Claude paused as a small tremor ran through the tunnel. "That isn't normal, is it? Worms carving more tunnels?"

"Sound travels differently underground." Yuri, the one with the Relic on his finger, frowned. "We're not far now." Another tremor started. The three houses paused. Claude could see Annette, Caspar, and Ignatz clutching the walls. Yuri gave a sharp look to Hapi. She shook her head. "Hurry up."

"Claude, are you sure about this guy?" Hilda whispered. "For all we know, he's going to lead us into a collapsed tunnel…"

"Hey, no worries Hilda! Yuri's a good person." Balthus, who was apparently an old friend of Duke Holst, laughed. "He means it when he says we'll help you out."

"I know you'll help me, Baltie." Hilda pouted. "But is it even safe to get out of the tunnel? There's still a forest fire. What if a tree or something fell down and blocked the entrance?"

"Then you'd get to see Shai eat something served hot, Pink." Hapi shouted back. "And I'll have you all know I dug this tunnel myself. We won't land near any forest fires."

There was another tremor. It lingered a few seconds longer. "That's-" Ferdinand started.

Hapi's nostrils flared as she chewed her lip. "Yeah."

"W-what do you think it means?" Ashe whispered. "What's going on up there?"

"Observing from a distance might be the more prudent option…" Lindhart muttered.

The next tremor started moving dust and earth. "This seems…unsafe…" Marianne said.

Bernadetta gasped. "M-maybe we should-"

"Enough!" Dimitri shouted, "We all knew this was dangerous. It is our duty to protect whoever we can, and kill whoever has caused this disaster." He stormed past the group, each step punctuated with the end of his spear digging into the earth. Dedue followed behind him, and Flayn squeezed past everyone else.

Claude turned to face the group. "...Dimitri isn't wrong." He crossed his arms. Claude could feel the nerves in the air, rubbing against his own. The danger was becoming tangible as the group closed in on their final destination. "But whatever's happening out there isn't good." They needed to hear something…not positive, but reassuring? understanding? "If you want to back down, now may be your last chance. No shame from me."

Another quake punctuated his offer. The faces of the group ranged from fright to determination to nervousness. Claude did what he could to hide his own expression.

No one turned back. The grim march resumed.

The quakes were becoming more frequent now. Every time one started, someone would grab the nearest wall, or clutch their weapon a little closer. Claude felt his skin chafing. He focused on the boy who had led them down here in the first place. "Yuri, right? If you don't mind me asking,,,"

"What?"

"Why did you lead us all down this winding path in the first place? I get you were listening in on everything we were talking about, but why get involved?"

Yuri sniffed. "You aren't the only ones with professors and friends riding out into the unknown."

Claude frowned. It wasn't much of a conversation. But prying any further would have to wait. The wind was starting to blow. In the distance, there was a shift in the darkness. The surface was near.

The opening was at the base of the hill Garreg Mach sat on- the place where the knights had ridden was directly ahead, dead and still compared to the towering inferno consuming the other end of the forest. Dimitri, Dedue and Flayn were staring out into the woods.

"Hey!" Claude jogged up to them. Flayn turned to him. Dimitri and Dedue did not. "Thanks for waiting up for the rest of us. But I've got to ask you all to stick with the group. It won't do any good to get split up and lost, especially in the dark, partially in a forest on fire. Let's-"

"It's coming." Dedue interrupted, raising his shield.

Claude shifted his weight. He found his hands were already stringing his bow. "What is?"

"Sylvain. Draw the lance." Dimitri barked. "Flayn, stay behind us."

Sylvain was gripping the Lance of Ruin tightly. Its orange glow seemed to shine even brighter. "I'm with Claude. I can't hear anything."

"Shut up and listen." Yuri snapped. "It's getting closer. Balthus, next to them."

Claude could hear it now. Above ground, the trees absorbed a lot of sound.

Thud. Thud.

The rest of the group was gathering, preparing their weapons and spells. Balthus had unsheathed his own relic weapon, a pair of gauntlets with tall, sharp talons torn from some long dead monster.

THUD. THUD.

Claude nocked his first arrow. It had been hard to tell at first, but there was definitely more to the sound than just something big and heavy hitting the ground. There was a distinct metallic echo, steel against steel. Sword against armor. Followed by the trample of underbrush, the crackle of fire.

THUD.

Human screaming, cut short.

THUD.

The first thing that emerged was a horse, saddled and spurred.

THUD.

It ripped through the undergrowth. A colossal suit of armor twice the size of a wyvern, with a sword and shield to match, both dripping with something more reflective than the rest of its gray, stone-like armor.

"Fire arrows!" Claude shouted, already drawing his second. A number of projectiles and magical attacks followed. The thing raised its shield, blocking them all. The creature continued its advance, unperturbed.

"Scatter!" Claude shouted as he banked to the left. "Keep this thing on its toes! Don't let anyone get too close to its sword or shield!"

The students quickly broke off into small groups, doing what they could to try and break through the monster's armor. Claude notched two arrows and fired at the head from behind just as Annette summoned a blade of wind from the same angle. One arrow shattered on impact. The other stuck into its target, before falling to the ground a moment later. The wind spell had similar results. Claude grit his teeth. A volley of attacks on its sword arm were equally effective.

Time to look for options. The monster turned its entire body to face Petra, raised its sword, and swung. She managed to roll away from the attack, but not the cloud of dust kicked up by the blade's arc. Its shield jerked forward, forcing Dimitri and Dedue to retreat. Meanwhile, Balthus had been fast enough to sneak in and pound his gauntlets against the monster's leg. It immediately turned its torso to strike with its sword arm, forcing a hasty exit.

But Claude could see dents in the armor.

The thing had a poor field of motion. It was meant to swing its sword and raise its shield, not perform complex maneuvers. In fact, if someone were to get on top of its head, Claude would bet that the thing probably couldn't reach-

"Balthus, get over here!" Claude began running towards Hilda and Raphael. "You two, remember the mock battle?"

Hilda's eyes squinted. "Why are you bringing up that mess in this mess?"

Claude pointed at the monster's head. "Aim high."

Raphael's face brightened. "You got it, Claude."

Sylvain had caught his spear in the monster's shield. It looked like his little theory was correct about relics and piercing the thing's armor. Confirmed just in time.

"Alright, alright, I'm here, what do you-" Balthus was swept off his feet by Raphael. Hilda grabbed his shoulder.

"Sorry Baltie. But what leader-man says goes."

"It worked pretty well the last time!" Raphael added.

Balthus looked less than encouraged. "'Pretty' well?" His head swiveled to Claude. "Riegan, friend, please, whatever you've heard about Duke Glouscter and the bounties, I swear, I was just drunk and-"

"Just make sure to land its face on your fists, and all is forgiven." Claude patted his shoulder. "And remember that at least two of us can cast the rescue spell." The thing was busy focusing on Ferdinand, who had managed to commandeer the horse that had been running. "Now!"

Balthus sailed through the air, screaming a string of profanities that would have made sailors blush. Hilda and Raphael's aim was true, and Balthus' gauntlets struck the monster's head. Balthus himself barely managed to land on a groove in the creature's armor, but looked unharmed.

The thing tried to raise its sword, but as Claude gambled, could not angle the blade to strike at it's own neck. Despite his panic, Balthus did not waste his chance and his fists began to rain down blows, creating dent after dent, and then hole after hole. Dorothea, Constance, Lysithea, and Mercedes followed suit by blasting spells against the leg where Balthus had first struck. The creature was wobbling from side to side, unsure of where to focus its attacks. Slyvain seized his opportunity, and rushed towards the monster's front. The Crest of Gautier activated, and power coursed through the Lance of Ruin. The sound of breaking stone echoed through the air as a crack formed in the monster's armor. Sylvain roared, and shoved his lance deeper into the chest. The crack turned into a fissure that ruptured across the beast. A horrible whir of clicks and metal erupted out of the creature, before it slumped where it stood, falling limp and silent.

"...That went well." Claude scratched the back of his neck. "I think? Balthus, how are you feeling?"

"Like I'm four drinks down in a three cup race." Balthus grunted out.

Claude turned back to Hilda. "So pretty good?"

"It means we're treading water." Yuri replied. He was standing next to where Sylvain had slumped over, examining the chest wound in the creature. "This thing…It's a machine. Full of gears and levers."

"What?" Lindhardt rushed over, very nearly pushing Yuri out of the way. "By the goddess, he's right. How did-"

"In any case," Yuri interjected. "We should expect more of whatever this thing is."

"We know that they can be killed." Dimitri said as he pulled on the machine's shield. The metal didn't bend. "All we need to do is exploit their weaknesses, and rip them apart one by one." He pressed on, and the shield broke with a terrible shriek.

"That might be difficult." Claude said. "We only have two offensive relics to go around, and-"

"Never throw me on one of these things again!" Balthus shouted.

"And I'd prefer to just attack while it's distracted." Sylvain added.

Felix rolled his eyes. "Pathetic, the both of you. If I had-"

"Alright, enough of that." Claude clapped his hands together. "We don't even know what's going on in the forest. The Knights have decades of experience fighting monsters. Catherine has Thunderbrand which should be making short work of them. Plus Teach is there, and with the Sword of the Creator…"

"Hapi, is Shai ready?" Yuri asked.

The girl was fumbling with a smooth metallic sphere, magic framing her hand. She sighed, and the earth rumbled behind her. The gigantic worm she had been riding in the mausoleum ripped out of the earth, sending many students tumbling back. Hapi, unphased, pointed at the remains of the machine. The worm lurched forward and bit into the machine's head, digging into the dents and holes Balthus had made before ripping off and swallowing everything above the neck.

"Yeah, he's ready. The big lug was sleeping."

"Claude." Dimitri's eyebrows were furrowed. "You saw Professor Byleth ride out with her father? You saw her go to the forest to fight?"

"Well, I…" Claude scratched his chin. "No. But when has she not been at the center of these huge messes?" He shrugged, and began walking into the forest. "We've made it this far. Might as well try and save some lives, right?"

The group departed, creeping through the forest, passing by the corpses of the fallen knights. Ashe was pushed along by Petra. Mercedes pulled Annette forward. Lysithea's hand gripped Cyril's.

The subtle crackle of the forest fire raging never faded, nor did the waft of choking smoke and dust, but they were slowly being replaced in intensity. Blood was wafting through the air, and the sounds of battle were growing unbearable.

Claude turned back to look at his fellow students. All of them were clutching their weapons tightly, and avoiding eye contact, instead focusing on the darkness surrounding them.

Claude readied an arrow and looked ahead. The group was against a small ridge now, and from the sound, that was all that was separating them from the battle raging. Dimitri and Flayn stood next to him, both with grim looks of determination on their faces. Behind them, Ignatz, Lysithea and Marianne were all nervous, but they would not turn back. Leonie and Raphael were giving their weapons one last check. And Hilda and Lorenz-

Hilda was leaning back to whisper words of encouragement to Marianne. Lorenz just gave him a nod.

"Alright, everyone. This is it." Claude took a breath, readied his bow, and blocked out the screams as best anyone could. "Remember, stick together. we go in, save who we can, and get out of the firing range." After a moment more, he opened his eyes, and took a step forward, just after DImitri.

And before he knew it, Claude was pulling Dimitri back behind the wall as a storm of thunder magic exploded past them. When they looked up, the trees that had been in front of them simply weren't. A machine was stumbling back, its shield melted through and its sword shattered.

"Sylvain, finish it off!" Dimitri roared as he rushed into the fray. The rest of the Blue Lion's followed quickly after.

Claude bit out a curse and ran behind them. "Stay together! Don't let anyone get separated!"

The next few minutes were unlike anything they had ever experienced.

Spells and arrows rained from seemingly every direction. Someone would be standing strong one second and lying dead the next. Fallen trees that looked like good cover were caught alight the moment Claude reached them. The knights were fighting everywhere, swarming against a seemingly endless number of the machines and mages in pitch black robes.

"Stay together!" Claude kept screaming, pushing and pulling his classmates out of danger. "We have to stay as a group!" He reached a small foxhole, where Dimitri was stabbing one of the robed men to death. "Dimitri, what-"

Claude was greeted by a speartip at his throat and a savage expression splattered over the prince's face. Dimitri's breathing was quick and shallow. His eyes were wild and flat.

"Dimitri, calm down, it's me-" Before Claude could even process what was happening, Dimitri had turned away, jumping up and chasing after another black robed mage. Claude took a second to breathe, crouching low. A fireball flew over his head, landing next to him. He took the hint and hugged the walls of the foxhole.

"Claude!" He looked up. Dorothea and Ferdinand were racing towards him. "Where are we going? What's happening?"

"What's-" Claude blinked and shook his head. "Where's my class? Where's your class?"

"I don't know. Maybe if I-" Dorothea poked her head up above the foxhole just as a sharp, cutting sound was getting louder.

"Don't!" Claude shouted, dragging her back down. It was too late- a wind spell had tore into Dorothea's shoulder, and it was bleeding badly.

Ferdinand was frantic, trying and failing to cast a healing spell. "Goddess please, in your mercy, do not fail me-"

"I'm fine! Ferdie!" Dorothea screamed. "Don't worry about that, I can fix it later! We have to keep moving!"

"She's right." Claude said. "We need to-"

"What?" Dorothea shouted.

Claude bit his teeth. "I said," He shouted back to the two laying barely a meter away from him. "That we might be able to run this way!" He waited until there was relative silence, and grabbed both Black Eagles by their arms. They raced up another path out of the foxhole and dashed towards the first spot he could see, covered by thick tree roots and three dead knights.

As fate would have it, a good number of students were already there: Mercedez, Hilda, Marianne, Lorenz, Ashe, Lysithea, Cyril, Raphael, Flayn. "What's going on here?"

"Waiting for you, lea-" An explosion caused everyone to hit the dirt.

"-Claude, what are we going to do?"

"Ignatz- I can't see Ignatz-" Lysithea

"Out of the way, I had them-"

In the distance, Hapi was riding her worm as it bit down on one of the machines. Felix and Balthus were with a few knights helping her, but they were quickly being dragged down into the chaos.

"We need to find Rhea. Then we can get her out of here as we first planned." Flayn said, already healing Dorothea's shoulder wound. She was…not calm, but not nearly as panicked as the rest of them. Like she had lived through something like this before. "Let us go to higher ground. Then we can scout for the Archbishop." Her brow ruffled. "Or Byleth. Surely she can end this chaos."

Maybe there would be better hiding spots above all the chaos on the forest floor. It would be a decent point to regroup, and getting a lay of the land would be needed for any chance of survival. Claude darted his head around the corner. Just darkness- no, that was one of those mages. "Come on, everyone." Claude had already gotten up from his crouch when the arrow hit his target.

By the time the group had made it to the top of a small hill, it had felt like an hour had passed. Across the view, knights and monsters were still battling each other with no end in sight. But These were a blessedly calm few seconds. "Alright everyone, let's stay quiet, and try and find-"

"Down!"

Claude ducked, and an arrow whizzed past where his head had been. "As I was-"

"Claude, Marianne's been hit!" Everyone turned. Hilda screamed as she clutched her friend, whose eyes were lulling back and forth. A small trail of blood dribbled down her forehead.

"Let me!" Flayn shouted, white magic bursting to life in her hands. Ashe spun around, firing off arrows in any direction he could see back robed men, quickly followed by Lorenz and Lysithea's spells. Claude bit down more swears on his breath. Something had to give in this situation- They needed to find Rhea and leave. Or get Byleth to fix everything. Something to salvage this disaster of a-

"Oh, Good."

A deep rumbling voice boomed out of the darkness. A fire had sprung up against the trees behind him, illuminating a tall, bloodied man.

To one side of the figure, Catherine stood, if just barely. Lightning coursed through Thunderbrand, illuminating the blood splattered across her face and the broken remains of her armor. Not far away from her was Shamir, who was struggling to nock an arrow as her legs lay under a fallen steed.

To the other side stood the Death Knight, horse nowhere to be seen. His armor was damaged and bent, and the Rafail Gem glowing brightly through it. Over his shoulder was the body of the archbishop, an alarming amount of blood staining her deathly pale skin.

The hulking figure stood between them, with a pale white beard. In both hands he held a copy of the Sword of the Creator, one glowing a bright, pale red. Beneath his foot lay Seteth, his face smashed into the dirt.

"The children have arrived."

Thanks to Dox as always for beta reading!

Yeah, I remember Balthus' relic doesn't have monster effectiveness for whatever reason. But let's just say the devs made a silly decision and leave it at that. Or agree to canon and say that the Titanus' armor needs a certain threshold of strength to break, and the not-relic that looks, acts, and is maintained like a relic has the firepower to break through.

Still kinda cheesed that Hapi and Constance never got Relics. I guess that's an extension of Fates' "Only boys can have super special awesome weapons" or something? Or maybe the devs ran out of time? Always wondered what they should have gotten. In any case, please feel free to leave your headcanons for their relics in the comments. I'd like to hear. Though I guess I've already given Hapi the rock of +5 monster taming…

Also, a new warrior's game with new costumes and two brand new characters! Will they factor into the larger three houses narrative and fix some of the issues everyone complains about or will Koei pull another Hyrule Warriors and have nothing matter? You make the call.