CHAPTER 5 :

THE PROTECTED

The Daein army just packed up their supplies and their forces parted ways: the main army marched west, Anna's group went eastward to Border Mulan, as planned, but the group with the biggest surprise was the group led by Calill. Ide drew so close, it was a race against the clock (and death) because both the bandits and the Daein army wanted to get there first. Cavalry rushed on this plateau and the bandits rushed off away from Ide and then, the battle began. The Wyvern Rider reported, "Chief, there is an orphaned child at my 1 o'clock. Should I rescue him?"

Calill nodded. "And bring him back to Father Moulder.", she ordered.

While the Wyvern Rider could avoid the many axes thrown at him, he almost nose-dived to a landing near the child, that he grabbed without delay. As Calill got into one of the villages to chase Revenants, she made an unexpected encounter. Armed with her Knight Killer… A peasant spoke to her. "This is terrible! What are we going to do? The Bandits are so close. If we can't find a way to protect ourselves, we are doomed."

Selena sighed. "Perhaps…"

Calill told the peasants, "People, listen to me! You must close the village gates immediately. Hurry, before bandits arrive." Selena then asked, "Who are you? You aren't from any of the neighboring towns. And your weapons give away, you're no peasant."

Calill answered, in a confused fashion, "My name is Ca… Camille. I'm a mercenary."

Selena, puzzled, "A mercenary named Camille, is it? I'm afraid there is more to you than that, I feel. But this is none of my business. I haven't told you who I am yet, I am Selena, a general in the Grado army."

Calill challenged General Selena to a duel. But she didn't think that she'd be vulnerable to fight a Mage Knight with physical attacks. This is where her physical ability serves her; against a Mage Knight, a Troubadour or a Valkyrie, a Knight Killer has the same effect as it would on a Paladin. Two thrusts from a heavy Knight Killer were necessary for her to dismount, but after the second thrust, the heavy lance just shattered, and, as such, she had to resort to magic. And Selena hit her with an Elfire, but the Elfire didn't hurt her much.

An Halberdier was left to lead the prisoner-drafted soldiers into battle against the bandits. He spouted out his warcry out on the plateau as his men got in position. The Halberdier began his warcray, "FOR LAGUZ RIGHTS!". His men followed afterwards, "FOR LAGUZ RIGHTS! FOR DAEIN!" Their enemy wasn't the Grado army anymore; their enemies were bandits, rumor has it that they were also laguz vendors. But why laguz slave traders would hunt for laguz in this desolate place? Said bandits have mostly axe-wielders in their roster, but also a few sword-wielding units and a Lance Knight, who is their fastest unit. As soon as the Halberdier gets to the Lance Knight…

The Halberdier asked his men to clear the way, in order to let him fight that mounted knight. After that, arrows went out of the abandoned farm and hit him, but that did not prevent him from making the Lance Knight's horse uncontrollable by making one of the horse's leg bleed. And so the Lance Knight fell off his horse. At this exact moment, the Halberdier ordered his men to get into that house, stating that the archers inside must be killed, as the Halberdier continued his duel against the Lance Knight, but afoot. It was a big duel from which the Halberdier parried a few thrusts from the enemy Steel Lance, and the enemy had hit him on the leg. With his final energies, the Halberdier pushed his lance through the enemy helmet…

The Bandit Lance Knight said, as his final words, "I left the Knights of Renais because… they served… corrupted, faceless nobles." And the Lance Knight died. As for the Wyvern Rider, he got as fast as possible to the infirmary of the base camp, where Father Moulder, after using his staff on the child, asked the child a couple of questions. He asked to the kid, "What's your name? Where are your parents?" The kid answered that his name is Ross. His father is somewhere in the area, fighting the bandits. He is in the southern area. He conjures the priest that he MUST be saved as soon as possible. His name is Garcia, he has a thick, black beard, and also wields a throwing axe. Moulder has something to ask to the Wyvern Rider: if he can spot a Fighter fighting the bandits that matches the description the kid make and that do not bear a Daein crest, that the flyer takes the fighter to him."

But, at the same moment, Calill faced off Selena in an intense battle of magic, where she fired a Thoron shot. It did hit Selena, the thunder ball being right in the middle of her body, but, as Selena used Elfire, she was disadvantaged due to the Trinity of Anima. However, anything higher in the fire magic field was unheard of in the Grado army, except perhaps for the Meteor spell, but even then, it was a long-range spell while Elthunder, Thoron and Bolganone spells were more adapted to hand-to-hand and short-ranged combat. At that time, Selena still was capable of fighting, and she fired another Elfire. An Elfire spell that Calill could hopefully dodge, but it was time to fight fire by fire, Calill burst her enemy to flames and her charred remains lay on the ground.

Garcia, in spite of his situation and angry because of it, spouted, "Blast! Bandits even fly now!" The Wyvern rider answered, "No. It's the Daein army that sent us here."

Garcia, surprised, "Daein? I never heard Daein fighting Grado; only Frelia and Jehanna for now. And where Daein is anyway?"

The Wyvern rider told Garcia that his group crossed the sea just to get them to fight Grado, who mistreat laguz at every turn… Anyway, he matches the description that was made by Ross.

Garcia, even more surprised, "My son? Bring him to me if I survive this battle."

The bandits' leader drew close to the Halberdier's position, but he spoke to the archers in the farm that Daein soldiers are trying to break into. Bone spoke to his archers, "The Renais army is here! We had a poor crop this year around. Only a few Hawks and cats. If only we could have put our hand on Dragons…"

The first Archer told him, "These don't look like Renaisian soldiers! They have something they call Halberdiers, the army of Renais don't have Halberdiers stationed here!" A second Archer continued, "The Dragon sub-humans we would find would be zombies, as almost all the living dragon laguz are in Goldoa, at the other side of the sea!"

Bone warned his archers that if they lost the cargo entrenched in the cellars of that farm, they were doomed! And that the Grado Emperor will have their heads! Instead of having the Daein soldiers kill the archers, the undead beorc entrenched in the cellar had the first dibs to kill the archers, as they thrust the spear into them. As the door broke, the Fighters had the bad surprise to find Bonewalkers in front of the bodies of archers. A Daein mage set fire to the roof of the farm, meaning they had little time to rescue the laguz and get out of the farm. The bandit leader saved the untransformed laguz along with the Daein soldiers from the farm on fire. When they got out of the farm, Garcia was about there.

Garcia, with a tone of vengeance, "You will pay for all the laguz you kidnapped!" A puzzled Bone then replied, "Laguz?"

The Daein beorc soldiers who were in the farm on fire, along with the laguz they saved, stood back behind the other Daein soldiers as they held the bandit leader in respect, with swords pointed at him. The Halberdier spoke, with a solemn tone, "In the name of the Kingdom, you're under arrest under guilty of laguz slavery. Surrender and you won't be mistreated."

Bone, infuriated at Daein soldiers, "Never! Daein justice has no hold here!"

Then, Bone was brought up to a tree stock in the middle of Ide and the remaining populace, two Soldiers put him face up and a Myrmidon cut his head off with his sword, having since known that Bone was from a noble house and Daein execution protocols demand that noblemen sentenced to death be killed by a sword instead of an axe.

Calill asked herself, "Why would nobility directly engage in laguz trade and slavery?"

The battle in Ide showed them the laguz trade. However, near Border Mulan, Grado forces get ready to engage the Daein army on the open field. Breguet did not want to harm the precious hostages in the castle, therefore he wants to engage them in the open field instead of defending the place in a siege. Because Breguet did not want to harm the hostages in the castle; a siege may lead them to harm, especially if Daein or Grado soldiers set fire to some parts of the stronghold.

A watchman stationed in the stronghold warned Commander Breguet, "There is a large group of bandits a mile at our northeast!" Breguet then ordered everyone to get in position for battle. "Let us through!", he told to the gate guardians.

The soldiers got out in a quad-file and then… the archers turned themselves 90 degrees in order to face the Daein army, the infantry got itself in a dense box formation and the cavalry between the archers and the infantry. On the battlefield, Anna transformed into a red dragon and rained down fire to the infantry ranks in front of her; however, it also set some of the grass afire. Melee troops of both sides then retreated, but archers took cover of the immense amount of smoke to fire. In so doing, it inflicted some casualties but not too many, since few archers actually dared fire in such a thick fog.

The density of men made it certain for anyone to hit another target, let it be undead infantry or living, flesh-and-bone soldiers. Even if Anna's fire breath was mostly directed at the undead, who burnt quite rapidly due to their weak body structure, the archers of both sides put many holes in the undead soldiers. As the suffocating smoke subsided… Anna ordered his soldiers into a charge.

Breguet retreated to the safety of his castle's gates. He let his beorc and undead lackeys handle everything else, but the dismounted soldiers were quickly slaughtered, as the Daein cavalry trampled Grado soldiers down in their charge. However, they cornered a Breguet that killed three cavalrymen, leaving everyone else to back off, even the Grado cavalry, seeing that their leader is driven mad by some strange curse. With the energy of despair, the enemy cavalry killed more infantry than their own numbers, but magic had the best of the horseback soldiers.

The curse that affects Breguet is nowhere near as strong as if it would have been if he had touched Lehran's Medallion. But then, when he killed his own men, he already was under his beast form, a wolf? Anna then ordered to rain down fire spells on the enemy commander. It's like that the potion used to create Feral Ones has been consumed by Breguet. But then, if he isn't zombified it's a peculiar situation. Usually, living laguz (if any) within the Grado military who hold any officer rank aren't assigned to fight with living beorc; undead beorc or monsters, at best. If undead, then they raised graves in Hatari's Desert of Death, northeast of Daein.

And the potion to make Feral Ones? If it worked on undead laguz just as it did on the living, then Grado would have it produced in quantities large enough to feed a significant fraction of its undead laguz forces. Breguet is just the first target of the necromancy experiments of its leaders. However, in Grado Keep's throne room, Vigarde gives his remaining beorc generals his orders. He instructs Riev to go rejoin the laguz in the Darkling Woods and Valter is to defend the capital. Caellach is to go capture the laguz-infested Jehanna.

Caellach, puzzled at Vigarde's decision, "Jehanna? I became a mercenary to escape from the laguz who made my life in that desolate place miserable just to return there?" Vigarde then turned to Glen. "As for you, Glen, you are assigned to fight the army of Crimea and to defend Carcino."

It seems that Riev is the beorc general among the Grado Empire that has the most experience of fighting with laguz, zombified or not. Vigarde just had word that a messenger arrived, bearing bad news for him. The zombie messenger reported, "Your Imperial Majesty, I have bad news for you: General Selena has been killed by a group of bandits dealing in the trade of sub-humans!"

Vigarde shook his head in disbelief. "Laguz slave traders did what?"

The zombie messenger reported that it was the only one left. He also reported that the Daein army swept the bandits holding "sub-humans", or laguz, as merchandise. They are headed towards the Borgo Ridge, where the bandit leader, Bazba, awaits.

Vigarde then asked, "What information do you hold about the Daein army? Who leads them? Where are they?"

The zombie messenger told his master that this is where my knowledge of the situation against Daein stops. This is where an elderly, wretched man steps in and he stopped his experiments because Vigarde have a few things to ask to him about the Daein army. The wretched man spoke to His Imperial Majesty. "I served Daein before I served Grado. I pledged to remain at your service because I want to exact revenge on the current King on the throne of Daein! Ike defeated and killed the previous King, whom I served with tremendous zeal. I even invented an elixir whose purpose is to drive the sub-humans insane with battle lust and they also remain locked in their transformed states. However, should any sub-human be fed with such a potion, its lifespan is dramatically shortened. Be warned, though: these potions currently only work on living sub-humans; your army have a large number of undead sub-humans, we don't know what effect the elixir has on undead subjects."

Vigarde then told that Breguet was an undead wolf laguz. "Do the Daein army here has any experience of fighting laguz? Who leads them?", he asked.

The wretched man tells his emperor that they split their army in two. One of these halves – and he suspects it's the lot of the Daein army – defeated the group that defeated Selena. And they recaptured the Greater Ide area. They plan to march into Serafew to capture Renvall. According to their "human", or beorc, spy, the other part marches east to support the combined army of the Laguz League, Crimea, Phoenicis, Jehanna and Carcino. Though they are primarily composed of beorc nations, they actively employ laguz in battle.

"I already dispatched Glen and Caellach to fight the Laguz League, maybe I should send out the laguz general, entrenched on the Neleras Peak, to aid them?" Vigarde said. Then he turned to Duessel.

Duessel interrupted Vigarde, "Hold on, Majesty. We can't send innocent laguz to slaughter! Also, what are your plans for Renais? The country is in ruins. Thieves and bandits swagger around… If we absolutely have to make use of the laguz, then let it be to enforce law and order within our conquered territories."

Vigarde ordered his men to leave the bandits and thieves alone. Then, Duessel objected, "But, Sire…"

Valter interrupted Duessel, "Lord Duessel. The emperor has spoken. Please…"

Vigarde ordered Duessel to go out and fight the Daein army, as they felt that the Daein army must not reach Renvall and if the Daein army captures Renvall, the capital will be wide open for attack.