The Missing Stone

A Battle Between Loyalties

Mildred watches battalions get assigned to their commanders, pegasi and wyverns take to the sky as mounted soldiers fall into formation. The professor is shouting orders at the group as the first soldiers line up in their positions. Mildred jumps from her spot and dashes up the edge of a ravine, intent on taking out the archers firing volleys from their vantage.

Sylvain charges ahead atop his horse, leading a battalion towards the other side of the ravine, merging with the professor and Ingrid's soldiers. Annette, paired with the dark-green haired napper, follows Ashe, paired with the purple-haired girl, and Mercedes on Mildred's side. The blond immediately breaks formation and charges forward, followed by a cursing Felix.

Mildred spots Annette blasting a heavily armored soldier to the ground with wind magic, and justifies within herself that magic does indeed exist. Ashe fires an arrow at the mounted axer, Mercedes breaking from the group and putting herself in range of the archers to take down the other armored soldier to the mounted axer's right. Ingrid surrounds the axer and the apparent archer right behind him with her soldiers, prohibiting movement.

The archers draw their bows, and knowing that Felix and the blond are too far away to help, Mildred sprints to the edge of the cliff and leaps over the lava crevice. She lands feet first on the first archer, sinks a dagger in his neck, jumps and kicks the other archer over the edge. Mildred releases a breath, knowing her cover is officially blown when the professor stares at her with wide eyes from across the field.

She follows along the edge of the crevice, keeping the blond and Felix in sight. They both easily take down the archers, dodging the arrows and covering each other's backs. A deadly tag-team.

Mildred feels a spike of pain erupt in her head, so she instead focuses on the fortress knights just ahead. She knows she can't do any real damage with her daggers against their armor, and since they haven't caught sight of her, she crouches behind a rock spire and waits.

Their armor covers their necks, so Mildred can't simply slit their throats. Reaching behind her for a longer dagger, Mildred eyes the slats in their helmets. If she can wedge a blade in between them, it should cause enough damage to at least blind them, and that would be enough for them to be rendered useless.

With a plan in mind, Mildred looks back to see Ingrid engaging one of the paladins on the west bank, a wyvern rider with dark green hair immobilizing the other paladin and the archer behind them. Speaking of archers, both of them fire a volley at Ingrid, who dodges easily, one of them incapacitated by Annette, the other by the professor on his flank. Mercedes blasts the heavy knight in the middle with fire, the additional heat cooking him alive.

The others are holding well on their own, so Mildred returns her attention to the two knights blocking her path. She plans on following the blond and Felix as they are outnumbered, the pair currently engaging their own pair of fortress knights on fiery soil. She exhales, and tosses a rock towards her pair as a distraction.

One of them breaks formation to investigate, and Mildred takes her chance to bolt around the spire and pounce on the second knight, twisting her blade into the helmet and pushing off, the knight collapsing with a clang of metal, choking. Their companion pivots at the sound, Mildred spinning around them and leaping from behind, repeating the same process until both lie in a pile of useless heavy armor.

She hopes she spared them an immediate death. Suffering in a place like this seems torturous. Mildred checks on her allies to the west again, who at this point are simply marching forward, the two fliers drawing the archers' fire as Mercedes and Annette easily dispose of the soldiers on either side of the path. Deeming them fine without her assistance, Mildred charges after Felix, who is yelling at the blond to slow down.

A chest catches her eye, and she hopes there's something inside that will help as she dashes over, breaking the lock with a hard twist of her dagger. Mildred glances up at the blond and Felix, now occupied with dodging axers who, to Mildred, are surprisingly fast. She returns her attention to the axe inside the chest. It's a strange weapon, and it crackles with energy, but Mildred knows that she can't tap that power.

Instead, she lugs it on her back and drops to all fours as a cat, bearing the searing pain and sprints between rock spires. When she transforms, she finds that her load is a lot lighter, but at the cost of nearly burning her paws off.

Worth it, she thinks as she sees Felix strike the last warrior with a swipe of his sword.

She ducks behind another spire, watching another knight approach on horseback followed by two others. His armor is different from the others, and her suspicions are confirmed when neither the blond nor Felix, who scoffs at his appearance, raise their weapons in offense.

"She even managed to plant Imperial spies inside the monastery," she hears him mutter, turning her head when she hears another voice from across the field.

"The Shield of Faerghus has arrived!" Another mounted knight, with slicked back grey hair and a scarred face, brandishes his lance towards the 'Shield of Faerghus'. "We should anticipate more out of him than these lowlives." With suited reinforcements, Mildred shifts and follows close behind, watching the newcomer give Felix a new sword, who doesn't say thank you but at least doesn't burn him with a scathing remark.

The professor's group reach the Gray Lion first, the fliers distracting the paladins and the mages  before finishing them, the vanguard taken care of when Ashe snipes their healer from behind the professor. The latter engages the Lion first, and Mildred can almost feel their blades' vibration in her bones. They're almost there...

"Does a weakling such as you think you can fell me?" He sneers, using the height advantage from being mounted to push back the professor. "I am a knight of House Rowe! Gwendal, the Gray Lion!"

The professor backs off when the tip of his lance grazes his side, letting Mercedes cast a healing spell on him. Right when Gwendal is going to charge again, the blond yells from across the field, "To see one with the title of 'Lion' brought down as a pawn for an accursed traitor..."

Gwendal rears his horse around, grinning at the sight of the blond. "You wound me, Your Highness," he spat, spinning his lance in one hand, "but I have, and always will be, a knight of House Rowe!"

"You dare forget the dignity of knighthood, to be reduced to a mere beast attempting to curry favor from that traitor!"

"I may be a beast, but I am a loyal one at that."

"Ha!" The blond laughs, letting his head tilt back in dark amusement. "Then I should end this pathetic dog's life and deliver its head to the master..."