Chapter 5: Muscle your way through!
Here I am going along with life and like most people who do anything in this life, i was checking my email and loe and behold someone went and followed my story, 3 years after being inactive or so. I'm like "man, what dis guy by be thinking following an inactive story? He think I'm gonna start writing again cause he followed me?" Well you damn right I'm gonna try writing some more xD. TBH I stopped mentality writing this story and moved onto an original story. But I thought might as well write some more here for practice and incorporate some of this story into my original one. Anyways, I still remember the general gist of this story but obviously I don't remember everything i planned so some plot holes might come :s Also some character's personalities might change since I sort of forgot what I where going with them.
From Remi to the outskirts of Etruria, the first step of escorting Lark to Ostia has begun. Before reaching the first mountain area, the Percival's squad of cadets and Flare's group stop at a pit stop at a church of Saint Elimine.
Lark wakes up a little bit before sunrise in the room he was provided. He looks right and sees Flare sleeping soundly. He looks straight and sees the curtain separating the men and the women. He looks left and sees Brando curled up like a ball in his sleep. Being the only one awake he has a flashback.
"So you are Lark?" Percival asks.
"That is my given name, yes." Lark cautiously says.
"It seems you are separated... That is unfortunate." Percival gives a light sigh.
"A mother bird will push her child out of the nest so it can learn how to fly." Lark speaks in proverb.
"Oh? Interesting... Very interesting. Well then child, if you are learning to fly, let me make that cliff steeper for you. How about you direct my cadet squad for the offense we are going to launch?"
"What?" Lark blinks a bit in shock.
"If you are his son, I know your potential. A stimulus will easily bring it out." Percival says quite sure of himself.
"But-!" Lark tries to protest but a messenger arrives.
"Hmm, if I wasn't pressed for time, I would speak to you further. I will seek another audience with you when time permits me to." Percival turns around and leaves with his messenger.
Coming back to the present. Lark burrows his forehead in his arms in stress of the situation trusted at him. Lark gets up and exits the room hoping to get some fresh air. Walking in the lobby of the church, he waves at the cleric at the front signaling he is going out for a bit. The cleric nods and Lark walks outside.
Outside, Lark peers at the surroundings and sees the trees and the mountain behind the trees. Quite an interesting spot to have a church basically at the border of two regions. Lark makes note of the lay out of the terrain as he runs stimulate battle sequences that he has been drilled into thinking about since his childhood.
"Man all I think about is battle, but I am too nervous about the real deal!" Lark exclaims loudly and then kicks a nearby rock into a tree that causes some birds to fly up.
"Now now, we all are nervous in the beginning." a girl's voice is heard behind the tree.
"Eep!" Lark flinches as he didn't think anyone heard him.
A girl walks from behind the tree towards Lark. Her long blue hair sparkled in the sunrise that just started. As if she was the one blinding Lark instead of the sun, Lark shields his eyes while looking at the girl walking towards him.
"Men must say its not fair for you to remain in a church" Lark states outright.
"My, such the smooth talker i see." the girl chuckles a bit.
"Small talk isn't exactly my strong suit so I just say what comes to mind." Lark turns his head away a little in embarassment.
"My name is Nira" the girl says introducing herself "What might your name be?"
"It might be Lark" Lark says jokingly.
"Hahaha, you are rich in humor I see" Nira puts her hand on his chest to contain herself from laughing too much.
"Not really..." Lark mutters to himself.
"You seem stressed there Lark, why the long face?" Nira probes at Lark's obvious behavior.
"Having responsibility shoved into your face suddenly does that to a person." Lark gloomily says looking down and kicking the ground lightly.
"All part of growing up," Nira smiles and tilts her head slightly.
"So are you a cleric?" Lark asks wanting changing the subject.
"... why yes i am." Nira says hesitant at first. Lark takes note of that.
"Part of the reason coming here was to also recruit some healers while we journeyed. So I might be seeing you again." Lark says while turning to walk back to the church. Nira waves her goodbye.
Entering the church after sunrise, it looks much more lively compared to when he left before. Many clerics, priests and monks are seen moving around. Lark turns to the same cleric who saw him leave, nods that he is going back to his room, and she nods back. Lark walks toward his room but runs into Percival.
"Ah, the man I was just looking, Lark!" Percival says a bit joyful.
"Ah... the man who dug a hole at the bottom of a cliff for me," Lark says a bit slowly.
"I do what I can to help with growth!" Percival says patting Lark on the shoulder pretty hard causing him to flinch a little.
"When are we expected to resume our journey?" Lark asks.
"We are still working out on who we bring along from the church. Not only that, we are also resupplying ourselves. The best course of action to leave after lunch so we are full in our stomachs to march a long distance without a break."
"I have a suggestion to make."
"Speak." Percival is all ears.
"Do not recruit the girl named Nira." Lark says a bit lower in volume but not at a whisper.
"Hmm? What is your reason?" Percival asks with an eyebrow raised.
"She cannot heal, therefore would be detrimental if you pick her as a healer. She is more adept at light magic, as I noticed her hiding a book. I assume she spends her mornings before anyone is awake to practice it as that's the only safe time to do so without getting caught." Lark states.
"Interesting, you don't normally hear of a woman in a church who only uses light magic." Percival gives off a mischievous look.
"Please don't bring her, I am uncomfortable around her." Lark gets personal with his suggestion.
"Done and done, she is now joining." Percival laughs as he turns around and walks away.
"I cannot ask this man for help," Lark says putting the palm of his hand to his face.
Brando wakes up and just lies there instead of getting up. He starts reflecting on situation since its been a while since he slept nicely.
"What be on ye mind, bucko?" Flare speaks as if to toy with Brando.
"Meep!" Brando gets stiff from the sudden pirate speak as well as from being interrupted from his thoughts.
"Just kidding, my pirate speak is artificial... " Flare says looking out the window in the room "I've lived too proper to have the time to make it natural."
"Eheh..." Brando tries to laugh to not be awkward, but fails at that.
"I was born in Badon, raised in Ostia. I never got to spend too much time with my parents as I was sent to a boarding school in Ostia, for nobles nonetheless! Me! In a noble school just for being the nephew of the Marquess." Flare babbles on about himself trying to make Brando a bit more comfortable. "I didn't get to spend much time with my parents. My lineage was questionable to the nobles of the school and some even protested against me going there due to my parents. But the Marquess dealt with them and had me go to the school. Due to this, I'm technically... able to inherit the throne. That has always left a bad taste in my peers' mouth so I've been pretty much an outcast there."
Brando is silent from this monologue from Flare. He feels he'd be able to connect with Flare now and opens up.
"My parents are fierce knights who served their lords to their last breath. All their glory and fame put so much expectation on me... I just feel pressure everywhere and I'm just a coward not a knight who can serve his lord."
Flare closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before speaking. "I endured, I found a friend in the Marquess's daughter, my cousin. She was friendly towards me since we were related, and so I pretty much retained my sanity cause she was there to calm me down. I managed to fight my way through the ranks. I ended up being the best at combat, unmatched in my ability to use a halberd."
"..." Brando is silent.
Flare holds his hand out "You just gotta keep calm and push forward with your strength, matey" Flare adds a little pirate speak at the end as a joke. Brando extends his hand and grabs Flare's hand. Flare pulls him up and then he pats his shoulder. "Now I'm not saying you need a girl to give you strength, but you need a friend that can support you when you need to lean on someone."
"Thanks..." Brando says quietly but a bit happy.
"You touch my sisters, and I'll kill you." Flare adds one last remark. Brando feels a sweat drop from Flare sudden severity in speech.
Lunch rolls around and Percival and Lark are discussing who to bring along as a healer.
"Since you are so insistent on bringing Nira along, we'll have to bring a troubadour to be able to quickly go from one person to another since we can't split into two groups effectively." Lark says.
"A troubadour? Those are a rare breed you find only noblewomen being able to afford such feats as a horse a lot of money." Percival shakes his head "You will not find a troubadour in a church."
"Arrgh we we have too many people for only one person to heal all of them in the middle of battle," Lark says pulling his hair out with one hand.
"You really look stressed, Lark. I see gray hairs already growing on you." Percival says. Lark puts his head onto the table. "Lemmie get you a session with someone who knows how to relieve the body."
"Huh?" Lark looks up confused.
"Etruria has done some interesting studies that try to find ways to heal the body without using magic. This one is really interesting as it doesn't heal you but it does relieve stress." Percival gets up and talks to a messenger. Shortly after he comes back, Percival nods towards him then beckons Lark to come to him.
"What is it?" Lark asks.
"Take this man to him." Percival says to his messenger.
"Sir!" the solider salutes then asks Lark to follow him. Lark listens and follows.
Lark enters a room with a long bed in the middle of the room.
"Lie down on your belly, patient," said a voice. Lark feels a chill but sits down onto the bed then lies down on his belly.
Lark then sees a fairly large man walk out of the shadows. Muscles are protroding out his body which intimidates Lark at first but he takes a glup and braces himself.
"Let us begin!" The man says quite powerfully.
The man places his hands on the shoulders of Lark. Lark closes his eyes to endure any pain better. The man then squeezes Lark's shoulders quite hard but to Lark's surprise it wasn't hard enough to hurt but hard enough to feel but the pressure was feeling good.
"What is this...?" Lark questions in the middle of the process.
"We Etrurians call it... a massage." The man says dramatically.
"Hmm... " Lark goes into deep thought while the man finishes up the massage.
Afterwards, Lark runs to Percival as he has an idea.
"General Percival, I've figured out how to deal with our healer situation." Lark says a bit excited.
"How so?" Percival smirks.
"Just bring out that man to give out massages for the healer. It will reinvigorate anyone to work twice as hard." Lark says.
"Good, good. The king of Etruria wanted me to do a test run using him anyways." Percival nods to himself.
"..." Lark face palms cause Percival knew all along.
"We also still will have two healers as well as taking along the Nira girl you so love." Percival says jokingly at the end. "Our recons brought back that there are 3 forts to infiltrate, so the church agreed to give us 3 healers, 1 for each fort. On another note, you don't have to refer to me as General. Just 'Sir' will do since I am not your general." Percival adds before leaving to gather the troops.
Lark feels a strong urge to slam his head on a wall for stressing out over nothing after hearing the news of the healer situation.
Percival is speaking to his cadets. Flare's group is also there but standing on the side.
"Listen up, maggots, we are about to go on our first offense at this point on the map. Across the mountain range, Bern has set up one of many camps for supplies. It has few guards, so if we can sneak undetected to them we can deal a blow to their supply unit. Not only that, you will gain some vital combat experience you won't be able to experience in practice. Now then, we shall we under the guidance of this man here, Lark!" Percival steps aside to reveal Lark who was standing behind him the entire time. Lark gives a weak wave to the cadets.
"This guy was part of the group that Darryl got beat up by." One cadet said to another.
"Hehehe, Darryl is gonna have a blast" another cadet said.
Lots of murmuring can be heard, mainly about how Darryl took a beating.
"Shut up! I will show you all during this offense the power of Darryl!" Darryl yells fist bumping his chest. The murmuring stops after that remark. Percival slams the butt end of his lance onto the ground. The cadets quickly face forward quiet.
"Ahem, now then. The plan of action if to have you guys just go through this path clearing in between these two mountains during the nightfall. There will be small groups of soldiers in each fort that is on the path but they won't gather together unless there is a signal on top of the mountains, and they won't otherwise see you guys until its too late and you've overrun the fortress."
"What about the signals on top of the mountain? Its not like they are gonna sleep on the job." One cadet remarks.
"I'm getting to that. The pegasus knights that kindly came to help you guys, will fly to each mountain killing whoever is on the look out. Its kind of risky since the reports say there is an archer on a ballista on each of the mountain tops. It will be fine though. In a one-on-one duel, an archer won't have time to counterattack once even if a pegasus knight gets in his face."
"They really went all out by putting ballistas on the top of mountains..." Adia says.
"Tsk, I'm not even doing anything" Flare pouts.
"There are 3 forts along the way, I will assign you guys into three groups and discuss strategy for breaking in after you guys group up." Lark then steps aside to go form groups.
After much effort to split the groups up, Lark split the groups into the cadets who didn't fight against him, the cadets who followed Darryl, and Flare's group with the addition of Nira and the massage guy. Farina will oversee the cadets who didn't fight against him, Percival will oversee the cadets who followed Darryl, and Lark would accompany Flare's group. Lark then stands again in front of everyone to discuss breaking into the forts.
"After reviewing the layouts provided to me about the forts, this is the best course of action I could come up with. Storming in from the front, majority of the soldiers inside won't be able to be ready in time until you already have taken control of the first floor as few soldiers will be awake keeping guard. The second and third floor will require some fighting. Once on the second floor, the enemy soldiers should be coming out all armored up to defend the rest of the fort. The second floor is where they store their weapons and armor, so most of the fighting will primary be on this floor. On the third floor, you'll be dealing with bedrooms mainly so any stragglers can be taken as prisoners of war. The key to this mission is securing the first floor as fast as possible. If reinforcements arrive on the first floor, then you took way to long and will have to kill all the soldiers instead of capturing most of them. The more soldiers we capture, the more manpower we have to slave around. I'm sure you don't want to be doing grunt work carrying everything around right? SO DO THIS RIGHT!" Lark finishes strongly after delivering his plan. Lark then walks to side where Flare's group is.
"Well said," Adia says.
"Anna and Adia, you took will join us in the last fortress after you take care of the archers on the mountains. Some word of advice, hide in the clouds of the fog in order to not be seen as you traverse through the skies. Keep note on the wind direction too as you don't want the clouds to fly away from you, leaving you open to be seen. If you guys go down, the mission is a complete failure as reinforcements will come from the supply fort. And more importantly, the sergeant resting in the supply fort will come and restore order of the soldiers which will ruin the plan of capturing the three forts simultaneously. We don't want to fight the sergeant, he's an experienced paladin" Lark says critically.
Adia and Anna nod and say "You can count on us!"
"A paladin you say..." Flare talks to himself.
Night falls and the group is standing just outside of the mountains.
"Alright from here Adia and Anna will go and clear out the archers on the mountains." Lark says "remember to stay in the fog!"
Adia and Anna fly off towards seperate mountains. There are six stationed archers, three for each to take care of. Adia flies swiftly through the clouds until reaching close to the mountain where she glides to reduce the noise of the wings. Upon being a close enough distance to charge at the first archer, Adia quickly accelerates forward with her lance in hand ready to strike. By the time the archer hears Adia approaching, he goes to grab and arrow but Adia strikes him bluntly knocking him down to his knees. Adia then does a vertical 360 loop and stabs the fallen solider on her descent, killing him. Adia then quickly flies off to the next mountain. She had to zigzags to stay in the fog but she eventually reached the second mountain and like the first solider, she repeats the simple double attack combo she did to the first solider. Upon arriving on the third mountain, she notices the archer is standing up with an arrow queued up in his bow. This is no average archer, Adia thought, so she decides to get even closer before rushing in. The archer then shoots an arrow and Adia quickly stops as the arrow flies where she would have been had she kept going. This guy has respectable eye sight, Adia thought. In the end she thinks it'd be best to go for a do or die charge and charges in as the archer is getting another arrow ready. Adia is about three lengths by the time the archer had another arrow ready, he stays calm and holds his position trying to bait out a dodge. Adia keeps going almost full speed ready to dodge. At two lengths away the archer feels the need to shoot and fires. Adia, knowing that was the closest he could let her get, then steers to the right as the arrow grazes by and slices the archer at his neck who accepted defeat at that point. With her three archers down, Adia flies towards the third fort to meet up with Lark.
Anna was flying through the clouds but was sometimes going in too deep into the clouds being overly cautious. Her first mission alone, so she was nervous, especially since it was against her natural enemy. Seeing the first mountain coming up, she grabs a javelin and remembers what her sister told her.
"You don't have the willpower to charge in like I do, so you will have to play a dangerous game, Anna" Adia says tying the bag of javelins to Anna's pegasus.
"Ehehe..." Anna feels sad from that remark and tries to laugh it off.
"You have a keen eye for accuracy, something you've always beat me in since we've been learning how to fight." Adia says praising her sister. "As long as the archers are fiddling with the ballistas and not holding their bow, you can get close enough to javelin toss them before they can react. With your skill and speed, you should be able to handle them in 2 tosses. Please Anna, you must succeed this time."
Anna finishes thinking about what Adia says. "Alright sister, here I go!"
Anna flies into from behind the archer who isn't paying much attention. Anna tosses two javelins at him and the archer dies effortlessly with both javelins landing square on his back. Anna does a triumphant pose and with the self confidence built up, flies off to the next mountain. Upon coming up to the second mountain, Anna notices this archer is more alert than the last one as he keeps changing directions periodically. Anna flies higher up then glides down when the archer turns around to face away from her. Once she is 2 lengths away, she tosses a javelin at the archer. Noticing she was off her aim, she then goes to fly around the mountain. The javelin grazes the archer and he turns around and focuses on the direction he felt the javelin came from. He pulls out his bow and readies and arrow. He's looking and looking but then he feels a stab from behind him and then goes limp. Anna then flies to the final mountain she was assigned. At the final mountain, Anna observes the archer just messing around with the ballista wasting some shots for fun. She flies cautiously since the archer is firing in random directions. The archer turns her way and she quickly flies to the left. The archer keeps going and then fires while turning. Anna takes this moment to fly in and finish the job. The archer doesn't even pay attention to Anna, and continues to spin his ballista around. Anna goes to strike his neck but the archer dodges it, or more accurately fell down to the ground. He starts throwing up and Anna feels disgusted looking at him. Anna then just tosses a javelin and gets a clean head shot on the archer who was clearly not doing his job. Anna flies towards the third fort to meet up with Lark as well.
Flare and Lark and the rest of the group are waiting nearby in the forest near the third fort. Adia arrives first to the scene.
"Reporting status of the mission, Lark," Adia formally speaks. "Mission was a complete success. No Irregularities to report of either."
"Standby and wait till Anna gets back." Lark replies in a similar manner.
"Understood," Adia leaves.
Flare is leaning his back on a tree with his eyes closed. Lark notices him and starts a conversation.
"Don't fall asleep now," Lark jokingly says.
"Please, I can't sleep till Anna returns." Flare replies back holding back any agitation he has.
"Big brother worrying over his little sister?" Lark teases Flare.
"Thinking back to at the house when she screamed for help, I can't help but be worried for her since I had to calm her down then," Flare sighs.
"All part of growing up," Lark says.
"Seems I left an impression on you," Nira says appearing on the scene.
"I take what good I run into," Lark quickly says, flustered at Nira's sudden appearance.
"Oyi, Lark. You failed to mention the cleric joining us is quite the beauty." Flare pats Lark's shoulder. "I see you are a man just like the rest of us," Flare grins at Lark.
"Ahem," Lark clears his throat mainly to change the subject, "Nira, you don't use staffs now, do you?"
"Ah, I've been found out." Nira says as if it doesn't matter anymore.
"Wait, then why did you recruit her?" Flare says taken aback.
"I trust our ability to not need a healer for this blitz. Healers don't exactly help in blitzing cause you have to maintain a formation to protect the healer. That will slow down the blitz way too fast," Lark says.
"So I'm going to be fighting instead?" Nira asks nonchalantly.
"Pretty much." Lark nods.
"How exactly will this blitz work?" Flare asks.
"Well, you will charge ahead of us and just rush straight to the stairs to secure it. Everyone else will kill any stragglers you leave behind. Once everyone is dead, we will head upstairs where we have to cut off the soldiers from the weapon storeroom. Once we siege their weapons they can't fight back." Lark explains.
"That's fine and dandy, but how exactly am I supposed to rush ahead of you guys? We can't exactly afford to wait for me to ahead." Flare is confused about Lark's plan.
"You'll see what will happen when we start. I can't explain it now." Lark brushes off the question.
Anna flies into view of Lark's group.
"Anna is coming down now!" Adia says bursting back into the scene.
"Perfect! You, messenger, go alert the other groups to start the siege!" Lark beckons the messenger to hurry and go.
"Reporting... status of the... mission... Lark" Anna says panting. She then falls off her pegasus and lies down where she fell. Her pegasus brushes his head on her. "Mission, success...!" Anna coughs.
"Good job, Anna," Adia smiles at her sister.
"Flare go assist Anna, we are getting into formation now."
Flare and the crew stand in front of the door to the fort.
"Okay, you still haven't told me how I'm gonna charge ahead from everyone without wasting so much time." Flare brings up that subject again.
"THIS IS WHERE I MAKE MY APPEARANCE!" the muscle man from before makes a dramatic appearance, jumping into the scene.
"I... wow," Flare is just surprised at entrance of the man.
"I shall invigorate you all with the energy of YOUTH!" The muscle man says while doing some flexing poses.
"What's going on out there?!" An enemy solider is heard from the inside.
"Quick, give Flare a back massage!" Lark quickly says.
"THESE TECHNIQUES HAVE BEEN PASSED DOWN FOR GENERATIONS!" The muscle man says grabbing Flare and then works on his back.
"I, what, wow..." Flare was taken by surprise and didn't put up any resistance and by the time he could he was already feeling the effects of the massage. After many cracks are heard, the muscle man pats Flare on the back.
"Go onward brave youth!" the muscle man points towards the door.
"Charge!" Lark yells out.
The muscle man slams onto the door, forcing it open. Flare and the crew charge into the fort. Flare blitzes on ahead of the rest of the group.
"Intruders! Wake up everyone!" one solider yells.
"Where were the alarm from the archers? Were they busy goofing off again?" another solider asks.
Flare slices at the inattentive solider, chopping his head off.
"Whoa, they made it here already? What happened at the front?" the other solider there said.
"They are blitzing through! STOP THE GUY IN THE FRONT!" another solider yells out.
Three soldiers stand in the way of Flare. Flare jumps up into the air and twists back charging a swing.
"Raise the shields, he can't swing past all of us!" an enemy solider yells out.
Flare starts swinging just before he lands and then when he lands directs the force of landing into the swing. Flare aimed his swing low, anticipating the raising of shields. The soldiers are swept into the air and land on their heads. Flare continues running forward while the rest of the group arrives onto the scene of the three soldiers struggle on the floor.
"Light!" Nira raises her hand and light strikes on one of the soliders. "Yay I got a kill!" Nira does a twirl.
"This isn't a game, you know?" Lark says worried about Nira's mentality.
"But its this kill officially makes me part of the group now right? Hehe," Nira giggles.
"Are you sure you belong in a church?" Lark questions Nira's sanity.
"Now is not the time to be chatting!" Adia says stabbing a solider.
"Yea, stop flirting!" Anna says pouting while stabbing the other solider.
"I..." Lark looks down "BLITZ! CHARGE! GO!" Lark starts running forward just trying to get away from the situation completely.
"What a shy boy," Nira comments before running ahead as well.
"Aaaadia! Its so annoying trying to fly inside" Anna whines.
"Calm down, Anna. I know its hard to fly properly but we gotta just take it slow. You could always dismount and fight like a foot solider too though." Adia flies slowly forward.
"Ahhh, wait up! Fighting on the ground is so slow though!" Anna tries to catch up without crashing.
Flare makes it to the stairs where 4 soldiers are guarding.
"This is as far as you go!" one solider threatens.
"Yea, that's what they all say," Flare says not caring what the solider said.
"Get him!"
The soldiers surround Flare. Flare scans around him without turning his head too much.
"Some men you are," Flare provokes them.
One solider jumps forward to strike Flare. Flare side steps him then kicks him down when he lands.
"Please, don't you guys get trained properly?" Flare continues his conniving speech.
Flare stands on top of the solider he knocked down, putting his weight on him to make it hard for him to stand up. Two soliders this time make a lunge at him. Flare holds his halberd vertically then after squeezing it between the gap of the lunges, he spins his halberd around to parry both lunges at the same time. Flare then strikes one solider with the butt of his halberd then swings his halberd into the other, inflicting a wound on his shoulder.
"This guy is a monster!" the solider who didn't participate yet says. He falls down onto his butt in fear.
"GET UP AND FIGHT, MAGGOT!" a voice yells while walking down the stairs.
Flare rests his halberd on his shoulder, awaiting the one coming down.
"What incompetent soldiers. Must I do everything myself?" The man sighs as he pulls his sword out. "You there boy, I don't know your motive, but I always love a good fight." the man says praising Flare's combat ability. "Soldiers go deal with the rest of the intruders, I'll handle this one."
"Sir!" The soldiers quickly run away.
"I am sergeant Garen. Prepare yourself"
"I am Flare, a pirate that was hired by some Etrurians."
"Etruria, eh? Must be getting desperate if they are resorting to pirates. Well, lets get started shall we?" Garen holds his sword out.
Flare holds his halberd out. They both nod at each other and swing their weapons, clashing blows. Garen's sword was under the blade part of Flare's halberd, so Flare pulls down and away on his halberd. Garen realizing Flare's intention, pulls his sword back. Flare then makes a lunge forward as Garen rolls to the side to avoid it.
"Such a difficult weapon to deal with. Tsk," Garen clicks his tongue while getting into stance. "You solider who has been trying to hide and not fight!"
"Y-yes, sir!" the solider stutters cause he thought he was hiding well enough.
"Get me my horse and lance, this one is troublesome." Garen murmurs at the end of his statement. The solider runs off to the back exit.
"Boy, why are you just a mere pirate? You have some potential that shouldn't be wasted just plundering villages," Garen says trying to by time.
"It's complicated." Flare gives a quick short answer.
"Eh? So you aren't a pirate for money? Are you being squeezed?" Garen questions Flare thinking perhaps Flare is being forced to be a pirate.
"Lets just say family issues." Flare gets into stance.
"Sir! Your horse and lance!" the scared solider returns.
"Excellent," Garen tosses his sword away and jumps on top of his horse and takes his lance. "Let the real fight begin!" Garen points his lance towards Flare.
"I don't think you know what you are dealing with..." Flare says quite dumbfounded at Garen's choice to get his horse.
Garen charges forward and lunges at Flare riding by. Flare blocks the lunge, but staggers backwards from the force.
"Hahaha, boy this is what happens when you fight a mounted foe." Garen gets overconfident and charges again.
Flare anticipates where Garen's next lunge will be and dodges while tripping the horse with his halberd. Garen lands and slides a short distance from where he fell.
"What?" Garen is confused at what happened.
"My weapon specializes in dealing with cavalry, I don't know why you decided to put yourself at a disadvantage. Quite the novice mistake, sergeant." Flare taunts Garen. Flare positions the blade of his halberd near Garen's neck. "You are to be captured alive."
"Flare!" Lark and the rest arrive at the stairs. Lark notices Garen on the ground and recognizes his rank by his armor. "That's the sergeant! What is he doing here?!"
"You said he was a paladin, so I figured I could take him if he was dismounted and if not, it'd be even easier to deal with." Flare says quite proud of himself.
"Solider, go get Percival! Tell him we captured the sergeant!" Lark orders a messenger to be sent.
"They captured the sergeant?" Percival questions the messenger as he is being guided to the third fort.
"I saw him with my own eyes being held captive by sir Flare!" the solider says not knowing how to feel about it.
"Interesting... Even if Lark was there, you need some quality men to deal with the ranks of Bern. That boy took down a paladin just like that eh? He might prove to be a valuable asset later on, I should make sure to cultivate him properly." Percival says to himself, nodding his head.
Percival arrives onto the scene where Garen is being held captive by Flare and the crew.
"So I am graced by the Knight General himself finally eh?" Garen laments his situation. "Might I ask why you guys even invaded a territory of Bern?"
"A land you unjustly took from the Sacae nomads? How can anyone respect that the land belongs to Bern?" Percival says.
"Pfft, as if Etruria cares about the Sacae nomads. Your king just wants the land for himself as well, he's just mad Bern got to it first." Garen laughs at Percival's statement.
"Lock him up, seems our prisoner has a big mouth despite his situation." Percival orders his soldiers. Percival then turns to Flare "I didn't see you fight yourself, but from the looks of it, you don't look like you've been pushed to your limit yet."
"Pardon?" Flare says confused at Percival's statement.
"Lets just say I have my eye on your growth from now on." Percival saws putting some expectations on Flare. "Now then, lets head back to Etruria"
Well this was sorta long (threes time as long as last chapter). Probably why it ended up going inactive cause I planned so much for this chapter and overloaded myself and ran into a writer's block. Though it didn't help my USB drive was stolen which had the documents on it so I had lost my motivation to continue writing it. Well I don't know if I'll have enough motivation to keep writing it out completely, but I'll just keep writing till I get tired of doing so.