Petra and Ferdinand explained to Byleth what'd happened to Edelgard as they carefully moved through the trees. Petra had tried to help Edelgard against Dedue but an arrow from Ashe had forced her to take cover. Ferdinand had made a run for Annette to stop her from hitting Edelgard with a magic spell but had been too slow. Annette had managed to fire a spell at him before he could reach her.

'But Edelgard saved me,' he said, sounding almost shameful. 'She pushed me out the way and got hit by the spell herself. I used the cover of the resulting mist to make a tactical retreat.'

'Bernadetta had already been running away by then,' Petra said. 'But she still had her red sash on. She had become most frightened.'

"And I promise, and swear on my life, I will not let you down. I will give my all."

Byleth thought of what he'd said and thought of the look Bernadetta had given him in the pond. She'd given him a look of hope, hope that she could overcome her fears and hope that he could be the one to help her.

But I've let her down… and I've let the others down as well.

'What happened to you, Professor?'

Byleth explained how he'd been ambushed by Ingrid, and how Hubert had sacrificed himself to save him. Both Petra and Ferdinand's eyes widened at this. He then told them about his clash with Dedue, and how Annette had stopped him from taking the man's sash.

'That's why they didn't pursue us,' Ferdinand said. 'They must have decided that taking you out was more important.'

'You are being certain they are still pursuing us?' Petra asked.

Byleth nodded. He continued glancing back the way they'd come as they continued moving northwest through the trees, in the direction that Bernadetta had fled in. He didn't want to deal with Annette or any other long-range unit until he had access to a long-range attacker himself. Even if Bernadetta wouldn't fight (which he supposed likely) there was nothing in the rules that said he couldn't use her bow himself. He wasn't allowed to take more than two weapons into the fight, but he could borrow the weapons of others.

They eventually reached the trees on the northern side of the area but they couldn't see Lysithea or anyone else, Bernadetta included. They stopped for a moment and that's when they heard the sound of a horn coming from the distance.

'That's the signal,' Ferdinand said. 'One hour has passed and we have one to go.'

That hour went well, Byleth thought sarcastically.

Congratulations, he could hear Hubert saying. One hour gone and you've only lost five of us!

The thought made a sinking sensation crash over him and he felt his shoulders droop. He hadn't prepared for the mock battle as well as he could've, and he'd paid the price. Linhardt, Edelgard, Dorothea and Hubert had all been eliminated early on thanks to him… and they probably knew it was his fault as well. He'd promised to give his all and yet he'd let them down. Bernadetta had trusted him to protect her, and he'd failed in that as well.

'As a mercenary you must have been in many difficult positions,' Ferdinand said. 'What would you and the others do in a situation like this?'

We'd retreat, Byleth thought. 'We keep moving forward.'

He looked north. Beyond the trees was a large grassland area that separated them from another strip of woodland which, according to the map, was where the Deer's starting point was. To the left the land declined into a valley. East of the "Deer woods" was more grassland pitted with mounds that, for the time being, blocked their view of the Blue Lions' starting point.

'If we cannot find Bernadetta then we will be forced to rely on close combat to win,' Ferdinand said, sounding deflated, 'yet I could not keep with Lorenz… and if I cannot keep up with him then I cannot say I will last long against any of the others.'

'I think I will also be facing trouble,' Petra said. 'I briefly saw Edelgard against Dedue. That man was so fast. If she couldn't stop him then I would also find it most difficult.'

"You are incapable of leading us. You are an inexperienced fool who has never taught before, nor do you have the battle expertise to do well, as demonstrated by your performance against Caspar."

"You are out of your depth and do not belong here."

Byleth shook his head and remembered Sothis's words.

I need to give them something to believe in.

'If not for you Petra, Lysithea would have eliminated me,' he said. 'It was your quick movement that scared her off.'

He turned to Ferdinand. 'Edelgard mentioned that Lorenz is a skilled warrior. You were able to fend off one of the best lance users in the academy until I arrived. That was good. What do these different things have in common?'

They paused a moment, and then Petra said, 'Teamwork.'

Byleth nodded. 'If we continue to work together, we have a chance, and have faith in yourselves. We were ambushed on two different sides and yet we survived. Despite the odds, you both held your ground against the Blue Lions and your actions helped to save not only me, but Bernadetta as well. This isn't over.'

He did something then that he hadn't done before, something that in that moment, felt right. He raised his fist and held it out. For the first time since the battle had begun, smiles broke onto Ferdinand's and Petra's faces.

'I, Ferdinand von Aegir, shall not give in!' He raised his fist and bumped Byleth's. Petra did the same, their three fists meeting in the middle.

'I too shall fight until the end,' she said, 'but Ferdinand, is it Fódlan tradition to say your full name befo'-

Byleth grabbed Petra and Ferdinand's arms and yanked them towards him. 'Move further up, now, and watch your rear.'

'Wh'-

'Go,' Byleth breathed.

They slinked forward. Byleth lowered himself down and inched through the overgrowth until he reached the tip of another mound. He gazed back down the way they'd come. He couldn't see anything out of the ordinary but seeing wasn't what'd made him move in the first place. The birds that had been chirping their songs whilst he, Petra and Ferdinand had been walking had stopped. Had he heard panicked thrashing through the trees as well? He wasn't sure, but the lesson he'd taken from the ambush earlier was that he couldn't afford to take any chances.

And that was when he heard a sound he dreaded. A metallic, scraping one that meant only one thing.

A bright blue circular disc-like shape flashed from the overgrowth some thirty feet away (almost certainly from Annette, he thought.) It crashed into a tree at the bottom of the mound. It was close, but Byleth didn't think he'd been spotted yet.

So what is she firing at then?

There was a sudden high-pitched scream emanating near the expanding blue smoke. Seemingly out of nowhere, Bernadetta sprung up and scrambled through the overgrowth, passing close to where Byleth lay. He cringed.

She's going to lead them this way, Byleth thought. And Ferdinand's going to-

'Bernadetta, halt! Wait!'

Ferdinand's voice echoed through the trees and Byleth slapped a hand to his face. He heard a snapping branch. He looked down. The tall shape of Dedue emerged from the direction the spell had come from. He locked his eyes on Byleth's and strode towards him.

'Professor!' Ferdinand called in that same loud voice. 'Bernadetta's running away!'

Byleth squeezed his eyes shut and reopened them. Another blue disk screamed in his direction, this time hitting a nearby tree. His ears rung. He needed to move, or he'd get hit.

Dedue was getting dangerously close now.

Byleth considered trying to deal with the man there and then but thought against it when he remembered that Annette was close by.

'Professor!'

Annette emerged from behind a tree and aimed another spell at him. He turned and raced back through the trees towards the others. Further up, Ferdinand held Bernadetta's shoulders. Her face was pale and she looked as frightened as she'd been when he'd first met her a week prior. Petra looked at him with a helpless expression.

'We need t'-

Another spell smashed into a nearby tree, producing the loudest crackling sound any of them had heard yet. Bernadetta screamed again. She wrestled free from Ferdinand's grasp and scampered through the trees into the open grassland. Byleth cursed.

'Follow her out, we'll move down into the valley.'

They nodded and ran after her. Byleth looked back a final time into the blue mist and then followed.