Vignette 11 - Ike's Knight Errant Error
Continuing, once again, a plot thread from Vignette 6, we look in on the group of Heroes being led by Princess Sharena of Askr. Under her command were the paladin couple of Clive and Mathilda from Realm-I; the dancer Lene of Realm-II's future; Princess Eirika of Renais from Realm-IV; and, most importantly for this vignette, Realm-V's Ike, his sister Mist, and the longtime tactician for the Greil Mercenaries, Soren. They'd been trekking through a wooded area for a while at this point, until they were met with another of their number: the ninja Saizo, from Realm-VI, who'd just returned from scouting ahead.
"What's the word, Saizo?" Sharena asked.
"Fighting up ahead, Princess," Saizo replied. "Two knights clashing their blades together, though the green-armored one also used an axe and a mace. The battle ultimately went to his opponent, however, who ran his sword through the green one."
"What does the other knight look like?" Eirika asked.
"Helmet was on the whole time," Saizo answered. "Though his whole suit of armor was jet-black, with-"
"Wait, did you say 'jet-black armor'?" Ike asked brusquely.
"Well, yes," Saizo confirmed, "but it's-"
"Found you..." Ike said in a foreboding whisper as he unsheathed his sword, Ragnell. "I knew Embla had summoned you at one point, but I never thought I'd get my chance-until now! Do you hear me, Black Knight?! I'm coming for you!" With that, Ike ran off towards where Saizo had just come from.
"What the-Ike, wait!" Sharena called out as she and the others started chasing after him.
While they ran, Lene asked the two of the group who knew Ike best the question she and those not Sharena or Saizo no doubt had on their minds. "What's with Ike? Why'd he run off like that?"
Soren, ever the pragmatic one, did what Mist was hesitant to do and offered an explanation. "The Black Knight was the one who killed his and Mist's father in a duel back in our world. Ike's been set on avenging him ever since by defeating the Knight in single combat himself." Soren narrowed his eyes in the direction of where his longtime friend had gotten a lead on them. "Though he should know better than to be so reckless at any mention-"
Soren's train of thought was interrupted as he and the rest of the group finally made it to a clearing at the end of the woods, where they found Ike and the Black Knight. However, the moment they looked upon the ebon-clad figure in a guard stance, they echoed the befuddled expression on Ike's face when they immediately realized...
...that the Black Knight standing before him was clearly not the murderer of Greil, the man whose mercenary company bore his name. The armor was nothing like the streamlined, ornate, yet combat-ready suit the general of Daein wore. This Black Knight's suit was simply a black-colored, somewhat ordinary-looking armor, with a black tunic over the torso bearing the red painted crest of a boar, and a belt with a silver buckle around his waist. The group briefly looked to the Knight's right and saw his previous opponent lying on the ground, dead. While this was clearly not the Black Knight Ike bore a grudge against, it was clear that this warrior might be formidable, so the young leader of the Greil Mercenaries remained cautiously on-guard. Looking around at the clearing, the only thing that stood out was a small bridge over a rather shallow ditch that could easily be crossed if one were to simply jump across it or just walk through it.
For once, Ike decided to try reasoning with the man before him. "Er, um, sorry for the surprise earlier," he said, though the knight hadn't even flinched when Ike first appeared. In fact, the knight didn't even make a move to attack. On getting no response, Ike spoke up again. "It's just that, well, in my haste, I mistook you for someone else." The knight remained silent, further befuddling the young swordfighter. "...Hello?" he said, waving his hand in front of the knight's face. Strange, Ike thought. "In any case, if it's all right with you, my comrades and I will just be moving along and-"
"NONE SHALL PASS," the Black Knight-who-wasn't-the-Daein-Black-Knight stated in a booming voice.
Hearing this took both Ike and the rest of the group by surprise. Ike blinked before asking, "What?"
"NONE SHALL PASS," the knight repeated.
"...Now look, I just said you weren't who I was looking for, so there's no need for me to fight you," Ike said. "The Black Knight I'm after-"
"I AM THE BLACK KNIGHT," the boar-emblazoned knight stated.
Ike sighed resignedly. This is going to be one of those days, isn't it? he mused. "No, the Black Knight I'm after is quite a different animal compared to you. Now if you'd please step aside, my comrades and I would like to cross that little bridge so we can get a move on, okay?"
Unexpectedly, Eirika stepped forward, standing a bit beside Ike at the edge of the ditch. "Um, Ike?"
Ike briefly looked at Eirika before just as briefly returning his focus to the 'Black Knight'. "Excuse me," he said before turning to face Eirika.
"Oh, excuse me as well," Eirika briefly said to the knight before resuming her conversation with Ike. "Ike, really, you don't need to engage in this farce any further." She pointed towards the ditch as she continued. "I mean, this isn't exactly the Narube River from my world. Just look." Eirika then stepped down onto one side of the ditch, and proceeded to hop onto the other side with ease. "See? I'm on one side..." She then hopped back onto the other bank. "...And now I'm on the other." She repeated her action to emphasize the point. "East bank, west bank." She then proceeded to stand with one leg on each of the banks. "You don't need to give this man the time of day, we can just bypass him without breaking a sweat."
Ike gave it a bit of thought before he replied to her. "True...still, as a matter of principal, if this 'Black Knight' intends to stand in my way, I won't back down from the challenge."
Eirika, perplexed by Ike's insistence, resignedly sighed before walking back to the others. "Rassafrassa macho posturing..." she muttered under her breath.
Ike turned to face the knight with his sword drawn forward. "I'm going to tell you politely one more time-my comrades and I intend to cross that bridge and be on our way. I'd be appreciative if you let us pass."
"I MOVE FOR NO MAN," the knight affirmed.
"And I don't stop for anyone," Ike said in turn.
"THEN YOU SHALL DIE," the knight responded as he suddenly charged forward at an astonishing speed. Said speed, however, was no match for Ike, who feinted to the right and, with one swift stroke, sliced the so-called 'Black Knight's' sword arm clean off. A few among the Heroes, mainly Mist and Lene, flinched a bit at the sight.
"There-the duel is mine," Ike said. "Now step aside."
"'TIS BUT A SCRATCH," the knight said.
The knight's response left Ike and the others wide-eyed and slack-jawed.
"A scratch?!" a dumbfounded Mathilda repeated.
"How is that a scratch?!" an equally-mystified Clive asked in protest while pointing to the severed limb in question. "Your arm's off!"
"NO IT ISN'T," the knight said.
Ike and the others did a double-take from the knight to the arm and back, gaping and trying to answer the question of what is even going on here.
"Well, what do you call THAT then?!" Mist asked while gesturing to the arm.
The knight briefly looked at his obviously-severed limb on the ground before returning his gaze to his opponent. "I'VE HAD WORSE." Hearing this led to Ike and the rest of the group face-palming in perfect sync. "COME ON THEN, YOU PANSY!" the knight then shouted as he charged Ike with his sword in his other hand. Ike, in turn, jumped out of the way and parried the knight's follow-up blow. With a grunt and a twist, Ike knocked the sword out of the knight's hand and sliced off the arm in another quick strike.
"All right, victory is most definitely mine," Ike said. "Now, if you'll just-OOF!" he let out as the knight kicked him in the stomach.
"COME ON, THEN!" the knight goaded, never losing his hammy disposition.
"What the-?!" Ike said before the knight interrupted him with a kick to his face.
"HAVE AT THEE!"
"Cut that out, will you?!" a frustrated Soren called out. "Ike's already won!"
"What he said!" Ike added, before being kicked in the side.
"OH, HAD ENOUGH, EH?" the knight taunted in turn.
Ike looked at the knight exasperatedly. "Had enough?! Are you insane?! I sliced both of your arms clean off! You don't have any left at all!"
"YES I DO!" the knight bit back in an almost-jovial tone of voice.
"What do you call those then?!" Saizo annoyedly posed as he pointed to the limbs on the ground.
"JUST A FLESH WOUND," the knight answered.
Sharena and the others gaped, her mouth in particular imitating that of a fish briefly, before gesticulating wildly towards both arms on the ground. "Are you that flipping dense?! Your arms are right-!"
Ike found himself being headbutted in the chest, the sight of which interrupted Sharena's train of thought. Ike gasped a bit as he tumbled backwards. "Stop it already, will you?!"
"CHICKEN! CHICKEN!" the knight taunted.
Ike soon became riled up by that insult, giving the knight a glare that would frighten even another Daein general in Petrine. "THAT'S IT-no more Mister Nice Merc!" Ike then slashed low and took off the knight's right leg.
"RIGHT, I'LL DO YOU FOR THAT!" the knight said, undaunted by losing yet another limb.
Ike, on the other hand, became further befuddled. "You'll WHAT?!"
"COME HERE!" the knight cried as he limped towards Ike.
"What're you going to do, bleed all over me?"
"I'M INVINCIBLE!"
Eirika fixed a glare on the knight. "Certifiably insane is more like it!"
"THE BLACK KNIGHT ALWAYS TRIUMPHS!" He then tried to nudge Ike over. "COME ON THEN! HAVE AT YOU!"
With a fourth swift stroke of Ragnell's blade, Ike nonchalantly sliced the man's remaining leg off, leaving him as nothing more than an upright quadruple-amputee. The knight looked around at his current situation while Ike cleaned off and sheathed Ragnell back up. "ALL RIGHT, WE'LL CALL IT A DRAW."
"*SIGH* All right, everyone, I think we're good to cross," Ike said as he motioned for the others while he started making his way across the bridge. He took a brief last look at the knight before grumbling to himself.
"OH, OH, I SEE," the knight said as the rest of the group passed him by without a second thought. "RUNNING AWAY, EH? YOU YELLOW BASTARDS! COME BACK HERE AND TAKE WHAT'S COMING TO YOU! I'LL BITE YOUR BLOODY TOES OFF!"
The group ignored the knight as they followed Ike and resumed their journey, determined to put the whole episode as far behind them as possible. Moments later, the knight was no longer alone, as from the opposite direction a newcomer walked by him, stopping for a moment to take a look at the unusual sight before them. The newcomer in question? The actual Black Knight (secretly, *spoiler alert* General Zelgius of Begnion) Ike bore a grudge against, he with the more elaborately-designed, mystical suit of ebon armor, and the legendary sword Alondite at his hip. The Daein general took one look at the limbless knight, sighed, and shook his head before he resumed his own journey.
"I really need to do something about my title being franchised out..." he said to himself.
**Author's Note(s)**
Inspired partly by FightingThunder720's 'Against The Other Black Knight'.