Bad luck today? Maybe this will make up for it.
Chapter 77 – Imperial Counterattack, Part 4 (Great Tree Moon)
Dorothea readied another Thoron spell as Salia threw another fireball at the Church's soldiers, setting two more on fire. The second-in-command of the Black Eagles then rolled Alektra as Dorothea fired her spell, narrowly missing the Eagle and her Wyvern.
"Dammit!" Dorothea hissed.
"Dorothea, behind you!" shouted Annette.
The diva whirled around as a soldier from the 5th Imperial Army swung a mace at her. Dorothea dodged the strike before slashing Joyeuse's tip through the man's throat.
As she tried to make sense of the chaos around her, Dorothea finally saw Ladislava making a dive toward her, with Longinus at the ready. Time seemed to slow down for the diva as the Crimson Warrior and her mount closed in on her.
Before Ladislava and Fenix could reach Dorothea, however, the Sword of the Creator lashed forward, catching Longinus and entangling the ebony lance.
Ladislava let out a loud yelp of surprise as she was wrenched off Fenix's back by Byleth, forcing her to roll as she landed on the bridge. Fenix pulled up as Ladislava swung Longinus to the side, freeing it from the Sword of the Creator's grip.
Before her blade had fully retracted, Byleth rushed at Ladislava and let out a loud yell as she approached. Ladislava immediately met the Archbishop's charge, deflecting a series of rapid strikes with Longinus as Byleth forced her on the defensive. The Crimson Warrior attempted to counter a strike, only for the Shield of Seiros to block her attack. Byleth made another slash, only for Ladislava to masterfully deflect it with her lance's shaft.
But as Byleth was about to take another slash at Ladislava, she heard Fenix let out a furious roar and turned just in time to see the ruby Wyvern about to bite her head off.
Time froze just before Fenix's fangs would sink into Byleth's flesh.
The Archbishop silently cursed her carelessness. In focusing so much on Ladislava, she hadn't taken the Crimson Warrior's mount into account. And now she had to use more of the Divine Pulse's power when she might need it later.
Byleth knew she could only blame herself for her blunder. She had let herself become fixated on avenging Cyril's death. She had to keep a cool head, especially at a time like this.
The deadly duel between Byleth and Ladislava moved in reverse as Fenix moved away from the Archbishop. Around them, blades left the bodies of men and women, arrows flew back toward their respective archers, and spells similarly returned to their casters.
Two seconds had been turned back, and so Byleth allowed time to flow again.
Knowing Fenix was coming, Byleth whirled around to the ruby Wyvern as it roared, readying his fangs to kill the one threatening his partner. There was no time to swing her sword at him, so Byleth swung her shield and bashed Fenix's snout. It was enough to throw off the Wyvern's attack.
Byleth was about to strike at Fenix when she heard Ladislava let out another yell. The Crimson Warrior thrust Longinus at Byleth, trying to skewer her waist. Byleth leaned and only received a small cut from the Mythril spearhead of Ladislava's lance. Byleth immediately leapt back, trying to get a better position.
Byleth hissed as Fenix took off, allowing Ladislava to assume a new stance.
"I should have known you'd be the one leading the Knights of Seiros," said Ladislava. "Lady Edelgard always spoke highly of your abilities."
"You can't win this fight, Ladislava," said Byleth. "Surrender."
"You must not know my Black Eagles that well. Surrender is never an option for us."
Byleth readied a new stance as the two leaders prepared to resume their clash.
…
"Sialan!" hissed Setiawati as a crossbow bolt struck one of her riders.
The huntress drew her bow and fired back at the Church soldier who had fired the bolt, hitting the woman in the head. She drew another arrow, knowing she had to use them conservatively. She had found some more after retreating from her fight with Petra, but even then, she did not have more than six left.
Setiawati spurred her horse to run faster as a Miasma Δ spell from Cia flew toward her, causing the spell to miss its mark. Setiawati was about to take a shot back at her, but then saw Brigitte moving to guard her against such an attack. The huntress swiftly changed targets and fired at Raphael, who let out a loud yowl as he was hit in the shoulder. Raphael pulled the arrow out of his pauldron, with only a flesh wound to show for the hit.
Seeing this, Ignatz drew his bow and fired at Setiawati. The huntress hissed in pain as the Alliance archer's arrow found its mark in her left thigh, though it did not hit anything vital.
Knowing she had to tend to her wound, Setiawati slung her bow over her shoulder and urged her horse to pull away from the fight.
…
Zola let out another sadistic laugh even as Catherine forced her on the defensive. The Crusader was catching on to her feints, and she was now doing whatever she could to stop Zola from building up her momentum and keep her off balance.
The blonde Skraeling, for her part, was glad that she had finally found a challenge. She had gotten a few more cuts from Thunderbrand's blade, but so far Catherine hadn't landed a fatal blow.
As Zola leapt back from another slash from Catherine, she suddenly realized that the fight had taken them right to the east edge of the bridge. Zola had nowhere left to retreat to.
"Now I've got you," said Catherine.
"Well, bring it on, then!" Zola snarled. "Take your best shot!"
"Gladly," said someone behind Catherine.
Zola's eyes widened in surprise as Catherine stepped to the side, revealing Shamir aiming her bow right at the Skrael warrior.
The Dagdan sniper fired.
Instinctively, Zola raised her axe to intercept the shot. The arrow bounced off the head of her axe, but the force of the impact knocked her off balance.
Zola let out a surprised howl as she fell off the side of the bridge.
"ZOLA!" Salia shouted as she saw the blonde murderess topple over the side.
Salia immediately sent Alektra into a high-speed dive, determined to catch Zola before she plummeted into the Airmid River.
As Salia did this, Zola swung her axe at the side of the bridge, attempting to dig its blade into the stone structure. Zola's axe carved into the side, but her weight continued to pull her toward the bottom of the bridge.
Seconds later, Zola's axe came loose as she ran out of bridge for her axe to dig into.
Zola let out another howl as she continued falling, with Salia and Alektra following close behind her.
After another four seconds of plummeting, Salia finally reached Zola and reached her hand out for the blonde killer. Seeing this, Zola reached her left hand out and grabbed Salia, nearly jerking her off Alektra's saddle as the Wyvern pulled up from its dive.
Grunting painfully at nearly having her arm pulled out of its socket, Salia growled, "The bullshit I go through for you, Zola!"
"Hey, no one asked you to save my neck, Salia!" Zola snarled back.
"Shut up!"
It was at this moment that Zola's Wyvern came diving after them, flying under Alektra. Salia swung her arm, allowing Zola to drop back into her mount's saddle.
"You're welcome!" Salia said angrily.
Zola, too proud to thank Salia for rescuing her, let out another snarl as she flew back up toward the bridge.
But as the two riders did so, they heard the familiar blaring of an Imperial horn.
…
As she finished pulling out of a diving attack against one of the Church's cavaliers, Trauare was shocked as an arrow passed right in front of her eyes, almost hitting her in the head.
"OH, SHIT!" Trauare yelped as she pulled hard on Zorne's reins, prompting the Pegasus to climb steeply away from the fight on the ground.
The water mage climbed well above the battle, out of range of the Church's archers, before finally gasping for breath.
"That was too close," Trauare said to herself as she caught her breath.
The distant whinny of a Pegasus caught Trauare's attention, the sound coming from the north. Trauare turned, expecting to see more of the Empire's Pegasus riders.
Upon seeing who it was, her eyes widened in dismay.
Riding toward her in the distance were around 300 riders flying the banner of House Galatea. Leading them was a blonde rider bearing a glowing lance.
"What the – where'd they come from?!" Trauare said in horror.
Trauare then noticed movement on the ground, about half a kilometer away. She quickly took out her spyglass and looked past the Galatea fliers.
To her horror, she saw the approaching Loyalist army. Tens of thousands of Loyalist soldiers were heading toward the Great Bridge of Myrddin.
There was no sign of the Imperial 5th Army.
Knowing they had to get away, Trauare quickly stashed her spyglass and dove back toward the battle, drawing a war horn and blowing it frantically.
Down below, the Black Eagles heard this and immediately disengaged from fighting the Church Army.
As the Black Eagles began their retreat, one of the officers from the 5th Army's vanguard shouted, "Hey! Hey, where are you going?!"
Trauare ignored this as she flew toward the bridge, knowing she had to warn Ladislava what was coming.
…
Ladislava deflected a blow from Byleth before swinging around and slashing through a Knight of Seiros who tried to aid the Archbishop. She heard another one roaring as he rushed at her from behind, but Ladislava did not turn to her would-be attacker. The roar for battle turned into a howl of pain as Fenix dove in and raked the Church soldier with his talons.
Byleth shouted as she lashed the Sword of the Creator at Ladislava, who deflected the whip-like sword with her lance. Byleth took another slash at Ladislava's head, taking off a few strands of the Crimson Warrior's brown hair.
Just before Ladislava was about to take another strike at Byleth, the Crimson Warrior heard Dorothea shout as she cast a Thunder spell, sending a bolt of lightning at her. Ladislava turned to the attack too late to dodge it and let out a cry of pain as she was shocked by Dorothea's spell. It wasn't enough to kill the Crimson Warrior, but it certainly hurt, forcing Ladislava to her knee.
Ladislava snarled as she stood back up, knowing the battle was going badly. All around her, she could see wounded and dead members of her strike force and soldiers of the 5th Army littering the bridge, with those who could still fight now struggling against the Church's soldiers.
As Ladislava got back up, Fenix angrily dived toward Dorothea for wounding his partner. Dorothea let out a shriek as she was knocked over by Fenix. The ruby Wyvern then landed on her, pinning her under his left talons. Dorothea screamed as Fenix attempted to bite her head off, swinging Joyeuse and narrowly catching the Wyvern's fangs with her blade.
"DOROTHEA!" shouted Anna as she swung her Levin Sword at Fenix, sending a bolt of lightning at the Wyvern.
Fenix screeched in pain at the magical attack, with Dorothea also crying out as she was shocked. Fortunately, the spell wasn't particularly strong, but it was enough that Fenix took back to the air, leaving a terrified and disheveled Dorothea on the ground gasping for breath.
Seeing this happen, Byleth could not contain her fury. Seeing Ladislava's Wyvern nearly kill Dorothea was more than she could handle.
Now enraged, the Archbishop's eyes glowed green as she said, "Kisama! SHI-NE!"
The Sword of the Creator glowed brightly as Byleth's Crest of Flames blazed over her head. The Archbishop then lashed it at Ladislava in a ceaseless barrage of slashes, which Ladislava struggled to guard against. With each slash, Ladislava narrowly avoided being cut to ribbons, meeting and deflecting each slash just before it met flesh.
But after five seconds of blocking, Ladislava finally felt one hit the right side of her waist, though it was a shallow cut.
"SHI-NE!" Byleth shouted as she swung her blade again, sending the whip-sword's tip right at Ladislava's heart.
Ladislava moved Longinus in front of the attack just in time, blocking the strike and skidding three meters back across the surface of the bridge.
As the Crimson Warrior stopped sliding back, she saw the green glow in Byleth's eyes fade away as the Sword of the Creator resumed its normal form.
Byleth, meanwhile, was confused at what had just happened, though she did not show it. She could not remember what she had done over the last few seconds. She quickly realized she must have lost control again.
But whatever the case, Ladislava was still before her, albeit with a new wound in her side.
As Byleth was about to ready a new stance, she heard an Imperial horn blaring loudly.
Surprised, Ladislava turned to see Trauare blowing the horn, signaling a retreat. Ladislava knew it had to be serious; despite being a prankster, Trauare would never do such a thing unless absolutely necessary.
Snarling, Ladislava said, "We'll settle this later, Eisner."
Ladislava leapt from the ground as Fenix soared to her, catching the Crimson Warrior in midair.
"Fall back! All squads, regroup!" Ladislava shouted as she steered Fenix away from the bridge.
All around them, the Church watched as the Black Eagles broke off their attack and began to retreat to the east. The Church soldiers cheered at seeing the Empire's elites turning tail and fleeing.
"We've got them running!" shouted a Church archer.
Byleth, meanwhile, took several deep breaths as she wondered why Ladislava had chosen to run.
"More riders, coming from the north!" shouted another Church soldier.
Byleth turned to the north, expecting to see more Imperials on the horizon. She saw around 300 Pegasus Knights flying toward the bridge in the distance.
Squinting, Byleth saw to her surprise that they did not fly an Imperial banner.
"What the… those riders are from House Galatea!" Anna said in surprise as she lowered her spyglass.
"Hey, the Imperials are fleeing!" shouted Caspar.
Byleth looked down to see the 5th Army's vanguard running away to the east, trying to get away from the Church and the House Galatea riders. A few of the Loyalist Pegasus riders gave chase, but most of their number flew toward the bridge.
Flying down on Celdia, Ingrid caught sight of Byleth as she strode toward the Loyalists.
As Ingrid landed near her, Byleth said, "Ingrid? What are you doing here?"
Before Ingrid could answer, the beating of hooves prompted her and Byleth to look to the north. A large column of Loyalist cavalry was riding toward the bridge.
Byleth's eyes widened in surprise as she saw Dimitri riding at the front of the formation of Loyalist knights.
You didn't think I was going to kill off my Black Eagle aces right away, did you?
Call it favoritism if you want, but my Eagle aces still have roles to play, so killing them off now wouldn't make sense. But hey, they didn't win against our heroes, so you can't say they're totally OP (otherwise they would've won).
The next few chapters (or at least the next one in particular) are going to be hard, mainly because it'll be centering on Byleth trying to talk Dimitri out of doing anything too rash. Dimitri might be more levelheaded than he is in SS or VW, but it still won't be easy for Byleth to convince him not to charge right into Gronder without her. After all, I want the Church participating in the Battle of Gronder Field, unlike how they miss out on it in SS. Honestly, I really disliked how that played out in-game.
I'll see you next time.