Fire Emblem Fan Fiction / Fire Emblem Fan Fiction ❯ Pyre Light ❯ Complications ( Chapter 2 )

Wow, a new chapter within one week, my quickest yet!

Chapter Two

We continued our trek, going through the forest, chatting merrily. We headed for the northern shore, where the pirate captain Fargus was waiting for our return. There was a moment of silence, when we passed Leila's grave. We stopped by, and paid our respects to the now deceased Ostian spy. Leila was on good terms with Matthew, they were planning to get married. But their plans for union were cut short when she was ordered by Ephidel to be killed. Ephidel was also a morph, a creation of Nergal. Artificial, impure. He, along with Limstella, was in charge of the Nergal's army of morphs. Both were purged.

It was an awkward position, being at Leila's grave. Matthew laid some flowers on the grave, and sprinkled a bit of wine in respect. Lucius, being a bishop, said a few prayers for Leila. Most of us stood to the side, unsure of what to do. Aside from Lord Hector, Matthew, and Oswin, none of us had ever met a living, breathing Leila. We hovered to the side, watching Oswin, the big, headstrong knight pay his respects to Leila and shed a single tear. Jaffar was perhaps in the most awkward position of us all. He, being a tool of Nergal, was used as an Assassin. He was so infamous and feared, that he was dubbed the name of the Angel of Death. Ephidel ordered him to kill Leila. He complied. Matthew never forgave, or trusted Jaffar, even though he defected from Nergal and joined Lord Eliwood's army. No one can blame Matthew for being so suspicious. No one knows how to settle the hatred that Matthew has for Jaffar. Many of us think that it is impossible. Matthew stood up, and started walking northwards, our eyes following him.

"Well? What are you waiting for! Come on! Lets go home!" Matthew shouted, switching back to his go-happy attitude. He always tried to mask his sadness, his anguish. We knew it existed in his heart, withering him away. But we said nothing, in a desperate attempt to make him feel better. To give him some privacy. We didn't know what else we could do.

We continued our trek, the volume of our conversations growing as we went. When we exited the forest, we noticed several peculiar things. One, Fargus's ship wasn't waiting for us. Two, a contingent of his pirates were there. Three, they were being attacked, by morphs.
Aidan reacted swiftly and took the role of the army tactician, "Raven, Kent, Lyndis, I want you to head to the morphs' western flank and being assaulting from there with your swords. Kent, carry Raven on your horse back to expedite movement. Eliwood, take a contingent of forces and head for the eastern flank and being assaulting from there. Florina, Farina, Fiora, Heath, Vaida, take your Wyverns and Pegasi and use aerial tactics to harass them. Fiora, I'm counting on you to lead your two sisters into combat. Guy, Sain, Pent, Lucius, Hector, Canas, take the front lines and charge the morphs. Nino, Priscilla, Serra, support them with spells and staves, if necessary. Oswin, Marcus, Wallace, Lowen, fall back and provide backup if it is required. Matthew, Legault, I want you to get to the pirates and get some intel. I want to know what the hell is going on here! Go!"

Our entire team split up accordingly and got into positions. The unmentioned members of the team, who were not designated tasks, were to engage at will, as well as protect Aidan, even though he was perfectly able to defend himself, being skilled with a sword.

My battle group surged forward, moving as one. Fighting together for so long had given us the ability to perform directed orders nearly flawlessly. Lord Pent hopped onto Sain's horse, and rode with him, leaving the rest of us to run after them. Sain pulled out his sword, attacking the hoards of morphs that were present. Pent muttered nonstop under his breath, blowing them away one by one with Elfire spells. The main bulk of our battle group had reached the army of morphs, and we had readied our weapons. Lucius and Canas, complete opposites, cast their spells upon the morphs. Lucius's spells were based upon the power of light, relying on the holy powers of the world to aid him. Canas was the opposite, using Elder Magic, or also known as dark magic, to face his opponents. The area literally darkened when Canas cast his Gespenst spell. A stream of Elder Magic rushed forward, as if it was eager to score a kill. Three morphs were engulfed within the black beam. When the darkness faded, the three morphs had vanished. Lucius ran around, purging the morphs at insanely high speeds with his Luce tome.

Hector swung Armads in wide arcs, cutting apart great parts of the morph army. The air was thick with particles of disintegrated morphs, choking me. Ignoring the unpleasant sensation in my throat, I unsheathed my Regal Blade again, and unleashed hell upon the opposition. One by one they fell, crumbling to dust as they were cut. Suddenly, several morph Pegasus riders dived from the air, lances drawn, aiming for me. I knew in an instant I could not take all of them on. Suddenly, a hail of arrows pierced several of the winged horses' necks, disintegrating them. A rain of light dust fell upon me, covering me in it. I glanced behind me and saw Wil and Rebecca, grinning at me, bows in hands. I waved my hand at them, a sign of thanks.

Aidan was shouting something at us all. Over the roar of battle, I couldn't hear him. Then, the Pegasus sisters flew over head, shouting at us all, "Aidan says retreat, he wants us to fall back. The pirates were all slain. We have no chance of taking on this massive an army. Fall BACK!"

Everyone ran back, away from the heat of battle. Running into the cover of the forests, the swarm of morphs was forced to disengage. Once we were sure we were being followed, we gathered together at a clearing in the forest. Aidan had called for a war conference. Something was wrong.

"We have…" Aidan hesitated, unsure how to state this, "a situation."

Matthew stepped forward, his face and tone unusually serious, "It appears that after killing Nergal, all of his morphs gathered at Dread Isle, to seek our blood. What is driving them, or powering them, is beyond my knowledge, but they want us dead. It appears that they attacked Fargus, forcing him to leave the island and it stranded a contingent of his men on the island. During that vicious melee, it appears all the stranded ones… were killed. Apparently, Fargus is still at sea, just outside of Dread Isle. But the shores have all been blockaded making communication with him difficult. Attempts to fly past them are thwarted by the fact that many archers are there too. And as we all know, flying units fare none too well against arrows."

Rath, a Nomad Trooper with exceptional skills with a bow, stood up, a rare sight, for he usually was silent and listened only. He spoke, "It appears that this war isn't over yet. The ones with the golden eyes still live on. It appears we need to cleanse them in order to be extracted from this island."

I chuckled quietly, Rath always used such indirect words. The golden eyes referred to the morphs, who always possessed golden tinted eyes.

"Yes, yes, that may be true. That probably is true. But they outnumber us far too greatly. Even if our troops are infinitely superior to them, we can't win against such numbers," Aidan said.

"There might be a way… to defeat them all and not suffer casualties…" Renault slowly stated.

"I'm all ears," said Aidan.

"There is a place on the island; it is a narrow pass, going uphill. We may be able to use that chokepoint to our advantage."

"Yes, yes, that might work, where is this place?"

"Two days hike from here. Near the southwestern shore."

For a moment, I was stunned at Renault's knowledge about this island. But then again, on second thought, it wasn't all too strange. Renault was a Bishop that, seeking peace and quiet, had moved to Dread Isle. When fighting Limstella's army, we had encountered him, and he had joined our cause.

"But that's the other side of the island…" Aidan slowly said.
"Yes, it is."

"Well then… we should get going now shouldn't we?"

"Yes."

We pulled up all our packs, and began hiking over to the other side of the mountain. The people mounted on horses, wyverns, or Pegasi, gave the people on foot a lift, though there were still a few people who were forced to walk. I was among them. The hike was very uneventful. Aside from Rebecca quickly changing her mind about riding on Sain's horse and slapping him when he got a bit… provocative, nothing happened.

We had neared the center of the island by nightfall, and Aidan told us to stop and make camp.
Renault said after Aidan made his declaration, "Actually, there isn't a need to, there is a series of caves nearby we can sleep in instead of making camp."

"Really, then we might as well sleep in there then. It would also be better for defensive measures, if needed," Aidan said, pleasantly surprised.

When we reached the caves, we found that there was indeed many caves, nearly ten of them. With the forty people in our army, we split into groups of four and headed for the caves, all of us quite tired. Entering a cave, I saw that Matthew, Rath, and Oswin had already settled down here. Putting down my pack, I pulled out my own sleeping bag, setting it up. We had a short and small dinner, enough to keep us from starving but not enough to fully satisfy us. But living in an army for so long, we had learned to endure such petty things as hunger.

The four of us crawled into our sleeping bags, drifting off into an uneasy sleep.

A/N: Muahaha, thought Eliwood and his army would just skip off the island without retribution did you? You might be wondering why Aidan told them to fall back, and that in the game with a max leveled character you can take on an infinite amount of morphs without problems. That might be true, but this is centered more on real life where the people gang up on you and actually use the magical word called "teamwork" instead of taking turns fighting. R&R please