Ever since Manuela had told him he wouldn't be leading the ambush against Byleth, he'd sensed that the battle wouldn't go in their favour… and so far, he'd been proven right.

'Because she and all the others underestimated Byleth,' he muttered.

He could see Dimitri, Sylvain and the others now jogging towards him. Soon, they would break into fast sprint. He wouldn't be able to hit them all, but that wasn't his aim. His aim had been to lure them into the forest and to force them to fight Byleth and the remaining Eagles. It'd been a desperate and somewhat hopeful tactic, but his options had grown increasingly slim as the final horn neared. He hadn't heard Hilda's cry, but he'd seen Marianne walking along the other side of the grassland without her sash and that'd told him enough. The Eagles had made their move too quickly, and he'd made his too slowly.

And that was when he saw the Blue Lions stop, just out of range of his arrows.

'Not my day,' Claude breathed.

A twig snapped behind him. He spun, raised his bow and fired, sending an arrow fizzing beyond the trees. He wished it was Byleth he'd hit, but he knew it wasn't.

'I'm dead for crying out loud!'

Hilda stomped out of the woods and Ferdinand appeared from behind her. Both their sashes were gone.

'Honestly, if that were a real arrow you could have killed me!' she said, glaring at him.

Claude sighed. A split-second later, he was enveloped in a ball of purple light. Ferdinand and Hilda jumped, but he didn't. He'd been expecting the arrow. The purple light vanished, and he looked down to see that his sash had disintegrated. He looked back into the trees.

'Good work, teach. You outdid us pretty well. I think you've taught our class a thing or two about not underestimating our opponents.'

There was no response, but there didn't need to be one, the silence was enough. Claude sighed again and looked back in the direction of the Blue Lions.

The four of them: Hanneman, Dimitri, Sylvain and Felix stood still.

'So much for drawing them in,' he muttered. He trudged towards Ferdinand and Hilda, and that's when he felt the first drops of cold rain. They came down lightly at first, but they grew heavier.

'Not my day,' he said again.

'Wow, the new professor has actually wiped everyone else out, that's no joke,' Sylvain said, moving his hands over his head to cover his hair. There was awe in his voice. 'Is that really the same guy that got floored by Caspar?'

'I'm not surprised,' Dimitri said.

'Only him and Bernadetta are left,' Hanneman said. 'We must now move away from the woods. As time is nearly up, they will be forced to come out into the open to face us and we'll be able to pick them off.'

'Hmph, I'd rather just enter the woods and deal with both of them,' Felix said. 'I haven't had a single piece of action this whole time.'

'Absolutely not,' Dimitri said. 'What more does Byleth need to do to prove to you that he is a massive threat?'

'He needs to fight me.'

'No,' Hanneman said. 'If we move back now then we win. Let's go.'

'I don't want to stand out in the rain!' Hilda huffed. She, Ferdinand and Claude stood waiting for a winged horse to pick them up.

'It's not all bad,' Claude said. 'We have a front-seat viewing of the finale to this mock battle.'

'Very true,' Ferdinand said. He watched as the Blue Lions turned and headed east away from the trees that Bernadetta and Byleth were in.

'I tried to lure them into the woods in an attempt to create a bit of a free-for-all between the three Houses,' Claude said beside him. 'Unfortunately, they never took the bait.'

'It's going to be difficult for the new professor to do anything if he can't use the cover of the trees,' Hilda said, 'and the final horn can't be far away now, surely?'

'It will sound before we reach the observation point, I'm sure,' Claude muttered.

None of them spoke for a long moment as the rain continued to thunder down and the Blue Lions moved further away. Then, Ferdinand spoke again.

'We can still win. I believe in my professor.'

Claude smiled.

'If anyone can pull it off, it's Byleth.'