“What do you mean?” I was more confused about how he recognized me.
He scoffs. “Everybody down here has heard stuff about you, and some information about your…ah, students,”
“My students shouldn’t concern you, and if you live down here, why does the church concern you?” I ask. “How did you even figure out I work at Garegg Mach?”
“My people and I were victims of you scum,” he answers. “Enough of the chit-chat, prepare yourself to meet your end!”
Some mysterious mages summoned smoke and caused the whole room to be clouded. I stepped back swiftly and went back to the students and additional troops.. A group of grapplers and assassins were in the front lines…with more thieves to our right. I get the Sword of the Creator out. Weird, I noticed another guy who had an unrecognizable relic…I have yet to learn about any relic being gauntlets. It seems to be one of the four commanders.
“Ledle, Claude, and I will deal with the grapplers,”I guide the troops. “Dimitri and Hilda can deal with the thieves trying to surround us at the right.”
“Ugh, we should have never come here,” Hilda groans, leaving the main group.
Grapplers were pretty dodgy, even these rogues looked well-trained. I ordered Lin and Claude to stay back, since they couldn’t counter the enemies effectively. The grapplers rushed in, I quickly dodge and slash one of them to the ground. Unfortunately I winced as another managed to hit me, but Ledle cleaned up the grappler for me. Assassins were one of her weaknesses. Axs were heavy so her chances of dodging or even counter-attacking them were low.
“Ugh…” Ledle winced, I saw a red slash on her thigh….she hit the ground. The assassin was about to end Ledle, but she quickly rolled. Lin was thankfully in range to heal her. Thankfully, Claude saw Ledle was in danger, though it was my fault for not covering her.
Claude Claude’s accuracy was good enough to snipe that assassin from a few feet away. He shot the arrow which pierced directly at the assassin’s head. “It was a good try,”
“You’re in good form,” Ledle commends, as she gets back
I slashed the relic to the ground, which released the blade into a whipped-like way to kill the assassin. The commander with the mysterious relic was approaching, though I saw Hilda and Dimitri meet up with the main group. They both looked somewhat wounded, Lin healed Hilda and Dimitri used a vulnerary to heal some cuts. The commander was closer to us, yet stopped and looked surprised.
Hilda gasped. “Baltie?! What are…I swear I didn’t see you in that crowd…”
“H-Hilda?! I didn’t…huh, I-I didn’t think-” the commander was just as surprised.
“How do you think Holst will feel once he finds this out?” She looked more annoyed than angry.
“Oh, come on…I-I…hey, just don’t go after me and I won’t hurt you,” he stammered. “Also, Claude?!”
Claude even recognized him. “Huh, didn’t figure I would have to attack people who are from the Alliance.” Claude still shot arrows, some of which Baltie dodged. He seemed dangerous, especially with that relic, I commanded my students to not engage in melee combat until he was weak enough. I kept my students back.
“Real protector, aren’t you?”Baltie laughs a bit. “They call me the King of Grappling. I would like to see how a professor deals with it.” I couldn’t effectively dodge the gauntlets, it left a painful scar on my face. Thankfully, I only needed one final slash to bring him down. “Ugh…jeez, didn’t expect much from these…kids…”
I wasn’t a monster, so I wanted to spare him. “Do you surrender then? I will allow you to heal as long as you don’t put up a fight once more. I know there are three more commanders.”
“Y-yes…I-I do…” he groaned, so I was prompted to spare his troops to heal him. “See ya, Hilda…”
I felt as though I was going to faint from the blood draining from my cheek. “Yeah…go…ugh…” I had a vulnerary so I applied the liquid to my cheek. “One commander down.”
“I spotted some magic appearing behind the gate, Professor,” Ashe tells me. “Maybe the second commander is there.”
“We’ll proceed with caution,” Dimitri nods.
“This is going to be a longer battle than I thought,” I shake my head. “I’ll bait myself out for the magic so we can get more of an idea where they are.”
“Don’t be rash, my teacher,” Ledle held me back. “We should proceed more cautiously, and bait the enemies into fighting us first.”
I sigh. “I suppose so.”
One commander down…three more to go…
