The rest of the night was a blur.

The only things I remember clearly are Titania running out to us, handing Greil over to Rhys, and Rhys declaring that he was gone. Everything else is a big blank.

It just seemed like it happened so damn fast. A few hours ago, he had been fine, the picture of health even. Now, he was dead, just like that. There wasn't any hope of bringing him back - this was one of the few 'verses in the series that didn't have a version of the Valkyrie staff. Greil was gone.

I don't think that really sunk in until the late morning of the following day, when we buried him. The funeral was a silent affair. Nobody dared to ruin the moment, whether out of respect, or shock, or disbelief, I can't say.

I didn't cry. I hadn't done that in a long time. But it still felt like I'd lost something. I hadn't even known him very well. All I had to go off on him was what the games had revealed, and that last conversation with him about his wife. That was it. And yet, when we lowered his body into the dirt, the weight of it hit me like an Eclipse to the face.

But I knew that what Mia and I felt was nothing compared to what everyone else was going through. They'd known Greil for years, and had done so much more with him. All we did was get broken out of prison by him and accompany him for a few days before he was killed. No matter what we did now, their pain would always be greater than ours.

Even so… I couldn't shake the feeling that, somehow, I shared at least some of the blame for this outcome. Could I have done something different? Could I have walked out earlier and stalled for Caineghis? Could I have stopped this from happening? I must have been sent here for a reason. Did I already fail my mission? I had no idea. But the what-ifs didn't change that on some level, I had refused to offer any meaningful help.

Even with this completely broken ability, in the end, I was still a coward.

Shinon and Gatrie were the first to leave. I got the inkling that the sniper really wanted to smash something soon, and who could blame him? He'd just lost the one man in the world that he actually respected. I guessed that the knight followed along to give him some company, so he'd at least have a listener to scream at.

A little later, Mia and I decided that we should probably leave the rest to have their moment and made our way back to the castle. After entering, we found our room and sat on our respective beds. Neither of us felt much like talking, until Mia broke the ice in a quiet, subdued voice.

"...well, guess that's that, huh?"

"Yeah."

"...I don't feel like sparring today."

"Me neither."

That was all that really needed to be said. We sat there in silence for what seemed like hours, until Oscar eventually called everyone for a late lunch. Ike and Mist were absent, presumably still at the grave. Titania was off having a discussion with the members of the merchant convoy who'd arrived recently. Shinon looked to be a few wrong looks away from blowing his top, while Gatrie occasionally nervously glanced toward him.

For a long while, nobody spoke, as if talking about the recent events would cement them in reality for good. Titania eventually came in and got some food of her own before joining us. Everyone ate as if they were on autopilot, like they weren't really there. Just going through the motions to desperately try and maintain a shred of normalcy.

Then Shinon finished his meal, and bluntly announced that he was leaving before walking out. Gatrie gave us a worried look before following suit. The three green-haired brothers shared a look of their own before going after them. Soren narrowed his eyes before leaving himself. Titania was the last to pursue.

Mia and I stood up, and I considered joining them, but once I heard angry shouts coming from their direction, I grabbed my partner's shoulder and her attention before shaking my head.

"Let's go. This isn't our place to interfere."

She directed a worried look of her own towards the hallway everyone else had disappeared down, before turning back to me and nodding.

"...alright."

We returned to our room soon after and resumed our previous activity - that is to say, sulking and nothing else.

...until Mia decided that wasn't acceptable.

All of a sudden, she stood up, strode over to me, and put her hands on my shoulders.

"Andrew."

"Yeah?"

"C'mon. We're going for a jog."

"Okay."

I didn't see any reason not to. If this was her method of coping, that was fine by me. I'd support her no matter what she decided to do.

Coincidentally, we ran into Ike and Mist while we were heading for the start of our route.

Even though they looked fine from the outside, it was easy to mistake them for walking corpses. Their movements held little, if any life, their eyes dull and unfocused. Mia tried to get a response out of Ike, but ended up stonewalled.

"Heya, boss. Gonna go get some food, I hope?"

All she got was a noncommittal grunt. She tried Mist next, but was met with silence instead.

...jeez. It's like they've shut down completely. I'd assume them to be at least somewhat receptive, but to practically ignore us like that? Damn…

"Mia… I don't think now's the time. Leave them be. We'll come back to them when they're ready."

She obviously didn't want to believe that, but nodded anyway and continued on.

Soon enough, we reached our designated starting point, and prepared for our exercise. Once that was taken care of, we squared up.

"Ready?"

"Let's do this."

"Go!"

We didn't stop until the increasing lack of light forced us to. For me that was understandable, but I was starting to wonder about Mia's condition. It looked like she didn't even notice how much she was pushing herself. I wasn't one to stop her now, but I was worried she might have gone to exhaustion if not for the natural interruption.

When we got back, we walked in on a conversation between all but two of the remaining mercenaries.

Or, to be more accurate, Titania rattling off all the things Ike was now expected to do as the new leader of the company. Silver lining, we came in at the tail end.

"Titania!"

She stopped herself at Ike's intervention. "Yes?"

"I know I said everything, but I don't think piling it all at my feet at once is going to do me any good. I won't be able to keep up with every little thing right from the start. I think it might be better if you showed me the ropes as I go along. If that's okay with you?"

A minor embarrassed blush rose to the deputy commander's face. "Oh… yes, of course. My apologies. Got a little carried away there, didn't I…"

Ike waved it off. "Alright, then. I'll take over for now. You look like you need some rest anyhow."

Titania attempted to brush that off, but her somewhat haggard appearance combined with the yawn she let out after replying with "I'm fine" said otherwise. And the new commander was having none of it.

"You don't have to worry so much. I'm inexperienced, but I don't believe I'm incompetent. Get some rest - that's an order. I'll do my best to manage things here."

The 'order' comment finally got her to concede.

"Yes… Commander."

With that, she left the room.

Now that that was cleared up, I decided it was time to make our presence known.

"Well, it seems like we missed something big. Hey, Commander! Mind telling us what just happened?"

He turned to me. "Oh, Andrew, hello. I've accepted the mantle as the new commander, as you already know by now. Shinon and Gatrie have left the company, obviously because of my lack of experience."

He glanced off to the side. "Well, either that or because Shinon just really hates my guts and Gatrie doesn't want to leave him hanging."

He returned his attention to us. "In any case, Titania just finished explaining to me exactly what I'm expected to do as the leader of the Greil Mercenaries. I've apparently got quite a lot on my plate, but then again, I am a pretty big eater, if I do say so myself."

Mia interjected. "That's what I like to hear! Nice to see that you got yourself outta that funk you were in earlier. For a second there, I thought you were gone for good. But it looks like you pulled yourself together pretty well!"

He… well, what he did wasn't quite a chuckle, nor was it a scoff. A choff, maybe? A chuff? A scuckle? Whatever.

Actually, forget that last one, that was terrible.

"Oh, believe me, I'm still in a thousand pieces right now. But if father's last order to me was to take care of the company, then… who am I to refuse?"

I processed that for a second. Then I walked up and slapped my hand on Ike's shoulder.

"You're gonna go far in this business, boss-man."

This was obviously a new experience for him, if his fumbling reaction was anything to go by. "Ah-um… okay? Thank… you?"

Feel like that would've been funnier if I'd simply said 'hey.' Then again, this isn't the time for comedy.

I took my hand off. "You're welcome. Anyway, we just got back from a little pick-me-up run, so I was thinking we'd just sit around 'til Oscar calls us all for dinner. That said, you got anything to maybe fill that void?"

He contemplated that. "Well, I was going to go check up on everyone else first, so just wait a little while until I get back and we'll see if we can figure something out. Is that fine by you?"

Mia flashed a thumbs-up and a smile. "Sounds great, boss! See ya in a few!"

At our admission, Ike left with a nod.

A sigh escaped me while I ran my hand over my face and through my hair.

It's fine… everything's gonna be fine. They're not gonna lose hope. This isn't an impossible task. C'mon, we've got this. Okay… okay.

Morning came all too soon.

Of course, I didn't sleep a wink. My mind was still racing from previous events, along with all the possibilities of different actions I could have taken. I thanked my lucky stars that the system had pre-conditioned my brain to be immune to sleep deprivation, otherwise I would have gone mad a long time ago.

Adding on to that was the certainty that we were going to be attacked today, and pretty soon at that. I found myself heading down to the armory at the crack of dawn, to make sure that everyone had a weapon that wasn't about to break, or failing that, a substitute weapon.

To my surprise, I ran into Soren when I arrived, who eyed me suspiciously but refrained from saying anything. I returned the favor, silently appreciating his respect for some peace and quiet. He looked to be running a standard issue inventory check, possibly having had the same idea as me.

In the end, I concluded that none of us would be sitting on the bench in the next few hours due to a lack of means to battle. Most of the instruments of war were still in serviceable condition, and the ones close to useless were all for fighters who had back-up weapons in stock. I had to admit, the ability to check the number of uses for every tool we had was a real boon, and I had no doubts that it would become quite the handy little feature in the near future, once we started getting rarer, more fragile pieces of work.

Satisfied with my findings, I left the room and strolled back to my co-ed spot. Mia was up by then, and had just finished getting her headband into place when I walked in.

"Oh. You awake?" I called out.

She turned to me. "Not entirely, but I know a quick cure for that. You, me, the ring, five minutes."

A single brow of mine raised itself.

Huh. She seems determined not to let all this crap drag her down. I can respect that.

"All right, make that four. Let's go."

In the end, we were technically both right. It took closer to four minutes to actually reach the ring, and five passed before the match actually began.

Going in, I ended up having an advantage for the first match since she was ever-so-slightly more sluggish, having just gotten out of bed and all. That ended up giving me the win, tying us out for the very first time at 7 - 7. Of course, she didn't take that lying down, and laid me flat the next bout, giving her back her one-victory lead at 8 - 7.

After that, she made good on her promise, albeit a day late, and helped me work on the deflection technique that had given me the win against Boyd. After a few failed attempts and a little coaching, I was able to pull it off semi-reliably. I said that was good enough, and that we could work on it more later.

We called it off there, figuring we'd woken up enough to go the rest of the day. Besides, it was getting close to breakfast time anyway.

Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. Three guesses as to why, and the first two don't count.

We had both decided to start heading back inside once we felt a few raindrops hit us from the increasingly gray skies, but when we gave a cursory glance toward the nearest window outside the walls…

"What the…? Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

"Seriously?! Even after reaching Gallia, they're still after us? You know, in any other situation, I'd admire their persistence, but this is just starting to get annoying!"

I groaned.

"Well, we should probably head back and meet up with Ike. We'll decide how to handle this there."

"Okay. Is everyone ready?"

"I'm ready."

"Ready."

"Let's do this!"

"Ready, boss!"

"Let's go."

"Ready for action."

"Good to go."

"Alright, then. Greil Mercenaries, move out!"

We split up into our planned groups and implemented our strategy. Ike drew his Regal Sword and ran forward to plug up the narrow front entrance, Soren following close behind to provide ranged support. A Hammer-packing Boyd and Titania went to go engage the armor knights on the left side, while Oscar, Mia, and I went off to the right to battle the regular foot-soldiers, my Armorslayer out of its sheath and ready to shred some metal. Rhys hung back in the center of the courtyard, ready to heal from a safe position should anyone need it.

My first opponent was the Knight acting as pointman. While he was quickly occupied by more newly-arrived enemies, Oscar was able to harry the walking wall a bit, distracting him long enough for me to get in close and score a few hits before I had to dodge out of the way of his retaliation.

+9 EXP

I ducked back in while he was recovering from his swing, landing the finishing blow by burying the sword into a chink in his armor.

+29 EXP

While he fell to the ground, I moved to assist Mia, who was dancing around an opposing Soldier, though she hadn't been able to land any real blows due to the reach of his lance. I stepped in while his back was facing me, drawing my Iron Sword and carving a cross-slash into him.

+8 EXP

The lancer turned around to swipe at me, leaving himself open to Mia, who stopped him by driving her blade through his chest. At that moment, a Myrmidon leapt towards me, sword held high for an overhead slash. He was quickly blocked, the two of us engaging in a brief blade-lock.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mia using the body still stuck on her weapon as a meat shield, using it to take arrows fired at us from an enemy Archer. Before I could focus further on that, Oscar rode back in, stabbing at my opponent before galloping past. The strike broke his focus, turning the lock into an instant victory in my favor. I pushed his blade away, then sent mine into his heart.

+28 EXP

LEVEL UP!

Number rolled: 68

+5 stat points

Try as I might, I still could not resist mentally shouting those two words.

FIVE POINTS!

Like I had decided earlier, one point was spared for defense. This time, I decided on more of a defensive dump-level, upping luck, resistance, and HP, and increasing skill as a bit of an afterthought. Magic could come once I got closer to a location that could actually house some dark tomes, i.e. Begnion, or Daein if that ended up being a bust.

Level: 12^ +1

HP: 26^ +1

STR: 13

MAG: 7

SKL: 10^ +1

SPD: 13

LCK: 11^ +1

DEF: 12^ +1

RES: 8^ +1

Coming out of the level-pause, I borrowed Mia's tactic and kept the corpse on my sword, using it as an improvised pincushion. We charged the Archer together, my partner reaching him first and knocking him back by kicking the Soldier's dead body off her sword and towards him. While the bowman was stunned, I dropped my extra dead weight (thank god for that. Seriously, grown men are heavy) and charged the guy, delivering an uppercut swipe that comboed into a horizontal sweep, sending him crashing to the ground.

+8 EXP

I left him there for Mia to finish off, instead focusing on the Fighter barreling towards me. I felt a vague sense of familiarity, then realized that the strike coming my way was almost a perfect replica of the one that had cost Boyd his match against me two days prior.

Well, here goes nothing-!

Still allowing the system to help me out a little, I directed my body to perform the same practiced series of motions needed to successfully pull off the deflection. And to my pleasant surprise, it actually worked, sending the axe-wielder spinning away. My best orange-clad friend stepped back in to help, flooring the guy with two quick strikes. I felt this battle deserved an epic conclusion, so I decided to perform a flashy, slightly over-the-top Ending Blow, somersaulting over Mia and plunging my sword through the Fighter's chest.

+28 EXP

Heh. The Hero's Shade would be proud.

Something about that thought seemed to resonate with me.

Wait. Shade…

Unfortunately, Mia unintentionally cut that short. "Huh…? Hey, Andrew, look over there!"

The call-out derailed my train of thought, and I regained awareness to let out a supremely intellectual "whuh?" I then saw that she was pointing somewhere, and turned to look at it.

For some reason, the object of interest was just a regular old wall.

"What exactly am I looking at?"

I looked back at her, whereupon she adopted a somewhat indignant expression and insistently pointed some more. "The girl right there! The one with the miniskirt and boots!"

Miniskirt and boots? Oh boy, keep her away from Mangs. Heh.

For whatever reason, my brain was appallingly slow on the uptake today, which explained why I still hadn't connected the dots yet. Then again, a sneaky girl wearing what she was could fit the description of a lot of people.

I turned back to where Mia was pointing. "I don't see no girl. You sure you're-"

WHUMP!

"-oh, okay."

I was interrupted when the girl she described seemingly materialized out of nowhere and bonelessly hit the deck like a sack of bricks.

Wait, isn't that… oh.

Shit.

...Anna, how many spot checks did I just fail?

-{ Anna }-

One too many, buddy. One too many.

We rushed over to the collapsed body. I checked our surroundings, and found them to be thankfully void of aggressors. For the time being, at least. Returning my attention to the victim, I saw Mia checking if she was awake.

"Hey, hey! You alright?"

She muttered something inaudible.

My partner moved her head closer. "Say again?"

The mutter was louder this time. By this point, I had reached the downed form and lowered my ears as well.

"Hungry…"

...why am I not surprised?

I resisted the urge to slap myself at the obvious-in-hindsight reason for her current state. Instead, I used that energy to reach into my satchel to discreetly access the Convoy, pulling out a run-of-the-mill apple to hand to her.

"Hungry, eh? Well, it's not much, but here. Hopefully, it'll tide you over until we can get some real food in that belly."

She reached up and took the fruit off my hand…

...and not ten seconds later, I was staring at an apple core sitting in her palm.

Mia was completely dumbfounded. "Uh… wow. I don't think I've ever seen anyone eat that fast. Not even the boss."

Considering Ike's usual actions at the table, that was no small statement. Hell, the night everything went to shit, I'd seen him polish off a whole slab of steak in a little more than a minute. But this… this was unprecedented, and quite frankly, utterly ludicrous.

Nevertheless, the snack did its job, and she sat up. "Thank you…"

I snapped out of my stupor to acknowledge it. "Oh, no problem. But what's a girl like you doing in the middle of a battlefield?"

She stood up slowly. "Those soldiers… I w-was separated from the merchant convoy I was traveling with, and they found me wandering the path. When they saw I was carrying a tome, they c-conscripted me and forced me to join the attack."

I already knew beforehand where this conversation usually went, so picking out the right words to say was noticeably easier. "Merchant convoy, eh? You wouldn't happen to be talking about the same people that arrived here yesterday, right?"

Her head swiveled to my direction. "W-what?! You mean… t-they're here?!"

I absently adjusted the hood of my Wanderer's Cloak, having donned the garment in an attempt to keep my head out of the rain. So far, it was doing fine, but it was starting to get a little cold. "Yeah, assuming that you were traveling with a weapon merchant named Muston, an item seller named Aimee, and two other guys that I can't remember the professions of."

A smile appeared on her face. "Yes, that's them! Oh, thank the gods! Where are they now?"

I jerked my thumb back towards the main building. "They should be hiding in there at the moment. We offered them protection from Daein, and they accepted. In fact, our deputy commander came to an arrangement with them yesterday, and they'll be coming along with us for the foreseeable future."

I leaned forward slightly. "You know, when you think about it, there's hardly a reason at all for us to fight, and that's not counting the fact that I did kinda just save you from starvation. How would you feel about joining our merry band?"

She nodded. "I would very much like to do that, thank you."

I fist-pumped. "Okay, great. I heard you say you had a tome earlier?"

She pulled out the aforementioned item. "Yes, I'm a traveling mage. I specialize in Thunder magic."

I glanced back towards the main building. "Alright, perfect. I'd ask whether or not you wanted to fight, but something tells me that would be pointless. There is the matter of compensation for your services, but I'm sure our commander will take care of that once we introduce you."

I stopped for a second, then face-palmed. "Aaaand I just realized that we haven't introduced ourselves yet. Whoops, I guess? Anyway, I'm Andrew, former student. The swordswoman here is Mia. What's your name, miss mage?"

She pulled her tome to her chest, crossed her arms around it, and performed a small bow. Think Light Mage Micaiah's victory animation. "I'm Ilyana. I'll be in your care. I hope you find me helpful."

I turned my attention back forward, and noticed Oscar making his way back towards us from a recon run. "Great. So, now that that's squared away, let's see what our horseman has to say."

Did I just unconsciously rhyme?

I called out. "Yo, Oscar! What's the verdict?"

He came to a halt, rearing up his horse as he slowed it down. "We've got more swordsmen and lancers approaching from both the north and the south. I also saw some armored troops in the northern area. Thankfully, I managed to neutralize a healer while I was out, so at least we don't have to worry about them retreating to lick their wounds and coming back later. All told, well, we've certainly got our work cut out for us."

I puffed out a breath while I ran my hand through my hair. "Sheesh, really sounds like they're pulling out all the stops. Then again, I suppose I should expect nothing less from what basically amounts to a suicide mission. Hope the others are doing all right. Okay, then, let's go."

Oscar once again took point, and we soon found ourselves assaulted by the aforementioned swordsmen and lancers. My first opponent was another Myrmidon, though this one was carrying a heavy-looking Iron Blade. Determining that it was a bad idea to go against such a thick weapon with the admittedly flimsy Iron Sword, I swapped it out for my Steel Sword, as I no longer suffered from any weight penalties it could inflict.

However, I soon found that the action was rendered moot due to the difficulty my enemy had with using the blade. It was clear to see that the weight was throwing off his aim and ease of use, which gave me a much easier time avoiding his swings. I ended up giving him two hard and fast strikes that sent him stumbling away before my attention was grabbed by another Soldier.

+8 EXP

Now this guy right here, he actually had a pretty good idea of what he was supposed to be doing. Of course, he was nowhere near Oscar's level, but he still managed to set up a pretty good defense, keeping out of my effective range while freely jabbing at me with the pointy end of his stick. Given time, I probably could have broken it on my own, but what happened next made doing that unnecessary.

Without warning, a jagged yellow beam streaked down from the heavens and nailed the Soldier, preceding a definitely muted but still quite imposing sound of thunder. The man screamed and fell to his knees, not dead, but almost certainly feeling like a slab of finely-cooked meat.

With him incapacitated, I prepared to finish the job, only for my ears to register a warning.

"Andrew, l-look out!"

Unfortunately, it came too late, though it did allow me to attempt to dodge and thus negate further damage. The desperation attack of the Myrmidon hit home, slicing diagonally through my chest and down to my stomach area, leaving behind an ugly red trail.

"GNRRAH!"

MOTHERFUCKER!

In a fit of revenge-fueled rage, I smashed my sword hand into his nose, sending him to the floor, then stabbed my blade right between his eyes.

+28 EXP

I turned to go and finish off the Soldier, but I was instead met with the sight of a sword held by my partner sticking out of his chest, before she pulled it out and rushed over to me. "Hey, hey! You good?"

I looked at the wound - which had already disappeared and left behind a trail of ripped shirt and torn leather vest. I hoped she wasn't able to see that I appeared unharmed, as that would raise quite a few questions. Sure, I trusted her, don't get me wrong, but not that much. I'd say we were at C-support level right now, if anything, probably less. Revealing my true nature would be an A-support conversation thing, or possibly a B. But not C.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Nothing a vulnerary and a check-up can't fix." I then glanced behind her. "By the way, you might wanna dodge."

She didn't question the warning, leaping off to the side right before a sword cut through the air where she used to be. The lack of resistance apparently came as a surprise to the weapon's wielder, leaving him open for two weakening slashes, capped off by Mia flipping over my head to land a devastating smash attack that K.O.'d him.

+8 EXP

I decided now was a good time to heal, so I started chugging away at my supplied Vulnerary.

Funny how these things are almost never used in-game because grinding for staff EXP is so much more economical, but here, I just can't get away from 'em. Not that I want to. If this is what it's like for me now, then… ooohh. Radiant Dawn's gonna be fuuuuun.

I heard another sound of thunder right after that. Glancing in the direction it came from revealed another medium-rare Soldier falling prey to the business end of Oscar's Lance and slumping over.

I pulled the container away from my mouth and held it up to my partner, despite the fact that her HP gauge was still full. "Heals?"

She held up a hand. "Thanks, but nah. Save that for when we really need it."

"Right, good call." I pocketed the salve and sheathed my blade, pulling out my Armorslayer again. "I think Oscar said we'd have armored troops headed our way, so we should probably go deal with that."

We advanced and met up with our other two allies, then held our position until the aforementioned units came close enough.

One was carrying a Javelin, and quickly proved himself a nuisance. The other one, restricted to melee range, was taking a while to make his way over to us, so Mia and I used that extra time to distract the ranged one and draw his fire so Ilyana could snipe him with impunity. He collapsed in a well-done heap right before the guy with the Steel Lance made contact.

Needless to say, he didn't last too long. While he was skilled, there was no way he could've hit Mia or Oscar while they were double-teaming him from opposite sides. With his attention split, I was able to move in and deliver a fatal lunging stab that somehow had me phase right through him.

What the- was that a crit? Man, is it weird to experience that kind of animation from a first-person view…

Whatever the case may have been, it still counted as my kill.

+28 EXP

LEVEL UP!

Number rolled: 23

+3 stat points

Oh, for fuck's sake…

I knew I didn't really have a right to complain, given that I'd never get a level-up with less than three stat-ups unless my stats were capped, unlike the others, but it still hurt.

Ah, well. No use crying over it. I'll just have to make do.

I simply decided to ping HP, skill, and defense. The holy trinity of strength, speed, and defense would start next level.

Level: 13^ +1

HP: 27^ +1

STR: 13

MAG: 7

SKL: 11^ +1

SPD: 13

LCK: 11

DEF: 13^ +1

RES: 8

Oscar spoke when I came out of the level-pause. "That seems to be all of them, at least for now. Overextending ourselves would be a bad idea, especially in this state, so I propose that we pull back to the front yard entryway. All in favor?"

He received nods in response. "All right then, let's go."

We promptly retreated. Once we arrived at our designated choke-point, we waited, while occasionally glancing across the yard to the other entrances. Everyone appeared to still be going strong, though it was hard to make out any minor details at this distance.

Rhys swung by for a quick group heal-cast, just in case. Could never be too careful - or too paranoid. The HP bars could be faulty or something.

Build an army, trust nothing. Not even the official strategy guide (especially not the official strategy guide). Fire Emblem, everyone. Only on GameCube.

Heh.

Anyway, a little while later, a few more reinforcements arrived. This time, it was simply two soldiers accompanied by a mage. I once again pulled out my Iron Sword. I was confident that we had this random encounter in the bag, but again, you could never be too careful.

Cue the music.

But first… "Hey, Ilyana. You see the tome that guy's carrying?"

"Yes. Fire, right?"

"You know what to do, then. We'll keep the lancers occupied."

"Thank you."

I gestured her off for her little magic duel, while Oscar, Mia and I advanced towards the two Soldiers. Naturally, me and my partner grouped up against one, leaving our Lance Knight to fend for himself against the other. Thus, we began our double duel amidst the sounds of pattering rain, fireballs exploding, and brilliant arcs of pure electricity streaking towards their targets.

Our current target seemed to continue the trend of the majority of Soldier-class units surpassing their expected competency levels compared to other enemy classes. Not only was he able to keep us from touching him for quite a while, he also scored quite a few grazes and narrow hits on both of us. He even managed to somehow coordinate a spur-of-the-moment pincer strike with his fellow Soldier on me. Thankfully, only one of the lances used actually hit me, but it was still a Steel Lance, and thus hurt quite a bit, even with my 13 points of Defense. Not helping were all the errant spells that occasionally flew our way, requiring quick reflexes and more than a little luck to escape from unscathed.

Nonetheless, we kept at it, and our perseverance was rewarded after a trying fight. We managed to trap him in a situation that forced him to defend from both the front and back, and while he was certainly strong, his weapon of choice was still a little too heavy for him to carry without any drawbacks, costing him enough speed to the point where he was just shy of being able to keep up with the dual strike. A slice on his left side and a cut on his right arm courtesy of yours truly was the beginning of his end.

+7 EXP

The wounds broke his concentration, leaving him open for impalement with extreme prejudice on Mia's blade. She then shoved him off, leaving him to crumple to the ground.

A look to the left saw Oscar redirecting the other Soldier's lance to a harmless path, then sending his own right into the enemy's neck.

A look to the right saw Ilyana dashing at the opposing Mage to brutally bash his face in with her tome, after which he was subject to who-knew-how-many volts of magically-generated electricity.

Holy hell, that was savage… I guess that above-average strength growth of hers isn't just for show. Wonder if I can find a way to utilize that properly…

Suffice to say, wave 3 was done for. But…

"Haa… man, this is tiring. I don't know how long I'll be able to hold out if they keep coming like this…"

Though I may have had unlimited stamina, the same couldn't be said for any of my allies. Mia had a point. If they could just keep throwing bodies at us, then we would eventually become too exhausted to continue the battle, and subsequently die.

Of course, having foreknowledge, I knew that we would be saved by the laguz at some point. But I had no way of knowing how long we needed to survive for. All the post-battle cutscene gave us was that the Greil Mercenaries had been effectively out of energy by the time they received backup. No time-stamps, no estimations, nothing else in regards to the time of rescue. Checking the conditions menu said that we only needed to defend the castle for one more turn to clear the map, but that wasn't accurate since the cutscene showed Ike and company on the verge of defeat and gathered in the front yard of the castle.

Shit… for all I know, the real assault's only just begun. If they manage to tire everyone else out before help arrives… one or more of us may not survive.

I continued to rest and marinate in thoughts of this nature for a little while longer. Idly, I noticed that the large, flashing red dot on the map denoting the chapter boss was nowhere to be found

Then… more reinforcements arrived.

Only this time, it was in far greater numbers.

Hulking suits of armor, swordsmen, lancers, axefighters, archers, mages… all of them, and more.

Oscar gulped. "Oh, dear. I don't think we can win against those numbers…"

I was seriously inclined to agree. "Yeah, me neither. Do we pull back, or...?"

I glanced behind me, and saw Rhys rushing towards us. When he arrived, he delivered a report and a refresher.

"The commander's issued a retreat order. We're going to fall back and regroup inside the castle. He thinks we may be able to last longer if we can restrict the flow of enemies using the gate."

I looked back to the approaching horde. "Solid move, but against a force of this size… I dunno. Still, I suppose we have to try. Alright, everyone, you heard him! Let's move!"

We relocated to the front of the castle in short order, and were joined by the rest of our comrades in the same manner. Most, if not all of them showed signs of heavy exhaustion, no doubt from how long we'd been fighting and all the wounds they'd suffered. Ike and Boyd in particular, as one was responsible for stopping a bunch of mounted knights cold at the front entrance, while the other was instrumental in the downfall of the East's numerous amount of armored troops.

"Brother!"

What th- oh, right, she comes out too.

Ike about-faced at the sudden arrival. "Mist? Why are you...? I told you to-!"

She cut him off right then. "I don't care!"

"What-?"

She did it again when enemies began to stream in from the openings. "We're trapped. There's no way we could get past all those soldiers. This is the end for us, isn't it? We're all going to die here, aren't we?"

While we spent time talking and breathing heavily, the enemy forces approached and surrounded us from the front. Now that they were all consolidated together, I found that there actually weren't that many of them. A rough estimate gave me the result of only around 30 troops total, at most, likely less, though there were definitely more in the surrounding walls. An admittedly small force, but far more than enough to finish us off.

I turned to Ike, who had briefly fallen silent. "Commander… she's not wrong. I'd like to think I did well in math class, and that knowledge is telling me that our chances are slim, if not nonexistent. I hate to admit it, but they've got us beaten."

I felt like Captain Price during the endgame of MW2. Outgunned, outnumbered, staring death in the face, with almost no hope of survival.

For the Daein soldiers, it was a suicide mission.

But the way things were now, that also applied to us.

Ike processed my words. "...that may be true, but I won't give up that easily. Mist, no matter what, you and Rolf are getting out of this alive, and shooting straight for the palace. Once you get there, stay with Princess Elincia."

She shut that down hard. "No! I'm not going to let you trade your life for mine! I'm staying here with everyone - with you!"

Ike didn't respond. Mist took that as a cue to press her point. "I couldn't care less about death as long as I'm with you. If you're going to die, then I'm going with you. We'll go see Mother and Father again, and we'll do it together, as brother and sister."

She stepped up to him, and grabbed two handfuls of his shirt, tears threatening to spill out of her sockets. "So, please… stop telling me to leave you, because I won't. I can't. Not after everything. I can't leave any of you behind. Not again. Okay?"

I had to admit, her usage of pathos was on point, and judging by his reaction, Ike was of the same mind. "...all right, then. Stay at my side."

Mist let go of his shirt with a small smile. "Thank you, Brother."

Ike turned back to face the enemy. "One thing, though… you're not going to the afterlife just yet."

"Huh?"

He readied his blade. "I'm going to protect you. I gave Father my word. You're not dying if I can help it."

"Ike…" was all Mist could respond to that with.

The apparent new leader of the enemy forces - who just so happened to also be encased in heavy black armor - stepped forward at that moment.

"Mercenaries of Crimea. You have performed admirably well in the face of overwhelming odds, and have even managed to defeat our commander. For that, you have our respect. But it all ends here. If you must pray, then do so now, and prepare to meet your maker."

Everyone else tensed at that. It was clear for them to see that in a few hot minutes, this courtyard would be drenched not only with rain, but blood.

But as for me, well… I was counting.

Five, four, three, two, one, and…

"AAAHHH! NOOOO!"

There they are. Thank god.

Upon hearing the scream, the temp-leader, along with the majority of his troops glanced around for the source. "W-what? Who was that?"

Then, from the East entrance, came a large cat with a green ribbon wrapped around its neck. From the front entrance, behind the soldiers, approached a massive blue tiger. The fangs and claws of both were stained red.

What happened next could only be described as a chaotic curb-stomp battle.

Both the cat and the tiger immediately fell upon the soldiers, tearing quite a few apart and completely dominating the opposition. Blood splatters flew every which way. What little foes managed to escape through the west entrance were running with their tails between their legs.

When it was over, the yard was littered with bodies. The rain was still coming down, fruitlessly trying to wash away the crimson liquid that now coated the grass.

The two laguz shifted back to their human forms, and the rest of us slumped over and let out a collective sigh.

It's over… finally.

While Ike and the two furries were having their merry little discussion, I was having one of my own.

"That was a little too close for comfort, huh?"

"Oh, yeah. I probably could have gone a little longer if it was still just a few at a time, but against that many enemies… if we hadn't been saved, I don't think even the sub-boss could have made it out alive."

"We were unimaginably lucky today. If those two hadn't arrived when they did, we'd more than likely be down one or more members by now."

"Sheesh… what a double-whammy that would be, huh? First your commander, then some of your friends… who knows what kinda state we'd be in if they were just a little later..."

A fit of silence. Then…

"...we're not letting this happen again if we can help it, are we?"

"Definitely. Think we can invite a few more people to our early-morning sessions?"

"Not sure. We'll have to get a good read on everyone's sleeping habits before we do. Figure out which of us are morning people and all that."

"Right, that makes sense. Same time tomorrow?"

"You know it. As long as our schedule allows it, of course. Something tells me we won't be staying put for much longer."

"Alright."

We knocked knuckles. WHEN SUDDENLY…

GROOAAAR!

"MORDECAI! KILL HIM!"

Oh, hell. Here we go again…

A/N: So I guess you can expect most of my stories to update once a month, apparently? I dunno, seems like I've unconsciously created some unholy abomination that just so happens to bear a passing resemblance to a writing schedule.

Of course, there are a few exceptions to this rule, but they're for relatively obscure fandoms, so who really gives a shit, am I right?

I think I may have grossly overestimated the average enemy level for this chapter, but hey, it's my story, so… *holds up Infinity Gauntlet* reality can be whatever I want. Besides, I can always just say it's some weird difficulty setting fusion that combines Hard's enemy density with Maniac's level average and Normal's EXP rates. In essence, just the right amount of quality enemies that provide lots of level-up opportunities and a challenging experience, without just flooding the maps with boatloads of troops and calling it a day.

On an unrelated note… WHO'S HYPED FOR THREE HOUSES?! WOOOOOOO!

Personally, I empathize somewhat with Bernadetta (big surprise there, I know), but I'm also fairly interested in Lysithea, and at this point it feels like Raphael is just going to be one big meme. Not to mention Dorothea's ridiculous amount of SUTANDO POWA. I have no idea which house I'm going to pick first, but right now I'm debating between Black Eagles and Golden Deer because Claude seems like a pretty chill dude and is also a pretty big meme already and Edelgard is literally the first axe lord we've gotten since Hector.

Anyway, next time we get to see Andy interacting with everyone's favorite tsun-tsun cat and maybe with the big tiger. Who knows, we may even get an "OOOOOHHH!" Or maybe spontaneous synchronized singing.

(If you don't know what I'm referencing, you don't deserve to know.)

See you in maybe a month or something!

[TRANSMISSION ENDED]