Finally, the march. The main tactician of the group, Robin, assigned the shepherds' their positions for the travel, in which they all agreed to and scampered off. It wasn't very suprising that Willow and Henry were stuck with each other since they- according to nearly everyone- work very well together. As the group walked and chat with each other on their trip, Henry decided it was a good idea to talk to Willow about what they would or wouldn't do to cure their boredom.
"Hmmmm... I never would try to kill a plegian soldier on my own will..!" Henry claimed, laughing.
Willow sighed looked at him blankly.
"I'm pretty sure you did try more than once..." she told him in a soft spoken tone. "And I won't deny I didn't..."
The man just kept laughing in response, suddenly patting her on the back.
"You know me too well!"
"... More like I don't... We all heard things about you though..." she replied awkwardly.
"Oh really? I'm famous then! Nyahahaha!" he laughed. "But anyways, it's always great to hear their life escaping their own bodies! It's like whoosh! Just you really can't hear it if you don't think about it!"
The female dark mage nodded slowly as her partner continued to laugh gleefully to himself. Sometimes, she just thought he was plain crazy; other times, she looked at him as if he was special in some sort of way even with his possible facades taking over his face.
"I've never thought that a spirit leaving a body could make a whooshing noise..." awkwardly spoke the young woman.
The man giggled and held up a finger along with his thumb pointed outwards, his usual habit that tells her he was going to explain something he deemed good to know.
"Your surroundings don't matter!" Henry said.
"... Okay... What does this have to do with it...?"
"And you need to imagine it happening right there in front of you once the victim dies. Blood goes splattering everywhere and then you hear that whooshing noise come out of their corpses. I don't think the same satisfying noise comes out of a dead risen though. Hm."
The woman blinked her droopy eyes and stared silently until she opened her mouth to speak. But then nothing came out of her mouth as she looked at Henry's bright grinning face, causing her to close it again.
'That made no sense to me...' she thought.
Henry didn't seem to mind the reaction he got from the female dark mage and just giggled, skipping ahead to look for carcasses along the way.
"D-don't go too far away from me...! Willow squeaked as she rushed to follow.
"Hm? Why not? We're just walking through the forest right now," he stated.
"Doesn't mean nothing can't go wrong..."
And he continued to walk away from Willow, getting her to grab onto his cape gently. She didn't seem to make some other facial expression as he did this. It sucked, or so he thought.
"Henry... Where are you going...?" she asked curiously.
It sounded more like a frightened question than the usual casual sounding question when other people asked.
"Walking! Nyahahahaha!"
"Walking where?"
"To look for more dead things to experiment with! Oooh! Maybe this time Robin will let me summon. Risen nearby, hehehehe.."
"You know that it's dangerous... Don't do that..." Willow told him.
He just continued to giggle as she sighed and followed him anyways. The two were still within group distance, but they were a tad off the track in which nobody really minded.
"Don't stray away too far from us, you two!" Chrom called.
Even the prince didn't mind, knowing both were responsible enough to return safely in the group and even just staying in sight. But he still needed to get it out there for Henry's sake.
"You got it!" the male dark mage called.
Willow just nodded and followed the man, clinging to his black and purple cape. Not like Henry minded, but he seemed to want her to walk next to him instead. She eventually did when he slowed his pace down a little which he didn't want to do, but if it got her next to him, he'll do it.
"Feeling weary or something?" he giggled teasingly. "We barely even walked yet!"
Really, they have been walking for a while in reality. Henry was just being his typical self. The woman shook her head quietly and said something even softer than before, which she couldn't be heard through the marching soldiers nearby. It got Henry curious in which he leaned down a little further to hear her speak clearly.
"I think something is near us..." she said again.
She looked around with concern written on her face- that only ruined her from a smile further.
"Is it a body?" Henry asked exuberantly.
"Noooo..." she replied. "Enemies... or something.. It moves..."
Henry tilted his head, but continued to move on anyways with the female dark mage following close behind. His face expression slightly darkened when he looked away from her; he glanced around to see what she meant. There certainly were silhouettes near by the troop a little deeper in the forest and that pertubed the atmosphere around him.
"Oh Chrom!~" Henry exclaimed happily.
Willow blinked as he ran back to the group with her being dragged behind; Chrom looked over at the returning two.
"What is it? Another body?" the prince asked with a slight brow raise.
It was not unusual for Henry to show off a carcass to everyone when he suddenly wants to which was why the prince's first assumption was a dead body.
"... Nope! Something even better...!"
Willow shook her head in response and motioned Chrom closer to her in which he did. He didn't know what was going on at the moment, but the group kept walking on.
"Please be on guard... I feel like someone or something is following us in numbers..." she told him.
The prince frowned a little and nodded as he straightened his back up to tell the tactician nearest to him what was going on. Robin nodded and got words to slowly pass around the group quietly incase the enemies were near to eavesdrop on them. And if they did, it'd only result to trouble. Everyone continued to chatter normally like nothing happened, but they kept an eye out for danger. So far, there were no attacks yet. YET.
"Maybe I was wrong..." Willow told herself.
"What was that?" Henry asked, grinning.
He already knew what she said, but deecided to ask anyways for the heck of it.
"It's nothing.. Don't worry about it..."
The male dark mage giggled and continued to look around the environment they currently were in. Willow sigh in response to his carefree attitude, but soon brushed it off to remain in her usual disposition. It wasn't long until they heard something get closer than before.
"..."
The group stopped and looked around their surroundings anxiously. It seems as though everyone heard it due to suddenly becoming silent and still. But nothing came.
"... Let's pick up the pace..." Chrom eagerly announced.
By now, he just wanted to get out of the dense forest before any sort of attacks came. It would be bad to start it there due to trees blocking the way of their own attacks, enemies hiding around, and possibilities of having some of the shepherds separated from the group. Heck, someone can even start a forest fire- surprisingly enough, the enemy hasn't thought of that just yet. They would be dead by now if there was one, but it'd also be suicide on their part.
"Lilli? What are you writing?" Stahl asked as he looked at the woman situated behind him comfortably.
"Possibilities in advantages and disadvantages fighting in here..." she murmured, leaning back onto his back comfortably.
The woman looked up from her book and looked around to check for abnormalties. Due to facing the very back of the group she was able to see everything in place of the army with her, becoming the eyes of the back of their heads. It was then when she noticed a risen peeking down from a tree silently.
"... Stahl... Stahl, get yourself ready," Lillian told him hurriedly before calling out to everyone else. "Shepherds!"
The group quickly got a hold of their weapons as they looked around and kept moving. The healers hesitantly looked around and stuck close to their partners due to not being able to fight themselves. Soon an arrow was seen coming at both Stahl and Lillian, the two in the very back.
"Incoming attack!" the woman called as she knocked the protectile away with her steel sword.
The group quickly took off and away from the area as quickly as they could, cueing the risens to come out from the dark and towards the army.
"The attack has begun! Stay close!" Chrom told them as the enemies came through on all sides.
Staying close was a problem due to some troops being on mounts and others on foot. Risens on their own mounts were able to catch up to those on their feet- they were being held back as all the other risens decided to land blows on those falling back.
"We're out numbered..." Willow told Henry as she casted Mire.
But of course... you can see him casting hexes on the monsters, giggling away as they died and reduced to dust.
"Who's next?~" he sang, holding up his Ruin tome.
"Gods he's weird..." the woman commented.
Chrom and Robin quickly got rid of the risens in their area and ran off to help those who needed their assistance the most around them. Everyone needed to support each other to get out of the mess at the moment, but numbers kept on rising as time passed.
"Stahl, we need to catch some of their attentions to lead them away from those falling behind. I can see a mage from here and I'm hoping he doesn't have any fire related tomes..."
"I'll need to put you somewhere safe before I act," he told her.
The man looked around for an open area before doing anything crazy and lit up when he noticed one nearby. The fields looked empty from afar and he was hoping there weren't going to be anything more over in the area for he was going to leave the woman there and try to bust out of the forest without the enemies bombarding him. He was going to need a second person to help him pull the two units out.
"Frederick!" the cavalier called. "Chrom can handle the area over there with Robin and the others with them, but there are risens over by the circling trees. Anna and Ricken are there."
The knight came over and looked over to see Anna and Ricken stuck in the center of the hoard trying to fend themselves off. Meanwhile Stahl quickly took off to leave his partner in the nearby fields out of danger.
"Get away!" Ricken claimed, blasting a few of the enemies away with the use of Wind.
Anna continuously tried to cut her way out of the group, but more came adding to the crowd. It became harder for them to escape and the other units were still trying to deal with those after them. Frederick and Stahl charged in to help the two, which soon caught their surveillance due to suddenly butting in. Ricken quickly supported the two in which help get rid the risen quicker as Anna threw away her broken sword and picked up a new one. The boy and merchant quickly mounted the horses and eventually attracted the monsters off to the field where Lillian safely stood with a Rexcalibur tome and a Levin Sword in hand. During the march, she asked to borrow the sword from Robin due to only taking a few regular swords with her. The mob came closer slowly.
"Yeesh..." she commented with a cringe.
Robin and Chrom were able to help the others get out of the mess quickly due to being so close to each other. It just so happened that Anna and Ricken got unlucky and parted from the group, hence being trapped by the risens.
"Lilli!" Robin called, readying his Thoron tome.
Willow and Henry quickly caught up with the others as they ran out of the forest and left the Risens in their dust. Henry was busy using Nosferatu on the enemies as he ran, recovering the little damage he took. A few risen got out the forest and reached the female tactician who quickly casted Rexcalibur to defend herself. Even though the woman wasn't allow to do much due to her health, but she did whatever she could to help the group. For having health problems, she is still a superb fighter, defending herself from blows of a few swordsmen.
"Are you okay?" Chrom asked as he and Robin came up to her to help her defend.
"Dandy. Perfectly fine," she grunted as she swung the sword in her hand. "I had Stahl drop me off here before getting Anna and RIcken out of a sticky situation."
Robin mumbled a few things and casted his Thoron on the charging group of Risens, obliterating the ones who came head first in a single go. Lillian was able to reach a few of the monsters with Levin Sword's thunder magic and once she was able to fully chant the spell of Rexcalibur, released it once more to rid the others. Due to being out in the open, everyone had an easier time killing the enemies.
"Gods, why are there so many at this moment...?" Chrom groaned, swinging his sword to decapitate a Risen.
"I believe they've inhabited this place long before we came," Robin responded.
Lillian tossed the Levin Sword back to the male tactician and pulled out a steel sword from thin air, allowing the man to attack those near him without wasting much time chanting his spell over and over again. Tossing a weapon to one another was also a sign that the woman was beginning to faze out if she fought any longer.
"Don't worry, Lilli, we're almost done. Just a few more. Stay back," Robin told her, blocking their way from her.
"It kicked in too early..." she groaned, staying away and holding her head a bit.
Willow silently came up from behind her and dragged her away.
"It's safer over here... We've cleared it up.." she said, walking over to Henry and those resting as well as being recovered.
Robin and Chrom eventually came over huffing tiredly- it seems that they were finished with business as well.
"Let's... rest..." Chrom panted. "Only for a little.."
Yeesh, sorry for not updating! D: Anyways, yep! Enjoy!
~stormy003