Chapter 116: Battle of the Eagle and Lion (II)

Steel clashed with a shriek, her arm held firm as she pushed back and sent the attacker reeling from her. A sidestep avoided the next, she swung her elbow up and very narrowly missed striking their temple. A quick fall back on their part, but it left them open to the kick in the gut.

Ferdinand was sent skidding across the dirt away from her, she swiftly turned back and blocked the next spear thrust from the gatekeeper. Stepping back as he drew back and launched another.

Each thrust came at quicker and quicker intervals, yet she remained unfazed at the speed.

For as fast as he was, she was still faster and she could see the way his arms were wavering ever so slightly with the blows. A small movement here and there, raising the sword perhaps an inch in either direction was more than enough to direct the blows away from her person.

Pulling back, he spun and swung at her leg.

She lifted it just before impact, the spear clipped through the grass and touched nothing.

Another swing from the other side, she raised her forearm and moved close, the head of the spear resting just past her shoulder as her wrist caught the shaft. Neither moved for a few moments, she reversed her sword and swung the pommel towards his chest, striking like a hammer.

He stumbled and gasped, stopping himself from clutching the point where she hit him.

The footfalls of Ferdinand announced his arrival once more, she stepped back and held out a leg, tripping him up and sending him falling past her onto the ground. Sparing him not even a glance. Raising her sword and slashing down, cleaving through the spell flying towards her from whom she assumed was Hubert, not that she was looking towards him.

A small step launched her into the air and above the knight, her sword held aloft as she swung down, dropping to the earth and smashing into the guard of the gatekeeper. He blocked with both hands on the spear, gritting his teeth as he managed to stay upright.

So she was a little curious as to how far he could go.

Thus she pushed forwards, drawing her sword back and attacking with slower intervals than she could truly manage, but still enough to keep the pressure on him.

He reacted well enough, using the full reach of the spear to keep her at more than an arm's length, she stepped just out of range once or twice to avoid it completely and he was able to withdraw it before she could press the advantage.

But she was pressed for time.

Her leg came above her head and then dropped down like an axe.

The spear which had been hoisted up to defend against it shattered into splinters, leaving both halves held dumbly in the hands of the owner.

She stepped forwards, her knee drove itself hard into his gut and folded him over, lifting him off the ground before he slumped face first into the dirt.

Her eyes looked over him for a moment.

Byleth wasn't sure what she should have expected from them, but perhaps she had been a little overly cautious when it came to fighting them. At the very least, they had managed to last at least fifteen seconds against her before she defeated them.

So she could not hold that against them.

Her head came up, she stepped over the body and swung out, deflecting the spell over her head and somewhere into the distance, another skip launched her forwards, the next spell flung itself past her right.

Back and forth she jumped as she closed in on the pair in front of her.

Ferdinand rushed to meet her, she batted the falling sword aside and drove her fist into his ribs, he wheezed and stumbled backwards, she closed the distance, looping her leg around the back of his and driving an elbow into his chest, tripping him over her and knocking him down to the ground.

Her heel stamped down onto him as he walked over, barely paying heed to the grunt of pain as her sword rose once more.

The fireball shattered over her sword, flames washed over her front as she swung out, batting them aside and clearing her vision. Eyes narrowed upon Hubert as she saw the flicker of purple.

Her one hand came up, a spell of her own formed between her fingers and sprung out from her palm.

It clashed with the miasma launched from the boy, she charged the second the two collided and burst through the cloud. He was quite smart, having thrown himself to the side in preparation for her. Yet that did not mean he was granted much in the way of freedom to do as he wished.

She was still faster than he was.

Barely able to turn and face her before her knuckles found his cheek, the backhand pivoted his entire body away from her as he was sent scrambling for his balance. Swiftly followed by a kick behind the knee which dropped him to the floor.

Her free hand darted out and gripped his collar, yanking him back and flipping him over the top of her body, slamming him roughly into the soil and earning a wheeze from him. All the air being driven from his lungs and leaving him gasping, he rolled and coiled himself up into a ball, she stared down at him for a brief moment before looking back up.

Still others left to fight.

She turned-

A dull pain swept through the side of her head, the flash of movement had her duck as a whistle passed over her head, she stepped back and swung her eyes to the movement. Taking stock of the gatekeeper as he launched himself towards her as a dual wielder now.

Holding both ends of his spear in his hands, thrusting with the head towards her.

She batted it aside, he swung the club end towards her she ducked under and leaned back when he moved again from the other side. Ducking and weaving as he chased her down, swinging back and forth.

Raising her leg, she pivoted her body as he rushed past her, swinging for her shin and scrambling around, breathing heavily as he raised both halves of his weapon up once more.

He launched forwards, reversing the spear head and stabbing downwards, a swift swing of her sword knocked it aside, he thrust the other for her gut. Her free hand caught it just before it could reach her, yanking forwards and tearing it away from his grasp. Twirling it between her fingers, she rammed it upwards right into his chin with a sharp crack.

The man fell backwards with a hiss of pain, she advanced as he swung his head down, once more swinging for her.

She leaned to the side, the weapon passed inches from her face.

Her hand flew out, placing her knuckles flat against his breastplate and shoving him away from her, stumbling over his own feet and nearly dropping to the floor.

"Stop bullying him."

It was less of a request and more of a demand from Sothis, Byleth supposed she could see why the Goddess thought as much.

Byleth launched herself forwards, a thrust towards her chest was caught between the weapons in her grasp, twisting and pulling to the side, robbing him of his lone means of defending himself.

Though she would not put it past him to attempt a punch.

She swung the shaft of the spear into the side of his helmet with an echoing clang, he dropped down like a puppet without strings a moment later, slumping into the dirt and laying unmoving.

A single satisfied nod of the head was all she gave.

He wasn't terrible.

It was perhaps a dozen distant noises, no louder than applause and no less vigorous.

Yet the nature of them had him turn his head about to stare into the distance, squinting over the rows of heads, finding that he alone was not the only one to have heard the sound, excluding the notion it had been some manner of hallucination.

Even with the distance, his eyesight was not so poor that he failed to see the flashes of light in the distance, the bright points of light burning along the ground. If they were luminescent enough for him to see at this range, then he could hypothesise how powerful they would have been at a closer distance.

And how damaging they would have been for anyone standing near them.

"Some manner of light burst." He explained, the unasked question from Edelgard as to why he had stopped. Then he turned his head towards her, meeting her gaze and frowning lightly. "It is not a spell I am familiar with in the traditional Fodlan guide of magic. I can only assume that…hmmm…"

Goetia spared the reaction another glance.

Then he straightened as he understood what it was.

"Mercedes has made use of the failed reaction. That is her doing."

"How dangerous?"

"The damage is would be limited to ones eyes unless it landed upon them." He dismissed, turning back around and resuming the march up the sharp incline of the hill, already they were closing in on the row of trees that separated them from the golden deer, and the exposed field that would let them move around the woodlands.

Another pause, then he continued.

"They could be countered by turning away the moment they are spotted or closing your eyes. Failure to do so would be akin to staring directly into the sun. Temporarily debilitating but there is no risk of permanent blindness…For a distraction, it is certainly ample…I had not believed Mercedes capable of that."

Edelgard let out a sharp exhale, he turned and saw the pale haired girl with her face set in a deep frown. Eyes darted between the distant battle and towards him several times before she eventually got her emotions in check, or at least thought up the question she was going to pose to him.

"Is there a reason the possibility was not discussed?"

Ah, yes.

He could understand the flaw now.

Goetia thinned his lips. "The usage of the spell requires specific tools that I would not have thought them willing to obtain. Determined as you are for victory, would you have purchased gems for the singular purpose of blowing them up?"

That got a reaction, the girl jerked backwards and widened her eyes, casting one final incredulous glance in the distance before looking back to him. "Gems? They would use jewels for such a thing? Surely the Kingdoms finances cannot be so bountiful as to allow such wasteful expenditure…"

She sounded rather aggrieved by the notion.

Goetia only shook his head. "What you see is a crude usage of the craft, one that few would have ever condoned, even in the most amateur of apprentices. I can only surmise that they were able to discover a cheaper substitute…perhaps some manner of quartz? Those are bountiful enough in the right conditions or some other crystalline rock."

It was something that he could think of later.

But he would admit to being marginally impressed with the usage of it.

He would need to offer his praise to Mercedes for turning what would have been an embarrassing failure into a tactically sound strategy. It would most certainly hamper the ability of the archers from providing whittling attacks as they marched and those who were still recovering from the after effects would be easy pickings.

"I see…there is nothing we can do about it now." With that declaration, she broke away from him and continued her march forwards, "I shall leave my faith that the others can delay the Blue Lions long enough for us to land a decisive blow against the Golden Deers before we retreat."

"Ferdinand is capable enough of the action."

A small noise came from the girl, a mixture of amusement and intrigue. "If he has your confidence, then I will wait to see how earned it is."

Even with that said, he anticipated the delay would afford them no more than ten additional minutes.

And that had been prior to the usage of the gems to close the distance, he was now adjusting the time they had been granted through the sacrifice of half their frontline troops and the archers. It was, in all honesty, an intriguing ruse which he was more than familiar with.

There was perhaps a poetic irony that he had left Flauros behind with the disguised forces.

Casting a glance for the forest, he narrowed his eyes as he studied the treeline.

There were no signs of anything yet, but it was too advantageous a position to not use, and if there were Golden Deer hiding within the bushes, and between the trees, he would not have been surprised. Even excluding the prospect that Von Riegan had managed to craft some swift traps for them to stumble into.

The open field was a far less risky option, but left them exposed.

It was all Edelgard's plan, at the end of the day.

She was more anxious than she had anticipated.

It was odd that she had grown so used to Hubert's presence that when she initially turned around to speak with Goetia, she had briefly looked around to see where he had wandered off too before remembering the circumstances.

As for the plan itself, it was a difficult decision.

She had left half her forces behind, and even with the plan which felt more akin to something that Claude would have attempted, she still had her doubts for how long it would delay the Blue Lions. Long enough, she hoped, that they could fight the Golden Deers and push them back before they got caught in a pincer.

Yet with what Goetia had spoken off, she felt those worries slowly rising.

The urge to glance to the distance, where she could hear the rumbling of battle and the clashes of steel. It was a faint noise, barely louder than the marching of the troops, but it was there all the same. Always there, she strained her ears to listen to it specifically and it might as well have been but a few feet from her, for how loud it rang in her mind.

A twitch of the hand, she brought up her left and gestured forwards, the scouts quickly marched past with Petra taking the lead of them. Breaking into a light jog as they did so, moving further up the field than the rest of them, only four, and ducking down low as they closed in on the null before them.

She would need to make use of the mages properly, given that they were now dressed like infantry.

It would serve as a surprise for the Deer, at least, in the same way the infantry disguised as mages should have surprised the Lions, but she wouldn't count on the same reaction for long. Claude would likely respond quickly to it and find something, what she needed to do was press the attack before-

There was a sudden clap.

Her body jolted and she snapped her head towards the noise, eyes shooting wide as the soil under the feet of one of the knights abruptly bubbled up without warning. It was a fraction of a second that she saw the ground just upend itself, the man in question let out a shout of terror as he was shoved into the air for perhaps a couple metres, then struck the ground hard and groaned.

Edelgard whirled her head around, looking for where the attack had come from-

Another shout and a scream, a rumble travelled under her feet and she ducked low, covering the back of her head as debris rained down on her, a light showering of dirt accompanied with sound of screams and then the weighty clunk of metal striking the earth, the deep thud of a body and then a pained groan.

When she turned, there was the same sign not far from her.

This time it was several men who lay on the ground, the ground before them looked as if something had burst out of it, a deep hole where the grass had once been layered evenly, it now looked torn open, yet there was no sign of anything happening.

"Everyone, stop!"

She turned in surprise, Dorothea was rarely one to shout and yet there she was, arms raised and signalling for everyone to not move.

When the brunette turned on her, she could see the fierceness in her eyes.

"Company, hold!"

She relayed the suggestion, but was aware of the danger of lingering too long.

Dorothea showed a nod of gratitude, then stared forwards, glancing left and right as she took slow hesitant steps across the field, her eyes darting left and right as she stared at the ground, clearly searching for something.

Then she stopped, her body locked up and her eyes went narrow.

With hesitant steps, the songstress stepped backwards and wet her lips, then looked up and called out.

"There are runes cut into the dirt! They're in the…uhm…bounded fields!"

The words meant very little for Edelgard, but she heard the faint huff from Goetia to her side, she turned on him immediately and raised a brow. Yet her words briefly caught themselves in her throat as she stared at his expression.

He looked genuinely surprised by it, mouth slightly parted and brows raised.

Then he turned and looked across the ground, jaw rolling from side to side before his lip twitched upwards, very briefly.

"...And what does that mean?"

Edelgard called back to Dorothea, but this time it was Linhardt who answered.

"It means that we're probably going to trigger more spells."

She turned to see the boy weaving his way towards her, occasionally staring at the ground as if expecting to see something, his eyes came up and fixed her with a deep frown.

"If Lysithea is behind this, and I suspect she is, then there is a good chance that she established dozens of these traps across this field sporadically. Ingenious, I would say, as the second we step on the fields, it would trigger a miniature reaction which serves as the catalyst for the runes to activate."

Her jaw clenched, she understood enough of the sentence to figure out what it meant.

Slowly, her head turned towards the forest not far from them. The urge to bite down on her lip was smothered, her hands tightened around the shaft of her axe and she took in a sharp inhale.

"...Can you do anything about them?"

It was a small hope, but she figured that the answer would not be one that she would be pleased with.

As expected, Linhardt shook his head, "Only with a more powerful magical reaction, but we would need to go find all of them. Else we shall be staring at the grass and moving slowly to avoid accidentally stepping on something…and I do not believe we have any spells to clear out an entire field like this."

Blindly stumble across the field, or move into the woods and risk encountering more traps.

And there was no guarantee that more of those traps had not already been established inside the woods. She could imagine them on the soil or carved into the bark. With everyone at close range, more would suffer the consequences for it.

No, she would stay the course.

Turning, she raised her voice.

"Spread out and continue marching!"

Risky did not come close to describing this and she was acutely aware of their location in proximity to the woods. The darkness that shrouded the undergrowth seemed far more ominous than it had been moments ago. Yet when compared to marching into it, she knew what to expect with the field.

And Lysithea could not have placed down so many of the traps for them, she was only one person.

Thus, they trudged forwards, slower and with more gaps between their lines. If they were flanked now, then it would be a mad dash to get everyone into a position where they could defend.

Already, she was doubting her plan more and more, yet she was committed.

She could not turn away.

Edelgard slowed her steps and let herself come closer to Casper, moving along the front lines until she was beside the boy and then whispered to him. "Keep your eyes upon the woods. If Claude is as I believe, he will not be long in launching an offensive towards us and-"

Caspar nodded until his eyes widened, he pointed ahead of them and she was already turning from the second she saw the sudden alarm on his face. Spinning around to seeing the scouts from earlier - Petra and the other two - already rushing back down the hill, the former waving her hands from side to side and signalling something up ahead.

Luck was on the side of Petra as she sprinted right through the field without stepping on a single one of the traps.

The same could not be said for the scout barely a metre behind her, who briefly vanished with a cloud of dirt, reappearing a second later in the air and thudding back into the ground, rolling over and curling up into a ball.

She had felt that impact and did not envy the man.

To her credit, Petra had not even flinched.

Then she was close enough to call out, and started shouting.

"Enemies to the face! The Deers are marching this way!"

The Deers were what?

Edelgard blinked once, then twice.

The Golden Deers were marching here? She had been expecting to lay siege to them had they still been there, or root them out of whatever spot they had been hiding in, yet the way Petra had phased it sounded as though the entire faction was currently marching right towards them.

"How many?"

It was the first thing she could ask.

Aggression was unlike Claude, which meant this would have to be a smaller force.

Perhaps a third as a probing force.

"Over half!" Petra skidded to a halt in front of her, delivering the dire news without looking the least bit winded. Yet the internal praise of her physique was utterly lost on Edelgard as she comprehended the magnitude of what was being said. "I could see Claude at the front. He moves fast walk. Here fast."

Edelgard's mind whirled.

Then she took in a breath and shouted.

"Fast! We march on the hill and stop for nothing!"

Without concern for standing on a trap, she surged past Petra and started running, it was only moments later that she heard the order echoed loudly by those behind her and they proceeded to start charging forwards, a thunderous drowning wall of sound of behind her, the rumbling of footsteps on the earth, sprinting up the way of the hill.

She felt each spell activating, the shudder through the earth and the splash of dirt into the air.

Then the screams and shouts, the cries of alarm.

She could not count them, she did not try to count them, some were closer than others but they all reverberated through her very bones. Each burst shuddered her body as she charged up the hill, the expectation that every step she took would see her world transformed into pain.

Yet it never happened.

Through pure luck, she found herself standing at the top of the hill, staring down at the advancing yellow banners.

Petra had been right, they were closing in.

But she could not spy the other half.

Marching on the Blue Lions? No, she could not think of it.

Eyes narrowed to slits, she stared at them closing in, they were speeding up. From the front and behind, she could feel the advance of troops and without turning, she raised her hand and clenched it tight into a fist. "Form up! Spears and light infantry to the front! Dorothea! Yours step between!"

She had a plan.

They fell into step in a rush around her, bodies packed tight in rows upon rows. She did not know how many she lost, but she could not count now. All she could do was make the most of what she had left. Deal as much damage as she could to the Golden Deers and then, when the Blue Lions were close enough, she would charge into the forest and presume the two would clash behind her.

It would cut it close, and there was a chance it would turn into a three way brawl.

But that was all she had left.

"Shields up!"

Stepping back, she moved under the cover of the raised shields and prepared herself.

She did not need to wait long for the clatter of falling arrows to ring loud above her head, dozens of them stretched left and right and pattered to the ground, she watched with unblinking eyes at the projectiles hitting the earth and rolling down the incline away from her feet.

Others just hit the soil and become lodged in the ground.

Waiting was perhaps the most stressful part, her timing had to be perfect.

If there was one thing she had learned from Goetia's training - more akin to torture - it was that something was only dangerous if it could reach you. The way to save oneself from pain was to prevent it from ever getting its hands on you in the first place. That was the plan she formed, she stared at the incline towards them.

It wasn't steep.

But it was just sharp enough that it would work.

She leaned back and whispered to the man behind her, she did not turn to him but she made sure he knew she was speaking to him.

"Pass along to Dorothea and the mages. On my signal, deploy ice on the ground."

She trusted he heard her above the thundering of arrow rain above them, the words passed along the line and further towards where Dorothea would have been.

Waiting was the worst it had been to watch the forces come thundering up the hill towards her. It was reckless of Claude, they had to see the disadvantage, there was no denying. Yet as her mind whirled with all manner of hypothetical schemes that could be in play against her, there was no denying the danger they were in. If she did not stop this charge, they would be upon her soon.

The axe felt light in her grip, hands tightened around the shaft and she took in a short and steadying breath.

The world descended from a roaring mass of noise to a shroud of muted silence, all there was in her head was the slowing beat of her own heart.

Beat after beat.

It fell slower and slower, the weight on her shoulders vanished until there was nothing. She watched them charge, running up the hill with arrows flying towards her now. Archers falling just behind the infantry and launching straight up, she felt them move through the air. Felt one brush past her cheek and the whistle as it clipped her hair.

Yet she did not flinch.

She watched.

They were close, the drumming of the footsteps was louder now, she could feel it in her bones even without looking at them.

"Now!"

Her voice was like a thunder clap, thrusting the axe straight forwards and down, there was pure silence following her words. Mere seconds where not a single thing happened, and for a moment she believed nothing ever would. She could see the vision in her mind's eye, the forces of the Golden Deer flying right into them without stopping and smashing into their lines.

Yet when she saw the expression on the face of Claude.

That brief instant when they made eye contact, where he broke it first and swept his eyes over her lines.

She knew in that moment, she had the upper hand.

The infantry, those who had been mages in disguise.

They stepped forwards, brushing past her armed forces and held their hands out. As one, then chanted and she felt the air shift and churn. The warmth was sucked from the world, her breath became crisp and visible, puffs of cold hair surged from her nose and as a single cloud they escaped from her.

Ice stretched across the one green land and flowned downwards, the ground was coated in a layer within mere moments. So thick that one could no longer see the grass which had once been beneath them, and it flowed without restraint or without stopping. Moments passed and then it flowed right beneath the feet of the Deer.

The first line collapsed within mere seconds, cries of panic and surprise, shouts of alarm or shock.

All of them, all the sputters and gasps, they all rolled over her as if it was nothing more than a mere morning breeze. She watched down without even breaking face, she felt very little as the ice ensured the Golden Deer slipped forwards and cracked into the ground. She could see some bring their heads up - briefly - to reveal bloodied lips, but that was until their stumbles made those behind fall over them.

Claude himself vanished amidst the sea of tumbling bodies, buried beneath those he had been leading.

As one, the attacking force and turned to chaos as they struggled to get to their feet, some still trapped down, forced to the ground by their comrades or leaders. She could see it unfurl before her, a chaotic mess that lacked any sense of true description.

"Shatter it."

Her words came out not as a loud shout, but as mere words.

A quiet command to bring about that which was inevitable.

And then she heard them parroted again, and again.

The layer of ice burst, rising upwards as a thin mist and a surge of cold air, the shouts increased and through the haze, she could see the silhouettes tumbling around, struggling and grasping to get to their feet and man some sort of counter against her. That is, if they even had someone to command them.

But she did not wait for them to gather themselves.

Edelgard did not speak, but she did act.

Axe in hand, she broke ranks first and charged forwards, barely a fraction of a second later and she was joined either side by her vanguard forces. All of them with weapons readied and with grizzled determination. They moved without any more noise than they made with their footfalls, swiftly charging down the incline and towards the Deer.

Her body was still light, it felt more like she was falling and falling.

As though it would never end.

Then she found herself staring into the face of a rather surprised looking man, he was young, older than her but still younger than his peers. He looked so thoroughly dumbstruck it was as if he had no idea what was happening. The same sort of innocence someone would have expected from a child.

Then she saw his eyes dawn with horrified clarity.

"Wai-"

Her axe hammered into his breastplate and sent him into the ground, whatever he had to say fell into a pained wheeze as he was painfully driven onto his back. His face was knocked from her kind and she stepped over him, swinging for the next one and catching them in the side of the head, the dull crack of metal meeting metal, the shock travelling up her arms.

The man dropped down like a puppet with cut strings and she marched over him too.

Another swing, both hands, she swept the legs out from beneath them and brought the axe above her head, clasped tight and with a silent roar, she brought it down into their gut and earned herself a staggered cough of agony. Beneath this one, she felt something crack under her blow.

Perhaps ribs.

Yet she did not slow or stop.

All around her it was the same, a haze of noise and blurs of movement, slamming into one another. Limbs flailing around and bodies piling into one another. It was difficult to tell one side from the other in the chaos, but all she knew was that the Deer were right in front of her, so she kept marching forwards and swinging at everything that moved.

Edelgard sidestepped, a slash missed her and the one responsible staggered on the uneven terrain.

She drove the shaft into their chin, head snapping back and eyes blinking in a daze. Axe reversed, she swung around and caught them with the back of it, the helmet was knocked clean off their head as they dropped down onto their face, revealing that it had been a woman shoulder length brown hair.

No further thought was spared for them, she brought the axe up and blocked another of its kind. Her eyes narrowed as she saw the one who caught her, the one she would not have expected to have surged for her. Dirtied pink hair and with a strained, but still cocky, grin.

Hilda broke away first and swung low, Edelgard stepped back and avoided the strike, watching it clip the ground and tear off a chunk of dirt, flinging the debris into parts unknown somewhere behind her. She stepped back and mirrored the earlier blow, without a word and Hilda met her with it.

The axes collided and bounced, the two stumbled away and caught themselves, Edelgard was upon her again, Hilda knocked the blow away with a grunt and managed to thrust the head for her face. Edelgard ducked, wincing as the back of the axe clipped over her right brow, she felt the dull ache spread over her forehead and already creep into numbness.

But she matched it.

Her boot slammed into Hilda's shin with a grated crack, there was a click of the tongue and a muffled grunt of pain as her opponent retreated a step and hissed from between her teeth. Edelgard swung at her head next, catching the raised axe and knocking it down, Hilda still holding tight as it was knocked to the ground, soon dragged up and for her chin.

She fell back and avoided it, watching the axe sail past the tip of her nose in slow motion.

Time sped up, she jerked forwards and swung her fist out, her body turned with the impact and she felt herself follow along with it. Scenery blurred past as she missed, she must have done as she felt no impact, and fought to control herself. Without prompt, she threw herself down and to the side, hitting the ground with a grunt.

Shadows passed over her, moving as blurred forms overlapping with one another, hammered metal crunches and snarls drummed in her ears.

Edelgard was up before long, she did not remember getting to her feet, only that she was on them once more. Axe held aloft and swung towards the spot of pink she could see between the silver forms, she struck something with a wooden thwack and heard a gasp, her eyes narrowed.

Hilda staggered backwards, the blow from her axe having stunned the girl.

Pressing forwards, she brought the axe up once more for another swing.

Air pulled from between her lips in a gasp, she felt something hit her side hard and drive her away from her target, her body failed to obey and she stumbled, feet falling over one another as she tried to find herself. Eyes spinning, she swung them to her right and caught sight of a figure crouched at her side.

The shaft of the axe looped under them and pulled, prying them up and away from her, she followed with a straight kick to the gut, knocking them away from her and revealing that it had been a smaller knight. A frown and then she followed suit with the attack, flipping the axe and hitting them over the side of the head with a thud.

Her head swung up, she frowned and grimaced, losing sight of Hilda in all of the chaos.

A flash to her left and a dozen screams, she watched several men get punted over the sea of heads and soar through the sky for all of a few breaths, their yells stretching on for an eternity before they dropped down and went terribly silent.

A sound split across the battle.

Long and drawn, it took her a moment to realise what it was.

A horn.

Confusion whirled through her, until she heard another horn right after it, coming from another direction.

Directly behind them.

Edelgard felt her heart hammer faster and faster in her gut, whipping around to stare through the mass of bodies and shoving some of them aside. Fighting back through her own forces as she broke through and stared at the second sound.

Then she saw it.

From between the treeline, she saw shadows moving around and growing closer.

The greenery broke apart, dozens of knights came bursting out of the shrubbery and from beneath the trees. Sprinting towards them full pelt and at the head of the group she could see the one moving faster than all of them. Even at this distance, the sharp and savage grin on their face could be seen as clear as day.

Catherine.

They were being flanked.

Fire soared past her towards the group, Edelgard jolted as it closed on Catherine-

The orb shattered, rolling over the target as they swung into it, Catherine beat the flames apart and powered through them without breaking stride, but her target changed as with her course, turning and sprinting faster than before.

Edelgard glanced and spotted the reast.

Goetia stood with his hand aglow, another spell formed on his fingers and burst from them, dozens of light spots fluttered through the space like arrows and struck along the front lines, a few went down quickly while others let out pained gasps but did not stop.

She did not hesitate. "Counter them!"

She ordered Goetia, then to those around her she shouted "We've been outflanked!"

As she dreaded they would be.

She could see what would happen if she failed, if they lost.

She could see it in her minds eye.

Goetia just standing over her and staring down, the world as nothing more than menacing shadows.

Then he would threaten them with it.

With him.

Already, she could hear the words in her head.

"Clearly, your level of training was not quite rigorous enough." He would say, while eyeing her up in a manner which could only be called cruel. With eyes that were plotting her every agonising misery with cold clarity. "Perhaps you need to train against Heracles. Every. Single. Day."

The thought sent shivers up her spine.

No, not shivers.

It was nearly enough to bring her to tears alone, the mere thought of having to face that-that-that monster again.

She couldn't do it.

She didn't want to do it.

With a sniffle and a long breath, Bernadetta slowly drew in all her strength and pushed herself up. Fingers dancing for her quiver and feeling along the arrow shafts. Tightening their hold on the first and drawing it out, she closed her eyes and steadied herself. If she did well enough, if she tried to avoid being too bad, then perhaps she could avoid being thrown against the monster.

O-or maybe she could beg for mercy.

Keeping Flauros safe had to earn her some sort of mercy, right?

Her eyes snapped open.

As did her mouth, a shriek that was a mixture of desperation and anguish sounded around her as she rose up. Drawing the arrow back as far as her arms would allow and seeking out the first target, through tear stained eyes she loosened it and already drew the next without waiting to see if it would land.

Never once did she stop screaming, loosening another and another.

Movement from whatever form and whatever direction had her swing towards it, whatever was closing in on her earned an arrow for its trouble. Because between this and that shadow monster, she would have picked this every time. Rather, she was wishing that someone would just hurry up and knock her out.

Wait, if they knocked her out before she did anything…then would that mean she would have to fight the monster again?

It was a stray thought and it nearly made her drop the next arrow.

Her jaw slammed shut, the screaming continued between gritted teeth, muffled cried rippled in the back of her throat as tears continued to stream down her eyes. And then she did what she would have never wished to do.

She felt her fingers pass through nothing.

Her heart stopped beating and she swung her eyes down and stared.

Her quiver was empty.

She looked back up and felt herself go pale, her skin went cold and she just continued to stare.

"You think running out of arrows is an excuse I would accept?" Goetia's voice hissed in her, full of malicious intent. A tone that promised nothing but pain in her future and she could practically feel him now, feel his eyes boring into the back of her skull and his lone hand reaching for her.

"You will fight Heracles more-"

"NO!"

A scream escaped her, she drew up her bow and clenched it with her hands, holding it up as if it were some manner of club and then charging forwards.

"No! I won't fight him!"

It was the thought that burned through her, that single desire she felt.

She was not going to fight Heracles ever again.

"You won't make me fight him again!"

She would never stand in front of that monster, see it's shadowed hands reaching for her, seeing it in her nightmares, always chasing her down or hearing that shrill roar in her mind whenever she heard the clap of a door shutting. Bernadetta would be free of them if it was the last thing she did.

If needed, she would drop on her knees and just beg Goetia to kill her rather than make her fight Heracles again.

With that lone thought burning through her mind, she charged right into the front lines of the blue lions and swung, seeing nothing more than grey shapes with some exposed skin tone parts and nothing else. She just swung at those and felt the impacts shoot up her arm, hearing the cries and immediately jumping back to avoid them.

Some she struck more than once.

A blur and the bow was blown from her hands, wrenched from her grasp and sent somewhere.

She did not see what it was, but she could see the reddish shape on the top of it.

So she launched herself forwards and wrapped her arms around it, pushing down and dragging both of them to the earth. Her weight hit atop them and she scrambled around, gripping and clawing at whatever she could get her hands on before finally wrapping her arms around something soft, gasps filled her ears and choked sounds, struggling and something beating against her arms.

She did not let go.

Rather, she just gripped tighter.

Something suddenly clamped down on her and pulled, she shrieked and swung at it, her fist hit something hard and she drew it back with a pained hiss, then she just launched her feet at it, swinging them around and kicking, thrashing as hard as she could and screaming all the while.

Her boot struck something blonde and sent it stumbling backwards, then a strong grip fell on her ankle.

She was dragged across the earth, her eyes cleared through the tears.

Right until she saw the fist race for her face.

Then nothing.

Byleth pulled her hand back and stared down at the Black Eagle girl slumped on the ground with her eyes rolled into the back of her skull, nose slightly crooked.

Whatever pang of guilt she might have felt for the girl was offset by the damage her rampage had done. The blind aggression had been quite an intimidating sight for some of the troops, apparently because it was so unexpected from her.

Perhaps it was a valuable lesson not to underestimate people.

Slowly, she spied the form of Sylvain a long look, still lying on the ground from where Bernadetta had managed to choke him out. It had been a rather bewildering sight to see her throw herself at him and then just perform a rather impressive body lock on him and just strangle him until he passed out.

Snapping her fingers, she pointed for the boy and barely caught Mercedes rushing through the crowd towards him, already checking up on him.

Her eyes flickered away and onto Dimitri.

The prince had a hand on his nose, eyes slightly teared as he stared at the form of Bernadetta as well.

"...Goetia certainly taught them well." Was all the prince managed to say, voice slightly muffled through his hand.

Of that, Byleth could agree.

She responded with a brief hum.

If this was what Goetia was doing to the most frightened of the bunch, she could only imagine what he had done to the greater of the group.

Then again, Ferdinand had been quite the troublesome fighter.

He did well enough against her, given the disadvantage.

"What was that nonsense she was screaming about?"

Someone asked behind her, Felix by the sounds of it, she glanced at the boy as he approached, hovering over the unconscious Black Eagle and watching her with a rather curious expression, his gaze shifted between her and Sylvain several times before eventually settling on a brief smirk.

"I'm curious who she fought that made her so desperate to win against us."

Byleth's first thought would have been Goetia himself.

Yet that didn't sound right to her.

Ferdinand had reacted fast, as if he was slowly growing used to people who moved at her speed or her strength. Not enough to really make a difference, but enough that he wasn't immediately caught by it.

So they had fought someone strong.

…She could ask later.

She dodged the first attack he launched at her, the thoron surged past her and struck the man who had been right behind.

Goetia paid little heed to that as he prepared another spell, but the speed at which Catherine was closing in on him was both impressive and concerning. He swung his attention down, magical energy danced through his fingers and directed the next spell to the earth, the ground upturned as pillars of ice burst up from between the grass.

And promptly shattered as Catherine threw her whole body into them, kicking off the ground and launching herself into the air, sword held high above her head and with both hands.

He stepped backwards and kicked off the ground, hurling a gale force into her where she could not dodge.

The impact threw her backwards with a grunt, smashing into the remains of the ice and sending both her and the debris tumbling away from his direct line of sight. Yet that was barely what concerned him, it was the fact they had been outflanked and he could still see some of the Golden Deer arriving.

His hand opened, fingers curled and then clenched into a fist.

Spikes of malignant purple formed over his shoulders and hurled forth like arrows, with neither direct aim nor deadly power, they proved their worth with explosions of indigo light and blackened clouds, displacing several knights and keeping some of them from making contact, already he was preparing for the next spell.

He stopped, his hand came up and the translucent shield formed in front of him.

Several arrows clattered off it and dropped to the ground, his eyes sought out the ones responsible and his lip curled down as he spotted nothing.

The ward spell shattered, he stepped and swung out his arm, the gale knocked down another couple opponents, but even his efforts could not contain the tide of troops as they fell upon the Black Eagles. Caught from both sides, the fighting turned desperate at the flanks. His eyes narrowed as he marched forwards.

There was still no sign of Lysithea-

His body jerked and stumbled, the scenery shifted from his former spot.

The only warning he had received was the sudden surge of magical energy in his immediate surroundings before the flash of light claimed him. Coming too, he stared at the fact he was now perhaps a dozen metres from his original location, then he stopped and swung his eyes down at what lay beneath him.

He could see them, clear as day.

Runes glowing brightly on the ground, and from the sides he felt it tickle his skin.

He looked up.

There, carved into the trees around him, he could see much the same.

As the final climax, he could feel the sensation of being looked upon or observed, but it was a different one to the usual. The type that came only when one crossed into a bounded field. Slowly, he turned and felt his lips twist at the implication. His mind worked a hundred times faster than a human as the conclusion came to him.

He had been teleported into a trap while his guard was down.

His hand clenched into a fist, the ward spells formed around him as the runes ignited. His body shuddered as the explosions ripped through the space all around him, he heard the telltale sounds of cracking glass, the ward spells shattering under the immense surge of magical energy from every direction.

It was an effort Lysithea should be proud with.

But he would not allow it to be enough.

Lysithea ducked low as the runes activated running back to the cover of the trees and throwing her body low. The flash of light and the rumble like thunder sent shudders through her body, hands pressed against the back of her head to cover herself, she felt the pitter, patter of sawdust dropping down onto her skin.

The shockwave rolled over her and she felt herself jerk with it.

The explosion had been far greater than she anticipated, but she could not have let herself hold back against her Teacher.

"Do you think that got him?!"

Even shouting into her ear, Lysithea could barely hear her compatriot in all of this, pulling her hands apart and looking across, she spotted Leonie ducked behind a tree and in a similar position to her, still with a strained look as the ringing started to subside, they both turned to the rising pillar of smoke and ash.

A long creak and a sundering groan heralded the nearest tree which had not been obliterated by the runes start to fall over, the loud wail of falling wood came with the heavy crunch as it fell into the ground, blocking their direct line of sight with the presume crater where Goetia had been.

Lysithea quickly stumbled upwards, turning her body towards the direction and squinting hard.

Did she think that got him?

"I am not sure!" She shouted back, then winced at the volume of her own voice and took in a breath. "But we should make sure-"

The fallen tree exploded in a ball of flames, Lysithea felt her eyes fly wide as her body acted on instinct, launching herself down and rolling across the floor - more akin to scrambling - as she ducked down into cover, burning remains of wood and leaf litter flew past her eyes, crashing into the earth mere feet from her.

She stared at the remains, still smouldering, and then watched as the fires just cut out.

Snuffed as if they lost all the air to fuel them.

Lysithea slowly raised her eyes and met the gaze of Leonie, the ginger had been watching the same thing with a visible sense of unease and perhaps a bit of dread, they looked at one another before Lysithea took in a deep breath and pushed herself up against the tree.

Now standing, she did not dare turn and look around the corner to where she knew for a fact her teacher would be.

"That was a clever ploy, Lysithea."

She stilled at the voice, growing louder as it continued.

A part of her was rather pleased he had praised her, but the more logical part was rather terrified that he had taken that explosion and was seemingly walking towards them without suffering any ill effects.

"I had not been aware you were capable of teleportation magic yet and even then, the applications are used for rescuing allies. Certainly not dropping enemies into traps. An intriguing usage."

There was a pause, she rolled her lips and looked up.

Leonie had a single finger on her lips, then jerked her head to where the voice was coming from.

Pointing towards the direction of Goetia, then towards herself, then shaking her head.

Lysithea stared with furrowed brows.

"I am familiar with how the spell operates, Lysithea. I know you needed a direct line of sight with me…Or are you luring me into more traps? The runes were ingenious."

The way her teacher was speaking…

Her eyes widened. He didn't know it was her and Leonie here, the plan had used both of them setting up the runes quickly. Lysithea met the gaze of her compatriot and nodded her head once, then leaned back and opened her mouth to speak, turning about and moving along the trunk of the tree.

"The combination sounded effective in theory."

"And in practice as well." Came the swift reply. "I will admit that I was strained to prevent all of the detonations at once. Were it not for my higher thinking, the resulting explosion would have neutralised me. Any other opponent would have been soundly defeated with that plan of yours."

Lysithea glanced at the nearby bushes, the voice was getting closer and closer now.

She could even hear his steps if she strained her hearing.

"I was not optimistic enough to assume I could take you out so quickly."

"That is obvious." Goetia replied, Lysithea could imagine he was fighting back a scoff with those words. "But I commend it all the same, even if it ended in failure. Though now I am left to wonder how capable you are outside of traps. They have never been your area of expertise."

Lysithea froze, then glanced across to Leonie.

Goetia continued speaking.

"Even the influence of Catherine would not have changed that, but there are others in your class who are aware of such plans. Von Riegan, certainly…but others from such rural areas, such as towns who need such skills to earn a living."

The silence this time was longer.

Then Goetia spoke one final time.

"Is that not correct, Pinelli?"

He knew.

Lysithea grit her teeth and swung out from behind the tree, dark spells at the forefront of her mind. Her hands, aglow with light, swung shut and clapped together. In the span of that movement, the spikes of darkness had formed around Goetia and with the swing of her hands, they closed in upon him.

She saw the ward spell activate a split second before they impacted, then it shattered outwards and detonated the spikes.

His hand swung towards her and she saw the faint pulse of light.

Lysithea kicked away and jumped down, throwing out another miasma in his general direction as she did so.

She heard the explosion and barely saw the flash, but she was already in the undergrowth.

Scrambling forwards, she pushed aside the bushes and ran further through the greenery, cursing herself as she did so and spying the movement in the corner of her eye, another flash of light, the roar of cracking wood and then the groan of a falling tree, the impact sent shockwaves through the earth under her feet.

Jumping out into the open, she turned on Goetia once more and swung her hands out just as he turned on her.

The teleportation spell caught him and dragged him towards her.

The moment he materialised, he was already spinning to face her.

But Lysithea hadn't brought him to fight her.

Leonie burst from the undergrowth, roar escaping her throat and charged right into the tanned skinned man, Goetia buckled for a moment as the pair moved past her, then his single hand clenched into a fist and swung down, hammering into the shoulder of the ginger hair girl.

Lysithea heard something thud.

Leonie gasped louder and stepped away, thrusting her wooden spear at Goetia.

He batted it aside, closed in and caught her on the chin with a quick jab, it rocked the girl with a terrible expression. Lysithea winced at the impact and launched a miasma at his back.

Goetia gripped Leonie's arm and moved faster than she could really see, one moment the spell had been poised to strike his back, in the next he had flipped himself around and thrown Leonie into the path of the spell, he sidestepped as the miasma impacted with a splash of violet.

Lysithea froze at the scream of pain, watching as Leonie was carried around head over heels and hard onto the ground.

She had barely a second to react, bringing up her hands and forming the ward spell as Goetia launched a singular orb of light at her. She did not recognise the spell, but she knew the formation of Fodlan magic, the flash of the circle and the many symbols within.

The orb, no bigger than an apple, hit the front of her shield.

Her world turned into one of white, the only sound she could hear was the smashing of something that sounded a bit like glass and the sudden rush of wind in her ears. Her body felt weightless, her eyes blinked into focus, she found herself looking up at deep blue stretching far up.

Or was it down?

No, that was the sky.

Why was she looking at the sky-?

"Ooof!"

A grunt left her, hitting the ground with a gasp and sending a lance of pain through her shoulders, the deep blue sharply transitioned into grass green, her body rolled beyond her control and the breath escaped her, lungs feeling empty as she fought desperate to keep whatever scrap of air was inside of her.

She couldn't even tell when she stopped rolling, only that it no longer felt like she was in further pain.

But she couldn't breath, like long wheezes. She tried to do anything, move her limbs or twist her head, but she couldn't lift so much as a single muscle.

Her dazed vision granted her little, even flickering her eyes to the growing blur couldn't let her achieve anything. All she could see was the vague blob of colours and sounds grow closer and closer to her, the muffled noises that sounded similar to battles, but she couldn't quite wrap her head around it.

Her body just ached.

Another muffled yell, the blur was tackled by another hazy silhouette and vanished from her immediate line of sight.

Not that she could track it down, all she could focus on was getting some strength into her limbs.

He stomped hard, halting the tackle, his left arm swung out and upwards.

Catherine ducked underneath it, he grunted as a fist hammered into his liver, his body thrown into a staggered motion. The glint in her eye promised pain as her head turned, he spied the sword in her other hand - the blunted metal blade - as it was swung towards him. A split second was all he had to react.

His hand twisted, his palm facing skywards and he brought it up, slapping the sword at the right angle and sending the swipe over the top of his head. He stepped forwards and swung his body downwards, his vision whited as his forehead cracked against Catherine's own, not even he could tell which of them got off better from the encounter.

All Goetia felt was the throbbing in his temples, as though he had struck a brick wall.

"Ha!" There was a bark, like laughter or perhaps a roar, and his eyes focused just in time to see the fist. It caught his cheek, his neck snapped at an angle and he was thrown into another stagger, spinning with the movement and sweeping around, he ducked low and brought his arm up.

Catherine hissed, he felt the chin against his knuckles, her face was directed skywards as she fell back. He pursued and threw another swift jab towards her, the recovery was quick but he still landed the blow against her wrist, she jerked her arm away, the sword still unfortunately gripped within it.

Worse, she had caught what he attempted.

Meeting his gaze, she shot him a wry smirk and then launched herself at him.

A quick sidestep avoided the slash at his collar, but his movements were slower than he would have liked. Still reeling from the ache of the headbutt and from the punch. Everything felt warped, as though he was wading through water.

…Was he suffering from a concussion?

Troublesome, if true.

Another slash, he leaned around and caught her wrist, clamping his fingers down and twisting the arm. A sharp hiss was his reward, the sword dropped from her fingers and thudded to the earth, he pushed forth and shoved her backwards. His leg swept out, knocking the sword away from the both of them.

Pulling her forwards, he angled his arm over the top of hers.

Her free hand came up and caught his attempt at an elbow, she pulled and twisted him.

Goetia clenched his teeth at the uncomfortable position he was forced in, then coughed out a grunt as she hammered her knee into his chest. Three times she drove it into him like a hammer and three times he fought back the urge to just drop the charade and blast her away.

When she attempted the forth, he brought up his own knee and kicked his leg down into her, dropping them both and briefly weakening her hold over him.

The chance presented itself.

Wrenching his arm free, he swung back and drove his elbow into her shoulder, feeling the dull crack spread through his arm as he struck the metal plating of her shoulder. His breath came out as a single sharp exhale, but he did knock her away.

He dropped back and swung up, but not with his arms.

Flat on his back, all he had access to were his legs and he used them.

Pulling a half roll, he caught her at the sides of her head between his ankles and then pulled, briefly seeing her eyes shoot wide in surprise, the incredulous look mixed with disbelief as she clearly wasn't expecting the level of flexibility from him. In truth, it was something he was not accustomed to either.

Muscles in his back strained at the sudden movement, but it worked.

With a swift movement, he flipped her over himself and knocked her to the ground, throwing himself into the complete roll, he was back on his feet.

The chance to pursue never came, he barely avoided being struck with a spear.

He was not sure how he even avoided it in the first place, either through providence or some other circumstance, he narrowly avoided the spear. Watching it sail past the front of his face, he threw his body into the attacker and wrapped an arm around their furthest stretched limb, twisting, he pressed his back into them and pulled forwards.

The weight passed over his shoulder, slamming the Golden Deer knight into the ground, he pulled his fist back and swung down, cracking his knuckles against the front of their face.

Given that they did not rise, he assumed them unconscious.

Retreating back, he brought his hand up, the wind spell left his fingers and struck the charging man in the gut, the next moment they were twisting through the air and crashing down into another group.

A frown formed in his lips, eyes narrowed as he marched forwards, a single swing caught another in the cheek, soon followed by throwing his entire body into a backhand, he marched past them without sparing a single glance, kicking down into the shin of another, his lone arm wrapped around their neck and flexed tight.

The struggle lasted moments before the body went limp, releasing his hold and letting them drop face first to the ground.

Rather than moving onto the next, he briefly looked to the one the previous opponent had been in the middle of trying to fight.

Dorothea stared back at him with wide eyes, he met her gaze and frowned.

"Keep an eye on your surroundings, it is imperative that you-"

That was when Catherine drop kicked him into the dirt.

His lone thought was irritation at the timing.

Then the promise to make Catherine suffer for this humiliation.