over time, and eventually he invited me to come over and share a meal with his family. And there you were, asleep in your mother's arms."
"Mother…" Ike said wistfully. "Thank you, Titania." After a moment of silence, he turned away and looked to Soren. "How about you, Soren? Have you ever been to Gallia?"
Deep, harsh growls filled Soren's ears, and he turned to face Ike. Or rather, where Ike had been, for in his place was a Laguz, its large, bloody fangs barred as it prepared to pounce. He stumbled in his stride and blinked rapidly, reaching subtly for the dagger he had purchased in Melior. The leather of the hilt grounded him and, with a few more blinks, the Laguz was gone, replaced with the concerned face of Ike.
"Soren?"
He waved off the blue-haired young man's concern. "Once or twice." He left it at that, choosing to let the other two decide how they wanted to interpret his answer.
Ike opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by someone calling his name, followed by Mordecai's large form appearing from their surroundings. Soren wasn't quite sure where the Laguz had come from, and mentally berated himself for his lack of awareness.
"Ike," the titanic man greeted, being forced to look down to Ike from his massive height. "Do you tire? Should we rest here?"
With a quick scan of their surroundings, Soren figured that, if they needed to rest, there were numerous places alongside the road that were usable. It wasn't the worst call for the Laguz to propose they rested where they were, but by no means would they find the perfect spot—anywhere near a road rarely was.
"No, I think we're fine for a while longer." Ike looked over his shoulder to confirm with the rest of the group and received a few nods from those that were listening. Mist and Rolf were clearly fairing the worst, but they were handling it as mercenaries should.
Mordecai smiled and Soren tuned out the conversation as Lethe joined in, going on about how weak Beorc were. Ike actually seemed surprisingly un-bothered by the cat's comments, but Soren supposed that was just how he was; Mordecai, on the other hand, was much more critical of his superior's behavior.
While she might be almost as racist as Shinon now, Soren knew that—eventually—Lethe would calm down and work shoulder to shoulder with Beorc without complaint; even becoming extremely friendly with the Greil Mercenaries by the end of the war.
After several minutes of Lethe's Beorc bashing, and Mordecai's attempts to stop her, the two Laguz stopped what they were doing and stuck their noses in the air. They stood like that for a few moments, drawing in huge lungfuls of air and tilting their heads back and forth. As Ike neared to ask them what they were doing, they stopped as quickly as they started and turned to face the commander.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"That smell on the wind…" Mordecai trailed off, his large form turning slightly towards the south, "it's iron. The smell of weapons." He eyed the sword at Ike's side and the various other weapons the rest of the company used. "Beorc weapons."
Everyone's hands instinctively dropped to their weapons and they all formed up next to Ike, where he stood at the Laguz's side. "Are you sure?"
Mordecai nodded, a look of complete surety on his face. While it was possible that his sense of smell was affected by the closeness of the mercenaries—and their weapons—to him, the Laguz seemed confident that it wasn't, and Soren would trust in his expertise.
Mere seconds after the confirmation, they caught sight of the enemy; several of them, clad in glittering ebon armor as they patrolled across the road. Where the mercenaries were, the road was pinched between the shore and the tree line, and the black-clad men were directly in the middle, allowing them to watch anyone that wanted to pass them, either through the forest or across the shore.
"Daeins," someone hissed—Soren wasn't sure who it was.
As they watched—and neared—the Daeins, more came into sight around the trees, along with the small castle that the Daeins were working out of.
"They must have crossed the border with the force we fought yesterday," Ike growled.
"Daein worms," Lethe spat, her eyes alight with fury. "They defile the very ground they walk upon, strutting about Gallian forests like they own them."
The other Laguz growled in agreement and informed them that there were even more Daeins inside the walls of the castle. In return, the mercenaries all looked to Ike, waiting for him to decide a course of action.
"If you wish to crush the Daein worms, you'd do well to capture the castle to the south," Lethe offered. "But, since you probably want to flee," she said that part much more scathingly, "there is a viable escape route…" she trailed off, waiting for Ike's response.
"We'll fight," Ike said confidently.
The cat tilted her head in curiosity. "Oh?"
"There are times when it is best to flee, instead of fighting, but this is not one of those times. I am confident in our victory." Ike looked to Soren, who made sure to nod confidently at the blue-haired commander.
"I'm already working on a plan," the mage murmured to his companion.
The two Laguz both agreed to fight with the mercenaries, however hesitantly in Lethe's case, and they rushed through whatever pre-battle preparations they needed to complete. Soren didn't need to do any, he was almost always ready to fight at any time, but some of the others needed to acquire equipment from the merchants, who Ike told to retreat after the fighting started. Why the rest of them weren't prepared to fight at a moment's notice, Soren didn't know, but he suspected that it was because they never thought that they would do battle so deep within Gallia.
The commander tried to do the same with his sister and Rolf, but the two of them managed to convince him to let them join the battle. He did, however, inform Soren that, in no uncertain terms, he wanted the two youngest mercenaries in the safest part of the battle.
A quick agreement was the only response Soren could make, in part because he didn't want Mist and Rolf on the front lines, and also because it was the only response Ike would allow him to give.
Their preparations only took a couple of minutes, but those minutes were spent looking over their shoulders at the Daeins, who were making frantic preparations of their own. The Daeins must have seen them not too long after the mercenaries did the same, and subsequently rushed more men out of the castle to form a sloppy defense.
As the mercenaries began to make their way down the coast, Ike gave Soren free reign to lay down a plan, whatever plan he could come up with in the moment. Ike clearly had no idea just how difficult Soren's job was, even when he had hours or days to create plans, but Soren made the best of it.
He positioned the vanguard in an arrowhead formation with Boyd at the front, flanked on either side by Ike and Mia. That formation was designed specifically to allow Boyd the most room to work with his axe, but also giving him the best possible support with Ike and Mia.
Behind them was Ilyana, Rolf, and himself, providing all the covering fire the three in the front could ever need. Ilyana's Thunder magic was perfect for keeping heads down, which would allow for many opportunities for both the vanguard, and Soren and Rolf.
The two healers, Mist and Rhys, were nearby the long-range fighters, positioned the most optimal distance between them and the front line, giving them just enough distance to remain safe but also heal whichever portion of the force needed it.
Finally, there were Oscar, Titania Lethe, and Mordecai, who he instructed to covertly make their way over to the small copse of trees to the southwest. From there, they would circle north around the beach and conduct a hit-and-run attack on the back of the Daein forces, hopefully throwing their lines into chaos right before the mercenaries engaged them.
Soren was unsure how well the Daein commander would respond to an attack from behind, which was why he had instructed them to be in and out very quickly. It was possible that the other man would be able to rally his troops in so little time that the four would have no time to receive a signal ordering them to make their escape, but it was equally possible that he would be unable to rally his troops and allow them to fall into chaos. Either way, the tactician was ready for whatever the Daein would throw at him.
The mercenaries fell into formation as they made their final approach on the Daeins, quickly and efficiently, as they very well should. At the front, Ike, Boyd, and Mia each stood tall, their weapons held firmly in their hands, prepared for battle.
Shortly after, the riders and Laguz pulled a disappearing act, quickly making their way to their position as instructed.
In front of them, the Daeins drew up into a defensive formation: a shield wall. It utilized the long spears that the Daein army issued to their men, allowing them to hide completely in their formation and not give the mercenaries any room to strike. That specific formation made Soren glad he had chosen the strategy he had, since there was only a minuscule chance the mercenaries could penetrate their opponents' wall without it.
The Daein commander emerged from the entrance to the castle and drew his horse up to a stop only a few meters behind the wall, calling something that Soren was too far to discern out to his men. The man had a confident look on his face—as was to be expected when Soren had led him to believe that he had the advantage.
With a call from Ike, the mercenaries picked up the pace of their charge to the Daeins; a command that was also a disguised signal to the flanking team, telling them to begin their attack. Their new speed was more of a light jog, as opposed to their previous walk, causing them to close the now short distance to the Daeins even faster.
When they were only a few seconds from impaling themselves on the Daeins' spears, a panicked shout came from the man on the northern edge of the Daein shield wall as Oscar, Titania, Lethe, and Mordecai were noticed, shortly before they came into the Daeins' view. Several of the other Daeins in that area of the wall turned—first halfway to assess the threat, and then fully to level their spears at the riders and Laguz.
Most of the men in the middle of the wall remained in formation, but their slight lapses in concentration was enough for Boyd to bat several of the spear points to the side, creating a gap that the mercenaries used to plunge directly into the Daein lines. Boyd, flanked by Ike and Mia, dove into the newly-created fray, his axe sweeping through the Daeins like a hot knife through butter. The green-haired young man used his weapon exactly as he should; playing to his own strengths in the battle as opposed to his enemy's. At the axe fighter's sides, Ike and Mia performed much the same as him, utilizing the innate weakness of the spear when one was inside its reach.
As soon as they had broken up the Daein formation, the flanking team backed off—as per the plan—and rotated quickly around the battlefield to the southern end, where the Daeins were attempting to pull the far end of their formation into the sides of the mercenaries, which would effectively surround them. The four of them entered back into the battle as quickly as and destructively as they'd left it, slamming their way through their opponents, and crushing their attempt.
Throughout all of this, Soren and Ilyana had been raining down fire from the heavens; the latter's thunderbolts almost shaking the ground around them, while the former's blades of wind specifically targeted the legs of the Daeins, sending many of them crashing down to the grass at their feet.
Rolf was doing his best, from where he stood at Soren's side, but he wasn't able to keep up to the speed and accuracy of the two mages. The archer had, multiple times during the first few minutes of battle, fumbled one of his arrows as he notched it to his bow, either dropping them or being forced to look away from the battle to make sure that he didn't.
By that point in the battle, the Daein commander was starting to panic, and backed his steed all the way to the entrance of the fort, leaving the men that were already engaged to their fates. The man was joined at the gate by several of the Daein army's elite halberdiers and the group formed their own, smaller formation to defend their leader.
The now-ranking officer, in what was formerly the shield wall, eventually noticed that his leader had abandoned him and made an attempt to rally the rest of his men, calling out commands to shift into an infantry square. While it was certainly a wise decision on his part, his men had neither the time nor the wherewithal to remove themselves from the melee.
Soren, noticing the missing Daein commander and the man who made to replace him, called a quick order to his two companions, and the three began to rain volley after volley of attacks down in the Daein's general area. The three of them made sure to not accidentally hit one—or multiple—of their fellow mercenaries, and thus were forced to leave certain sections of the Daein force alone.
The Daein seemed to take note of their tendencies when it came to where they placed their shots, and took advantage of it, purposefully moving closer to the three-person killing team that was Boyd, Ike, and Mia—and it became his undoing.
As the man made to drop his spear and draw a sword from his side, the three mercenaries saw him, noticed his actions, and immediately cut him down with little effort due to their advantageous numbers.
While they were temporarily distracted with the would-be leader, one of the other Daein soldiers managed to get the drop on Boyd, landing a long slice down the greed-haired young man's arm. Not too grievous a wound, but one that would take him out of the fight for a short amount of time—if only as much as it took him to back off and have one of the healers work their magic.
The axe fighter dropped off with a quick word to Ike and Mia, and the two of them expertly altered their tactics accordingly. Instead of backing Boyd, as he was gone, they now stood almost shoulder to shoulder in order to better assist their companion.
When Soren looked over to the southern end of the battlefield to check on Oscar, Titania, and the Laguz, he was greeted with an almost empty section of land, only the Laguz currently engaged in battle. The two of them were taking on a single Daein soldier between both of them, almost toying with him, really. As he watched, Lethe crouched down and, with a small distraction from Mordecai, pounced on the man's face, raking her claws across his eyes.
With the last of the men from the south dead, the four of them moved north to assist Ike and Mia.
About the same time they finished off that group of Daeins, Boyd reached the position that Rhys and Mist had taken. Rhys directed Mist in her healing of the wound—as much as the girl's hands shook, she finished quickly, ushering Boyd back to where he came.
Back at the front, Ike and Mia—during the time while Boyd was away—had been forced to give a small amount of ground to their opponents, but that same ground was made back up when the lightning-fast group that was Oscar, Titania, Lethe, and Mordecai crashed into the remaining men.
The minute number of men lasted almost no time against the six warriors, and they marked the last of the Daeins that were not holed up with their commander at the entrance to the castle.
There weren't too many of them—only about five, not counting the commander himself—but they accounted for the most elite of the Daein force, as evidenced by their elaborate arms and armor. While the average member of the Daein army was not too much of a threat, in Soren's opinion, their elite halberdiers were nothing to scoff at; even the more experienced Greil Mercenaries of the future were wary of them.
Their opponents away from them at the time, the mercenaries regrouped in the middle of the field. The two healers looked over the main combatants as the group discussed a plan, ensuring that everybody was fully prepared to enter the fight once again. Once the two were done, the mercenaries moved on to their final opponents. There was no real reason for them to create a plan; there were only a few Daeins left, after all, and each of them were skilled enough to read the battlefield as needed.
It was then that they heard the flapping of large wings, and the back half of their group turned to face the oncoming threat. They were met by a bright white pegasus—equipped following the standards of the Begnion Holy Guard, as only Soren knew—and its rider, a pink haired young woman.
She—introducing herself as Marcia, when she'd come within talking distance—was, similarly to her horse, clad in the armor of a Holy Guard; a short white skirt and tunic over red stockings, with a red breastplate and pauldrons on either shoulder. Soren personally thought that the uniforms that the Holy Guard wore were completely worthless when it came to defending their wearer, but he'd never had an opportunity to raise the subject to someone who had the power to change such things—Sigrun, Tanith, or Empress Sanaki herself.
Marcia spoke to Ike and told him of her wish to join the company, and the commander instantly accepted her into the group, informing her of what little she was unaware of concerning the battle. She mentioned that she had been watching for some time, having come flying in shortly after they'd engaged the Daeins, and had been waiting for a safe moment to approach the mercenaries.
With their new member quickly assimilated into the company, the mercenaries turned their attention back to the Daeins, who had taken their opportunity to safely form into a defensive formation. They had chosen to use a left echelon formation, designed to prevent and break any forward momentum the mercenaries managed to form in their assault. Their long spears, arrayed out in front of them, would allow them to keep the mercenaries at a distance, which was what would stop most of the momentum—their leader was proving to be more competent in commanding his men, or, at least, more knowledgeable than Soren had expected.
That was also a large mistake on the Daein commander's part, as he had neglected to take into account that the mercenaries had three people that were very well equipped to take part in ranged engagements. While the echelon would have been an excellent choice had the Daeins been facing solely close ranged combatants, they were not, and Soren made full use of the opening he had been given.
Soren, Ilyana, and Rolf rained down fire from the sky, sending the Daeins scrambling out of formation in an attempt to reach safety, each man scarce making it a meter away from where he'd started before he was hit by one of the three mercenaries. The three of them tore through the Daein men, and, not long after they had begun, there was only the commander left.
The man swore violently at Ike and the rest of the mercenaries, cursing them deep into the depths of the underworld to the third generation. He went on for some time, his profanities growing more and more fowl the longer he spoke. But, eventually, he gave up on condemning them to eternal punishment and leveled his spear at them, kicking his horse into a charge.
As soon as he had made his intention of attacking the mercenaries clear, several members of the company leapt into action and made to defend their fellows. Oscar and Titania, being the only two mounted mercenaries, moved to intercept the Daein; Titania taking the front—shield unslung—for the two of them due to her more significant experience.
Titania and the Daein commander met in a flash of movement, almost too fast for the eye to follow. As the Daein approached, his spear lowered a fraction towards the lower half of the red-haired paladin's shield, and, right before the two of them had met, he quickly raised the tip of the spear to hit Titania's unprotected head. It was a classic jousting move, but also one that Titania seemingly expected, as she raised her shield moments before the man's spear impaled her face. Quick as a snake, she flicked her axe up from her side and brought it down in a deadly arc towards the Daein's shoulder.
Noticing his miss, and the subsequent attack from his opponent, the Daein hauled on the reins, angling his steed away from Titania and her glittering axe. He made to draw up several meters away and wheel around, preparing for another pass against the redhead, but was forced even further away as Oscar appeared from his side.
The two mercenaries moved in, pinching the Daein commander from both sides, forcing him to choose who he would fight; Oscar, Titania, or both. He chose Oscar, seeing the experience that exuded from Titania's easy demeanor.
With a sharp toe into his horse's shoulder, the black-armored man shot forward like an arrow from a bow, racing to meet Oscar as the green-haired mercenary approached.
At Soren's side, Rolf let out a sharp breath of air as the Daein and his brother neared one another, reaching for an arrow from his quiver and raising his bow slightly. He barely had time to put an arrow to the string before Soren uttered a quick warning and grasped one of the arms of his bow.
The archer looked at him quizzically and Soren shook his head lightly, telling the boy not to attempt a shot. With the Daein and Oscar as close as they were, and Titania closing quickly from the other side, it was far, far too risky to try to make a shot into the Daein. In fact, with all the armor that the Daein was wearing, it was unlikely an arrow would do much to him, unless perfectly placed. If it were feasible, Soren himself would have taken the shot, as he was easily able to end the fight in a single blow. But that was the rub: it wasn't feasible. Even to Soren, a master of Wind magic; and Rolf was still a novice when it came to archery. So they were left watching the battle with bated breath, awaiting the outcome.
Oscar avoided the Daein's charge with only slight difficulty, managing it with a few deft tugs on the reins and a few tense moments when the other man's lance came within the length of a man's forearm of him. He and Titania—regrouping on the other side of the Daein—gave each other a few small signals and began to move forward together.
The Daein commander looked around wildly, trying to find any way out of the situation he had found himself in. The two mercenaries, as they regrouped, had skillfully positioned themselves so that their opponent was trapped as close to the castle's wall as they reasonably could get him, leaving him with no easy avenue of escape. The man's only other options were to escape to the sides, but the other mercenaries were already moving in those directions, prepared to take him down should he choose their side.
The battle was all but over at that point; the Daein, finding no way to flee, was forced to charge Oscar and Titania. The two mercenaries made a few quick maneuvers to take him down, and Oscar's lance ended up impaled in the man's chest, sending him crashing off his horse and into the dirt. He spent his last moments trying to make it back to his feet before slowly going still, leaving the mercenaries and Laguz the only ones left on the battlefield.
After that, the mercenaries made their way to the gate of the castle and split up into several small groups.
Oscar, Boyd, and Rolf went off on their own and the two older brothers grilled Rolf about his experience in the battle, concern making its way to relief as they learned he was unharmed.
Near the three of them was another group consisting of Mia, Ilyana, and Marcia. The three of them were bonding over their recent joining* of the company; or rather, Mia and Marcia were talking as Ilyana stood slightly to the side, occasionally joining in as she snacked on some food from her bag.
Mist was explaining her newly-found experiences in the world of healing to Rhys, who nodded along and imparted some of his own wisdom to his fellow healer.
Standing in the gate of the castle itself, the command group—consisting of Ike, Titania, Soren, and the two Laguz—spoke of the battle, Lethe being surprisingly respectful of the Beorcs' prowess in battle.
In his head, Soren was already drawing up his after-battle report for Ike, even as they discussed the plans for the rest of their journey to Zarzi. They weren't far from the capital, and the Laguz were confident that there would be no more Daeins to slow them down, estimating that they could arrive in relatively short order. Soren was content to trust their judgment, they were natives, after all.
They spent some time resting and recuperating from combat, with many of the mercenaries taking that said time to eat some of the rations they had brought along from the first castle they had stopped at. Soren wolfed down a few strips of smoked meat and some cheese, sharing it and a loaf of bread with Ike and Titania, before packing everything away again.
Once everyone had repacked the things they had removed from their bags, the mercenaries each sent a confirmation to Ike, and they were off, getting closer and closer to Zarzi.
Ugh, writing this chapter turned out to be pain, but here it is.
I really enjoyed writing the tactics in this chapter, it was definitely my favorite part throughout the process; I'll be sure to do more tactics writing in the future.
In any event, I'm afraid I need to take a break from writing this story; my motivation to continue has taken a severe blow over the last short while, and I'd much rather write... anything else really. That said, I have an idea or two floating about in my brain right now, so who knows, you might see me around at some point. See you later.
