Been a while, but I keep this story in my mind a lot. I don't want to rush myself, so with the little time i have available to spare I worked on it. XD this is what I get for starting a story at the beginning of a semester. Anyways enjoy~ Do point out any mistakes I make so I can correct them fast.
Lark and Flare narrowly escape a sudden ambush from solders. Farina hastily brings them to a Remi where they now discuss where these soldiers came from…
The young members of the group are sitting in an Inn waiting for Farina to return from the castle. Adia takes this moment to talk to Anna privately.
"Anna, your performance in the last battle was unsatisfactory." Adia bluntly says.
"I know sis… I panicked, my Pegasus followed in suit in panicking… I just was expecting you and Flare to protect me like always." Anna says a bit disappointed in herself.
"I can't keep repeating this Anna." Adia sighs "You even gave that declaration to mother you wouldn't need protecting anymore."
"I know… easier said than done" Anna trails off.
"Don't try to avoid me now!" Adia gets a bit angry.
The door opens and Farina walks in. Adia walks up to her instantly.
"What where those soldiers doing here, attacking us?" Adia asks Farina.
"Their motive is fairly unclear, but Fiora and I deduced they were soldiers from Bern and why they are here."
"B-Bern!" The strongest nation?" Anna stutters.
"What would Bern be doing Ilia?" Adia says. Lark has a troubled look on his face as he thinks.
"Listen up! This will be hard to take in." Farina takes a deep breath. Everyone silently listens to what Farina says next. "They're after Aaria."
"Aaria?" Adia and Anna say in unison.
"Why would they be after their elder sister?" Flare asked with disbelief.
"She was assigned a mission where she attacked Bern's forces recently. Fiora was worried about her, but had high hopes since she is part of the second wing. Because they were attacking Bern, the pay was doubled of the normal pay, at 12,000 gold!" Farina says with admiration.
"But, why would they attack mercenaries? They should attack those who hired the mercenaries." Flare objectively thought aloud.
"You would think that, but Ilia has a strong partnership with Etruria." Lark states "Bern has no need to hire fliers when they have their own wyverns."
"Very true… still it's unclear why they would go to the trouble to eliminate the Pegasus Wings" Farina says. "They'd have to travel… wait they control the Sacae plains now don't they?" Farina realizes.
"Yes, Bern has made military camps at the borders in Sacae. The nomads have no hope to drive them out, so they mainly just hide in a hidden village the Bern soldiers can't keep track off." Lark states to confirm Farina's statement.
"The plains, just thinking how calm the scene was when we traveled there makes me wonder how badly Bern has ruined it." Flare says.
"So Lark, you've traveled in Sacae?" Anna asks. Lark gives a disgruntled look as he realizes he didn't want that brought up.
"Yes, I have traveled in Sacae, with my father. It was more broadening of my horizons to help me strategize more." Lark says a bit reluctant.
"How does traveling help you strategize?" Anna asks.
"I'm basically…" Lark pauses to think "learning others' fighting style and then see how they fair in battle. Certain styles beat out other styles, in general it depends on your weapon, but some weapons are exceptions, like Flare's halberd." Lark starts getting comfortable talking "It's actually a good experience for me watching you guys fight. I've never actually seen Pegasus knights fight. Flare is a unique fighter too, using a lance like an axe. And well, directing you guys back there is the first real situation I've ever been in. I would do exercises with my father, but the real deal is so much more…" Lark pauses to think of the right word "intense is really all I can say. I just have a rush in my head as a wrong move might someone killed but, I enjoy reading the enemy and breaking their tactics."
"I've always just charged in and worked from there" Flare says. "I just rely on reaction, but seeing Lark's strategy added to it, it really made a difference. While my reaction still plays a big part, they don't get as many chances to counter attack me now!" Flare pats Lark's shoulder "You do your part real well, so don't worry about feeling bad if something goes wrong."
Knocking is heard on the door. Farina opens the door to be greeted by a messenger.
"I've been summoned to the castle guys, I'll be back, don't do anything reckless!" Farina goes with the messenger to the castle.
Nearby on the streets of Remi.
"Alright men, listen up! I will be making a visit to castle Remi to enlist Ilian mercenaries for another scouting mission around the border of Sacae" says the commanding man in blue silver armor. "Until I return, you are to practice your jousting! After this scouting mission, you soldiers shall be promoted out of cadets."
"Sir!" says the group of trainees. The commanding figure leaves towards the castle.
"I don't get why we had to come all the way to Ilia" murmurs a soldier.
"Yea! Why do we need to come to this frozen wasteland?" says another.
"Why do we need to hire the likes of girly knights to watch over us? We should be watching over them!" says a rather large soldier with two henchmen friends behind him. Many soldiers nod their heads in agreement. "I bet I can beat them all in a duel!" the soldier raises his lance in the air. In the middle of raising it, a young man bumps his elbow causing him to drop his lance.
"What am I going to do now?" the inattentive man thinks allowed. "I've been expelled from the army… So now I have no place to go… I'm in enemy territory though I guess they aren't enemies anymore, I'm just neutral… Fighting is probably what I'm best at but I'm too scared of dying that I'd be a terrible mercenary"
"Who do you think you're bumping into" says the large intimidating figure who was bumped into. He grabs onto the inattentive man's neck and lightly chokeholds him up.
"I'm… sorry!" said the scared man gasps for air.
"Sorry isn't enough for Darryl!" says one of Darryl's henchman.
"You wear armor and carry a lance…" Darryl notices "I am Darryl, the strongest of the cadets here! Now to engrave in your head to not make this mistake again" Darryl throws the man to the ground "We duel now!"
"Another bully…" the man mutters as soldiers and onlookers surround Darryl and the man to watch the duel.
Darryl grips his lance with both hands and dashes towards the man. The man side steps out of the way at the last moment. Darryl stops and turns around and dashes again towards the man. The man side steps again more fluidly this time, Darryl charges just on by missing him with a grin on his face. He turns around and charges yet again. The man, fully confident this time, goes to side step but then at that moment he trips and falls down on his side. He looks up to see Darryl charging full speed at him with his lance aimed at his head. The man closes his eyes and looks away. But instead of what he thought would have happened, he opens his eyes to see Flare holding back Darryl.
"Don't interfere, this is a duel!" Darryl gnarls.
"I saw your friend trip this guy, so I thought I'd lend a hand to this guy" Flare smirks.
"Oyi, Flare, why do you always jump into anything?" Adia says coming up to Flare.
"You Ilians think you can handle Darryl, the strongest of cadets of Etruria?" Darryl boastfully says.
"Oh mighty Etrurian, how swell of you to grace us with your presence" Anna says flying in.
"Tch… If you guys are going to play dirty can gang up then I'll do the same! Men! We got some troublemakers trying to screw with us here!" Darryl spouts. Soldiers that either are afraid of or agree with Darryl start gathering behind him. "You scared now, fools?" Darryl grins cockily.
"If you were any component maybe, but right now you just look like a big group of unorganized soldiers." Lark says arriving finally.
"Oyi, Lark took you long enough!" Flare says "Though I was going to have to wing it for a second."
"I had to assess the surroundings, give me a break. You, big guy, think you can actually win?" Lark taunts Darryl.
"Put your weapons up! My group is twice your size! And one of your guys doesn't even fight!" Darryl says arrogantly with a hint of nervousness.
"Let's not allow the city to get damaged now," Adia says, Lark nods at her.
"Let's go then!" Lark directs Flare, Adia, and Anna to their starting points.
"Get them guys!" Darryl orders the soldiers behind him to prevent them from reaching him.
"Um…" says the man who was completely forgotten.
"Oh you, you can leave now, I thought you ran off to safety" Lark tells him.
"I'll help you guys. You guys did save me from an untimely end to me."
"Well, sure then, just follow what I say then." Lark directs the man where to start but then asks real quick "What's your name?"
"I'm Brando, I'm a…" He stops and thinks real quick "a wandering freelancer" says Brando.
"I got a nice mission for you, go around the back…" Lark whispers Brando his plan.
Flare runs up to a soldier and swings his halberd. The soldier blocks it, but Flare slides his halberd down his lance to cut the soldiers hand. The soldier drops his lance, then Flare dashes behind the soldier and slaps the pole end of his halberd on the back of his neck, knocking him unconscious. Two soldiers charge towards Flare. Anna and Adia take the opportunity to throw javelins at them. Seeing the javelins, the soldiers jump out of the way, but they jump into each other and crash into the ground one on top of the other. Flare walks up to them and slams their helmets with his halberd, knocking them out. Three soldiers this time charge towards Flare, Anna, and Adia. Adia and Anna fly up while Flare stands alone in a defensive stance. The soldiers all lunge at Flare. Flare makes a sweep with his halberd scooping all three soldiers off their feet. Anna and Adia fly in and slam into two of the soldiers that are falling midair sending them flying back out cold. The last remaining soldier lands on his head and Flare kicks him to lay flat on the ground. Flare looks towards Lark and gives him a thumbs up. Lark nods and comes up to them and they head to the strongest of the soldiers together.
Darryl starts to shake after witnessing how fast his soldiers went down. He turns around and before he could even take a step he jumps back as Brando is there pointing his lance at him.
"Going somewhere?" Brando confidently says "I thought you were the one who wanted to duel one on one anyways?" Brando starts to walk up to him.
"Stay away! You d-don't know w-what you're getting y-yourself into!" Darryl stutters trying to sound intimidating.
"Here is a real lance charge!" Brando charges towards Darryl. Darryl swings his lance wildly in fear. Brando squats suddenly and then, to keep his momentum going, dives forward into a somersault and lands on his feet in front of Darryl and shoves Darryl back with his lance. Darryl stumbles from being pushed back and falls on his behind. Brando dashes towards him and gives one hard stomp onto Darryl's torso, then slowly puts his lance towards Darryl's neck.
"I win" Brando says as he gets off him and walks away. Darryl gets up slowly but stands with one hand on his knees and the other holding his lance.
"Impudent fool… You don't know… who you're messing with… I'll get Etruria… all over… you…" Darryl coughs.
"Chop!" Flare lightly bonks Darryl on the head with his halberd and Darryl falls down to the ground "Looks like you handled him just fine, as I expected," Flare nods.
"Why did you help me?" Brando turns around and to face them. "I'm just a stranger, not even an Ilian that you'd have to feel compelled to help me!"
"Stranger or no, I just stand for what I think is right" Flare smirks "I just don't like watching a fake duel."
"Flare likes to jump into action because he likes to hog it for himself." Adia says.
"You wound me Adia," Flare sighs.
"For someone who gets discouraged easily you managed to fight a bully pretty easily," Lark says.
"Well… I just know someone scarier," Brando gives a half-hearted laugh reminiscing.
"Well let's head back the inn guys," Flare says.
"Before you go, are you guys traveling by any chance?" Brando asks.
"Well, we are heading to Lycia, you have travels plans yourself?" Flare replies.
"I am just a wandering freelancer, but I have no sense of direction. So if I travel with you guys, I'll reach Lycia, which sounds like a good idea to me since I would probably not make it there alone," Brando says slowly.
"We'll have to ask Aunty first now won't we?" says Anna.
"Let's just head back to the inn and wait for Farina then," Lark says. Everyone nods and they head to the inn.
The commanding man finally returns with Farina walking next to him. He sees half his platoon is unconscious. "What happened here?" asked the man. A soldier walks up to him to report.
"Darryl tried to duel some local Ilians and forced some of the others to fight with him." He reports "The other half just practiced jousting as you asked, sir!"
"That brazen fellow really gets in over his head doesn't he? Well what's the damage report? I'll have to go make amends at the castle."
"Ilians are no slouch! He best remember that when he wakes up!" Farina says puffing her chest out.
One of the soldiers starts to regain consciousness. He sits up while holding his head up due to a sharp headache.
"You, soldier, what happened?" says the commanding figure.
"General Percival… Owww" the soldier clutches his head harder "Darryl… he had intimidated me into fighting for him… I thought I was dead for sure fighting that pirate and Pegasus knights… Their formation was phenomenal… The last thing I remember… was getting smacked in the head with a long pole…" the soldier starts coughing.
Farina starts giving an uneasy look.
"What's wrong, Farina?" general Percival looks towards Farina.
"Sounds like my son and nieces were causing trouble again, ehehe…" Farina gives off a light fake laugh.
"Well then" Percival says with a surprise "Hopefully my army will respect our bodyguards this time," Percival gives off a laugh.
"Doesn't look like anything got damaged surprisingly," Farina says looking around.
"The soldiers all seem alive too," Percival says while checking on other unconscious soldiers. "Your relatives are skillful to manage that."
"Must have been Lark," Farina says.
"Lark…" Percival slowly says looking up.
"Take me to him right away." Percival says with an intense look on his face.