Warning: Long chapter cause I don't know how to stop lol.
I was thinking how people ranked in the military in the past and I realized I have no idea. I'll just stick to what I'm going with, don't think people will be that much of a stickler about it.
Chapter 6: Motives
Flare and crew have captured Sergeant Garen alive. With General Percival, they travel to a fort back in Etruria to keep the prisoners there. There are some mixed emotions inside Lark.
Lark is lying down outside under a tree. He starts observing the subtle differences in the shapes of the leaves to take his mind off whats been bothering him since the offense on the Bern supply camp.
"How are the leaves?" Nira asks Lark as she appears over his head.
"It's quite surprising how the leaves are all pretty unique. I guess when one takes the time to look at nature, you realize how life is not the same between two of the same things. This leaf has a nice round shape and the one next to it is a bit more longer than round, but it's not something a person will notice unless he or she takes the time to observe the differences," Lark answers her question literally.
"Hooo," Nira is surprised at Lark's in-depth answer.
"Then there are the bugs and animals that inhabit the trees. The differences in animals are much more easier to see since they aren't limited to being motionless sugar producers." Lark continues to babble on.
"Animals are cute," Nira comments.
"Not all animals act cute though, some animals can't seem to adapt well enough as others to take advantage of other creatures. You'll see one squirrel gather the nuts and another steal the nuts from him. The first one doesn't even do anything about it and forever gets taken advantage of." Lark sighs.
"Guess I never thought about the affairs of animals between other animals." Nira holds her hand on her chin and tries to act like she's thinking.
"Arggh, this aggravates me to much too. Humans are much worse than this." Lark starts to burrow his head in his arms.
"I think you're just over thinking this." Nira says deciding to sit down next to Lark now.''
"I don't think you understand. War is all about deceit. You have to fool your enemy to get the advantage. That is the most stressful part trying to be a tactician. I have to be able to hide my motives while reading the motives of others." Lark sighs again more strongly than last time.
"Is that what is bothering you?" Nira asks.
"Pretty much. I don't know enough at the moment." Lark says.
"Don't you have anyone to lean on? You can't do everything alone now. You need to have trust in somebody." Nira says, but something was off in how she said it.
"You don't sound like you mean that." Lark says, questioning why Nira is speaking like that.
"Well... in the church we deal with people coming in with stress or depression... so they've taught us how to console others to help them feel better." Nira smiles.
"But you don't sound like you believe what you are saying. You are just being a parrot."
"I don't really know, I just go with the flow I guess." Nira rocks back and forth.
Lark sits up straight before continuing. "So you don't really think at all?" Lark asks quite bluntly.
"Well, everything happens for a reason. I just make the most of what happens. I don't really care what happens since the church has said you have to be patient with what happens. I just move forward believing things will be all right in the end." Nira smiles at the end of her statement.
"I feel like that's just a way too reckless way of living. I like to have control of my life." Lark responds.
"Well, your stress from trying to have control sure is doing you good." Nira lightly retorts.
"I..." Lark had no answer since Nira was right about that. "I guess letting go of some things will be beneficial for me. I will have to sort out which is more pertinent to me." Lark stretches and slightly feels better. "Still, you killed someone during the assault. How does it feel to kill someone?" Lark asks.
"The correct question is 'Am I killing a person for a justified reason?'. I was killing people because I was hired to protect you," Nira pauses just to tease Lark. "And the rest of the group. As for how it feels, well killing doesn't feel good at all, not one bit. But I can do it since I feel justified."
"I've never killed someone before, I may have directed people to kill others, but I've never taken a blade to someone before." Lark says with his hands clasps together, twiddling his thumbs.
"What kind of man will you be if you can't protect the ones you love?" Nira strikes a chord.
"I... " Lark looks down to himself and thinks what would he do if he was a man with a family. As he thought, he leans forward and then hits the ground in frustration. "I've tried to use weapons before but I've always been bad at utilizing them properly. I lack strength and skill to properly fight. I lack any form of magical prowess. Any time I fought, it would just a stall battle where I would just be dragging out the match with my speed. Sure I could dodge, I could even take a hit, but I just couldn't aim properly and during the off-chance I landed a hit, there was no strength behind it." Lark says disappointed in himself.
Nira wraps an arm around Lark and then leans her head on his shoulder. Lark flinches from Nira's sudden advancement.
"You simply lack motivation to fight right now. You have a mental block not letting you get better." Nira states, not moving from her position.
"Nira, please-" Lark was about to say something but gets cut off by a yell from someone else.
"Hey lovebirds, its time for lunch!" Flare yells out.
Lark immediately stands up and face palms embarrassed while Nira, who skillfully dodged Lark when he stood up, waves back at Flare saying she'll be right there.
At the dinner table, Flare's group is on one table.
"Lark I see you making the moves on Nira." Flare whispers and playfully nudges Lark who is sitting next to him.
"More like she's just doing whatever she wants." Lark sighs, still embarrassed.
"Well its a good chance man, men don't normally have a beauty give them so much attention," Flare continues to tease.
"Beauty this, beauty that, why don't you go after her if she's such a beauty." Lark snaps back in a loud whisper.
"Yarr, what lass be crazy to like a pirate?" Flare says, switches to pirate mode.
"You can easily abandon that lifestyle with your connections." Lark remarks.
"Tsk..." Flare gets slightly upset at that remark.
"Do you want to be like your parents that much?" Lark asks Flare.
"..." Flare is silent. "You wouldn't understand. You get to be like your father quite easily."
"I wouldn't say easily..." Lark scratches the back of his head. He thinks back to what Nira said about leaning on someone and thought perhaps Flare can be a good candidate to lean on. "I mean, I've gotten separated from him, time and time again due to how famous he is. I couldn't catch a break where I get to enjoy a day with him without being pursued by an an army who wants to capture the brilliance of the mind my father has."
"At least your father tried to be with you... Mine just sent me off to boarding school. A noble's boarding school nonetheless..." Flare says annoyed at something.
"Perhaps your father actually wanted better for you, instead of being like him," Lark noticed Flare's reaction and tries to calm him down.
"Tsk..." Flare grits his teeth annoyed but knowing that being a pirate isn't exactly the most ideal life to live.
"What if..." Lark starts to think of an idea. "Now hear me out, this might sound crazy... but what if you became a knight that traveled the sea?" Lark blurts out a crazy solution.
"What?..." Flare blinks a bit to understand what Lark said.
"Like what if you joined an army, and your squad specialized in sailing the sea. Then you can sail the sea like your father did, but live a noble life!"
"That's preposterous. There is no use of sea warfare for a kingdom. That would only be useful for like the Western Isles where sea combat would be the most common." Flare says.
"That's also where the most pirates live, imagine if you took over the Western Isles and ran a sea kingdom!" Lark gets excited a little, mainly for getting his mind off whats bothering him.
"You know... that wouldn't be a bad idea now that I think about it. I can become the pirate king!" Flare smiles to himself.
"I think you missed the part where i said you run a kingdom, not just terrorize people taking their possessions and money..." Lark tries to get Flare away from the whole pirate business.
"Who says I have to loot people of their wealth?" Flare asks.
"The definition of the word "pirate" means a person who robs ships at sea. There is no such thing as being a pirate who doesn't steal, otherwise you aren't a pirate."
"Semantics," Flare tries to brush off what Lark said.
Lark thinks for a couple of seconds then has a reply. "Okay, I think I have the solution to your problem. You become a pirate, who steals from other pirates! Eventually you become pirate king, rule the seas, and stop piracy from existing ever again cause you squash any other pirates that show up." Lark says this like its a brilliant idea.
"Stop, just stop. No matter what you say, you make being a pirate sound bad."
"Because it is bad!" Lark was a bit loud and drew the attention of the rest of the table. Farina quickly runs up to Lark and pulls him aside into a hallway.
"Haaa... You don't talk about not being a pirate to Flare. He's very sensitive about that subject." Farina pants a little.
"Why is he so fixated about being a pirate?" Lark can't understand what Flare is thinking.
"Its because... his little sister is actually a pirate." Farina says.
"W-what? His LITTLE sister?" Lark asks confused.
"Flare was fine with going to a noble school, understood that his father wanted a better life for him. But when his sister was taken in by his father and she would join their father in raids and eventually learned how to use an axe and fight on the front lines with their father, it hit him very hard." Farina explains.
"This doesn't make any sense..." Lark is lost for words from this new influx of information.
"This is why this is a sensitive topic for Flare, because he feels like his father doesn't want him and he's trying to get his father's attention." Farina bites her lip in frustration of the situation. "I've tried my best to support Flare. I've traveled with Flare to give him experience similar to what my husband went through of traveling the world."
Lark is silent.
Lark goes outside for fresh air as the evening starts. He goes to return to the tree he pretty much studied during his stay here. When he arrives he notices somebody is there already.
"Who are you?" Lark asks.
"I'm Brando, Lark.. you forgot about me already?" Brando steps closer out of the shade of the tree.
"I'm surprised you're still here to be honest." Lark says.
"What?.." Brando is surprised at Lark's statement.
"You are from Bern, why do you follow us? Us, who are pretty much fighting Bern as of now?" Lark asks.
"H-how can you tell?" Brando asks nervously.
"Adia actually recognized you and informed me about it. I decided to just observe you for now as it would be easier to contain an enemy within our ranks than when he's not." Lark simply states.
"But why are you being open with me now?" Brando nervously asks.
"Because of yesterday's raid that you sheepishly took part in. While you were really trying to not stand out, which you did well at, you still assisted us and even inadvertently killed some Bern soldiers. Since its unprecedented for a spy to kill fellow allies directly or indirectly and you do not have a sinister aura, I take it that you are most likely a deserter." Lark states seeking confirmation from Brando.
Brando holds his head down, partly due to shame. Being known as a deserter is not something people of leadership can overlook as a quality in a fighter.
"It is true I deserted Bern, but..." Brando trails off since he didn't know how to put the next sentence yet.
"But what?" Lark pressed Brando.
"I was fine with joining the army, but later I noticed there is disunity in the army. Some of the generals in the army are not loyal to the current king of Bern and they have been instead loyal to a lord of their choosing. The king has 3 generals who have pledged loyalty to him and then there are 3 generals who have pledged themselves with different lords of the land. I ended up being assigned into one of the generals who now works on occupying Sacae."
"Generals are allowed to pledge to who they want?" Lark asks quite surprised at the social disorder in the army of Bern.
"If the king were to force the generals to pledge to him, it would induce a civil war, at least that's what I think he fears would happen in the worse case scenario. It's not uncommon for generals to pledge to high-ranking lords over the king. Who you pledge to just determines who pays you in the end. There hasn't been a world war that being unified would matter for Bern, so this 'issue' of who the generals pledge to is not seen as a problem."
"So the mishaps of Sacae are the results of some lords who have a personal army?"
"That is correct."
Lark ponders over the army situation of Bern but then realized he has a more relevant topic to address to.
"So what was your situation in the army?" Lark asks a simple question.
"People don't get to choose what general they work for. I was assigned under General Jarvan."
"Oooh? The same General Jarvan set a record on being the youngest person to become a general at the age of 16?"
"Yes... That one." Brando sighs.
"I've only heard of his achievements, but they are pretty astounding considering he's only had 4 years to do anything as a general." Lark speaks in a tangent. "Even if he is from Bern, there is much to learn from him and his tactics."
"Truth be told, General Jarvan has been missing for a month now." Brando delivers unexpected news.
"Missing?" Lark asks to confirm what he heard.
"Rumor says he's run away with a mistress to abandon the stress he's been suffering from a general." Brando says trying to give what he can to Lark.
"Given his age, I wouldn't be surprised if he desired companionship, but to run away from his responsibilities? Sounds dubious..." Lark starts trying to rationalize the general's motive.
"With him going missing, the other lords have started to seize the land of Sacae that General Jarvan has annexed for themselves," Brando says uneasy.
"Why is politics such a mess," Lark face palms at this new knowledge he has gained.
"I don't know..." Brando holds his head down again.
"Well, what you said isn't that much new to me except the whole generals getting to choose who they pledge loyalty too. Not that I expected any new information from you as a basic soldier isn't told much about the intricate details of politics. Since everything matched up with what I know from beforehand, I know you aren't lying to me now."
"Ehehe..." Brando laughs in nervousness and a slight fear.
"You are free to stay for now. We are still keeping an eye on you just due to you being from the other side of conflict before, but do not let it bother you. This group here..." Lark closes his eyes for a second before continuing. "This group here is a trusting one. They won't pry into your affairs. Just don't break our trust now, Brando.
Brando feels slighted scared but more so relieved as he is not in trouble but in fact can continue to stay with the group despite his origins.
Lark takes the time to now visit Sergeant Garen, who is locked up in a cell. The soldier on guard lets Lark through since Lark did direct the assault that got him captured in the first place.
"And you are?" Sergeant Garen asks from Lark's presence appearing in front of him.
"I am the lowly tactician of this group. Pleased to meet your acquaintance." Lark speaks cautiously and formally.
"Ha, lowly. Wiping out the archers on guard into a simultaneous assault on the three forts is not something a lowly tactician will think of. Even then, the specific assault in the fort I was in was superbly done from what I noticed. The other forts weren't even captured yet when I was being dragged out of the fort I was in." Garen says with praise.
"That was more so due to the exceptional performance of Flare."
"Yes, yes, that man. He does not fight like a mere pirate. That man has a refined fighting style with some finest roughness added to it. Its like he's trying to be a noble pirate, hahaha," Garen laughs at the thought of such a notion.
"Let me cut to the chase now, I want to know about Bern's disunited army." Lark states.
"Heh, everyone wants a squeeze on Bern." Garen smirks.
"Its starting to become obvious to the public eye, I don't see Bern avoiding civil war if it doesn't break up into states." Lark says.
"You are correct to make that assumption. In fact, the lords are thinking of separating into states. Even if they just take a small part of Bern with them, they are invading to Sacae to extend their borders and resources." Garen states easily not caring.
"Do you agree with it?" Lark questions.
"I don't care in the long run. I just want to get fame and fortune. Doing acts of war are the best way to meet such results." Garen says.
"So you don't care about the human lives in the way of that?"
"Heh, don't get all moral on me. You direct an invasion on Bern and talk about morals? Talk about hypocrisy." Garen verbally jabs at Lark.
"I'm just a mercenary trying to gather information," Lark states, keeping a good poker face.
"I don't know how personal questions lead to information, but fine I'll oblige. As long as they fight back I will turn my blade to them. There is no honor in killing civilians." Garen says with his eyes closed.
"So the nomads of Sacae..." Lark mutters quietly but Garen heard him.
"The people of Sacae were too prideful, many fought to the death of their tribes. It's fairly admirable but since the fights were lopsided they were folly in their attempt to stop us. They lacked a front line to be supported by their superb troopers. Their swordsmen just would get slaughtered in a futile attempt to attack the knights and wyverns knight," Garen states.
"What are the chances of two lords having their armies fight each other?" Lark continues questioning Garen.
"Its more appropriate to ask 'when will they fight' but you get the point yea?" Garen says.
"Does the king plan to do anything about it?"
"Hell if I know! I only know from my perspective of being on General Jarvan's side." Garen makes a shrugging motion.
"Last question, how big is the squad coming to rescue you?"
"Around 40 to 50 men." Garen smirks.
Lark had rushed to General Percival to inform him of the information he extracted.
"Fairly more than I expected but being outnumbered was very normal for your father so this is better for me to watch."
"This will be my first defense so I will need to go prepare a little extra, excuse me," Lark exits out of Percival's room.
As Lark is walking back to his room, he starts thinking about the layout of the fort and how to place people in it. Putting the fort at the middle of the layout facing downward, there was a mountain range directly behind it spreading out and surrounding the fort in a half circle that was tilted to the left. Somewhat in front of the fort was two mountains with a forest in between. So there were 3 ways the soldiers could approach the fort. There was from the east and southwest in the open. And then there was coming through the forest from the south. While the south would be quicker as Bern could avoid going around the mountains, the choke point in the mountains is easily blocked by a person or two. Course there is always the flying threat coming from behind, but the direction of Bern is from the south, it would take a while for a flank to come from behind the fort.
Now for positioning the army, Lark figured to keep the bulk of the cadets at the fort be a giant mass making it impossible for any 1 person to sneak in. He then would set out smaller squads to weaken any forces trying to pass or just outright kill them. Adia and Anna as fliers are useful here for being able to do some guerrilla warfare using the mountains to camp on. At this point he starts going through who he can send and realizes that he only had Flare, Brando, Adia, Anna, and Nira which is way to few people he can send. Percival did not want to interfere and paid a hefty sum to Farina to also not join.
As Lark was stressing out on how few people he could rely on, he bumps into a girl. Before she fell, he caught her by her hand just in time.
"I'm sorry! I wasn't paying attention!" Lark says quickly trying to diffuse the situation.
"It's alright, I wasn't looking either," says the girl.
Lark takes a look and notices she had red hair with a single braided pony tail behind her. From her dress, she was one of the healers from the church.
"Ah ha!" Lark exclaims quite happily.
"Wh-what is it?" the girl is taken aback from Lark's sudden behavior.
"You stand out in my eyes, thus meaning I need you," Lark says without thinking about how what he said can be taken wrong.
"Y-you need me?!" the girl says with shocked expression, blushing slightly.
Lark then clasps both his hands on the one hand he held from saving her from falling. "Yes!" Lark looks very earnestly in her eyes.
"I-I... I'm part of the church, I can't just... this is so sudden..." The girl starts babbling fragments of sentences coming to her mind and blushes even harder.
"Come with me!" Lark then lightly jogs towards his room dragging the girl along.
"Aren't we skipping too many steps?!" the girl says as she is dragged along.
"Lark you playboy." Anna says laughing with Flare.
"Lark, this is unfitting behavior from our tactician. You must show commitment first before trying to bring a girl to your room!" Adia scolds Lark.
"I didn't know you were into red heads..." Nira says looking away slightly dejected.
"You need to teach me how you can be so popular so easily," Brando decides to have a little fun and join it with making fun of Lark.
"Larissa are you really into a guy like Lark?" Nira then turns towards the girl Lark dragged along.
"I don't know anything right now," Larissa says feeling light headed.
"What seems to be the commotion here?" Percival asks as he happens to be walking by.
"Oh no," Lark had a really bad feeling.
"The simple answer is that Lark was bringing a girl to his room," Flare says.
"Ah youth, what a wonderful age," Percival tries to hold himself from laughing to hard. He then notices Larissa. "Lark do use some wisdom as we need to keep our healers ready for battle soon. We can't have them fatigued before the battle even starts now." Percival smirks, trying really hard not to explode.
"There is always the muscle man!" Flare says.
"Ah, that's a good point, feel free to do what you want then Lark," Percival then carries on his way.
"THIS ISN'T WHAT IS LOOKS LIKE!" Lark yells out.
Everyone, besides Lark and Larissa, laughs uncontrollable.
"I can't believe these people." Lark says face palming in his room.
"S-so what do you need from me?" Larissa asks nervously.
"I need your help for the upcoming battle." Lark says getting to the point.
"I believe I'm already being deployed, why would you have to bring me to your r-room..." Larissa blushes at mentioning the word room.
"Because being a healer isn't your potential." Lark says turning towards Larissa.
"H-how..." Larissa looks confused and shocked at Lark's statement.
"There are three things I noticed to confirm my assumptions. First is how your hand felt. It wasn't a pure softness that maidens normally have."
"How rude! I'm still a maiden..." Larissa blushes at remembering having her hand held but is upset at Lark's comment.
"Next was the look in your eyes. When I looked into your eyes, it had a fierceness to them. Before you started babbling fragmented statements, you were ready to strike if need be." Lark continues.
Larissa blushes more remembering the intense stare Lark gave her while being so close to her face.
"Lastly was when we I was dragging you along, you were keeping up way to easily. While I am not a fighter, I do have some speed that keeping up with me means you are capable at movement. With these three traits, your potential is more so inclined towards being a myrmidon instead of being a cleric."
Larissa's face returns to normal and she becomes silent at Lark's last comment.
"I threw away the sword," Larissa says. "I'm not suited at killing people. Saving others is better for me."
"I understand your plight, but you can save people with the sword in ways the staff cannot save people." Lark says trying to persuade Larissa.
"What do you mean?" Larissa asks wondering what Lark meant.
"Lets say its just you and one other person. With a staff, you can heal him repeatedly but if he can't fight then you're just stalling his death. Likewise, with only a staff, you won't be able to protect yourself." Lark says.
Larissa looks down to the ground. "I'd rather die than kill someone again. Tsk..." Larissa clicks her tongue and squeezes her cloak with her hands. A tear rolls down Larissa's cheek.
"Well, would you rather watch your companions die than fight to protect them?" Lark continues to probe Larissa verbally.
"I... I... " Larissa is lost for words.
"I have a sword here. I want you to just hold on to it. If your resolve hardens, then fight with me. If you cannot draw it, then hang it for decoration then." Lark says holding a sheathed sword out in front of Larissa.
"This is a wo dao!" Larissa exclaims looking at the sword held out in front of her.
She instinctively reaches out for it. She takes the sword from Lark and then draws it out and looks at the blade.
"It's so clean and pure. I'm almost sad to think this will get sullied by blood." Larissa says. She then without thinking, swings the sword naturally. "Where did you find this sword?"
"During my journey, I was in the plains of Sacae. I found it hidden at a grave. Bern was attacking and I felt that letting the sword fall into Bern's hand would be against the wishes of the one who left the sword there." Lark comments.
"I feel as if the sword is speaking to me..." Larissa says looking at the sword after swinging it. "If I'm like this... I can fight. I feel the need to get stronger when I hold this sword." Larissa closes her eyes.
Upon closing her eyes Larissa sees a memory from the sword. Two swords engaged at battle to the death. She sees a young man holding the wo dao clashing blows with an older man.
"Fa- father?" Larissa says opening her eyes abruptly.
"Did the sword actually speak to you?" Lark curiously asks.
"I... I think this sword belonged to my father." Larissa says.
"Was your father from Sacae?" Lark asks.
"All I know is... I'm considered a bastard." Larissa turns her head in shame. "My mother was a noblewoman from a fairly high status. From the short years I lived with her, she told me that she society didn't allow her to be with my father but that they desired each other. My mother was stressed completely just trying to keep me from being thrown out like trash. That stress was the undoing of her as she died at such a young age. Once she died, I was abandoned here at the church." Larissa starts tearing up.
Lark puts his hand on Larissa's shoulder. "You've survived till now, I'm sure your parents would be happy to know you are alive and well." Lark says trying to reassure her.
"Please lend me your shoulder," Larissa says as she moves forward and leans on Lark.
Larissa holds on to Lark and cries for a while.
"I can't believe you still brought her into your room after all the chastising we gave you!" Flare says surprised.
"I had something important to discuss with Larissa." Lark says unfazed. With Lark showing no signs of letting himself get teased, Flare drops the topic.
"Alright, you all should know by now that I've been prepping a battle strategy up. That is because Bern is launching an attack to get their men back." Lark delivers grim news of war.
"It wasn't out of my expectations," Flare comments back.
"Given our location. I have a strategy ready. Its fairly simple. We'll send you guys in pairs for guerrilla warfare to weaken them to the point that the cadets will finish off any stragglers that make it to the fort. I doubt the soldiers of Bern will chase you guys deep into the forest, as it will be to their disadvantage to break formation as well as making them easy targets once they separate from each other. So whenever you get overwhelmed, escape deep into the forest and you should be safe to take a breather, to treat wounds, and to reposition." Lark says as he brings out a small chest.
"Is what I think is it?" Adia asks, guessing the contents of the chest.
"These are vulneraries. These should help you guys treat wounds faster to get back into the fight faster. One set for each of you, each one should last 3 uses." Lark says as he hands out vulneraries to everyone.
"So what are the teams?" Nira asks.
"We'll split up into 3 pairs. First pair will be Adia and Anna as they will be a great flying unit together." Lark says.
"As expected," Adia comments.
"We're inseparable!" Anna shoots her fist in the air.
"The next pairing will head to defend the southwest. Brando and Nira." Lark says.
"I-I'm with Nira?!" Brando jumps up from Lark's statement.
"Hoo, I believe you have to protect me then." Nira says accepting the decision already.
"That leaves Flare and Larissa for the west. The west will have the biggest influx of Bern soldiers. So I have high hopes you two can deal the heaviest damage in a short amount of time."
"Wait, Larissa is a cleric though, how is she going to be safe enough to heal Flare in the open?" Anna questions Lark's judgement.
"Ah that's because Larissa isn't a cleric." Lark says nonchalantly.
"What?" everyone except Lark and Larissa says. Some more louder than others.
"Yea, Larissa will be joining us as a myrmidon. We've been needing some variety from all the lance users we had and this will be great for dealing with any axe users that come now." Lark states.
"I will do my best," Larissa nods her head to motivate herself.
"I will go along with Adia and Anna as that will give me the best vision of the field."
Both Adia and Anna give a stare at Lark.
"What's with the stare?" Lark asks feeling a sweat drop.
Adia clears her throat before speaking. "Lark, you've been getting close with the ladies of the army."
"You need to show some restraint," Anna comments after Adia.
"Are we ignoring the fact that being airborne is the most ideal situation for me?" Lark says trying to keep his cool.
"You are a tactician, so you've obviously planned this out," Anna remarks back.
"I think you guys are ignoring the fact that in a fight, all four of you will defeat me." Lark says in a persuasive manner.
"He has a point," Adia says to Anna.
"Don't let his sweet talk affect you sister!" Anna says to snap Adia out of 'it'.
"Lark, your words are too strong on us. Please reconsider your plan." Adia then states.
"I don't even know what is sarcasm anymore..." Lark says flipping the table the map is on.
"I think he snapped." Anna says.
"He finally snapped." Adia says.
"Man it took all day to do this." Flare sighs.
"I sort of feel bad..." Brando comments.
"Ooo, so Lark does snap!" Nira says taking a mental note of her observation.
Larissa was confused and just stood there quietly waiting for the moment to pass.
On the field, Adia, Anna, and Lark are standing on a mountain south of the fort.
"I can't believe you guys were trying to push my buttons," Lark says face palming as he said it.
"To be honest, we thought it'd be a harmless prank, but you really have a strong limit." Adia says to Lark.
"Flare just wanted to mess with you to show he wanted to get past this afternoon's little dispute." Anna says smiling at Lark.
"I don't think that is the most ideal way to show wanting to get past it..." Lark hesitantly says.
"Lark, the army is approaching. They are starting to split left and right. With a small force heading straight." Adia reports.
"Excellent, we shall start with dealing with those going between the mountains. They will be easiest to deal with since they won't be able to fight back." Lark states.
The Bern soldiers navigating through the forest in the middle. Adia and Anna stand on opposite sides of the mountain with javelins ready. Lark had noticed that they didn't bring any ranged weapons with them. So once the soldiers got into range. Adia and Anna fly close enough to throw javelins at the soldiers. They start scattering trying to find cover.
"Someone go back and get ranged support down this path!" one soldier yells out. Another soldier starts retreating.
"Do not let them send someone back!" Lark yells out.
Adia takes this moment to fly down to melee the stragglers trying to run away.
Brando and Nira are west of the south mountain waiting for the first group of soldiers to pass by. Brando is silent because he feels awkward being alone with a beauty like Nira. Nira noticing Brando is uncomfortable, decides to give some words of encouragement.
"I'm depending on you to keep me safe, Brando." Nira says as if she's looking up to him.
"Y-yes! I will keep you out of harms way!" Brando responds nervously loud.
"What was that noise?" an enemy soldier is heard.
"Eep-!" Brando yelps but covers his mouth to stop himself from being heard.
Nira places her hands on Brando's shoulder from behind and lightly rubs Brando.
"Calm down. Focus on the objective. Don't think too much. Just focus... Foooocus on the objective." Nira puts a strong emphasis on the word focus.
"Focus..." Brando says as he starts to clear his mind. Brando resolves himself to just hampering the soldiers advancement.
Brando runs towards the edge of the forest and notices a soldier trying to scout around. Brando takes the time to edge his way towards the soldier. Once close enough he jumps out of the forest, launching a surprise attack. The soldier turns towards Brando and then flinches from the sudden appearance but then comes back to himself and readies his lance. He goes to block but since he didn't have much time to block, it wasn't a very good block. Brando heavily grazes the soldier's side causing him to fall to one knee. Brando takes the time to then pull back and launch another attack straight on to the soldier's abdomen, killing the soldier.
"The scout has been ambushed! Send word-" one soldier starts speaking but gets interrupted by a flash of light. "Chhk!" The soldier keels over.
Nira launched an attack on the soldier about to give an order to cause more chaos to the group. Soldiers start advancing towards the forest where the light came from. Brando quickly stands in their way.
"He's only one man! He can't hold us all back!" an enemy soldier says.
"I will not let you pass!" Brando says with conviction.
The three soldiers charge forward. Brando focuses on to holding all three of them down. Brando holds his shield forward then blocks the first two lunges but the third one slips past his shield, striking the side of his abdomen. Since it didn't pierce his armor, it wasn't too bad of a trade. Nira takes this moment to launch another attack one the soldier who landed a hit. The soldiers' resistance was nothing to write home to so soldiers were dropping from just one combo of light magic. Brando lunges at a soldier and holds him down. Nira finishes off the other soldier with another combo of light magic. The enemy soldier knowing he can't run away from the magic. Makes a last stand and charges at Brando. Brando goes for the block but the soldier put his entire life on this lunge. Brando gets knocked down with the soldier on top of him. The soldier holds his lance up to deal a final blow but the light magic strikes him to his dismay.
"Did I scare you?" Nira sticks her tongue out.
"I thought there was something wrong since he should have died before I got knocked down." Brando says sitting himself up. "Tsk..." Brando grabs his side where he was struck at.
"Lets apply a vulnerary on you." Nira says grabbing a vulnerary out.
"Stop, use mine since I am the one being healed." Brando says pulling out his vulnerary.
Nira takes the vulnerary from Brando and then applies on Brando's injury.
"I think we're forgetting something..." Brando says.
"What would that be?" Nira asks.
"Enemies in sight!" an enemy soldier is heard.
"Oh," Nira and Brando say in unison. They both forgot to retreat back into the forest to treat injuries!
"One is injured! Quick, give them no quarter!" the leading soldier says pointing his lance forward.
This was a squad of four soldiers and one archer. Brando is slightly injured but doesn't let it stop him from getting up and holding a stance to defend Nira.
"No, we retreat to the forest. If they chase us then we are still accomplishing the job. If not we can ambush them soon." Nira says pulling Brando back.
Brando nods at what Nira says and they retreat into the forest.
"Don't let them roam around! Snuff them out fast!" the leading soldier says.
The squad of 5 slowly approach the forest. Noticing them entering, Nira attacks one soldier with her magic and kills him. Realizing they can't approaching recklessly the soldiers regroup and advance together to be able to counter attack the magic if they get attacked. Brando jumps out to draw their attention. The soldiers begin to advance towards him. Nira attacks one soldier and he falls. The rest of the soldiers take this moment to charge forward. The archer in the squad readies his bow and sends an arrow in Brando ways. Brando gets grazed on his face by the arrow. The sudden arrow shocked Brando that he failed to properly defend from the other two soldiers charge. Brando gets pushed back, suffering blows to his chest and upper thigh. Nira uses her magic and kills another soldier.
"Dammit, that magic is too much." the leading soldier says as he and the archer are the last two of his squad alive.
Nira attacks again with her light magic but the leading soldier blocks it with his shield.
"I've seen you attack plenty of times, I can block this easy now." the leading soldier arrogantly yells out.
The archer readies and arrow and aims where he thinks the magic came from. After getting a good feeling, he fires an arrow out. The arrow flies and strikes Nira in her shoulder. It went through her shoulder, leaving a gaping wound with blood flowing out.
"Gheck!" Nira gasps from the sudden damage she took.
"Nira!" Brando yells out.
Brando charges forward toward the archer.
"No Brando! There is still a soldier there!" Nira cries out.
"Fool! Turning your back on your enemy!" the leading soldier smirks and lunges at Brando.
"Tsk..." Brando clicks his tongue and rolls forward to dodge the lunge.
Nira attacks the leading soldier. The first light strikes the soldier but he then he dodges the second strike of light. Nira then kneels down from the pain after attacking. She grabs her vulnerary and starts applying it on herself. The archer readies his bow and aims at Nira. Easy chance when she isn't even trying to dodge. The archer fires his arrow.
"Nooo!" Brando jumps into the way of the arrow and manages to block it with his shield.
"Tsk!" The archer clicks his tongue. He gets another arrow ready this time aiming at Brando. He thinks with the meat shield out of the way, Nira won't be able won't to run away as easily.
Brando stands up straight using his lance to hold him up. The leading soldier points his lance at Brando as a challenge. Brando picks up his lance and stands just on his feet to give off an impression of having strength to continue fighting. The soldier rushes at Brando and swings his lance. Brando blocks the simple attack, but then the soldier kicks Brando down. As he kicked, he suffered a strike of light magic from Nira. Nira's second strike of light grazes the soldier, but it was enough to knock him out.
"Damn magic is so cheap." the soldier says as he keels over.
The archer being the only one left decides to retreat. Nira noticing this gives a final attack out before he gets out of range. The archer not expecting it, get struck and dies from the blow.
Brando rolls around and gives a sigh of relief. Nira comes to Brando and starts applying more of the vulnerary on to him to patch him back up for another assault.
"Good work, Brando," Nira compliments.
"You did all the damage, I was just a meat shield," Brando says breathing heavy.
"I wouldn't have been able to do the damage without you preventing them from reaching me. You played a vital role in our victory." Nira says continuing to treat and compliment Brando.
"You're making me embarrassed," Brando chuckles.
"Phew, they survived," Lark sighs after the skirmish Nira and Brando were in.
"I was about to fly over and deal with it myself." Adia comments.
"Good thing you didn't, otherwise the cadets would have been in danger fighting a more experienced army." Lark replies.
"You mean those cadets?" Anna says pointing at a group of men advancing from the fort.
"..." Lark is silent.
"Lets do this cadets! We came to fight like men! We will not let these Illian mercenaries do everything for us!" Darryl yells out. The group with him yell out in agreement. "Here comes the enemy!"
A squad of seven is approaching. Three soldiers and four archers show up. Darryl's group is just a group of 8 soldiers.
"Form in two lines of four! The second line should support the front!" Darryl orders out.
"Darryl! They have archers, how should we deal with them?" an ally soldier asks.
"Archers? We never trained for that!" Darryl says trying to not look and sound nervous.
Adia, Anna, and Lark arrive.
"Perfect timing you guys." Lark says.
"You aren't mad we left?" a soldier asks.
"No, no. It works out now, but do listen to how I direct you." Lark advises them.
"I do not need the help of an Illian mercenary!" Darryl speaks out against Lark.
"We agree." the rest of the soldiers said.
"You guys!" Darryl says embarrassed now.
"Alright! Support Adia and Anna! Blitz the archers! Adia and Anna will handle the soldiers easily." Lark commands.
The group of 8 soldiers sprint forward toward the groups.
"Form up! Just form a wall and let the archers do the- eeeuuk!" the soldier speaking gets stabbed by Adia in a flash.
The group of enemy soldiers quickly become alert and the archers start drawing their arrows. The ally soldiers at this point make it in time to interfere with the archers, not giving them a chance to fire arrows at Adia and Anna. Adia smashes the next soldier and Anna deals with the last one with ease. The four archers couldn't do anything when surrounded and outnumbered. They died without putting up a fight.
"Execellent," Lark says.
"What now, Lark?" Adia asks.
"Adia you go and assist Brando and Nira now. They should be encountering one more squad. Anna, you take me up into the air so i can see how the battle is going!" Lark directs the two pegasus knight sisters.
"On it!" Adia flies off immediately.
"Lets go Lark!" Anna pulls Lark on to her pegasus and they fly up into the air.
High into the air, Lark observes the field. To his expectation, there was one more group of enemies approaching from the southwest. The center seems to be empty now which made Lark uneasy. Lark looks to the west. He sees the first group is about to reach where Flare and Larissa are waiting to ambush. Look behind them he sees a total of 3... 4... 5 groups! That's way more than what was supposed to happen. He looks further behind and sees the enemy's army flag in the last group, meaning that's where the one directing the army was.
"Anna, we have to quickly go and deal with the situation with Brando and Nira! Flare and Larissa are about to get bombarded heavily by enemy soldiers! We have to get support to them immediately!" Lark says worried about what Flare and Larissa are about to go through. Anna flies faster towards Brando and Nira upon hearing what Lark said.
The last group on the southeast approaches where Brando and Nira are at. Brando and Nira have patched themselves up and got enough rest to fight again. The group approaching are three soldiers, two fighters, and one myrmidon. Brando comes out of the forest and surprise attacks the group. He aims for the myrmidon as he is the most dangerous one for Nira. Brando jumps at the myrmidon and impales him square in the center of his chest making it a successful ambush. Nira follows up Brando by killing a soldier with a light attack combo. One of the soldiers lunge towards Brando, but Brando does a dodge roll to avoid it. A fighter was waiting for it and swings his axe at Brando as he finished his roll. Brando puts up his shield and feels himself sink into the ground from blocking. The other soldier and fighter approach Nira who is left open. The fighter attacks first and Nira dodges it with a side step. She does a quick light attack striking the fighter's head and then has to focus on dodging the soldier who attacks on her flank. The soldier lunges and Nira side steps him as well. Brando, seeing Nira in trouble, runs over towards those attacking Nira. Brando lands a blow on to the soldier. Nira follows up Brando by finishing off the soldier. Brando turns around and holds his shield up to do his best to hold off the three remaining enemies away from Nira. The closest one was the fighter who attacked Nira, he makes his assault first. He feints towards Brando and quickly dashes towards Nira. Nira somewhat expecting it, dodges and strikes him fight light magic as a counter attack. Nira wasn't fast enough to do a combo and focuses on retreating away. The soldiers launch a double attack towards Brando. Brando lacks the ability to block both of them at the same time so he blocks one completely while taking the blow from the other. Brando falls down to one knee from that blow. His armor got pierced this time as nothing went into blocking it, so when the spear was pulled out of him he felt some blood flow out. Brando starts coughing blood. He still holds on to consciousness as he is still focusing on protecting Nira. Nira attacks the fighter again which kills him leaving only the two soldiers left.
"You have to live Brando!" Nira cries out.
"I will... fight till I die... I will not... let you get hurt!" Brando yells out.
With that Brando taps into hidden reserves of energy and stands up as if he isn't hurt. "I will put everything into this one!" Brando grips his lance as hard as he can and charges forward. He jumps high and then smashes his lance on to one of the enemy soldier's shield. The force was so much so that the soldier's was toppled over and crushed under the blow. While it wasn't apparent, but the enemy soldier who blocked couldn't move anymore and was just stuck there with a broken body. However, the other soldier went completely ignored was prepped up to attack Brando once he landed. Brando fell to his knees as he used even his reserve of energy and was barely managing to hold himself up from collapsing. The soldier went for the attack but gets struck by light before he could attack. Nira dashes in front of Brando.
"Nira... what are you doing?" Brando asks barely with any energy to speak.
"I'm not about to watch a comrade die right in front of me!" Nira yells out without looking towards Brando.
The enemy soldier does a jumping lunge. Nira dodges to the right and then tries to repel the soldier back with light magic but only slightly knocks him back. This soldier was not like others and happened to be blessed with some good resistance. The soldier then ignores Nira and goes to finish of Brando. Nira not wanting to let that happen unleashes a combo of light magic which did enough damage to make the soldier think twice of ignoring her. The soldier turns his attention back to Nira realizing he won't have enough time to kill Brando without dying in the process and focuses on his defensive stance. The soldier then charges forward holding his shield out. Nira uses light magic at first but it gets blocked by the shield. Nira goes for another attack but the soldier deftly blocks it again. The soldier then goes for a sweep to prevent Nira from side stepping. Noticing the sweep, Nira jumps back but she wasn't fast enough and gets grazed by the sweep. Nira lands but then falls to her knees holding on to her abdomen that got scraped. The soldier goes for a lunge this time on to the defenseless Nira. Brando quickly dashes in the way and holds his shield up.
"Nira please! This is the last chance for you!" Brando says with the last of his breaths holding the soldiers attack back.
Nira seizes this chance and quickly fires off a light magic on to the soldier. The soldier then falls down, dead. Brando goes down to one knee and catches his breath.
"We... did it..." Brando says panting heavily.
"We're out of vulneraries. I don't think we can do anymore." Nira says not happy. "I was hoping to be more useful."
"You did plenty," Brando says to reassure Nira.
The flapping of pegasus wings can be heard. Adia arrives on to the scene.
"Good work you two," Adia says pulling out her vulnerary.
"Good work? Don't tell me you were watching the whole time!" Brando lies down on to his back face palming. "I really thought I was going to die back there!"
"I felt it would be rude to interrupt your prosperous growth of not being a coward," Adia says unwavering in her decision to not assist Brando and Nira. "I must admit, it was quite the spectacle."
"Give me a break..." Brando sighs.
"Brando was very manly back there, hehe," Nira decides to tease and compliment Brando at the same time.
"You guys!" Lark is heard yelling from a distance.
Anna and Lark arrive on to the scene and Lark starts talking without getting off the pegasus.
"There are no more enemy soldiers coming this way. We'll take you two back to the fort to get treated for wounds. Adia and Anna, after we transport them we have to go assist Flare and Larissa! They are going to be fighting too many soldiers and the leader is there as well!" Lark orders.
Adia takes Brando with her and Anna takes Nira and managed to fit Lark as well and they fly off to the fort to transport Brando and Nira for treatment.
Flare and Larissa are awaiting the first group of enemy soldiers to come from the west. Larissa scouts ahead and sees the first group coming with just 4 soldiers.
"It seems the scouting group has made it." Larissa reports back to Flare.
"Finally, I've been tired of just waiting here," Flare says while stretching himself. "We just have to make sure they don't report back from what they found."
Flare and Larissa jump out and attack the group of 4 in the open.
"The enemy is attacking!" one soldier quickly says.
"Report back!" another says.
"I'm on-" the soldier that started to retreat has his neck cut from behind, instantly killing him.
"Whew, didn't think I would be able to hit the small area between the helmet and body armor so easily still," Larissa says to herself aloud.
Larissa holds her blade out pointing it at the 3 soldiers left. The soldiers were now pincered by Flare and Larissa. Flare casually walks up to them while the soldiers are desperately trying to think of a plan to get out of this. Once Flare gets to close, they just snap and all blitz Larissa. Larissa dodges with ease and counterattacks each one lethally.
"Tsk..." Flare clicks his tongue. "Weak opponents are no fun." Flare walks back towards the forest. Larissa follows him.
The next group arrives shortly after. A group of 3 soldiers, 2 fighters, and 2 archers. Flare and Larissa jump out at the same time and ambush the two archers. The rest of the enemy units surround Flare and Larissa as the archers die from the ambush. Flare and Larissa put their backs to each other and wait for the enemy for make the first move. The fighters showed their impatience first and they launched a duo attack on Flare.
"Switch!" Flare yells out.
Flare and Larissa then switch spots and Larissa parries one of the fighters while dodging the other. She then counterattacks the fighter she parried with a horizontal 360 spinning slash, cutting completely through him. Not stopping there, Larissa dashes towards the other fighter. The other fighter was dumbstruck from Larissa's performance that by the time he realized he was in danger he couldn't muster a defense in time and gets sliced right through like his partner. The three remaining soldiers surround Larissa. Larissa notices where Flare is and quickly attacks the soldier Flare is behind of. With the soldier preoccupied defending against Larissa, Flare cuts the small area between the helmet and body armor, mainly to give off the message 'I can do this to, you know!' to Larissa. Larissa then dashes behind Flare as the two soldiers behind her attempted to attack her exposed back. The two soldiers miss and Flare sweeps his halberd, tripping both of them. Flare then stabs one of the soldiers in the heart while Larissa does a helm splitter on the other.
"Such a barbaric fighter," Larissa comments on Flare's fighting style.
"Killing doesn't have to be art," Flare sighs. "Must be cause your a girl. Girls like beautiful things."
"As if killing is beautiful," Larissa says, showing her distaste in killing.
"Maybe not the act, but the way you move the sword is quite breathtaking." Flare says defending his position.
"I just do whats natural to me." Larissa says turning her head away.
"A natural born killer?" Flare says the first thing that comes to his head.
"Tsk..." Larissa clicks her tongue with her head down at that comment.
Larissa notices shadows in the distance.
"It seems the next group is coming, let us hide for an ambush again." Larissa says as she runs back into the forest.
"Yea, yea, this time I'm not gonna let you do most the work," Flare says a bit disgruntled.
The next group. shortly after, is seen advancing.
"Seven... Eight... eleven... fourteen!" Larissa almost says the last number too loud from her surprise.
"It seems this is either a super group or two groups just merged together." Flare comments.
"Seven soldiers, three fighters, and four myrmidons," Larissa reports the types of enemies there are.
"Considering we didn't even get hurt against seven enemies, I'm sure fourteen will be an adequet challenge for us," Flare says confidently.
"It just feels overwhelming to be this heavily outnumbered," Larissa replies.
"Can't get better if all you do in win flawlessly!" Flare says doing a stretch preparing to get out.
"How should we handle this?" Larissa asks Flare for his advice.
"If Lark was here, he's probably go along the lines of having me deal with the seven soldiers and you deal with the fighters first then the myrmidons," Flare says the most logical answer that came to him.
"To bad enemies don't comply with what works best for us," Larissa replies.
"Lets just wing it. We're pretty good natural fighters and you dodge pretty much everything." Flare throws in a compliment.
"That's because if I don't dodge I'm dead." Larissa says to justify why her dodging ability.
"Well, I'll go first, that will give you a chance to kill two or three folks while they are preoccupied with me," Flare says with a smirk.
"Right behind you."
Flare dashes out of the forest.
"The enemy is attacking in the middle! Gwuaak!" says the closest soldier to Flare who gets taken care off right away.
Two soldiers then lunge at Flare. Flare dodges the first one and then parries the second. He then slams the butt end of his halberd on the one he parried and then focuses on dodging a third soldier who lunged at him quite sloppily. He counterattacks the third soldier as he left himself wide open to an easy kill. Taking the initiate from this, Larissa dashes out and attacks a nearby fighter. The fighter is caught off guard and dies before he knows what happened to him. Two myrmidons then point their swords at Larissa.
"Shouldn't there be honor in a sword fight?" Larissa says to the two myrmidons, challenging them.
"Fine! I accept your challenge!" says one of the myrmidons with pride.
The myrmidon then dashes towards Larissa. Larissa swings and they get sword locked. Larissa starts to get pushed back.
"In the end, you are still just a little girl!" the myrmidon taunts Larissa.
"That prejudice will be your undoing," Larissa snidely remarks back.
Larissa then stops pushing forward with her blade and the myrmidon trips forward from putting so much strength into overpowering her. Larissa then slices his exposed back and he lands on to the ground dead.
"Next?" Larissa smirks.
The other myrmidon dashes forward. Larissa swings and again another sword lock occurs. This myrmidon though did not care for honor and pride and had signaled a third myrmidon to sneak up on Larissa while they were sword locked. Larissa noticed too late. She tried to dodge by suddening pushing forward with a burst of strength but barely got grazed by the blade on her back. Larissa's time seems to slow down. She hears her heart beat very loudly.
"Father..." Larissa says in her mind.
Larissa sees a rerun of the vision of the man she assumed to be her father fighting the old man. This time it reaches to her father's defeat. Larissa suddenly feels a sudden influx of emotions welling up inside her. The myrmidon that locked swords with Larissa fell down from the sudden strength she displayed.
"This is not the strength of a little girl!" he says flabberguasted.
"Strength is not what defines the sword," Larissa says with her eyes turning a shade red. "I will show you my wrath."
"A de-" before the myrmidon could even finish talking, Larissa had already sliced his head off.
The myrmidon left tries to take a step back, but Larissa instantly closes the gap. The myrmidon had no time to react as he gets sliced and diced into three pieces. Larissa looks for the next person to kill.
Flare was surrounded by five soldiers. One soldier lunges from behind Flare. Flare side steps then strikes his abdomen quickly with the butt of his halberd while preparing to dodge the next attack. A soldier that was in front of Flare then goes to attack but Flare parries him back then does a jumping kick on to the soldier to dodge two other soldiers who were aiming to attack Flare at the time he parried. The two soldiers collide with each other and knock each other out. With this, Flare just had to focus on three soldiers for the time being. A soldier attacks and Flare blocks with his halberd then pushes the soldier back to dodge another lunge from another soldier. Flare then turns around to block an attack from the third soldier and then quickly shifts his position to cause the soldier to trip forward from pressing forward too much. Flare then slams the soldier down and stabs his back. The two soldiers left launch an attack at the same time. Flare holds up his halberd to defend. One soldier gets cut and blood splatters from his back, with some falling on to his comrade. The other soldier looks to see what happens and sees a blade fly into his face. His head cleaves into two.
"I'm never going to get to have fun," Flare sighs. "Always show up and finish everyone o-" Flare quickly blocks a sudden sword swing to his face. "Larissa? What are you doing?!" Flare squeezes out a statement while blocking a lethal swing of the sword.
"My blade seeks worthy opponents." Larissa says not sounding like her usually self.
"Have you been berserked? Shoot that's not good." Flare looks agitated at the situation. "I'll just have to survive till it wears out."
"Come at me!" Larissa harshly says.
Larissa jumps back to get out of the dead lock and then charges back in. Flare just focuses on defending to avoid hurting an ally.
"Come on and fight back! My blade hungers for challenge!" Larissa says angerily.
"This isn't a normal berserk... Something isn't right here." Flare mumers to himself while blocking Larissa's assault. "A person who is berserked won't be able to speak a full sentence properly... Larissa!" Flare calls out to Larissa who jumped back out of the second dead lock they entered.
"This is no time to talk, Flare!" Larissa says, posed to charge again.
"Flare! Larissa!" Lark cries out from Anna's pegasus.
"Oyi! Lark! Help!" Flare said entering a third deadlock.
"Larissa what are you doing!?" Lark says getting off Anna's pegasus.
"I must fight the strong!" Larissa says as she jumps out of the deadlock again.
"Larissa you have to come to your senses!" Lark says as he walks up to her.
"Lark! What are you doing?" Flare quickly readies himself to intercept Larissa.
"Just be quiet Flare, I think I know what Larissa is going through!" Lark says without taking his attention off Larissa.
"You are not a fighter, why do you approach me?" Larissa says shealthing her blade in the presense of Lark.
"Larissa, you have to take control of yourself back!" Lark continues to approach Larissa.
"It is my will that I wish to bring honor to my father!" Larissa speaks out passionately.
"..." Lark was about to say something but then remembered an important detail he was forgetting. "Actually, there is a group of soldiers coming from Bern. Bern is the region with the strongest army. You can fight a platoon from there!" Lark tries to divert Larissa's desire to fight for the benifit of the army.
"Strongest army you say?" Larissa takes the bait.
As if on cue, the last group of soldiers start to get close. It was two squads of ten soldiers with the leading figure behind them making it twenty one enemy units. Larissa did not want to waste time and immediately rushes towards them.
"Sir! We're under attacked!" an enemy soldier reports to the leading figure of the army.
"How are they defending with that rag tag team of cadets and Illian flappy donkeys? I, Lieutenant Xin, will not allow myself to be disgraced by this!" Lieutenant Xin says quite full of himself.
"A demon girl is killing everyone! Gwuaaak!" cries out an enemy soldier who gets slain at the end of his cry.
One by one, each enemy would fall to one strike from Larissa. The enemy soldiers were just too slow for her. They would try to attack and she would just counterattack effortlessly slaying each enemy with counterattacks. Not even a group of soldiers attacking at the same time could cover how flexibile Larissa was at dodging. Archers couldn't keep up with her speed to line up an arrow. By the time they could, Larissa was already in their face slashing them to pieces. Eventually all that stood was Larissa and Lieutenant Xin and two lackeys of his. Larissa's eyes still hold a red tint to them and scare the lackeys.
"She's a demon! That's not a human look in her face!" one lackey says.
"You imbecile! How daft are you?" Lieutenant Xin says to his lackey. "Look at her weapon! Its one of those soul possessing swords!"
"Isn't that only a fable to scare kids?" the other lacket says cowering a bit.
"There was a man who was called sword demon around 20 some years ago. He just wanted to fight and never stop fighting. People said his sword possessed him, but more accurately so his strong sword spirit was amplified by the sword that it took over his cognitive thinking."
"How do we stop her?"
"You either kill her or make her desire to fight end." Xin said holding his lance out. "But one thing to note she's not even at the sword demon's level of 20 years ago. She is just a mere myrmidon who picked up a sword she shouldn't have. I won't lose to a mere myrmidon as a prestigious high ranked paladin!" Xin says as he starts charging towards Larissa.
"A strong opponent!" Larissa looks like she is about to feast on some high quality meat.
Larissa dashes forward as Xin charges towards her. Xin goes for a simple lunge but Larissa jumps on to his lance then does a jumping slash towards Xin's head. Xin barely ducks in time but his helmet wasn't so lucky and flew off his head. Larissa lands on the ground and quickly chases after Xin. Xin turns his horse around but by the time he does he sees Larissa already jumping towards him already.
"Pretentious little girl!" Xin says as he thrusts his spear up.
Larissa holds out her sword and slides down Xin's spear before pushing off it for a spinning slash. Xin quickly kicks and manages to catch Larissa's slash with his foot, however the slash was strong enough cut through his armor and inflict a gash on his foot.
"Gahh!" Xin cries out as he falls off his horse.
Xin holds on to his cut foot in pain. Larissa starts walking towards Xin.
"Larissa wait!" Lark cries out while running on to the scene.
"Do not interfere in a duel of mine!" Larissa says pointing her sword towards Lark.
Lark doesn't take the threat to heart and continues to approach her.
"Killing you is pointless, don't come near me!" Larissa yells out.
Lark gets close enough that he could be struck by Larissa. Seeing Larissa still not attacking him, he stands right in front of her. While staring at each other, Lark is thinking of a way to disarm Larissa. Taking into account that Larissa does not want to kill someone who can not fight back, he thinks he can use the surprise factor to overpower her for one moment.
"You are giving off a strange look, you have a fierce look in your eyes but have no killing intent." Larissa comments during their stare off. "What is that feeling behind your eyes?"
Using this moment, Lark quick locks his arms around Larissa. Larissa gasps from the sudden embrace. Lark notices that she isn't resisting, then tries to reach for her sword by creeping one of his hands behind Larissa. But to Lark's surprise, Larissa drops the sword before he even got close to reaching it. Lark then feels himself get embraced back by Larissa. Lark then realizes he just made a terrible misunderstanding.
"Lark..." Larissa weakly says. "I'm sorry..."
"Don't worry about it. You've done well and come back to us." Lark says the first thing that comes to his head not knowing what to feel at the moment.
"I... this is why I threw away the sword..." Larissa says burying her head into Lark's bosom.
Larissa starts tearing up. Lark starts thinking of possible ways to get out of this. In his agitation of not finding a clean way out, he starts squeezing Larissa. Since Lark isn't that strong, Larissa doesn't feel the squeezing to hurt but instead feels it as if Lark is trying to bring her as close as possible. Larissa cheers up from that action and then just rests her head on Lark.
"Please save me again if I lose myself again," Larissa whispers out.
"Is it safe to interrupt now?" Flare asks Lark.
"Heh!?" Lark gasps then looks to his right while letting go. He completely forget that everyone else came with him.
"I support you two with my heart fully!" Anna says tearing up.
"That was a splendid display on being good supportive man," Adia gives a thumps up.
"You have my blessings," Nira says bowing to Lark.
"Um... um... congratulations!" Brando didn't know what else to say.
"But, but-!" Lark tries to say something.
"Larissa is lost in her own world. She's not even acknowledging our existence now," Flare says as he walks up to Lark who is still being embraced by Larissa.
Lark then looks down and sees that Larissa fell asleep with a smile on her face.
I might have gone overboard with this chapter, but it was an enjoyable chapter to write. I don't think the next chapters will be similar in length though. This chapter was long due to adding character depth to multiple characters.
Anyways, due to the length, I'm expecting many errors to be overlooked from just it being a daunting task to keep rereading it to find mistakes.
I wonder if I will have to add a romantic comedy tag at the rate I am going at.