Part 1: White Clouds

Garreg Mach vs Lord Slug's Demons

The void stretched almost indefinitely. Nothing but the cold blackness for miles and miles on end. And at the centre of it all, stood the tall throne of Sothis. But nobody was sitting there right now. Instead, Sothis was sparring with Byleth. She was a little surprised to learn that she was a capable fighter just from the short spars that they did, but as Byleth had pointed out, Sothis definitely trained with someone who had a lot of experience. What's more interesting is that the spirit had flashes of training with someone with blue skin and antennae. Perhaps that's where she learned to fight. If anything, it helped Byleth by being a training partner for her.

Right now, Byleth had her eyes closed, focusing on herself while dodging Sothis's attacks. Each duck and each weave was filled with her concentrating deep inside herself, her goal being to try and find the power of the Oozaru that's just locked away. But was this power even possible to obtain? Was it only able to come out under specific circumstances? Was she wasting her time? Was she-

BAM!

Byleth stumbled back, snapped out of her intrusive thoughts as she held her swollen cheek and stared at Sothis. "Woah. I didn't realise you had such a hook on you. Guess no muscles doesn't mean you're weak."

But Sothis wasn't impressed and crossed her arms. "You weren't concentrating again. Do you want this power or not?"

"I do but… I don't even know if it's possible." Byleth replied, sitting on the steps of the throne as Sothis let out a sigh and sat next to her.

"I understand how difficult it is. It doesn't help that we don't exactly have a plan to go off on. But listen to me, child. It's just like unlocking your Ki. It wasn't possible until you reached inside and brought it out, right?"

"I guess…"

"Then it's possible to do this too! We just need to find a way to draw out the power!" Sothis declared, hopping off the step and had her hands on her hips, smiling.

"I suppose that one thing that can help is the Oozaru transformation itself. You know, get a feel for it. But I don't know how to control it."

That's when Sothis hummed in thought and closed her eyes. "I may have a solution to that problem…"

"You do? What is it?" Byleth asked, standing up and walking towards her. But felt a finger poke her chest.

"Nope! We're not going to be able to get anywhere if your mind isn't focused! Now let's get back to training!"

"…Yes Sothis." Byleth sighed and got back into a stance closing her eyes. "I just hope everyone else is handling themselves out there."

It had been approximately an hour since the Battle of Fódlan had begun. And in that hour, it was pretty much a stalemate. Yes, Lord Slugs soldiers were higher in numbers, but they weren't nearly as battle experienced or as powerful as members of the Fódlan army. Speaking of which, the various sectors were busy defending themselves with the members of 141 stationed there ordered to chip away at their numbers.

"What the hell are those things that they're carrying?!" Leonie shouted, ducking to avoid a laser shot aimed at her head and running up to the person shooting her and impaled them on her lance before using the corpse to block more laser shots and threw it towards them.

"Bernadetta, kinda need help here!"

"I'm trying!" Bernadetta squeaked out, drawing her bow and firing a volley of Ki arrows at the approaching enemies which did manage to take out a few. But then she screamed loudly in pain when a laser hit her in the arm and made her fall.

"BERNIE!" Annette screamed, running up to her and using wind magic to clear space between themselves and Lord Slugs army. With some breathing room, she applied healing magic to Bernadetta's arm and saw it was as good as new within seconds.

"T-Thank you Annie!"

"Oh, I was really hoping the only battles we were going to be fighting this month was The Eagle and Lion." Annette nervously clutched her tome, as Leonie joined her other 141 members, noticing that a huge chunk had managed to be taken out.

"So far, so good right? If Felix was with us, I would be keeping score with him right now." Leonie said in an attempt to lighten up the room. But all she got was an eye roll from Annette and Bernadetta avoiding eye contact. But then they all looked around and grimaced.

"We've lost quite a few… oh this is horrible." Annette whispered.

"Shit…" Leonie cursed. "If this keeps up then we might be-"

"Stop it."

The two girls looked at Bernadetta in poorly concealed surprise as the smaller girl had a determined look on her face as she stood up, readying her bow again. "We are not scaredy cats! We are brave! We won't let anyone else fall! Bernie is a bear! Annie is a bear! And Leonie is a bear! We're all bears!"

"Yeah! We're the three bears!" Annette cheered, charging up her wind magic and mixing her Ki into it. And while Leonie wasn't exactly a fan of the… childish comparison, she nonetheless let out a chuckle and pumped a fist. "Yeah. Three bears. Team Three Bears."

"Yeah! And as leader of Team Three Bears-"

"Wait, who made YOU leader?!" Leonie yelled at Annette who puffed her chest out with pride and ignored Leonie's protests.

"I say we keep score! Because then we can shove it in that evil Felix's face when he learns our team did more to help!"

Bernadetta looked between the two, specifically at Leonies stunned face as the gears were turning in her head… before a wide grin appeared on her face as she closed her eyes. And sent a telepathic message to Felix and his group.

'Hey Felix! We've taken down 250 enemies together!'

Felix felt a voice in his head as he stabbed a soldier in the head with his Ki blade and let out a noises which could be close to a chuckle. 'Well then, keep it up and you might actually catch up.'

As he looked before him at the waves of corpses that had been felled thanks to his team. To his right, Petra had caught wind of the little challenge, nodded at him.

"We will acquire the points to achieve victory."

"Should we really be playing a game at a time like this?" Ashe asked, as the three kept close together. "I mean, we are fighting for our lives."

"I refuse to die in a world where I get beaten by Leonie." Felix replied and looked around for his classmates and spotted them about to defend against another horde of enemies. "Looks like we'll have to turn it up."

Petra nodded. "Agreed. The spirits will guide me."

As she said that, her tattoos and eyes started glowing white as she ran towards the horde of soldiers at almost blinding speeds. And Ashe could've sworn he saw… something else running alongside her. It looked like an animal?

"Shoot her! Shoot the bitch!" A soldier screamed at his group, aiming his blaster and shooting a volley of lasers at Petra, who narrowed her eyes as the figure next to her picked up speed, before splitting in two and barrelling through multiple soldiers who screamed in pain as it looked there were… bites taken out of them?

The two light figures returned to Petra to reveal themselves as… a pair of wolves?

"The spirits are show no mercy." Petra glared at the soldiers. "Fear the vicious fury of the wolf!"

"Ooooooh that's so cool!" Ashe exclaimed as there were stars in his eyes looking at the wolves that had the same colour as Petra's aura. But Felix just scoffed and gripped his blade. But then he heard a cheer as Dorothea waved at Petra and shouted at her as the rain was drowning out their voices.

"Way to go Petra! You did it!"

"Dorothea, focus!" Ingrid scolded as her pegasus flew down to scoop up Dorothea away from the lasers of the enemy soldiers. "Hang on tight. I'll get you someplace safe."

"No, I have a better idea." Dorothea said which just confused Ingrid. Instead of replying, Dorothea just stuck out her hand and charged a powerful fire spell. Despite the rain battering down on them, her fire tome was untouched as due to the intense heat of the spell, any water that touched the pages was reduced to steam.

"BOLGANONE!"

Out of her hand shot out a big ball of fire which didn't get any cooler from the rain around them and crashed into the ground right on top of a unit of soldiers before breaking off into a ring formation and circled around more units before burning them all up even more. Dorothea pumped her fist and cheered before looking at Ingrid who was staring between her and the carnage slack jawed. And Dorothea giggled pushing her soaked hair out of her face.

"Ingrid, sweetie. You're gonna end up collecting water if you keep your mouth open like that."

"R-Right. Excellent idea Dorothea, how many spells can you use on that tome?"

"It's a brand new one courtesy of our dear merchant! I'm good to go!"

"Then let's keep doing this!"

"Right!"

As the two women flew off to deal more damage in the air, Edelgard and Claude were fighting their own group and saw how that commotion went down.

"Why didn't we think of that?!" Claude shouted over the rain.

"I don't know! You two hold them off! I'll send the message!"

As Edelgard killed an approaching soldier and ran off to a more open spot and closed her eyes sending a telepathic message to everyone fighting for Fódlan.

'Everyone! Whoever is proficient in faith and reason magic, partner up with a Pegasus rider! You can do damage from the air as well as take out any of those soldiers that are flying!'

Everyone had gotten the message and understood as Edelgard watched the plan go into formation. That should help for now. But she wasn't a fool. They were at a stalemate, that was true. But those invaders had a lot more numbers to their army than the Fódlan army. They just had to hope that their strength would be enough.

"Edelgard, behind you!" Claude yelled, firing a Ki arrow at a soldier that tried to sneak up on Edelgard. He dropped dead to the ground as she saw the arrow embedded deep within his skull. He ran up to her as she nodded at the body.

"Impressive. Right between the eyes. You haven't slacked off."

"Yeah, well somebody had to pick up the pace while you were distracted with Teach and her chest."

That made Edelgard freeze and turn towards him. "That had nothing to do with it!"

"…You didn't deny it." He let out a wide grin as Edelgard's eyes widened when she realised he caught her. Luckily, the rain and the black clouds hid any ability to see her blush. So she straightened up and gripped her axe.

"Let's focus on the mission. Dimitri needs us."

"Fair enough."

Menawhile, the rest of 141 were deep in battle. They were the ones who got hit the hardest by enemies. They had somewhat of a strategy that involved Lysithea. She would use her talents in magic to clear paths and Hilda and Caspar would destroy anyone who was unfortunate enough to not be thrown away.

"You holding up okay, Lysithea?!" Hilda screamed driving her axe into the skull of a soldier. Caspar had used his own Ki training to amplify the strength of his punches. And he was putting that to good use by slamming both fists into the sides of his opponents heads, and crushing it. Before amplifying more Ki to punch the body which was sent hurtling towards a group which got heavily injured from the impact.

"J-Just focus on the fight!" Lysithea grunted, using all her concentration and her singular crest to help out her team. She couldn't use her other one. She just couldn't. She refused to use what they put in her, the reason she's so weak, the reason she won't make it to an old age. She won't give them the satisfaction.

"Now this is what I'm talking about!" Caspar laughed, dodging another laser blast and jumping towards a soldier and using his head to launch himself up high and the air and charged Ki into his fist before letting gravity take him back down and slamming his fist into the ground, with the Ki charged punch creating a shockwave that threw everyone in the area off their feet. "Now Hilda!"

"On it! Ugh, I wish that I had packed more layers… my shirts completely soaked." Hilda grumbled, using her own Ki to charge up her axe and threw it towards a soldier which cleaved right through him and towards ten other soldiers before embedding itself into the ground which was starting to become slippery due to the rain.

"I'll cover you!" Lysithea yelled. "Go get your axe!"

"Thank yooouuuu!" Hilda sang as any soldiers who tried to go near her were instantly killed by Lysithea and her reason magic. She went to grab it but yelped when she lost her footing and slipped falling on the ground and getting coated with mud. She growled loudly as she quickly picked up her axe.

"Ugh this is the WORST!" She screamed as her Crest activated and she stared down the slightly unnerved group of soldiers. "Alright, I'm really angry now. Who's first?!"

Lysithea groaned and shook her head. "It's just clothes and mud… there are other things to worry about."

"Take this!" Flayn screamed sending out a barrage of Ki blasts towards another group who all screamed as it exploded on impact and Claude and Shamir followed up with a volley of Ki arrows and finally, Edelgard and Dimitri ran towards anyone that were unlucky enough to get left behind and finish them off too. That was the strategy that everyone played off of, as it was the easiest way to make up for their lack of numbers.

"That's another sector clear!" Shamir yelled.

"Nice job!" Catherine cheered, cleaving through another group of soldiers. "This might actually be a cake walk!"

"Don't say that!" Shamir screamed, but then looked up as a pair of screams rang through the air. Edelgard and Dimitri also looked up and their pupils shrunk in fear as the screams belonged to Dorothea and Ingrid. The latters pegasus was slain by laser shots and the two girls were now free falling.

"INGRID!"

"DOROTHEA!"

They both tried to rush and save them, but were tackled by more soldiers as they struggled to get them off. Dimitri stretched out his hand in a feeble attempt to try and reach out to Ingrid, who was frantically looking around. This was the end…

Until a blur zoomed past and snatched Dorothea out of the air and a second blur rushed over to where Ingrid would land and caught her at the very last second. Ashe blew out a breath as he was holding Ingrid bridal style as she was still panting after her near death experience. Dimitri breathed out a big sigh of relief and narrowed his eyes, focusing on those who were dogpiling him. And Edelgard saw the blur holding Dorothea was… Petra?! How was she flying?! But Petra looked down at Dorothea and nodded.

"The eagles flight allowed me to reach you in time." Petra breathed out as Dorothea had… a different look in her eyes staring at her classmate. But then it changed into a smile, then a laugh.

"Petra, that was incredible! How did you learn how to fly?"

"I wasn't flying. I was merely calling on the power of the eagle."

"Still, you actually flew! You've come so far!"

Petra smiled widely at Dorothea and nodded again. "I have much gratitude from your words."

Edelgard let out a breath of relief as she joined Dimitri in getting out of the dog pile.

And with the other two Blue Lions, he was staring at her face which was drenched by the rain. "Are you okay?"

She slowly nodded and he helped her stand on the ground. "Yes… I'm okay. Thank you Ashe. You saved my life."

"You can thank me later, once we defeat these intruders. Can you still fight?"

That's when Ingrid's eyes widened as she suddenly remembered her pegasus and turned to see it motionless on the ground, with mud coating it's wings, and blood leaking out of it's body as it whined and let out noises of pain as it was unfortunately, not going to make it. She ran over to it and gritted her teeth, and closed her eyes in pain at seeing her companion in such a state, and gently stroked it's mane before pulling a knife out of her boot and whispered in it's ear.

"You did wonderful my friend. Rest now. You deserve it."

And with that, she slit its throat and watched its life leave its eyes as she pressed her head against her companion. But now she stood up with a fire in her eyes as she grabbed her spear and nodded to Ashe.

"They'll pay for this."

Ashe nodded back and she joined up with her battalion to face off against more soldiers. But that's when they realised, to their horror, that soldiers managed to breach past the defences and were making their way into Garreg Mach.

"NO!" Ingrid screamed, which caught the attention of other knights. They tried to run to Garreg Mach but was promptly slain by the soldiers of Lord Slug.

"Stay in formation!" Alois yelled. "Stay in formation! The Archbishop is protected! Focus here!"

As he deflected a laser blast and stabbed a soldier in the chest with Shamir backing him up with a volley of arrows to clear some room.

"Dammit!" Jeralt growled launching Kinblasts at his own group of soldiers. "It's not Rhea I'm worried about, it's Hellen and Byleth!"

"Seteth is protecting them! They'll be fine for now! It's just a dozen that got through, they can handle that!"

"Archbishop! Get down!"

Seteth dove in front of a laser blast and pointed his newly acquired Leven Sword at the assailant in the room and brought off a lethal charge of lightning upon the soldier who screamed as he crumpled to the ground. He let out a sigh of relief as he looked outside. Unfortunately, it was hard to see anything in the rain. But Rhea grabbed his shoulder.

"We need to protect Manuela and Hellen! They are in the medical ward looking after Byleth!"

"Understood." Seteth nodded. "I'll go there and-"

"No. I'm going with you."

"What? Rhea, if you are harmed-"

"Seteth, you know I can defend myself." Rhea snapped at him. "And right now, Byleth is unprotected. We need to keep her safe."

They stared at one another for a minute before Seteth relented. "Understood. But please, stay close to me."

"Very well." Rhea nodded and walked over to her quarters before grabbing a steel sword that she placed there for emergencies. She felt wrong using a blade that wasn't her own, but unfortunately, she wasn't anywhere near that weapon right now. The two nodded at each other and ran through the Monastery to get to the Medical Ward. A lot of Lord Slug's soldiers had broken through at this point as Rhea and Seteth hid behind a wall to shield themselves from laser blasts. "I only hope that the rest of Fódlan is able to fend off these foes."

Rhea sighed and gripped her sword tightly. "I as well. Now, on the count of three, we rush."

Seteth nodded. "One!"

"Two!"

"THREE!"

Meanwhile, in other parts of Fódlan more fighters were defending their land.

"Where the hell did these guys come from?! Not that I'm complaining, as the King of Grappling gets to show off his stuff!"

Balthus grinned as he struck a soldier in the stomach before landing an uppercut directly under the chin before slamming both his fists into his chest, sending the soldier soaring into multiple trees. He blew out a breath and did a few air jabs before giving a thumbs up.

"Yeah! Who else wants some?!"

"Yes, very impressive Balthus. Now if you don't mind, we have bigger fish to fry." Yuri said, standing next to him as he wiped his drenched hair out of his eyes. What just started as a simple visit to Yuri's village from Balthus turned into an even bigger fight than the one in Abyss. Luckily, Balthus was able to distract the soldiers while Yuri evacuated the villagers to someplace safe. He drew his enchanted knife and glared at the rest of the soldiers currently making their way towards the pair.

"Wanna take bets? I think I'll be able to settle my debt with you." Balthus challenged, powering up. But Yuri smirked and chuckled.

"You say that every time. But I'm feeling generous today. How about this, we keep tabs on how many we have killed. Person who kills the most wins. If you win, I'll say your debt is cleared."

"And if you win?"

"I'll keep thinking."

"It's a deal!"

"OHOHOHOHOHOHO! Fear the mighty power of Constance von Nuvelle!"

Hapi groaned and rubbed her temples before pushing her hair out of her eyes. All she wanted to do was visit Constance in the Empire but now she was soaked, fighting for her life… and REALLY fighting the urge to sigh. At least whatever blocked out the sky and made it rain like this hasn't changed Constance to be her mopey self.

"Coco, back me up here!" She yelled at her partner and conjured up some dark vines to trap the soldiers unfortunate enough to step onto the traps. Constance nodded and waved her hand, casting a spell that binded them all in place before thrusting her hand forward and shooting several lightning spells at the enemy. With that small group down, she turned to Hapi and frowned in confusion.

"Hapi dear, why aren't you sighing?"

"Huh? Why would I?"

"Well I mean, look around. There's no residential areas and quite frankly, there's a lot of these foes for us to handle alone. We could use the help."

"…Huh. Good thinking Coco." Hapi said as Constance laughed loudly again.

"But of course! After all, the wisdom of Nuvelle cannot be underestimated!"

She then grimaced at her clothing and groaned. "Though the state of my clothes could be better…"

"Coco! More coming!"

As Constance readied herself for another round of fighting, Hapi sucked in a deep breath and frowned deeply. She REALLY hoped that she doesn't regret this.

And so, she sighed. And sighed again. And again. And again. And again. She lost count of how many times she let out sighs, but it was now done. She couldn't take it back.

That's when the ground started shaking and everybody stopped what they were doing. One soldier looked down at the ground.

"Hey guys, there's something underneath us-"

He was cut off and screamed when a giant worm like creature shot up out of the ground and devoured him whole. Chaos ensued after that as multiple creatures shot out to join the worm creature and started attacking the soldiers.

"That should give us time to gather ourselves." Hapi nodded and grabbed Constance's hand and lead her away from the chaos.

"Indeed. We can gather ourselves and perhaps get some new clothes."

"Coco…"

"Yes, yes, I know. Wishful thinking."

"Get! Out! Of! My! Ward!" Manuela growled firing spell after spell after spell at the approaching soldiers trying to make their way in.

"They just keep coming!" Hellen yelled, using what limited offensive magic she knew to help Manuela keep them out. She was mainly a healer, and so prioritised her magic to be healing. Of all the times she wished the rest of the crew were here, now would be a great time. She saw two shadows appear and was ready to fire a simple fire spell, but found herself being stopped by Manuela.

"Hold on Hellen! That's Seteth and the Archbishop!"

Her eyes widened in realisation when both Seteth and Rhea burst into the room before closing the door, panting heavily and dropping their weapons to their sides.

"Lady Rhea?! Why are you here?" Manuela asked in disbelief at Rhea holding a weapon. But the Archbishop steadied herself and let out a sigh of relief after seeing Byleth.

"Good. She's still okay. When we saw a bunch of those soldiers come in this direction we assumed…"

"Nobody is getting near the kid. Not on my watch." Hellen replied, clutching her staff tightly. Rhea smiled warmly in response and nodded to Hellen.

"Thank you, Ms Embers. Byleth is lucky to have had someone like you when she was growing up."

Hiding her blush behind her tome, Hellen stammered a response. "I-I am not worthy, Archbishop. I'm sure that others would have done the same thing as I did."

Rhea opened her mouth to respond, but that's when the doors started banging as Manuela, Rhea and Seteth all readied their weapons. But then they heard the number of voices behind that door and gritted their teeth.

"They must've heard of the commotion that went down here and came to investigate."

"Could we really take on this many foes in such a tightly compressed space?" Seteth mumbled to himself.

"Even if we do, Byleth is still unconscious. We need to be careful." Manuela reminded them. But that's when Hellen's eyes widened and she had an idea. It was a long shot, but they didn't exactly have other ideas at the moment.

As the three fighters got ready for whoever came through that door, Hellen kneeled down to where Byleth was laying and gently spoke into her ear.

"Up and at 'em, kid. Bandits are attacking the camp. We need you."

That's when the door burst open and a bunch of solders came in, laser guns at the ready. But before one of them could speak, they were suddenly impaled by a sword.

Wait, the group all recognised that sword. That was the Sword of the Creator!

"But how?" Rhea gasped. And they all turned to see… Byleth there, sat up and holding the sword with her one remaining arm, glaring at the still stunned group of soldiers. She said nothing and hopped out of bed to engage the enemy.

"Get out."

"What's going on up there?" Jeralt muttered, looking up at the Monastery and seeing soldiers getting thrown out of various spots in the buildings to their deaths. But he grunted, as he was sent flying back and dug his lance into the ground to stop himself in place. He closed his eyes and sent a clear message to the Knights of Seiros.

'Focus on defending the Monastery. Don't let anyone else get in!'

With the message sent, he narrowed his eyes at who attacked him and realised who it was. It was one of the big shots, the big, hulking one who was grinning punching his hands together.

"Now this is gonna be fun. Ready to die?"

Jeralt said nothing in response and took a stance, and looked both left and right to see Shamir and Flayn on either side of him. Good, he had backup in case things went south. And he nodded at Wings to come at him.

Back at the Monastery, Byleth was storming through the halls slicing down any soldiers who were unlucky enough to be in her sights. They tried fighting her, but learned very quickly that despite missing an arm, she was just as unstoppable.

"Get me away from her!"

"Hold your ground! We can take her- URK!"

He was cut off mid sentence as her sword drove through his chest and skewered the soldier behind him too before she threw them up and down slamming them into the floor and the ceiling before retracting the blade and moving onto the next section. All while Manuela is trying to stop her.

"Byleth get back here this instant! You need to rest!"

But Hellen placed a hand on her shoulder and shook her head. "It's no use Manuela. Once she's in this state, she won't acknowledge anyone until the area is cleared."

They then saw Byleth slowly stop and look left and right to check one more time for any stragglers. Seteth then peered out of the window and despite being unable to see well because of the rain, saw the barrier of Pegasus knights.

"Good. The Monastery is protected now."

Hellen smiled and gently put her hands on Byleth's arms. "Well done kid. You did it."

She said nothing in response… just dropped the Sword of the Creator and felt her knees give out on her as Hellen caught her before she collapsed to the floor.

"Byleth? Byleth!"

But the mercenary was out cold once again as she was surrounded by Manuela, Seteth and Rhea. The latter of whom nodded in approval at how peaceful she looked. But Manuela had questions.

"How did she do that?"

"Well, Byleth is usually quite the heavy sleeper. Which isn't too much of a problem, except when we have to deal with bandit raids on our camp. So when I say those words, she springs up into action and doesn't fall back asleep until the job is done. Honestly, I'm surprised it even worked. I'm sure that if it wasn't for the kid, we would all be dead right now."

But Seteth and Manuela both had the same thought and moved to pick up the blue haired Saiyan. "Let's get her back into bed. In any case, the fact that she was able to move about without much difficulty shows that she's well on her way to recovery. Maybe by the end of the day if we're lucky."

"The Monastery is protected now, so we shouldn't worry about anymore unwanted company." Seteth replied. "Though I wonder how much of our defence on the main lines we had to sacrifice…"

"What in the world was that? It's like you weren't even in control!" Sothis exclaimed. One second they were busy training with each other in the depths of Byleth's mind, and the next thing Sothis knew, Byleth disappeared to her physical body for a couple of minutes before returning!

Byleth just shrugged. "Auntie Hellen said that they needed my help, and I couldn't exactly leave them to beat the bandits by themselves."

"Well, perhaps we should take this as a positive." Sothis sighed. "If you can move like that, then you should be almost fully recovered. Manuela and Hellen are doing wonders for you."

"Auntie Hellen is one of the best healers I know."

But Byleth crossed her arms and frowned deeply. "It's getting there. The power. But I just need that… that feeling! If I can just get that then-"

"We can't risk you losing control!"

"But what other choice do we have?"

Sothis sighed and helped up her friend and took a stance. "Let's worry about that later. Now come on, we were sparring before we were weirdly interrupted."

"I just hope father is okay…"

Jeralt rolled out of the way of Wing's two fists slamming into the ground and ducked under a mouth blast fired by him as he was so much on the defensive that he hasn't had a chance to get any hits in.

'He's not giving me a chance to breathe!' He grunted in his mind as he ducked under yet another swing. The only thing that was keeping him alive was that Wing's wasn't a skilled fighter. He was sloppy and very predictable.

"Stay still! I can't squash you while you're dodging like that!"

On the other side of the battlefield, Flayn saw that Jeralt was having trouble and blasted a soldier away before turning. "Jeralt, hold on! I'm coming!"

But before she could even take another step, she felt something grab her ankle and looked to see a tiny creature clutching her leg before it started glowing. She gasped and shielded her face in a feeble attempt to protect herself right as it exploded. She screamed loudly in pain as she was thrown onto the ground, her leg singing from the heat of the explosion.

"Yeah bitch! Take that! You don't wanna mess with my babies cos they'll suck you dry!"

Flayn already felt annoyed at the shorter green alien who was slowly walking towards her. Not to mention feeling a little creeped out by his word choice. But she casted a quick healing spell on herself, which unfortunately didn't do as much as her doing it to other people but it'll have to do. With her strength slightly returned, she took a stance against the alien.

"Oh, you wanna fight? Then by all means!" As Flayn saw his back starting to bulge out and she felt herself getting a little queasy at the display before seeing the bulges form into little version of this alien.

"Go get 'er boys! Show her that Medamatcha always gets his bitches!"

"I have had enough of you!" Flayn yelled and sucked in a deep breath before expelling a large torrent of green flames at the little creatures trying to latch onto them and burning them to a crisp. She then charged forward and drew out her Ki ready to deck him across the entirety of Fódlan as she roared and slammed her fist into his face.

But to her shock, Medamatcha just started laughing as he didn't look hurt in the slightest. "That all ya got?!"

"What? But how…"

Flayn slowly looked at her arm and gasped seeing strange hexes on her skin glowing a bright purple colour. "What in the world… MMMMMPPHHHHH?!"

Her vision went dark as one of the tiny creatures latched onto her face and she slipped onto the mud and fell on her back trying to pry it off her face. But then it started glowing brightly, about to explode. A muffled scream came out of Flayn as she tried to breathe fire again but due to how tightly the creature was latched on she couldn't even open her mouth.

But then in an instant the creature was knocked of her face and she quickly sat up taking in a long breath being finally able to breathe again. She looked her side to see an arrow sticking out of it before exploding. Flayn looked behind and saw Shamir holding her bow out having just smiled the creature and saved Flayn from whatever fate would've came after that.

"Nooooooo! My babies! You killed my babies!" Medamatcha screeched. Before suddenly shrugging.

"Ah, you win some you lose some."

"…Children?" Flayn asked, still catching her breath before from behind, Shamir felt her ankles being grabbed and looked down to see hands sticking out if the ground. Before she could react, she was thrown high up into the air and felt her stomach get struck hard by those same hands.

"SHAMIR!" Catherine screamed, jumping up and catching Shamir before she could land onto the ground. They both knelt on the ground as the archer caught her breath.

"It's like they all have weird powers." Catherine growled to herself as Shamir dusted herself off and pushed her soaked hair out of her face.

"Yeah I've pretty much gotten them pinned down. They've all got some weird gimmick. Like every other enemy we've faced since this damn semester started. I'll take this over the hulking powered up beasts though…"

"Well they can't all have weird powers, that wouldn't be fair." Flayn chimed in.

"What?"

"I mean, take the three House Leaders, for example. Claude is the pretty one, Dimitri is the big strong one…"

"So what's Edelgard?"

"Edelgard is very upset that you're having this conversation in the middle of a fight." Edelgard cut in alongside Dimitri and Claude with Jeralt joining. But Claude flashed a grin at Flayn.

"Thanks for calling me pretty though."

"No problem!"

"Hmmm… so if they have a gimmick then perhaps it would be easier to formulate a strategy." Dimitri hummed in thought. But then they all heard a chuckle from behind and turned to see Angila walking up to him with his arms crossed.

"Not to cut in, but if I had to choose, I'd say I'm the pretty one."

But Shamir just shrugged. "Meh. Six out of ten."

"You sassy bitch." Angila smirked, slightly impressed at how quickly of a comeback that was.

"Okay, well now that we have that out of the way, would that make that one over the one with the weird freaky powers?" Claude asked, pointing over to Medamatcha who grinned widely.

"I can spawn mini me's!"

"Yes, I am well aware of that." Flayn mumbled with a deadpan look.

"So then all that's left is that one as the big, tough and stupid one." Jeralt said, nodding to Wings who clenched his fist.

"You take that back or I'll kill you!"

"Alright, alright, you're not tough." Jeralt rolled his eyes.

"That's better!"

Edelgard frowned and looked up at her Professor who held his hand out.

"Give him a minute."

"…"

"…"

"…HEY!" Wings yelled, and growled loudly. "I was gonna go easy on you! But now it's go time!"

"Alright, now that we have established unnecessary titles, do we have a strategy?" Catherine yelled.

"I just might." Edelgard said, wiping water out of her eyes as the rain was starting to become too much. "Alright, Dimitri you focus on the one over there-"

"Pretty one."

"Not in the mood, Claude! Dimitri you take… the pretty one. He seems to be a ranged fighter with those stretchy arms so a fighter that excels at close quarters combat such as yourself should do."

"Very well. I'll see if I can lure him away."

"I'll take on the big guy with Papa Teach." Claude chimed in. "Since I use ranged attacks, I can chip away at him while Papa Teach deals damage."

"In that case, I'll take care of the last one with Flayn. Shamir?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know I'll try my best. No promises though, as I'll try and assist all of you."

Edelgard went to turn to Catherine but saw her looking out at another wave of soldiers coming towards them and the knight clutched her Relic.

"I'll make sure these guys stay away from you. If you get rid of those big shots, the rest should turn tail and run."

Everyone nodded and started powering up as they all went to their designated targets.

"This isn't good…" Hubert's mouth made a thin line as he watched from a distance at the battle. "They're doing okay so far, but if Miss Eisner doesn't wake up soon then my plan will be all for naught…"

He wasn't to interfere. Those were Thales exact orders. At least not yet. But he had something up his sleeve, but he had to have two very important pieces in order for his plan to work. He needed Byleth, and he needed Edelgard. He looked at his little journal that contained all the notes that he had gathered from that pod and everything about the Saiyan's.

"Damn that woman… if she wasn't so eager to fight, we could've turned the tide of this battle quickly. Perhaps I should pay her a visit, see if I can find a way to wake her up-"

But then he stopped and looked up to see some soldiers touching down in front of him. He let out a long sigh and shook his head. "So much for that. I'm not interfering but there was nothing against self defence."

He then grinned wickedly and charged up a ball of dark magic. "Alright, who's first?"

Back at the headquarters of Shambala, Thales was looking into his crystal ball at the action taking place. But the main battle wasn't what interested him. Oh no, it was something that was going on in the Kingdom. One of the scouts had picked up a very interesting display that required his attention.

"This woman… who is she? And why does she have that power?"

He was staring at Shez who was still fighting off the hordes of soldiers that tried to get the best of her. He stroked his beard in thought as her powered up form looked VERY familiar. But the bigger question was what unit was this woman? Was she brand new? He certainly hasn't heard of her before. What group did she belong to? Was she a rogue?

Too many questions to think of, and ones he wouldn't get answers to if he let Shez die. So he channeled magic into the crystal ball and opened up communications.

"Myson, I have an assignment for you. There's a woman in the Kingdom fending off those invaders. She has peaked my interest, do make sure that she doesn't die."

"As you wish, my lord."

Swiftly ending communications, Thales leaned back and carried on watching the fights. If what he saw of Shez was for real… then things just got a lot more interesting.

*Song: DBZ ending theme*

The Battle of Fódlan is holding steady, but can Byleth wake up before things go south? Find out next time on, The Ashen Saiyan!

And that's a wrap! Thank you to everyone who is sticking around to see this arc take place, really means a lot. I'm definitely having fun with this one, especially since you can tell where I'm taking inspiration for the henchmen. Also, do not worry, chapter 3 of Monkey in Tactician Robes is coming soon, I'm almost done with it. It took a while but like I said, this comes first.

We hit over 170 favourites as well as 190 followers on this story which is still crazy. And I think I'm gonna do a new thing where I actually respond to the comments here. Not sure yet but I'll start doing it next chapter if that's the case.

Also, took a break from writing for a bit to watch RWBY volume 9 as well, and I'll be taking my time to play Tears of the Kingdom when it releases. But join us next time for the battle to continue.

Catch you later!