About a month after Shez scarred Nemesis...
"Damn. Another town burned, and we're too late," Caspar said. This was the third one, and once again, they hadn't found any survivors.
They were hunting another of the Order of Iron's commanders, Cenk Deniz. He was an Almyran man who had built up a following among bandits and had relentlessly been a pain in the Kingdom of Liberation's side. He had more or less joined the Order of Iron because they would give him money and power to do what he was already doing: razing towns to the ground and stoning people to death.
"Wow, those Iron bastards really like their attack dogs, don't they?" Raphael asked, examining a body that had been mauled by dogs.
"It doesn't take as long to train a war dog as it does to train a soldier," Hapi said. "You don't have to pay as much for upkeep and equipment either, and they don't need wages. It's a smart investment."
Raphael shrugged. "Makes sense."
Yuri, meanwhile, was looking at a map, having placed a pin at the location of every town Deniz had burned recently. "The Order of Iron has been predicting all of our movements recently."
"You think one of Riegan's spies has been informing them of our movements?" asked the lieutenant who had been sent with them, Paul Newport. He had been one of the five Kingdom of Liberation soldiers the Company had saved in Westmont, the day they had met Riegan.
"I'd be surprised if he didn't," Claude said. "You, Hana, Liliana, Thomas, and Andreas are the only people we can be fairly certain aren't the spy aside from Bergliez and Aubin, so we'd like for you to try and see if you can find some information for us to work off of."
Paul nodded. "Will do. In the meantime, where do you think they'll strike next?"
"Here," Ashe pointed to a specific town on the map. "Clarkton. It's out in the open, not as easily defended as Horsedale or Grahamsford."
"Makes sense," Claude agreed. "It is past one of Maurice's military checkpoints, though. They'd have to waste time going around, otherwise they get tied up in an actual battle." He drew a curved line for the path Deniz would have to take. "We could get there before them. But if we do have a spy, they'll know we'll be waiting for them there and switch to an easier target."
"I have an idea," Hana said. "Andreas knows the Agarthan spy cipher. He could send a message to the Kingdom of Liberation, spin a story saying his going renegade was a secret infiltration mission, that he didn't get the ideal post, but he has information for them anyway. Deniz has caused them enough trouble that they'll send troops to set a trap for him. We'll let Deniz and Nemesis's men kill each other, then swoop in to clean up the mess."
"I like it," Claude agreed. "Let's make it happen."
"Looks like two big fish bit our hook," Ashe said. "Deniz's men are currently fighting Agnes von Daphnel and her forces in Clarkton." Agnes von Daphnel was Phoebus von Daphnel's second daughter, and by all accounts she was almost as strong as he was in combat. So much so, in fact, that the Agarthans had crafted a dragonbone sword for her, which they had named Orna.
The rumors said that Agnes von Daphnel was being considered for a position among the Elites. But it seemed she would never get the chance now.
Ingrid's pegasus flew over the battle, lightning striking down Iron Order and Kingdom of Liberation soldiers alike. She held back, though; she wasn't there for them, and she could see her true targets. She gathered a powerful blast of lightning, hoping to fry Agnes and Deniz with one strike and end the battle right there.
Instead, they both perfectly warded Urbosa's Fury, as if it was little more than an annoyance. Agnes's eyes flickered between Ingrid and Deniz, but Deniz simply snarled and went back to trying to beat Agnes to death.
Here, Ingrid's ego led her to make a mistake. She should have let Agnes and Deniz keep trying to kill each other and finish off the survivor. But she wanted her moment of glory, a battle she could build her reputation on. So she swooped down to try to cut down Deniz in hopes of taking on Agnes in single combat.
But Deniz was a more skilled fighter than she realized. As she was swooping down, Deniz leaned back and jumped backward, breaking her pegasus's neck with a punch. This wouldn't have been as impressive as doing the same with a horse; pegasi had brittle bones, but it was still a feat of great strength.
Her pegasus crashed into the ground, pinning her underneath it. But then Agnes and Deniz both paused and didn't try to finish her off. She quickly realized why: if either of them tried to kill her, they'd be leaving themselves open to attack from the other. Ingrid didn't know how long that zugzwang went on as she struggled to pry herself free, but before long, a Kingdom of Liberation mortal savant moved to finish her off. She used the last of Urbosa's Fury to try to kill her, but while she could see it hurt her, she warded well enough that it didn't kill her.
But before the mortal savant could finish Ingrid off, Raphael ran up and defended her...with lethal force.
(That was a really clumsy line, Ingrid.)
(Bite me, Bernie, I couldn't think of a better line that made it clear that Raphael cracked the mortal savant's skull and not mine.)
(We could probably guess that he cracked the mortal savant's skull, given that you're still alive.)
(Shut up.)
As Ingrid was saying, she pulled herself free from the dead pegasus, and Agnes and Deniz realized they were dealing with two very dangerous opponents rather than just one. "A truce until these two are dead?" Agnes offered Deniz.
"Tch," Deniz sneered. "Fine." He then charged Raphael, and they started exchanging punches.
As it happened, Deniz was quickly able to put Raphael on the defensive. Not that Ingrid was able to pay much attention, given that Agnes had her on the defensive as well. Even with Ingrid's experience from Hyrule, Agnes was as skilled as her, on top of being physically stronger and having a better weapon. No offense to her Gerudo-made sword, but it was no Relic. That much was proven when a particularly strong blow broke her sword in half and tore into her shoulder.
She quickly went to block the next blow with her shield, but as it turned out, it wasn't aimed at her, but rather Raphael's left gauntlet, as it broke through the plating and drew blood. Ingrid didn't know if she couldn't quite break through the glove to cripple his hand, or if she could and chose not to.
As she received more wounds, Ingrid realized she had to do something, quick. With her shortened sword, she changed her stance to the Gerudo swordfighting stance Urbosa had taught her. Using what was left of Urbosa's Fury, she channeled lightning into her sword.
Agnes accepted her challenge, swinging Orna from Ingrid's right, trying to force her to parry with her broken sword. Instead, Ingrid quickly spun, catching the blow on her shield, then completing the full turn by slashing through Agnes's chest.
And though Agnes stumbled back, amazingly, that wasn't enough to put her down. She righted herself and thrust with all of her strength and Orna's power at Ingrid's chest. With no time to dodge, Ingrid quickly tried to use her shield to deflect its point. She managed to partially deflect it, but she could still feel it pierce her waist.
But Agnes's momentum worked against her, because as she buried Orna up to its hilt in Ingrid's body, she brought herself close enough for Ingrid to slash open her throat, finally killing her.
She could see Yuri and Hapi quickly running to her. She wasn't quite sure what they were shouting, but she tried to reassure them. "I'm fine, it's just a flesh wound!"
That was the last thing she heard herself say before she blacked out.
When Ingrid woke up, she was in a medical tent, with her friends anxiously watching over her. "Oh, thank the gods," Hapi said, having to visibly restrain herself from sighing with relief.
"You scared us," Ashe said. "We thought you were going to die. If Hapi and Yuri weren't as good healers as they are, you would have died."
"I'm not so easy to kill," Ingrid assured him weakly. "Deniz?"
"Dead," Raphael assured her. "He was using some kind of combat drug to fight Agnes. When you killed her, he got scared and gave himself another dose, but I guess it was too much, because his eyes and nose started bleeding, and he keeled over. On an aside, that trick you did, with the spin parry and letting her stab you so you could finish her off, that was awesome!"
"It wasn't awesome!" Bernie protested. "She almost died!"
"But I didn't," Ingrid said. "I'm alive, and Agnes is dead."
"Yeah, well, you don't get to gloat about it until your injuries are fully healed," Claude insisted. "And you're off duty for the next month." He looked around and said, "We told everyone you got a weak Crest of Daphnel from Agnes's blood. Once you recover, you're going to be using Orna in place of your sword."
"What?" the other members of the Company present all asked.
"But I can't!" Ingrid protested. "It's..."
"I know," Claude cut her off. "But if there's a chance we're going up against Majora, we need every advantage we can get. Even if it means using a Relic weapon. Even that probably only gives us a snowball's chance in Ailell."
Everyone went silent at that, knowing he was right.
