A/N: Hi! I'm back! Again!
Guess what?! New character! Go read!
The Black Spirit
"So, this is the place?" Chrom asked skeptically. Their ship was docked at an unnamed island, and the Shepherds were all disembarking to stretch their legs and set up camp for the night. Chrom, Kazuto, Robin, and Argo, who was now endowed with yellow Cait Sith wings, were all standing on a small rise that overlooked the natural harbor that they had all docked in.
"I gotta say Robin, this place looks deserted," Kirito frowned. "You sure your intel was right, Argo?" He directed his question at the brown-haired girl, who shot him a glare.
"I wouldn't have sold it if I wasn't sure," she snorted. "Besides, this island is big enough that one guy could easily go undetected if he wanted."
"True," Kazuto sighed. "All right, but we have until tomorrow morning to find this descendant. And since it's already the afternoon…" He looked up at the sky to see the beginnings of a rosy sunset. He beat his wings and hovered above the ground before looking down at the Shepherds' leaders. "I'll be back soon," he said. "Tell Sinon, Leafa, Silica, and Asuna that I'd appreciate their help in a fly-over search."
"All right, but be back in time for dinner," Chrom called up.
"You don't want to bring Yui along?" Robin asked, which caused Kazuto to hesitate before shaking his head. "Not yet," he explained. "She's still pretty weak from her experience. Tell her I'll be back soon, though." And with that, he took to the air to begin the search for Ike's descendant.
About half an hour later, he ran into Sinon, who explained that the other girls were exploring the island in other areas, with the exception of Yui and Argo. "Thanks, Sinon," he said once he was up to speed. "Any luck so far?"
"Nah, and unless we find something soon, I doubt that we'll find 'em at all," she shrugged. "Could be that even if this guy was around, he left once he started getting visitors from other places, maybe even joined one of the expeditions that came around here."
"Could be, but I doubt it for some reason," Kazuto frowned as he put his fingers on his chin. "What I wouldn't give for my Spriggan eyesight right now…"
"Well, fire up a signal with your magic if you do find anything," Sinon said. "If you do, Silica will fetch the Shepherds, the rest of us will meet up with you then."
"Got it, partner," he grinned as he gave her a thumbs-up, which she returned before flying off at an easy pace. As soon as he turned to look back and resume his search, his eye was drawn to something.
Hovering over it and descending a bit to get a closer look, Kazuto was interested to see a series of old, collapsed buildings right next to a steeper incline that hid it from the view of the Shepherds' camp. The buildings themselves weren't that interesting, but what was interesting was the sight of fresh bedrolls, cookware, and various other belongings that did not look like they had been left behind by the original occupants. Some of the cook fires looked as though they had only recently been put out.
"Wait a sec…" Kazuto muttered aloud as he peered closer at one of the ruins. Suddenly an arrow shot out from behind a stone pillar, his sharp reflexes being the only thing that saved him from being impaled. Not going through that crap again, he thought sourly, remembering that last time he had been shot by a surprise arrow.
Raising his fist, he sent a burst of basic dark magic into the sky, glad that the sun had not completely set yet. He was rewarded with several arrows being loosed in his direction, and the owners stepping out into plain sight, along with many of their friends, who were armed to the teeth.
"Oh man," he gulped as he shot upwards and out of the range of their arrows. "This is going to be hard to approach…"
"Hey, Kirito!" Sinon called out as she and Asuna flew up to him, keeping an eye out on the hostile locals below. "You okay?!"
"Yeah, just a little surprised is all," he replied as they drew close enough for them to talk without shouting. "They started shooting at me, so I came up here. Though I can't really blame them for being surprised. I sometimes forget that people aren't used to our wings."
"Still rude to shoot at people when they haven't even attacked," Asuna huffed, annoyed. "Why don't we discourage them while we wait for the Shepherds to arrive?"
"I'm for that," Kirito said even as Asuna's hands began to crackle with lightning. He went to draw his swords, only to be stopped by Sinon's hand and voice.
"Are you guys crazy?!" she asked. "There's gotta be like fifty guys down there!"
"So?" Kirito asked, not really seeing the problem.
"So, unless we want to antagonize any spell casters they've got, which can probably hit us at any range- we should wait for reinforcements!" She gave them both a look that read, 'what am I, your mother?!'
"But if they had spell casters, wouldn't they have used them already?" Asuna asked with a cocked head. Before Sinon could answer, a lightning blast shot up, narrowly missing Kirito.
"You had to tempt them, didn't you?!" he complained.
"You're the one that wanted to go down and fight all of them right now!" Sinon argued as they retreated back towards the Shepherds' camp.
"I didn't know that they would have magic, though!" he protested.
"Really?!" Sinon snapped. "Kirito, what army have run into in this world that wasn't packing magic?!"
"I can always hope," he mumbled.
They reached the camp just as Chrom and Robin had finished mobilizing the force. "Oh, hey Kirito," Robin said as the three of them landed. "What kind of odds are we looking at here?"
"Well, they have a lot of long-range fighters armed with magic and bows," Asuna answered. "But they also had a lot of people that weren't attacking that were armed with close-combat equipment."
"There's about fifty of them, maybe more, so we're looking at mostly one-on-one combat," Kirito added.
"There's one other thing…" Sinon said, her chin in her fingers.
"What is it?" Chrom asked.
"I noticed something weird about all of their equipment," she replied. "A lot of them were Valmese, which made sense to me, but there were also Plegian and Ylissean soldiers in there, too."
"What?!" Chrom and Robin both exclaimed. Their shock was understandable enough- Plegia and Ylisse were traditional enemies, and Valm had made quite the name for itself recently. It made no sense that they would all be fighting together.
"Regardless, it seems we should investigate, Father," Lucina said, her hand on Falchion's pommel. "If we have come this far, we would be remiss to turn back now. And I, for one, want to see what made it possible for these people to unite in such a manner."
"I agree," Chrom said, shaking his head to rid himself of his surprise. "Sorry, just lost my nerve there for a moment…" He turned to face the other Shepherds, who were awaiting instructions. "All right, Shepherds!" he called out. "We are about to engage with a likely hostile force of mixed nations! Be on guard at all times, and do not hesitate to retaliate if you are attacked!"
"Warriors of Alfheim, keep above us and try to back up anyone that needs it if they don't deploy sky units," Robin added. "Shepherds, march!" Letting out their battle cries, the Ylissean heroes moved to run where their newest opponents lay in wait.
As they approached the ruins, Chrom and Robin ordered the Shepherds to halt when they saw two figures waiting for them on top of the rise. "Hold this position," Chrom told Kirito. "Robin and I will talk to them."
"What if they attack you?" Kirito asked before they could go.
"Tell Sinon to keep an eye on us," Robin answered. "And something goes wrong, shoot well." Then they left their allies behind to approach the two strangers.
As they walked up, their details became clearer. One of them was massive, with a tall build and muscles that belonged to a god. His hair and eyes were dark blue, though not quite as dark as Chrom's. On his shoulder rested a massive, seven-foot-long two-handed sword that he carried with no discernible effort. He looked to be in his late twenties.
The second one was a little harder to make out, due to the black cloak that shrouded their body, but the shoulders were broad, so Chrom assumed it was safe to say that this warrior was also a male. His face was mostly hidden, but the skin underneath it was pale and smooth, indicating youth. He was also tall, although not a giant like the first man. On his back protruded a black handle for a one-handed sword that seemed somehow familiar to Robin.
When they stood about twenty paces apart, the taller of the two held up a hand and said, "That's far enough." Chrom and Robin stopped where they stood.
"Why are you here?" asked the cloaked one. His voice was definitely that of a teenager, but it was deep and vibrant, indicating that he was perhaps sixteen or eighteen- not much younger than Chrom and Robin themselves.
"We are looking for someone calling themselves the descendant of Ike," Chrom replied. "We came to see if he would aid us in our efforts to prevent disaster striking the world."
The blue-haired man's left eyebrow went up. "The whole world, huh?" he asked.
"Yes," Robin nodded. "We seek to prevent the resurrection of Grima, the Fell Dragon. And if Ike's descendant were to help us, it would be much appreciated."
"The name's Priam," the blue-haired man said as he rammed his blade into the solid rock beneath his feet with little effort. "And if you can best me and my men, I'll help you however I can."
"Just like that?" Robin asked, surprised.
"I don't take orders from people I can't respect," Priam said simply. "And I don't respect people that don't know their way around a fight."
"Good, I see we already agree on something," Chrom grinned as he raised Falchion with both hands. "Your men against ours, then." Robin opened up his thunder tome, ready for combat.
"Give the signal, kid," Priam said to his companion.
"Aye," he said as he reached up and unclasped his cloak and tossed it aside. He was wearing all black underneath, the clothing looking like something from Chon'sin. His long hair and eyes were also black as Grima's heart, and his body was thinner than Priam's, but just as chiseled. But what drew their eyes most of all was the massive black Spriggan wings sprouting from his back that carried him up into the air.
"Um… I'm not the only one that saw that, right?" Chrom asked.
"I was about to ask the same thing," Robin answered. "But…"
"How is that possible?" Chrom finished for him. "We have all the marbles capable of granting those powers from Tiki, right?"
As they were speaking, the youth raised his fist to the sky and unleashed a burst of darkness magic that exploded into a dark cloud, probably to signal everyone down below. Then he dove behind the rise, and out of sight.
"Hey, Priam," Robin asked the man directly as the Spriggan boy took off. "Where did you find that kid?"
"He found me," Priam shrugged. "Won't say where he's from, but I'll tell you this- I've never seen someone that good with a sword. I fought him, and he let me call our match a draw…" A look of mild embarrassment flashed across his face. Then it cleared and he said, "We'll be waiting for you in the ruins. Don't keep us waiting."
"Wait, that skinny kid beat Priam?" Chrom wondered aloud. "How…?"
"I don't know, but I doubt that we'll get our answers by standing around all day," Robin said as he waved the Shepherds forward. "Looks like we'll be getting our answers the usual way."
"By beating the daylights out of them?" Chrom grinned.
"Is there any other way?" Robin chuckled.
"Kirito, did you see that?" Asuna asked her husband as they watched the Spriggan boy descend out of sight.
"Yeah," he nodded, drawing his swords. "I call fighting him. I wanna know how he got those wings and that magic…"
"Maybe he's from Alfheim like most of us?" Sachi suggested mildly.
"I don't know any Spriggans other than me," Kirito shook his head. "So whoever he is, he's not from our group back home."
"And that means you need to fight him to get answers?" Lucina asked, confused.
"Just… let him go," Asuna sighed. "If he wants to fight somebody, nobody's gonna talk him out of it."
"Hey, they're waving us forward," Yuuki pointed out. "We should get going."
"All right Asuna, you take care of this," Kirito said as he shot into the sky on his wings. "I'll be back!" he called down.
"Please be safe…" she prayed quietly.
Kirito was shocked when the boy from before shot up into the sky with a speed that matched his own to punch him in the stomach, winding him badly. "Predictable," he growled. "That'll get you killed in this world."
"Right to the point, huh…?" Kirito coughed. Then he grinned and did a rapid forward flip that slammed his heels into his opponent's head. "Good. I like my fights like that."
The other boy recovered quickly, zipping around his opponent and smashing his right palm into his back, right underneath one of Kirito's shoulder blades, and almost forcing him to lose his grip on his dark repulsor. "Gah!" he cried out in pain. Whirling around, he tried to cut at his opponent with his elucidator, only to have it blocked with another black blade that somehow looked familiar to Kirito, though he couldn't quite place it. "Geez, kid," he grunted. "You fight hard."
"There is no other way to win if you want to emerge victorious," the other boy said as he slapped away the elucidator from his neck. "I care not for the method of my victory, only the results that await me at the end of the journey."
"Who are you, kid?" Kirito asked as he looked at the sword in his enemy's hand. It was a one-handed straight sword, black in color with a sturdy cross guard and a blade point that widened a bit just before it ended. "That sword looks familiar somehow… And how'd you get your wings?"
"Those are secrets you'll have to wrest out of me once you've defeated me- if you can," he replied stiffly. "Now come, Black Swordsman!"
"You know my name, but I don't know yours," Kirito grunted, his back aching badly where had been struck. It was going to be a long fight, he knew. "At least give me something to call you!"
"Hmph…" he snorted. "I have many names where I come from, but I suppose that for now, you may address me as the Black Spirit." He whirled his sword into a position that struck another chord in Kirito's memory, but it eluded him for the moment.
"The Black Spirit, huh?" he chuckled. "What are you, an otaku with a fancy sword?"
"The Black Swordsman, huh?" his opponent mocked him. "What are you, a child with a savior complex?"
"And, we're done here," Kirito muttered. He shot forward, dual swords in hand, ready to fight for real now. His opponent's eyes darkened like storm clouds ready to unleash lightning. Even as they began their battle in earnest, the Shepherds below finally began their skirmish with Priam's warriors.
?: Oh, come on, man! You totally made it seem like I was gonna be next to appear!
Mataras: I said to get out of here!
?: Wait, man, c'mon... You don't need to- OW!
Asuna: And... he's out.
Mataras: Serves him right for trying to sneak out here early.
Sinon: To be fair though, I can understand why he wants to get out there. You take forever to update.
Mataras: Yeah, I know, but I don't have the same kind of time I used to. Two jobs, a love life, and another book in the works? Cut me some slack here!
Kirito: Hey man, no one's blaming you- life happens. I think our readers prefer quality over quantity anyways.
Mataras: Yeah, but I also know that if take too long on the quality, there's no one around to enjoy it...
Leafa: So you'll be updating more frequently now?
Mataras: Maybe... we'll see how the next few weeks turn out. Hopefully, I can get some more time for this.
Sinon: Sounds good to me.
Yui: Next time: Legends Collide!