Fire Emblem Protagonist 29

After this battle was over, the White Whale would probably look like a giant pincushion.

Normally, Crusch would have ordered all of her mages to blast the beast with fire, and the same thing applied to her cannons. Now however, most mages were attacking with ice instead, and her cannons had been loaded with Earth crystals.

And so, as their “artillery” stepped forward, many pikes of ice and earth were fired at the beast.

And that wasn’t all. One single cannon was aimed at the skies instead, firing some kind of crystal that lit up the sky. The White Whale was already impossible to miss even at night, but this made things even more clearer. Crusch wanted to make the battlefield the least chaotic it could be.

The first magic barrage hit the whale. Some hit their mark, some men managed to miss such a huge target, and some blows simply didn’t get stuck in its flesh. In the end, the beast was damaged, and most importantly…

“It’s speeding up towards us.” The White Whale had deemed them as a threat, but one that could be beat.

Crusch narrowed her eyes. “The mist is soon to come then. Be prepared.”

Right, and when the mist came, it would be his duty to still keep everyone more or less organized through the chaos. Which sounded terrifying, but there was no time to complain now that they were in battle. He would just have to grit his teeth and pull through.

The whale roared. “Aroooo!” Which should sound straight up funny coming from such an animal.

But due to its size, the noise was straight up disorienting. Even Heitor, who was on the back of the army, had to cover his ears. And even then, he still flinched… but they were ready for this. It didn’t take a genius to figure out a big animal would make a big sound, so this was something Crusch had prepared for before she even heard Heitor’s analysis.

After its shout, came its mist.

It wasn’t really used as an attack, more like a distraction tactic so it could get in close. Nonetheless, if any man was hit by its initial burst, they would die. And if this was its second type of mist, Crusch’s mages that were on the frontline would be driven insane.

This was his cue to act. “Mages from group one through three, step back.” Like machines, they began retreating.

Heitor didn’t even need to waste time informing only their commander who would then inform his division. He skipped straight to the last step and informed every single man that needed to know.

And that wasn’t all. His ability was all about micromanaging, so he might as well do that. “Jake, Cain, the reason you two are confused is because your eardrums burst, retreat to the healers. Jeremy, you put too much mana on your attack, rest for a bit. Richard, calm down, everything is going well…”

And so it went, but making sure the mages pulled back wasn’t his only job.

“Soldiers from group four, step up.” He waited a moment. “Soldiers from group five, step up.”  He waited another moment. “Soldiers from group six, step up.”

Their groups had been divided by Crusch with their mana capacity in consideration. Group four had the least amount of mana, so they were frontliners. Meanwhile, group six were the ones with the most amount of mana.

This did mean they could do more damage, but it also meant that they were the ones most susceptible to the White Whale’s second mist. Which is why they would stay on the back until the mist was cleared up.

The frontliners did their best to fight back against their mist with as much power as they could, using their wind magic to dissipate it. Their lack of mana meant they wouldn’t last long of course, but once they had to leave the fight, the rest of the groups would probably have used up enough mana to take their spot.

That was Crusch’s plan was all about, carefulling managing her resources so she didn’t run out in an inconvenient moment.

Now it was just up to Heitor to follow her blueprint. “Robert, be careful where you point that sword, Zeke is right behind you. Reid, one breath at the time, you aren’t alone, your comrades are behind you. Hector, adrenaline is not letting you notice, but the impact of the mist messed up your arm pretty badly, retreat.”

“William, you’ve been poisoned by the mist, but don’t worry, just expel mana from your body and you will be okay, slowly and carefully… just like that. Dorothea, you may not be able to see, but I do, take one step forward, and then another, steel your heart and no road is invisible. Regulus, you got confused and are aiming the wrong way, turn around a bit my friend.]”

“Abel, I know your heart must be filled with rage and courage, but you’re leaving your group behind, step back, now. Anna, I see the shaky hands that hold your bow, remember that this battle can be won, steady yourself. Flugel, you are out of mana, retreat for now and rest. Joseph, back to group six, it’s not your time yet.”

Instruction after instruction came, but… he didn’t feel mentally tired at all.

His power had to affect his mind, it had to. It had always been obvious of course, no human could survive getting so much information suddenly shoved into their brains, so he had always 

known something was up, but this truly made him comprehend how much.

Heitor clenched his fist. “The whale is coming, Crusch.” It was intelligent enough to know Crusch was the commander, probably since she had stayed in the back. And so it was coming to eat them specifically.

Crusch raised her sword, now covered in wind. “Aim for me.” The mist was still filling the battlefield, so it was possible to miss even such a huge target.

But not with Heitor around. “A little bit to the left.”

She positioned herself. “One blow…” And…!

Crusch swung her blade. As soon as the whale appeared in her vision, it lost its own. Crusch’s wind blade hitting it right on one of its eyes. Blood gushed from it as the whale crashed to the ground, surprised that its enemy had known from where it had been coming from. And that wasn’t all, Crusch had cleared a fair bit of mist with her strongest wind attack.

This was an opportunity that Crusch would take full advantage of. “Heitor, it’s time.”

Heitor nodded. “Right.” He motioned for his Earth Dragon to move towards the best.

While in his head, he made the call for the strongest physical fighters to attack, including of course… “Sir Wilhelm, the beast has been grounded. Move as fast as you can!”

The Sword Demon arrived next to the monster in a flash, and had the gall to actually jump on top of it so it could more easily tear it apart. The White Whale was supposed to have hide stronger than rock, and yet Wilhelm Van Astrea cut it apart as if it was made out of the softest silk.

“That’s amazing…” Heitor desperately wanted that level of strength for himself.

For now though, he would content himself with stabbing the whale a little bit. So he summoned his Rusted Lance, bega charging Luna and—!

Almost fell from his Earth Dragon when he went for a stab. “Woah…!” Even though he was wearing a saddle that was meant to hold him in place.

It was probably wrong of him to think about it, but he was kind of glad that only he had a perfect view of the battlefield right now. No person could have seen him embarrassing himself like he had just done.

Though there was one exception, Crusch who was right next to him. “Heitor, are you alright?” Thankfully she wasn’t the type to mock someone for such a mistake.

“I-I’m fine, sorry!” He recomposed himself and began charging another Luna.

He and Crusch attacked the monster at the same time. With Luna, even his shoddy skills with the spear were enough to pierce the Mabeast, while Crusch sliced it by surrounding her sword with Wind Magic.

Once their blows stuck inside of the White Whale, their Earth Dragons began running forward. Dragging the slash across the beast’s body.

It was then that it happened. Heitor was hit with something he had been sorely missing.

Level Up!
+1 Str
+1 Mag
+1 Skl
+1 Spd
+1 Lck
+1 Def
+1 Res

And with that, he actually fell off the Earth Dragon.

Well, it wasn’t just from the surprise of the perfect level up, he had fucked up his stability with that little rush attack. Seriously though, he didn’t even know he could level up without ending a fight, but he supposed that had always been the case in Fire Emblem. Just fighting without killing gave someone way less EXP, but the White Whale was a giant monster that needed hundreds of men to be dealt with.

So it probably gave a lot of EXP.

“Heitor!” Crusch was already rushing to his position, probably ready to help him up his Earth Dragon.

But at this point Heitor had come to a conclusion. The battlefield really wasn’t the time to learn how to ride a dragon. Which is why sent his Rusted Lance back to his inventory, and equipped his Steel Sword instead.

With a few slashes, he cut himself free from the saddle. Then, he rolled back into position and stood up.

He forced himself to smile as Crusch approached. “Sorry, I think it’s better for me to be on foot for this.” On a Genealogy map? His ancestors must have been looking down on him.

For a moment Crusch looked like she wanted to argue, but she quickly decided she didn’t have the time for it. “Very well, but be prepared to jump on my saddle the moment you feel it’s needed!” 

She then slapped his Earth Dragon, sending the poor guy running away. It wouldn’t be good for the creature to stay near the White Whale.

Especially since the monster was about to retaliate for all the damage it had suffered, which is why it was time for Heitor to give his next orders. “Everyone, fall back! It’s about to release mist again!” 

He could see how the body of the whale tensed, it was definitely about to use its most reliable attack. It would get everyone away from it after all. WIth his warning however, people began to retreat, even the Sword Demon doing so.

Heitor himself began running away. Crusch offered to take his hand and lift him up to her dragon, but he didn’t bother with it. Keeping up with the speed of an Earth Dragon would tire his stamina really fast, but he rather do that than fall to the ground in a battlefield again.

Once more, mist exploded from the whale.

Heitor turned around to face it, planted his feet, covered his face, and gritted his teeth.

With a quick slash, he cut the mist that was in front of him. His vision couldn’t be clouded, but cleaning up the mist before the White Whale went for a second attack would be crucial, and already he was ordering the man to begin doing so.

Crusch too, began using her wind to handle the problem. “Heitor, what is our situation? How many men have we lost? Did the White Whale leave the ground?”

He frowned. “We… lost two men during the attack just now, but those have been our only casualties so far.” They hadn’t been able to get away fast enough. “At least that’s as far as I can tell, I might have forgotten people, after all.”

Still, this was undoubtedly a good result. The army still felt strong, and morale was still high. Nonetheless, seeing as he had seen those men lose their lives, he couldn’t help but feel a little down nonetheless.

“Only two?” Crusch gasped. “That’s incredible…”

“Yeah, but we have way more wounded. Though I’m already guiding them into retreating.” A lot of people got hurt from the mist, falling and hurting themselves. “And as for the White Whale, it has returned to the skies. I think it might be considering whether it should run or not.”

It had taken a great amount of damage on its first charge alone. Heitor imagined that normally the monster would have already broken most armies, who would have their formations and plans shattered due to the mist. That wasn’t the case here of course, and so the White Whale had paid a great price for its attack.

It might try to clone itself soon. If not now, then definitely during its second charge.

Crusch cleared her throat. “Very well then. Please reposition our mage groups, if this strategy works, we’ll keep repeating it for now.” No need to fix what wasn’t broken.

“I’m already on it.” Currently his attention was split on multiple things.

Making sure the artillery was in position, which was a bit harder to do now that mist was covering most of the battle. Making sure the squad of soldiers repositioned themselves so they could once more guard against the mist and be in melee range when necessary. Making sure any wounded or exhausted men retreated, and had their positions properly traded with someone else. And lastly, making sure the healers back in base were ready to handle those wounded.

“Um…” Crusch stole a glance at him. “That’s good, but please don’t drive yourself to exhaustion. If you fall, then we all fall soon after it.”

“Don’t worry, I’m good.” Surprisingly, he didn’t feel all that tired. “Right now I actually feel like I'm in my element. And it’s because of your plan, so thanks.” He nodded to himself. “Back during the fight with Sloth I had to improvise, but since you gave me a blueprint to follow, I’m more or less just following orders.”

It kind of reminded him of playing a Fire Emblem chapter with a guide. Sure, he had to improvise here and there, but he more or less knew what to do, so it wasn’t hard at all.

And speaking of Crusch and her strategies, they were about to become very useful.

“Actually, we have a problem.” Heitor suddenly scowled.

He could see two new groups entering the battlefield. Two different groups of Witch Cultists. Fucking ambush spawns.

“Tell me the situation.” Crusch took a deep breath, readying herself for bad news.

“The Witch’s Cult showed up to try and help its pet, I guess. There’s two divisions, one headed to the whale, and another to our healers.” Thankfully that was manageable. “They’re pretty far away though, so we have time to act.” Thank goodness for Genealogy maps.

That wasn’t all of it though. Since Crusch knew the White Whale was essentially a minion of the Archbishop of Gluttony, she had let a small squad of completely fine soldiers back in camp just in case. Those soldiers hadn’t been happy about seemingly being dumped of course, but now they would see some action.

And the camp had Priscilla. No Witch Cultist could challenge her.

Still, it also had Felt, so he couldn’t help but be a bit worried.

Crusch clicked her tongue. “Those scum… I wonder if this is the first time they interfered with something like this… But it doesn’t matter right now. How big are their forces? Is there an Archbishop with one of them?”

Heitor shook his head. “There is no Archbishop but each squad does have their own elite… Though that elite is not on the level of the Sword Demon or anything that insane.” They were just bosses, essentially. Optional bosses, even.

Each dropped two thousand gold, which felt like nothing when compared to the loot the White Whale offered.

Heitor continued. “As for their size, there are thirty cultists for each squad, counting the elites.” Which was actually pretty huge.

Maybe not by the standards of a full fledged army with thousands of soldiers, but Crusch’s army was not a full fledged army. And more than that, they were already busy facing the White Whale.

Crusch hummed. “It’s like they are cockroaches, suddenly appearing in such huge numbers… But I know how I’ll handle this. Tell me, how is our trump card going?”

She could only be talking about one thing, the song. “It’s getting there. I got a decent amount of meter when we got close to the whale.” Probably because he was near a bunch of people attacking it. “And everytime you attacked I also got a bunch of meter.” More than even the man had supplied.

He was guessing it was due to their high Support Ranks. That did mean fighting side-by-side with Priscilla would raise it even further of course.

Crusch grinned. “Well, then let’s start this song already. Send Wilhelm and group six to handle the coming Witch Cult, we can’t have them clashing here and causing chaos. Meanwhile, you and I will personally go back to the camp and help them. Make sure they are already in position to handle the enemy until then.”

Heitor raised an eyebrow. “I… are we sure we should be leaving the White Whale behind?”

She nodded. “It will be fine as long as I’m near you. You can keep me updated, and I can give you orders, after all… And I need to get you to Lady Priscilla so we can use our trump card and put an end to this fight.”

Heitor tilted his head. “That’s all well and good, but… this will get people talking about Priscilla.”

She shrugged. “A shame, but… we only lost two men. I… if this was a normal battle I could tell myself that deaths are to be expected, but it clearly isn’t. And so, as a noble, as a citizen of Lugunica, I have the responsibility of ending this as soon as possible. There are two casualties at this point, let’s keep it that way.”

Crusch sighed. “It’s a shame though, that I might lose the sight of the beast dying…”

Heitor patted her shoulder. “That may be the case, but considering you’re the one who assembled this army, you are definitely the one who stabbed it through the heart… Doing it without even seeing it just makes it even more badass.”

She blushed. “I thank you for your words… Or at least that is what I like to say, but I don’t really understand what you mean by badass…” Oh. “And to be honest, I don’t really get the word meter either…”

Being someone from Earth sure had its drawbacks. “I’ll try using more sophisticated words next time, my bad.” But this wasn’t the time for this.

The Whale was still standing above without doing much of anything, hesitant to attack after the ass beating it had gotten, which meant he had to use this opportunity and get everything moving according to Crusch’s plan.

First, he contacted the entire army. “The Witch’s Cult is attacking us… there’s no need to panic however, we’ll strike before they even have the chance and end all of those bastards!” 

There was a big chance the cult expected their sudden arrival to come as a surprise, sadly for them, Intelligent Systems had apparently gotten better with designing ambush spawns. Heitor had to act fast, but he could still defend everyone from their sudden attack.

So he continued, this time addressing group six and WIlhelm. “You all will be handling a group of Witch Cultist’s that are heading to our position. I’ll inform you of all of their strengths, so don’t worry.” The Sword Demon would cut down that elite with ease.

And then, he addressed those back at the base. “There is a group of cultists moving towards your position. Just hold your ground for now, Lady Crush and I are on our way.” They should be fine, especially with Priscilla there.

There was one problem though. “Seriously…?” He couldn’t help but mutter to himself in frustration.

Crusch immediately noticed that. “More enemies?”

“No, but… Sir Wilhelm isn’t moving. I think he wants to stay fighting the whale…” Heitor had no idea how to handle insubordination. Especially coming from a legend.

For a moment Crusch looked as if she couldn’t believe it, scowling with anger… but she quickly recomposed herself. “I suppose I should have known this would happen. Normally I’d personally talk with him, but we probably don’t have the time for that, so I’ll be relaying you the correct words to use.”

Crusch took a deep breath. “Call him a coward who’s letting a bunch of cultists steal his revenge.”

Heitor almost choked on air with shock. “...Alright.” He didn’t know if the Sword Demon would take that well, but this wasn’t the time to argue with Crusch. Wilhelm had already given her enough of a headache.

Even so, telling the Sword Demon such words felt terrifying. “Coward. Are you going to stand there as those cultists steal your revenge? If that’s the case, leave the battlefield and retire, old man.” Hopefully it would work…

The Sword Demon made a face that could only belong to someone with such a title… and then dashed towards the upcoming cultists with speeds that Heitor could barely perceive.

Heitor let out a sigh of relief. “That actually worked.”

“Good. Though I’ll still punish him for this when the battle is over.” He had a feeling being Wilhelm was going to be a nightmare soon. “Now get on my Earth Dragon and let’s go.” Right, it was time to do their part.

But before that… “Sure, but just give me a moment.”

He linked himself to the rest of the army. “Men, Lady Crusch and I will be heading forth to face the cultists, but fear not. Remember that no matter how far we are, I will guide your blade.” There, now there wouldn’t be any confusion if somebody noticed they weren’t around.

Now it was time to get on top of that dragon and probably embarrass himself again… Seriously, he just ditched his own and was forced into needing one a few moments later!