Time for the first major battle of the post-timeskip. Hope I'm scaling the army sizes right.
Chapter 13 – Second Battle of Garreg Mach, Part 1 (Guardian Moon)
Bernadetta was suddenly regretting having said that she wouldn't run away. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep that vow as arrows and bolts rained around her and her troupe of archers, occasionally hitting one of the soldiers under her command. But she had to stay. If she didn't, the enemy fliers could easily overwhelm them.
Still, there was a fine line between bravery and foolishness. She wondered which side she was presently on.
Seeing a group of Pegasus Knights preparing to make a diving attack at one of the Onager crews behind the wall, Bernadetta shouted, "Right side!"
Taking only a second to point at the group she quickly drew an arrow and fired it at the lead Pegasus, hitting its wing. The steed and its rider screamed as they both crashed hard into the ground, prompting the rest of the attack wing to take evasive action. One of the riders, eager for revenge against the archers, swooped down at Bernadetta, who almost panicked as she tried to draw another arrow, knowing she would not be fast enough.
"Get down!" Yuri shouted as he grabbed Bernadetta by her collar and pulled back, saving her from the rider's lance.
As the rider pulled up from her attack, one of Bernadetta's archers lined up a shot and fired but missed. Getting over her shock at Yuri's save, Bernadetta readied another arrow and fired, hitting the second rider in the back and sending her tumbling off her steed.
Gasping in relief, Bernadetta said, "Thanks, Yuri."
"Thank me later, Bern," said Yuri. "We're still– SHIT!"
Again, Yuri pulled Bernadetta back as more arrows and bolts rained down at them, hitting three of her archers. An arrow flew right at Yuri, and just as he saw it coming the Fetters of Dromi glowed red hot. The arrow seemingly veered off course, but in doing so it grazed Bernadetta's arm.
"BERN!"
"I'll be okay!" Bernadetta said with a wince. "A little scratch won't stop me!"
Yuri had to grin as he quickly healed Bernadetta's wound.
…
Felix knew he had to conserve his Mana. He wasn't nearly as skilled in Anima as Annette or Dorothea were, but he knew enough to do some damage. And without the heavy armor that the knights wore, he knew going to the front of their line would be suicide. As such, he'd have to do his best to protect the rear line of his formation if any enemies broke through the front.
Felix's Thunder spell crackled as it hit a Fortress Knight, badly wounding the soldier without stopping him. But the injury gave Brigitte the opportunity to smash her war hammer into the soldier's head, caving in the helmet and the soldier's skull.
"How do you like that?!" Brigitte snarled.
"Stark, get back!" shouted Felix.
Startled, Brigitte turned to see where Felix was looking. Two Imperials were raising their crossbows to fire at her. The first one missed, but the second fired his bolt right into Brigitte's left shoulder. The redhead howled as she was sent to the ground.
"Brigitte!" Lana shrieked as she cast a spell at the archers, sending white lights that blinded the two and several other nearby Imperials.
"Grrgh, FUCK!" Brigitte snarled as she grabbed the bolt in her shoulder.
Rushing to the redhead's side, Lana said, "Hold still, Brigitte! I'll have you good as new in–"
"I said get back, both of you!" Felix shouted. "You're too exposed!"
"But–"
"NOW!"
Aborting her healing spell, Lana frantically tried to help Brigitte to her feet, the bluette struggling due to her weak constitution. After several long seconds, Brigitte managed to get up and, struggling through the pain, limped back toward cover. But as she and Lana retreated, two Imperial sword fighters recovered from Lana's spell and made a beeline toward the healer.
"Look out!" Brigitte shouted, ignoring the bolt in her arm as she rushed forward at the Imperials.
Unfortunately, Brigitte's one-handed swing of her hammer was easily avoided, and the soldier she had attacked slashed the weapon from her hand easily. The second was about to cleave Brigitte in half when Felix rushed in, slashing away the Imperial's strike. He followed up with a stab to the soldier's throat, killing the man almost instantly. Felix then whirled around to the first swordsman, clashing blades with him three times before slashing the man's stomach open.
Without missing a step, Felix shouted, "Back! NOW!"
Brigitte didn't bother grabbing her hammer as she was forced back with Lana.
…
Leonie hissed as she fired another arrow at the advancing Imperials, who raised their shields to block her shots while archers behind their wall returned fire at her. One arrow nearly hit her horse, prompting Leonie to break off her attack and put some distance between her and the Imperials.
She turned to Ferdinand as the orange-haired former noble slashed his lance at another Imperial soldier, cutting him down. But just as he did, one of the House Aegir cavaliers howled as he was struck down by a diving Wyvern rider. Leonie readied another arrow and fired at the Wyvern, but only struck the mount's leg. The Wyvern kept on flying, its rider urging it to pull up.
"Leonie, watch out!" Ferdinand shouted.
Leonie whirled around in alarm, but it was too late. A fireball from an Imperial mage smashed into the ground before her, scorching her horse's legs and causing the steed to topple over mid-stride. Leonie yelped and grunted as she tumbled across the snow-covered hill.
The Sauin huntress groaned as she tried to stand up, still holding her bow, but the sound of a roaring Imperial prompted her to whip around just in time. An axe fighter swung his weapon at Leonie, who rolled to the side and drew her knife in her right hand. But as she drew her weapon, the axe fighter swung again, smashing the blunt side of his weapon into Leonie's shoulder and sending her back to the ground. Frantically, Leonie scrambled to get back up, only to see that Ferdinand had killed her attacker with his lance.
"Get on!" Ferdinand shouted as he extended a hand to Leonie.
Sheathing her knife, Leonie grabbed Ferdinand's hand and swung herself up behind him on his saddle. She readied her bow again and fired at a Wyvern rider as it made a pass at Ferdinand, the same one she had shot earlier. This time, her arrow lodged itself in the Wyvern's left eye, the mount screeching as it went out of control and plowed into the hillside, its rider killed on impact.
"Hold tight!" Ferdinand shouted as he spurred his horse back toward the defenders' line.
Leonie wanted to stay and fire a few more shots at the Imperials, but after a brief glance she realized it would've been a bad idea. More of the Empire's fliers were moving to intercept the defenders' cavalry, and they were at risk of overextending.
Cursing, Leonie wrapped her arm around Ferdinand as they rode back to the wall.
…
Shamir watched as Leonie and Ferdinand rushed back toward the wall. Looking back at the advancing Imperials, the Dagdan sniper was silently thankful that the enemy wasn't just rushing in all at once yet. Even with only a portion of their forces, the Empire was making it incredibly difficult to defend their position. Thankfully, the Church's artillery was keeping the Empire from attacking in one big push with its infantry, but with only two Onagers available, she knew they wouldn't be enough by themselves.
One of the Onagers fired its payload, sending rocks and debris at an advancing Imperial column. Fourteen of them were hit, killing five instantly and wounding the rest. Enraged, the rest of the column began charging at the wall.
"Take aim," said Shamir as she readied her bow. The archers with her did the same.
Seconds later, Shamir said "Fire!" and released her arrow, as did the others with her. Twelve more Imperials were struck down by the hail of shots, but they continued to advance rapidly.
Down below Shamir, Catherine stood next to a group of volunteers, who aimed their crossbows at the enemy nervously.
"Steady, steady!" Catherine shouted. "Wait for it!"
Catherine waited as the Imperials drew closer. Even with her skill, so many opponents at once during such a frantic battle wasn't going to go easily. Standing next to the volunteer crossbowmen, Church swordsmen readied themselves to emerge from their trench and attack the Imperials.
Taking a moment to swat an arrow out of the air, Catherine shouted, "NOW!"
With the Imperials so close, the hail of crossbow bolts was lethal. Seventeen more soldiers were brought down by the crossbows, with the volunteers falling back as soon as they fired so they could reload.
"Attack!" Catherine shouted, rushing forward to meet the stricken Imperials.
Her troops roared as they followed her into battle. Seconds later, the clamor of clashing steel filled the field before the monastery's central outer gate, accompanied by the shouting and screaming of men and women as casualties quickly began to mount on both sides. But despite the casualties the defenders had inflicted on the Imperials as they approached, they were still evenly matched at best.
Catherine blocked two swings from an Imperial swordsman before slashing him with Thunderbrand, killing him in an instant. Not wasting time, she spun around to see another Imperial rushing toward her with a war hammer. The Imperial only got to swing once at Catherine, missing the Crusader before she countered with a blow that decapitated the soldier. Catherine then heard one of the Knights howling in agony as he was run through by an Imperial lancer. The Imperial didn't manage to pull his weapon free of his kill before Catherine avenged the knight's death.
Then, seeing no less than ten Imperials shift their focus toward her, Catherine readied a stance as she channeled Mana into Thunderbrand. While Catherine wasn't a spellcaster, she knew a thing or two about how one could use their Mana with the Heroes' Relics. Thunderbrand glowed furiously as Catherine readied her strike, a technique known as Foudroyant. With a shout, she swung Thunderbrand at the approaching Imperials, releasing a devastating wave of crimson electricity at the group. All ten Imperials were dead before they hit the ground.
Catherine only took a second to catch her breath after using the strike before seeking out another target.
…
Seteth pulled out of a dive after he finished striking down an Imperial Wyvern rider, taking a moment to look back at the battle around him. The Church's fliers were badly outnumbered, allowing the Empire to attack the rest of the defenders from above nearly unchallenged. Thankfully, the Imperials' fliers hadn't attempted to bypass the defenders and attack the monastery itself. Seteth knew they wouldn't have been able to stop them if they had; it seemed Randolph wanted to deal with them first.
Seeing a group of eight Imperial Wyvern riders about to make a diving attack on one of the Church's Onagers, Seteth directed the Lance of Assal at the squadron and shouted, "Caius, Garven, follow me!"
Two of the Church's Wyvern riders soared behind Seteth as the advisor urged Hyperion toward the diving Imperials. Two of the Imperials realized the attack was coming and stopped their dive, drawing short bows and taking aim at Seteth and his wingmen. Seteth dodged the first Imperial's shot, but the second shot hit Caius's Wyvern in its left wing, and the Church rider howled as his mount tumbled out of the air. Seteth was upon his target in an instant, skewering the rider before he had a chance to defend himself. Garven, meanwhile, swung his axe at the second rider, who dodged the attack and drew his own axe to clash with the Church rider.
Cursing, Seteth looked at the remaining six Imperial riders as they reached the Onager. Four of the riders began attacking the siege engineers while the remaining two slashed their axes into the siege weapon itself, with one of the Wyverns grabbing the arm of the weapon and snapping it in two.
At that moment, as Seteth dived to save the engineers, Alicia came flying down on her Pegasus, but the opera girl was having trouble controlling her new mount. She made a hasty thrust of her lance at one of the Imperials and missed. Her opponent quickly soared skyward, prompting Alicia to give chase.
"Melchiott, get back here!" Seteth shouted, but Alicia did not listen.
Still struggling to control her steed, Alicia soared up in pursuit, but the Wyvern rider quickly put some distance between them. Then, to Alicia's surprise, the rider reversed his climb and came diving down toward her, his axe at the ready. Yelping, Alicia raised her lance to defend herself, only for it to be struck from her grasp, and for her to be sent flying from her saddle.
Alicia screamed in terror as she began to fall. It would only take seconds for her to hit the ground. She hoped she would die quickly.
The howl of the wind roared beneath her as a magical tornado whirled to life, slowing her descent. Yet still she hit the ground hard, tumbling as her left arm, two ribs, and her left ankle cracked from the impact. But it had just been enough to save her life.
Alicia screamed in pain as Flayn flew down to aid her, relieved that her timely intervention had saved the brunette's life.
…
Byleth hissed loudly as she saw the first Onager's destruction. They only had one left, and it was already hard enough to hold off the Imperials.
"Caspar! Protect the remaining Onager!" Byleth shouted.
Caspar rushed over to aid the defenders as another group of Imperial fliers began descending on the remaining siege weapon. As he approached, Caspar threw a hand axe at one of the Imperial Wyverns, hitting the reptile in its neck and sending it and its rider to the ground.
Byleth then whirled around and shouted, "Petra, left flank!"
Petra immediately dashed out ahead of her troops as they rushed to assist Catherine's force, which was about to be outflanked by more Imperials. The Brigid princess slid under a crossbow bolt fired at her and retaliated with a quick shot of her short bow, hitting the Imperial archer in the throat. But before she could ready another arrow, a Fortress Knight barreled toward Petra and narrowly missed with a swing of his axe, the princess rolling to the side to dodge. Petra drew her hunting dagger and slashed it at the Imperial, but his armor turned away the tribal blade with ease. Scowling, Petra dodged back from another swing of the Imperial's axe, knowing she didn't have a means of penetrating his armor. To her relief, the knight was then hit by a bolt of lightning from Dorothea, sending the man to the ground in a convulsing heap. Not wasting time, Petra redrew her bow and darted back, avoiding two arrows that had been aimed at her as her troops clashed with the Imperials.
Atop the wall, Byleth turned and shouted, "Lysithea!"
"Just a little longer…!" Lysithea replied as Cia and Annette channeled Mana toward her.
One of the Church mages screamed as he was suddenly hit in the chest by an arrow, fatally wounding him. Cia, incensed by this, broke off her channel and readied a Miasma Δ.
"Cia, what are you doing?!" Annette shouted. "Give us a hand here!"
"I've got this, okay?" Cia shouted back. She then roared as she launched her spell, blasting down an Imperial archer.
Before she could congratulate herself, Cia heard another Imperial shout and whirled around to see a fireball flying at her. The tan diva yelped and tried to raise a ward, only managing the start of one before the fireball hit, breaking it instantly and sending Cia to the ground. Before she even landed, the Imperial launched another quick fireball at Cia.
Having just had the wind knocked out of her, Cia looked up just in time to see Linhardt rush in front of her with a ward spell ready, narrowly blocking the fireball.
"Thanks for that," Cia said in relief.
Before Linhardt could give a stern reply, the two heard Lysithea shout as she released her Hades Ω spell, sending a pillar of black fire careening at a line of Imperials. The Imperials screamed and scattered as several were consumed by the powerful spell.
"Whoa…" Cia said in awe. "Remind me not to get on that girl's bad side."
…
Behind the Church's line, Anna double-checked the fire carts as her engineers readied them for deployment. They would only get one shot, so they had to make it count.
"Anna!" shouted Byleth. "They're pulling back!"
Giving a quick nod to the engineers, Anna rushed to the wall and ran up beside Byleth to see the Imperials were indeed withdrawing toward the town. But as she looked down, she saw that it wasn't only the Empire that had taken severe losses. At least sixty of the monastery's defenders had lost their lives, with over a hundred more severely wounded, and both Onagers had been wrecked beyond repair. She was amazed the casualties had been this light.
"The Empire's regrouping," Byleth said to Anna. "Is your plan ready?"
"All set, By," replied Anna.
"Now for the tricky part," said Alois. "How are we going to get them to launch an all-out assault on our position?"
With a smirk, Anna said, "Leave that to me."
I hope you're enjoying the action so far.
And like I said, the 4 opera girls got nerfed. Hopefully that makes them less of Mary Sues.
On the topic of Dorothea's personality so far, yeah, I've messed up a bit, but that's because I'm kinda messed up right now IRL. Really bad spinal problem that I suspect might be a herniated disc, but I have to go get an x-ray to see if that's the truth (self-diagnosis isn't wise). But as for Dorothea's hypocrisy, I'll try to address that in the future. I definitely don't want to "Mary Sue" her, as her character flaws are what make her really endearing. I also hope to show enough character flaws for my OC's to make them endearing enough to you all.
Which brings me to some unfortunate news: due to my health, I'm gonna have to slow down the releases to once per week, as I can't concentrate enough to write properly when I have to dope myself up on so many painkillers (seriously, chronic back pain is no joke). I can only hope that the doctors can fix me, but even having to wait less than a week for an x-ray is torturous when I can't sit in a chair for very long. Once I'm back in good shape, I'll try to resume my two releases per week, but until then I have to slow down.
Sorry.