A much faster update than the last one. Hope you guys enjoy it.
Thanks for the reviews everybody! I guess I haven't lost it just yet. I'll keep on doing what I'm doing in that case.
I'm going to quickly get some thanks out of the way since I'm a bit happy to be back.
Thanks for the welcome back SilverFlameHaze.
I'm glad to see you review again Mark-Kris Robin. It's all much appreciated.
To make a quick response to Chasticot, thanks for the reviews by the way, I promise you there will be no pairing of Vincent with Lucina so you may rest easy now.
Italics will be character's thoughts and /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ will indicate a scene change.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem nor do I own anything else I may reference. I only own my OCs.
Thief in the Night
"There, there. You're doing great, Choc. Keep it up," I said as I stroked Choc's mane slowly during our march.
We had continued in our march to the north as we slowly drew closer to the cold wintery land that was Regna Ferox. Temperatures were slowly dropping with each step we took. Not only that, but the winds were starting to pick up as well as we exited from the forest and started on our way through some plains. Our next goal was to pass through some mountains that should be close to us by this point. Once we had accomplished that, we should be right on Regna Ferox's border.
Currently, I had taken up Lissa's help on assisting me to get Choc more accustomed to the army's lifestyle. She guided me in calming Choc and it seemed to be working. He was much calmer than before even though he was surrounded by loud people.
"Wow, I'm surprised," Lissa spoke from next to me as I rode on top of Choc.
"What? Am I doing something wrong?" I asked in slight worry that I wasn't following her directions well enough.
"No, you're doing great! I just expected you to be more impatient is all. Ugh! Darn it! Why are horses so stubborn?!" Lissa responded as she mimicked an apparently very grumpy me with foot stomps and all.
Do I really sound like that?
"I'm not that impatient," I said in response to her imitation of me.
"You were back at the bridge," Lissa answered back with a small laugh as she stopped mimicking what was supposed to be me.
"Well, that's different, you know? It's pretty hard to stay calm when there's a bunch of things trying to kill you," I stated as my excuse.
"I know, I know. It's just funny seeing freaked out you in comparison to calm you. Oh, man. Some of the faces you made during Robin's plan! They were priceless!" Lissa said as she busted out laughing.
"H-Hey! What about you huh? I seem to remember a certain princess getting flustered at a comment about her size," I retorted back to the girl laughing below me with a grin.
"What?! I was not! I was just still a little mad about being chased by that Risen! It had nothing to do with my height!" Lissa replied as she pouted slightly.
I laughed to her reaction as I said, "I'm sure if you were mad at the Risen you would've easily taken it out without my help!"
"Is that supposed to be sarcasm?" Lissa asked while still pouting.
"Are you kidding me? No, it's not sarcasm! You hit pretty hard with that damn staff!" I answered while pointing to her staff.
Lissa stopped her pouting fit as she looked at her own staff and gave it a few swings. She then said with a cocky smile, "Well, I do have a pretty killer swinging arm."
You're telling me.
"Thanks, by the way," Lissa said after she stopped smiling cockily and had a more serene instead.
"Thanks? For what? You'll have to help me remember. I think Robin's amnesia might be contagious," I said in slight confusion of what I deserve praise for.
"You helped save me from that Risen at the bridge! It happened like a couple of hours ago! How can you have such bad memory?!" Lissa said in surprise to my forgetfulness.
"Oh, yeah. I guess that did happen. Eh, it's whatever. No need for thanks," I said as I threw her thanks aside.
"No need?" Lissa asked in confusion.
"Yeah, the way I see it, you've helped fix me up twice now already, right?" I asked the girl walking beside me and Choc. She nodded yes in response.
"Then I still owe you one if that's the case. It can be a mutual benefit for both of us! You fix me and I help you," I continued.
"Hmm… Sounds good to me!" Lissa replied as she approved of what I had suggested.
"Then it's a deal!" I responded back.
"Everybody halt!" Chrom shouted from the front of our group.
Our entire convoy stopped dead in its tracks at Chrom's commands. Everyone stood firmly in their positions and eyed what their captain was looking at.
"Is that-" Lissa started as I finished, "- a Pegasus?"
Those of us in the back of the group moved forward to get a better look and, sure enough, it was indeed a Pegasus. The winged horse stood cautiously in the field in front of us as it carefully eyed us. By the look of how it was standing, it seemed it could have an injured leg.
Well, looks like we've found Sumia's Pegasus.
"She looks like she hurt her leg," Sumia said coyly.
"Here, I'll go inspect it," Chrom said confidently as he approached the wild animal.
The beast in front of our captain glared at him from afar and even took a step back when Chrom started to approach it.
"It's alright, we're here to help," Chrom spoke calmly when he finally got within a few feet of the Pegasus. He extended his hand out to the Pegasus to show he meant no harm.
Instead of accepting Chrom's offer of help, the Pegasus took it as an act of aggression when he extended his hand. Almost immediately the Pegasus reared back onto its hind legs and practically tried to stomp down onto Chrom. Luckily, our captain has quick reflexes and was able to get back far enough in time before he became a pancake.
"Whoa! Stay back everyone! This beast is possessed!" Chrom shouted back to the rest of us.
Unsurprisingly to me, Sumia stepped forward as she simply disobeyed her captain's orders.
"Captain, if I can please?" Sumia asked shyly as she continued forward until she tripped over… nothing? Yeah, no surprise there either.
"Sumia, are you alright? You should stay back. This creature doesn't seem welcoming," Chrom said as he helped Sumia up to her feet.
Sumia dusted off debris that had gotten onto her armor thanks to her spill before she also dusted off Chrom's hand holding her back.
"Please, Captain, I would like to give it a try," Sumia said as she left her worried Captain behind.
In a surprising, not really for me, turn of events, she actually managed to calm down the Pegasus.
"That was amazing!" Chrom said in shock to how quickly the Pegasus warmed up to Sumia.
Others in the group spoke words of amazement as well. All except Vaike who said, "The Vaike could've done that too!"
After she had accomplished calming the creature, she inspected the winged horse for any injuries and its leg was indeed badly hurt.
"Captain, its leg is badly hurt. If it'd be alright with you, I'd like to stay behind to help it," Sumia told Chrom.
"Yes, of course. Take as long as you need to. Just try to catch back up to us when you're finished," Chrom answered Sumia which made her smile brightly.
"T-Thank you, Captain! I'll be quick, I promise!" Sumia replied with determination in her tone.
"C-Chrom!?" I called out to Chrom.
"Hm? Yes, what is it Vincent?" Chrom asked as he turned to face me.
"Maybe it would be better if we just set up camp here. I just think if we're going to rest in a few hours anyways, we should maybe just do it now since Sumia will be here," I answered Chrom.
Chrom stifled a laugh as he smiled and responded, "Still trying to get that break are ya? Well, that sounds reasonable enough, but we'll have to move closer to the mountains. Better to rest there rather than in this open field."
Reasonable enough.
"Thank you," I replied back.
"Alright, let's get moving towards the mountains! We've gotta setup camp before night falls on us," Chrom commanded his army and we moved out shortly after.
It wasn't terribly difficult to get the hurt Pegasus moving with us thanks to Sumia. Also, it could fly so its hurt leg didn't hinder it too much.
We made it to the side of the mountains we were going to be passing through tomorrow in a short amount of time and managed to setup camp in an even shorter amount of time.
Frederick was like a blur setting this stuff up…
Tents were pitched in a circular pattern around a fire pit we made in the middle of them. Our wagon full of supplies was put up against the side of the mountain while our horses were tied up to keep them from wandering off. A quickly made fenced off area was made specifically for the Pegasus to rest in as well. Sumia stayed with the Pegasus for most of the night only being managed to be pulled away for food and rest.
The night was quick to go by as we ate some boar that Virion had managed to slay. People retired off to their tents quickly thereafter. There weren't enough tents for everyone to get their own so we were supposed to share. My tent mates were apparently Vaike and Stahl.
Vaike and I actually managed to get in some training after our dinner with the others. I didn't do as bad as I did last time as I actually managed to catch Vaike off guard a number of times. Still, the score that Vaike insisted on keeping was now 20-14.
After I called the end of our training, Vaike started to walk off to our tent. He looked back to me as I stayed seated on the ground.
"You coming back to the tent, Vince?" Vaike asked me.
"Nah, I think I'll stay up for a bit longer," I told Vaike.
"Hey, whatever works for you! The Vaike, however, needs his warrior sleep!" Vaike said with a grin as he flexed his arms' biceps.
I stifled a laugh to how ridiculous Vaike's warrior sleep sounded before I responded, "Yeah, yeah. I'll catch ya tomorrow."
"Hah! You betcha!" Vaike said as he wandered off back to our tent.
After the oaf that was my trainer finally made it inside of the tent, I let out a large grin as I lay myself down in the field. I stared up to the sky that was now darted with countless stars thanks to the lack of a lot of lighting around me.
That's something you don't get to see often. The true look of space above your head.
It was a great spectacle above me. The lack of cities with constant lights in this world meant you could perfectly see the stars above you. I lived in a suburban city and didn't get out of the house much so I I've only really experienced the stars in the city. There was one time when I actually did go camping away from any kind of city, but that was when I was little so I didn't really care much.
Still, to think that these guys get to experience this kind of sight every night was amazing to me. Their world was still so untainted in comparison to mine. Not to say I think my world is bad just the beauty of nature has been taken out of it in a lot of parts.
Honestly, I'd rather just stay up and look at this all night.
My new found interest in star gazing kept me relaxed as I simply stared up at the night sky. I only finally stopped when the camp's fire was beginning to die down in the distance causing it to be difficult for me to even tell where the camp was.
Better go tend to that if I intend on staying up.
Reluctantly and slowly, I got up to go and tend to the fire. I made it back in little time and managed to toss in some more firewood before the fire completely died down. The fire quickly rejuvenated as the flame brought a wave of heat across my body that caused me to settle down close to it to keep warm.
Well, I should be preparing now for the inevitable. I'll fall asleep and go back home for a bit of rest from the craziness. Still don't have a clue on what the deal with that is.
After a bit of sitting around the campfire I got up to put it out. The flame died and the only amount of illumination left was coming from the embers. I turned to walk slowly into the tent I was sharing with Vaike and Stahl. My foot entered into the tent carefully to not disturb anyone's slumber. I was a second away from putting my head into the tent when a noise caught my attention.
The sound was quiet but I still caught it. It was the sound of someone else opening up their tent. I had wondered whose tent it was as I looked around the camp. I expected to see someone take a step out of their tent but I didn't see anyone's figure in the darkness.
"Hello?" I asked quietly to maybe get the person's attention.
Nothing. The entire camp was deadly silent. Not even the horses were making any kind of noise.
I must've been up for too long. I'm starting to hear things!
I decided to dismiss my paranoia and continued on my way into my tent. It was in that very moment that a noise definitely caught my attention. It was somebody else's voice.
"Hello…" the voice said quietly from behind me.
A shiver ran down my spine as I slowly turned my head to see who it was. There standing behind me was a giant! A giant with short black hair that towered over me and sent fear directly into my soul! To make it all worse the giant was standing directly behind me in… pajamas?
"Um… hi?" I said in an unsure way.
"Did you hear that noise too?" the giant asked me.
"Um… Yeah, I think. Wait. Who are you? I asked the giant now in front of me as I stepped out of my tent.
"Huh? It's me. Kellam! I was there when you first joined!" Kellam said feeling a bit off by my lack of knowledge about him.
"Y-You were?!" I said feeling shocked as well.
"Yeah, I also was right next to you when that archer shot at us on the bridge. You didn't notice me at all?" Kellam asked.
That explains why I heard that arrow hit metal! I had a giant in armor standing right next to me!
"Oh, sorry. I never saw you around before. M-My name's Vincent though!" I said while extending my hand.
"It's ok. I get it a lot. I already know who you are," Kellam responded.
"O-Oh…" I said awkwardly as I pulled my hand away.
As Kellam and I were conversing, another noise sounded out in the camp. This time it was a bit louder and we both could tell from what direction it came from. It came directly from the front of Chrom's tent and was the sound of someone tripping as thy exited the tent.
I almost wanted to guess outright that it was Sumia leaving Chrom's tent, but something convinced me to refrain from saying that. That something was the sight of a sword being carried in the perpetrator's hands. It was hard to discern what sword it was, but it was clear the figure in the night wanted to steal it as they quickly bolted away from the camp and towards the path leading up into the mountains.
"Um… you saw that right?" a voice said from beside me.
I turned my head to see who it was and was shocked to see Kellam standing right there beside me!
"Kellam, when did you get here?!" I asked in surprise.
"I've been here… We were just talking a few seconds ago," Kellam answered me.
"Oh, yeah. Well, we have to go check on Chrom!" I replied.
We both rushed over to Chrom's tent and poked both of our heads into it. The others sleeping in Chrom's tent was Robin and Frederick. Robin was sprawled out in whichever direction his body could reach as he slept. Frederick, on the other hand, was sleeping almost perfectly with his sleeping bag being held up to his neck by his hands. Chrom was the only one sleeping normally in the tent.
"Guys, wake up!" I yelled to get their attention.
Fredrick's eyes bolted open as Chrom slowly awakened on his own as well. Robin carelessly continued to sleep as the others got up.
"What is it?" Chrom groggily asked.
"There had better be a good reason for disturbing milord's sleep," Frederick said as he glared at particularly me and not Kellam.
"We think that somebody ran out of your guy's tent holding something," Kellam answered for the paralyzed me.
"Kellam?! When did you get here?!" Both Frederick and Chrom simultaneously asked.
"No time!" I shouted as I recovered from being released from Frederick's glare, "Check around to see if anything's stolen!"
Chrom and Frederick wasted no time searching around their tent to find if anything was truly missing. In the meantime, Robin had awoken, I'll be it slightly, from all the yelling as well as the rest of the camp.
"What's going on?" Lissa asked as she rubbed her eyes.
"Yeah, what's with all the constant shouting huh?" Sully asked as she cracked her knuckles.
"We think there was a thief," I told them all.
It's obvious to say that everyone had their own unique reaction to the sound of a thief being around. It didn't take long, however, for the fighters of the group to get suited up to find this thief though.
"My sword! Falchion! It's gone!" Chrom shouted from inside his tent we had all crowded around.
"What?!" Everyone within the vicinity shouted.
"It's gone. Vanished. Which way did you say the thief took off to?" Chrom quickly asked me.
"Kellam and I saw him run up into the mountains," I responded as fast as I could.
"Damn! Those mountains are like a maze… Shepherds, split up into groups and gear up! We're going to find this thief!" Chrom commanded his army that was already half ready to mobilize.
God damnit! Who the hell would steal the Falchion?!
Without another moment to spare, we gathered up our gear and lit lanterns to help us in finding the thief. As we split up into groups, everyone collectively agreed it would be best if a few stayed behind to guard the camp while the rest of us split into three groups too hastily find the thief. Stahl, Miriel and Sumia were the three that volunteered to stay behind. Meanwhile, the other groups that were made were: Frederick leading Virion and Auden, Robin leading Vaike and Sully, and finally was Chrom in charge of me, Kellam and Lissa.
Our current party of nine quickly bolted into the mountains with those of us on mounts holding lanterns to light up the path and a couple of others holding spare lanterns. The path was windy as those of us on horses had to make sure to pay attention closely to it or else we'd go running off the path. None of us, however, fell off the path thankfully.
We made it to a slight intersection that split off. One went around the mountain we had been running along and the other was a small bridge that continued across to another mountain.
"The thief could've gone either way," Frederick observingly stated.
"We can't take any chances. Frederick, you lead your group down that path. The rest of us will continue on. If anything happens, we'll all meet back at camp. Got it?" Chrom quickly made orders as he obviously didn't want to waste any time.
"As you command, milord," Frederick stated before he, Virion and Auden made their way along the path circling around the mountain.
With our group now cut down by a third, we went across the bridge and continued on the path that headed north to Regna Ferox. The weather was quickly getting colder as the ground around us started to get piled up with snow. Not that it deterred Chrom or his army.
Everyone continued to run as fast as they could until we finally spotted something. It was a cloaked figure sprinting with what appeared to be a sword in both of his hands; a sword that looked incredibly close to Falchion.
"Chrom," Robin shouted as we continued to charge ahead, "That look like your sword?"
"No doubt about it! Halt, criminal!" Chrom shouted as he increased his running speed to catch up with the cloaked individual.
The light shining on him from our lanterns and Chrom's shouting must've alerted the cloaked individual to our presence as he darted his head back to see that he was indeed being pursued. After he had confirmed he was being chased, he too increased his running speed to hopefully outrun us.
Sully, however, wasn't going to allow this as she increased her horse's running speed as well and easily overtook me whom had been in the front this whole time. Her horse had started to close in on the cloaked individual when they dropped to the ground in a slide to avoid being clubbed in the head by Sully. They did manage to dodge her swipe, but were now prone on the ground allowing the rest of us to catch up.
"Good work, Sully," Chrom complimented his knight.
"Not a problem," Sully replied.
As we surrounded the cloaked individual still prone on the ground, we were able to get a better look at them. He was definitely a man judging by the face he had. Also, he had short blonde hair. His cloak also had noticeable Plegian symbols on the back of it.
Plegian bandits trying to steal swords now? What's the world coming to?
"I'll be taking that back now," Chrom said as he pointed a spare iron sword he had grabbed from our supplies down towards the back of the man's neck.
The cloaked man below Chrom was visibly shaking as he hurriedly crawled over the Falchion he was lying on top of. He got up and tried to run away but bumped directly into Kellam and recoiled back.
Chrom sheathed the iron sword he was wielding as he picked up his Falchion and spoke to the bandit, "You won't be getting away like that. Explain yourself or taste the cold justice of our blades."
"I-I just had to grab that sword. It's not like I wanted to do it! I had to!" The Plegian bandit responded nervously as he looked around at us all with our blades drawn. He seemed badly shaken up by all of this. At times he wouldn't even look one of us in our eyes as he constantly darted his head back and forth. Most of the time he would look directly towards the peak of the mountain. It was almost like he was looking for something.
I've got a bad feeling about this.
As a precaution to my ill feeling in my gut, I started to shine my lantern around the area we were in. I focused mostly on the slope of the mountain above us; I had the feeling that if there was an ambush it would be better to have the high ground on your enemy.
"Vincent, what are you doing?" Robin asked me as I shined my light around.
"I've just got a bad feeling about this. Just… Keep an eye out," I responded.
"Good idea. We should be careful if this is a trap," Robin said as he joined with me in looking around our surroundings.
Man there's a lot of snow, and there's a fair amount of foliage for someone to hide in if they were to. I can't see a thing!
"So you were told to do it by your leader then. If you value your life friend, you'll tell us who and where this leader is," Chrom said in an intimidating tone.
"W-What?! I can't tell you that! If I did, I'll be killed without a doubt!" The bandit answered Chrom.
"Look, if you merely cooperate, I can see about maybe pardoning some of your crimes. That'll only work if you cooperate and tell us where your leader is," Chrom told the bandit.
The bandit started to almost stop his shaking as he almost laughed and said, "Are all of you really this dense?! My leader is a mad man! You'd be insane to go against him!"
"Then we must be insane, but even if you don't tell us where your leader is; we will find him and put an end to him," Chrom said in response.
"W-Wait. Vincent, shine your light back that way," Robin told me as he pointed out in a direction.
I did as he said and shined my lantern's light to where he had pointed out as Chrom continued in his conversation with the thief.
"Hmph. Maybe you are all insane. Or maybe you're just plain dumb…" the bandit started to laugh quietly before he got louder and louder.
"What's so funny?!" Chrom asked the bandit seriously as he grabbed him by the cloak.
"You walked right into it! My leader's trap! You're all going to die!" The bandit yelled out as he continued his maniacal laughter.
Meanwhile, Robin and I had just focused our eyes in on a spot on the mountain. Just as the bandit shouted out that this was indeed a trap, another few bandits poked their heads out from behind a bush we had shined our light on. All of the bandits were holding bow and arrows.
"Everybody take cover!" Robin yelled as the bandits pulled back their bows and let arrows fly through the air.
Chrom had barely been able to catch Robin's words just in time as he tossed the bandit in his hands to the side and dived to a prone position to dodge the arrows sailing towards him. Others did the same or they simply took cover behind a nearby large rock. Sully and I, on the other hand, quickly moved our mounts and ourselves out of the line of danger before turning back to perhaps put up a fight if need be.
As I turned back around to give assistance, my lantern's light caught even more trouble. On the path further in front of us, bandits came charging towards us; each of them were letting out loud yells that spooked the local wildlife from its sleep. From the slope leading further down the mountain, bandits stammered up it as they quickly rushed towards those who had taken cover from the arrows coming from the top of the mountain.
It's a complete ambush! We've got no cover here!
"Shepherds," Chrom said as he got up from his prone position and dispatched an incoming bandit that intended on lobbing off his head off, "we're falling back! Quickly!"
Kellam, whom had been the only one to not take cover thanks to his large shield and armor, stood by his captain to help hopefully hold off the incoming bandits. Everyone else listened to what their leader told them to do and started to run back as fast as they could.
After the rest of those on foot had made it a safe distance away and the horde of bandits were closing in on them, Kellam and Chrom had started to double back as well with Robin providing some amount of cover for them. The entire time we ran back the way we came, volleys of arrows soared through the air. Either the same archers continued to take pot shots at us, or they had the mountain covered with them.
"Where's the bridge?!" Vaike asked as he took notice of the broken bridge we had crossed only moments ago.
"They must've broken it when we crossed!" Robin pointed out.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me," I said in an angry tone.
While the bandits closed in on us and we wondered what to immediately do, a loud explosion sounded out from the top of the mountain. When we all looked up, a large boulder had been knocked loose and was rolling straight for us.
"Move!" Chrom shouted as we got out of the boulder's path.
The large rock continued to go down the mountain and only finally stopped when it sounded like it smashed into something at the bottom of the mountain.
"Robin, we could use a plan!" Chrom told his tactician.
Just as he had managed to finish, an arrow whizzed directly into his leg. The thing pierced directly through his lower calf and made him fall over into a seated position.
Everyone was shocked to see their leader be injured, but thankfully Robin managed to keep his mind straight as he mustered up some kind of plan.
"Kellam, keep Chrom covered while Lissa heals him! I'll keep the archers under control! Everyone else, you've got a horde of bandits with your name on it!" Robin shouted out commands that we somehow managed to follow in this frantic situation.
There's so many of them though! There's no way we can handle this on our own! H-Hold on a second!
I looked dartingly around the area as I looked for the biggest amount of shrubbery in one area. I dismounted Choc and kept him close to me as the bandits were only a minute away now.
Oh, God. There's so much snow on this stuff. Will this even work?!
"Vince, what are ya doing?! It's time to fight not sightsee!" Vaike yelled to me as he took up the front of our little guard squad.
"I know what I'm doing alright?!" I shouted back in response to his yelling.
Ok, ok. This should do! Just shake off some of the snow. Please, please work.
I broke off some of the shrubbery in front of me and opened up my lantern to gain access to its fire. I carefully stuck the foliage in to get it lit by the fire without extinguishing the flame inside the lantern. After I managed to accomplish that, I planed the now burning greenery at the base of the large bush and tried to start a fire with it. The flame thankfully managed to catch on because of how green the plant was. It was, however, still only just a bush so the fire would be large and quick unlike a wood fire.
"There!" I shouted in joy at the sign of the growing fire.
The fire quickly illuminated our group and some of the surrounding as it continued to grow larger and larger.
"You gettin' cold or something!? This is no time to be makin' fires, Vince!" Vaike yelled back to me.
"A signal! Good thinking, Vincent! The others should see the light and it should help with fighting too!" Robin complimented me on my quick thinking.
If there's one thing I'm good at, it's making sure I have others around to bail me out from any trouble I get in. Thank you self-preservation!
"Hey, that actually is good thinking! Nice one, Viince!" Vaike also complimented me after he realized what I was doing wasn't useless.
As he complimented me, however, an arrow whizzed directly into his arm guard he had covering his off hand. It must've slightly pierced through the leather he had covering him as it didn't look pleasant to him. He, however, pulled the arrow out and tossed it to the side as some blood started to drip down his arm.
"Idiot! Don't just stand around! Only Kellam can do that!" I said in slight anger to him getting plucked by an archer so easily like that.
"Ah, no problem with this! Just a bit of a handicap for these poor guys! Can't have Ol' Teach goin' all out on them!" Vaike replied with a laugh before he butted axes with a bandit.
Another bandit was going to flank Vaike while his ally took care of him, but I darted forward and unsheathed my sword just in time to block the attack. With a quick deflection followed up by a stomp on the bandit's foot, the bandit didn't look pleased by my intrusion.
"You rotten-! I'll lob off your head and drink from your skull!" He shouted as he brought his axe up for a slice to my neck.
I ducked under the attack and stabbed him in the gut before muttering, "Yeah, no thanks."
Vaike finished off the bandit he was fighting as well with an axe swing directly into the other's neck. We looked to each other and grinned slightly at our small success.
Feeling spunky, I suppose, Sully charged forward on her horse as she narrowly dodged swipes from the bandits she rushed through. She took a stab at one of them as she rode past and left the guy lifeless on the ground. Her horse made a quick turn and she ran back through taking out another bandit the same way as she made it through the horde unscathed twice.
"That's how you take care of bandits," Sully said with a grin.
Both Vaike and I looked visibly upset by Sully outdoing us in our moment. Vaike went forward to take on another bandit as I went to follow behind. I stopped, however, when Choc had walked back over to me and nudged me slightly.
"What? You don't want to be left out of the fun?" I asked him and was responded to with a whinny.
"Alright, if you're feeling up to it, then let's get to it!" I said as I hoped quickly onto Choc.
With a quick snap of the reins and a little coaxing from me, Choc rushed towards the fray of bandits similar to how Sully's horse had performed. Speak of the devil, Sully had caught up to me and rode by my side.
As soon as I could, I took a swing for one of the bandits. I failed, however, when the bandit brought up a shield to block my attack. The wooden shield managed to withstand my charging blow with some difficulty. The recoil of my attack also made keeping my balance slightly harder than usual but I succeeded in keeping myself from falling.
Well, that bowled over terribly. Whoa! Arrows are flying at me now! Do they not care where they shoot!?
Arrows whizzed by my body as Choc and I ran through bandits that attempted to take any kind of quick swipe on us as we passed. I couldn't believe how crazy the archers were at the top of the mountain. If they shot for me, there was a chance they could hit their own allies. It seemed like bandits really were cutthroat.
As I neared the end of the pack of bandits, I took the chance to go for another swing on one of them. This time my swing met little resistance as it went clear through the bandit in one swoop. After accomplishing that, I turned Choc around to get on the way going back. Sully had made it through the group of bandits as well and seemed to have taken out some more as there was even more bodies lying around. Some of the bandits turned their attention towards the both of us and made it clear they weren't letting us charge back through.
In the meantime back near the main group, my fire seemed to be continuing well as it looked even larger than before. It didn't look good, however, when a ball of fire went soaring towards our group from behind and smashed into Robin's side. His cloak looked to be smoldering from the attack and I could assume his arm was burned.
They're attacking from behind as well?!
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Things were looking bleak for the group of Shepherds. They had split up into groups in hopes to capture what they thought was merely just a thief, but had instead been walking themselves into a full scale ambush.
Their worries doubled when they realized just how surrounded they were. They had a group of bandits blocking off their cavalry from returning while the rest of them continued on towards them. A group of archers had taken up residence near the top of the mountain as they volleyed arrows at whoever they could see. To make matters in even worse, a smaller group that seemed to have mages in it was approaching from the group's back.
Chrom had managed to get patched up quickly thanks to his sister's mending ways, but even with a skilled fighter like Chrom helping there was little hope.
"The mages! Kellam, Chrom, you have to take them out!" Robin said as his burnt arm was quickly healed by Lissa.
"Right!" Chrom replied as he went to rush and cover their backlines. Kellam went in front of his leader as he prepared to take any amount of spells with his shield.
One bandit from the small group flanking the shepherds from behind attempted to rush the marching Kellam. When he got within range, however, Kellam forced a quick thrust with his iron lance from behind his shield and pierced the bandit before he even knew what happened.
As the iron giant continued to push forward with Chrom taking cover behind him, he tossed a javelin he had on his back towards one of the mages. The javelin soared through the air and pierced one of the mages before he managed to cast another spell.
The other few mages, however, had cast off a spell that seemed to combine in midflight. The now giant fireball was flying straight for Kellam and Chrom. The latter managed to get out of the blast radius while the former simply had no choice in the matter. After the explosion settled, Kellam was barely standing.
"Kellam, are you alright?!" Chrom asked his soldier worriedly.
"I'll be… fine… Just don't forget… about me," Kellam said as he slowly got to a throwing position to lob another of his javelins. Similar to the last, it pierced another mage; only a couple of mages remain.
Three figures remained in the Shepherd's backline. Two of them were very clearly mages as they held their tomes at the ready; the final one, however, wore a blood red cloak and stood motionless in between the mages.
The last mages fired off another spell that made a smaller sized fireball than the last and it connected directly into Kellam's chest knocking the iron giant down for the count.
Furious at the sight of his comrade falling to the bandits, Chrom gritted his teeth as he charged on. He dodged a fireball by ducking closer to the ground and letting it soar over his head. His charge never faltered. Another fireball went towards him and he dodged it again with a quick sidestep during his sprint.
Finally, Chrom was within range of the mages. He wasted no time in sending them to their graves as he swiftly cut one down. The last mage attempted to draw a sword to retaliate, but was met with Chrom's blade in his gut. All while the individual in the blood cloak stood by and watched carefully.
Chrom had no intention in even taking the time to question the individual's reasoning for simply standing there. He retracted his sword from the bandit's gut and swung it quickly for the cloaked statue.
In what should've been a clean kill, ended in a clinging of blades. The man in the cloak had intercepted Chrom's attack with a short dagger he pulled out from his cloak. After deflecting Chrom's attack, the cloaked individual quickly hopped back.
"Not bad. I expected no less from the prince himself," the man said as he twirled his dagger around with one hand. His entire body was still completely cloaked still except for his right arm that he held his dagger in.
"I could care less what my enemy thinks of me. After what you've done to my comrades, I won't be letting you escape with your life," Chrom said as he put himself into a much more reserved battle stance.
"Hmph. I could say the same. I simply hope you'll make this easy on the both of us," the cloaked man uttered as he lowered the center of his body weight closer to the ground with his dagger ready to strike out.
Chrom took the first step to attack, but had to stop quickly to deflect knives the cloaked man threw out at him. The two knives flying for him were blocked thanks to his fast reflexes with his Falchion.
In the time of Chrom's confusion, the cloaked man rushed forward and swiped low for Chrom's gut. The Shepherd commander barely managed to stumble backwards out of range of the dagger threatening to kill him. As he stumbled backwards, the cloaked man continued in his assault sending more swipes with his dagger.
There was little time for Chrom to recover, but with a quick parry of the man's dagger he was able to go in for a riposte. The cloaked man, however, was able to react in time before Falchion pierced through him and sidestepped into Chrom's side. Chrom took notice of this and changed the swing of his sword to hit the bandit.
Instead of remaining in Chrom's side, the cloaked man elected to continue on and step further away from the prince's flank. In the short time he was moving by, he took out a couple of small round circular objects from his cloak and tossed them quickly towards Chrom's feet.
Chrom had taken notice of the foreign objects darting out of the man's cloak and put himself on guard for them. The objects, however, never met his body but instead impacted with the ground and combusted into a small explosion when they did.
The quick explosions made little to no damage only barely burning Chrom's shins but they knocked up enough smoke and debris for Chrom to momentarily lose sight on his enemy. When he finally had sight on him again, the cloaked man was rushing away from him. He was heading straight for the others that were dealing with the rest of the bandits. Dead in his sights was Lissa trying to stay out of harm's way.
"Lissa, no!" Chrom yelled as he busted into a full blown sprint.
It didn't take Chrom any time at all to catch up to the cloaked man. He caught up from behind and went for an attack as soon as he could. The bandit, however, seemed to be expecting it as he came to a full stop and dodged under the attack.
The man went for a grapple on Chrom but was met with a fist from the fumingly mad prince.
He recoiled from the strike against his jaw and found himself startled that he was even hurt. As he recovered from Chrom's vicious blow, he had little intention of letting him get away with it.
Just as the cloaked man went in to strike out against the ever ready Chrom, a voice echoed through the mountains as the sound of hooves coming towards them got louder and louder.
"Milord, hold on!" a familiar knight's voice echoed towards' them.
The new sound had the bandit worried.
"Damnit. They weren't supposed to get here so quickly!" the bandit thought to himself.
"Lower your blade and I promise you an easy death," Chrom said as he took note of the cloaked man's new composure.
"I'll politely decline," the bandit said as he backed up slowly from Chrom, "I haven't the will to lay down my life so easily."
He took out another small circular object from his cloak and held it in his free hand. Chrom had readied himself for the worst as he prepared for another explosion. Instead what happened was the cloaked bandit tossed the ball into the ground below him as it erupted into smoke.
The quick spreading smoke found its way into Chrom's lungs causing him to cough and close his eyes from the new substance. As he continued to try and recover from the smoke, a swift pain shocked through his body. A knife had pierced through his gut as the cloaked man held it there.
"I hope you resist this death as hard as you can. A slow and painful death will be all the better for your people to experience with you," the cloaked man silently whispered into Chrom's ear before he retracted his blade and fled.
Chrom clutched his new wound his gut as his coughs were now added with a bit of blood. He attempted to lash out against the bandit fleeing away from him, but in his daze his swing caused him to fall to the ground violently coughing.
In the meantime, the rest of the surviving bandits had stopped fighting when the numbers dipped into the Shepherds' favor. They retreated as quickly as they could with the Shepherd's ranged attackers knocking down anyone they could.
"Milord!" Frederick shouted as he saw his incapacitated leader lying helplessly on the ground.
Hastily, Frederick got off his horse and got down to treat Chrom's wound.
The others had taken notice in Chrom's incapacitation and regrouped to him when the bandits were completely run off. A few of the Shepherds came back with noticeable injuries still present as Lissa couldn't possibly heal them all especially not when Chrom was in such critical condition.
Vaike had come back with his entire left arm covered with blood from the initial arrow wound he had but hadn't had treated. Sully had gotten out of it with a slight cut on her leg one of the bandits managed to get on her while she constantly ran through them. Vincent came back to the group with an arrow in his side and had a difficult time keeping himself from ignoring the pain caused by it. Numerous members were injured and it had been a bad outcome for the Shepherds.
It made matters entirely worse when after Lissa had healed her brother he continued to violently cough.
"I-I don't get it! Work darn it!" Lissa said as she frantically casted more heals on her brother.
"It's just as I feared," Auden spoke up.
"Do you have any idea on what's going on?" Frederick asked.
"Yeah, I think I do. That blade was probably laced in poison and, by the looks of it, a potent one," Auden said with a grim expression.
"There has to be something we can do! Maybe Lissa just needs a different staff?" Vincent tried to suggest.
"Maybe, but to find that is like looking for a needle in the haystack. There's little chance we'll be able to in time," Auden replied.
"We can't just do nothing! My brother's going to die!" Lissa said with tears forming in her eyes as she held her brother's hand.
"I'm not-… I don't mean it like that. We just have very little options right now," Auden stated as he tried to explain to Lissa.
"Then what do you suggest we do?" Frederick asked Auden.
"We treat him to the best ability we can. The closest chance at civilization is Regna Ferox's border from here. Does anybody in your group know anything about poisons?" Auden asked everyone around.
"If it's something, Miriel probably knows it," Frederick stated.
"Then we could be in luck. Someone should go gather the others. The rest of us need to continue on as fast as we can," Auden said as he noticed the dying fire that had led them to the group's danger.
"I'll go and whip the others into gear. You guys get a move on," Sully said as she quickly took off ignoring the pain coming from her leg. Sully considered her injury as minor to the rest of her comrades. Also, she didn't want to be the one asking Lissa to heal her in this kind of moment.
"Things couldn't get any worse could they?" Vincent thought to himself as he silently cursed how bad things had gone.
A pretty easy chapter to write if you ask me. The only one that tops the simplicity charts for me was the first chapter and that one was a bucket of fun to write.
I'm hoping you guys enjoyed this chapter as most to all of it was completely original content.
I can't stress enough on how evenly matched Chrom was with the obvious bandit leader. The element of surprise was the only thing that managed to tip the tides of the fight.
So let me know how you guys enjoyed the chapter in a review. Anything I might've done wrong or good would be nice to hear.
Don't be afraid to ask any of your questions in a PM either.
Gonna keep on trying to work on these chapters so there isn't a long wait in between updates again. I'll try hard to keep myself motivated.