In case anyone is interested, I'm going to leave a ranking of the Rising Sun Company's combat power relative to each other in the present (current-day Fódlan segments). Keep in mind that strength is relative; even the weakest members of the Company are stronger than almost everyone in Fódlan and even most of the people in Hyrule.

Situational: Zelda

1. Link

2. Shez

3. Mercedes

4. Hubert

5. Flayn

6. Linkle

7. Constance

8. Ingrid

9. Caspar

10. Annette

11. Edelgard

12. Dimitri

13. Lysithea

14. Cyril

15: Claude

16. Marianne

17. Yuri

18. Hapi

19. Linhardt

20. Felix

21. Kronya

22. Dedue

23. Balthus

24. Bernadetta

25. Sylvain

26. Lorenz

27. Ferdinand

28. Hilda

29. Dorothea

30. Petra

31. Raphael

32. Leonie

33. Ashe

34. Ignatz


It turned out the damage to Shez's arm had been worse than could be treated on the field, and he had to be taken to the infirmary after the battle, and now his friends, aside from Lysithea and Zelda, who were busy helping the medics, were all waiting anxiously outside of the infirmary tent.

Not the main infirmary tent; that one was on the other side of the camp. Instead, Shez was being treated at the smaller infirmary tent designated for the Nabateans' use. The soldiers in camp were all aware that Nabatean biology was different from human, and the Saints all needed to be treated by a specific doctor, as he was the only one properly trained for it. This probably would have rankled with the soldiers more if not for the fact that most of the time, Doctor Krieger was right there treating the other injured with the rest of the war camp's doctors, only leaving his regular post at the main medical tent if one of the Saints was injured, or if one of the soldiers needed more specialized care than could be provided by the other medics and the other doctors capable of providing it were unavailable. As it was, though, most didn't especially begrudge the Saints this luxury, though it might have been mostly because they didn't tend to appreciate Doctor Krieger's bedside manner and thought the Saints were welcome to him.

Eventually, Doctor Krieger opened the door to the tent. "I don't suppose you're all waiting to discourage your friend's abject lack of self-preservation instincts, or failing that, encourage a change of lifestyle for him to something more agreeable to sapient holy swords?"

"'Fraid not, Doc," Cyril said.

The doctor sighed. "I didn't think so. I suppose you might as well come in anyway." He opened the door to let them in.

"You don't exactly have a strong position to cast judgment from," Indech said from one of the four cots, two of which were empty. "Shez's actions today were the single greatest blow to Nemesis's war effort since the fracturing of the Fourteen Elites."

"True," the doctor admitted. "But that doesn't change the fact that his hand recieved fourth-degree burns in the process. The fact that he has a superhuman healing factor is the only reason I didn't have to amputate the hand at the wrist. Even with that, he's going to have to get used to the way his hand looks without fingernails. And I guarantee this won't cause him to be even the slightest bit more cautious in the future."

"Sometimes the right path is a painful one," Indech countered.

"You would know," Krieger said. "I suppose when you're lying on an operating table, getting surgery done on you while fully conscious because anesthetics and painkillers don't work on you, the comfort of knowing you did the right thing is just about all you have."

"Not this time!" Indech grinned. "This time, I have the comfort of knowing that Nemesis is currently in far worse pain than I am, that anesthetics and painkillers don't work on him either, and he does not have the comfort of knowing he did the right thing. Thinking of him in excruciating pain makes this wound feel positively pleasant."

"Ah, spite. The oldest of painkillers," Krieger said with a sigh.

"Wait, painkillers don't work on you?" Hilda asked.

"Not at all," Indech said. "Poisons either don't work or don't work very well on us. There are a few exceptions, but painkillers are not among them. It was Mother's way of keeping us humble, keeping us from thinking we could lord our power over others without good cause. Our bodies are highly resistant to death, but not pain."

"What if you get hurt on accident?" Hilda asked.

"We learn not to engage in reckless behaviors," Indech said. "And we build up our pain tolerance."

"Trust me, that idiot needs the enforced humility," Krieger said. "Personally, I think the prospect of having to watch my organs get stitched back together is reason to invest in strong armor and fight from a distance."

"But you can't look like a badass like that!" Shez weighed in from another bed on the opposite side of the tent. His friends immediately dashed over to him, surrounding the bed.

After the obligatory 'how are you's and 'could be better, but you should see the other guy,' Edelgard asked, "Did you know he would pick up the Master Sword if he survived?"

"I guessed he would," Shez said. "He pretends Epimenides is a god and he's his chosen hero, right? So, getting scarred by a holy sword in front of his men wouldn't look good for him. So he had to pick it up to make it look like the gods favor him and not us. He probably figured he was strong enough to use it once, then probably put it somewhere as a trophy. But he was wrong."

"Ingenious," Hubert commended. "You and the Master Sword struck a dual blow to his body and reputation that he'll never recover from."

"It wasn't as much as I wanted," Shez said. "Even with the Master Sword, I couldn't even knock him down. I need to get stronger."

"You did just fine," Link assured him. "But if you want to get stronger, that's a good thing."

"Then as soon as I'm fully recovered, we're sparring 'til we're too exhausted to move," Shez insisted.