Blood, Oil, and Steel

by Acardia

You never know what might happen on a Monday. Sometimes every single minor inconvenience occurs within a couple of minutes of you waking up. Other times...well, I certainly wasn't to be sent here of all places. With the Ylissean sun above my head, what will happen to me? Currently rated at T, it might change in the future.

4. Chapter 2: Randy Random and the Farseer?

Chapter 2

Randy Random and the Farseer? Is this a Comedy or Something?

Make sure that you contact me as soon as possible.

I will know who you are.

Believe me when I say that I will be able to see through your disguise

It's not even that good, to be honest.

Just find a time when I'm alone. There are some…

More difficult topics that I will talk about.

I'm not sure how I managed to do this. Oh, not like that. I know exactly what I did to get into this situation. I was being stupid. But what I'm more confused about is how I managed to get into the situation I found myself in before everything went to shit.

What kind of shit do I find myself standing in right now?

Well, in front of me are the soon-to-be Exalt Chrom, Frederick the Wary, and the Grandmaster Tactician Robin. All three of them are able to end my puny existence in less time than it takes for my new-found robot-buddy and me to Joestar's secret technique of running away really quickly.

Then again, Frederick is currently on a horse, which means that he can catch up to me relatively quickly. That's not good for my long-term survival. Oh yeah, Lissa is here too, but she doesn't have an axe yet, so I'm not scared of her. Yet. Yet is a very important word here.

So, my only option here is to talk my way out of this very stressful situation. Such a thing should be relatively easy, what with Chrom's Lawful Dumb alignment. Spin up a sob tale, act a bit useful, and maybe throw in some quips and Chrom will trust you implicitly.

Even Frederick shouldn't be too much of a problem if I didn't do anything to harm the Haildom. And why the hell would I? For the foreseeable future, I have three choices: Ylisse, Regna Ferox, and Plegia. I'm not sure what's even going on in Jugdral, and Valentia is currently being steamrolled by a certain white-haired red-armoured descendant of Alm.

Helping Plegia is not only a death sentence in that I'll be directly opposing the primary protagonists, but also helping them is sometimes indirectly and most of the time directly helping the resurrection of Grima, and that's not something I want to do!

On the other hand, Regna Ferox is…a bit of a wild card. Sure, they're on the side of the protagonists, but then I'll be a supporting character and we all know what happens to the supporting cast: ignored completely or Worf'd to make the next big bad seem bigger and badder. I'll be damned if I get murdered by Walhart to make his invasion of Archanea more meaningful.

That's a long-winded way of saying that Ylisse is my best bet for long-term survival.

And the biggest obstacle to that is Robin. Why?

That's simple. She is much, much smarter than I am. If there are going to be any holes in my story, she's going to find them immediately. And she's a lot less trusting than Chrom will ever be. Which normally is a good thing, but not here.

I have to get the right the first try, or else I've basically doomed myself to a painful death later on.

Or plot irrelevance, which will also doom me to a painful death. If you're not on the screen, the plot can screw with you all it wants. If you manage to get the camera on you, that helps your chances of survival much more.

Of course, the plot could Aerith you, but those chances are much smaller than you get a happy ending.

So how do I handle this? I know information that I should not, and I have to explain that in a way that doesn't sound spy-like because you know that Frederick will remove my life privileges the second he thinks that I'm a spy.

Or at the very least, I have to convince Chrom that I'm not a spy. He's really trusting, and if you give him any half-decent explanation, he'll believe it. That's why I'm more concerned about Robin. If I can't convince her, that's game over. And she's smarter than I am, so she'll catch any inconsistencies that I accidentally make.

She's the reason I'm stuck in this particular predicament in the first place!

So get working, noggin! Come up with a reason why I know these things!

Alright, what problem do I need to solve? I need to find a way to explain why I know things I definitely should not know.

I can't say that I saw Lissa in Ylisstol, or at least I can't say that by myself. I acted dumb in front of Chrom, so I can't just say that I know Lissa from the Royal Family without also acknowledging that I also know that Chrom is a prince.

Plus, I also have to explain how the hell I know Robin's name. Damn me! I could have saved myself a lot of trouble if I didn't slip up there! The hard part is that I don't want to blow Robin's own cover, even if she doesn't know that she needs to keep up appearances. Dropping the fact that she's Plegian will definitely not help her image in Frederick's eyes. I'll be damned if I'm the one to cause her to be ostracised from the Shepherds and then flee right into Validar's waiting arms. That would be one hell of a bad end.

So how the hell do I go about doing this? Do I come clean and tell everyone the truth? That the reason why I know everything is that this world is a game?

No, that's a terrible idea. I can see a million ways this can go very, very wrong. I mean, imagine if someone randomly appeared on Earth and said 'Hey, everything you know is a game that we played and I know basically the timeline for the next decade!' That…yikes, every single intelligence agency would want their hands on that person pronto. Again, another reason why I shouldn't come clean. I'll have to lie my way out of this one. But how do I—

No. That can't work, can it…?

Because a person who can see the future is a lot more explainable, especially in this world that contains a hefty amount of magic. Hell, in the fates world there are literally divinators who look into the future!

And my knowledge of the plot can be interpreted as seeing the future in a way…

Damn, did I just become a farseer? I didn't become a farseer, did I?

Oh well, I'll just play along with that idea. Time to build a character and role-play until my dying day, I guess. It's good that I've developed this character to hell and back, even if it was a joke. It's easier to lie when there's something to go off of instead of just making shit up.

Oh god, what's going to happen after the events of Awakening? Will I go home? Am I stuck here forever?

Right, let's not think about that for the time being. Focus on delivering the explanation to the Awakening gang without getting skewered by Frederick.

I take a deep breath. Let's do this!

"Well, I do have an explanation if you'd like to hear it," I try to keep my voice as straight and unbothered as possible, despite the very loud and honestly very annoying sound of my heart pounding its life out in my chest.

"And that would be?" Frederick raises a suspicious eyebrow at me. Great. Off to a great start, me.

"I get visions, premotions, if you will, of the future," Here goes nothing, I guess. It's do-or-die at this point. "And in one of the more recent ones, I saw the four of you, and you called each other by your names. I guess that got stuck in my head."

"You…can see the future?" Chrom blinks at me. "What are you, some kind of divinator?"

"Well, they called me a Farseer back home," I shrug. I might as well play along.

"A terrible liar is what they—" Frederick snorts, but Robin interrupts.

"What did you see?" She yells out, cutting off Frederick, and causing the Great Knight to make an annoyed face. There's a forcefulness in her voice that's surprising, but there's also a hit of desperation in it that unnerves me. Why would she want to know?

Well, telling her her waking scene won't do her any harm, and it would also take attention off of Frederick's earlier comment that got cut off by Robin.

"Well, you were lying down in a field while Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick surrounded you. Lissa and Chrom were trying to decide what to do when you woke up. Chrom helped you out and you thanked him. Then Frederick suspected you to be a liar after you told them you lost your memory. Then you walked off," I explain hurriedly. Robin has walked up to my face and is staring at me very intensely. I put up my hand in surrender, and take a small step backwards. What? She can be intimidating if she wants to be! She's also Grima's vessel, and I know the power that's stored behind those seemingly weak arms!

"Did—Did you…Did you see anything else? Anything before that?" Robin looks at me with desperation in her pleading amber eyes. "Anything that would help my memory? You know that I lost my memories, right? I did say that, right?"

"Whoa, whoa, hold on, Robin!" I back up again, only for the white-haired amnesiac to step up so she's still closely staring me down. Well, staring me up, since there's a sizable gap or like 10 centimetres between her head and mine, but that's beside the point.

"Well, do you—"

"Not in recent memory, no!" I get out as fast as possible before Robin forces me off of the hill. "I might have seen something when I was a kid but back then I didn't really notice what I saw!"

That sentence finally gets Robin to back off. I can't read emotion very well, but I believe that Robin's now a bit depressed and has a downcast look on her face. Then again, that expression could just be annoyance and I would be none the wiser.

"And when was it that you saw that vision?" Chrom asks me, face full of rabid curiosity. I think Frederick wanted to ask that question with much more suspicion in his voice than Chrom did, but thankfully Chrom asked it first.

"Yesterday morning. At least, it was stuck in my head when I woke up yesterday morning," I respond. That…isn't exactly a lie. I played Awakening until I fell asleep so that cutscene was seared directly into my mind.

"I see…and did you see anything else?" Chrom's asking a lot of really good questions. I don't want to give away too much information, but I also don't want to risk antagonising Chrom. Hmmm, I can probably give the events of today to him without risking much…perhaps warn him about the incoming risen?

Then again, there might not be any Risen if I've popped into Future Pa—no, Robin has amnesia, so we are in the timeline that can be saved.

So the Risen, huh…

Well, let's save the appearance of reanimated corpses until after I've secured Chrom's trust, yeah? Southtown should be the primary worry at the current moment.

"Well, I saw a town burning and a bunch of bandits attacking it. Also saw this lady over here—" I gesture towards a still-moping Robin. "Blast a dude with thunder magic. After that…well, my visions have been wrong before, so I want to make sure that I'm on the right path with them before I decide to tell you guys anything. Don't want to give any false information."

"Wait, which town is attacked?" Chrom suddenly jumps at my words, his hands gripping my shoulders in a—OUCH! Very tight grip!

"I'm not sure? It didn't look too far from here, since the sun still hadn't set and the surrounding area looked very similar?" I wince in pain as a sudden pulse of pressure sends shockwaves of pain through my arm and up into my brain. I knew Chrom was strong, but I didn't know he was this strong! "And can you please let go of me? It hurts really bad when you squeeze me like that…"

Chrom blinks and lets me go, muttering under his breath.

"Large town…close to here…that's…" Chrom slowly seems to be connecting the dots that I've left for him. For me to recognize Southtown would be way too suspicious, so that's why I left it vague. "It's got to be Southtown! And it is right next to the border with Plegia! Frederick, we need to leave now!"

"Milord, had it occurred to you that this man could be lying?" The Knight in question deadpans while giving me a death stare.

"Still, if he's right, and we don't go to Southtown to help out, we could be dooming the entire village!" Chrom argues back.

"Yes, but we still don't know if he's leading us into a trap or not!" Frederick retorts, his gaze still not leaving my face. It sends a shiver of fear down my spine.

What? Frederick is scary!

Chrom opens his mouth to reply, only for a spark of lightning to interrupt the entire conversation by shooting across the field. The golden bolt slams into the ground between me and Chrom, throwing up a small pillar of dirt, grassroots, and poor fried insects, causing Chrom to jump in surprise and Frederick to almost leap at me.

Only a cry of surprise and Lissa's laughter saves me from being torn apart by the Great Knight.

The smell of ozone in the air clues me in on what just happened, but I still turn my head behind me to check on our resident tactician and fragile princess.

Robin currently has her right arm outstretched, angry yellow sparks are still swarming around her fingertips like wasps swarm around anyone who strays too close to their nest. In her left hand is a tome bound by a yellow cover with leather straps keeping the whole thing together.

She has a face that's currently swirling through the emotions of fear, wonder, maniacal power, confusion, and amazement. It quickly settles on embarrassment as everyone present turns their gaze towards her.

A pregnant pause of silence accompanies the act of blasting the ground with a hefty lightning spell.

I find myself trying not to laugh as I look at Chrom's shocked face as he looks between Robin's outstretched hand and the non-inconsequential hole in the ground.

Frederick is just as if not more, surprised by the sudden blast of magic. He doesn't know what to do and is just sort of standing there in shock. If he had a computer screen attached to his chest, I would not be surprised if it was just blue-screened.

"Robin…? You can cast magic?" Chrom is the first to respond to the new situation. He says that line slowly and carefully as if he's not even sure what he's trying to say and is tasting the words in his mouth before he lets them go into the world.

"Er—well, um…" Robin's face flushes with a slight red as she slowly and awkwardly puts her hand down and quietly tries to put her tome back in her coat, but fumbles and drops it on the ground behind her. "Ah, Gods…Well, I guess I can?"

"You guess?" Chrom blinks. "I think I want to stay away from you when you pick up a tome…what even brought this on?"

"Well, Terence said that he saw me use magic against a bandit in his vision, and I wanted to see if I could cast a spell…" Robin looks at the ground on her feet in shame. "I didn't know it would do that when I cast it…I'm sorry, Chrom! I didn't mean to do that! Oh, and sorry Frederick and Terence too! I almost hit the two of you as well!"

"Don't worry about it," I shrug. "I almost did the same thing when the little robot of mine turned on its flamethrower."

"Is that what it's called?" Chrom mutters to himself before he turns back to Robin. "But seriously, Robin, why didn't you tell us?"

"Er—because I didn't remember?" Robin blinks back. "I would have told you if I knew."

"Ah! So Terence was telling the truth!" Lissa exclaims with her usual energetic vigour. "He knew that Robin was a mage before even she knew!"

Chrom stares at Lissa, and then me, for a moment, before his expression suddenly hardens.

"Then he's most likely right about Southtown as well. We need to go, now!" Chrom commands.

"He could be lying, Milord. Perhaps this is—"

"Look, Frederick," Robin sighs. "If Terence is right, then we save a town. If Terence is wrong, then we just left a bit earlier and got a bit tired. Let's wait until we get to Southtown before we give judgement, alright?"

"And why shouldn't I suspect you as well?" Frederick narrows his eyes at the tactician. Robin, true to form, stares right back.

"Alright, knock it off, Frederick," Chrom steps in to peel his knight from his future tactician. "We'll decide what to do with Robin and Terence after we deal with Southtown, alright? They haven't done anything suspicious yet, and if Terence is telling the truth, then he will have done a great service to Ylisse."

"They could have—"

"Frederick! Save it!" Chrom snaps back.

Wow. Not expecting that. I guess even Chrom can break sometimes.

---

"So, how does it work?"

It takes me a moment to realise that Robin's talking to me. After the conversation on the hill I was sleeping on, Chrom decided to make straight for Southtown. Since Frederick and Chrom are extremely fast, even when they're only walking, the trio of Robin, Lissa, and I somewhat lag behind the other two men. The little machine of mine is walking at a good speed due to its inability to get tired, but it's still slower than Chrom and Frederick's horse, so he's kind of in the middle between the unathletic trio and the two muscle heads. You might say Frederick isn't a muscle head but you also know that if he knew what it was, he would be a Crossfit bro.

"Hello? Terence, you there?"

I blink in surprise as I feel a slight poking sensation on my shoulder. I look over my shoulder to see the white-haired tactician using her pointer finger to prod at me with an annoyed expression.

"Sorry, I was a bit spaced out. What did you say?" I reply with a wince. This lady can poke hard!

"I asked you how does it work,"

"How does what work?" I blink at her. "Because there are a lot of things that you could be asking. How do I work? How does my little flamethrower robot over there work? How my—"

"Your foresight. How does your whole 'seeing the future' thing work?" Robin clarifies with a bit of annoyance in her voice. Get the point quickly with her, got it.

"Well…that's a difficult question to answer. It's like trying to explain to someone who doesn't have an organ how that organ feels to use," This is a question that I really don't know how to answer without undoing all the work just now preventing Frederick from turning me into a kebab. A very Roman one, sure, but a kebab nonetheless.

Instead of blabbering on, however, I take a moment to formulate my response. It was my quick mouth that got me into this situation in the first place, and I need to carefully consider my next words in order to give me wiggle room should things go to shit.

"Sometimes, I will get visions. They…range in duration, but usually, they occur at night either when I'm sleeping or trying to sleep. Sometimes the visions are violent and short, showing a snippet of someone's death, other times they are long and drawn out, making me feel like I'm there. But every time, there's one thing in common with all of the visions."

I take a small breath before I continue.

"I don't see myself in them. I am an invisible observer, only there to witness and record, but unable to interact. In fact, this is the first time I've ever met a person that I've seen in my visions," I give Robin a small smile. "Imagine my surprise."

Robin nods her head, seemingly satisfied with my answer.

Then she frowns, and my heart leaps up into my throat.

That. That frown right there. That nearly unmade me the last time she made that face. I can hear the gears in her mind churning and finding holes in my bullshit. Thankfully, Lissa is lagging somewhat behind us and Chrom and Frederick are out of earshot, so the damage won't be that bad…but still, I don't want to deal with—

"Wait, then what was that about not being sure of things?" Robin frowns. "From what I'm hearing, these visions are quite accurate."

Oh, that. That was me being dumb and forgetting that you being an amnesiac here means that 'Marth' is going to fall out of the sky no matter what. I gave myself an out, and now…well, it's not that big of a deal, is it? In fact, I can plant the seeds of Robin's insistence that fate can be changed right now!

"The problem is that the flow of time is not immutable. It wanders and meanders, sometimes slowly and rigidly, sometimes rapidly and all at once, but a premonition from yesterday is going to be a lot more accurate than one from three years ago. Things change, and with it, so does the future," I explain with a shrug. "What I saw a couple of years back might have been prevented altogether. Or, perhaps I saw something in a branch of time that we have avoided in its entirety. Wouldn't be the first time I've seen concurrent events separated by the veil of the great river."

Look, I'm a dungeon master for a group. Lifting stuff from the current campaign and saying it's the truth isn't that hard.

Oh man, Adelu is going to be pissed that we won't be able to play on Thursday since I got teleported to another world.

…and now I'm thinking about things that are going to make me depressed. Let's stare at Robin some more, shall we?

"I see…when did you see…the town burning?" Robin presses me.

"What's this all about?" I raise an eyebrow in surprise. I wasn't expecting Robin to be questioning me now, especially after she appeared to be on my side.

"Well, since you mentioned that the earlier you have a vision of an event, the less likely it is to happen, I was wondering when you saw the burning town,"

"I saw it last week," I raise my eyebrow at her explanation. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, if it was a long time ago and that caused it to not happen…" She suddenly goes quiet for some reason and refuses to meet my gaze.

Honestly, I'm kind of conflicted here. On the one hand, this has probably been a miscommunication, but on the other, is Robin trying to gang up on me with Frederick? Why would you do such a thing? You know he's not going to trust you until after around chapter seven, right?

"Are you looking to pin the blame on me should things go wrong?" I give her a pointed stare.

"What? No! I was going to defend you if that did happen!" Robin flinches slightly at my accusation. "I mean, we're both strangers to this land, right? We might as well stick together, right?"

It's my turn to be surprised.

"You…well…I guess I should apologise for assuming, then," I chuckle a bit. Robin thankfully smiles back at me. "I wasn't expecting you to trust me so easily. I guess my guard was just a little bit too high after Frederick over here looked as if he wanted to skewer me if I breathed wrong."

Robin giggles slightly. That wasn't supposed to be a joke, Robin. I am actually scared of the man. He's strong, tall, clad in very impressive armour, and knows how to wield a lance like a demon. Sure, my little Robo-buddy can probably burn him to a crisp, but he'll get to me before he dies, I can assure you. And studded leather can't stand up to a very determined stab by a lance.

"Not the best thing to wake up to, is it? At least I've lost my memories so I don't have an intense fear of death just yet, but I'm guessing you were quite frightened by Frederick's questioning stance," She punches my arm slightly.

"That's very true. I do not, under any circumstance, want to die," I chuckle.

Robin nods her head in agreement.

The distance between the two of us separates out once again as we relapse into silence. I hum a song silently in my head. I've always liked to just walk and let my thoughts off the leash that decisions keep them on.

It allows me to absorb and interpret things that have happened to me. And oh man, do I need that right now. I'm trying to keep myself from screaming my head off from nervousness and the fact that I lied about my entire existence.

Look, I don't like lying, ok? It makes me feel really bad about myself!

But no, I'm acting right now. I'm not lying, I'm not trying to make myself better by doing so and I'm not trying to take advantage of someone by doing so. I'll be fine. This is acting. Just like in Theatre class, I'm acting.

"Oh! I've been meaning to ask you," Robin suddenly pipes back up, cutting my quiet and solemn stroll through both the Ylissean countryside and the plains of my own mind. "Do you know anything else about me? Or rather, have you seen anything else about me?"

"Hmmm? What do you mean?"

"Well, you saw me blast someone with magic, right? And then I turn around and find a yellow tome strapped to my side and almost kill all three of you," Robin explains. "So I was wondering if you saw anything else that would be useful to know. I'm…starting from nothing, so it would be nice to know more about your own abilities. It's fine—"

I can't help but smile at this. Knowing who she will become, the fearless Grandmaster of Ylisse, makes for some really good dramatic irony. I don't think the Ylissean League will ever know that their revered general started her journey up the ranks not knowing if she could even fight or not.

"The sword at your waist isn't for show either," I point to the bronze sword currently strapped to her belt. "I saw you cut a man to pieces with it. But more interestingly, at the very end after the battle finished, Lissa was praising you for giving orders. So I would suggest trying that out when you have the chance."

That last bit gets Robin's attention really quickly. She was checking out her newly-found weapon with some trepidation before I mentioned the last part to her.

"Giving out orders? What does that even mean?" She gives me a confused look.

"Well, I can't be sure what it actually means, since I only heard someone talking about you, but Lissa said 'Lucky for the town, we were close by. But holy wow, Robin! You were incredible! Swords, sorcery, AND tactics! Is there anything you can't do?' Take that how you want. I'm only a messenger here, what you choose to do with my information is completely up to you," I shrug. I really, really hope I got that line right. I started up a new save two days ago and Lissa's line is still relatively fresh in my mind, but I am notoriously bad at remembering small details like that.

"You remembered a detail like that?" Robin blinks at me, half in surprise and half in amazement.

"You would too if you got the same dream for a week straight," I roll my eyes.

"You did?"

"I've seen that dream at least seven times," Technically not a lie. I've replayed Awakening fifteen times. "And it gets easier to remember things after each time. Considering how often I've seen it, I've wondered if it was important. I guess it is now. Never thought it would happen like this, though."

Robin nods her head slightly.

For your information, Robin, you'll have to experience similar things down the line, but with a lot more Grima and Validar infiltrating your dreams than mine. Good luck!

"Everyone! We're getting closer to Southtown! Prepare your weapons!" Chrom barks from in front of us.

---

The battle went well. By that I mean the shepherds didn't get injured and I lived! Great success!

Honestly, I'm surprised it went this well. I was expecting to get a lot more injured than I did, and for the Shepherds to get a lot more injured than they did. I may never know how on the Gods' Green Earth Chrom managed to dodge that axe swing, but I'm glad he did. This isn't a game anymore, these are real humans of flesh and blood.

In-game, Chrom might be able to take an axe blow to the head and live, but he doesn't wear a helmet so the same blow here will kill him.

Anyhow, despite my advance warning and Chrom's extremely quick pace, we still arrive too late to prevent the bandits from making their way into the town. However, we arrive before the place is set on fire. The small victories, I suppose.

"Look! Bandits!" Lissa cries out, pointing towards a blob of people around ten or so people. Thankfully, they don't look too tough, so I guess this is a hard run. Thank the gods that it's not a Lunatic one; I think my expected lifespan would drop considerably if that were the case.

"Damn it! We're still late!" Chrom curses before unsheathing Falchion. "Lissa, with me! Frederick, take care of those barbarians! Robin and Terence…uh…stay back, I guess?"

With those confusing orders, Chrom runs off.

I blink at him. Those are absolutely terrible orders. Frederick here should be used as a battering ram since at this level practically no one can even touch him, so he should be a part of the main attack. Meanwhile, paring up Lissa with Chrom means little stat gain for Chrom yet also means that Lissa can't do her job of, you know, healing.

Robin seems to notice this and mutters something under her breath.

She doesn't say anything as the three figures get further and further away on the horizon. Well, I guess it's my turn to interrupt and do something before the three get themselves killed.

"Robin? Are you sure you want to hold back like this?" I ask her with a tilt of my head.

"Well, we can't really do anything about it, can we?"

"You have a thunder tome and a sword, and I daresay you're good with both. While I might not be able to fight by myself, I do have the little robo-buddy with me that can burn people to a crisp. We're not defenceless now, are we?" I give her a cheeky smile. While Frederick might be the strongest unit as of now, I have no doubts that Robin will soon surpass him. Plus, she's going to be the tactician of the shepherds, which is arguably more important than any unit.

"Even so…" Robin bites her bottom lip quite hard. "Chrom told us not to join in, right? I don't want to do something rash that might get us in trouble."

I shrug in response. I was going to open her mouth to say something, but I close it. I don't think that's going to help my point any.

Hmmm, I should probably push her in the direction of being a tactician if she's going to be like this. That wouldn't screw with anything. Plus, her face is scrunching up like how Jonathan scrunches up his face when he's thinking about something important. She's probably thinking about how terrible Chrom is at giving orders.

"That's an amazing face you're making. Possumne tibi dare denarium propter cogitationes tuas?" I chuckle slightly before I blink in surprise and squint.

What did I just say?

I was trying to say 'Penny for your thoughts', but what came out? Something in Latin, I think. Why'd that happen?

"Hmmm? What does that mean?" Robin turns to look at me with interest in her eyes. "And what do you mean my face is interesting?"

"Well, I was trying to say 'Penny for your thoughts', but I said in Latin instead," I shrug in response. "And your face looked like a particularly expressive friend's face when they were deep in thought, so I just assumed you were thinking about something."

"Well…you're not wrong about that…" Robin sighs. "And you weren't wrong about me being able to give orders either, it seems. When I see Chrom fight…I see things. As if I can dissect a person and their fighting styles and how they would do in a fight against another person. It's…slightly scary how quickly I was able to turn Chrom into a set of numbers. And seeing him do things that make no tactical sense just makes me want to tear my hair out!"

She points at Chrom trying his best to fight off a lance-wielding brigand.

"Like there! You are at a severe disadvantage against that lance! Pull back and let Frederick deal with that! He has the range and mobility to deal with a lance user! You're just letting yourself get bogged down, and that's putting Lissa in danger!" Robin starts that rant first directed at me, but very quickly she turns towards Chrom's direction and yells as loudly as her lungs allow her to. It's…rather loud. I can see how she manages to get orders across an entire battlefield now.

Damn girl, those are some nice lungs you got there. Please don't yell in my ear, you're going to ruin what little hearing I have left after half a decade of practising the viola.

Actually, is this body the same one that I had back on Earth? Because I'm pretty sure my unathletic ass can't handle what's probably going to happen to it in a couple of moments. I seriously hope that I got a new body along with the Roman-ness that came along with me for some reason.

So uh, don't yell in my ear, please! I don't want to lose my potentially renewed sense of hearing this quickly!

"Well, how about we go up there to yell at them?" I suggest with a mild chuckle. It's actually quite funny to see Robin get angry. She does this thing where she half-frowns, half-pouts, and folds her arms across her chest in this 'the children are acting up' stance. Of course, if Robin ever sees this and reads this, I am probably going to die. That Thunder spell of hers is ruthless.

"Well…still, Chrom told us to—'' Robin begins before she squints at something off into the distance. Her face quickly blanches and a trail of sweat trickles slowly down the side of her face.

I raise an eyebrow at this. That's…not good. Whatever it is that makes Robin scared is probably going to make me piss my pants in fright.

"H—Hey, Terence? Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Robin's voice is but a whisper, and I'm getting seriously concerned. "That over there."

Robin points to something in the distance, and I look in the direction that she's pointing to. It's…oh yeah, I have every right to be concerned now.

Why?

Because off in the not-so-distant countryside is a group of around a half dozen bandits beelining towards a very occupied Chrom and Lissa. Frederick is out on the outskirts wrecking shop as always, but Chrom hasn't ordered him in the city for some gods-forsaken reason.

"We should really go help them," I say with a very small hint of panic in my voice. "Like, right now. If those bandits get to Chrom and Lissa without them realising, well, Lissa can't really fight, she's a healer."

"Agreed," Robin nods grimly before taking out her tome and running off towards them.

I blink a couple of times before I too start running. Thankfully, it seems like this body is a fair bit more athletic than my old one and I haul myself and a rather large backpack back in line with Robin's pace within a couple of metres. My little Robo-buddy is trailing somewhat behind us, but not by much. Damn, I'm good! He's so fast! I didn't know those chubby legs could move something that quickly.

"So, you got a plan?" I slow myself a little to not outpace Robin's own running as we come off the hill that we were on and entire the small shallow valley that Southtown is built in.

I reckon we're around a hundred or so metres away from Chrom and Lissa, and Frederick was a dozen or so metres away from them. The bandits are making their way towards the town from a southeast-by-east direction and are around half a kilometre or so away. Far, perhaps, but one could reasonably walk that in a couple of minutes. And plus, Chrom hasn't killed a single bandit in the time that he's gotten there! Seriously, you're supposed to turn into an absolute unit later on! What's holding you back?

Oh right, protecting Lissa. Why'd you bring her with you then? You could have left her here with us!

"What do you mean?" Robin turns her head to the right to face me.

"Well, are you sure we want to head into a combat situation without a plan of action?" I give her a strange look. Of all people, why is she the one asking this question? "That sounds like a really good way for us to end up in the same position that Chrom and Lissa are in right now."

Robin grimaces and nods her head in agreement.

"You have a good point…how about this? You go and protect Lissa, or at least free up Chrom from having to protect her, I'll go get Frederick to deal with the newcomers, and then I'll come back to help you three," She orders. "Use that…what did you call it? The Flamethrower? Yeah, use that to keep Lissa from being attacked."

"That sounds like a plan…not sure I like it or not, though," I try my best to mutter the last phrase as quietly as possible, but it seems I wasn't quiet enough to keep my private comments away from Robin. She has really good senses, both hearing and eyesight, is what I'm starting to realise. Wonder how her sense of smell is.

"Wait, why?" She sounds a little panicked. "I'm sorry—"

"It's not that it isn't a good plan," I shake my head furiously. I am not letting her be scared away from becoming a tactician because of my dumb comment. "It's that I'm just a bit…apprehensive about fighting. I've never done that before. I just make machines and tools."

"You put a weapon that can shoot fire on one of your machines," Robin points out quietly. She still seems a bit…subdued than she was before, probably seeing my mutterings as criticism.

"Look, a flamethrower can do a lot more than just burn people," I respond, trying both to explain myself and to give her some confidence. "Clearing bush, counter-firing forest fires, things like that. Plus, I don't even remember when I put that on the damn thing. I could have very easily been one of my friends who put it on. Don't worry about my opinions, I'm sure you'll lead us to victory."

Robin nods her head, but her face is still filled with doubt. I shake off an uneasy feeling. A Robin that is unsure of their moves is going to be dangerous in the days ahead. Very dangerous.

At the current moment, I push that thought deeper into the recesses of my mind. We had reached Southtown, which was thankfully not burning yet.

"Go!" Robin commands. "Make sure that Lissa doesn't get hurt and free up Chrom! I'll go get Frederick's attention and then come back! Don't you dare die!"

"Wait!" I realise something very important before Robin goes off towards the east. "Robin, is Chrom going to listen to me? Because if I stroll in and tell him that you want me to replace him, he's going to be extremely confused and probably refuse to let me help him."

Robin stops in her tracks and turns to face me, giving me a confused look, before she slaps her forehead loudly. Yikes. Did I do something wrong?

"Right…" Robin sighs. "I'll go with you to explain the situation before I go and find Frederick. That's…honestly a better idea than expecting Chrom to listen to you without explaining what's happening."

She nods a couple of times before running back to me.

We enter the town. Southtown…isn't what I expected. Well, I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but this wasn't it. There's quite a substantial stone wall that should have stopped most large carnivorous animals and probably deterred most undetermined bandits and raiders.

Of course, these bandits are anything but determined, so not much good it did there.

The single large gate on the southern side had been bashed through with some force. Fragments of the thing were everywhere, splinters littered the ground like the stars litter the night sky on a particularly clear night. The entire door, reinforced with iron bands and probably also had a good amount of reinforcement on the other side, had been lifted off its hinges before being broken into pieces.

There are pieces of the door everywhere. Some have been embedded in the soil, others are scattered about like legos after you spill a giant tub, and small chunks find themselves embedded in the soles of our shoes. Thankfully, I have really thick steel-plated leather boots, so they find no easy way to poke painful holes in the bottom of my feet. Robin, on the other hand, seems to have a little more trouble with her boots. I see her wince a little as she steps on a particularly large splinter. She curses quietly as she slows down a bit to get the large chunk of wood out of her shoe.

Continuing past the wreckage of the wooden door, we find ourselves in the middle of relatively controlled chaos. While before, the bandits were making themselves busy with the slaughter of innocent civilians, the destruction and theft of property, and generally unpleasant actions, you know, stuff that bandits do? After Chrom's arrival, however, most of them were focused on him and him alone, letting the people of the town breathe a deep breath of respite. A breath that was then used to run as far away as physically possible.

Every single house here has its doors busted open, some from the outside, some from the inside, and everything that is valuable and not literally stuck in the dirt has been carted off. Most of the valuables that are missing from their original places were probably taken by the villagers themselves, though, since all the bandits are still here, and their bags of loot are placed haphazardly on the ground and are being a real pain to navigate around without stepping on the usually quite fragile items spewing forth like a costly carpet adorning the dusty ground. A more expensive carpet, actually, considering how expensive carpets are.

I slow down my pace considerably to make sure I don't break anything, but Robin barrels through the streets without either a reason or means to care about such things as delicacy and respecting others' property.

Every time she steps on something fragile that breaks, I wince and a little bit of my soul dies. People put their hearts and souls into making those! Robin, please, at least spare the—No! Not the vases! Do you know how hard it is to make a vase with the damn thing collapsing on itself? Well, at least those necklaces and pearls are safe from your rampage, you she-demon.

How the fuck did you break a silver goblet? How?

This woman, I swear… No respect for the arts.

Shaking off the slight haze after seeing such beautiful works of art being destroyed before my eyes, I speed up to keep up with Robin in our race to keep Chrom from killing himself and or his sister because he cannot seem to come up with any smart ideas.

Now that I think about it, has Chrom actually had a good idea in the entirety of Awakening? Because most of the good thinking was all Robin. I mean, sure, it's not his job to be thinking too hard about things, but he's still an Exalt! He needs to make good decisions!

After a while, we reach the 4-way intersection where Chrom is trying to hold back a trio of axe-wielding bandits. If I'm being honest, this feels like that one scene from the movie Jurassic Park when Brad Pitt holds off the four Raptors. Chrom keeps Falchion in a high guard with the point kept forward to discourage any of the three bandits from attacking Lissa, who is standing behind him some distance away. Occasionally, one of the bandits will try his luck at getting at or around Chrom, who would respond by taking a couple of jabs at the offending bandit with Falchion until they return back to their position earlier or Chrom is forced to take a couple of steps back in order to stop someone else from getting to Lissa.

If Lissa's life wasn't in danger, I would think this situation is quite amusing.

It doesn't take long for Robin to see the main problem that Chrom's facing.

"Get back!" She snaps, reaching into her cloak for the sword that's attached to her belt while the tome in her right-hand flares to life, the pages flipping by themselves as multiple concentric circles of glittering magical text spring into existence around her, the text underlined by thick bands of a semi-transparent gold colour.

Chrom falters for a moment and Lissa turns her head back at the noise. I'm surprised they didn't notice us until Robin yelled at them.

"Robin? What are you—Eek!" Lissa starts to respond, but that response is quickly cut short. The pungent bleach-like smell of ozone fills the air as a roaring crackle announces the casting of the Thunder spell. The bolt of amber light races through the air, and in the blink of an eye, strikes its intended target, the mage closest to Chrom, perfectly in the middle of his chest.

I have to say, I've never seen someone electrocuted before. Then again, I still don't think I've seen a person electrocuted since that Thunder spell not only had a decent amount of force behind it but also heat.

So when the bolt of lightning struck the bandit in his chest, the bare skin of the shirtless man immediately blacked and started to glow a faint crimson as the heat from the spell instantly dried his skin and allowed it to catch fire. His body shudders slightly as his eyes roll up into their sockets, the axe falling from his limp hands and clattering uselessly into the dusty dirt road below us. In the next moment, his body crumples to the ground as his brain no longer sends instructions to his legs in order to keep him standing.

It's the first time I've seen someone die, and I expected more of a reaction, but for some reason, I don't feel anything especially…strong? It's as if I've seen this exact scene before…

Ah, right. I did write in Terentius's backstory that he was a military engineer for the Roman Legions before he started making machines. I guess that means this body is used to death and war. This…makes me slightly uncomfortable. I didn't expect to be fine with killing at all! Seeing a person die…still feels bad. Like, he definitely had a mother and a father, perhaps even some siblings and significant other. And Robin just cut his string fate as easily as someone cut threat when weaving.

And yet, when I look at his dead corpse, I see another eliminated threat. Is that…alright? Am I allowed to think in that kind of way?

Whatever the answer to that question is, I can't think about it right now. I push those thoughts to the back of my head where they presumably take tea with the other unpleasant thoughts roaming my mind.

Not to be outdone, I point forward with my right hand. While I can't shoot lightning from my fingertips, I do have something that can shoot fire from its…head? Back? Top? Whatever the ventral side of the robot is.

"Fire!" I command loudly.

Lissa takes a moment to reorient herself and looks at me in confusion. That confusion is quickly dissipated, however, as my little Robo-buddy takes up a position between me and Robin.

A quiet metallic clicking noise is the only prelude to the hell-storm of flame that followed. A jet of bright orange flame spits out of the machine as a serpent shoots out of its den to attack an unsuspecting victim. It launches out of its container with the loud sound of high-pressure air bursting from an overpressed canister. The flame burning draws fresh oxygen from the air as it combusts violently, the sound of more air rushing to fill in the vacuum that the fire creates adding to the loud cacophony of sounds that the flamethrower produces.

All of that happens within a second, and in the next, the bright pillar of flame impacts its intended target.

A person burning alive…is something that I don't even want to see again. I doubt that wish will be accomplished, considering all I have for offensive weaponry is my little Robo-buddy and his fire, but it's a hope, right?

I don't even want to describe a person burning to death…it's…horrible. The screams, oh gods, the screams…

And even still…I don't feel anything…

Is something wrong with me?

After the man burns to death from the gout of flame that shot out of my Robo-buddy, the final bandit decides that facing three people with very dangerous weapons isn't the best of ideas, and decides to run away.

Unfortunately for him, Chrom is still here, and without other people to keep him busy and Robin moving up to protect Lissa, he's free to attack where and whoever he wants. And being the only enemy in a reasonable sword-swinging distance, meant Chrom chose the remaining bandit to kill.

Chrom rushes forward with a speed I doubt I'll ever reach, and catches up with the bandit in a couple of paces. Falchion comes down in a wide overhead arc, but the bandit manages to notice just in time to turn around and use his axe's handle to block the strike.

Man, that handle must be made of some strong wood since Falchion only goes halfway through it, even with such a telegraphed and aggressive swing.

Chrom…doesn't care that his sword is currently stuck in something and just presses down harder, trying to cut through the remaining wood of the hilt. That forces the bandit lower and lower on his knees. He could try and punch Chrom, but that would risk him not keeping enough force to keep Chrom away from bisecting his head.

Although…Chrom, his everything is wide open! Disengage from the bind and strike at…any part of him! He's not even wearing a shirt!

Thankfully, Chrom seems to understand how to actually use a sword and not how to use a sword in an anime. With a grunt, he lifts Falchion from the bind and swings it in a circle, cutting off the bandit's arms at the elbow, and the head at the neck.

An arc of crimson follows Falchion to the right as Chrom finishes this swing and goes through with it. The severed head and arms of the bandit fall to the ground with a wet thump and leave puddles of red liquid slowly creeping out while the decapitated and amputated body falls to the ground with a much louder sound. Chrom rolls his right shoulder before turning around and sighing a deep breath as if he'd been holding his breath the entire time he was fighting.

With the final immediate threat gone, I job up to where Robin and Lissa are currently standing. Lissa's crouched down and wiping her head of sweat while Robin has her hands folded across her…rather lacking chest. She's glaring at Chrom with a ferocity that I do not want on me.

"Robin! Terence! Why are you two here?" Chrom asks with a worried and concerned face. "I told you two guys to stay back."

"Well, look how that was turning out," Robin sighs. "You can't be an effective fighter if you're trying to protect your sister like that, especially not while outnumbered. And speaking of, why didn't you move back? The street back there is narrow enough that only one person could fight you effectively, and you're able to stop them from flanking you! Lissa would have been safe!"

After that barrage of words, Chrom looks as if he'd been slapped. I mean, Robin makes really good points.

"Right… I didn't think of that…" Chrom shakes his head, with not an insignificant amount of shame in his voice. "I'll keep that in mind next time…hey, you still haven't answered my question! What are you two doing here?"

"Helping you?" I shrug. "I mean, you looked like you needed the help. It's not like either of us is defenceless. Ok, I might be defenceless, but Robin most definitely isn't."

"Terence, I don't think you can come even close to being labelled as defenceless," Robin turns to look at me with a slightly amused expression on her face. "Did you see the expression that bandit had when you burned his buddy with that flame-throwing thing?"

Lissa nods her head vigorously in agreement.

"Yup! Thunder is a very common spell, but something that can do what your…er…whatever it is can do is very rare! It's sooo cool!" The Princess adds while smiling extremely brightly.

"Really? Thanks for the votes of confidence," I shrug. "Alright, Robin, what's the plan?"

Robin blinks at me in confusion while the three of us all turn towards her. I have a slightly cheeky smile on my lips, while Lissa is staring at the future tactician expectantly and Chrom has an eyebrow raised but isn't asking any questions.

"Why are you asking me?" Robin sounds a little panicked. Oh well, we all start from somewhere, right?

"Well, you seemed to have a good plan when we charged down here," I explain. "Is it that weird for me to ask for another one?"

"This was your idea, though!" She fights back.

"Yeah, but I only suggested helping Chrom," I shoot back with a smirk. "It was your plan that made us win."

She tries to respond but then realises that this entire plan was her idea, and falls silent.

Chrom then turns to me with a confused look on his face.

"Wait, what do you mean this was her plan? You guys had something planned?" Chrom frowns.

"Well," Robin begins before I can respond. "I can up with the idea to have Terence protect your sister with that…flamer thrower of his to free you up to fight the bandits the normal way. I was going to inform Frederick that there were enemy reinforcements on the way before returning to help you guys."

"But then I convinced her to come with me because I'm not confident enough to think that I could convince you of changing your mind," I finish.

Lissa looked really excited when Robin said that the original plan had me protect her with my Robo-buddy. Chrom…less so. Can't blame him. I might not have a sister, but I wouldn't want my brother in the protection of a dude with a flamethrowing roomba. Hmmm, Roomba…that's a good name, right?

But it doesn't…feel right. I'll come up with a name for my little Robo-buddy later.

"Oh, can I?" Lissa perks up before any of us can say anything. "I think that's a good idea, Brother! That way, you can bash people's heads in and I can stay safe!"

Chrom opens his mouth, closes it, and opens it back up again before speaking.

"This had better not be some ploy to get at my sister," Chrom glares at me. At me!

"Hey, this was all Robin's plan," I raise my hands up. "If there's anyone to blame, it's her!"

Also, I don't even like Lissa! The Robin and Lissa ship is just weird, second only to Robin and Nah! She's fourteen, damn it!

My quick defence seems to blunt the edge of Chrom's suspicions, however, so all seems well on that front.

"Alright then…but make a move on my sister, and I'll gut you," Chrom frowns at me.

"I wasn't even thinking about it! Also, she's a bit small for romance, isn't she?" I sigh indignantly. This seems to flip the views that Chrom and Lissa have of me.

"Hey! I am old enough! I am not a delicate little flower!" Lissa cries out with a pout. "I can handle romance and kissing and…stuff…"

"That just goes to prove my point further," Chrom nods sagely. "Terence is right, you know. You're not old enough for anything even related to romance."

"Ugh! Terence, why'd you have to make it worse!" Lissa stomps off to me and punches me in the chest. At which she suddenly recoils in pain and clutches her right fist with a pained grimace.

"Ow! Why—!" Lissa looks down at her hands, then up to my chest, blinks, and then humphs and walks to where Robin is standing and sits down on a pile of broken foundational rocks. The tactician is trying to hold in her laughter and failing miserably.

Meanwhile, I'm just standing there like an idiot trying to figure out how the hell Lissa hurt herself on my chest.

Like, how did Lissa get hurt by punching me? Sure, I might have stupidly high pain tolerance, but I doubt that carried over into this body. I didn't even feel anything—oh, the studs. They're sharp. Yikes, then it's a good thing that Lissa can't punch very hard, or else she could have gotten quite bruised by the metal studs. The studs aren't round and circular but instead are very short rectangular pyramids, and they cover most of the leather on the upper part of my body, extending down to around the bottom of my intestines. The waste area is uncovered by the studs, and my lower legs are similarly unarmoured. At least I have studs on my thigh pads, that's a good sign. I need to get some greeves and a non-decorative codpiece, though.

Why? Because I've dealt with short people before, and the primary advantage that they have against you is their ability to reach dangerous places easily. And as a dude, I have parts down there where, if hit, means an instant KO.

So crotch protection is important, everyone!

"Lissa, you punched me in the one place where you'd hurt your hand. You could have just hit me on my leg or something," I roll my eyes in amusement. She doesn't seem to be too hurt, so it's fine if I laugh.

Thankfully, Lissa seems to think the same way and doesn't get too upset.

"But that would just prove to you that I'm a child! I'm not!" She huffs, visibly upset at me.

"Yeah, but you're like 140, 150 max," I fold my arms across my chest. It's honestly hard to tell since I don't know how tall I am, but if I stayed the same height, then she would be around 145 centimetres tall or so. If I got taller, then she would be taller, and vice versa. "That is prime territory for a child who thinks they're an adult."

"I don't even know what the numbers you're talking about mean, but I'm still offended!" Lissa acts extremely childlike and refuses to meet my gaze.

"While this is…oh gods, give me a moment," Robin tries to speak up, meets my smirking gaze, falls back into laughter, and then tries again. "While this is extremely funny, we still have a battle to fight."

"Ah yes," Chrom is the first to respond. "Well, Robin, lead the way. What's the plan?"

I nod my head in agreement and the two guys turn to stare at Robin. A single line of sweat traces the side of her face.

"Well…since I'm here already, we might as well go on like this… Terence has a better long-range and area-of-affect weapon, while I can handle melee, so I think I should pair up with Chrom. Terence should stay with Lissa in the backline," Robin's mind starts working out strategies, even though she looks incredibly unsure of herself.

"Wait, didn't you just say that I shouldn't pair up?" Chrom blinks in surprise.

"No! Fighting together is…it's…like, there was a…that is…well, it's better than fighting alone! I'm sure of it!" Robin cries out, waving her hands around while she stumbles furiously with her words. "But you're doing it wrong! She's supposed to be fighting with you, not standing that far back! Pairing up should mean you're fighting side by side, not whatever you were doing!"

Ah, it's that conversation. We're finally getting some lines from the game, even if they're really skewed.

"So, when we go out there and fight, stick next to me! Don't run off and do your own thing!" Robin snaps at Chrom.

"I'm not going to run off!" Chrom complains and starts to walk off, but Robin is having none of this and grabs his cape and drags him back over to where we're standing.

Ah, is this the start of their support chain? I wonder when Chrom's going to walk in on Robin bathing. That scene always had me laughing, but it's…still not as good as the support for Male Robin. Those, are peak writing.

Chrobin is always fun to watch, don't you think?

"And Lissa, stick with Terence! Don't leave his side!" She finishes yelling at Chrom, only to turn on me and Lissa. Why? I already know how Pair Up works, damn it!

"R—Right! But not too close, because I can handle myself!" Lissa stands up from the pile of rubble with a little bit of a wobble but then glares at me harshly. "I am not a little delicate girl that needs someone to protect her at all times!"

"Yes, yes, I know," I roll my eyes. "Let's get moving before we're swarmed, yeah?"

We collectively nod and make our way further into the abandoned town.

The town is actually a lot larger than I first thought. Well, I was thinking it was a village with like a couple of dozen houses, but no, it's quite large. There are winding streets, storefronts, a large villa where the local noble or rich merchant lives, and all sorts of buildings and structures that a random village cannot afford.

It would be a really nice place to live, in my opinion. Nowhere close to my native Rome, but—

Wait, native Rome?

I'm…not from Rome?

What's going on with me?

Why…why would I compare this place to Rome of all places? I've…never been to Rome. Look, it's been on my bucket list, but I never got around to going.

But still, I feel… an attachment to the city that I…don't know what to do with or where it comes from.

I shake my head violently and push those thoughts to the back of my head. There are already two sets of bad thoughts back there, and it's getting a bit crowded, but I think it'll be fine. For now, at least. I think.

We reach a bridged river. The path had turned from dirt to stone a long time ago, and it is clearly apparent that we have reached the more affluent areas of the town.

The houses here are made from brick and not wood, the roads are clean and paved, there are much, much more valuables scattered all over the ground, and these are all of a much high quality than before.

The river itself…is concerning. I'm not sure what colours rivers are supposed to be in Ylisse, but red and with bodies flowing down it is probably not the correct colour. The stench of spilt blood and other bodily fluids enters my nose and almost causes me to gag. Or rather, it should have caused me to gag. I'm…taking the smell a lot better than I thought. I'm not instantly throwing up.

"How did they do that!" We hear a voice in the distance. Considering everything, it's probably the boss of this chapter. It's narratively convenient, after all, and Fire Emblem doesn't like to think too hard about its plot. Not unless you delve really, really deep into the lore. Boring holes into you with my eyes, Three Houses.

"They're four people! How did they manage to stop all of us from taking this city! Get your act together, everyone!" Man, he seems pissed. What's his name again, Gareth? Garrin? Garrik? I can't remember every bandit in every Fire Emblem game, alright?

"But sir, they have magic! And a person with a metal…thing that can spit fire!" Another person, probably a grunt, replies.

"And? We have mages too! Go deal with them already, or my name isn't Garrik!" Garrik the ill-informed yells at his underling.

"Well, we appear to have found the person running the show," I mutter. "What's the plan, Robin?"

Robin scratches her chin, deep in thought. It takes her a couple of moments, but she speaks up relatively quickly.

"How far can your flame-throwing machine throw its flame?" She asks. I can already see the gears turning in her mind behind those amber eyes.

"Around…" I try to guess the range that I saw earlier, but my mouth moves without me even telling it to do so. It's like starting to play a song you've memorised and just letting your muscles act of their own accord. "…seventy-five metres. There's enough fuel in the tank for around thirty or so seconds of continuous fire before the automated refilling system kicks in, and I've used around seventeen of that previously. I'd say I can get a couple more people before I run dry, but again, I've never field-tested the thing before I put it on the robot, so the numbers could all be wrong."

Robin stares at me in surprise, while Chrom and Lissa have confused and glassed-over looks.

"Er—Terence? What's a metre and what's a second?"

Ah, fuck. I should have seen this coming.

"Uh, they're measurements that we use in the place that I come from," I shrug. "The Mundi mostly uses it, except the weird people in America who use feet instead of metres. A metre is about…uh, I'd say Lissa is one and a half of them."

"So we're using me as a measuring tool, huh?" Lissa mutters from my side as Robin stares intently at the princess before, yes, using her height to judge the distance of my robo-buddy's flamethrower. Yup, she's trying to figure out how long 50 Lissas are. Never thought I'd say that.

"Alright, you can definitely reach there…Terence! Take Lissa over there to that little outcropping and rain fire down on our enemies! Chrom and I will take on the bandit leader…er, what was his name again? Garrick?" Robin orders us. "Whatever. Just make sure to pull back if you're wounded to Lissa for her to heal you, and don't do anything dumb. If things come up, I'll amend my orders."

And with that, the four of us spring into action.

Lissa and I take off towards the small hill towards the south of the River. Its height gives me more range to work with for my flamethrower, so it is tactically advantageous for me to be on it.

It's honestly surprising how much I can run in this body. I've been walking for the better part of two hours, and I can still find enough strength to even jog at a good pace through the stone-paved streets of Southtown. If the streets weren't filled with blood and stolen goods then I would even think it pleasant!

Perhaps that's why I don't notice Lissa falling behind until she's far enough behind me that one of Londinium's large red buses can comfortably parallel park in the gap she's left.

She's panting, hard. Her face is red and blue with exhaustion, but she still seems determined to keep up with me. Even so, she's definitely struggling to do so.

Seeing this, I turn around and stop, frowning at the dress-wearing princess. Doesn't that skirt make it hard to run?

"Why'd…you…stop?" Lissa huffs as she closes the distance to around the length of a large pickup truck. Even that causes her to sweat enough that her face is drenched in a glistening layer of sweat, the (I assume) summer sun reflecting off of it making her face look more smooth than it actually is. At this point, she's leaning on her staff to stop herself from toppling over.

"Because you look like you're about to fall over," I shake my head and walk over to where Lissa is standing. "And you're sweating more than a Gaul in Numidia. Come on, we can afford to rest a little; I doubt your brother and Robin are fast enough to reach Garrick that quickly. Sorry I pushed you so hard, you should have told me that you need some time to rest."

"Yeah…but I don't…want to look…like a delicate…child to…you…" She pants, hands clutching her staff like it's a piece of rope stopping her from falling into a chasm.

I sigh and roll my eyes. Really, she's acting more like a child like this.

"Yes, but only children don't know their limits and so require protection from their parents and guardians in order to stop them from overexerting themselves. If anything, you've just proven yourself to be more of a child," I shake my head while giving her a pointed look. I unclip the waterskin on the side of my backpack and offer it to her.

Lissa turns her head away from my gaze and humphs, but still takes my waterskin. The speed she downs the not-insubstantial amount of water in the skin…makes me a bit uncomfortable. Where is all that water going? There's like a litre and a half in there!

She finally finishes the water in the waterskin and hands the much lighter container back for me to clip to the side of my backpack.

"Better?" I raise an eyebrow when I ask the question.

"Better…" She nods.

"Can you stand without relying on your staff?" I gesture to her current situation, sat on the ground with her staff placed on her lap. How she sits on the ground with those…metal frames is beyond me.

"I…should be able to. I was just really thirsty. It is really hot outside…summer really snuck up on us, huh?" Lissa giggles a bit at herself. "Look at me, still wearing my spring dress. It's way too hot for that now!"

"Uh—right, what day and month is it?" I ask a completely random question.

"It's the first day of Sixtus. Why?" Lissa blinks at me in confusion. Sixtus…that's a weird name for a month…well, the Romans named them after people, numbers, and gods, so I guess it makes more sense when you think of it like that? Sixtus is most likely the sixth month, so that would put us…at the start of summer, yeah that tracks.

"Well, you're more prepared than I am," I chuckle. "It was November where I'm from—er, that would be the eleventh month—when I left. Not really packing summer clothing when you go out during that time, huh?"

"And yet you're still wearing something that makes sense for this weather, unlike me," Lissa pouts at me. Seems like I've diffused the earlier situation, and stopped Lissa from being mad at me. That's good.

"What can I say? I like to be prepared for anything," I grin at her.

That's…actually true, both for Terentius, the character, and for Terence, the person. A person might think bringing ten pairs of pants for a 5-day trip is a bit excessive, but I say that it's a normal precautionary measure. And I've written in Terentius's character sheet that he is 'ready for anything'. Dunno how that translates to real life, but I suppose having clothing for any occasion is a good thing?

"Then do you have a dress that isn't this hot to wear?" Lissa stares at me pointedly.

"I can go check after this battle," I supply. "Not really a good idea to do that at the current moment."

Lissa nods her head again and stands back up slowly. And when I mean slowly, I do mean slowly. True to her word, she doesn't use her staff to help herself up, but this also means she's standing up shakily, her legs wobbling like trees in a typhoon, her face an intense mix of pain, exhaustion, determination, and grit.

Eventually, she stands back up. Like always, it's easier to keep yourself standing when you're already standing, so she takes a couple more steps without much trouble.

"Let's keep to walking, shall we? I don't see anyone here, and most of the bandits are on the other side of the town anyhow," I suggest, to which Lissa readily agrees.

We then set off towards the hill once more.

Thankfully, we manage to get there without incident. You may now clap.

…

If anyone believed that, shame on you. You really don't know how these things go, do you?

I always chose luck as my Robin's worst stat and the universe seemed to be dumping all that bad luck onto me. Why do I say that?

Because the moment we manage to get to another intersection, I practically collide with another person. A person that I don't recognize. How they managed to get so close to me without me hearing their footsteps I will never know. Hell, how did we get this close to them without them noticing our footsteps? My boots aren't the quietest things in the world, and Lissa's wearing heeled boots that go clip-clop!

The streets aren't wide enough for two people to stand next to each other, so when the random person ran into me, we kinda just stumbled onto the street.

"Ah, shit, sorry!" I rub my head as I apologise to whoever it is that bumped into me.

"No, no, I'm sorr—" The voice that comes out of the person that I've bumped into is masculine and…slightly off. Almost as if this language we're speaking isn't their mother tongue. The man blinks at me, and I stare at him a bit more closely.

He's wearing light leather armour, similar enough to me, but he has a curved blade in his hand quite reminiscent of feudal Japanese katanas and Tang-Era Chinese Dao. His shoulders are protected by stiff leather plates and his waist has some extra fabric that would make a cutting weapon's job harder, and he has a headband with a metal plate…for some reason. But other than that, he's not wearing any armour. He…looks oddly familiar, if I'm being honest.

Ah! He's the generic Myrmidon from Awakening! Well, at least he's wearing the outfit of a generic male Myrmidon from Awakening.

Wait a moment! That means that this person is an enemy! I should be attacking him!

I think we realise this at the same time because the bandit's eyes widen suddenly just as I realise who this person is. His sword hand flicks out and he attempts to cut me in half at the chest with a wide swing. Thankfully, this attack is extremely telegraphed, so it gives me some time to actually respond. And what do I do?

I punch him in the face, of course!

Alright, to be completely fair, I did already start trying to punch him when I realised who he was, I just added some extra 'oomph' to the punch after I realised he was trying to bisect me.

Why did I decide to punch the man? Honestly, I don't know. My body moved before I realised I was moving it, almost by reflex, and I had already thrown the punch by the time I realised what I was doing.

Thankfully, the punch, by some miracle, works as intended.

My right hand flings out and slams into the bandit's right cheek hand enough for me to feel a sharp jolt of pain that shoots up my arm and nearly causes me to retract my hand and clutch it in pain. But whatever pain I'm feeling, my opponent must be feeling much, much more.

I hear a sickening cracking sound as my hand doesn't bounce off his skull, but instead keeps going further into his head. I'm pretty sure I've dislocated his jaw. The amount of bright red blood that comes out of his mouth seems to corroborate my theory, and I see a couple of ivory-yellow coloured specks come flying out alongside the sanguine fluid.

Yikes. That looks extremely painful. I didn't think about that, though.

Instead, I had a small internal crisis as I come to grips with the fact that I had just punched a guy's jaw off its hinge and that the force necessary to do so would make me on par with the best MMA fighters. I didn't know how much strength a 16 in Strength gave a character, but this was definitely not what I was expecting.

Then again, if 10 is your average dude…well, I suppose it makes sense…

The momentum of the punch causes the man to violently shift to the left, as per Newton's 3rd law. This also causes his sword, which was on the right side of my body, to also suddenly shift left. Straight into the side of my chest.

Thankfully, probably due to the pain of its wielder getting smacked with enough force to dislocate a jaw, the sword's edge alignment is all kinds of messed up. The sharp blade hits me at around a 50-degree angle instead of straight on its cutting edge, so most of the force of the blow is spent trying to push a blunt piece of metal through around five centimetres of leather instead of having the cutting edge tear me a new hole.

This still leaves me with a piece of thin metal slamming into my chest at a not-inconsiderable speed. I hear a scraping noise as the blade bounces on the metal studs of my armour, little sparks of gold and orange flinging out as iron scrapes against iron. At least, I think both things are made from iron. Don't know how good steel production is here in Ylisse, but considering my studs held out much better than his sword, I would assume his sword is of a lower metallic quality than my studs.

Then again, the Romans were able to create Wootz Steel by the 3 century BCE, so what's stopping the Ylisseans from doing the same? Price, probably.

The sword manages to gouge a hole through the side of what can be considered the chest plate, but then hits a stud and bounces off my armour, though it does nick my other side slightly, this time with the point. That cuts much more cleanly than the edge against my right side and managed to cut through my leader armour, the thin tunic underneath, and scratch my skin.

I wince as pain rockets up into my brain, though after the initial shock, the pain dies down significantly. Considering that there isn't much blood seeping out from the wound, I conclude that the wound isn't too deep, and can be figured out later. Plus, I've done more to my opponent than he's done to me, so why am I complaining?

The bandit stumbles to the right, but before he can recover his balance, I dash over and swing at him again, this time aiming for the left side of his face with my left hand.

Why his face again?

Because he's wearing thick clothes, I doubt that I can really hurt him if I strike at him at any other part of his body. And never, ever, strike someone in the skull, especially if you're you're not wearing any hand protection. Evolution (or any number of gods if you swing that way. I personally don't) has crafted the human skull into something that is extremely hard and difficult to break on the best of occasions, and punching it with your bare hand is just looking for Newton to mess your day up.

I'm not sure how it worked, again, but I hear a sickening crack as I send my fist from below into his left cheek. He's still staggered from my earlier hit, and it doesn't seem like this one helps his situation any. He's in so much pain that he doesn't even try to raise his sword. Instead, he tumbles to the ground and clutches his face in pain, crying out for someone to help. Since I've popped his jaw off its hinge, his words don't quite make sense. Seems like someone doesn't know what to do when a person starts fighting back.

However, I am unable to capitalize on my enemy's state, because that cracking noise wasn't from his end, but rather from my own fist. That's exactly what I wanted to avoid, damn it!

While my opponent is clutching his face in pain, I'm doing the same to my hand. I can feel something very wrong with one of the bones, and I'm not really in a state to respond. I don't think either of our adrenaline has kicked in yet, and I really want that dulling of pain effect that it gives.

"Shit!" I grimace in pain again as I touch what I assume is the broken bone and am rewarded with a sudden influx of nerves telling me off. "Oh, for fuck's sake, I was hoping not to break a bone here…"

I hear a clanking sound behind me as my robo-buddy and Lissa finally catch up to me.

"Hey, robo-buddy!" I call out and point to him with my non-broken hand. "Burn him, please!"

The robot stops and stares at me in confusion. He does this thing where he tilts his chassis to the side and stares at me with his singular crimson optical node.

"Burn him? Like, shoot your flamethrower at him?" I blink at him with increasing concern. "Fire your flamethrower, damn it!"

At this point, the bandit has started to get over his pain. Maybe his adrenal glands kicked in, and the pain is being dulled. I know my adrenal glands kicked in, I'm starting to sweat like a horse!

"Burn him! Fire, damn it!" I shout as the bandit finally gets back on his feet, cursing about something. Again, it's really hard to speak eloquently when your jaw's been dislocated. I don't really understand what he's saying. But he's gotten up, and he's currently beelining it towards me. "Fire at him, you idiot!"

The clicking and subsequent jet of flame are both relieving and alarming. The man is standing only a couple of metres from where I am, and he's completely covered with burning napalm. The heat of the blast washes over me, completely burning away the sweat in the pores of my skin.

Oh, the screaming. If the screaming from earlier when I punched him was enough to send shivers down my spine, this screaming makes me want to sit in a corner and tear out my ears. It's painful to watch the man burn to death. I…don't think I am even able to describe how he died. It's…agonizing, and worse of all, slow.

A small mercy, to me, at least, is that my robo-buddy doesn't stop firing until he's dead, and the sound of the napalm being shot out a high pressure is able to somewhat drown out the sound of the man's screams.

And yet still, I just stand there, as stoic as ever, looking on with little to no interest, the throbbing in my hand of more immediate concern to my mind.

What is wrong with me?

It doesn't take long for the scream to stop, and the bandit to be reduced to a grey, carbonized husk, burned and charred from the flames and left to rot in the summer sun. Not that it can do much rotting, what with most of the body's flesh turned to flaking ash. I shudder slightly. Not a good way to go…

Thankfully, the throbbing pain roars back into my mind, violently ripping me from the thoughts that I was having.

"Agh!" I go back to clutching my left hand.

"Terence? Are you alright?" Lissa runs up to me, her face full of worry.

"I think I broke a bone in my hand," I put my left hand up for her to see.

"Yikes. I think you're right. Hold on—Yeagh!" Lissa frown as she lifts her staff high and starts to heal me. A green glow enwraps my hand and—

AH! WHY DOES THAT HURT MORE THAN THE BONE BREAKING?

I feel the bone be forcefully shoved back into place, ripping through muscle and tissue, before those are similarly knitted together by force. It hurts. A lot. Oh my gods, it hurts.

It hurts enough for me to squat down and grip my left hand in pain. You know how when you're in pain you breathe air through your teeth and it kind of makes an 'slshhhhh' sound? Yeah, that was happening. Oh gods above, it hurt. Doesn't help that the adrenaline's worn off at this point and I'm feeling the pain like a spike in my brain.

"Terence! What happened?" Lissa suddenly grabs my shoulder just as the pain finally dissipates.

"You…could have set that without ripping through my muscles," I groan as I stand back up. "Gods, that hurt."

Lissa blinks at me before giggling slightly.

"Oh, you mean that was all from the healing spell? You must not have gotten hurt before," She smiles at me cheekily.

I was going to agree with her, but then I realise something quite profound. I have gotten hurt like this before. When out adventuring one time, I got smacked in the chest by a rather powerful Paladin's smite which smashed through both my armour and my ribcage. When Rufus healed that, it didn't hurt nearly as much.

And this was when I realise that those memories weren't mine, but rather Terentius's. Er—the character whose body I'm…borrowing? Because I do remember him getting smacked by a Paladin's smite…because I was sitting at the table when we were playing. I did something stupid and didn't measure things out correctly, and I managed to be just within the small area where the enemy boss could reach through our line of martials and not trigger any opportunity attacks. I was rewarded with around 30 or so points of damage.

Rufus is Albert's cleric character. He changed last second because he figured out how to convince Jonathan to let him play his Warforged Cleric of War. Saved Terentius's life, that did.

Now I'm a bit concerned about this body because that smite wasn't the only major traumatic injury that this body should have taken. Hell, that wasn't even the biggest chunk of damage that Terentius has taken! He's fallen off a cliff and broken both of his legs, shattered his pelvis, and taken over sixty points of damage.

Ah, shit. I shouldn't have mentioned that because now I'm getting flashbacks to that moment climbing that cliff from Terentius's perspective, and holy shit that's traumatizing.

"That's untrue," I respond to Lissa's jab with a scowl. "It's just that when Rufus heals a person, it doesn't feel like they're doing more harm than good."

"Well, maybe you should have let Rufus heal you instead," Lissa pouts at me while I shake off the last couple of painful memories. Was not expecting this to happen, that's for sure.

"Well, I'm not where Rufus even is anymore…" I sigh before staring off into the distance. If I got teleported into the body of my character and delivered to Ylisse, what happened to everyone else? Was I the only one for this to happen to? Or did Albert become Rufus too, and is currently running around some other universe?

And on a similar note, what happened to those who changed races? Because I chose a human, the only thing that's really strange to me is these weird memory things and my mind not doing what I expect it to do. But Albert's character is a warforged, and Flavia's is a centaur. Are…are they alright?

An awkward silence descends over us while I examine the wound at my side that did not get healed to distract myself from the mass of thoughts swirling in my head while Lissa looks down for some reason. My little Robo-buddy is making these groaning sounds for some reason, and I'm not sure what he needs.

Is it about the fact that he just spent his entire tank on one person and the automated reloading machine broke? Yeah, it probably is.

I roll my eyes before I walk over to my little robot buddy in order to inspect him. My hands move instinctively, unlatching a couple of hooks and opening the hatch to expose the interior workings of the rather large (Comparitively. He's still only slightly bigger than a Roomba). It doesn't take long to find, and replace, the rather small napalm tank in the fella. Honestly, I don't know why I'm carrying around multiple tanks of napalm in that massive backpack practically tied to my back, but I suppose this is the reason.

The automated reloading system has been fucked to hell. Damn you, Murphy! I'm going to need to replace an entire mechanical arm, and that is not something I can do out here without any materials or tools. Instead, I manually switch off the autoloader and replace the tank.

After securing the tank with a wrench and a screwdriver I found on the side of my backpack, I close the hatch with a loud 'clack' noise signalling the successful reloading of the flamethrower. Man, I need to automate that. The hatch nearly took one of my fingers off…

I stand back up and roll my shoulders to get some of the tension out of them. That took around…I'd say five minutes to change. Yeesh, automation it is. Can't stop every couple of moments in a battle to reload the bastard.

"Lissa? We're moving out," I gesture with my head to the street ahead of us. The sounds of combat haven't reached us yet, so Robin and the others haven't managed to encounter the enemy yet. I'm…pretty sure they heard what I was doing since that flamethrower is extremely loud.

Lissa's biting her lip quite hard for some reason.

"Lissa? Come on, you're scaring me a little," I sigh. "Come on, let's get to Chrom before he does something stupid, like charging ahead of his backline, again."

Lissa nods slightly and finally starts following me through the winding streets of Southtown. My Robo-buddy is stomping along happily. It seems that I also cleaned up the induction pipes while changing out the tank (I don't even know how. All instinct there), and he's finally 'not so gunked up'. Or at least, that's what I think he's trying to tell me. I might be going mad, talking with machines.

"Um…Terence?" Lissa finally speaks up after a moment of walking.

"Yes?"

"I'm…um, I'm sorry, that I brought up…Rufus. I…didn't mean…to stir up…any bad memories," Lissa sniffs.

I blink in confusion. Why's she talking about Albert's character? Is she…wait, when did I even bring up Rufus? During—

Oh! When I said that Rufus's Cure Wounds spell didn't hurt when you cast it on someone. I said that I didn't know where Rufus is now! That's what she is talking about! Damn, she misinterpreted that. I was spacing out because I got hit with the memory of Terence falling off a cliff, not anything happing to Rufus. Hell, I don't think Albert took any damage until like 3 hours in. By that point, Terentius had been knocked to 0 hit points twice.

"Nah, don't worry about it," I give her a smile. "It's been a while since I've parted ways with him. There's really nothing to it. In fact, the adventures I had with him and my other friends were probably some of the best times in my life."

"Then…why did you look so distant?" Lissa tilts her head when she asks that question.

"Talking about Rufus reminded me of the reasons that I needed to be healed," I sigh. "And those usually weren't very fun. Falling off a cliff, for example."

Lissa winces.

"That sounds…traumatizing," She comments.

"Yeah. Still dislike climbing, and it's been a while since that day," I nod my head.

At this point in time, my little machine grumbles mechanically and suddenly stops. Considering that he was in front of me, I knock my shin into his chassis. The shinguards take most of it, but it still hurts.

"Ow! What was that for!" I growl. "You just like doing whatever you want, yeah? Just rolling dice in that brain of yours, seeing whether or not it's going to screw me over? What are you, fucking Randy Random?"

I'll admit, getting another spike of pain caused me to be a bit irritated. I also may or may not have kicked him.

Mr Randy Random over here takes my kick well enough, standing stoically and staring down the street. It's only then that I take a look at what he's looking at. Hey…isn't that Rickten's hat—

Shit!

A flaming ball of fire races overhead as I duck, cursing all the way. Thankfully, I do so in Latin, and not…Ylissean, I guess? Well, whatever the linguistical separation between English and the language most commonly spoken in Ylisse is, I don't curse in a language that Lissa can understand.

A good thing, too, since I basically said 'eat a dick' in Latin, and I don't think Chrom would like me teaching Lissa how to curse.

Not a moment later, a second fireball slams into my robot's chassis, but he seems to be handling it well.

"Lissa, duck!" I command, and the princess quickly takes cover next to me, behind my Robot's chassis to hide from the spellcasters. "And you, fire already! I've reloaded your tank!"

Despite my instruction, Randy Random does not fire. Guess I failed whatever random roll was inside that fucking mind of his.

"Oh, futue te ipsi," I groan. "Just fire at whoever or whatever is shooting at us, Randy! You know exactly what I want you to do."

My luck seems to turn around, as Randy blesses me with something other than a solar flare—I mean he sends a jet of burning napalm at the mage who presumably was throwing fire at us. I hear someone scream out in the distance, and I grimace.

"Lissa, whatever you do, don't look," I instruct the young princess.

"Er, why?" She looks at me with a confused expression.

"Because the flamethrower is a wonderful weapon in theory only. The moment you pull the trigger and the flames start flying, the true horror of weaponized science rears its ugly head," I explain. "And I don't want you to see that until you're older."

"Hey, I'm old enough!"

"How old are you?"

"Fourteen!"

"Yeah, not even close," I roll my eyes.

"Then how old are you!" Lissa glares at me pointedly. "You can't be that much older than I am!"

"I'm twenty-six," I roll my eyes. Well, Terentius is 26, and he's seen a lot of shit in those years. I don't think those flashbacks really do how much trauma the poor man's been through. "I'm more than a full decade older than you, you know?"

Lissa falls silent, and I take that as a sign that she's conceded the point. Likewise, the screaming from the mage who got burning napalm all of them have also stopped. I decide to peek out from over my robot buddy's head to get a better look at my surroundings.

I am able to see another red-cloaked mage running through the streets, heading our way. Before I can respond to the new threat, however, something fast and hot slams into my skull right above my eyebrows. Oh man, that hurts. Not as much as breaking a bone, mind you, but it smarts real good. Weirdly enough, instead of going through my head as I expected and damaging my brain, the heat goes around my skull and exits through the back of my head, leaving my head cold and causing me to shiver as the head is sucked through the back of my head.

Well, that answers one question. It's that mage. The one with thunder.

I duck down again, clutching my forehead and muttering some…culturally inappropriate words in Latin.

"Robot, get the bastard! Fire already!" I roar as I rub the spot where the thunder spell hit my forehead. I'm genuinely confused how that didn't knock me out.

Also, Randy doesn't bless me with action again. What's going to happen next, a swarm of two hundred man-eating hamsters are going to show up?

"Are you alright, Terence?" Lissa asks again.

"Got hit in the head with a thunder spell," I grumble. "And Randy over here isn't listening to what I'm trying to get him to do."

Lissa giggles a little bit while the robot complains with a mechanical groan about not getting correct firing instructions. Well, what am I supposed to do? I'm telling you to get the only enemy in the entire vicinity, and you don't know who I'm talking about?

"Need me to heal that?" Lissa smiles at me.

"Yes please…" I grit my teeth and wait for the pain to come once more.

The green light dances around my head for a moment, and then a searing heat fills all my senses as the burning damage is forcibly repaired, the burnt tissue being knitted together with a sharp magical needle.

I grit my teeth as the pain passes. Right, back to the battle.

This time around, I smack Randy in the back of his chassis before peeking my head out enough to see the enemy mage and point at him.

"See him? Get'm!" I order.

This time, Randy blesses me with a burst of hot burning napalm aimed at the correct person.

Ah, screaming. I don't think I can ever get used to you.

"Well, that's him taken care of," I mutter under my breath as I finally emerge from behind Randy's chassis, and Lissa soon follows suit.

"Well? What do we do now?" Lissa frowns as she looks around. I made sure that the man fully burned to death before standing up, and Lissa isn't able to see the burnt corpse that Randy's flamethrower left behind.

Huh. I'm getting really used to calling him Randy. Randy Random, the Robotic Rapscallion? Hmmm…I really like that name. I'll run it by the others later.

"Let's see if we can find your brother and Robin," I sigh. "I doubt we can achieve our original goal at this point, and if we're having a rough time, I want to make sure that Chrom and Robin are having a better time."

Lissa nods her head in agreement, but once again, my bad luck strikes again.

Gods damn it! Why?

"I've found you!" The half-naked Garrick roars as he bashes through a pile of crates and into our path, axe at the ready.

"Randy, directly forward, fire!" I snap at the robot right in front of me, and he complies with a small burst of flame.

But instead of just standing there as everyone else had, Garrick has the bright idea to move away from the jet of flame and dodges it. Randy turns his chassis in order to follow up, but the jet of flame sputters and dies out moments before the napalm could land on Garrick's skin and mess up his day.

"Ghahahah! I've got you now!" Garrick pulls a hand axe from his belt and chucks it at us. It spins as it flies, bounces off Randy's chassis with a loud 'clang' and smacks me, handle first, in the shoulder. It doesn't hurt at all and just serves to annoy me. I glare at Garrick as the axe as it clatters uselessly to the ground.

Though, I'm more worried about why the fire stopped. It could be for a number of reasons: Randy can't fire and aim and needs to readjust his aim before firing, fouling could have caused the pipes to become clogged, or he could have run out of napalm.

Unfortunately, the whirling sound coming from the Eldritch Cannon informs me of my worst fears: Randy's run out of napalm to shoot at the enemy.

Which means we're now defenceless.

Crap.

Wait a moment! I'm an artificer! I might only be a ⅓ spellcaster, but I'm still a spellcaster. I've got some spells, but how do I cast them? If I remember correctly…

I take the screwdriver from the side of my backpack and point it at Garrick.

"Gwahahah! What do you think you're going to be able to do with that stick?" The bandit leader in question laughs at me and prepares his axe to throw again.

Now, while I'm a couple of levels away from Fireball, I do have a spell that can make up for it. It's called Scorching Ray. Why am I using that? Because it's the only offensive spell that I get as an Artificer as 2nd level spell that isn't shatter, damn it!

I feel the screwdriver shudder as arcane runes flare up onto its metal head, glowing in an angry orange, as the mundane object is suddenly turned into a very potent weapon. Well, I don't think it was a mundane object to begin with because the screwdriver suddenly opens up like something out of a sci-fi show and turns the screwdriver head into a cannon-like apparatus. It's very doctor-who-like. Also, nice, an All-Purpose Tool. That's going to come in handy later on.

The tool heats up to almost an uncomfortable temperature before three beams of orange flame shoot out of the screwdriver-turned-flamethrower and fly furiously towards Garrick. Fortunately for me, he doesn't seem to realize that I can cast spells.

Unfortunately, I didn't realise that he had already thrown his axe until after I had cast the spell.

So while I see the first beam of flame smack into his chest and scorch a ring of blacked skin onto his body, the only see I can see after that is a hand axe headed straight for my face.

"Terence!" I can hear Lissa behind me screaming out my name before everything goes black.

Well, fuck.

---

"Hey, Terentius? You alright?"

Rufus stands over a prone Terentius. While his marble mask cannot show any expression, the Warforged's voice is dripping in concern. The cleric presses his metallic hand to the man's neck, the glowing ultramarine orbs that fill in for Rufus's eyes narrowing as he focuses on finding the pulse of the golden-haired man.

When he does, Rufus sighs a deep breath, and seemingly years of stress flow out of his body. Pressing a hand to Terentius's chest, Rufus mutters something under his breath.

"Oh gods above, hear my call. I have served you all willingly and dutifully. I beseech you, those above, aid this man, my companion, and a dear friend, in his time of need," Rufus chants as glowing green letters of scripture and runes start to circle around him, creating a cloud of green that hides the massive body of the ancient warrior.

At once, Terentius's body glows with that same green light that surrounds Rufus.

"Is he going to be alright?" A tall, white-haired centaur walks up to Rufus. She's clad head to hoof in a pulsating black plate, and a giant greatsword is in her right hand, the blade still dripping with blood. "That was a really bad fall. I would not be surprise if he does not make it."

"He'll make it. Thanks the gods, he'll make it," Rufus sighs. "I would have been devastated if I finally get to meet my friend again, and he dies right in front of me."

"A friend, huh…" The centaur sighs before turning away. "Unusual…"

"You wound me, Augusta," Rufus folds his steel-plated wooden arms across his chest. "I have friends outside of you."

"That's surprising. You're not the most…approachable," Augusta scowls. "I thought you were just a little boy that Konstantine found and didn't grow up."

"Would you like to be the pot or kettle in this situation?" If he had any, Rufus would be raising his eyebrows. "Because the last time I checked, you're nearly forty and still haven't scored. I have an excuse that I'm a machine. You…don't."

Augusta hisses something and raises her greatsword. Rufus responds by conjuring a greatsword made from pulsing blue-green energy and swinging his 'scuta', a type of kite shield, forward.

"Come on! It hasn't even been ten minutes and we're already at each other's throats!" Suddenly, a male voice cuts through the valley and a man clad in shining plate armour approaches the pair. His face is hidden by a helm styled in the style of the Crusaders, but long brown hair flows down from behind his head to around his shoulders.

Rufus and Augusta both pause their staring contest and turn around to face the newcomer. Rufus sighs while Augusta just looks confused.

"Jugen? You're here too?" Rufus asks in his deep yet soothing mechanical voice. "Colour me surprised on so many levels."

"Hey, I've been bored lately, so I might as well come along for the ride," Jugen chuckles, removing his helm to reveal a young half-elf face, his eyes a glowing amber. "Plus, I get to make more friends!"

"Half-breed," Augusta frowns. "Where is your shadow?"

Jugen blinks in surprise and confusion, before pointing at his feet.

"Right here? I don't see where my shadow could have gone anywhere else?" He stares at the tall female centaur with confusion written on his face.

"I think he means Amette," Rufus supplies. "When you're around, she's not too far."

"Eh, I don't know where she is. It's not like I want her to keep following me around," Jugen sighs. "I'm trying to get her to stop being so attached to me, but I don't think it's working."

"It's not working," Another different, more wispy voice cuts through the darkening gloom. "I've seen her prowling around these parts. It is…most unsettling."

This time around, Rufus and Augusta's reactions are switched. Augusta seems more welcoming, while Rufus's eyes narrow at the sound of the newcomer's voice.

"That'll be Signus," Rufus sighs. "Why am I not surprised? Wherever Augusta is, you are sure to follow. Why the two of you haven't gotten a room and sorted out all the romantic tension between the two of you I have no idea."

"I am not in love with him!" Augusta roars.

"See, I didn't even say the word love, and you immediately jumped to that conclusion!" Rufus points out.

"Alright!" Jugen raises his voice, causing both Rufus and Augusta to jump slightly. Well, in the case of the female centaur, to shudder slightly. Horses cannot jump, and neither can centaurs. "Stop poking fun at her, Rufus. She's going to run you through with a sword."

"Alright, alright…" Rufus sighs, scratching the back of his head in a weirdly human-like way. "She's still a right muppet, though."

"Still…" Signus's wispy voice causes Rufus to look in the direction that the voice is coming from and spots the robe-wearing air genasi. "You should not be talking to her in such a way. It is unbecoming of a man to do so."

"Technically not a male," Rufus scowls, even if one cannot tell from the marble mask.

"Right…" Jugen shakes his head. "Let's talk about something else, shall we? Who's that lying on the ground?"

"Him? Well, this is—" Just as Rufus starts to introduce Terentius, the man in question groans and opens his golden eyes. He blinks in confusion, looking around him, before he sits up, brushing a stray strand of hair out of his eyes.

"Speak of the devil! He's awake," Jugen smiles brightly. "Why don't you introduce yourself, young man?"

"Er…what's going on?" Terentius quietly asks Rufus, the only person he knows here.

"Just go along with Jugen," Rufus whispers back. "I'll explain later."

"Al…right then. My name is Terentius Aquilius Aurelius, former Magister Tormentorum of Legio VI. Honourably discharged from service after the disbandment of the legion," Terentius slowly stand up and stretches his back. "And why am I so sore?"

"You fell off of that there cliff," Rufus points behind the golden-haired man, causing Terentius to shudder at the memory.

"Right…I was climbing down the cliff since that's where Konstantine wanted me to go…I guess I slipped," Terentius sighs. "Right, so are you guys the people that Konstantine said for me to meet?"

"If the Konstantine we're talking about is that mysterious Eladrin bladesinger, then yes," Jugen chuckles. After a moment, he begins to introduce himself. "Jugen von der Wessen, formerly of the Holy Order of the Church of Saint Christophe and the Holy Spirit. Well met."

"Well, since we're doing this," Augusta groans. "Augusta de'll Ronpancho, free blade. I go wherever someone pays me to go."

"Signus…Monk of the Brotherhood of the Mind's Eye…" The wispy Genasi nods his head.

"Well, even if all of you already know me, I might as well go," Rufus chuckles. "RU-1771-F-TLD, but you all know me as Rufus. Formerly a part of the Holy Order of Saint Jonathan of Cordoba. I know I don't have hair at all, never mind red hair, but I like that name."

"And we're just missing Amette, but she's really shy, so I'll fill in for her," Jugen nods his head. "Once in a while, you might see a shy black Tabaxi named Amette de la Estrella. She was a feral Tabaxi that our Order raised as our own, even if she can be a…bit hard to work with."

"Yeah, I think I know that type," Terentius shakes his head with a smile. "Well, I look forward to working with you all."

"Even me?" Augusta raises an eyebrow.

"Yes, even you, Centaurus. I've worked with Hyperboreans and Satyrs, why do you think I would feel any different working with a Centaur?" Terentius asks her questioningly.

"The fact that you compared me to a Satyrs makes me unhappy," The Centaur snorts. "But I'll let it slide this once."

"Understood. No comparing Centaurs to Satyrs," Terentius nods his head.

"Alright then!" Jugen cheerfully smiles. "Let's get to adventuring! Konstantine is going to work us to the bone, so the sooner we start, the faster we can finish, and the faster we go home!"

---

When I wake up, the first thing I notice is Lissa and Robin's faces looking down on me. Both have concern carved into their facial features. Lissa is looking at me with tears in her eyes, while Robin is slightly shaking my shoulder.

The second thing I realise is the amount of pain pouring through my shoulder and flowing into my brain. Holy shit!

"Argh!" I suddenly clasp my hand to my shoulder, expecting to find at least a decently sized wound, only to find nothing there except a rather large hole in my armour. "What in…the hell?"

"Oh good…you're awake…" Robin sighs, exhaustion seeping out of every fibre of her being.

"You're alive!" Lissa yells in my ear (Ow!) "I thought you had…augh!"

The princess dives onto my shoulder and clutches it enough to get a wince of pain from me.

"Er…can anyone tell me what happened?" I ask nobody in particular. Thankfully, Chrom dignifies me with a response.

"Lissa pushed you out of the way of an axe that Garrick threw," He explains. "But she did so a bit too hard and in the wrong direction, so you not only got hit with the axe but also slammed into…what did Lissa say you called the thing again…Randy? Yeah, Randy. You hit your head on Randy and were knocked unconscious."

"Son of a…biscuit…" I catch myself as Robin raises an eyebrow at my profanity. "Did we get the dastard? I saw one of my Scorching Rays hit him on the chest, but I'm not sure if the others landed, and even if they did, I certainly didn't see him go down."

"Don't worry about that…" That's Frederick's voice. "Robin managed to get him after you hit him with your spell. I must say, I have never seen that spell before. It is…stronger than the basic fire spell, yet not as strong as Elfire. Combined together, however, they do as much damage as an Elfire."

"It's called scorching ray," I sigh as I manage to sit up. Lissa's still clinging to my left shoulder, and that complicates things slightly. "But all's well that ends well, right?"

"I…suppose," Chrom smiles.

I take this time to extract Lissa from my shoulder (Harder than you think. This girl has some insane grip strength!) and stand up.

"We should get going. If Frederick's back, then all the bandits should be dispatched, right?"

Everyone nods.

"Great," I grin. "Let's get outta here before the sun goes down. Don't want to get buried with gratitude from the villagers."

This gets a chuckle out of Frederick and Chrom, but Lissa just pouts.

"Yeah, we should," Chrom nods his head. "And also, Farseer?"

It takes me a moment to realise that Chrom is talking to me while we start walking to get ourselves outside the city, but when I do, I turn around to look at him.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you," The Prince smiles. "Thank you…for everything."

I blink in surprise. That…was not what I was expecting at all.

---

AN: Hello there! Acardia here!

Uh...that was...over 19 thousand words...did I write too much? If I did, please tell me, I'll cut up the next couple of chapters because I decided that writing was fun and wrote...a lot. This is the usual length of chapters in this fic, so please tell me and quickly; I have a lot of work to do if you guys decide that it's too long.

Anyhow, 10 reviews already? Thanks everyone!

On to the reviews!

Louie Yang: Hello again. Glad to see you here. Man, you must read everything, huh? The problem isn't that he said Lissa's name, it's that he said Robin's name...

Scholasticknyght: Who's Chris? Anyway, same problem as before. Terence did an oopsie and said Robin's name. Don't know if you caught it there at the end or not.

Guest: You'd think so, but have you seen the armour that FE people wear? Like just look at Kellam! That man's wearing a suit of armour heavier than FT-17 Tank armour! And he's probably faster! Honestly, this flamethrower robot buddy is more like a portable Elfire turret. Technology isn't changing all too much.

Freekillm249: Thanks! I hope you continue to enjoy this fic and continue to review it. As for the children being dorks...well, they're still children and I believe most children are considered dorky. But, they still have survived through the literal apocalypse, so give them some credit. They'll be serious and strong when necessary, but funny and dorky otherwise.

That's all for this week! Acardia out!

(Also do any of you know a fix for Author's Block? WCLS is being a pain in the ass to write.)