Ugh, procrastination. I almost didn't make this deadline.

Chapter 92 – Blood of the Eagle and Lion Pt 2 (Great Tree Moon)

Claude pulled Simurgh out of her dive, having just unleashed a trio of arrows into the Empire's ranks from above, claiming two kills. Looking back at the river, he saw the river had now been frozen, despite the Empire's efforts to stop his mages.

"Charge!" shouted Claude.

Roaring for battle, the Alliance's infantry rushed across the frozen river as Imperial infantry moved to stop them. Within seconds, the sound of battle intensified as the Alliance's troops began to overwhelm the Imperials.

Atop the hill, one of the Empire's generals turned to his regiment of siege engineers and shouted, "Open fire!"

Despite knowing they were likely to hit several of their comrades, the Imperials began firing down at the Alliance with Ballistae and Onagers. From above, Claude watched the first salvo as most of the projectiles fell short of the Alliance's line. The Imperials began screaming in agony as many were hit by friendly fire. Yet as the Imperials reloaded, Claude knew his forces couldn't rely on being lucky. The next salvo would surely hit the Alliance's front line.

Briefly turning, Claude shouted, "Immortals, follow me!"

At his command, Claude's personal flight wing, the Immortal Corps, followed him and Simurgh as they flew toward the enemy's siege weapons. Seeing the approaching Wyverns, the Imperial general began shouting orders to his men. The Imperials drew their blades and readied crossbows to fire at the Alliance fliers as soon as they got close enough.

To the surprise of the Imperials, the Immortal Corps did not dive at them. Instead, upon reaching the leader of the Leicester Alliance, the Wyvern riders all drew their bows and readied their arrows. Before the Imperial general could order his men to take cover, Claude swung his hand, prompting the Immortal Corps riders to unleash a large volley at the Imperials, with Claude firing an additional shot afterwards. Without adequate protection, the siege engineers and crossbowmen on the hill were cut down in droves by the volley of arrows. Claude's own arrow, imbued by Failnaught's power, streaked right into the head of the Imperial general, easily piercing through his helmet.

The Imperials, seeing their general slain, panicked as a second volley from the Immortal Corps hit their position, adding more casualties. Some of the siege engineers tried to aim their Ballistae at the Wyverns, but their efforts were in vain. Within moments, hundreds of Imperials atop the hill were dead, with hundreds more wounded.

Satisfied with the result, Claude looked back toward the Alliance's infantry. The Imperials, having seen their siege engineers being decimated, began to flee from the Alliance, having lost their artillery support.

"After them!" shouted Balthus. "Rip them to shreds!"

Balthus's battalions roared as they chased after the Imperials, their lighter armor letting them easily catch up with their fleeing enemies. Within minutes, the Imperials had taken losses in the thousands as the Alliance army surged up the hill, with Ignatz leading several carts filled with siege weapon parts up the slope. Seeing one team struggling, Raphael helped them push their cart while Hilda continued to direct her soldiers to secure the east side of the hill in case the Loyalists became hostile.

Claude watched from above as the Imperials fled, having already lost thousands of soldiers fighting his forces. The fleeing Imperials rushed back into the fog, concealing them from sight. Yet from his elevated position, Claude could see soldiers moving around in the mist near the south end of the hill. From what he could see, the Empire was preparing a counterattack.

Atop the hill, Ignatz directed his men as they began setting up their siege weapons, capturing several intact Ballistae and two Onagers that the Imperials had abandoned. Raphael and Balthus ran to help move these captured weapons into position on the south end of the hilltop. Until their own weapons were assembled, the captured ones would be all they had to fend off the Imperials from retaking the hill.

As she moved to direct others to defensive positions on the hill, Hilda looked west toward the Church's position. The Imperial 8th Army was nearly on top of the Church Army and outnumbered them significantly.

Claude then swooped down and landed as he shouted, "Get more men on the south side of the hill! The Empire's gathering for a counterattack! Ignatz, we need those ready now!"

"We're going as fast as we can!" Ignatz replied.

Before Claude could continue shouting orders, Hilda rushed up to him and said, "Claude, the Church looks like they're in trouble. I'm gonna go help them."

Hilda turned and was about to shout out her own orders when Claude said, "Belay that."

Shocked, Hilda turned back and said, "Wait, what? Claude–"

"We can't afford to compromise our position while Ignatz and the others are setting up."

"But Claude, they need help!"

"Teach can handle it, Hilda. We need to be ready before the Imperials try to take this hill back."

"Hey, what gives, Claude?" asked Raphael. "You're not just gonna leave them hanging, are you?"

"Come on, Claude," said Balthus. "We already sent the Imperials packing. Shouldn't be hard to push them back if they try and retake this hill."

"That's just the thing, Balthus," said Claude. "Taking this hill was too easy. I thought the Imperials would put up more resistance. We need to keep our forces together. Once we're fully secure up here, we'll send Teach some help, but right now we've got to prioritize our own position."

The others wanted to protest, but they realized Claude was right to worry. The fight up the hill hadn't been nearly as grueling as they had expected. And with fog still shrouding the battlefield, they didn't know how large the Empire's counterattack would be.

Begrudgingly, the Alliance heroes went back to setting up their defenses, hoping that the Church could hold out on their own for a while. Meanwhile, Claude looked toward the Imperials, waiting for the inevitable counterattack. As he did, Claude looked toward the Black Eagles as they circled over the southeast side of the battlefield. He had expected Edelgard to send them to counter his push up the hill, but the Imperial elites hadn't engaged the Alliance at all so far.

Claude continued to ponder what Edelgard was planning as the Alliance continued setting up their position.

…

Several Imperial soldiers panicked as Dimitri swung Areadbhar through a Demonic Beast's neck, decapitating the beast. As the beast hit the ground and crumbled away into dust, the King of Lions looked at the Imperials with a dark chuckle. It didn't matter how many of them were thrown at him; he'd cut through all of them to reach their Emperor.

Despite their fear, several Imperial soldiers charged at the king with blades brandished. Dimitri rushed to meet them, grabbing one by the head and slamming him into another soldier, cracking both of their skulls. He tossed away his victim and whirled around, decapitating another Imperial before slashing through the bellies of two more. Three others tried rushing him simultaneously, but Dimitri slashed through all three at once.

"Is that your best?" Dimitri snarled. Then, upon seeing another platoon of Imperial soldiers rushing toward him, he said, "Weak, pathetic fools." He then raised his arm toward the platoon and shouted, "Destroy them!"

Behind him, Dimitri's personal Lionheart Corps charged forward, bellowing loudly as the Loyalist battalion smashed through the Imperial platoon, slaughtering them within seconds. The annihilation of the platoon sent panic through the Imperial 15th Army group, which was being overwhelmed by the Loyalists.

At this moment, Dimitri looked toward the central hill and saw the Alliance flag flying over it. Thousands of Alliance troops were hastily setting up defenses, including several battalions on the east slope of the hill. Dimitri was unsurprised; Claude knew what would happen if he or his army got in the King of Lions' way.

But it made no difference to the one-eyed king. He would deal with Claude soon enough. For now, only Edelgard mattered to him.

Dimitri then heard Dedue shout, "Your Highness!"

Dedue moved to protect his liege, but Dimitri had already seen the Demonic Beast that was rampaging its way toward him. The King of Lions deftly avoided the monster's clumsy attempt to bite him and slashed Areadbhar's blade through the beast's lower jaw, severing it from its body. The Demonic Beast screeched in pain as Dimitri rushed underneath it and thrust Areadbhar through the top of the beast's mouth, skewering its brain from below. Dimitri ripped Areadbhar out of the beast, drenching himself in its blood as the monster collapsed and crumbled to dust.

"This is the best Edelgard can throw at us?" Dimitri said loudly. "Useless."

Dimitri was cut off by the roar of a Wyvern. Looking up, Dimitri saw the Black Eagles descend on one of his infantry battalions, catching them in their exposed flank. By the time his men turned to face the threat, the Black Eagles had already cut a swathe through them.

Scowling as the Black Eagles pulled up, Dimitri turned and shouted, "Ingrid, rid these skies of Edelgard's Black Eagles."

"At once, Your Highness," said Ingrid. "Follow me!"

Ingrid waved Luin as she took to the skies on Celdia with the Galatea Pegasus Corps following behind her. Hundreds of Loyalist Pegasus Knights surged toward the Black Eagles, who were joined by several battalions of the Imperial Army's regular Wyvern Riders.

Seeing the approaching Pegasi, Ladislava shouted, "Eagles, form up!"

The Black Eagles and the regular Imperial Wyverns turned to engage the oncoming Loyalist fliers. With a loud cry of "FOR THE EMPIRE!", the Imperials dove onto the Pegasi from above, and the battle above Gronder quickly turned into a frantic melee.

Ingrid sent Celdia into a roll as an arrow was fired at her, dodging the attack and allowing her to slash Luin through a Black Eagle rider. The woman howled as she was sent plummeting to her doom while Ingrid kept flying on. But as she banked around to find another target, a fireball flew narrowly past her and hit one of Ingrid's wingmen, sending the Pegasus and its rider toward the ground in flames.

Surprised, Ingrid turned to see Salia readying another fireball with a look of anger on the Eagle's face.

"You and I have a score to settle, Galatea!" Salia said with uncharacteristic vitriol.

Confused, Ingrid said, "Do I know you?"

Salia, startled that Ingrid didn't remember her, said indignantly, "Wait, you don't even – Ugh, of course you don't remember! Fine, I'll just have to remind you the hard way!"

Salia shouted as she sent another fireball at Ingrid, but the spell missed as Ingrid dodged away. Further enraged, Salia drew her halberd and urged Alektra to chase after Celdia. Ingrid swung around as Salia rushed toward her. Both riders slashed their weapons at each other, yet neither suffered any injury.

Roaring, Salia swung around as Ladislava, who was watching the clash, shouted, "Salia, get back here!"

Salia ignored the order and rushed again at Ingrid, who again met her in a charge. This time, however, Salia let out a loud yelp of pain as Ingrid added another cut to the Black Eagle's side, barely an inch away from the first scar the blonde had inflicted on her.

"Urgh, dammit! Not again!" Salia hissed loudly.

"Salia, fall back! That's an order!" Ladislava shouted as she and Fenix soared toward Ingrid.

"Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!" Salia cursed as she was forced to break off.

Watching as Salia flew off to find a healer, Trauare said, "Wow, she's pissed today."

The blue-haired water mage then aimed her trident at three Galatea Pegasus Knights and shouted "Wasserstrahl!", sending a pressurized jet of water at the Loyalist fliers. All three shrieked as they and their mounts were blasted out of the air. But just as soon as she had dealt with those three, three more Galatea fliers moved to attack Trauare, spreading out to attack her on multiple sides. It was a well-known maneuver: the Triangle Attack.

With a loud yelp, Trauare sent Zorne into a hard dive just before the three Pegasi reached her simultaneously, narrowly avoiding their lances. The three riders then dove after her, intent on catching and killing the ace hydromancer.

Seconds after they dove after her, however, the three riders were shocked to see Setiawati and her cavalry archers charge out of the fog, their bows aimed up at them. Immediately after Trauare swooped past them, Setiawati and her archers fired, and all three Loyalist riders were sent crashing to the ground, with one almost colliding with the Brigid huntress and her horse.

Trauare sighed loudly at being saved. She then said, "That's another one I owe you, Seti."

Setiawati, having not heard Trauare, kept her focus on the battle, firing another arrow and shooting down another Galatea flier who was trying to evade a pair of regular Imperial Wyvern Riders.

Above, Ladislava pursued Ingrid until she dove into a cloud. Even with her Heroes' Relic glowing, Ladislava couldn't make out her position.

Knowing that any further pursuit would take her too far away from the others, Ladislava and Fenix banked away and flew back toward the battle in the skies above Gronder Field.

Ingrid, realizing Ladislava had stopped chasing her, did likewise after a few seconds.

Was that bit between Ingrid and Salia too forced? It's just a little bit of comedy amidst the chaos and carnage.

I know we didn't see any of the Church's fight with Hubert's forces, but we'll be touching on that next chapter. And, just to get you guys hyped, the next part is going to have a large impact on the battle.

Also, I know I changed the name of Dimitri's personal battalion. It just felt better to call it the Lionheart Corps instead of the King of Lions Corps.

I'll see you next week.