Authors notes: ...I don't have much to say about this. The big delay came from trying to figure out where to end the chapter, and also just a harsh case of university. Literally never making a promise on release dates again though, as I don't think I've made a deadline since chapter 3.
As always though, hope you enjoy it, if you did, or didn't leave a review. Feedback and criticism is the lifeblood of the writing spirit you know.
Disclaimer: Still don't own FE. Though I am looking forward to owning a copy of Fire Emblem If in the future
The Battle of Ylisstol Castle Part 1
Four hours, four hours since Farina had arrived and the rain had finally let up. It almost seemed like the powers that be were favouring us for once. As almost as soon as we had broken camp the rain had let up, which all in all was about fifteen minutes after Farina had delivered her news.
It seemed the Generals were being motivated by patriotic fervour at this point, and the now outright knowledge of the capital being in Plegian hands drove them to push as fast as the still muddy ground would let us go. Said mud was really the only reason we hadn't gotten there yet, as it drastically slowed our forced march every time it nearly sucked in a horse's leg or made us have to pull our boots out of the mess.
Honestly their plan had some merit from what I could tell. When Farina had been sent away to deliver the message their still had been some defenders holding out in the Keep of the capital fortress, and she had only arrived a less than an hour after she left. If they could keep holding out in the last defensive structure in the city then maybe we could relieve them. Though judging by what the purple haired pegasus rider had said afterwards, I was doubting we'd arrive in time. There was only so much a few dozen people could do holding out against an army that had apparently overran the rest of the castle in under two hours.
Still, a rather large part of me was hoping we'd get there fast enough, luckily when Farina had left so had Fiora and Florina, who had been sent to warn Chrom's group along with a few others. So none of them had been trapped in the castle itself, and I could only hope the two sisters faired better than their middle sibling did.
Unfortunately the money loving pegasus rider hadn't made it to us totally unharmed, which was rather obvious from the crash landing she had pulled on her arrival. Major bruising on most of her body had put her out of action for the coming fight, and on top of that I had been wrong in my damage assessment back then. The girl's pegasus had taken an arrow to the flank on the side that had been running along the ground. It was likely going to recover but it certainly wasn't going any farther then its rider.
The rest of the army had actually been significantly more, I'd hesitate to say upbeat, but that was the best I could come up with. The rain leaving helped a lot of the mood, and there was a general feeling that maybe we could actually do something this time. Maybe our ragged army could arrive before the defenders were overrun and save the day.
So it wasn't too much surprise that with the mood lightening, Edward was up to being, well, Edward.
"We'll get them this time, show those Plegian's just who their messing with!" The reckless kid said as he twirled his sheathed blade around a bit. I was half wondering if I should be ducking for fear that the sheath would suddenly turn into a projectile, but it seemed to be firmly in place for now.
Amelia was the other person whose mood had noticeable lightened despite the hits she had taken in the battle last night.
"Yes! We'll save everyone in the capital for sure." The blond haired soldier said with almost frightening eagerness considering that we still had a castle to potentially retake.
The rest of us weren't anywhere near as hyper as those two, though that may have had to do more with our personalities than anything else. Koel, Nephenee and Gilliam were never much to talk when they could avoid it, though Koel looked like he was half sick for some reason. Which left me and Aran stuck as the ones to have to show some restraint on the excitement.
"The gods have pulled back the rain so that we can reach the capital in time, so I'm sure they will favour us in the coming battle," Aran said with conviction.
Well, guess it was just up to me to be the down to earth one here, or atleast that was what I was thinking I'd do before two large green eyes were suddenly staring at me from about three inches in front of my face.
The sudden appearance of my squad buddy actually caused me to jump back about a foot and let out a surprised, "What the hell!?"
"You were looking entirely too serious for your own good," Amelia said as she turned stepped back into her marching position, "We'll make it through this, just like we have all the other battles so far."
I sighed, "Sorry, I'm just really not looking forward to this," It was true, either we were fighting Risen and this was going to be hellish, or we were going to be fighting Plegians, and it would be equally hellish. I wouldn't be surprised if the army had been effectively wiped out even if we won the coming battle if it was even somewhat close to what Mount and Blade sieges were like. Though this wasn't even going to be a siege, most likely we were just going to be rushing through the holes the invaders had already punched in the walls and hope that they hadn't set up any defenses along them.
Amelia nodded, "I can understand, but if we don't keep up a good spirit it'll be like we lost the battle before we even started."
"I know, but I still don't see how you can be this confident," I said with well rubbing my temples to relieve a bit of the stress that was building up.
"Because I'm sure that we'll see each other through," Amelia said with a grin, "As long as we work together no Plegian can stand in our way."
Well, what could I say to that, other then, "Heh, your right. I'm sure we'll all get through this. Though I still think this is going to be the deadliest fight we've been in yet."
"No doubt, but if we can win this then we might finally be able to drive the Plegians back for a bit and prepare ourselves for the next invasion. On top of that we'll save everyone in the capital."
"You're eagerness worries me," I said with a grin. It was rather quite hard to stay in a serious mood when directly faced by the excited blonde, and judging by how Edward and Leonardo were now mock pushing each other back and forth I'm guessing that our archer found himself in the same situation when faced with his excited long-time friend.
Koel on the other hand was still looking rather ill and it seemed to be infecting Nephenee a bit. Though it was more likely nerves given the only symptom was that he was as pale as a ghost. Either way Koel was probably the last person here who I expected to be extremely nervous.
The older mercenary apparently noticed how I was observing him, and immediately tried to bring his appearance under control. Unfortunately for him that accomplished nothing other than getting Nephenee and Amelia to look at him too, and the man was forced into a response by the weight of our curiosity, "Just some bad memories. I'll be fine."
Further conversation was cut down a bit by that, and it didn't help that we could see smoke starting to rise over the canopies of the trees before us.
"Eyes forward, we are only a few minutes away from the capital now," Gilliam said from the front of the group.
The rest of us straightened up and prepared ourselves for the coming battle, and a few of the members of our group let out gasps as the capital came into view. Burning buildings dotted the large city, and both sets of walls of the castle had large breeches in them. Though we could still see Plegians milling around the keep. Which meant that atleast some people up there were likely still holding out, otherwise looting probably would have begun. Between the first and second walls was a long winding path that crossed back and forth multiple times as it scaled the hill.
"Yes, we arrived in time!" Amelia said from beside me, a sentiment echoed by just about everyone in the remains of our army judging by the feeling like a huge tension had been relieved. At the lead of the column, the commander of our force, a Great Knight of some format, whose name had never managed to reach most of us in the ranks, reared his horse up and pointed his spear ahead well he let out a bellowed "Forward soldiers of Ylisse, our comrades still hold."
Their might have been more, but the general battlecry of our army drowned out any real words other than that. Even I joined in on the battlecry despite my misgivings, actually it was entirely because of my misgivings. The primal release of the cry, especially when it was combined with hundreds of others as we rushed through the fields around the town, and then the streets as we approached the first wall of the capital. Which rested at the base of the mountain the keep rested on.
Above us, you could see general confusion mulling about in the Plegian army, and some of the rear elements started to rush down the hill to try to stop us at the first wall. Unfortunately for them, well we had the longer distance to travel, they had to deal with a rather significant slope, and those Plegians that moved too quickly could be seen rolling down and breaking themselves on the rocks that surrounded the castle. Even picked up in the mood of the army as I was, I gulped a bit at the idea of pushing up that mountain ourselves.
A few scattered archers, left on the first wall, fired toward us, their arrows bouncing off the raised shields, and the first Plegian foot soldiers only were just reaching the breach at the same time we were, and unlike them, we had momentum on our side.
The first ranks of our army were spearmen to the man, and with the sound of clattering weapons they lowered their weapons to rest along their hips, letting them brace the weapon as they continued their forward charge. With the sound of a wave of metal crashing against another, the charge struck home.
The Plegians, caught off footing by the rapid redeployment, were crushed under the weight of the charge. Their first ranks literally being run through or crushed below the charging mass of men. The first contact was always the most brutal and even as our group continued forward we were already running over the bodies of our own men along with old Plegian corpses from the first battle, and many new ones added by the charge.
The momentum of our charge carried us clean through the vanguard of the Plegian force that had redeployed to try to stall us, and units of our swordsmen and archers, including Edward and Leonardo, broke off to clear the few invader archers from the walls and turn the arrow fire back at the Plegians now blocking our way.
The rest of us in the squad were now making our way up the hill at a much slower pace. The battleground favoured the Plegians heavily as they had the extra reach given to them by being uphill, and the only reason we hadn't stalled out was that the majority of the Plegian force was still up at the second wall. This group before us was only here to slow us down long enough for the others to set up an actual defense at the breach, and our commanders were pushing the men up front to bring the Plegians down faster.
"Damn, at this rate they'll have that breach turned into a death trap by the time we get up there," Gilliam ground out between a clenched jaw as he watched the ranks ahead of us slow more and more against the delaying force, even if it was rapidly diminishing, by the time it was fully gone the bulk of the Plegians would have more than enough time to be ready for us.
Ontop of that we could see archers and swordsmen starting to stream down from the second wall to occupy a number of damaged towers that lined the path up to the second wall. The small squat blockhouses wouldn't be too dangerous on their own, especially considering their doors had already been broken down and that there was a number of other holes punched into them by magic or siege weapons, but they would slow us down even further.
Then the battle shifted as our mages and archers managed to fully secure the wall, and with the sound of rolling thunder a few dozen lightning strikes smashed into the rock above where the Plegians were holding us back. I couldn't help myself from half shouting, "That's brilliant." As I saw the rocks starting to crack.
Gilliam was also looking at the mages work, his eyes glaring at the cracking stone, "If it doesn't block us off in the process yes."
I could see Nepheene, Aran and Amelia all giving us a look, well mostly me as I had let out that rather loud outburst and even if the feeling of battle had overtaken me I could help feeling a bit embarrassed at it as I explained, "The mages are planning to cause a rockslide, the weaving path means that it won't fall on our own troops-" The crack of thunder cut me off again as another wave of bolts struck and with an extended roar the wall of the hill began giving away. Rocks of all shapes and sizes rolled down the hill at the massed Plegians before us, and the carnage of their impact was even worse than that caused by our charge. Men were broken and squashed beneath the rocks, some tried to dive out of the way only to go off the side of the path themselves, or into the path of another rock, and even if the rumble of the rolling rocks drowned out most of it, the sound of breaking bones and weapons could still be heard.
In barely a few seconds the tide of battle had changed entirely, and the few pockets of remaining Plegians couldn't do anything in the face of our superior numbers, infact most of them didn't even try. With almost all their force literally crushed, the remaining invaders were too stunned to really fight back as they either were knocked out to be bound as prisoners by troops in the rear, or cut down.
The momentum of our charge returned though, as the mages had calculated correctly and none of the rocks blocked the path, though the ground became a fair bit more treacherous due to the damage the slide had caused. So we didn't get back up to the speed we had before, but the first of the block houses defender groups fell apart. The second put up more resistance, and delayed us for a few minutes. Luckily we were out of range of the archers above though, mostly because as Gilliam had mentioned once during our training, the Plegians didn't favour bows much, and their shorter ranged ones couldn't make the same shots an Ylisse bow could.
The few minutes at the second blockhouse were used to re-organize our force though, and the Great Knight before cantered up the ranks of soldiers milling below the tower. His armour had a few rather noticeable red splotches and deep scratches that told us he hadn't just been sitting in the back the whole time. The man's voice didn't even sound winded as he bellowed over the ranks, "Soldiers of Ylisse, before us stands the last line of Plegians, and behind them wait our comrades who still bravely hold the line. Our enemies are prepared, and they hold a position that will be difficult to assault. The next stage will be the most brutal part of this battle yet and those who lead the charge will likely perish creating foothold," the general paused for a moment, his sword held high as he let the statement sink in, "Anyone who volunteers and survives will be rewarded handsomely, and I'll personally see that anyone who volunteers and perishes will have their families looked after."
Again the general paused, and this time there was a much more noticeable reaction from the gathered mass, even if it was mostly people backing up a bit. The reward was certainly grand, but a quick glance back up at the walls above us was not reassuring of the chances of survival. I could sense the rest of my squad was starting to shift back as well, our relative rookie status was not exactly a confidence booster.
Unfortunately none of us bargained on Gilliam being his usual best soldier possible self. The heavily armoured knight stepped against the crowd and raised his own spear in the air, "My unit volunteers!"
The general nodded gravely to Gilliam, "We have our first volunteers, but we will need more if we are to hope to succeed."
The rest of us were too busy balking at Gilliam to notice other weapons starting to go up around the gathering. We were going to be assaulting a castle, and we were going to be going first. This was the shittiest idea I had ever heard. Unfortunately it didn't seem like we were going to be getting out of this, or atleast Koel and I weren't, because as I was contemplating the possibly of just deserting now a change came over most of our group.
Beside me Amelia stopped staring at Gilliam like he had grown a second head and tightened her grip on her spear, and I could see Nephenee and Aran doing the same. Koel on the otherhand looked like he was contemplating pulling a runner too, but sighed a sigh of the long suffering as he noticed the others.
Well, I wasn't going to run like a wuss if everyone else was going to stay, and worst case was that I'd probably end up in another coma dream…I hoped. Guess worst case would be it'd actually kill me, but I quickly pushed that possibility out of my mind. Looking up at the walls above us, now crowded with Plegian troops, I let out one titanic sigh, gripped my spear, and prepared for being on the front line of what was likely going to be one of the biggest battles of the war.
Maybe if we were lucky, we'd all come out of this alive and get elevated to main characters.