I deleted Reddit off of my phone, and I feel good. 10/10, would recommend. If only I could delete Reddit from the internet.
At the Foothill Stable, Petra had gotten antsy. She didn't like waiting around. So, she had decided to go hunting for rabbits.
There wasn't a lot of cover to be found in the vicinity of the Foothill Stable. But as it turned out, Petra didn't need it. According to the others, while she was wearing her Sheikah Stealth Armor, her footfalls were nearly silent, and her form grew indistinct with distance. Anyone further than ten meters away from her could barely see her.
And ten meters was well within her bow range.
However, as she was trying to aim at the rabbit she had been tracking, both she and the rabbit heard a noise. The rabbit ran away, while Petra slowly got closer to investigate.
What she saw was a collection of monsters. Bokoblins, Lizalfos, hooded monsters, and even a huge monster with one eye.
"Do not fail this time, Wizzro," she heard Astor's voice speak to a purple cloak with something inhuman inside.
"I'll cut off the Hero's reinforcements," Wizzro told Astor. "The rest is up to the Blight."
Petra realized this was bad and backed off far enough that she was sure Wizzro wouldn't be able to perceive her properly, then ran to the Stable.
"We are soon being under attack!" Petra warned. "Monsters are coming in much numbers!"
Claude turned to the nearest of the stable hands. "Sound the alarm." He turned back to Petra. "What are we dealing with?"
"We are being faced by monsters with steel, and hooded monsters. I am thinking the hooded monsters are being mages," Petra said. "And there is being a big monster with one eye. One taller than houses."
Claude scowled. "Of course." He then seemingly had an idea. Turning to one of the other stable hands, he asked, "How do you typically defend against giant monsters?"
"We don't usually have to," the stable hand admitted. "So I don't think we have any real defense against a Hinox attack."
"Great. Very helpful," Claude said sarcastically.
"Wait, I just remembered! We do have a Scorpio catapult," the stable hand said.
"Get it set up, fast," Claude ordered.
"Claude..." Dimitri said.
"I know you don't trust me, and you probably shouldn't," Claude admitted. "But right now, I'm trying to save all of our skins." Dimitri nodded, and Claude turned to Petra. "You'll man the Scorpio."
"I will," Petra agreed.
Claude turned back to everyone else who had answered the alarm. "I have a plan."
The attack came a couple of hours later. Claude had set up the best defensive position he could. However, under Wizzro's leadership, the monsters weren't attacking without a strategy like they usually did.
The Hinox was the first to reach the defenders. Nearly at the same time, Bokoblin horse archers attacked from the Hinox's sides.
"Take out the horse archers!" Claude ordered, as he shot one of the Bokoblin archers.
It was a difficult task. The Hinox's attacks were slow and predictable, but it was so big and strong that it couldn't be ignored. However, the archers and mages of the Rising Sun Company eventually managed to take out the horse archers.
And then Claude's plan for taking the Hinox down went into effect.
A dozen horses and riders, six on either side of the Hinox, rode past its sides with a length of the strongest chains the stable hands could find. The Hinox tripped over the chains and reached its hands out to catch itself. And while it's hands were occupied, Petra fired the Scorpio into the Hinox's eye.
The Hinox dropped to the ground. It seemed dead, but Annette decided to make sure. She cut its throat with her Ancient Bladesaw, covering herself in its blood.
Unfortunately, the battle was just beginning. Bokoblins, Lizalfos, and Wizzrobes marched towards the stable in battle formation.
The monsters were far more of a threat when they were actually attacking like soldiers instead of bandits. But the members of the Rising Sun Company were far more skilled than they had been before. The monsters were cut down, with only a few of the stable's guards becoming casualties of the battle.
Then Wizzro decided to deal with the Rising Sun Company himself.
Wizzro started by teleporting behind Dimitri. An enormous hand that looked like the skin had been flayed off of it reached out from underneath Wizzro's robes and squeezed Dimitri.
Felix tried slashing at Wizzro with his sword, but Wizzro floated out of range and slapped down the giant hand on both Dimitri and Felix. Wizzro then summoned a spell that caused Ingrid's lance to shatter when she tried to attack him. Annette tried cutting Wizzro down with her Ancient Bladesaw, but Wizzro blasted it with a pulse of electric magic and it shut down. She tried answering with a fireball, but Wizzro just caught it and threw it back at her. Dorothea attacked him with a Thoron blast, but he simply fired a beam back at her. Sylvain intercepted the beam with his shield, but the beam still sent him and Dorothea sprawling onto the ground.
Others started attacking Wizzro, but it was clear that Wizzro was too powerful to be defeated. Claude's instincts told him to abandon the company and run, but instead he fired an arrow at Wizzro, hoping to hit the monster's eye.
Instead, the monster's eye became a mouth, which caught the arrow in its crooked teeth. Claude nocked another arrow, but by that point Wizzro had thrown an explosive spell that sent him flying. When he landed, Wizzro teleported to him to finish him off.
The wraith was interrupted by an attack from a flock of Cuccos. Then a girl in a hood kicked Wizzro hard enough to send him flying away from Claude, after which she shot him with a bomb arrow from a crossbow.
Wizzro got up and looked at the girl. Noticing that his forces were depleted, he came to a decision. "I stalled you long enough. Your friends are already in Rudania. They won't survive." With that, he teleported away.
The hooded girl helped Claude up, and handed him a bottle of something red. "Drink this."
Claude did so, and he felt his injuries healing. "You're the archer who saved us in Gatepost Town."
"I was just passing through, and you looked like you needed help," she said. "I was looking for something at the Temple of Time, but it wasn't there."
She then looked at something. A watch? A compass? Claude wasn't sure. "I don't know how I ended up near Death Mountain. That's not where I wanted to go."
An idea struck Claude. "Maybe we can help—"
"Oh no! Sorry, but I have to run!" the girl suddenly shouted, and she and her Cuccos ran off. Claude was stunned for a moment, but he ran after her.
Unfortunately, once she ran over a hill, briefly leaving Claude's field of vision, she vanished. Not even Petra ended up being able to track down where she had gone.
Fortunately, it seemed none of the Company had been killed by Wizzro, though a few had gotten uncomfortably close.
Claude was visiting Dimitri, who had broken a few of his ribs. Mercedes had healed them, but he still wasn't feeling at his best, and he was resting.
Dimitri seemed apologetic. "I am sorry. I should have been less hostile to you."
"I deserved it," Claude admitted.
Dimitri shook his head. "Without your tactics, those monsters would have killed everyone here. And I saw you distract Wizzro while the rest of us were helpless."
"Fat lot of good it would have done if that archer girl hadn't shown up," Claude said.
"Maybe, but that would hardly have been your fault," Dimitri said. "Let's consider this a fresh start."
"Sure," Claude agreed. "A fresh start."