--- South-southeast Graelian, Crostignon Province, close to the border of Vilante ---

It was noon,, and the sun shined bright and warm on this early summer's day. Not a cloud could be seen in the sky and the lsuh, green grass of the vast fields stretched on for miles in each direction. True enough, there were some small, wooded areas here and there, a small pond and even a shallow, narrow river running at the very far-east of the soon-to-be battlefield, but other than that it was just verdant, rich fields of green. At the western-most part of the fields, a large wooden tower had been constructed, with a skybox-like building on top of it - it was from this very structure that a youthful male was broadcasting with magically to all corners of Vilante and Graelian alike!

"And here we are, in beautiful Crostignon, just on the border of our neighbours Vilante, who also happen to be our opponent of today!" He called with a cheerful voice. "As you all know, I'm your Battle-Announcer, Pierre Crostini! Everyone, I look forward to bringing you another exciting and fun war-game today!"

As he made his case, one could see the expectation and excitement in the eyes of those who listened and watched the magic screens, no matter where they were. In towns, villages, the big cities or even the spectators who had come out to the field itself to watch live - everyone was pumped and itching to see what would happen once the battle began. Naturally, this was no different for the two armies, each currently gathering at their respective headquarters. The Graelian base was a small, wooden palisade fortress, errected at the central north of the battlefield, while Vilante had a Hill Fort in the far, south-eastern parts of the area. New soldiers and participants came with every passing minute, proving that Graelian's long withdrawal from the War-Games had not diminished its populations desire or interest in it!

Things were being finalized now, with the Medical Crews getting into place and setting up their various tents and supplies, while construction workers and Frala Specialists made sure that all additions to the warfront and the levels of Frala in the region were all within acceptable range. Suddenly, though, Pierre's voice called out again.

"Ah! That's right! We have a special guest with us today! Please give a warm welcome to Queen Parfait of Vilante! It's good to have you here, your highness!" And as if the camera had purposefully hidden her before, it now swivelled slightly to the side, revealing a beautiful young woman in a rather revealing black dress, sitting next to Pierre with a happy smile on her face.

"Ufu~ It's a pleasure to be here, I hope we'll have a fun and enjoyable battle today." She said with an eloquent and regal tone.

"That's right! But there are many who're wondering, your highness! We've heard that Princess Sfogliatine of Graelian will be participating herself, and not only that, but she's even got a special surprise in store!"
"Oh my~ How exciting." Queen Parfait let out a modest, playful surprised expression, cupping her cheek in her hand.
"So, do you mind telling us why you're not partaking in the war yourself?" Perre continued without pause and unphased, his cheerful and energetic speech not losing an inch of his previous vigor.
"Hmm... Well, it might be fun to join in, but I think it's just as fun to watch. Besides, I have confidence in my Knights and Officers~"
"Oh-ho! You hear that folks? The Queen has given her army a vote of confidence! Vilante Army, make sure you work hard for your ruler!"
"That's right~ Everyone, Do. Your. Best~!" The beautiful fox-queen gave a seductive smile and wink as the broadcast finished.

... And a loud, resounding echo of upbeat and spirited roars could be heard from the Vilante Hill Fort, as her majesty's army cheered in joy.

Truly, today would surely bring an exciting battle.

--- Isle of Summons, South of the Graelian Capital ---

Hovering far above the rest of the country, several hundreds of feet into the air, was the Isle of Summons. A floating island, kept anchored in the air thanks to the strong, magical energies that was found here. It was a breathtaking sight, no doubt, not only for the view, but the island itself was awe-inspiring. Trees with silverine leaves, flowers that looked like they had been formed from crystal, rock or glass and the white, marble pavement and stairs, leading up to the summoning area with its many pillars and circular altar... It was all quite incredible.

To get to the altar though, one would have to ascend a set of three flights of stairs, followed by a long, straight walk on a boulevard-like road before finally reaching the structure. What was so special about it? Well, for one, it was the only place in all of Graelian where one could call upon the heroes - the mighty individuals who lived in the other world, the people of another dimension who sometimes came to answer the call when royalty of Fralanthe needed them. Through a pillar of light, they would descend from the kies and emerge here, at the center of the island, within the shrine, and be met by their summoner. After confirming their allegiance, they would all proceed to leave and take off for whatever duties or immediate task that the King, Queen or otherwise had called them for.

And so it was, that here, on the Isle of Summons, there were to be a summoning. Nay, two summons in one go! The young princess of Graelian, Sfogliatine, was now on her way to prepare, finalize and begin the Hero Summons. And with such nice weather, hers was sure to be a summoning that would go well!

A deep breath. Eyes closed. Focus. This is it. The people will love it. This is the hour of change. The hour when everything would be turned around. There had been trying times since… since… since they died, since her parents died and gave her the throne. There had been disturbing reports of monsters, the entire nation had been feeling like it was on the edge of its seat with these repeatedly worrying news. But today… today all that changed. Everything felt so right. There was a piece of doubt still harboring deep within her soul, but determination had already flooded her. She was going to do this, and there was nothing that was going to go wrong! Everything was perfect…!

‘Waf! Waf!’ Just by her feet, a tiny, brown and REEEEAAAALLY happy dog was jumping around. He was way over-eager, with the knife which would be used for the summoning bound around his neck for easy access by his mouth. ‘Waf! Waf!’ The little thing bounced up at her, and she caught it with a giggle in midair, holding the happy creature in her arms. The dog wasted no time looking around happily with mouth open and tongue hanging. She carried him along while another, darker dog was walking at her right. A lot calmer than the tinier one, this one strode with a sense of purpose and somewhat of a hint of laziness, but still, the knife similarly bound around her neck was there for the summoning as well. These dogs were the tiny Peach and the dark Kiwi, ready to do their duty happily/calmly for their nation.

The girl herself was Sfogliatine Zucchero Graelian. She was a young and suitably short girl of fourteen summers with long white hair reaching just beyond her hips. Her expression at the moment was smiling with determination, carrying the tiny brown Peach up the long stairway on the floating island. While a princess, she wasn’t wearing exactly royal-looking clothes, but they were certainly distinctive. Alright. The princess looked up the stairs. Her young eyes looked in awe at the pillars and altar. This entire place… it was just screaming destiny. And the princess knew she would answer. Biting her lip for a bit, praying silently that this wouldn’t miss-match the timing of the battle too badly, she did her job.

‘Kiwi! Peach! Go!’ She let the brown little Peach go down on the marble road, where he along with the dark Kiwi dashed up the remaining starts at an impressive speed while Solia whispered her little chant, focusing on what she had learned. Soon enough, the two dogs were far ahead of her and reached the structures… where a flash of green light shone and the two canines disappeared up towards the heavens, Solia watching from a part away. Much of the preparation had been done beforehand, so what was needed was simply to activate it. … OK. Done. The princess breathed out in relief. … Now she merely needed to hope for the best while she ascended the stairs and towards the summoning altar. She had sent the summons for the heroes. She had told Lucrezia to prepare for their arrival, and left command of her forces to Anisette. They and her other followers would be able to lead well enough even without the princess’ input. Th-this would work… right? So, Solia stepped upwards the stairs one step at a time, her tail wagging from the excitement of summoning heroes…

The dark and calm Kiwi would be the one to appear before Alam, while the tiny eccentric overly happy and friendly Peach would be the one who appeared before Yui. Both dogs would appear before them at some time when they were on their own (and possibly heading in a direction suitable to them). Kiwi would take maximum advantage of whatever situation occurred before her and place the portal somewhere where Alam was heading for, possibly. Meanwhile, the moment Peach saw Yui he’d jump at her to attempt befriending and general cuddling before putting the knife in the floor/ground to make the portal appear right underneath her if possible. Should they be dodged or otherwise, I’ll take personal control of the dogs and we can have fun figuring out how the two of them gets you.

It wasn’t the most pleasant day to be out and about in the city; dark clouds hung overhead, the humidity levels were quite uncomfortable, and the air was thick and almost oppressive. Nevertheless people went about their daily lives and in the modern steel forest thousands of people passed one another without incident. Yet between the tall buildings, in the alleys they created, there was something something happening that wasn’t quite the usual.

A young tanned man with dreadlocks, quite an eye-catching hairstyle in this country, jogged through the backstreets. Most probably would have thought his clothes to be too thick for the weather, but Alam found comfort in the thick hoodie and jeans. He jogged at a brisk pace and despite the maze that was the city's backstreets he navigated it in a manner that spoke of experience or perhaps just natural intuition. His pursuers, a half a dozen or so boys, didn’t have that advantage and the distance between him and their group steadily grew. Yet Alam didn’t give them a moment’s pause to catch up - he just kept on running.

He had stopped muttering his mantra of, “Crap, crap, crap, crap,” a while ago, after it became clear he wasn’t in danger of losing the lead he had on the boys. Still… they were persistent if anything and Alam didn’t know if he should feel annoyed or impressed. For one reason or another, generally because of his appearance, a few people had seen him as a target after the move to the city. Yet most of them tended to back off after he put up a fight, or simply give up after it became clear he was quite the runner. These high schoolers seemed pretty hell bent on paying him back for the broken nose he had given their buddy though.

And as much as Alam enjoyed a good fight, a five against one was a great plan to end up at the doctor’s or worse. With that in mind, Alam had bolted immediately after he had smashed the one’s face in with his knuckle duster. It was annoying how he couldn’t go more than a week or two without running into or having trouble come looking for him. He kept his mouth shut and didn’t tell his parents though, he could manage it so far and they didn’t need to deal with anymore stress. The jobs that had moved them to the city was more than enough.

Alam was so lost in thought that he very nearly ran past a turn he needed to make and into a dead end, only realizing thanks to the sudden flash of light to his side. There was an awkward stumble forwards from his sudden stop, but it was better than the faceplant that might have happened instead. He backtracked towards the turn carefully, there was an odd, green glow to the ground around it. Peeking around, he noted quickly enough that, yes, the air was in fact glowing green just past the wall he needed to climb. He rubbed his eyes furiously, blinking quickly, but when he checked again the glow was still there and now he swore there were small glowing particles drifting upwards.

“What…”

There wasn’t really another appropriate response to the situation in Alam’s mind and despite the rational part of his mind that argued he should just make a detour, his curiosity would not be so easily deterred. He ran forward and jumped for the ledge as usual, fingers finding purchase before slowly hauling himself up and onto of the wall. He didn’t know what he expected to find, but what he saw only made Alam even more confused. There was… a magic circle? He didn’t have anything better to describe what the array on the ground below him was, and it certainly resembled what he saw in games and shows. It was right then and there that Alam just stopped to observe and decide to get the hell out; dealing with a few high schoolers was much preferable to getting involved with whatever was happening here.

When he shifted around to hop off the wall and back track some more though, he nearly smacked something in the face. “Woah!” Scrambling backwards, he was exceptionally careful not to throw himself off either side of the wall in surprise; one would do god knows what, while the other would just hurt like hell. Now that there was some distance between him and it, Alam got a better look at what had nearly given him a heart attack. A dark furred dog with purple eyes stared at him, and if the whine it made was anything to go by, Alam would have swore the canine was disappointed. “Wha-” he began only to be cut off the dog hopped off the wall and onto the side without the “magic circle”. Raising an eyebrow, he stared for a moment before he smacked himself on the forehead and shook his head, marvelling at his silliness.

Tempting fate wasn’t really a good idea.

Before he could even finish the thought of, ‘Really, who would make the connection between a ran-’ the damn dog hopped back onto the wall, only this time it seemed to like the spot where Alam was. The problem was… well the wall wasn’t big enough for the two of them, and lost in his thoughts, there wasn’t much Alam could do except tip over and off the wall. Not to say he didn’t make a vain attempt to save himself, but off balance and surprised he didn’t even come close. The last thing he swore he saw before he was swallowed was the damn dog grinning at him.

The royal servants were bustling, not a single set of idle hands between them. Today was a momentous day, even for those among the staff that didn't know precisely what was planned. Guest chambers that hadn't seen use in years were cleaned top to bottom and nearly completely renovated, decked with richly upholstered furnitures and finely woven rugs. The chefs had begun preparing a feast since before the crack of dawn, ostensibly to celebrate the newly started war games. Grand things were in motion. In amidst that furor the buxom Head Maid moved unhurriedly between tasks, checking the progress of her subordinates.

"Do you have enough of the yellow cloth the Princess liked? she asked as she dipped her head into a room where a half dozen maids toiled with bolts of cloth, sewing needles, and thread. "Yes, but it's sort of..." one of the seamstresses trailed off, holding the garish fabric in her hands. In a imperious and final tone, Lucrezia replied, "It is what the Princess decided on. If you have enough of that cloth to finish your work, I have other things that need attending."

With those words, Lucrezia left the room. After a few strides into the hall, when she was sure she was alone, her stern facade became rosy as she stifled a chuckle. The fabric the Princess had chosen was terribly gaudy, and the mental image of a hero dressed in the vibrant yellow was more than a little entertaining. Wetting her lips lightly she rebuilt her composure and entered into the armory.

"Have the treasure swords been properly prepared?" she asked, casting her eyes between her most trusted maids, assigned the task of readying one of their nations dearest possessions for the coming heroes. In an air of silent reverence the lieutenant maids nodded gravely. With their affirmation, Lucrezia smiled a very different smile from the private one before; one of thin-lipped satisfaction.

"Good."

A rather normal day in the usually thrilling live of Yui Hasekura, the kind of day one would call “normal and boring”, a day where the aspiring Idol just bid farewell to some of her classmates that accompanied her a bit home. Since her grandparents lived rather outside, Yui traveled around 2 hours with the train everyday, and being kind-of famous also led her to always take a detour to a rather secondary train-station.

Walking down an alley together with her trusted ear plugs, she happily hummed the song alongside it, not expecting the immediate doom that was approaching her.

Then all of a sudden, there was a tiny brown dog sitting perfectly and appropriately quite exactly in the middle of the way. It stared straight at her, those comparatively huge puppy-eyes fixed determinately and undoubtedly straight at her. Around the tiny brown dog’s neck was a strap like that which an owner would identify their dog with, except instead of a tag with the dog’s name or owner’s information there was a knife dangling from it… For a moment, the dog would just sit there, looking quite happy, just in the middle of the way.

Continuing her journey, Yui suddenly froze in place as, out of the blue, a dog sat there. Wrong, it wasn’t just sitting there, it felt more like, it was waiting there, waiting with a special purpose. "..." Still, as cute as the dog may be and her friends would totally go all ‘KAWAII DESU NE’, the red-hair saw only a harbinger of misfortune and doom; and that wasn’t just because of the knife around the dog’s neck . Fortunately for the girl, the dog was quite some distance away, making turning around and just using another route a breeze.

“WAF!” And all of a sudden the dog barked its quite high-pitch call for attention and took off, dashing at full dog-speed towards her. Completely oblivious to any and all emotions Yui might feel, the tiny dog simply sped towards her with intention of getting close and jumped, quite an extreme jump for a normal dog, intent on jumping into her arms. … Because everyone usually catches him in their arms when he jumps at them like that. Why wouldn’t she? Oh, and it didn’t matter which direction she was turned in at that moment, either.

Curiosity killed the cat, but in this case, saved Yui's life. Finding out the dog was charging towards her by simply turning around. As the cute little pup abomination of evil got closer and closer, the girl knew there was no use in running, but she was determined to live on instead of becoming food! So, she calmed herself as much as she could and as the dog made its jump she dashed a bit diagonally towards the dog, getting past him without bothering to look back.

Victorious, she was about to yell "Go aw- " before stumbling over her own feet and greeting the ground with her face, truly athletic.

The dog missed, but landed flawlessly a bit further away where the still brilliantly happy dog just simply turned around and skipped after her. What is a dog that doesn’t enjoy a bit of a chase, after all? Then, as it would turn out, Yui had falled down on her face when he approached. Still happily skipping along the dog would simply jump up to her head and, as she was still lying down face-first, started joyfully licking her left ear with absolutely no seeming hint occurring to him that she could potentially have hurt herself by tripping like this.

She needed to get up fast, no matter how much it hurt! But it was too late, the dog had catched up quite easily and starting the work of the devil. Being devoured by the beast, she could only yell "NOOO! Stop! Please!" Half agony, half laughter, crying for mercy as the dog took advantage on one of her weak spots.

Quite oblivious to any agony of the young female, the dog merely assumed that her cry of half-laughter was a sign that she was enjoying herself he merely happily continued his assault on her ear, happy to be of service. As the girl did nothing to stop him, he continued doing so for the better part of the minute before finally taking a few tiny paw-steps back and gripping ahold of the tiny knife around his neck with his tiny mouth and looking towards Yui. The little dog was quite proud of himself, his innocent dog-eyes gazing happily at her while he had a weapon in his mouth.

After the dog finally stopped the assault, the Idol was happy to be still alive! Finally having some time to breath, Yui looked up, glaring into the dogs face; what it did was nearly as nasty as stealing her first kiss! Finally realizing the dog had the dagger in it’s mouth she was rather confused. Even for her standards this was about to become ridiculous, was the dog to go now full ninja and cut her throat?! Maybe she actually fainted and this was a nightmare? "Hey...hey…” Yui said with a wry smile. "We can talk about it, okay?"

The young dog looked at her for the impending while, happy as can be. Then, the dog twisted his head to throw the knife up in the air, giving a brief “Waf!” before he took ahold of the knife’s bottom of handle and thrusted it down into the ground. That’s when all of a sudden a great green magic show took place, huge undoubtedly magical circles spearing out in a great obviously unnatural light which engulfed the ground around Yui… … … And then suddenly the solid ground she stood on disappeared, the center of the circle vanishing into a portal straight down into the street, the tiny dog happily watching as it happened.

The dog however didn't seem to have the smallest care in the world about her as it created that magic circle, even as both started to fall through, all Yui could do was to yell and curse towards this devil, not to mention things happened way too fast for her.

She had fallen and yelled, the dog would just happily “Waf!”, content with having made a new friend (according to himself) and completing his mission, jumping down after her in time for the magical circle-portal to close behind them… And beneath them opened a large landscape of floating islands, green lands and fighting animal-people...

“This is getting ridiculous..." Was all she could bring out, deeply believing this was a dream, the experience to fall from around 9000 metres towards your death was still epic and real, apart from the impending impact. But since she had nothing to fear, Yui actually made hero-poses and the like while in the air.

‘Ah...!’ Solia looked up in almost surprise seeing the two shining lights which were the two summoned heroes. They’re really coming. They’re really coming! The princess felt an unsure smile cross her expression, suddenly all nervous about the impending encounter. What will she say? How will they take it? What if they absolutely refuse her and simply want to go back home? What if they are not as powerful as she thought and will only be put in defeat’s way by being called here? All those possible situations swirled around in her head as quite a bit of doubt suddenly gathered in her head. She was on the verge of panicking again, as she was reaching the top of the stairs… Wh-what would she…?

Deep breath. Another deep breath as Solia brought her hands up to her face as she walked along the pavement towards the circle of summoning. It was already done. The heroes had been summoned. There was no true protocol of how to greet them from here, so Solia would simply have to trust her princess training to take the act. That’s right. They NEEDED these heroes. That’s why they should get the most prim and proper introduction possible. The princess smiled, adjusted her hat and clothes a bit and clutched her hands together in hope as she smiled forward, just in time for the two heroes to descend down and land in the midst of the circular altar with artistic pillars around it, mounted up here on the Isle of Summons hovering in the skies…

As the heroes hit the ground in whatever manner they preferred, a magical rose-bud would envelop them and magically absorb any and all impact or damage the hit should have. After a few moments after the impact during which the newcomers would be allowed to regain their bearings after the long fall the flower would bloom, revealing themselves being on this said altar where Solia stood a number of meters away clasping her hands and looking at them with a happy smile and straight posture. The two dogs which had brought them would jump over to her away from the heroes they had summoned, and Solia would lean down to them and pat them happily with the words ‘Good job, Kiwi, Peach~! You’re both a really good boy and girl~!’ to which Peach happily answered ‘Waf!’ with a wagging happy tail while Kiwi merely turned around to stare back at the boy she had brought… rather forcefully. Alam may still imagine the grin being in-place. After that, Solia would stand up, look at them with a happy smile and varying confidence before saying.

‘Hello. My name is Sfogliatine Zucchero Graelian. I am the princess and ruler of Graelian, a nation in the world of Fralanthe. Heroes summoned from another world… I bid you welcome!’ Solia curtsied before the two of them, the two dogs which had summoned them on her sides. In fact, she felt kind of unsure. What would they think of her? Did she do a good introduction? Oooh, she’d have to do a ton of instructing, and a battle was looming! … Yet, despite all that, the princess was really happy and her black dog-tail was waving quite intensely behind her in excitement…

The dull grey sky above was normally not something Alam would have looked at and enjoyed, but as his last sight, it was fading quickly, and the freshman found himself in somewhat of a panic. As the last remnant of grey faded and was swallowed by what could only be aptly described as reminiscent to a night sky filled with countless stars, Alam tried to get his bearings. He was definitely still falling and he craned his neck to try and see below him. What he saw made his jaw drop as a vibrant world opened up underneath him, before the rush of wind reminded him of what would happen once he hit the ground. Thankfully the fall seemed long enough that he wouldn’t have to worry about it for a minute at the least. Enough time for him to sa-

‘Wait, what?’ The thought that snapped him from his final words was caused by the fact that he noticed below him was not the ground. Well it was in a sense, but more accurately he seemed to fall towards a… floating island. ‘What...’ Between the fact that he had been pushed into a “portal” by a dog, was currently falling to his death, and seemingly would land on a floating island of sorts, Alam sort of just decided to say, “Well fuck it,” as to not lose further grasp on reality. Really it didn’t matter if he did though, since he was apparently about to die in a few more moments. With that rather solemn piece of knowledge in mind, he did the logical thing so he took the time to glance around.

Wherever he was, it was downright beautiful and he could admit that much. Lush green grass stretched on for miles beneath him, broken by the occasional thicket of trees or the blue of water. A bit far off he could see a few structures, and around them milled plenty of people; though they looked like little more than ants at this distance. He wondered briefly what was happening below, before he sighed and looked back down below himself. The island was startling close by now and he closed his eyes as the winds whipped past him, hoping it wouldn’t hurt too much. ‘Sor-’

His final thoughts were to be interrupted as well apparently as he felt soft paws touch upon his back. The sensation was enough to bring to mind the dog that had caused all of this and Alam whipped his head around to look at the purple eyed, dark furred canine. He would have yelled out, partially in indignation and partially anger, had he not met the ground at that exact moment.

Yet instead of splattering in a horrible manner that likely would have traumatized his expectant summoner, something enveloped him whole. Disoriented by the sudden halt, darkness, and the fact that he was still alive, Alam couldn’t do much more than hold his stomach and listen to the hammering of his heart. Thankfully, whatever it was that kept him from death by terminal-velocity impact also saw fit to wait until he was “ready” for it to dissolve. He wasn’t exactly ready, near-death experiences tended to do that to a person, but he wasn’t a quivering mess either.

As the petals, which he now saw as those of a rose, fell away Alam’s jaw dropped again. What he had seen before was vast and overwhelming, but now all around him was an island that seemed to have been put together painstakingly by artists for all its beauty and intricacy. He might have even overlooked the individual who stood expectantly in front of him had he not felt the dog leap away from him. Following her naturally led Alam’s eyes to settle on the small girl, and he felt his eyebrow climb higher in confusion.

That feeling wasn’t helped in the slightest when she threw forth what he assumed was an introduction and bowed to them. Wait, them? It was only then he turned to notice, that yes, he was not alone in all of this. There was another girl on the altar to his right. He ignored her for the moment and turned his attention to who he assumed was behind this all. “Uh… what now?” His tone was questioning more than anything else, as he really wanted an explanation for all this before he decided whether to be angry or elsewise.

The Graelian side of the Crostignon battlefield was awash with the bustle of activity. Crostignon's backdrop of lush, placid, verdant plains where little ever happened were replaced with the movement of tens of thousands of feet and the voices of thousands of people. To any person that may have seen the plains just a week before, the unbroken tranquil and unfettered scenery had been entirely replaced as fortresses had been constructed, trenches and fortifications placed and observation posts with reporters had been erected.

There was a certain amount of tension over the Graelian soldiers. It hadn't been just the fact that the country had not participated in a war for several, several years, it was also the fact that their opponent had been that intimidating. Sure, a large ratio of the force's bulk had now been drilled, prepared, educated and had most importantly participated in mock battles, all in preparation for this day, but it couldn't help the cautious and entirely warranted nervousness that preceded something that a group had become mostly unfamiliar with, then abruptly yanked up and told to do.

However, it would be inaccurate to say that morale itself was low. Confusing the eagerness and anticipation that accompanied the fact that they were about to face a truly formidable enemy with a lack of fighting spirit would be a terrible mistake. If the Graelians were short on fighting spirit, levies from around the country and even the soldiery itself would not have willingly participated. No, they were nervous, but it was this nervousness that gave them an itch to fight it out as ferociously as they could.

In particular, the soldiers of Graelian's standing army were in a particularly well-dispositioned spirit. After all, they had their now-beloved commander to lead them, her hand picked captains to guide them, and their own solidarity to move them. Thinking about it, the anticipation and tension only made them more interested in what was coming. It was a thrill. One great, positive force of maximized tension. A metaphorically veritable storm that they would be weathering: the first war that most of the young adults and teens of the army would ever participate in. It was sure to be glorious.

It was definitely going to be awesome.

The mentality of a large crowd of like-minded individuals was staggering as occasionally a hyped up cheer would resound through the entire fortress. The Graelians wished to be unleashed, even waiting was starting to get to them...

To any commander worth their position, it would be blatantly obvious to them that this was both a positive blessing and a most negative curse. It was beginning to get to the point that the swell of soldiers and levies wouldn't be able to keep their competitive nature and anticipatory emotions in check; there would be no focus and they would fight and lose the battle against the more numerous and better funded armies of Vilante. Willpower meant little in the face of sheer and overwhelming multiplications of force. Hotblooded-ness meant little when put up against veterancy, the experience that those Knights and commanders of Vilante carried.

Most importantly: the focus on bringing glory to Graelian with a successful and great battle was lacking—replaced with thoughts of achieving victory for themselves and their families.

Knight-Commander Anisette sighed deeply and rubbed her temples for a brief moment as she stood in the command tent, going over the briefing with several of the captains and Kisielia, her second in command, for a second time that day to make sure that the tactics and necessary knowledge of the enemy were fresh in their minds.

The Commander had to speak louder inside the "indoor" confines of the tent tent than she was accustomed to as the bustle outside was just that booming. Not only with the cheering, shouting and conversing, but the sounds of the incoming levies and the soldiers being passed shields and weapons, along with a select few units being passed light armor and additional weapons. She could practically feel the charged atmosphere inside the tent, and it seeped into the tent from outside with every yelp for glory vibrating the ground.

This couldn't do. It surprised no one when the order passed through the whole of the gathered army to gather into parade formation. None took their time to get to their respective places. It was about time!

"She's heeeeeere~!" called out Pierre, who had up to this point been talking about the battlefield and giving a short history of Graelian to the audience. The enthused announcer stood up and made a gesture to the stage that had been set up for the top tiers of the commanding staff, particularly motioning to Knight-Commander Anisette, "Knight-Commander, Princess Anisette of Pasticiotto! She doesn't need much of an introduction to all of you out there in Graelian, so let's just give her an applause, everyone!"

Off in the distance, there were sounds of applause and cheers from the audience, echoing from the theater-like seating that had been raised for those people that came to watch the battles from as close as they possibly could without the need to actually participate themselves.

On the other hand, the soldiers save for the reserves that had come for some money and a chance to participate stayed mostly silent and stared up at their commander.

Anisette, in her full suit of armor, adjusted the back straps of her forehead guard and looked out to the crowd with a serious expression. The stage was set to face the morning sun, only a minor annoyance when her half-helmet of a forehead guard shaded her eyes and reflected some of the light away. It was preferrable to casting a shadow on her own soldiers.

The brown haired commander clasped her hands behind herself. THUMP. The ground shook as the tens of thousands of feet of soldiers that she had trained and fostered saluted, tapping their feet together and each making an audible step as they uniformly held their arms at their sides, their hands occupied with pikes, spears, swords, bows, crossbows and shields. In all, Vilante had about twenty thousand soldiers to its name, and Graelian had about fifteen thousand.

She returned the gesture of salute in true military fashion, making a similar hop step and placing a clenched fist over her heart. Only when she relaxed did the soldiers permit themselves to relax, letting their feet spread apart with the pikemen tapping the rear end of their pikes on the ground at a relaxed position, shaking the ground once more.

Finally arriving at this stage, Anisette tapped the microphone-like device, a few loud bumps reverberating the air for the near two square kilometers that comprised the parade formation.

"Hehe. Now's the time for one of those rousing speeches!" Kisielia said off to the side, her bear ears perked up in the anticipation for what her master would say.

...And then she spoke. A personal address from one commander to her soldiers. Her microphone wasn't even hooked up to the global news feed, though the speakers could still be clearly heard.

"First off, to those of you who think that just because this is Graelian's first battle that you are allowed to lose... Leave. Go home and watch these War Games from afar," she let that settle into the peoples' minds for a moment, surveying the crowd to see if any of the levies would leave.

Leave, some did, disinterested by the seemingly hostile dare extended by the commander.

"That being said and out of the way..." The commander pointed to the south, to Vilante's gathering point, "Over there stands a powerful group of individuals. The rider-knights of Vilante are a formidable force to be reckoned with. They are strong, and they are a terrible foe that we have to face. Those of you that are staying here should know that you are to face an opponent tempered by experience, gifted with power and trained well so that they may win for their own beloved country. A respectable people that has taken our invitation to participate in War Games with grace and clear hearts."

The soldiers mumbled amongst themselves. It was almost as if...

"I will tell you now that you will lose."

The shuffling of discontent rose. This negativity was not at all what they wanted to hear. What was their commander saying before the battle?

"Better funded, better equipped, and having longer been in the field of battle, there is no doubt that each of those rider-knights are a force of sheer, overwhelming might. They are even reinforced by a more numerous army, also equipped with more to them both physical and mental on average than you have. You are a humble people that only just months ago were unfamiliar with battle and there is little that can prepare you for what is to come against an opponent that steps on willpower and hotblooded-ness with a boot of force multiplied.

If this intimidates you, if you are discouraged, then you too should leave. You too should go home and watch these War Games from afar."

So that was it: a purposeful, meaningful and altogether reprimanding reversed delivery. Negative reinforcement to weed out the weak. Anisette meant every word and every slight that she had just directed at her soldiers. Behind her, her apprentice seemed to still maintain a completely positive expression, as did some of the lieutenants and captains. This time, no one left.

Anisette took a long breath and let out a sigh, then smiled. This was more like it. There was a time for hotblooded-ness and singular strives for achievement.

“But, what is the powerful individual in the face of unity. When I had been assigned to this army, you were disheveled, you were disorganized, you were derelict, you had a lack of discipline… Most of all, to the beloved Graelian, you were a disgrace. You were divided, a discouraging mass.

Combined together, directed to one goal, we are now a force of a single and overwhelming goal: We are the army of Graelian.

Our people depend on us to deliver them victory, to give them honor, and to show the world that Graelian is a mighty power that will not yield.

Are you intimidated by those individuals? Are you afraid of their power?”

There was a booming shout of unison as the men and women found a new purpose to their battle, to bring light anew to Graelian. For a third time the ground shook.

“The seemingly insurmountable power of those individuals is completely dwarfed by our solidarity!”

YES!

“The gifts of singular power can not compete with the treasure of companionship!”

YES!

“STAND UP, you sons and daughters of Graelian! STAND PROUD, for WE are this nation’s might!!!”

YES! YES! YES!

The air was abuzz with the cheers and the battle-cry, the collective shout of fifteen-thousand shook the ground and could be heard for many kilometers. Knight-Commander Anisette gave a simple nod to her troops and walked away from the podium, off the stage and mounted her horse, followed by the members of her personal unit. While she wished that Countess Mystere Chiffon was there to help support her, she knew that the Countess would come later. Despite not considering herself fit for making hotblooded speeches, she felt relatively proud of herself. What she had built just then with her troops was good.

Their efforts were going to work.

♦♦♦

Over an hour later, the battle lines were formed, the troops were assembled, and again the air was alight with tension. For one and a half kilometers stretched a line of pike armed troops, each unit assembled into a line of ten shield bearing pikemen, followed by a line of ten crossbowmen, then ten lines of more pikes behind each to comprise fighting units of 110 each. Slightly behind those lines were a long line of longbowmen, the troops that required the most training of everyone, and behind those ranged units were the Auxiliary regiments, armed with swords and shorter spears along with shields.

In any wooded area was a unit of short spears and swords, and to the sides of the massive line were light and heavy cavalry. Anyone versed in the history of Earth would recognize this as a modified version of a Macedonian Phalanx. But, this being Franlanthe, this was the first time such a formation had been imposed onto a battlefield.

Thump. Thump. Thu-thump.

A line of large and small drums placed on wheeled carts were behind everyone else. Their purpose was to give an effective and simple to understand battle rhythm for the soldiers to follow.

Strangely, for a line of Pike “squares”, they were currently rather loose in formation, actually standing with enough room to fit two more men shoulder to shoulder between them.

Anisette and her unit paced the length of the battle line on their horses, making sure everyone was in place… The battle would start soon. Pierre, the announcer for the battle went on to describe the proceedings and give more fluff to keep the audience’s attention as the troops assumed their positions.

To the other side was Vilante, cavalry up front organized in groups of forty riders in a wedge formation, their lances held at a parade ready, behind them were javelin throwing skirmishers armed with short swords and light armor, and finally were legions of sword and short spear armed troops, well organized into a tight formation and interspersed with each battalion’s respective commanders.

Vilante’s Grand Marshall surveyed their opponents’ battle lines, frowning in the displeasure that Graelian’s army was composed entirely different to what intelligence reports and history had mentioned.

Then there was this business of Princess Sfogliatine's “surprise”...

Enjoying her flight to the fullest, Yui didn't really care about crashing into the ground soon, it was a dream after all. She also took her time to enjoy the beautiful view, did she really had so much fantasy in her head? Wait, if this was a dream maybe she wouldn't even die? It was a lucid one after all, and recent studies proven that people who game a lot were able to influence their own dreaming, even able to change between first and third person! As Yui came closer and closer to the ground she thought about falling into a giant pudding that would stop her fall; she only needed to summon it.

Diving with her head towards the ground the Idol stretched her hand out. "Oh~, soften my fall, fill my stomach. I summon the, Pudding of Descension, Cushion!" To her avail, nothing happened, and by now it was too late to do anything else, Yui was about to go splash any second! Unless, something enveloped her, stopping the impact."Did I succeed?!" she asked herself motivated, waiting for the next thing to happen; was she supposed to eat whatever was around her? Before she could follow that thought further, the red hair got released. In fact, it looked like a giant rose like thing saved her from becoming some human-puddle thing that would be beyond recognition.

Yui did notice the two people and the dogs around her but her attention stuck towards the girl who spoke up for now.
‘Hello. My name is Sfogliatine Zucchero Graelian. I am the princess and ruler of Graelian, a nation in the world of Fralanthe. Heroes summoned from another world… I bid you welcome!’

Confused, she tried to repeat her name- "Svoglit..wha..?" and failed horrible.

The two heroes looked… thoroughly confused. O-of course, she had to explain to them! Solia was simultaneously happy and nervous. Oh, don’t you worry about this! Y-you can handle it, princess! You practiced for this!

‘S-solia will do fine…’ The princess states at the female hero’s difficulty with her name with a small blush over her cheeks while looking over the two heroes and clasping her hands together. OK, what comes naturally after this? O-oh, yes! Explanation! Solia took a deep breath, her tail flapping back and forth behind her in extreme excitement as she focused a kind of serious look towards the two individuals which had been summoned by her hand.

‘I have summoned you two to be our heroes in a time of need.’ Hands of hope held together before her chest as Solia spoke her heart out in absolute truth. ‘The nation of which I am the princess of, Graelian, has been through a time of hardship lately. My parents, the kind king and queen, recently passed away under unknown circumstances. Also, reports of monsters being sighted by our borders has made the entire people sick with worry for the future. In order to raise their spirits, I have declared war against our neighbor Vilante, with the intention of bringing this nation back together by proving we still stand strong.’ It did not at all occur to Solia that the aspect of declaring war did not mean the same to someone who had lived in a different world for all their life. That notion didn’t even exist to her.

‘However, Vilante is currently… a bit stronger than us, and they have a far more experienced queen.’ Solia’s look took a bit of a solemn turn. ‘As much as I trust my soldiers’ and knights’ capabilities, they may not be enough. That is why!’ Hope shone in her eyes, her tone rising in volume as she turned with admiration forward towards her most esteemed heroes. ‘If my people were to get the support of heroes summoned from a different world as per the rituals for when a nation is in need, their spirits and our chances are sure to rise considerably! I beg of you!’ She bowed her head forward, her tail turning stiff and held between her legs as she held her hands together with closed eyes in the way of asking for help.

‘Will you please help us and be our heroes in our time of need…?’ D-did she explain that well enough…?

Something was not right. Three somethings. The three somethings.

Though Lucrezia could hardly be said to be hurrying, her pacing had taken on a quiet intensity that the serving staff of the castle knew was hazardous to their health. To the uninitiated she seemed to be serene, but to those in the know it was as though a storm followed in her footsteps. Hairs were raised and spines shivered as she passed, maids and butlers scuttling out of the way of her warpath.

Stalking the halls of the castle, Lucy stopped in front of a closed threshold. From behind the door, a pair of voices could be heard casually conversing back and forth: inane nonsense about how shiny the sun was today. In between their dialogue on the weather, every now and again an affirmative 'Nnn' was grunted. Mystery solved. Taking hold of the door handle and flinging it wide, Lucy strode out onto the balcony and towards the voices' owners. The three maids reclined on the brightly lit balcony all turned in unison to see the head maid. The cat-eared maid blinked several times and hummed, as if not sure what to make of the situation. The bunny-eared maid beamed widely and spoke up, "Miss Lucrezia, did you come to sunbathe too? Why don't you join us?" Only the dog-eared maid seemed to fully grasp the gravity of the situation, a panic sweat breaking out on her forehead. "Oh my... Miss Lucrezia, we were just~" She didn't get to finish her sentence.

Pinching the girls sharply on their ears and actually hoisting them momentarily into the air, Lucrezia dragged them to their feet. "Inside. Now. The heroes' rooms still aren't prepared and they will be arriving soon. Let me make myself clear: if by the time they get here the heroes do not have rooms, neither will any of you. I will have you thrown out of the castle for this, for good this time. Get. To. Work."

Herding the three stooges down the hallway, Lucrezia all but tossed them into the unfinished heroes' chamber.

An uncharacteristically shrill gust of wind bellowed through the fields of Crostignon from the northeast, moving through the soldiery and giving everyones’ loose clothing a brief tussle and perhaps a light scare that their flanks had been attacked by some sort of wind attack.

Characteristically, Anisette looked unwaveringly calm; her horse redistributed its weight with a few dull trotting noises and Anisette found herself breaking that calm visage, closing her eyes and bringing up a pair of gloved fingers to her temples, rubbing it in a circle while releasing a drawn sigh as her ears twitched.

“Cheh, can’t even bother coming herself… eh?”

“Didn’t even bother to send a messenger. That Countess is irresponsible...”

“She’s a Chiffon, the whole lot of ‘em are like that! Bunch’a lazy gits, do nothing but brownnosing to the royals to get their way.”

“The real question is… Who is going to lead her battalions?”

“Who knows… All the nutrients went to those breasts she flaunts around anyway! Surely we can get someone more effective in the meanwhile.”

“Shut up you gadabouts, go report to the Commander that the troops are completely ready to go.”

There was an unmistakable sound of leather being squeezed together as Anisette gripped the reins of her mount tightly with her non-temple-rubbing hand. She took another breath and composed herself as one of the gossipers galloped over. A pleasant to look at noble, he wore what was obviously a practiced smile as he gave the knight-commander a salute.

“Knight-Commander, the troops are assembled and in formation and ready for your commands.”

Unsurprisingly, there was no hint in his tone concerning the conversation he had been having with his fellow nobles just a moment before.

“Good,” was Anisette’s curt reply, before she looked past the noble and called out in a calm yell, her ears still twitching faintly, the man in question froze and held his breath as he realized that they may have been speaking too loud, “Croline, Linzer, Chorley, Panzarotti!”

She then set her focus back on the Noble in front of her, the brown haired Princess’ tone took a turn for the stern side, and the other nobles then immediately realized that she had heard them from across the ranks of her guard unit, “And also you, Pithivier. You lot forget that I had also been called the Watch Dog back in the Academy. See me after this battle, I have heard some interesting things that I would like to personally discuss with you all.”

That was it for now, the bunch was already scared by the proposition of the royal’s retribution; to raise more attention—or worse yet, start a fight with the nobles—would invite discord into the ranks and have an effect on the soldiers’ morale and consequently their combat effectiveness. “See to it that the communication lines to every unit are solid, I will not have any part of the battlefield lose contact and solidarity because of a random erroneous message. And have the Lieutenants from Rolante govern their troops until the Countess arrives.”

“Y-yes, Knight-Commander Pasticiotto. Right away...

Anisette took another breath and nodded to recompose herself. To her side, Kisielia smiled smugly at the nobles.

She was sure that Mystere would show up eventually. That perfectionist wouldn’t allow herself to miss an important battle, nor would she let her beloved citizens be without their beloved leader. The knight-commander cracked a smile of her own.

♦♦♦

Grand Marshall Mandelkubb let the rugged features of his face dip into a frown as he continued to observe his enemy’s battle lines through a telescope. With a series of clicking noises, he collapsed the telescope and put it away in a saddle pouch, placing a large mushroom-like silver helmet over his head.

He readjusted himself on the saddle of his steed, the heavy intersecting plates of his armor letting out the ever faint set of creaks where no amount of oil could prevent them, and turned to one of his captains.

“Change of strategy. Take the mounted knights to the flanks, present the enemy with the greatswords first, then the shorter sword units. We’ll overtake those pikes with the weight of numbers and have the horses sweep through them as they’re occupied. We have our Queen’s confidence, let’s not spoil it by letting a bunch of peasants with pointy sticks defeat us.”

“Sir, Yes Sir.”

The Captain galloped off to relay the last minute changes to the battle strategy to the messenger corps, and the command was spread with haste. The ground softly rumbled as the soldiers of Vilante reorganized in a timely and efficient manner.

In Franlanthe’s history, pike based armies were a rarity due to their unwieldy nature, and anti-cavalry tactics were enabled with short spears that doubled as throwing weapons and static spike traps. The only armies that used pikes were defensive in nature, and static at best. The heavily armored Grand Marshall knew better to charge cavalry—no matter how well armored—into a line of pikes, but he also knew that such weapons were weak on their flanks, even with proper support.

He cracked a small smile behind the curved plates of his helmet. Though the initial surprise of seeing the sea of pikes was concerning, proper application of tactics could still overwhelm them. The veterans of Vilante couldn’t possibly lose this battle against a sitting duck of an army.

♦♦♦

Anisette would not allow for the atmosphere to become languid in the slightest, but, neither would she allow it to become much too tense. Morale was a precarious balancing act: too high or too low and the troops' capabilities would be diminished, just in the middle was nonoptimal as the battle would feel like a tedious chore. On both sides of the high and low spectrum were a "just desirable" level of morale—that is, just high enough and the troops would fight confidently and efficiently, or just low enough and the troops would fight down to tooth and nail to tear themselves out of the corner.

In this case, Graelian found itself outnumbered, underfunded and with no shortage of relatively new recruits. A sort of directed desperation would serve best to get the troops out of this situation.

After just a few more minutes, the battle was going to begin. The troops and the command element was at the right mindset. Kisielia and Anisette were as prepared as they could be and just had the whole of the battle to look forward to. Though the Princess was still not at her castle and Countess Mystere Chiffon’s messenger was nowhere to be found, it was with reasonable confidence that they would be making their appearances shortly.

There was news and a rather obvious visual que that the Vilante forces were reorganizing themselves. The news spread quickly that their formations had completely changed from what was essentially a steamroller into something more like a human wave. Anisette did not look disappointed or worried over this in the slightest.

In all things—that is, in war, love, business… everything—no strategy ever survived upon contact with the enemy. It seemed Vilante saw Graelian’s change in doctrine and adjusted accordingly as expected from an army of elites and well funded soldiers.

This was Just As Planned.

Everything was now in place.

Anisette drew back on her horse, leaning backward as she inhaled deeply. Simultaneously, the whistle of fireworks being launched resounded in close proximity, followed by the snap, crackle, pop of the celebratory pyrotechnics reporting. The battle was now under way.

With a slight motion, Anisette adjusted herself on her saddle to unsheathe a particularly ornamented sword. It was curved, with black metal for a blade and a golden acorn pommel, a basket hilt covered the front of her hand and a mushroom like protrusion made up the handguard. Jewels covered the length of the blade up to the center and gold leafing was all over it. It was a gaudy thing not meant for battle, but fit for a commander. A cavalry sword meant to direct like a composer would an orchestra.

Anisette drew that sword and raised it forward. Kisielia gripped her lance with a wide grin and the guard unit trotted lightly in place on their horses.

She let out that deep breath she had taken, “TROOPS! TOOOO BATTLE!”

Like an explosion, the fifteen-thousand strong army bellowed out a reply, starting from those near Anisette and her guard unit, to the entire breadth.

FOR GRAELIAN! FOR THE PRINCESS!

There was to be no illusion that this going to be easy, nor were there any delusions to the Knight-Commander that Graelian was going to simply step all over Vilante. But… There was just that feeling. Victory was in their grasp, it was already secured in a way, all they had to do was fight it out.

♦♦♦

Fireworks could be heard all around, signalling the beginning of the battle.

“FOOOOOOOOOOOO-WARD MAAAARCH!” At the top of his lungs, the Grand Marshall of Vilante barked out the order and eighteen thousand footsoldiers along with two thousand mounted knights marched in unison, with even more soldiers held in reserve near the fortress in case the battle took that kind of direction.

On both sides of the battlefield, shimmers of light could be seen reflecting off the many thousands of swords, spears and pikes. The ground positively trembled underfoot, and creatures all around fled or came to watch the commotion and the audience of both sides leaned forward in their seats in the anticipation.

As the soldiers of Vilante were underway, the sound of hundreds of unseen battledrums could be heard. There was a momentary feeling of confusion at the sound as the troops marched, until the visible result of Graelian raising shields and lowering pikes could be seen. In a sense, there was a slight unnerving feeling that they were about to just charge into what now looked like a spiked wall.

But, that was what training was for.

When presented with a wall of pikes, one common strategy was to rain arrows and field artillery on them from afar. Vilante was not particularly known for archers, and surveying reports noted that Graelian seemed to have purpose built shields and helmets to reduce the effectiveness of arrows. Hence the call to put greatswords up front.

Strategically, a long, large sword couldn’t cleave a pike in two, but it could be used to infiltrate the lines by sweeping the pikes to the sides. This was the logical conclusion that Vilante’s generals and the Grand Marshall had come to.

With the ability to infiltrate the wall of pikes and get in close proximity to the soldiers, they negated the advantages that were held by a phalanx and brought about all of its weaknesses. All that would be left would be for the knights to sweep in through the barely protected sides and finish everyone off. Even if Graelian had more flexible sword and short spear units, there was little that could get in the way of heavily armored and powerful knights. This was also already disregarding the advantage lended to them by having powerful commanders.

The soldiery of Vilante almost pitied Graelian. An untested leader, fresh recruits and fewer numbers… What was their princess thinking when she declared war? That Vilante would go easy on them?

♦♦♦

THUMP. THUMP. BA-DUMP

The drums kept the soldiers moving in perfect unison, and even more importantly, the training and drilling they had received made as a machine of war. Graelian’s army braced itself against the oncoming tide. With the ground rumbling beneath their feet and sweat rolling down their cheeks, they braced themselves. In the face of the shimmering swords and armor, they only tightened their grip.

Behind the pikemen were the Auxiliary units, there to provide support and plug holes in the lines. They also served crucial in the mental sense. Similar to the drums that moved them, the auxiliaries encouraged them; should the pikes fall, if they brought their share of enemies down with them, then they had done their job and the auxiliaries would be able to complete their job and wipe out the rest of the enemy.

THUMP. THUMP.

More pikes lowered, being brought to bear in a most threatening looking wall.

“HOLD STEADY! DO NOT EVEN THINK OF MOVING UNTIL THE COMMAND IS GIVEN.”

Again, the drums thumped to signal the hold steady command. The orders barked from behind them reinforced the drums and the soldiers gripped their pikes further, readjusted their weights so that they could lunge given the chance.

“LONGBOWS… NOTCH! ARROWS!”

Da da da da da

Smaller drums echoed and the longbow wielding archers gave their reply with the sound of many hundreds of arrows being notched, overshadowing the sound of even the incoming army’s footsteps as their march was turning into a jog, and then into a slow, conservative run.

Many of the archers were from Rolante and other forest territories of Graelian, so Anisette had something else to thank Mystere for.

“DRAW!”

Da da-dunk!

The glistening swords reflected sunlight like a strobing light, the enemy would make contact with their lines in just over half a minute. That was enough time for eight volleys of arrows.

“LOOSE ARROWS!”

And then… The sky whistled with the sound of many, many pointy things flying very fast at the approaching army. Soldiers braced themselves for the impact of arrows and the feelings of pain that they’d bring, just thankful for the protective forces of Frala and the fact that no one was trying to actually kill anyone. With a slight pop! pop! pop! sound, several soldiers throughout the ranks of Vilante were transformed into their respective primitive states to be brought off the battlefield by medical staff. While some were undoubtedly brought down by the arrows, others were knocked off balance by the impacts and tripped, only to be trampled on by their allies and then knocked unconscious.

Overall, arrows were never truly meant to win a battle, but they did their job of culling the crowd and throwing their morale for a loop while bolstering the morale of the firing army as they saw their enemies fall without them having to move a centimeter.

At the beginning of the volleys, the enemy had been 128 meters away. Twenty seconds and eighty meters later, eight volleys of arrows had been loosed upon them and the longbowmen finally had to stop as the firing angle proved too low.

Now… It was the turn of the pikes.

Historically in Graelian, pike primary armies were well known for being a static, defensive piece to tie up the enemy for their comrades to come about and finish them off. To Anisette, this was a ludicrous waste.

Absolutely. Ludicrous.

BA-BA-BUM

Sixteen more seconds, the drums took on a deep tone to prepare the Pikemen.

Pre-emptively, there were a few flashes of and sounds of multiple pops as a few crest cannons were fired off into the rows of pikemen. Due to their relatively loose spacing up until that point, the casualties were as minimal as could be.

“CLOSE RANKS! BRACE PIKES! CROSSBOWS, GIVE ‘EM A BITE!”

With another beat of the drums, the multiple shields at the front of the pike lines lowered for a short second and crossbow bolts flew out at the incoming horses and soldiers, taking out several more and surprising others. Before a reaction could be made, the shields were raised again.

“AUXILLIARY SHORT SPEARS AND LONGSWORDS. WAIT IN RESERVE.” was Anisette’s order, there was no accompanied drum beat, merely the shouts of the lieutenants, captains and generals that commanded the whole army.

“PIKES! THREE STEP CHARGE!”

The drums took on a Different Sound and the pikemen let out a spirited, loud cry..

UUUUUUU~! RAAAAAAA!!!!!

As soon as the drums began their song, each thump became a step, and every third was a thrust. The entire army moved as if one single creature, thrusting pikes like a meatgrinder. There was the clear sound of impact as the two forces collided, a sudden and massive jolt of force completely took the enemy by surprise and entire ranks of soldiers were instantly taken up, even the proud Knight riders were thrown into disarray by the sudden and harrowing attack, only able to swat away pikes and make short retreats to save themselves from the carnage.
After all, a static line of pikes was completely ludicrous. From the sides, a few of the cavalry tried to flank around, only to be faced by the well drilled and paced soldiers raising their pikes and turning in their direction.

But Vilante wouldn’t allow themselves to lose… Not this easily.

Just over five minutes passed and the numbers had already been culled to be about even with Vilante still having the favor of numbers. After the pikes began to slow down, the Auxiliary units threw themselves into the fray, longbows were used to take shots at targets of opportunity, and a sort of violent game of tug-of-war began. As per Mystere’s own guidance, many of the auxiliary units quite literally charged through lines to slash things up, and as per the Vilante doctrines, pikes could still be swept to the sides for the occasional break-through. Meanwhile, commanders made their rounds to cull their enemy's numbers and help advance their armies, looking to gain points and searching for the enemy commanders.

The battle was now underway in earnest. Stretching across several kilometers of Crostignon plains, the two armies locked themselves in a vicious tug-of-war that from high above looked similar to a pair of snakes embroiled in a fight to the death. With Vilante in red and dark grey versus the contrasting blue, white and gold of Graelian, the battle was easy to follow as the regular soldiers quarreled with each other, the lines moving back and forth as each army charged and fell back multiple times, with animal balls rolling and hopping their way out to either side so they could be picked up by the medical crews.

Occasionally, there would be a flash of light as a beam or an explosion would be fired off from a leader, sometimes blocked by the heaviest armored knights and by other leaders, and sometimes wiping out entire units of soldiers. Here and there, the recording devices of the spectators would switch focus between the groups clashing and the commanders' personal battles...

Vilante had a deficit of points now, but this was going to change.

"I... I... In... INCREDIIBLE!" A cheerful shout blurted out of Pierre's mouth as the battle began and events unfolded. "THE AMAZING TACTICS OF GRAELiAN'S BRAND NEW KNIGHT-COMMANDER HAS GIVEN HER ARMY A HUGE LEAD IN POINTS! To achieve something like this in her very first battle, on her debut, is truly just amazing!" The commentator spoke praise, as he was almost frothing at the mouth with excitement.
"My oh my~" The Queen of Vilante looked with mild surprise, then cupped her cheek in her palm and a playful smile crept onto her lips. "Such a talented young girl, I kind of wish she'd come and join my kingdom now."
"Hahaha, so even the Queen of the great Vilante Knights agrees that our fledgeling Commander is doing a good job?"
"Oh yes, no doubt about that."
"Are you worried this'll have any effect on your army, Queen Parfait?"
"Hmm... It's never fun lagging behind so early on." She put a finger on her chin as she contemplated an answer. "... But I believe we'll recover~ After all, no matter how good a plan or how sound a tactic is, there's no such thing as a fool-proof plan." A sly, if not outright mischievous, smirk lent itself to the beautiful queen's lips as she finished her reply.
"Oh-ho!? You hear that, everyone? Looks like VIlante's not giving up just yet! And they might even have a surprise up their sleeves, Graelian soldiers, stay on your toes!"

As Pierre continued to comment and narrate on the battle, the spectators who had come out to watch the battle were now whipped into an almost frenzy-like state. Cheers and shouts could be heard as people clapped their hands, shouting the names of their family-members or idols who were partaking in the fight as well as chanting rhymes and songs to spur their respective army onwards. Even a small gathering of Graelian fanboys, dedicated to the Knight-Commander's squire, had gathered and unfurled their banners and flags, crying out their tiny goddess' name and cheering for her in a wild and zealous fashion.

However, there were also a few people who looked somewhat disappointed. Many of them were confused why the Princess hadn't arrived at the battlefield yet - and where was this supposed surprise she had promised? War-games were fine and all, but if she was the one who had declared war and organized the whole thing, shoulkdn't she at least be present? Of course, this was a minority of the people gathered, and the vast, overwhelming majority were too entrhralled and wrapped up in the excitement of the war to even notice the Princess wasn't present.

As hard as Alam found it to take the “princess” seriously, no other explanation came to mind. He didn’t have the luxury to take a step back to examine the situation, but, as far as he could tell, this was either a dream or everything had really just happened. As he had never experienced such a vivid, and frankly random, dream before he couldn’t help but be inclined to feel it was the latter. So he did the only natural thing he could think of; bury his head into his hands and groan at what he had been caught up in. He’d wave off any strange looks from the two after he finally decided to look up and listen when the “princess” began to speak again.

By the time Solia had finished her explanation of the situation, Alam’s was quite lost in thought and his expression wasn’t exactly pleasant, but filled with suspicion and unease. He nearly had an outburst when war had been mentioned, but managed to contain himself. There was quite a bit of information he was missing here; the floating island the three of them were on sort of made that obvious… as did the princess’ tail. Taking several deep breaths to clear his head, Alam turned to face Solia with a neutral expression… or at least he tried to. It was hard to keep himself expressionless in front of such a earnest display, so with a sigh he gave up on trying.

“Exactly what do you mean by war, because I think you have a very different idea compared to mine.” That was probably the biggest worry he had at the moment, but that Solia had declared war against a country that sounded superior in every regards gave him a sliver of hope that it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. There was of course the tiny portion of his mind that whispered she could just be a horrible ruler, but he squashed the thought; both out of a smidgen of respect for Solia and for his own hope.

‘Ah, um, what I mean by war…?’ The princess looked quite surprised at the question. However, taking into account that the heroes were from a different worlds, maybe there was purpose in explaining what exactly a war was. ‘W-well…’ Where to start…? ‘F-firstly, one nation’s ruler declares war on the other, and the other nation’s ruler will then either accept or decline. Then, assuming the one declared war on accepts, both nations attempt amassing armies, each soldier contributing with a small amount of money to the whole event’s budget. Th-then, battles are fought between the two nations, aired via magic for all the people to watch. Each taken out opponent earn the nation a certain amount of points. At the end of the battle, the one nation with the most points win, and they get to distribute 60% of the earnings among their soldiers while those who lose get 40%, and in the nations the soldiers that contributed the most to the nation’s victory gets more money… The soldiers enter in hopes of leaving with more than they entered with. Regardless, it is also an event of competition and might in arms, which would allow Graelian to prove that we’re, um, not falling apart...’ D-did I miss mentioning something, the princess couldn’t help but wonder…

He welcomed the growing sense of relief he felt as the princess’ explained this world’s “wars”. “So they’re basically this world’s competitions…” he murmured as scratched the back of his head, relieved that it was far from the worst case scenario he had imagined. In any case, with his largest concern out of the way and the war actually explained, Alam didn’t have to think hard to imagine what their roles as “Heroes” were; he had played enough games to get an inkling. Although considering how off his fears for the “war” were, it would probably be prudent to make sure his assumption wasn’t completely off. “I take it then that Heroes would be particularly notable participants in wars?”

‘Y-yes!’ Solia answered, both her tone and her stance shining up in excitement. ‘H-heroes are only to be summoned only in times of great need, and they are known to have turned the tide on many a crisis and been powerful contenders on the field of battle!’ Quite the excitement ran through the young princess as her tail wagged and she didn’t at all consider the potential pressure she might put on the would-be heroes. ‘In fact, I am thrice honored to simply be able to stand in your presences! Thank you!’ Shining energetic eyes, wagging tail, face of determined excited seriousness, all features which the princess currently shone with towards the two of them.

Yui jumped, Yui looked, Yui calculated... Yui did a lot of things that her partner-in-crime would surely deem as strange, but for her, these were all reality checks to make sure this was just a dream. However, all those "checks" came with the same conclusion of being negative. Was this really...no, no, she might be a dreamer and also have a liking to games, manga and anime but there was no way such otherworldly experiences could happen in reality!

She sighed and kept a few seconds silence to herself... . Alright, whatever the case was, there was no use of panicking, with her mind a bit more cleared she finally spoke up. "Alright, what if I don't want to bet my life for a si- a "game" like this, can you just send me home? Furthermore, war means we need to fight, right? I have no clue how to fight, my best skills are probably dancing and singing!"

While the prospect of being a Hero and sweeping aside soldiers like this was Dynasty Warriors had a certain sense of appeal to it, namely that it was awesome, it also posed a problem for Alam. Mostly that he was probably going to be a center of attention in the war if he participated and it would be broadcasted through two nations from the sounds of it. The thought, amongst other reasons, was enough to make him seriously consider the choice he had to make, but before he could ponder for too long, a bit of motion to his side caught Alam’s attention. ‘Oh right...’ He had completely forgotten that he wasn’t the only Hero to have been called down, and she did ask a good question. Though he did point out that, “I don’t think people actually die. Wouldn’t make sense to pay money to fight to the death.”

‘Wh-what?’ The mention of death made the princess almost flinch back. ‘N-no, no! Of course people don’t die! All populated areas and roads are filled with Frala which will make sure casualties get transformed into harmless Creature Orbs! No deaths! Th-that would be just… horrible…’ Solia was suddenly reminded of the fact her parents had died recently, which… wasn’t a pleasant thing to recall. I-in any case! ‘Th-the only places where you can die by damage is in low-to-no Frala areas, and no sensible person would venture to those areas anyway…!’ Th-that’s the answer to that, anyway… A-as for that other… the princess turned to Yui. ‘W-well, yes I can. There should be a ritual for sending the heroes back… Th-though I don’t know it right now. Um. Er.’ Solia hesitated to what to say, because she didn’t really… want to think of what she’d have to do if they refused to fight and demanded to be sent home. ‘P-please, at least come with me to the castle, I-I don’t have the means to send you back right now rega- NO WAIT! Er…’ That didn’t sound good… ‘At least, come and watch for the time being! Y-you don’t need to decide right now…! P-please…?’ The princess was now shaking slightly in fear that they’d simply demand to be sent home, looking at them with hands clasped together and begging…

A war without people dying? Were they like, kind of immortal with that Frala? Whatever the case was that didn't change anything about the fact that Yui couldn't fight; sure, she was athletic and in her childhood had the dream of also becoming a magical girl but this was a entirely different situation. The change in emotion inside the princess took Yui nearly by surprise, she looked way too sad for a simple denial of participation, was this war really that important? With a bright smile Yui put her hand on Solia's shoulder, giving out in an encouraging tone. "Well, no use dwelling here for now, if I can be of assistance I'll help, so...guide the way?" After all there was still the fact left of being on a flying island... .

‘Oh boy...’ That was the only appropriate thought, in his opinion at the least, to Solia’s slight panic attack. He could only guess she wasn’t aware of a way to return the two of them back, or at best just seriously needed their assistance. While normally he might have stayed on the fence just to mess around with the princess, she already looked desperate enough that it would have just felt wrong. He followed up behind the other girl and coughed to get Solia’s attention. “Well I’m interested at the least. You can call me Alam instead of Hero please.” Frankly the title, though no doubt prestigious and valued, just seemed wrong when used for him.

The smile from the female hero and the hand on the princess’ shoulder was to a breath intake of infinite relief as both heroes seemed to at least agree to leave here on a positive note. One could probably see how all the panic she had momentarily experienced all washad away, and the open mouth of the breath of relief formed back into a happy smile towards the heroes. ‘The Hero Alam. Alam. Got it.’ She’d then turn to the female hero and… ‘And… what’s your name?’

"Oh right." Yui turned a bit red about totally forgetting to introduce herself."My name is Yui Hasekura." Able to reassure the young princess Yui kept her hands by herself again before proceeding with a bright smile. "So...shall we go?"

‘Hero Yui. Got it!’ Solia nods and then spins around on the spot and runs excitedly a first few steps on the marble road away from the structures before shortly spinning around again to smile at the heroes. ‘Alright! Let’s go, then! First, we’ll have to get down. A battle will commence shortly, I still have so much to tell! Let’s go, let’s go!’ And then the suddenly energetic princess spun around to lead them down the many stairs leading up to the Summoning Altar.

"Down… right, why is it flying in the firs-" Yui stopped speaking as she got a good look of the princess’ back, while it was definitely there before Yui just simply had not paid much attention to the tail, the dog tail. But it was different from a real dog. Was it...real? Or maybe some kind of ceremonial dress, they had wars without casualties after all too. Without further thought Yui followed the princess, sure to keep a safe distance from the two real dogs, before grabbing her tail and gently pulling it!

Solia was aware of Yui following her, and didn’t mind it the slightest. That was what should be, after all. The heroes were to be following her down the stairs. She was feeling so happy. Everything was passing along… well enough. Now all they had to do was finally get down and-! … The princess stopped in her tracks. She just stopped for a moment, considering what she was feeling, a small blush arising on her cheeks. After a few moments of considering, she turned her head a bit and… ‘Um… Th-that’s my tail…?’ She muttered nervously, the small blush still on her cheeks, unsure if the pulling of someone’s tail meant something specific for the heroes… except the heroes didn’t appear to have tails, which Solia had already known they wouldn’t, but…

“Huh…” While he would have never admitted it... probably, Alam had been fairly interested in pulling the princess’ tail. So thankfully, Yui decided to do it for him. He didn’t have any real expectations for the princess’ reaction, so when she just froze… well Alam felt a bit awkward as the seconds ticked by. Busying himself by looking off to the side, he was quickly reminded of exactly how far up in the air they were. Frowning at the dizzying height, he turned his attention back to the other two and coughed lightly. “Can we get on the ground first before you molest her?”

"Huh? It...it's real! A real tail! And so fluffy..." Her face showed a mixed expression of surprise and delight. Ignoring the remarks of the other hero she still left Solia's tail to herself before proceeding. "Do you, like, waggle a lot with it when you are super excited?" The height of this place didn't really bother her, after all, she liked high places.

‘Ah… Thank you…’ The princess said slightly nervously, seeing the fluffy comment as a compliment, and roughly exactly as Yui’s comment about the wagging tail Solia’s tail was about to begin a little wiggle and then she just kept quiet for a bit as her tail did her answering for her. ‘... Eh, yes~...’ She said a bit shyly, when suddenly the sound of fireworks went off in the distance. ‘Ah!’ The princess cried out, looking off into the distance with a sudden expression of alarm. ‘The battle has started! C’mon! Let’s hurry!’ And then the princess started dashing moderately fast down the pretty huge stairs down them towards the spot where she had come from, the two dogs running past her down the stairs. By the bottom of the stairs, a large yellow bird was standing as if waiting for them…

The sharp sounds and flashes caught Alam’s attention fairly easily, and as he stared off into the distance at them he quickly noticed what was on the ground in that direction. He could only assume those were the two armies, distinctively colored as they were, and if the pyrotechnics were any indication then they were about to clash, something Solia was nice enough to confirm for him. “We probably should,” he muttered as he began to hop down the stairs quickly after the princess. The sight of a giant C*****o did give him pause, but only for a moment and it wasn’t anything a facepalm couldn’t fix. “Really now…”

The yellow bird looked at them with a little happy cackle at the approaching individuals as she turned her side towards them, revealing the specific saddle prepared for two dogs and three passengers in a row, since they had known two heroes would be summoned. Solia happily turned around upon approaching the yellow thing, smiling at the heroes with the hands together. ‘This is my Cercle, Narlah. She’ll be taking us down.’ From here, they would also have a pretty good view of the battlefield, although most individuals and happenings would be too small to identify properly. Except the Crest Cannons. Solia would make use of something to step up and get onto the Cercle’s back and look back at the heroes expecting them to do the same as she took ahold of the reigns of the winged bird.

Yui felt still very uncomfortable in the near of the dogs as she followed the princess, all she could do was to hope they would soon disappear. Her attention was kept just a short moment towards the starting battle. "I-Is that a Chocobo?!" She asked with a few sparkle in her eyes. Ignoring all remarks Solia made at the bird creature she took a closer look. "Wait, no...it's...a bit different, but...but do you have also have Moogles as pets?!" Not even being excited about the immediate flight that would soon follow after Yui got onto the bird, she started to fluff it.

‘Choco-…? … What’s a…?’ The princess started, feeling unsure of how to respond as Yui started remarking about creatures which Solia had never ever heard about. Letting the heroes climb aboard behind her the princess considered what would be the most appropriate answer to that. ‘N-no… I’m sorry, we don’t have… “Moo-gels”…’ Wh-what is one, anyway!? Was this going to ruin a potential future or something? Ough… ‘W-well, we’ll go to the castle. W-we have some things prepared for you there…’ She said, before momentarily charging the magic which would make her Narlah capable of flight. The bird gawked out, covered in a green magical light (because I choose green to be the princess’ magical color) before dashing ahead, off the cliff, and soaring through the skies a moment later. From there, they would be able to see as much as the green plains of southern Graelian could offer, along with the battle to the west of them and the capital ahead. Currently, they were heading for the castle in full speed ahead, could not let the battle wait, to touch down on a coordinated spot in front of the main gate. Hopefully, Lucrezia would be ready for them…

There was an odd calm at the foot of the castle gates. Despite the multitude of assembled servants there, despite the harrowing number of preparations that had to be made, despite the day's daunting itinerary, everything was done. There was no need to rush, no last minute panic, it was simply ready and waiting for the Princess and her Heroes. A footman had been sent to inform Lucrezia as soon as the princess' Narlah was spotted approaching. Now she strode down the stairway towards the gates and the clearing where they would land, flanked on either side by a lieutenant maid, each bearing one of the nations' treasure swords atop a fine silk cushion. Already waiting at the base of the steps, a pair of tent changing booths had been erected so that the seamstresses could dress the Heroes quickly and send them on their way to the battlefield.

By the time she'd descended the steps, Cercle was already beginning her final approach. With a gesture to them, the national concert band began in on a rousing anthem to greet their new heroes. When they touched down, Lucrezia strode forward and extended a hand to help the princess down.

"Welcome back, Princess Solia. Everything is ready for our heroes." Turning her gaze towards the two new pink-eared champions, she smiled softly before sweeping her hand towards the canvas changing stalls. "Both of your battle regalia have been attended to, though we'll need to do a final fitting. Would you kindly follow me?"

The princess smiled happily in relief seeing Lucrezia and the rest waiting for them. The battle was already underway, after all, any further delay could potentially be costly. As such, they touched down and Narlah made a happy gawk at nothing from being able to place her large talons on solid ground after a successful flight. And, uh… the national concert band started a welcoming anthem… Which would have been completely fine, except the heroes had not decided that they were going to assist them yet. Solia felt a streak of awkwardness run through her, hoping to cope with the situation somehow. She smiled down at her Head Maid, allowing her to help the white-haired girl down from the cercle. Feeling a bit shy due to not knowing the current emotions of potential misunderstandings, Solia turned to Lucrezia and whoever else was within hearing range at the moment from the castle.

‘Thank you very much for meeting with us like this, as planned. But, um, the heroes have not yet decided if they want to support our cause, so I’d rather not send out the wrong kind of message prematurely. Um…’ Solia would then turn with a slight blush and an unsure expression towards the heroes, who may or may not have stepped off Narlah by now. ‘Alam, Yui, this is my Head Maid, Lucrezia.’ Saying their names were always good for knowing each other’s names. Always. The princess did still want them to fight, but of course they shouldn’t be forced to, but… ‘W-well, um, they have prepared clothes for our heroes to battle in… Even if you may or may not want to actually partake… You can still try them out?’ Yeah, Lucrezia had offered them towards the changing stalls. The white-haired princess stepped aside a bit awaiting whatever reaction the heroes would have.

The two weapons of the nations, both which would currently only appear as rings before a user would put them on and give the weapons the form which the wielder desires it to have, would have been instructed to be offered to the heroes after they had been changed. Solia had also requested to be the one to give the rings to the heroes. Symbolic, in some way, that the princess was personally giving the most sacred weapons of the nation to the two heroes as a gift of trust before the oncoming battle. That was for a bit later, though. But, Solia did feel the need to explain to the heroes about the weapons and such things… But currently, she was just looking at them with worried eyes hoping that they’d agree to get changed.

Alam wasn’t exactly happy with the arrangements that had been made for getting off the island, but it didn’t look like he had any other choice.. Reluctantly and wearily, he climbed atop the “Narlah” and tried to take a seat on the saddle as best as he could. The seat wasn’t comfortable, but he bore with it; it wouldn’t do to fall to his death because he had to shift around. Even if the general gist of the battle being fought on the ground could be seen in the distance, he was much too concerned with his current predicament to pay it much mind. “Fuck…” With that quiet whisper, Alam tensed and closed his eyes as Cercle bolted into a quick run. He bit back a cry of panic as the ground gave way and he felt gravity’s tug, if only for a second. He had flown before, but the sensation felt completely foreign to him this time. It wasn’t until a sharp bark jolted him that Alam opened his eyes a crack, and his vision was filled with black and purple. “Woah,” he cried out in alarm as he jerked backwards in surprise, pulling his face away from the dog that had brought him here in the first place. He shot the canine a glare, but by then she had already turned away to look otherwhere. With a small groan he took a deep breath and finally turned his gaze outwards. What he saw was tinged with green, probably from the aura that surrounded Cercle, but he looked out only for a few seconds before he gave up with a, “Nope…”

---

Alam only really bothered to try and take another look around when he noticed their descent, and his eyebrow climbed at the castle that they had reached. It was, like most things he so far, unlike anything he had seen before. Its grand scale and design felt distinctly European to him; it wasn’t like great stone castles were all that common anywhere else. Still, his admiration quickly took a backseat when the three of them finally managed to touch down in front of the castle gates. One reason being he was quite eager to get off the saddle he had just spent the last while sitting in; the damned thing was uncomfortable as hell and he wasted no time in swinging himself off Cercle’s back. More likely though, it probably had something to do with the person that approached them, and well… her massive assets. He managed to keep his jaw from dropping and his eyes from staring, though he might have stuttered a bit with his, “N-nice to meet you.”

He allowed his gaze to be guided towards the changing stalls that had been set up just a bit further away from the main reception. With no idea what sort of “regalia” had been prepared for him, to say Alam was a bit nervous would have been an understatement. He had never been one for the flashiness, but a Hero’s costume had to be eye catching didn’t it? “I’m willing to fight as a Hero… but is a change of clothes really necessary?” Sure, what he wore at the moment stood out, if only because of its never before seen style, but it was much more comfortable for him to be in. He would relent if the issue was pressed, but if Alam could avoid the problem rather than deal with it, then joy. After all, with Yui still on the fence, they would try their best to keep their only confirmed participant. Right?

Thinking back on it, charging all of the troops headlong into a pike line was a spectacularly bad idea. Superior training, numbers, and better equipment be damned; they were down by over three thousand points.

If Grand Marshall Mandelkubb hadn’t been busy cleaving enemy soldiers and directing the field of battle, he most certainly would have given his forehead a massive gauntleted palm in disappointment. Something had to be done, and fast, or else Vilante would lose by default.

In five minutes, Vilante had lost three thousand soldiers. In a twelve thousand point game, that was a clear fourth of their points slashed within the opening sally. Worse yet, while the gap wasn’t widening anymore, it also wasn’t closing at a rate where they would catch up and win. The Grand Marshall had to come up with a plan. Snapping three pikes with a heavy swing of his axe and using the momentum of his riding to maneuver himself forward, he charged down about five soldiers before falling back to avoid a counter-attack, all while continuing to keep himself searching the scapes of his mind for a strategy to snatch victory out of the mouth of defeat.

He continued to think while repeating a similar process of attack, retreat, attack. Ideally, what he himself was doing would have been excellent, but it just wouldn’t work in the grand scale…

WHOMP

That was when the world suddenly turned itself upside down.

“Yes! We just got their commander!”

Grand Marshall Mandelkubb’s body smashed into the ground with a loud thud and a report of dust and gravel whooshing out from beneath him, several crossbow bolts cruelly jutting out of his chest plate. Even with the protective forces of Frala, the pain of being completely dismounted from a horse running at full speed couldn’t be ignored. The warm, humid air intensified the aches, and a minor weariness tugged at a corner of his mind.

Following the haze brought about from a ridiculously heavily armored form smashing into the ground after being dismounted from a horse running at a full gallop, the Commander’s vision was filled with blue sky and the sun somewhere outside of his immediate field of view. The sounds of battle were muffled by his helmet and further by the detached sensation of having just been conked upside the head.

A shadow eclipsed the sun, followed by a glint of steel.

“He’s not down yet! I’m finishing him off!”

The Grand Marshall wouldn’t lose so easily. He quickly inhaled and gathered himself, rolling his armored form out of the way just in time for the rear end of a pike to stab into the ground where his neck used to be. There was a cascading sound of several crossbow bolts snapping around the tip as he rolled atop them, followed by the—inaudible with the current battle conditions—creaking of metal hinges on his armor and an inexplicable whoosh of air as he pushed himself off the ground with enough force to create hand shaped impressions in the grass. Launching his back at the enemy in a strange sort of flopping bodyslam that doubled as a method of standing himself up.

To hell with strategy!

The previously attacking Graelian transformed into an animal ball in a poof of smoke and landed on the ground as Vilante’s commander then bullrushed forward, uncaring of the pikes and crossbows and longbows that were aimed at him and his surrounding comrades.

♦♦♦

Vice-Commander Kisielia Paczki was in a bit of a pinch.

She let out a heaving breath after she smashed through three soldiers with a swing of her hammer, then inhaled sharply as she had to raise the weapon to defend against three more, blocking three blades with the shaft of her weapon before pushing against them and jumping back. Kisielia ducked down low to build up energy then sprung upward, smashing down on one soldier with her hammer and spinning around to take out the two besides him.

The ginger-haired vice-commander was surrounded and without allies around her. While this wasn’t much of a problem in itself for one of her rank, the fact that she was alone there meant that the battle line had been breached in that area.

Then there was the matter that she had been separated from the rest of the mounted Guard unit that Anisette was riding in. In itself, also not a problem, Kisielia was quite fine by herself, she just didn’t like being separated from her mentor, she didn’t enjoy not being able to be by the side of the woman that she looked up to.

With a tiny “crack, crack”, the bear-eared girl tilted her head side to side and rolled her shoulder and dipped down once more. She was surrounded, with soldiers at every minute of the imaginary clock around her, their swords glaring in the sunlight and their stances all poised to strike in unison. They looked apprehensive, and the bear couldn’t help but smile and let out a small cackle as she tightened the grip on her hammer.

“Here goes…” she whispered, her crest appearing behind her as she raised her hammer above her head with one hand.

For a moment, the air around her felt strangely stagnant. Crostignon was a province of plains, so there was almost always a breeze, so it was strange to the soldiers surrounding her that the air was suddenly at a standstill.

Well, that was the least of their worries.

CRACK!!!

Following the stillness, the humidity seemed to disappear completely, replaced by dryness and the static that seemed to come with dry air. There was a single loud snapping crack, followed by an odd crackling that resonated around the vice-commander

“Strike Arts~!!” yelled Kisielia excitedly as her Crest progressed into level three, the soldiers around her braced themselves for the incoming attack, “FRAGMENTARY ARROGANCE!!!”

Kisielia let out a short “Humph!” as she smashed her hammer into the ground while shouting out the attack’s name. There was a zapping sound and the unmistakable report of crackling high voltage as energy arced out from the point of impact, followed by a ring of electricity expanding and shocking all of the soldiers around her before a bright blue explosion bloomed outwards, electricity crackling all over the air, visibly dancing around and comically zapping a few of the animal balls that bounced and rolled away from ground zero, causing them to jump and yelp a little.

The wavy-haired bear girl let out a short sigh that sounded like “fuu…” and set her hammer down so that it balanced with the head down and handle in the air. Clapping her hands together once or twice, she looked about her. Some of the grass had been burnt away and the dirt had turned into glass from the extremely high voltages, making the ground around her shimmer a little, the “fragmentary” part of her attack.

Off in the distance, there were other explosions from what were presumably other special attacks, whether those were friendly or not was up to debate.

“Well, that plugs this hole in the line… I wonder where the Commander is now…”

She picked up her hammer once more.

With the immediate area clear, it was easy to be a little lax. Even if soldiers were still fighting within sight, most were far enough that she didn’t have to worry about being charged by some Captain.

That was right, she could focus on going on her way to find Anisette and the rest of the Knight Guard.
And then, she heard a rather uncanny buzzing sound.

♦♦♦

The Open Field Battle was essentially an all out brawl with few and simple to understand. It took two or more opposing sides, put them on a field of battle and assigned the sides points that would be deducted for every soldier lost, with some soldiers worth more than others. So that it was fair for smaller nations, the point pools were the same for both sides, and soldiers were worth a minimum of one point each.

While that meant that a smaller nation only had to take out its weight in numbers, it also made it easier for a larger nation as the battle raged on as they’d have a larger pool of soldiers to push with even when they’re close to defeat. At least in theory.

Vilante’s Grand Marshall let out a loud roar. From there, he made a mighty swing of his axe and produced a Crest Cannon at the close-knit formation of Graelians in front of him, wiping out a good hundred soldiers in a single blow.

While the amount that he had just taken out was quite good, the truly important thing was to exploit the breakthrough in the line.

“YOU THERE! Take your unit and charge! If we can surround them, they’re finished!!”

Mandelkubb swung his arm in an aggressive gesture and began to charge for the hole he had just made in the line while being followed by the units that he had just flagged. It would have been fair to mention that the only reason he was able to do that was because the Vilantans that had previously charged that point got obliterated. The Grand Marshall felt a little out of his normal depth, the current “casualty” figures were starting to weigh down on him.

DON DON.

A pair of drum beats sounded off in unison, followed by a series of varied beats, and suddenly the hole was closed.

How annoying… Those Drums, they had to go.

The Vilantan troops ground to a halt before they smacked face-first into a completely new wall of pikes. The heavily armored grand marshall staggered for a step but stopped short enough that he wouldn’t get charged. A nervous bead of sweat rolled down from his forehead and down his cheek and he clicked his tongue in frustration.

♦♦♦

The battle had been raging for just over an hour now. Graelian had maintained its lead the whole while, but it was now beginning to close on them as Vilante’s captains worked at the fringes to take out units at a time.

But, they knew it wasn’t going to be enough for the enemy nation to catch up in time to win.

On a battlefield where blood was shed and lives were lost, it was wholly impractical to maintain a full drumline just to guide troops. It was too easy of a target and a waste of men that could be given a sword or a pike and get told to contribute to the battle. But in Franlanthe, specifically Graelian, it was just another factor that added in to the sports-like environment and fun atmosphere of the battle.

So about a hundred meters behind the actual battle line was a long drumline that worked in sections of about 20 to guide the Graelian troops in coded tunes that they had been drilled to move to. Above them were a few sturdy wooden palisades to guard them from arrows.

Vilante’s archers were a rather unknown bunch of individuals, the nation being rather proud of its tank-like mounted knights and decently well armored line-soldiers more than anything else when it came to battle. But it still had a few units of archers here and there, taking the opportunities gifted to them by the entanglement of troops and Graelian’s own shortage of archers to try to take out the drumline and gain the advantage over the pikes.

There was a medium of effectiveness, and the occasional breakthrough and exploitation did create patches in the drumline and toss a few of the Graelians into disarray, but it wasn’t enough…

So when Anisette found that the area of the battlefield she was in was much too quiet, she couldn’t help but feel a little disturbed. A quick scan of her surroundings revealed that the drumline sections were almost entirely absent in that area of the battlefield.

In an open field battle on a bunch of plains, it shouldn’t have been possible to take out the drummers without excessive artillery or archer fire, or without taking out the infantry lines that were normally guarding them.

No strategy survives contact with the enemy, but this was a conundrum to the dog-eared knight-commander. She yelled here and there to snap some of the troops into their places, her commands echoed by the various unit commanders and their sub-commanders. But this was very odd. There was no sign of the enemy, but the drums had been destroyed and the people once beating on them were off in the various infirmaries outside of the battlefield.

She steadied herself on her horse and looked about again, surveying her surroundings.

There were Vilantans and Graelians fighting in front of her. Kisielia was missing, but most of her guard unit was still there to her flanks and rear. So… What?

“Oho! What’s this!? the speakers from the announcer had suddenly blared all over the battlefield, “It seems Vilante is catching up! And How! Let’s take a look at the battlefield footage as-”

Anisette raised her head to look at one of the floating magical screens that showed highlight reels, normally hidden from sight of the soldiers, there seemed to be some important event that had just happened…

Well, she would have given it a look.

CRACK!

A bit of numbness flushed itself with a deal of pain. Anisette couldn’t feel her hand for a moment and she clenched her teeth as she winced. Splinters of wood and a bit of metal bounced off her chest, face and legs as she looked down, her lance completely shattered near her hand.

There was even a little bit of sizzling as her gloves got singed by an attack.

“Archer?” she thought, shaking her hand of both the completely destroyed lance and the pain as her guard went on full alert. She looked in the supposed direction of the archer, noticing Kisielia off in the distance, fighting two captains.

A third was pointing a longbow at her. There was no one there before, not even Kisielia, so… an illusion? Another arrow whizzed towards her, coated in magical energies. This one she blocked with her shield.

PANG!!!

It was a completely unnatural sound for a steel and wood shield to make, and it was loud enough that Anisette and her guards winced from the church-bell like ring of the arrow impact, followed by a secondary bright flash of an explosion. Overall, it didn’t do any damage, so it had to be a distraction.

Then, there was another large flash, but this time it was the Guard unit being enveloped by a massive crest cannon.

♦♦♦

Again, Vice-Commander Kisielia Paczki was in a bit of a pinch.

She heaved a few heavy breaths as she leapt away from a pair of Captains, both armed with dual wielded short swords. In a standoff sort of way, the pair faced off with Kisielia, a glare on everyone’s faces.

“This kind of thing… Two on one isn’t fair, you know!” Kisielia shouted as she lunged forward from her position, closing the gap between them only to have her hammer strike deflected into the ground and her body put into an awkward position for her to dodge four blades. There was a whoosh of air as the blades passed overhead, the vice-commander ducking down just a hair away from being slashed on the neck.

She rolled forward before sweeping down at the pair’s legs, then activated her crest for a small arc of lightning to trail right behind her hammer, bolting into the pair’s blades and shocking them in the process.

This was a sort of attack and receive game that the trio had been playing at for some time now, so fatigue was truly starting to settle in.

“By the way,” started one of the captains, a black haired girl in red and gold armor, “The correct number would be three on one!”

The captain gave a small sinister sneer of a smile and jumped out of the way with her partner, leaving a somewhat confused Kisielia standing there with a beleaguered expression on her face, just as a huge beam approached her from behind. Now that she had time to look around herself, the bear-girl realized that there were suddenly soldiers around her. Not necessarily close by, but it wasn’t the almost empty battlefield that she had been fighting in a moment before… How odd.

Then she turned around to face the beam and jumped before bracing for the impact. Surely, this was probably going to hurt. Oh, and she would probably end up naked and on camera… Highlight of the battle.

♦♦♦

Make it in time…! Was Anisette’s only thought. Behind her, a third of her guard unit had been taken out by a crest cannon, and the rest were regrouping and trying to regain their bearings. It would, of course, take more than that to take out the Knight-Commander.

Despite having been dismounted, Anisette was running faster than most horses could even go to begin with. She completely ignored most of her surroundings, beelining straight for her Vice-Commander.

Thump, thump, thump. The footsteps of the dog-eared knight commander beat in rapid succession, there was a rush of wind in her wake and her footsteps—more like a series of leaps—left impressions in the ground. Bracing her shield and sheathing her sword, she held the large rectangular shield with both hands, particles of converted frala trailing behind her in her wake, and her crest beginning to form behind her.

“Uwoooooooooooh…!!! She roared in a drawn out fashion as she suddenly skidded to a halt right in front of Kisielia, between the Vice-Commander and the incoming crest cannon. She jammed her shield into the ground and took a kneeling position.

“METEORIC MIRROR!!!” she shouted, and half an orb of coruscating energy appeared right in front of her in time to block the large crest cannon. There was an odd sound similar to all the glass in a skyscraper breaking at the same time, and smaller beams of light flew out in different directions around Kisielia and Anisette, before being followed by an explosion, completely negating the crest cannon with the backblast.

The crest cannon that had enough power to take out five-hundred soldiers had been completely negated. Knight-Commander Anisette stood up and unsheathed her sword, glaring in the direction it had come from. Her shield gave off a superficial bit of what looked like steam, even if it hadn’t been directly touched, and dust floated in the air in small clouds around her, a huge crescent shaped gash formed in the ground in front of the Graelian commanders.

“Now, I’ll show you why I’m already being called the Unbridled Reaper of Graelian.” Anisette said, facing Grand Marshall Mandelkubb and several units of soldiers.

Making sure to pick a seat that allowed for the most possible distance between herself and the dogs Yui got ready for the imminent flight. Unlike her male counterpart she had way less problems with the entire situation... and unlike her male counterpart she enjoyed the situation quite a lot, making her standpoint known with a very positive sounding. "Wuhu~! We are flying on a Chocobo!" Not caring for the fact that this things weren't really Chocobo's. If she would agree on becoming a hero would she get her own bird?!

---

To her disappointment the plane-less flight experienced ended way too fast for Yui's taste, but instead, she now got the undeniable proof of Solia honoring her claimed title. Making a small jump from the bird towards safe ground Yui didn't even have time to admire this cozy place. Unlike her male counterpart it was Yui this time who didn't make a secret out of what was seriously surprising her. Strangely the first thought coming into her mind if she could even bear their weight? What Lucrezia had too much, Yui was lacking. She shook her head in denial of her own thoughts before proceeding as if nothing had happened. "H-Hey! You may call me Yui!" even though Solia already introduced them she thought it was still important to do it herself, proceeding to the more important topic her eyes sparkled a bit. "A costume? I am ready anytime!" Not letting herself get asked twice, Yui gladly followed towards the changing stalls.

Ara? Ara? Arararara~?
It seemed the foreign heroes were lacking in etiquette, as their astonishment at Lucy's bust was practically palpable. Despite herself, the corners of her lips quirked up. They might be rather fun. The ephemeral smile was gone fast enough to make one unsure of whether or not it was even there, replaced by the stern mask of a professional. When Alam asked whether or not the costume change was necessary, she crossed her arms beneath her bosom and loomed closer to Alam. Wobble. "Yes, nice to meet you as well. The regalia is absolutely necessary." Wobble "I hope that won't be a problem."

Straightening up, she smiled politely to Yui and bowed her head. "It is my pleasure to meet you, Yui." As the girl needed no prodding to get her moving towards the seamstresses, Lucy instead focused on the more reticent hero. Walking behind him and putting her hands on his shoulders, she began walking him towards the tents. "Quick quick now, the battle rages at this very moment. You wouldn't want to miss your grand entrance, would you?" While directing him, the bulk of her chest was unavoidably squashed into his back.