Yep, more from my OC couple. The one pairing that is made canon by virtue of being backstory.

And as a little note, this takes place in the Quoi Woods, probably within the first few weeks. Haven't actually decided how long they'd been there, or long they're there overall.

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FTaBV Omake: Beat of Wings Part 2

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At times, he found it hard to convince himself that the woman was not, in fact, trying to get them both killed. He strongly suspected it would be another of those times when she found a cave and insisted on exploring. It did not deter her in the least when he, very patiently, explained how such locations were nearly always monster dens.

"But that's why I have you," she'd said guilelessly, green eyes large and not comprehending any reason for concern.

That was how easy it was for her to defeat all his reasonable objections. With pure faith that he would handle whatever trouble she managed to dig up.

Including the enraged mother eggbear that had, unsurprisingly, been sheltering in the cave with her cub.

"Fantastic," Ludwig grumbled as he pulled Sophia's wrist to position her behind him and drew his jian. "Miss Althea," he instructed, keeping his voice calm and level to avoid alarming her, "Please stay back, and leave slowly." His tone was underscored by the eggbear's threatening growl, not yet a full fledged roar. Perhaps they'd be lucky and she'd let them leave without a fight.

Sophia's hands tightened briefly on his arm before letting go. He didn't dare look away from the eggbear, but the slow scuffing from behind told him she was following his orders. And probably backing out so as to keep her eyes on both him and the monster.

For a moment it seemed they'd get away, the monster evidently unwilling to endanger her offspring by fighting in such a small, enclosed area. Until Sophia gasped, "Oh dear!" and the growl rose to a throaty roar that shook loose dirt and small pieces of stone from the cave roof.

Not quite meaning to, but needing to make sure his client wasn't facing an even worse danger, Ludwig glanced back. Sophia was pulling at her skirts, caught in a tug of war match with a second eggbear cub that was chewing on the feather embroidered hem of her dress.

Assured that she wasn't about to be killed by something, he refocused on the eggbear mother in time to block the descending claws. Furious that the puny human hadn't been smashed into a broken and bloody heap on the cave floor, the mother roared again and attacked in earnest.

"Damn," he gritted while trying to maintain his guard without getting bashed aside and leaving the female researcher exposed to the monster's wrath. The eggbear showed no signs of calming down, and Ludwig could keep up his defenses up only so long under its onslaught. Grimly he began to gather aer in through the bodhi blastia belted around his upper sword arm. "Tiger Blade!"

His aer filled jian sliced deeply into the eggbear once, and again. The wounded monster roared again, though now with as much pain as anger. Its huge arm swung again, this time in a horizontal swipe which he ducked under, and slammed into the wall. The heavy blow cracked the very stone. The eggbear cubs bleated in fear, which only fueled the mother's wrath further.

The next time he didn't dodge her arm in time and was dashed against the wall, his back and ribs protesting the harsh abuse. The stone cracked even more, and several pieces crumbled loose and fell on him. He had to throw his arms up to protect his head from the larger chunks, but and internally cringed as he expected a nasty attack from the eggbear he could no longer see for the dust in his eyes.

"O din of this modest land..." Through his blastia armband he could feel the earth based aer coiling tightly in on itself. "Stone Blast!" Aer grabbed rocks from around his feet, and even some that hadn't finished falling on him yet, and threw them at the monster. Finally blinking the dust from his watering eyes, which he would never admit to being unshed tears of pain, he looked with astonishment at Sophia standing by his side.

The researcher was trembling, one hand clutching the winged hair clip she always wore, but the magical barrage of stone directed by an outstretched palm was unrelenting. The mother eggbear tried to bat the flying rocks out of the air, but it missed more often than it knocked them away.

A continuous magical attack could only be maintained for so long before the caster was worn out. Sophia burned out much sooner than any of his guild comrades would have. But she'd bought Ludwig enough time to recover sufficiently to finish things off.

Planting one foot firmly on a good sized rock that had fallen, and briefly thanking his luck that it hadn't caved his skull in, he launched himself into the air for an attack he'd designed himself. "Stooping Falcon!" He came down on the eggbear with feet first, a solid kick with all his weight, and finished by planting his jian deep into its shoulder to reach down to the heart.

The huge monster fell over, dead.

With some difficulty, Ludwig pulled his sword back out from the carcass and wiped it clean. Wincing a bit at the pain of what was likely a few cracked ribs, he stiffly turned around to see how Sophia was holding up.

The researcher was kneeling on the cave floor, hand over her heart and head bowed. She was still shaking.

"Are you okay?" he asked in concern, afraid she might have been hurt by the falling rocks. She nodded, and when she looked up he was mildly surprised that no tears marred her face. Sophia bit her lip and slowly stood up again, using the cave wall as a support.

The eggbear cubs were still bawling, both nuzzling against their mother to try and wake her up. They didn't like this game anymore. Sophia looked at them, and now Ludwig could see a tear in the corner of her eye. She brushed it away, "What do we do about them?"

What indeed? "To kill helpless infants, even those of monsters, doesn't sit well with me," Ludwig stated with no doubt in his heart that he'd never forgive himself for such a deed. "But without their mother to take care of them there's no chance they'll survive."

"Couldn't we take care of them? Until they're old enough at least?"

"No," Ludwig countered that quickly with a negating slash of his hand before Sophia could bring her innocent eyes into play. "Once they grew up we wouldn't be able to handle them, and they still wouldn't know how to take care of themselves in the wild. They'd either die, or return to humans to try and find food. There is no way that will end without someone getting hurt."

Sophia stood with head hanging, like a child that had been scolded by her father. It made him feel old, even though he couldn't be more than five years her senior. When she looked up he braced himself for the sweet, 'I have complete faith in you' eyes, but instead they were elated and decisive.

"I know! We can have someone else look after them!"

He was dumbfounded. "What?" Hadn't he just explained why that wouldn't work? "Miss Althea..."

"No, hear me out," she interrupted. "I know someone who's very good at handling monsters. She'll know how to keep them out of trouble, and how to raise them so they'll be able to take care of themselves!"

"These are monsters we're talking about. You can't just drop them in somebody else's lap."

"I can guarantee that she won't mind, and she can do it."

They faced off for a minute, and Sophia didn't back down anymore than she had when casting Stone Blast against a monster that could snap her like a twig. Finally, Ludwig had to sigh in defeat. He had to respect willpower like that.

"Alright, we'll take them to this friend of yours." At least, it occurred to him, this meant the Quoi Woods expedition had been cut short. Though it was probably only a temporary respite...

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Anything to say down here? …I can't think of anything important... I got kinda stuck in the fight, then once I pushed and pushed til the ball started rolling, I still had trouble deciding the attacks Ludwig would use. After looking through lists of common Tales artes and considering using something from Asch's list of tricks, I somehow pulled Stooping Falcon out of nowhere. Yay Ludwig?