As I mentioned in the last update, some interesting events are happening this week. Mainly, I celebrated my birthday with family and a few close friends yesterday. It was really enjoyable, and though I still have other plans this week, I also wanted to find the time to continue my play through. If I'm lucky, I'll even be able to get the bonuses for playing on a party member's birthday! Either way, it's about time we headed to Breakneck Pass and (try to) escort Emmeryn to safety.
CHAPTER 7: INCURSION
Chrom, Frederick, Lissa, Yukari, and some guy wearing the green robes of an NPC are walking along an old dirt road. Lissa and Yukari are tired, though Chrom thinks it's a healthy stroll. After Chrom makes a joke about carrying them, the green robed man (who shall now be referred to as the Hierarch) mutters something and, according to Freddy, keeps glancing up at the peaks. Yukari's curious about the Hierarch, and Chrom explains that he's an old friend of the family and helped advise Emm during her first years as exalt. Yukari has a bad feeling about him, but we're ambushed by Plegians before more can be said. We must now prepare for battle against eight regular wyvern riders, a few thieves, barbarians, and archers, and this guy:
- VASTO (The boss, a Wyvern Rider that will not stay in place and wait to be pummeled): The Plegian commander. Cruel and sadistic.
After our preparations are done, but before we can actually fight, we see the Hierarch charge into the middle of the field. Apparently, he's the reason we're fighting Plegians right now, having sold us out in exchange for being taken into their protection. Vasto calls him a traitorous pig for selling out his sovereign, and when the Hierarch asks to at least be let free...
Vasto: Oh, are you a chicken now? Bawk bawk! We've a whole barnyard in our midst!
And then a barbarian turns the Hierarch into bacon bits. Vasto then asks Chrom for the Fire Emblem and for the exalt, which Chrom obviously refuses, and our blue-haired protagonist orders Phila to take Emm (neither of which were on the map at the beginning, by the way) to the rear while the Shepherds deal with this problem. Now, for the main event!
- Chrom & Gaius: Rapiers are good against armored units and horse-riding units, and the Falchion is good against dragons and wyverns. Easily out-speeding foes thanks to Gauis's boost, Chrom killed one in a single action with two strikes of his sword. Gaius cut an archer to ribbons, and when all of the Wyverns started heading to Stahl & Miriel at the end of Turn 3 (even though nobody was in Vasto's range of attack then), they weakened with the boss and killed the one flunky near him.
- Yukari & Ricken: Ricken dealt the first attack of the battle, to a nearby barbarian. Together, they did a lot of damage, especially since Celica's Gale (which I picked up in Donny's chapter through luck) is a strong tome effective against flying units. And in the extremely unlikely chance that Yukari couldn't kill them in a single hit, the Gale has a 'brave' effect, giving you twice as many attacks as usual (x2 if you have less speed than a foe, x4 if you have more). For some reason, a lot of non-flying foes thought they could take on the mages if they couldn't get to Donnel, and they were quickly eliminated. And while it was tempting to go to town on the southern Wyverns with Gale, Ricken lacked the experience to use it, so I settled to have him train using Wind and be a contributor rather than let Yukari eviscerate them.
- Stahl & Miriel: Thanks to Dual Strikes and Elwind (I mentioned that all variations of Wind is strong against flying units, right?), they kill two enemies on their own by Turn 2's start. A few more foes also fall to Stahl's sword (or lance, since he can wield both) and Miriel's Elwind when they couldn't reach Donnel. When the main ground force was completely gone, they led the charge onto an Event Panel and into the range of the southern Wyvern Riders. They killed a couple more foes without getting damaged heavily in return, and to pretty much guarantee that they become the battle's Heroes, I had them finish off Vasto after Chrom weakened him. This brought Stahl to Level 10, granting him the Outdoor Fighter skill, which increases hit rate and avoid when the character is fighting outdoors.
- Donnel & Maribelle: Donny got the first kill of the battle, after Ricken and Virion weakened the nearby barbarian. Unfortunately, Donny does not have a lot of defense yet, and after he took a heavy hit in Turn 1, the farm boy had to retreat and use a Vulnery. While there was a Wyvern Rider close to the start, Kellam had injured it in the first turn, and Virion could kill it off. The other units then formed a semi-pathetic barrier to prevent barbarians from chasing after Donnel, and although Kellam did not have enough movement range to prevent any foes from passing, he stood before Donny and put him just out of reach. Donnel was able to do a little damage to an archer after most of the ground forces had been killed, and then Mari swapped in to do some healing for the rest of the fight.
- Virion & Frederick: The value of an archer in a field of flying units is truly a sight to behold. Capable of doing over twenty damage against them, while Virion could not kill a Wyvern Rider single-handed (by which I mean by himself; it takes two hands to wield a bow, after all), he was a major asset and is the only reason that Donny survived the battle. When Cordelia brought news of reinforcements to the rear, the duo backtracked to the start to take care of them, but Vasto was killed before such things were a major concern.
- Kellam & Cordelia: Prior to pairing up, Kellam helped lure out and weaken a Wyvern Rider that could have killed Donny when the farm boy needed to retreat. Cordelia is a pegasus knight that works for Phila, and instantly joins us after arriving. She shows up on Turn 3 to warn us about reinforcements to the rear, which deeply concerns Phila. Kellam, as he is both slow and without a partner at the start of the battle, gets paired with her for the remainder of the skirmish. The duo immediately went for and took out a bandit with a Dual Strike, though even if it hadn't activated, Cordelia's 9 (+3, from the Pair Up bonus) strength and 12 (+2) speed meant that she could have taken him out herself. They also took care of a Wyvern Rider that Stahl & Miriel lured out, killing it with a Dual Strike despite the fact that they were past the edge of a cliff and you'd think that Kellam would have fell to his doom.
- Turns: 5
- Heroes: Stahl & Miriel (as if there was any doubt)
With his dying breaths, Vasto taunted us, telling us that the main Plegian force had already crossed the border and that we were cowards for abandoning out soon-to-be-slaughtered subjects. Cordelia confirms this, as her squad was supposed to guard the border, but Gangrel himself led the charge and she was the only one to escape. Cordelia regrets this decision, wishing she stayed to help, and Phila tries her best to assure her that the right decision was made, as Cordelia has many years yet to keep their legacy alive. It took courage to run and warn the exalt, and Phila urges Cordelia to keep on fighting for the sake of her friends. The sad music that has been playing abruptly cuts when Emm decides to return to the capital despite Phila and Chrom's protests, and then different music plays as she claims that her presence will stop her people from panicing, leading to more unnecessary deaths.
Emmeryn then gives Chrom the Fire Emblem, which gets a brief scene all to itself, hoping that he will be a better guardian of it than she has ever been. Emm commands her siblings to stay together and complete their pre-assassination attempt mission of recruiting reinforcements from Regna Ferox, and while Lissa doesn't want to see her sister go and get herself killed, Emm comforts her by saying that this is not good-bye. Phila decides that if she can't talk Emm out of it, then she and the remaining Pegasus Knights will at least accompany the exalt and keep her protected. Freddy promises to keep Emm's siblings safe, and Emm thanks him for all he's done. Also, Phila orders Cordelia to stay with Chrom instead of following the rest of the pegasus knights back, as the task is risky and she needs to survive for the sake of her friends that had died at the border to ensue her safety. Chrom tries to refuse Emm's decision to go one last time, pleading for her to be selfish and not think about her subjects for once in her life if it means he won't lose his older sister, but Emm's ideal of a peaceful future is too important to give up, and she has faith that she and Chrom will be able to keep Ylisse safe.
We then part ways, and a save prompt comes up. Chrom then automatically runs across the map and heads back to Arena Ferox, where we see Lissa worrying about her older sister while they wait for Flavia. Unfortunately, Chrom's too worried and caught up in his own thoughts to comfort Lissa. This provokes Sumia (who's also in the scene, along with Yukari) to snap him out of it with an Armor Piercing Slap. And by 'Slap', since Sumia doesn't realize that it's done with an open palm, I mean 'Punch to the face that sends Chrom reeling'. Flavia walks into the scene as Chrom is recovering and Sumia realizes her mistake, causing the khan to laugh a bit and saying that love (though she doesn't specifically say the romantic kind) hurts sometimes. Flavia then states that her army has finally mobilized, and she and 'her insignificant other' Basilio are itching to be on the front lines and have a little fun. We then all head over to where Basilio is waiting, only for him to tell us that his scouts saw Ylisstol fall to the Plegian forces. Emm has been kidnapped, and brought back to Plegia so that she can be publicly executed. This news, of course, shocks Chrom and Lissa, causing the latter to almost faint. The whole thing is an obvious trap to lure in Chrom and the Fire Emblem he now possesses, and while Chrom is eager to charge into Plegia, both of the khans and Yukari urge him to be tactical and wise when it comes to a rescue operation. As the tactician, Yukari claims that she'll formulate a decent plan, even though she will be holding the exalt's life in one hand and all of her comrades in the other. Either way, we're heading out to Plegia...or to the opposite end of the map, since Paralogue 3 also opens up when we return to the World Map. Probably to Plegia. But first, some supports!
- Yukari & Ricken (C-Rank): Yukari stumbles upon Ricken trying and failing to write a letter to his parents. Yukari suggests that he writes about how many brushes with death he's survived lately, but Ricken doesn't want them to worry about him. Yukari then suggests telling them about how he can tear through Risen in battle, but that would give them a different thing to worry about. Ricken just can't come up with a letter that tells his parents that he's both safe from danger and a competent member of the Shepherds, and he especially doesn't want to say things like how he misses them. Ricken decides that maybe he should hold off on writing them until he can make them proud, and Yukari tells him that if they could hear him now, his parents already would be.
- Stahl & Miriel (A-Rank): Thanks to all the drills Stahl has done for Miriel's research, his motions are now smoother and faster. Oddly enough, he is still the most average person in the camp despite improving dramatically. Stahl comes to the conclusion that when he gets better, everyone else gets equally better. Miriel agrees, since others identify him as being average, and watching him improve makes them feel compelled to improve as well and avoid falling below average. Thus, not only has Stahl been adapting to his fellow Shepherds for quite some time, they've been adapting to him as well. Stahl's amazed that he can be so influential, and Miriel is glad to have had the opportunity to observe this phenomenon, and they both hope to continue Miriel's experiment.
- Donnel & Maribelle (C-Rank): Mari's upset at Donnel's clutter, especially since his pack is lying right in the middle of an emergency escape route. Donny apologizes, since he never had to worry about this kind of thing when farming, and Mari decides to lend him a book that will instruct him on all the laws and regulations he should now be following. She encourages Donnel to memorize it, as education elevates us from the beasts, and also because it was a gift from her father that she had to go through once. Since it's important to Mari, Donny promises to handle it with care.
And finally, let's talk about the love life of our newest recruit...
- CORDELIA (Who has a major crush on Chrom, as revealed in some of her supports, but is incapable of marrying him): An Ylissean pegasus knight too humble to see her vast talents.
In my last play through, as I may have hinted at earlier, she ended up with Stahl after bonding over the beauty of music. And asterism, I agree that it was a rather sweet pairing. But since I'm not going through with any pairing I've already done, Cordelia currently has no love interest...well, if you don't count her hardly-a-secret crush on Chrom. And when it comes to men, there's only three more eligible bachelors (including Henry, whom the comment posters want to pair with Sumia, and a few guys that can only hook up with Yukari) we'll recruit before the game is over, so think hard about your suggestions, and remember that your vote matters! Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day, viewers!
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